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How can I stop myself from closing trades early?

  • #61
  • Jun 27, 2025 7:06am Jun 27, 2025 7:06am
The best way I’ve found is to stick to your trading plan before you even open the trade. Set your TP and SL, walk away if you have to. Let the market do its thing. If you're constantly watching the candles, it's way too tempting to close early. Trust your setup.
  • #62
  • Jun 27, 2025 9:02am Jun 27, 2025 9:02am
Quoting john9517
The best way I’ve found is to stick to your trading plan before you even open the trade. Set your TP and SL, walk away if you have to. Let the market do its thing. If you're constantly watching the candles, it's way too tempting to close early. Trust your setup.
That's probably the best method!
I have sticked to my initial plan and after a long wait (at least for my strategy) sadly my SL was hit.
I feel great however because I managed my emotions and I was disciplined and did not trade prematurely.
It it was it is I guess, off to the next one!
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  • #63
  • Jun 28, 2025 3:23am Jun 28, 2025 3:23am
Quoting warsawtrader
{quote} That's probably the best method! I have sticked to my initial plan and after a long wait (at least for my strategy) sadly my SL was hit. I feel great however because I managed my emotions and I was disciplined and did not trade prematurely. It it was it is I guess, off to the next one! {image}

It's great that you're sticking to your plan.

I'm curious about your thinking when you set the target at twice the loss. Was it simply a case of committing to a 2:1 ratio regardless of the context? Or did you believe the price had a strong likelihood of moving below the swing low of that impulsive upward move - and even beyond? What factors led you to establish a take-profit level at 1.16669?

What I’m getting at is the importance of being cautious when choosing targets. Setting low-probability targets can have a negative impact, potentially tempting you to abandon your plan if the price repeatedly hits your stop loss. This is the other side of trading psychology.

I noticed you used both the 15-minute and the hourly charts, which suggests you correctly anticipated that the corrective move would be short-lived and shallow - especially after the strong impulsive activity leading up to Friday, the last trading day of the week. While I’m not familiar with your specific strategy or system, I wonder: did you consider using the 15-minute chart in combination with the 4-hour chart? Doing so might have offered a broader perspective and led to a different market interpretation in this case.
  • #64
  • Jun 29, 2025 4:39am Jun 29, 2025 4:39am
Considering the problems you've already solved it sounds like you have the right mentality to self-learn which isn't easy.
I think you may need to think about stepping out of the common retail concepts that get hammered into us when we're learning.
There's really no need to set a TP, or have rigid RR ratio's.
If you can consistently find good entry's on a lower timeframe and then move your stop to break even when appropriate, why even think about closing the trade or trying determine a target?
The market will give massively if you just wait and let it.
I found my edge in using different kinds of charts such as renko, line break, range bars, or even point and figure.
There is far more probability/edge to be found in these charts than candlesticks, although I do still use candles as part of my strategies.
For example, look at a 1 hour or Daily line break chart and see the massive runs you can get before they change direction.
It's not as simple as just trading a bare line break chart of course, but combining different charts/timeframes once you're in the trade will help you overcome the inclination to want to close the trade every time a pullback happens.
Once you've backtested this you'll have a lot of confidence in it.
There's loads more to say about it, but the main point is getting out of the common retail thought process.
  • #65
  • Jun 30, 2025 1:26am Jun 30, 2025 1:26am
Quoting PeligroRaton
I have this problem with my TP. Stop losses, I can live with them just fine now. I used to have this problem which I think most people have had, where you set a stop loss and if the price gets close to it you move it above/below the next support/resistance/trendline hoping the trade will work out. But of course mostly it doesn't so you move it again.... or take a bigger loss, or find you can't sleep at night.... Somehow I have taught myself not do that. And reading around that seems to be one of the hardest problems to fix. The problem I have is...
yes. Its greed absolotly.absolutely you must have patience. You must be consistently use 1% for ever. You must try to be dissipline . im telling you with 10 years experience of trading and open and close billion of orders. My firends and students have same problem. I can say every trader have same problem untill he or she solve it. Its alll about psychology and risk management
  • #66
  • Jul 1, 2025 4:10am Jul 1, 2025 4:10am
Quoting Pumi
{quote} It's great that you're sticking to your plan. I'm curious about your thinking when you set the target at twice the loss. Was it simply a case of committing to a 2:1 ratio regardless of the context? Or did you believe the price had a strong likelihood of moving below the swing low of that impulsive upward move - and even beyond? What factors led you to establish a take-profit level at 1.16669? What I’m getting at is the importance of being cautious when choosing targets. Setting low-probability targets can have a negative impact, potentially...
Thanks for responding!

I just want to clarify that my take-profit is always set at 2 times my risk, meaning I consistently aim for a 2:1 risk-to-reward. This approach is based on thorough backtesting and forward testing I've conducted on my strategy—covering over 1,000 trading days. I’ve attached a screenshot from my backtesting results to show that this isn’t guesswork; it’s well-tested and data-backed.

I’ve fully committed to developing a mechanical, rule-based system—one with a clear and objective entry signal that removes discretion from the process. When a valid signal appears, I must enter. The same rule applies to exits: no discretionary take profits, always 2R. Simple and clean—and most importantly, effective.
With this structure, my strategy averages around 8R per month, sticking to the 2:1 RR rule. All of this is executed on the M15 timeframe, with the H1 chart used only for higher-timeframe context—things like POIs, liquidity zones, etc. 8R a month is massive in my opinion. Risking 5% a trade I'm expecting to hit my first $100k within around 12 months, starting with around $2.5k investment. I would like to journal my journey on forex factory but I am still a beginner within the community - too early to start a new thread.

At the moment, I’m in a long position on EUR/USD using the same strategy and entry criteria I apply every day. So far so good but I might get swerved lol.
Yesterday, price reached about 1.3R before reversing and hitting my stop loss. That’s just part of the game. I’ve long accepted that not every trade will be a winner.

My system runs at an approximate 50% win rate, which essentially makes it a statistical coin flip—but with positive expectancy due to the 2:1 reward-to-risk structure.

The goal is to stick to the process and not let emotions override what the data has proven to work over time.
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  • #67
  • Jul 1, 2025 4:26am Jul 1, 2025 4:26am
Quoting PipPocket73
Considering the problems you've already solved it sounds like you have the right mentality to self-learn which isn't easy. I think you may need to think about stepping out of the common retail concepts that get hammered into us when we're learning. There's really no need to set a TP, or have rigid RR ratio's. If you can consistently find good entry's on a lower timeframe and then move your stop to break even when appropriate, why even think about closing the trade or trying determine a target? The market will give massively if you just wait and...
Do you think using a fixed risk-to-reward exit strategy is a “retail” approach? I realize that by consistently exiting at 2R, I may be leaving some profit on the table—but this approach suits me perfectly. It’s quick in and out, typically within a couple of hours, and I’m done for the day. I see it as a “small spoon” strategy—aiming to extract 30–40 pip moves from the market daily.

As long as the expectancy is positive, it becomes a matter of compounding and growing the capital. I’m taking a multi-year view with this. I understand that profits won’t be huge in the first year, but once the account grows into six figures, risking 5% per trade with around a 50% win rate and a 2R exit structure will allow it to compound quickly.

I’m also very mindful of my psychological limits—everyone has their own threshold. Swing trading doesn’t suit me, and neither does M1 scalping. I feel like I’ve found my sweet spot with M15 entries and exits.

Would you mind sharing the stats on your tested strategy? Win rate, average RR, etc.? Thanks!
  • #68
  • Jul 1, 2025 7:21am Jul 1, 2025 7:21am
Quoting warsawtrader
{quote} Do you think using a fixed risk-to-reward exit strategy is a “retail” approach? I realize that by consistently exiting at 2R, I may be leaving some profit on the table—but this approach suits me perfectly. It’s quick in and out, typically within a couple of hours, and I’m done for the day. I see it as a “small spoon” strategy—aiming to extract 30–40 pip moves from the market daily. As long as the expectancy is positive, it becomes a matter of compounding and growing the capital. I’m taking a multi-year view with this. I understand that profits...
I didn't mean it literally, sorry if it came over that way.
If it works for you and you understand why it works for you then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
And I'm definitely a retail trader ;-)
What I meant was that many traders are learning from youtube (I did) or similar sources and you could be forgiven for thinking that a fixed RR is the only way to trade because 99% of youtube guru's preach this.
It's not such a bad thing, but maybe the person I was responding to just needs to zoom out a little and try some other things. It's a psychological problem mostly, and it sounds like they've already done a good job at overcoming the psychological barrier of taking losses, for the next step maybe they need to try some new things.

I won't post data, I have a number of different strats, but most are 25-50% win rate. RR can vary from 1 to anything really, depends when my technical signs tell me to get out. I can't sit in front of a screen all day and nor do I want to because that is my psychological weakness, if I'm behind the screen I'll 'look' for trade set-ups that aren't really there because I'm bored. Better to let the market come to me. I do manual analysis once a day and have bots to take care of the entry. I'm not taking alot of trades every day and I look at many different markets.
  • #69
  • Jul 2, 2025 8:42am Jul 2, 2025 8:42am
Honestly, I think the real problem is that daily profit target you're holding onto. It's making you close trades too soon and not give your strategy the space it needs to work. From everything you’ve said, your system is solid and you’re clearly disciplined, so increasing your risk a bit seems totally fine if you’re comfortable with it. I’d try focusing more on weekly or monthly goals instead of getting caught up in hitting a number each day. Also maybe stop watching the charts so closely once you're in a trade. You’ve already done the hard part, now it’s just about trusting it to play out.
  • #70
  • Jul 15, 2025 4:42am Jul 15, 2025 4:42am
Quoting eleanorkim
Honestly, I think the real problem is that daily profit target you're holding onto. It's making you close trades too soon and not give your strategy the space it needs to work. From everything you’ve said, your system is solid and you’re clearly disciplined, so increasing your risk a bit seems totally fine if you’re comfortable with it. I’d try focusing more on weekly or monthly goals instead of getting caught up in hitting a number each day. Also maybe stop watching the charts so closely once you're in a trade. You’ve already done the hard part,...
I appreciate your comment! You are totally right, I need to build a habit of looking at bigger picture, bigger time frame rather than looking at daily PnL moves.
It's a process and I want to embrace it.
  • #71
  • Jul 15, 2025 5:29am Jul 15, 2025 5:29am
I feel you I’ve been in that exact spot. Took me a while to stop cutting winners short just to hit a daily number. What helped was taking partials at key levels, then letting the rest ride to my planned TP it quiets the urge to interfere. Bumping risk to 1% is fine if your edge is strong and your mindset can handle it. You’re doing a lot right already now it’s about trusting yourself to let the trades play out.
  • #72
  • Last Post: Aug 1, 2025 10:34am Aug 1, 2025 10:34am
Meditation
SHOW THE WAY, and let it fly to your goals.
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