There are really only 2 ways to look at the market.
One is: “This is how much I want to make, and this is how much I want to risk, because my guru told me to always use a 3:1 ratio.” So give me 600 ticks/pips, because my stop loss is 200 ticks/pips.
The other way is: “I do not know how many ticks/pips I can get on this trade, but how many ticks/pips are you willing to give me, Ms. Market? When I know that, I will decide if this is a good enough trade to take.”
Does the market care about your demands?
Unfortunately, the market does not really care about what we feel, or how much we want to make on the next trade. The market will do whatever it damn well pleases, and those who insist on putting it into a box, usually finally learn that the market is a capricious mistress, out to take their money, and that it usually does so.
In another place and time, I used to do the former, and lost an arm and a leg. Ms. Market sure as hell took me to the cleaners then: after all, she is a capricious mistress. I once was a losing trader, and I do not hide that information. Now I do the latter, with results that are much more to my liking.
Do you intend to reconsider your approach?
Nobody has a birth certificate that says “Trader” on it. If you want to be a consistently successful trader, you obviously have to learn a good deal about the markets, and even possibly, about trading tools.
Mostly, however, you will find that you are going to have to learn a great deal about yourself! Trading takes no prisoners: it just obliterates those who do not treat trading with respect.
The NFA statistics say that more than 90% of retail trading accounts are closed within a year of being opened, because the traders who opened them have lost most, if not all, of the money in the account. That is a sobering statistic that apparently has been a fairly steady number for a long while. What this statistic tells us, is that people beginning to trade are either not hearing that statistic, or they do not believe that it applies to them. Obviously, it applies to all of us. If you do not find a way to control your losses, they will eat you alive!
How do you speak to the market? Let me know in the comments below.