So I am following a Buy Zone method. I realized my problem comes from taking profit. And unfortunately for me right now, hitting the button to take profit on trade #2
of the day is considerably harder after the first trade was a loss. { See earlier post from today. }
I'm sure many of you can relate, you want your second trade to make up for the loss of your first trade, and depending on how macho you are feeling at the time, you
might even want that second trade to break you even
and give you some profit;
or breakeven plus make you hit your daily target of the day. Not that that is impossible, but
at my skill level, I'm hurting myself more than helping by insisting to myself that I can do it all in two trades. (at least for my style of trading.)
I had to ask myself how do I choose a take profit on this, it's like I'm trying to let it run, but I don't even have a clear target, so I don't know when to say when.
I also just need to let myself just scalp it sometimes. (hmm, I think this paragraph highlights conflicting attitudes that will screw me up when I am in the middle of trade
and the money is back on the line.) {and yes, even trading on 2lots, I still gave myself trouble in closing one and setting the other to breakeven; it must be the
fear/greed thing, and not having good enough control on myself yet when my day is negative.}
So the funniest thing kept happening this week after I did Take Profit on BZ trades (either to break even, or just to lessen my losses on the day.) Say the candle went green,
so I went long as well, and then I closed out my trade. I felt like since
I had closed out my Buy Zone trade, there
must be nothing left further in
that direction. <I didn't want to admit to myself that I might have closed my trade early.> Therefore, I started playing the candle to the opposite direction (i.e. going short
on the green candle) as if
my taking profit meant I had stumbled on the market top and there was no more profit left in that direction for you other traders.
So I guess that's why I kept pulling my stops back and thinking I had already found the top/bottom.
Like I said, going back to newbie mistakes.
But totally, since I had pulled out, I didn't want to admit that there could be more profit in that direction. Must be an ego thing.
(maybe I should seriously consider re-entry rules. How to safely get back in on, say, a green H4 candle after I've taken my first profit, for example.)
First thing comes to
mind is the examples of hedging/adding to positions you guys have been posting up. Love this one:
Bredin gunning for sextillions
I guess its the same principle, except that they are already in the position, whereas I am trying to get my first bit in.