MeetPips.com

For some reason, this rule from the book "The Adventures of a Currency Trader" keeps popping in my head every time I have a winning trade. That's probably a good thing, right?I won two consecutive trades this week, effectively ending my 4-trade losing streak. Phew. Like I swore last week, I'd take day trades from now since the market's choppier than usual and so that it's not to stressful. And it worked! My only regret is that I risked half my usual position size on those day trades, which means that I gained half as much profits as I would like too. It didn't help that I set wide stops, huge enough for a longer-term trade, which limited my profit potential. Oh well, a win is still a win... and I'll chalk these two good trades up as psychological wins. I think the crucial factor in these two winning trades was knowing when to get out. Remember how I talked about turning winners into losers last time? Well, this time, I tried to hold on to those winners. Looking back on some of my old trades, I realized that if I took profits off the table at the end of the day (before logging out), I would've caught some pips off those. Few pips, yes. But still profitable.Although closing a trade early, way before it hits the profit target, can have its downside (when you wake up to see the price move all the way up to your profit target and you want to kick yourself in the a**), at the end of the day, I'd like to have my pips in the bag. That way, I treat each day as a fresh opportunity to make a new trade idea and hopefully end up with more pips in the bag. After all, closing early also has an upside (when you wake up in the morning to see that you closed just at the right time and you pat yourself on the back - if that's physically possible). So that'll be my game plan from now on. Go for day trades, keep them as trades for the day only, sleep peacefully... Rinse and repeat. Oh, and never get too cocky.