In trading your belief system will determine whether you win or lose. Your trading method is really determined by your beliefs about the market and how it works. Choose your beliefs carefully.
Trading like you are in a cult: When you trade like a cult member you believe in your stock or your trade no matter what. You may have brain washed yourself or had a ‘guru’ convince you of a stock’s story and a price target that it will reach. This does not work, you must have a price level that you decide will be the proof you are wrong. Holding a cult like belief in your trade will cause you to eventually blow up your account. Look at Long Term Capital Management, Amaranth, and Victor Niederhoffer, they just didn’t know when to admit that they were wrong and they all went belly up.
Trading like a fundamentalist: A fundamentalist just like in religion believes that they have the truth and ignore all other evidence. A fundamentalist will believe that a company has a certain value regardless of what the market price is telling them. They believe a stock is “too expensive” or “too cheap” ignoring the facts about the current price and the technical reasons for what is priced in based on the future earnings expectations. Stocks do not trade based on fundamentals, the truth is that they trade based on the beliefs of investors and traders and whether they think they can make money in the future by buying the stock in the present.
Trading like an Agnostic: A trading agnostic believes it is impossible to know the future. They hold what they believe to be true loosely and are ready to switch their trade and opinion based on what is happening in the current market. The best traders hold no opinions about future prices they trade purely based on price action, back testing, charts, and support and resistance. They try to follow what the market is telling them not their own predictions.