Here is a good quotation for the day:

Money lost in the chop are the same color as money lost in the trend.

One of my main problems was to be unable to “stay the course”. Even when I had a strong conviction in market direction, I usually haven’t made any money at all or made too little, regarding the overall move.

Most of the times I exited too early was because of being afraid, that the price might reverse against me and my tiny profit might become a loss.

After exiting position without any good reasoning, I was just watching it reversing again and now going in my favor….the only difference was that I was so stoned, I couldn’t place any more trades and was just watching at the price going more and more in “my” favor.

After doing some thinking I have made a set of rules, how to deal with this problem:

1. Don’t over leverage.
2. Stay calm during the trade.
3. Never revenge trade (I know it’s a tough one)
4. Never overtade (this one might be even tougher)
5. Always have a plan what are you going to do after placing the trade (doesn’t matter whether it goes in your favor or not – this helps you to follow Rule 2).
6. Be patient – don’t chase the price, watch carefully till the price gets to your entry point (There will always be another opportunity).
7. Exit the trade only for two reasons – your target has been hit or the reason why you entered the trade is not there anymore (You may also ask yourself, if you opened this position under the new conditions).

For me, the most important aspect is being patient. You can’t really make money by “winning some, losing some” it just doesn’t work! Usually it goes like this: “winning some, losing a lot”. So, for me, the only profitable way to trade, was to place small number of trades with the clear idea of how I am going to manage it. Also my planning work helps me to stay out of the market, so I can’t do any stupid mistakes.

If you are struggling with same issues, try to define your own set of rules that would work for you. Stick it near your monitor and review daily. It will safe you a lot of nerves and money