Quote Originally Posted by ericoleman View Post
More and more, I realize that the important element of all these experiences is to slowly improve upon our chosen methods. Clarify one's timeframe. Understand the cycle. And keep an open mind with a willingness to learn, accept the choices we make, and apply those lessons going forward.
That's also what many others (like Minervini, Fahmy, etc) have been saying ... define yourself as a trader. Define what timeframes to trade, when to take a loss, when to take a profit, define a re-entry strategy etc. You'll trade much more relaxed this way. I used to watch my stocks way too often ... for me it was often a distraction as I often reacted to intraday noise. So I stopped doing that with much better trades as a result. For all my disc trades I put profit targets and stops in as orders so I don't have to worry about them, once I buy them the positions take care of themselves basically.

Don't feel bad if you trade within your rules and make a loss or if you get stopped out and the stock then goes on to do what you tought in the first place without you on board. Instead adapt so that next time for example you have a re-entry strategy in place.

Trading with rules in place allows the trader to observe over time how to improve. But if one doesn't have rules or guidelines even, how can one know what to improve ?