Hey guys,
I’m 19, trading small-cap momentum. Started studying around August last year and went live late January.
I’m honestly just frustrated right now.
My situation outside of trading is actually fine — I have 2 jobs, no debt, good family/friends — so I know this isn’t some external pressure thing. It’s just me.
My biggest problems are:
- overtrading
- oversizing (especially on worse setups)
- taking trades I literally know I shouldn’t take
- and sometimes revenge trading after losses
The weird part is I know what’s wrong while I’m doing it.
Like I’ll look at a chart and think: "this doesn't look clean" then I take it anyway
Then it loses and I’m like yeah, obviously.
So it’s not like I don’t understand setups or anything. It’s more like I just can’t get myself to follow what I already know.
I think part of it is I still have that mindset of needing to “do something” every day. Sitting there and not trading feels wrong, even though I know that’s literally part of the game.
Right now I’m in a losing streak and my confidence/discipline are pretty low. My losses are also bigger than my wins overall, mainly because of oversizing when I shouldn’t.
I’ve tried:
- writing rules
- journaling
- limiting trades (in theory)
but in the moment I still break them.
I feel like I’m stuck in that phase where I know exactly what I need to do, objectively, its simple, I’m just not doing it consistently.
For people who’ve been through this:
- how did you actually fix overtrading?
- how did you get comfortable with no-trade days?
- did you use hard limits (max trades, size caps, etc)?
- when did discipline actually start to stick?
Not even focused on profits right now, I just want to get consistent with my behavior.
Appreciate any real advice.