Many losing traders will refuse to admit this, but I often notice that they follow an almost self-destructive pattern of behaviour… And this behaviour usually begins the moment a trade turns sour…

Particularly for day traders, hourly market price fluctuations will often invoke powerful emotions. When you see prices rapidly moving against your trade position, you’ll almost feel like the market is conspiring against you: "Why does the market price always go in the opposite direction the moment I enter my trade?"

And then you spend the next full hour sitting in front of your trading terminal, eye-balling every small movement in price: "Come on… go up! Go up!" you tell the market.

Unfortunately, I understand this experience all too well. After all, almost all traders will go through this phase sometime in their trading career. You’ll start to feel like the market is playing with you like a cat plays with its prey.

The solution to this problem is easy to learn, but not quite so easy to follow. You basically have to NOT be emotional when you trade. But that’s easier said than done.

You’ll need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Remember that this trade is only one among the long series of the many trades you’ll make this month. No matter how good or bad a single trade is turning out to be, don’t ever get too attached to it. It’s only one trade.

Always remember: the only thing that matters in trading is your overall (or net) winnings. A few losses are irrelevant as long as you don’t allow them to snowball. It’s a cost of trading. You win some, you lose some. Don’t sweat the losing. Just make sure that on the overall, you win. That’s about all there is to it.