High Probability Trading: Trading against the plan

High Probability Trading: Trading against the plan

This post is awesome because it points out to me one thing I know that will kill me.

Losing it, losing my cool and just blowing it.

When does trading become gambling, an addiction and not something I am doing to try to earn a living?

The answer for this to me is when I lose my cool emotionally, dont have a plan, start trading by the seat of my pants.

I made all the mistakes this evening,

Things I did really wrong.

1) I really must admit, I DONT HAVE A Trading plan

I dont have some repeatable plan that once some indicator gets flipped I execute or close a trade

2) I added to a losing position
3) I didnt set a stop.
4) dont fully understand the software a I am using.

Ok, for the next two weeks I am going to trade demo and ... I am going to post my P/L every day with a post, this I atleast I was prepared for this , I knew this wasnt going to be easy. I think I was a little cocky but I am humbled now, for now.

I really lost it today

Man I had one shitty day today trading.
I opened a mini account and was noing ok, then I had a decent gain early in the evening, then I guess I got cocky.
I started trading by the seat of my pants.
I doubled the position size I was using, started adding to a losing position, next thing you know I went from being up 30$ for the day to losing 170$
check out this post, its not me but I can relate.
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:qOPIK_sMYZ0J:highprobability.blogspot.com/2008/05/trading-against-plan.html+%22trading+against+the+plan%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
I am not going to give up, I am going to stop trading "real" and go back to a demo account for a little bit.
It really is all about emotions.
I understand position sizing, I probably could get better at technical indicators and I definitely want to understand how to use "metaTrader"
Truth is, I am not that upset right now, I know what I did wrong and I