Back onto the important subject of Dopamine Management.
Today I finished my trades really early and I was going to quit for the day but I came into this chat and started responding to some negative posts.
My ego started to get the better of me and I was distracted from trading. I also checked my FTMO portal and for some reason, today's profits were not showing and that also distracted me and was bothersome.
After 15 mins of dealing with these two distractions. I looked back at my charts and saw an interesting trade but it was not within my normal parameters as a good edge but it did have a lot of things going for it and my mind tricked me into thinking that the 10 am ISM data would be a good catalyst and enough reason to push the button and viola a dopamine rush was triggered.
The trade went immediately against me and I knew I was screwed and I needed to break the flood of chemicals my brain was experiencing so I was able to place some stops and limits and get up and leave my computer for 5 mins and do some deep and slow breathing to reduce the anxiety.
When I returned the trade was not stopped out nor did it hit the limit orders but it was in profits. Now that the Dopamine was reduced I could see much more clearly and I could see I never should have been in the trade in the first place so I closed it and mitigated the damages with a small winner.
Every day is a battle, folks. It never ends unless you code your process into an EA but every EA I have created never ends up making as much money as I do just manually trading and using my brain. All my EA's are only half as profitable as my discretionary trades so even though Dopamine Management is a battle every day the rewards are worth the effort.
Another green day today but I am going to put this day into the 50/50 book as half winner and half loser because I did screw up but I also did manage to get it back under control.
Today I finished my trades really early and I was going to quit for the day but I came into this chat and started responding to some negative posts.
My ego started to get the better of me and I was distracted from trading. I also checked my FTMO portal and for some reason, today's profits were not showing and that also distracted me and was bothersome.
After 15 mins of dealing with these two distractions. I looked back at my charts and saw an interesting trade but it was not within my normal parameters as a good edge but it did have a lot of things going for it and my mind tricked me into thinking that the 10 am ISM data would be a good catalyst and enough reason to push the button and viola a dopamine rush was triggered.
The trade went immediately against me and I knew I was screwed and I needed to break the flood of chemicals my brain was experiencing so I was able to place some stops and limits and get up and leave my computer for 5 mins and do some deep and slow breathing to reduce the anxiety.
When I returned the trade was not stopped out nor did it hit the limit orders but it was in profits. Now that the Dopamine was reduced I could see much more clearly and I could see I never should have been in the trade in the first place so I closed it and mitigated the damages with a small winner.
Every day is a battle, folks. It never ends unless you code your process into an EA but every EA I have created never ends up making as much money as I do just manually trading and using my brain. All my EA's are only half as profitable as my discretionary trades so even though Dopamine Management is a battle every day the rewards are worth the effort.
Another green day today but I am going to put this day into the 50/50 book as half winner and half loser because I did screw up but I also did manage to get it back under control.
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