Why do we not honor our stops/go off plan?

no, this is not your fault. because the market manipulators use their tricks like taking birds and rabbits out of their hats to temptate you. To be honest, sticking to or not sticking to your stop loss does not make much difference in the sense that increaes your odds. It is just a discipline relatively ease to make your operation as consistent as possible.

:p
 
Remember i have done that some because a certain % of the time stock reverses right after sold.

Very seldom have trouble working work plan now,its written.Read enough charts and you'll see it's ruin not to stop it.
 
Quote from paulr:

We have all done it - gone off our plan or failed to honor a stop that we ourselves set.

The question is why?

It's not like we don't all know that is what we have to do.
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paulr,

I don't understand what your saying...

are you wondering why do traders ignore Mental Stops?

Reason why I ask...if you have a Hard Stop that can only be manually removed from your execution platform...traders will have very little problems in honoring their stops :cool:

No trader is perfect...impossible to remove emotions from trading...

however...good traders don't make consistent errors like that.
___________

Note: All my bad trading streaks that lasted more than a few days...are usually because of outside issues in my life that was affecting my trading...

Therefore, something (an issue) that had nothing to do with the markets...was influencing me pyschologically...which in turn influence my trading.
___________

There is a connection between profits and our state of mind...how we mentally interact with the markets.

That's a fact.

There are decent books on many psychological issues that "consistently" sabotage traders while the traders aren't aware of such...

1. Exceptional Trading The Mind Game

2. Trading In The Zone

3. The Intuitive Trader

4. The Discipline Trader

and several others.

Once again...one of the biggest reasons why traders fail...is because of the psychology of trading.

Regardless to what type of stops you have...

if your having problems respecting such stops...

you need to stop trading...

do some inner searching...

ask questions (like your doing)...

and maybe find a trading pal local to you and trade with.

Why did I bring up the trading pal?

I tested this out myself with a friend that's an emotional trader...

and based on that particular experience...it does help a lot to control things if your an emotional trader.

Simply, trying to convince yourself to stay in a bad or losing trade is one thing...but trying to convince your trading pal is entirely a different issue.

Another way to look at the above...you want to search for ways to break old bad habits.

If you can set something up like this with someone...try it to see if it helps with other trading problems besides issues about ignoring stops.

P.S. Don't just be another trader that saids..."I will not blow past my stop"..."I will be profitable"...

instead...be a trader that finds the reason for self-sabotage...more often not...the reason is not related to the markets.

NihabaAshi
 
I'm having a bigger problem, taking profits too early, not letting 'em run.

New traders disease...too easily excited.
 
Quote from stoploss:

Dumb? I don't think so. Dumb would be not making the trade at all. Maybe not smart, but defiantly not dumb.
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Thanks...I'll take that as a compliment. :D
 
Sounds like you are uncertain that your system is correct when the pressure is on and you use disgression. That means you are not a system trader and you are not a disgressionary trader either, you are a systemessionary trader. You have a mess in the middle of your trading system.

BTW there is no cure for it, you are born that way.

:)


Max
 
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