Stop Trading!!!

You ever watch a court room drama on TV and have the judge order a recess just as things are getting hot and out of control?

Have you ever been in a trade when things got hot and out of control?

Well, that is the time to stop trading and time to regroup!

Professional traders have a built in advantage in the form of a professional risk manager. These risk managers oversee the traders and monitor their trading activities.

Once professional trader drops below a certain level they must cease trading activities and re-access the market and their trading criteria.

Professional traders are not the only ones with a risk manager to oversea their activities.

In baseball, when a pitcher is having a rough outing the pitching coach will call time out and visit the pitcher. The pitching coach will discuss strategy and mechanics in an attempt to get the pitcher to re-group and re-focus.

If things continue to go bad for the pitcher, the next visit is by the manager to remove the pitcher from the game. Better to stop the pitcher from continuing in order not to jeopardize the game further.

We must also think about having a risk manager!

Individual traders do not have a professional risk manager at their disposal. The individual trader must rely on training, discipline and a solid trading plan.

Like a court room recess or a pitcher being taken out of the game, we must program into our trading plans rules for taking a time out and re-grouping after a series of poorly executed trades or market misreads.

Loses are a part of trading. However, we should have a maximum daily and account size draw that would trigger a predefined re-evaluation of our trading activities.

If we do not have a strategy to regroup built into our trading plan, then you risk letting emotions rule of trading decisions. That can only result in a downward spiral and a quick end of your trading capital and possibly to your FX career.

Remember, the market is always right! But also remember that the market is not trying to punish you. The market is only providing you feedback! The market can be a great teacher, but only if you are prepared to take advantage of the lesson.

“The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”
- Confucius

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Happy Trading!