Patience

Outside of trading, I exhibit a lot of patience, and am generally very calm.  So why is it that when it comes to trading, that I can veer so far from my typical self?  This morning, ahead of the consumer confidence number, I was fully aware that the ES and NQ (as per my last post) had just formed 2 dojis on their daily charts.  I knew that the equity markets were about to turn bearish, but yet entered long positions in the EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY based on what appeared to be breakouts on their 5min charts.  Although the triggers of my low probability trades are fairly obvious (i.e. greed and lack of patience/discipline), avoiding such trades is another story.  After being stopped out of my longs, I was reminded of the folly of relying on stop losses in fast markets.  My stops were set tightly, at roughly 15 pips on each position, only to result in fills roughly 30 pips away.  As soon as the market began moving against me (on the release of the consumer confidence number), I should've went short the EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY knowing full well that the intraweek call that I had made for these markets to reverse lower was unfolding.  Had I went short after being stopped on my longs, I would've more than made up for the losses incurred this morning.  The shock of those initial losses though left me little mood or ability to further trade on the day.  I will take a few days off and will stick to writing market commentary to regain a sense of calm and control.