Give Up?

Trading is often about how to take the appropriate risk without exposing yourself to very human flaws.
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fditapaf
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:37 pm

I have been trading for over a year now. I can trade profitably with discipline day in day out. And here lies the problem "With discipline". Even after a year I find it impossible to stop myself deviating away from standard pre-market trading (Horses) where I can make a steady decent income. Then for whatever reason I just slip into a reckless trade which triggers more reckless behaviour. I then take a break for a few days a reset and come back.

I currently have a well paid job which means I can afford the slip ups. But I genuinely want to do this full time and I have spent 1000's of hours learning and know if I can crack the discipline issue then I can do this for a living. This is 100% what I want to do. But after another account blow up I'm again questioning do I have the correct mentality to crack this.

I would really like to hear from anyone who has conquered this and what helped them.
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Derek27
Posts: 23409
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

You're use of the word 'reckless' has got me thinking. I consider myself a well-disciplined trader, never blow banks, let trades go in-play, suffer heavy losses or do anything really daft these days. But once in a while I have a string of losses in a session that start to add up, which I could put down to silly mistakes like lack of concentration/distraction, over staking, overconfidence, possibly allowing previous losses to affect the way I trade, all of which can be considered reckless trading.

This subject has been touched upon a few times on this forum, but my best remedy is to take a break, do the shopping or any other tasks, preferably away from my desk.

Perhaps it would help to have shorter sessions, quality over quantity, outlining your major mistakes and reminding yourself of them before each session so they're fresh in the memory?

I'm a pre-race horse race trader who recently took up tennis trading but when I started I was using very small liabilities compared to horse racing so even if it was a disaster it wouldn't be significant to my trading profits. Perhaps you could do the same if you wish to experiment with other sports?

I also have, as guidance, a maximum loss of 1% of my capital. Depending on your capital and style of trading a suitable limit would vary considerably but I'm sure traders are unlikely to blow banks if they had such a limit that sounds the warning bells and took them seriously.

Although you have a well paid job so the money isn't critical, you need to stop thinking in terms of money and think in terms of the career you want. You can have £100 in a Betfair account and lose £10 on a market - no big deal. But if you think of it as losing 10% of your would-be capital and the likelihood of you ever succeeding in a trading career if 10% is wiped out in 5 minutes, it suddenly becomes quite serious!

Good luck.
fditapaf
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:37 pm

Thanks Derek for your response. I still have hope and 100% determined to succeed. I think some of the recklessness comes from chasing a "Home Run" trade now and again when the set up looks great. Which even with a poor exit will probably cost me say £50. When this happens I do one of the following: (in order of what I should be doing)

1) Take it on the chin. Reset myself straightaway and carry on trading a successful day.
2) Realise I took to much risk on the trade and my mind is not in the right place and stop trading for a given time (1 hour to 1 day).
3) Do a similar trade on the next race taking more risk because the set up isn't as good and whether this profits or not continue for a time doing similar reckless trades. Sometimes
profiatable and sometimes till my bank is gone.

So I need to avoid the third option like the plague because if I know if I don't I might as well give up. I have read all the posts and watched videos on Trading Psychology and in a way I hope being open and posting about my issue will help me move away from it. Obviously anyone who has conquered this has any tips greatly received.

Thanks again for the support.
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