Here is why trading is so difficult:
- You can back test a system as much as you want but when you start trading it the profitability will be determined by the market conditions not past price history. What looks great on paper can lose on a lot of consecutive trades right at the start.
- Your stop can be hit and then the market go in the direction you were positioned for.
- Sometimes that pullback that you are waiting for to buy never comes until the trend is over.
- Sometimes every momentum signal you buy will be a loser for a long time.
- Many times the market whipsaws you in a position for absolutely no reason you can understand.
- Sometimes your biggest position sizes are losing trades and your smallest position sizes are the winners.
- There is no ‘market’ you are trading against a herd of people all making decisions for many different reasons, and they are not predictable.
- You can feel foolish under performing buy and holders during straight up bull markets when you’re trading in and out.
- Some trading lessons can’t be learned they have to be experienced with real money.
- Money is made and kept based on the math of probabilities, risk, and reward not because a trader is the smartest but because they are the most flexible and adaptable.