I missed this opening drive.
I was fine with this. There was no real signal for me to enter. And I prefer not to chase a price move.
But then I missed this one.
This one did provide a setup. And I attempted entry, only to miss.
Naturally, this one was followed by a few choice swear words.
But then I was reminded of my recent facebook and twitter post:
There is NO SUCH THING as missed opportunity!
It was never mine to take. If it was, I would have taken it.
Let it go.
You have two choices when you miss a trade. You can see it as missed opportunity and allow frustration to cloud your judgement going forward. Or you can accept that it was never yours to take, allowing you to maintain focus and prepare for any opportunity in the following price sequences.
I chose the latter.
I let it go.
I maintained focus.
And I got the next opportunity… which was mine to take.
As the earlier social media post suggests:
Your aim during the session should be to maintain FOCUS with a POSITIVE MINDSET. There is no room for frustration and anger. There is more opportunity coming, even if it's just a few singles rather than home-runs. To capture it, you need FOCUS.
To reduce frustration, try this mindset trick…
"It was never mine to take. If it was, I would have taken it.Let it go."
You can't catch every move.
And you don't have to catch every move.
There is more opportunity coming along in future price sequences. Some of them are yours. And they will require your full focus and attention.
Happy trading,
Lance Beggs
As always nice work, thank you so much. I fall, again and again, into that error. Frustation and anger take me away from the “focused state” that will let me get into the following set up. So, this post is helpfull enough for me 🙂
Thanks! Yes… mindset is a never-ending challenge for us all. I’m glad you enjoyed the article! 🙂
Hi Mr Lance! Thanks for the article!
May I ask you a few questions?
Your first missed trade is a counter trend trade, isn’t it?
As I understand we have bullish bias here (your article “Establishing a Bias From the Open”). Maybe we already have uptrend but I’m not sure. So it is just a kind of 3-swing retrace in process. Here is a pic http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/610x335q90/922/5eCunZ.png
Then you difined sideways trend after 3 swing retrace. And according your definition for sideways trend it needs at least 4 swings. Is it an example of subjective overriding of the definition? http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/612x333q90/922/JXTn1T.png
I really appreciate any clarification on these matters. Thank you!
The missed entry was a TST trade coming off the resistance level. So yes, based upon the trend up to the level it is considered counter-trend. TST and BOF will almost always be counter-trend.
The subsequent assessment of “sideways trend” was an early call, so yes this was a subjective override. You’re exactly correct with your swing points and trend definition. In cases such as this I’m often confident to make the early call. The reason is that the setup itself, if price turns there, will form the 4th swing turn point and complete the sideways definition.
Thank you! I know trading is not a mechanical algorithmic thing. But it is just hard to accept absence of certainty in this process.
This is one of the key challenges in learning to trade; accepting and embracing the uncertainty of our decision making.
The only certainty exists through applying a positive edge over a LARGE sample of trades. On the short-term though, at the level of individual trades or even smaller at the individual decisions that define each stage of the trade, we have almost complete uncertainty of outcome. It seems to take us a LONG time to truly accept this and learn to work in that environment.