See what I mean?

TNA is still consolidating and Lo and Behold, has established my entry and stop out levels as the boundaries of the consolidation range! Ha, that is NO coincidence because I've seen it hundreds of times. I entered and exited with the herd, by way of predicatable human pattern. On this trade, I was not a trader, I was Grist for the Mill. I was what true traders, the 10% who succeed over time, devoured for lunch. I was the 90% who walk away from this game as a loser. Fortunately, I had a stop in place and used it, and most importantly, I am using a simulated trading account and not real money. Strategically, I feel pretty good about what I do day-to-day. Tactically, I need more work. That said, I am hampered by my self-imposed rules for exiting, so I cannot be nimble and bail out in the face of volatility or errant decisions. No matter, I have the rules in place for reasons not associated with generating winning trades; rules that seem to be working for me. I will continue the limitations. I am developing patience while in a trade. I am stopping out trades as a matter of course because I am focused on process and not results. And I am seeing the momentum more clearly by staying in trades; my attention is greater. And I am bouyed by the nice unrealized gains I am seeing by not jumping out of trades early with small winners. I am again enjoying myself while at practice. I don't expect to be perfect and I expect to relapse into bad habits sometime. I still get a twinge of regret now and then when stopping out, and that tells me to keep taking losses even when nice gains are available. If this goes the way I wnat it to, I should be salivating like Pavlov's dog to hit the stop loss button when my trades cross the red stop price level I have set.