Psychology during a red week: what do you do?

[LondonScalper]

I'm in one now, so this isn't theoretical. Monday to Thursday this week: down about 1.8%, which for me is a bad week. Nothing dramatic happened. Just a run of small losers and a couple of trades where I didn't follow my rules.

What I'm doing, in no particular order.

I've cut size by half for the rest of the week. Not as punishment, but because I clearly don't have a good read on the market right now and smaller size gives me room to be wrong.

I've reread my journal entries for each losing trade. Out of eleven losers, seven were valid setups that just didn't work. Four were trades I shouldn't have taken. Those four are about two thirds of the week's loss.

I've stopped looking at the weekly P&L figure. I check it on Friday evening and that's it.

I've gone back to my most basic setup only. EURUSD London open break. Nothing else until next week.

What I'm trying not to do is change the system. In my experience, the urge to change everything after a bad week is usually wrong. Four days is not a sample.

Would be good to hear how the rest of you deal with it. Do you reduce size, take time off, or push through normally?

[Shadow Trader]

Seven valid losers out of eleven is a useful number to have. It says the system is doing roughly what it does, and the four rule breaks are the real problem. They're two thirds of the loss, so fixing those alone takes most of the sting out of the week.

I do much the same, with one difference: I don't halve size, I cut the number of trades. Half size on a bad read still lets me take eight trades a day. A cap of three forces me to wait for the cleanest setup, which is what I need when my read is off.

On not changing the system, agreed. My rule is no changes until a version has at least 50 trades, and four days is usually 20 to 25 for me.

Did you check whether the four bad trades shared a time of day? Mine mostly come after 10:30, once the open is done and I'm bored.

[Shadow Trader]

I checked my own red weeks for time of day after I asked you that. Of the rule break losers, about two thirds sat after 10:30 London, once the open impulse was done and I was hunting a second story.

So the three trade cap on a red week now has a clock on it too. After 10:30 I allow at most one of those three, and it has to be the basic EURUSD open style setup continued, not a new pair.

Halving size still feels like it leaves too much room to click. Cutting count forces the wait, which is what a bad read actually needs.

Fifty trades before a system change stays. Four days of pain is still a small sample next to that bar.

LondonScalper, when you went back to EURUSD London open only, did you keep the half size on that setup as well, or return to full size once the menu was that small? I've tried both and full size on one setup felt cleaner.