Distraction

Distraction is not something you can afford. If you cannot be fully focused on the price action and on following your trading plan, you are going to frequently find yourself in the situation you describe.

The best rule a trader can follow is to focus on the action, not the outcome. Yes, I know that you, like many others are attracted to trading for the rewarding profits that can be made. You feel that profits can buy you all the things you want, the things that will make you feel like a worthwhile person.

Lots of people are attracted to trading for the money, the status, and the glory they are sure it will bring them. These can all be strong motivators, but the irony is that if you focus on too much, on the outcome, you will have counted your chickens before they hatch, and you will not be able to trade profitability or consistently.

Keep this in mind: When your hopes are high, you've already decided that you've going to win, and the mere thought that you may lose is going to blow you away.

Once in your mind losing no longer is a possibility, the only option is to win, and when you work under that assumption, you are going to be easily distracted to the point of making plenty of mistakes. Those mistakes will produce the losses you cannot bear to take. It takes practice, but you must learn to focus your attention on what's happening in the trade now, not on the potential rewards.

Do your thinking about the rewards of trading during the times when you are not trading. It's okay to dream of the success you can have from trading, but hold off from doing that while you are in a trade.