When you dive into the world of trading you are likely to stumble access some strategies from other traders that they are willing to share. There are a bunch of common type strategies that you will find yourself expanding on and tweaking to make them your own. For the first part of your career you will fine tune and tweak and adjust.

After you build some confidence and "time in the seat" you will start to trade based on what you think will happen because you "have seen this before", and somehow you now know better than the market. It's not an ego thing at all. It's that gut feeling that you can't stop.

Imagine you are a breakout trader. Your rules say that when you find a breakout you will calculate your risk, load up the shares you are to buy and go for it! Next stop, your profit target. Trades that don't work hit their stop loss and you move on. You accept that there are some trades that will not work out. But then you come across a breakout that is just like you plan for but maybe the market is down on that day so you choose to pass on it or short it instead. This is the habit you MUST break.

When you skip a trade or go with your gut rather than you plan you are not trading in a way that is measurable. The art of trading all boils down to numbers and stats. If you trade on gut then you will never be able to tell if your gut was correct long term. (hint: it's probably not).

Not only that, but if your gut proves to be wrong once or twice the mental effect could cost you time and profits lost. Focus on your plan and trade what you can track and measure.