Trading psychology and process

FOMO, revenge trading, overtrading, biases, journaling, routines, streaks and reviews: the habits that keep a plan alive.

1. Fear and greed: your brain on chartsFear makes you get out too early and greed makes you stay in too long, so a plan written in calm moments protects you.
2. FOMO: chasing the candle that already leftIf you missed the move, let it go; chasing makes your risk bigger and your reward smaller.
3. Revenge tradingAfter a loss, take a breath instead of a trade, because trying to win it back fast usually makes it worse.
4. Overtrading: more trades, less edgeMore trades is not more money; only good setups deserve your money.
5. Plan the trade, trade the planDecide everything before you click, then let the plan do the work.
6. The trading journalYour journal is your coach: it remembers what you did and why, even when you would rather forget.
7. Mind tricks: confirmation, recency and anchoringYour brain takes shortcuts, like only noticing what agrees with you, so build rules that catch those shortcuts.
8. Holding losers, cutting winnersLosses hurt more than equal gains feel good, so people often hold losers too long and sell winners too soon.
9. Good decision, bad outcomeA good trade can lose and a bad trade can win, so grade how you decided, not just what happened.
10. Routines and the pre-trade checklistPilots run a checklist before take-off, and a trader's checklist does the same job before every trade.
11. Handling a losing streakLosing streaks happen to every trader, so have a plan for them before they arrive.
12. After a winning streak: overconfidenceA hot streak can make you feel unbeatable, which is exactly when traders take too much risk.
13. The weekly review: turning notes into rulesOnce a week, look back at your trades, find your biggest leak and fix one thing at a time.
14. Discipline challenge: the tempting weekThe real test of a trader is following the plan when every candle is shouting at you to break it.