It is hard to be perfect. If you are perfect than you probably aren’t accomplishing much. Aiming for perfection in trading is exceptional risky.
Psychological Risk
One of the biggest problems new traders have is focusing on the wrong things. I did it, everyone does it. Being perfect is one of those things. Perfect is not a pre-requisite for making money. There is so much money to be made in between. .
Perfection and satisfaction are almost never in the same sentence. Your goal is to make money in an efficient way. It is not to make money on every trade. Satisfaction, for me, comes from following my trading plan/rules. With a good plan/rules the money will take care of its self. If my goal was to be perfect I would fail most of the time or I would accomplish nothing. Remember why you are trading.
Perfect also makes it harder to move on. The ability to move on quickly is key in trading. You must analyze what happened, why it worked or not, make necessary adjustments, and look for new opportunities. If you are worrying about perfect you are always going to be looking backwards. You get stuck in a transition stage. I think of these stages like quick sand, the longer I am in them the more I have to dig myself out. It is important to spend time in the transition stages but not so long it suffocates.
Monetary Risk
Attempting to be perfect will compound entry and exit risk. If you are always trying to buy the low or sell the high it is hard to act. You will sit on the sidelines and wait for the perfect entry. Months will go by, only making a few trades. Exiting at the best price often means having to risk open profit. The best traders get the most out of the trade, risking the least.
The time to think about the perfect entry is when you have eliminated risk. You have house money and it is ok to be risky with theirs. Getting in or out on the best tick for the day are trophies. They are nice to collect but no one wants to hear about it and they only value is sentimental. Nothing is older than the last trades success.
Be careful the way you define perfect.
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