Personal reasons not to trade

1. Do not trade while drunk. You need a clear head while you are trading. You would not fight an opponent while drunk. In fact, you might think you were fighting 2 opponents if you did!! Drinking can affect your state of mind in so many ways and can make you make simple mistakes while trading. Many of these mistakes would not be made if you were sober.
2. Get rid of all distractions. You need to be able to concentrate on the charts and not get caught up with other things going on. For instance you might be waiting for a trade and then you get distracted and when you come back to your chart you have missed the trade or you buy instead of selling etc. Distractions can be costly. However, life is full of distractions so put the cat in the hall and shut the door. Put the baby in the playpen where you can see/hear her but at least you won't have to worry that she has wandered off again... Whatever your potential distractions are, deal with them before you start to trade.
   
3. Emotional times. If something emotional has happened, and you can't be subjective, then do not trade! This could be any number of things that had a negative impact on your day. It could be that you broke up with your partner to a death in the family etc... You need to be able to assess what's happening in a very short period of time, and if you are mentally elsewhere then this can have a negative impact on your trading account...

The personal times that you shouldn't trade can really be summed up as times when you are out of synch with your normal body rhythm. These are times where your emotions or environment can negatively affect the way you trade, and can seriously hamper the likelihood of a successful trade. The good news is these tend to be things that you can control or have some degree of control over. The market reasons for not taking a trade are a bit different. These tend to be external where you have very little or no control over them. These can really kick you in the butt and leave you limping for a while. Ignore these at your Peril!!