1. You find yourself forgetting your rules. Which during day trading is the last thing you want to happen since your profit margins are often based on smaller movements.
2. When reviewing your pre-market plays, every stock looks like a winner.
3. Shortly after opening your position you see a price target that is much higher but you have no justification for the target.
4. Trading feels stressful all of the time. From the minute you get up in the morning, until you close your last position. Instead of approaching trading with a calm head, you have a constant feeling of fighting and living on the edge.
5. You stop reviewing your trades. If someone were to ask your win/loss percentage over the last week you would have no idea; however, you would know how much money you need to make for the week.
6. You abandon limit orders and start placing more and more trades at market. Most of the times this will occur when you are trying to get into the position, because you can’t stand the idea of not being in on the winning trade.
7. You start to over trade. If you normally put on 3 trades per day, you will now find yourself placing 6 or more trades per day. This sort of behavior will run its course as the increase in trading activity while abandoning your day trading rules always points to losing money. (more…)