Disliked{quote} Neither a newbie nor a professional ... in that interim phase and yes, not great at leaving trades to run when they go slow. I think that's both : a confidence thing (how confident am I that it was a strong entry afterall?) - it's easy to doubt yourself when nothing happens and also in the past those premature exits have often turned out to be right - but I think a lot of that was because they were bad entries in the first placeIt is definitely something I need to improve on though ... along with getting better at leaving winners to run....Ignored
The 'early exit syndrome' (lol) is a difficult one to overcome.....and you have the answer already...imo. The entry! If the entry is a little bit suspect....ie that you aren't quite sure if you should have entered or not, then that can lead to an early exit because you might be thinking to get out because you possibly shouldn't have entered to start with.
Another reason could be that you are over leveraged.
Another reason could be lack of confidence following several losses.
Another reason could be the thinking that '10 pips is better than nothing".......which could be true if the PA goes back......but could also lead to a further problem if the PA takes off for +60 right after you exit for +10!!
There are many possible reasons, but I think (imo) they all boil to to the classic 'fear and greed' problem that affects us all at some stage.
In your example, you needed to exit before to sleep....and that's fair enough...I would do the same thing....unless I was in a decent profit and then I might just lock in my target plus some profit and let it do it's thing while I sleep.
But....I think it boils down to the entry. If the entry is text book perfect, then I won't close the trade unless it *clearly* is going to reverse, which does happen every once in a while. Other than that though, I generally don't sit there watching it. I can't do anything, I have an emergency SL in place that am comfortable with, so I just try to forget about it and look for something else to trade....read this thread or something, go make coffee or whatever. I can't influence the PA, so let it be.....
Easier said than done I know!!
Doing what you like is Freedom. Liking what you do is Happiness.