You promised yourself that today you would stick to your trading plan. No stupid trades. Only good setups. You opened your platform and watch the markets. You didn’t see anything interesting. But you weren’t satisfied. You watched the markets one more time. You noticed one setup. It was not good, at most medium. You knew that you should not have traded it. But you wanted to do it. Maybe you wanted to feel excitement. Maybe you wanted to prove something to your parents, friends or boss. Or maybe you wanted to get rich fast and quit job which you hate.
So you took that trade. Maybe you lost a little bit or maybe not. But nothing terrible happened. So you took another trade. And another. Few trades later you started trading without thinking. After some time you realized that you had lost a substantial part of your account.
Sounds familiar?
Can you fix it?
You may think that overtrading is a constant part of your nature. That you can’t control it. But it is not true. You can change any of your habit. You just need to follow some easy steps.
In the first step you observe yourself while trading. Recognize how a FIRST temptation to take stupid trades appears in your mind. Probably you want to take these trades because you want more excitement, money or maybe you want to feel powerful, admired, free or smart.
So you know how your mind convinces you to take stupid trades. Now you can make your mind to support your trading results.
When a temptation to take stupid trade appears in your mind just pinch yourself. It doesn’t have to be hard. But you must feel the pain.
Do you think it is stupid? Maybe it is. But it works. So decide if you want to overtrade and lose money or do something which may look stupid for somebody and stop losing money.
Why should you do it? Because your brain knows that a pain is something bad and you must avoid it. Otherwise you could die. So if you pinch yourself when you feel a temptation to take stupid trade then your brain will know that taking stupid trades is dangerous.
Additionally give yourself purses when you follow your plan. It doesn’t have to be something big and expensive. It can be just saying to yourself “I am good”. You will use another natural pattern of your brain which knows that following nice emotions is good for you. Your brain use it to convince you to take actions which are necessary for you and your family to survive, for example to eat or have sex. So if you give yourself purses then your brain will know that sticking to your plan is good.
At the beginning it may be hard for you to create the new habbit of sticking to your plan. But in the next days it will be easier. If you follow your new habbit and don't overtrade then it should take 21 days before it will become natural part of you.