Tell me if I'm on the right track here . . .

I want to pose a questions to the more experienced members of the forum -

How much of success depends on on your ability to let the emotion go and trade into what has NOT been drawn on the chart yet. Meaning I have seen lots of traders show up with their overbought and oversold indicators always trying to trade the chart backwards (meaning if price is here it should go back to here, etc.)

It seems that this sort of thinking is what gets most of us into trouble, I bet most sucessful traders recognize patterns and have some tools to project what would be the next target or next range . . .

I'm I on to something or have I stared at my charts for so long that I'm beginning to become delusional

You can post or PM your answer

Thanks

Yes to trading charts backwards. Elliot Waves, Fibonacci Retracements, RSI, and ATR are what I use.

How much is dependant on what has not happened yet? ... everything, and it is why emotions counteract good trading decisions, how can you emotionally make a sound decision on what has yet to happen?, emotions are reactionary in nature and as such cause some horrible trading decisions as I think most of us have experienced.

Technical traders rely on history predicting the future, trusting that history repeats is the only way to make sound logical decisions, be they right or wrong. If they are logical, then they are decisions that can be analysed post trade.

It's called "right-hand side" trading versus the "left-hand side" trading that many on forums like to crow about.

You most definitely are on the right track with your observation. When you put on a trade you never can know if you will win or lose. It's only by learning to deal with that unknown and all the anxieties it causes can you put on trades successfully and in a timely fashion.

We really don't like losing or being wrong, it's hardwired into us. Getting over that is the biggest hump, imo, in trading. Keeping size small helps immensely, as well as knowing your system so you can expect x amount of losers, and you're not surprised nor disappointed by them.