The Real Reason Traders Chase Price
Price chasing isn’t impatience. It’s regret trying to catch up with a moment that already passed.
Price chasing feels impulsive when it’s happening.
But it doesn’t feel reckless.
It doesn’t feel like a mistake.
It feels urgent.
The move starts without you.
Price accelerates.
And suddenly the distance between where you are and where price is feels uncomfortably wide.
You’re no longer watching a chart.
You’re watching something get away.
Most traders don’t label this as chasing.
They tell themselves they’re being decisive.
That they’re adapting to new information.
That the market has changed and they need to respond.
On the inside, that story makes sense.
Because the discomfort isn’t really about the entry.
It’s about the feeling of missing something important and being left behind.
What actually drives price chasing isn’t impatience.
It’s regret.
Regret about not acting earlier.
Regret about hesitating when things looked clear.
Regret about watching a move unfold without you in it.
Price chasing isn’t impatience.
It’s regret in motion.
At that point, the entry stops being about opportunity.
It becomes an attempt to repair a moment that already passed.
Notice what usually happens just before the chase.
There’s a quiet internal narrative running in the background.
I should have taken it.
I knew this was setting up.
I can’t miss this again.
That narrative creates pressure.
And pressure narrows focus.
When that happens, the decision no longer feels optional.
It feels necessary.
The trade isn’t chosen.
It’s reacted to.
And that’s why price chasing feels so compelling.
By the time you chase, the decision was already emotional.
That emotion didn’t come from the market.
It came from the unresolved moment before it — the moment where hesitation turned into regret.
The market simply kept moving.
So chasing price isn’t really about speed.
It’s about trying to erase regret by acting late.
And recognising that can be more useful than trying to control the behaviour itself.
MJC Training Ltd