Every trader dreams of the perfect exit — the cinematic moment where you sell at the top, the ticker blinks green, and you nod like it was all part of the plan.
But that fantasy is poison. Chasing the perfect exit is what keeps most traders trapped in loops of hesitation, hope, and hindsight.
That’s why I do something counterintuitive:
I exit too early — on purpose.
Leaving a little profit on the table is my tuition for sanity. It’s the fee I pay to stay in rhythm with the market — my own Volatango.
The second I stop trying to catch every last tick, I start trading like a human again.
Here’s what happens when you always hold out for “just a little more”:
You start anchoring to imaginary prices. You start checking your phone mid-conversation. You start losing flow.
When the chart reverses (and it always does), you don’t just lose profit — you lose composure.
So I flip the equation: I sell when I still feel slightly stupid.
That’s my signal that greed hasn’t taken the wheel yet.
It’s a system, not a mood.
I mark zones on the chart where the trade has achieved its goal — where the setup has paid off, where the move looks “done.” Then I take my win. I don’t look back.
Some trades run further. Some don’t. But across hundreds of trades, my emotional equity compounds faster than my financial one.
If you’re playing the long game, the metric that matters isn’t your maximum profit per trade — it’s your minimum regret per week.
So here’s the paradox: the less I aim for perfect timing, the better my timing gets.
I’m not trying to be right anymore. I’m trying to be consistent.
Because the trader who always sells too early might miss a few home runs —
but they’ll still be on the field when everyone else has struck out.
🔗 Trading Psychology & Emotional Regulation — Psychology Today
🔗 Behavioral Finance Basics — CFA Institute
🔗 Anchoring Bias in Markets — Investopedia
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