Here are ten mistakes traders make that are eventually their undoing. I have made almost all of these mistakes with zeroes on the end at times. It takes years to learn these lessons and they are usually learned only the hard way through the financial pain of losses and the mental pain of being wrong. Correcting these mistakes can go a long way to getting you on a profitable track.
- Taking trading losses personally. If you are following your signals and system the market determines if you win or lose. You can only control what you do not what the market does.
- Trading too big. If you have strong emotions that make it difficult to follow your trading plan you may be trading too big. Big trades can lead to big losses and big losses can result in being unprofitable.
- Trying to catch every move in a market. You can only trade your signals on your own timeframe. If you did not have a signal inside your own timeframe then their is no trade.
- Focusing on hindsight. Hindsight is a parasite that taps your resources of energy in the present moment. Hindsight is 20/20 but all you should have been doing in the past was following your own trading plan and signals.
- Spending too much time in front of the screen. Only watch price as much as is needed for your own trading time frame.
- Not doing your homework. Make a plan for what you will do when the market is open while the market is closed.
- Becoming biased based on recent price action. Trade based on long term historical data do not be biased to recent action.