PLAN for FAIL

When we are backtesting our strategies we usually do one common mistake: we focus too much on the structure and dynamics of profitable trades rather than on the loosing trades. On paper most of it looks great, but when the real money are in play we suddenly have only positive expectations because our focus was forwarded mainly towards the profitable trades. We want trades to be filled and get to the TARGET instantly. We scream COME OOON, get there – just 50,30,20,10 or 5 pips and we are there. We want our trades to be perfect but they barely are. We focus too much on the entries rather than on in-trade structure. If you just trade MICRO account you do not care! But when there is hundreds and thousands on the table you are suddenly unprepared. You suddenly do not know the structure and progress towards your target. You are focused too much on perfecting the entries that you simply might not know how to handle this situation.

When speaking to less experienced traders I usually recommend this:

1.  Every week backtest 20trades of your strategy but focus only on those trades which struggled to get to your target. It doesn't matter. It can be a loser, winner or BE. Focus on what and where trade did and write down the story. Like a fairytale. The more of these stories you put together the better prepared you gonna be when the trade would not agree with you how fast it should reach its target(your opinion is clear = immediately).
2. Now I am going to repeat myself but visualize these fairytale's. Train your muscle of imagination and prepare yourself for any ride market gets for you. The more you write fairytale's, visualize and trade the more you will get yourself prepared.
3. If you are really down to your nails every time there is a small retracement against you use some "oldschool" GREEN/RED indicator. This usually works much better for beginners. For example Smooth Heiken Ashi would do the job. Simply hold in the trade until the color changes depending on the direction(do not use it for ENTRIES nor for EXITS, just move SL to BE when the indicator changes the color). Try to use higher timeframe so you clear the noise. For example if you are trading on M5's primarily watch M15 for guidance.

Every time you get into trade imagine the worst scenario. As long as the trade is not like this scenario, you are experiencing an absolutely regular trade and there is no need for you to hit the "get me out" button ;-).