I’m tired of talking myself into trades that clearly weren’t ready.

[eneria12]

Lately I've been going back and forth between thinking about upgrading my old kitchen and staring at my charts, and honestly the charts feel harder. I’ve been trying to get better at spotting reliable double tops and bottoms in real time, but half the time I feel like I’m convincing myself the pattern is there when price is actually just wobbling. Has anyone figured out a consistent way to filter out the fake setups before committing? I’m tired of talking myself into trades that clearly weren’t ready.

 

[Lamark1991]

Funny enough, I went through a very similar phase — except I actually did redo my kitchen first because it was easier than figuring out which double tops were real. What helped me later was slowing down and forcing myself to wait for proper confirmation instead of assuming I could “feel” the reversal coming. When you look at examples in https://forextester.com/blog/momentum-trading-strategies/ you’ll notice that the clean structures almost always have some form of retest or hesitation around the neckline. In live trading, I try to mimic that by watching how price behaves right after forming the second peak. If momentum suddenly dies or you see a sharp rejection wick, that’s usually a stronger hint. I also record these moments with screenshots, because reviewing them later made me realize I kept jumping in too early. The pattern works, but only when it’s actually complete — not when we’re impatient.

 

[eneria12]

I’ll add that double bottoms especially tend to look messy before they play out, so it’s normal to second-guess yourself. I usually wait to see whether the “middle zone” between the lows acts as support afterward. If it fails instantly, I just walk away. Keeps me from forcing trades on patterns that weren’t really there to begin with.