How do I become emotionless when trading?

[jpane 11]

How do I become emotionless when trading? When I open a trade I keep on stalking the M5 chart. I just feel so anxious when I’m in a trade so I sometimes close it to regain my peace of mind. After closing a trade I feel so drained. There are a lot of times when I don’t enter a trade because of this. 😓

[WorkoutWanderer 12]

I think you are spending a lot of time looking at the P/L section. You can look at the trade in this other way. If you have opened the trade with a plan and with an SL and TP, just wait to see if the idea under the trade was correct or not. Maybe lower the position until you feel comfortable with the trade’s size and until you believe in your system.

[sloppymagic 62]

If you use no more than 1-2% of your total equity it should help your emotions.
Chart watching is detrimental to our trading health for sure .
Best of luck in your trading

[MildChamp 37]

i don’t think you need to be emotionless. you just need to know how to control your emotions because it might get in the way of trading.

[pugglesdeatheater 5]

Personally, I set my take profit and loss targets, then I also have a trailing stoploss once it goes positive, then I dont mind where it goes (prefer positive of course) as OI have risked the right amount for the trade.

[jpane 11]

I just find it so hard to not keep on looking at the chart as price moves. 😓 Thanks for the suggestions. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by jpane

[ToWysteria 26]

You trade the 5m charts? Imagine trading the daily’s. I have the same emotions but for at least a day, sometimes over a week. I make my trade and sleep well and the next day I go to work. At my morning break I check my trade. I think “I could close now and it would make money”… at lunch I check my trade. “I could close now and it would be only a small loss.”…my only solace is knowing that if I follow my rules, in the long run, I will be profitable.

If you’ve done your homework, you should be fine. If this trade is a loser so what? There’s another one around the corner. Positive expectation is key. Don’t get in the way of what you know will be beficial IN THE LONG RUN.

[Summon 33]

For me once a get my trade alert and I get my retest I enter once it meets my trading rules
Go away from the screen and only check in to bring my stop loss to BE
If it wins brilliant
If not take the loss and journal both outcomes

[DrunkRei 21]

I have a set of rules for an entry, I check supply and demand, currency strength, higher and lower time frame and a couple oscillators.

I have four different indicators that show the trend on all MT5 time frames, a look at those is what makes the final decision to enter or stay out

I trade 4 hour or daily, mainly daily charts because they have better data points. To me, a 5 minute chart has too many ups and downs and requires too much time for trade management.

I am pretty picky as to entries. There are a lot of instruments that we can trade, missing a few entries is no big deal, there will be many more good ones coming.

[LoomVo 62]

Emotions truly are something that can be toxic even to the best traders and overcoming emotions can be toxic.

Identify what can kill you now and what can kill you later.

As a trader when you look at a chart or trade the first thing that can kill you is not the trade going in the opposite direction, but the first thing that can kill you is getting emotional about the trade. Remember, you have feelings about the trade, but the trade doesn’t have feelings about you. So you shouldn’t have any about it either

Look at the trade for what it is and not what it seems to be.

I personally trade the Daily charts and it allows to chase trends better and i mostly just check on my trades once a day and that lessens my chances of sabotaging myself. I look at what at what my algorithm is telling me and make adjustments accordingly or make no adjustments at all (which takes about a minute) and look at other charts when i’m done i browse throw different charts to see if my algorithm is telling me anything. Then i spend the rest of the time trying to see if i can improve me system and make it better and then i back-test.

So basically all you have to do is create a system that works, gets you more wins than losses, chases trends, gets you optimum entries and exists and allows you to chase trend and get those juicy pips and keeps you out of taking losing trades (not losing is winning).

And once you’ve done that you get to trust your system and kill the emotion.

Oh and don’t risk more than 2% of your account. And you must learn good Money Management and great trading psychology, cause these to thinks are even more important than technical analysis. Cause you can have the best system and still blow out your account with terrible money management and trading psychology