About Fear of Missing Out

Krushna

Active Member
#1
I am placing this question in "psychology" section as it is this "Fear" thing that is causing me a lot of trouble.
I am a day trader, presently only paper trading after losing some last year and now concentrating on my other source of income more. After getting a bit free from the other work and getting back some capital AND paper trading proving me worthy of trading with live money, I will start trading.
My problem is "Fear Of Missing Out". I am a discretionary trader, not even EMA on my chart, only S/R (Lance Beggs style). I trade in direction of strength and against weakness. Sounds so simple. But when the candles start forming I become someone else. I constantly tell myself only to trade when the set up is jumping out of the screen at me. But its easier said than done. When I see something remotely similar to some of my set up, I "Feel" (not "Think") that i should be on this trade and get greedy and end up taking too many bad trades. My mind that has studied the strategy and backtested takes a back seat and someone else takes the driving seat.
How do I get over this? Would really appreciate some pointers from someone who has been through this and overcome it.
Regards
Krushna.
 

primitivetrader

Well-Known Member
#2
do you have a written chceklist? and wht are the conditions which need to be satisfied before you pull the plug. i think you dont have it as you do not a system is place. discretionary trading demands lots of exp and screen time, which you are lacking.

if you have proper system thn the fear of missing out may be overcome over a period of time (another reason for the fear is you have lost money in trading).

i dont know why have you opted for discretionary trading. but if you are using lance begg style of trading thn you need to follow it to the T. dont try to combine couple of methods into one - recipe for loss.

we traders have this habit of intellectual masturbation and we forget the reason of trading is to make money and loads of it. my suggestion focus on learning an objective system which is rule based at least 80-90% and rest is subjective. as per me in the long term to make profits in day trading one need to have rule based system.

I am very good at chart reading (vsa stuff) but to make money i have proper rule(s) based system to which vsa compliment and i dont know whether you accept it or not, my system is simply based on moving averages, PSAR and macd. and it works well.
at this juncture in my trading career i am not at all interested in picking tops and bottoms as i am married to one system and living a happy trading life :).

hope it helps.
 
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Krushna

Active Member
#3
Thank you primitive trader. Yes, thats what I did today before posting: writing a checklist for pulling the plug, as until now I used to think that i "Know" it but forgot it under influence of emotions. As per my system, I have couple of simple and basic set ups but I complicate things in live ( intellectual masturbation ) as you call it.
As per objective system, I cant develop on my own and I have experienced that trying to follow someone else's system is not my cup of tea. And I think having a "written checklist" will help me. lets see.
 
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Sunnyraj

Well-Known Member
#4
Hey, Let me tell you with my own experience that paper trading vs live trading with real money, are two different things.


Not to scare you, but even, if you fare well in paper trading, you will make mistake trading with live money.

First reason is "psychology". Even if you have a rule based system, your mind will play games. Bcoz in paper trading there was no real loss, but in reality just see what happens after you face a string of losses, say 3-4 losses in a row.

But here you have a discretionary based trading( I'm not saying it is not good, but you have to have some criteria where before pulling the trigger you don't second guess)

My humble suggestion: Start with real money, small capital.

Trade small. You will get to see real results with your system.If it works you can increase your capital any time.
 

Krushna

Active Member
#5
Thank you Sunnyraj.
I remember seeing a chart in which there was a detailed plan of how much to risk at each level and completeing each level if one is positive for 2 consecutive weeks and so on. But I am unable to locate that post and chart. If somebody has it, please post it.
 

Tuna

Listen and act, don't ask it, it doesn't oblige
#8
Trading in the Zone ~ a must have , 250 pages of sheer gold.
Oh ! I did not read it yet. Heard about it, ordered in AmmaZaan. Waiting for it
 

Krushna

Active Member
#9
[QUOTE="Tuna, post: 1248737, member: 278301" ordered in AmmaZaan.[/QUOTE]

Tamil version of Amazon? ;)
 

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