Visualization Exercises

You're in a successful swing trade.  It pulls back from a high and you're still in the trade.  It has now become clear that was the top and price is now reversing.  Close the trade and feel the disappointment of missing the top.  Now change your thought pattern to understand the disappointment is natural, and your job is to be aware of this and instead be happy that you made (significant) profit on the trade.

A trade consolidates just short of your target.  The trade then starts to look like it is going to fail so you exit at a profit.  The trade then rips to your target without you.  Feel the disappointment and the natural tendency to doubt following your plan ability to hold risk.  Realize this is a natural reaction and instead remind yourself that  Risk/Reward evolves through a trade.  If the Risk/Reward no longer favors being in the trade and the trade is not progressing as you expect, you are no longer in control and getting out is the right thing to do.  Be happy that you made (significant) profit on the trade.  You are now a lot closer to your daily target and will require fewer and easier trades to meet your daily target.

A trade lasts longer than expected and it is now approaching a Risk-Off event.  You exit the trade.  The Risk-Off event causes price to rally and it hits your original target.  Remind yourself that there was no way to predict this, and it could just have easily gone the other way.  Be happy that you've traded well and look forward to trading the predictable volatility following the Risk -Off event.

You don't understand what the market is doing and you can't clearly see any pools of liquidity or patterns.  Shut the screen and come back in an hour, or sent an alert where you think price may start to make sense.

Identify areas of interest and then set an alert.  Shut the screen and focus on something else until the alert is triggered.  There is no point watching a slow market go sideways for several hours.

You want to trade but you know this is a Dopamine response and not because there is actually an opportunity with Edge.  Practice relaxing and controlling the Dopamine response without trading.  If necessary, trade a burner account until you get it out of your system.

When you get a gut feeling (based on significant years of experience) that the market may start to trend AND the risk reward is extremely favorable, do not over think it.  If you fully accept the risk and can walk away, take the trade.

You're in the frame of mind where you don't want to take a loss.  You're taking profits early and you're cutting trades that move against you before the predetermined number of ticks allowed.  Visualize relaxing and meditating and work out what is necessary for you to accept the loss.  Either wait until your psychology has changed, or reduce position size so that a loss is acceptable.  Do not change strategy to try and avoid a loss - that makes no sense as your strategies should already be optimal for the best risk/reward and you cannot make them better while you're feeling like this!  Understand the underlying reason why you are not accepting the risk, and talk it through with somebody if necessary.

Visualize a losing day.  Consider that losses do not impact a profitable week or month, and the aim is to think in terms of weeks or months rather than days.  Be happy that your weekly or monthly target is still on track and that your average daily loss is smaller than your average daily win, so one winning day will recover the loss and add additional profit.