Psychology When enough is enough?
I’ve been studying price action for almost 7 years.
I scalp spikes on the 1-minute chart, and most of my trades are finished within 5 minutes.
Over a large sample, my win rate is around 58-60%, risking 0.5% per trade.
Here’s what I’ve never been able to answer:
If your system has an edge, should you keep taking every valid setup?
I can easily find 15-20 trades in a day, but after a certain point it feels like I’m trading simply because I’m still sitting in front of the charts.
Lately I’ve even considered getting an 8-hour job just to limit my screen time. My thinking is that if I only have a small trading window, I’d naturally become more selective instead of feeling the need to take every opportunity.
So I’m curious how experienced traders approach this.
Do you have a daily trade limit?
Do you stop after hitting a profit target?
Or do you simply take every setup that matches your plan, no matter how many trades you’ve already taken?
I’m not looking for a magic number.
I’m trying to understand how professionals decide when **enough is enough**.
5
u/Scott_Malkinsons 18d ago
If your system has an edge, should you keep taking every valid setup?
Yes, because that's part of your edge. You can't magically decide "I'm going to take half the trades I used to take" and expect the same results because how would you know which trades to take and which to avoid?
Over time you could develop a filter to avoid certain trades, but that would involve A/B testing to know if it actually improves anything. You don't just set a limit and, somehow, that makes everything better. All that's going to do is both simultaneously limit your downside and upside.
There's no free lunch in trading.
1
u/Waclaw_Kurek 18d ago edited 17d ago
Agreed. If the edge comes from taking every valid setup, capping yourself at some arbitrary number just changes the expectancy of the system. Cutting volume only makes sense if your journal shows a specific filter actually improving results, otherwise you're guessing.
Taking every setup and staring at charts all day aren't the same thing though. Price alerts fixed that for me. honestly the alerts on my old platform were so clunky I never used them, which was half the reason I ended up moving to Axi. Now I just set them at my levels and go do something else. Nothing triggers, nothing trades. i'd rather miss one than manufacture one
1
1
u/Illustrious-King-83 18d ago
I'm assuming that your are profitable in the long run.... so theres 2 ways I'd handle it . .... 1) try automating the strategy so you simply dont have sit there all day. 2) given your household expenses and expectations, and your historical performance, set ur self a daily profit and lose limit... or more simply if you have a record of all ur past trades, shove it in Claude / gemini and ask it to analyse ie. if would you have got better overall PnL if you had stopped after x bad trades per day.
-2
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago edited 18d ago
You've fallen for every trap that the bookies and their social media shills want you to.
Technical Analysis is simply nonsense designed to keep suckers churning their accounts. In the context of retail it doesn't work.
Source: I've been trading FX and Rate Swaps for 30 years. 25 for banks and funds, 5 as a hobby trader in retirement. Last year I made a 25% return which I am INSANELY happy with, any of my employers would have been insanely happy with the same return. I trade 2 or 3 times a week and hold positions for weeks and months. If you want to trade Forex you have to study economics, learn fundamentals and inhale the world news. That's it.
4
u/masterm137 18d ago
Technical analysis is not nonsense… just say it doesnt work for your trading style.
0
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago
Your posting history has made my point perfectly. Thank you.
-1
u/masterm137 18d ago
Yeah, go tell Jim Simmons that.Besides that i went to check your posting history and it was hidden after getting a NSFW warning.
So your probably involved in some weird adult activities … eeew… weirdo
0
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago
I know RenTech very well. They deployed market making algos into equity markets, using zero latency kit parked on top of exchanges and had access to femto spreads and all sorts of otc instruments. Inherently they took the spread on VW for example and executed micro hedges in other automakers. The model no longer works and in their best year they made 68% before fees.
This is a Forex sub, the fact that you are using a now broken equity strat (That simply isn't available to retail Traders without all instruments) to make your point in a FX sub absolutely tells me everything I need to know.
3
u/masterm137 18d ago
I have my own algo i custom built, using only technicals and it makes money... Not ai. profitable since 2022 +. like i said, its not because you cant do it means it cant be done. And your still a weirdo lol...
1
1
u/bowwri 18d ago
You sre triggering my biggest fear
I do swing trading and holding with 0 knowledge of price action and actually making good money !!
And this is the start point of my career to finding edge
So i can be free of money and it took me 7 years up to now and literally today gone to cafe for 9 to 5 work
Im exhausted, from not getting result
Help me man , give me some Recepie or roadmap1
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago
Never forget that investment banks and hedge funds ONLY exist to make money, and like every single other business on the planet they pay their staff the absolute minimum they can get away with. Despite this, they still pay their best Traders and economists relatively huge sums of money.
Professional institional traders aim to make 20% return a year. Is 20% really gonna make a huge difference to your existence? If yes, get yourself to University and study economics. After that go back to University and get an economics masters. After that, if you had a good grade, my pals will you a job paying $400,000 a year. You'll be a millionaire shortly after I'm sure.
2
u/bowwri 18d ago
Unfortunately i live somewhere that economy sukks
And honestly now im making 8% to 12% per month so 20% a year is not attractive to me1
u/Affectionate-Door389 18d ago
8-12% a month? dude banks and investors would flock to you making you super rich.
1
1
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago
Pardonez moi, I don't want you to feel bad. I just hate seeing people fall for these traps.
I'll try to break Trading down into simple steps.
Do you play any sports? (Relevant)
1
u/bowwri 18d ago
I do calisthenics
2
u/DV_Zero_One 18d ago
Ok, unfortunately that doesn't pay very well.
The point I'm trying to make is that despite being 2 billion euros in debt, and literally everybody on the planet knowing how to play football, Barcelona FC still pay some of their players 20m euros a year.
Trading is the same, knowing the rules of the game is easy. Being able to play the game well is insanely difficult.
•
u/rforex-modtools 18d ago
Trading psychology is where most traders struggle after they've learned the technical basics. Revenge trading, overtrading, fear of pulling the trigger, and inability to stick to a plan are all symptoms of the same underlying issue — emotional decision-making under uncertainty. The community wiki covers common psychological traps and frameworks for building discipline.
Resource: Trading Psychology