Some good advice in this post from 

rjdston 27th of May 2021 at 09:31 pm

The psychology and realistic goal setting are so important. Knowing yourself and how you will behave over time is huge. I do a trading journal entry every day. I have a plan before I begin the day so I know what I'm doing when it is time to do it. 

Setting orders with target prices in advance has helped as well, then I can adjust them depending on what my time frame and risk/reward possibilities are for the position. Trim and trail. Not interested in giving back profits. If I'm bullish long term, I will sell some keep some (trade around my core). Lots of ways to do things. Best way I can put it is that if you are a sports fan, there are a number of ways and plays you can call to win a game. If you are meeting your goals then that is what matters. I used to get caught up in selling something only to see it go higher in later sessions. Bottom line is, if it was a day trade, it was a day trade. There is always another one. No fear of missing out. What was the goal in mind for the position? 

I struggled early on in the game because I was inconsistent with my strategy and also took outsized risk (I set my goals too high as someone else mentioned) given my account balance. It led to some large drawdowns and times of large gains. Kind of like a boom/bust situation. Fortunately, I had set a particular amount of capital aside for the trading account and I worked at it until it was back up. I was also still working at the time, so while it wasn't fun going through that multiple times, I was learning.. Any trader that has stayed in the game for years I think has gone through something like that, it is kind of a right of passage. Everyone makes mistakes, though successful people learn from them. 

My long term accounts (IRAs) are a different strategy than my income producing trading account. 

Another thing that is super important is that I specialize in my strategies. I don't try and do it all or know about everything under the sun. If it is something I have no interest in, then I stay away from it. My strategies are both fundamental and technical in nature. If I don't have both, I'm not interested. Also, having too many positions is too much to track for me and too difficult to manage when trading. At one point I thought I could manage 10 positions, then I went to 7, then to 5 I focused on. The number got much smaller, especially for my focuses during a particular day. My results improved a lot after cutting down all the unnecessary extra work. I have a friend who texts me regarding the next best thing every other day. I may look at an idea or two, but will usually know pretty quick on whether I can take something else on at the moment. Saying "no" can be more important for me on a given day in order that I can stick to my plan. 

Let us remember why we have this holiday weekend. Memorial Day  is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the military personnel who have died in the performance of their military duties while serving in the United States Armed Forces.