Lesson Learned: Not Sticking to the Plan on $EURUSD

Been trading forex for a while now, and you'd think some lessons would stick, right? Well, not always. A couple of months ago, I had a decent short setup on $EURUSD. My analysis pointed to a clear resistance level holding, with some strong bearish divergence on the daily. I planned to enter at a specific retest, with my stop just above the wick that formed the divergence.

Everything started according to plan, the entry was good, price action initially respected my thesis. Then, about an hour after entry, price pushed back up towards my stop. It didn't quite hit it, but it got close enough to trigger that annoying little voice in my head. Instead of trusting my initial analysis and the predefined stop, I moved it a few pips higher, thinking it was just noise and it would turn around. Big mistake. It pierced right through my original stop and my new, wider stop a few minutes later, taking me out for a much larger loss than I had originally risked. The market did eventually turn around later that day, but I was already out. The biggest takeaway for me was realizing how easily doubt can creep in and derail a perfectly good plan, costing you more than just pips.