Blow Your Own Nose
"We cry to God Almighty, how can we escape this agony? Fool, don't you have hands? Or could it be God forgot to give you a pair? Sit and pray your nose doesn't run! Or, rather just wipe your nose and stop seeking a scapegoat."
— Epictetus, Discourses
Today's meditation automatically reminded me of a chat in one of the TTM channels that I saw a while ago. Somebody was saying that they felt like they had "hit a wall" with their trading. They do well for a while and then struggle and they feel like everything that they do at the moment is wrong, goes against them etc.
Trading is and always will be a game of controlling losses. Whatever your strategy, controlling your losses is critical to long term success and survival!
We must have faith in the strategies that we are using, keep showing up, keep managing our risk and keep executing our trades to the best of our ability, managing those trades to completion.
We know generally that because of the historical stats/data we have available to us, we will be right many more times than we will be wrong. However, if we have a bad run of trades going against us, it can make us doubt ourselves and our strategies; but we must not waver and we need to stick rigidly to the process! If we manage our trades correctly and take small controlled losses when these trades are going against us, we are protecting our bank and staying in the game. We must NEVER go "all in" and revenge trade, trying to get back what we have lost. We need to do things exactly the same as we do when we are on a good run and this will ensure profitability over time.
Believe me, when you look back at that bad run and see how you handled it, you will become stronger and even more determined, the next time you are faced with a losing run.
So don't feel sorry for yourself and that the market is against you; "Blow your own nose" use the strategies that you know work for you, crack on and strive to become the best trader that you can possibly be!
You can do it; you've got this 100%.