The alert fired at 9:47am. Clean breakout, volume spike, everything aligned. I was in the kitchen making coffee. By the time I got back to my desk — 9:51am — price had already moved 2%. The setup was gone. But instead of letting it go, I bought anyway. Thirty seconds later I was down 1.5% and staring at a stop-loss that made no sense. That's chasing. And it cost me three winning trades' worth of profit in one stupid click.
Chasing happens when you prioritise being in the trade over being in it at the right price. You miss the entry. Price runs. Your brain screams 'it's getting away'. Fear of missing out floods your system. You convince yourself the move has further to go — which might be true — but you're no longer trading your edge. You're trading emotion. The original setup had a defined entry, stop, and target. What you just bought has none of those. You're now holding a position with no plan, hoping the market bails you out.
The shift happened when I started treating missed setups like data instead of failures. I built a simple rule: if I miss the entry by more than 0.5%, I log it and wait for the next one. No exceptions. That's it. The setup either comes back to me or it doesn't. If it runs without me, I review it later to see if my timing was off or if I need better alerts. But I don't chase. Ever.
The fix is mechanical, not motivational. You need a pre-defined 'entry miss' protocol before you ever see the setup. Write it down: 'If price moves X% past my entry level, I do not enter. I log the setup in my journal and move on.' Make X tight enough that it forces discipline but realistic enough that you'll actually follow it. Most traders I know use 0.3-0.7% depending on volatility. Then — and this is critical — you track your missed setups for 30 days. You'll realise most of them either reverse or chop sideways. The few that run without you? They weren't your edge anyway. Understanding FOMO in trading psychology helps explain why your brain pushes you to chase, while developing proper risk management protocols ensures you protect capital even when emotions spike. Implementing strict position sizing rules removes the temptation to over-leverage a late entry just to 'make up' for the missed opportunity.
Miss the trade. Save the capital. There's always another setup tomorrow.
This content is educational only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always seek licensed financial advice before trading.