The Day Sticking to the Plan Felt Stupid (And Paid Me Anyway)

Some days the plan looks wrong in real time. Price is going the other way, the noise is loud, and every part of your brain is telling you the price action this morning is garbage.

Yesterday was one of those. Usually when "price action is garbabe" it just means that the market is uncertain and in a range. I love ranges. I love uncertainty. Your entire expectation is uncertainty.

The urge to "adjust."

This is where most people lose. Not on the trade — on the "adjustment." You start telling yourself the market could break out. That the market has "changed character." Maybe you should chase this thing up here because it's clearly going higher.

I've done it. It never works. Every time I've abandoned the understanding of what the market is currently doing, price reminds me with sellers above or buyers below.

So, wait.

Don't chase. Don't necessarily fade the rip just because it's a range and that's probably the smart thing to do. Watch the whole move happen without you, feel like a moron, and stay alive. Take a moment to learn something.

Price will roll over and more than likely look just like it did when you were considering either joining the market or fading it, and since you hopefully chose to wait it out, you're not left with the same decision and arguably more information. But that information, honestly, isn't any different from the first time. The market either trends, ranges, or reverses (trends).

The lesson isn't "be patient."

Everyone says be patient. That's not necessarily the lesson. The lesson is: your plan is worth more than your feelings about the market. The whole reason you make the plan is that that version of you is smarter than the mid-session, watching-price-rip, FOMO version of you. And also because that plan has backtested, solid, probable data working for you and not against you literally every single trade.

Some days, sticking to the plan feels stupid. That's the tax you pay for the days it works. But it should work more often than it doesn't. That's true trading.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trade at your own risk.