I used to think/act that averaging down is something poisonous. There reality is, being able to do that in a methodological way, and some pre-planning. If averaging down is done in a way with a lot of gambling, it is bad. But otherwise, it is how money are made, once you do not fight the big trend. I averaged up the short position on CL today, not at a good price but I am assuming two things, first, the highest next big milestone is 80, second, it will not get to 80 in three days, there should be stages, and retesting some supports along the way up. The two positions right now have an average price of 72.90. What I will do is not keep waiting till it reach that point to exit both. I will exit my second position with some profit (i.e., some significant pull back), then add another short when it shoot up again make new highs or resistance. Keep doing that until there is a turn of the uptrend to down. Let's see what will happen.
Newcomers typically learn it only when the bull market turns to a nasty bear market, particularly when trading on leverage! If no leverage, newcomers could become long term investors.