Frustration

Hanging out at MyPivots.com these days...
Read Full Post.....

For the second day in a row, I made the right call on the direction of the markets, but was unable to capitalize.
On Thursday, I called for a probe of 1105-1106 prior to the gap fill attempt (ie. drop down to 1097). The market action transpired exactly as I had expected: Rally to 1105.25, then dropped down to 1097.25 (before it retraced and then dropped further down to 1091).
Unfortunately, I went short 1101.75, and exited too early at 1099.75

On Friday, on the break of 1079-1078, I called for a drop down to 1070. However, I was unable (or maybe I was too scared?) to find an appropriate low risk entry point to ride the drop down.

If these were one-off problems, I would not be so self-critical. But I have noticed that they are starting to become a common pattern now. Both of these missed opportunities can be traced to the same problem of a fear of losing money. But is there a deeper root cause? Am I not confident enough in my ability to perform? These are questions that I will contemplate as I reread Mark Douglas's "Trading In the Zone" and Dr. Brett's "Enhancing Trader Performance" in search of an answer that makes sense.