"I often hear people say what you said, "...until it does not work anymore". If it stopped working it could not have been based on the basics of price movement, could it?" I think this is completely wrong, and to be honest it's going to interfere with your ability to adapt to markets and make money in any environment. Of course things go through periods where they work exceptionally well, and then sometimes stop working, that's trading. It doesn't have to bankrupt you before you realize it's not working anymore. If you understand what's going on, you should be able to realize it's diminishing effectiveness well before you start losing money at it. I've cycled through many trading systems over the years, yet not a single one of the "retired" strategies ever had less than 7% annualized returns, and never had a losing year. There doesn't have to be money lost in order to abandon a strategy. But they become retired when they no longer work to the efficiency levels I'm targeting. At that point you move to something else that has a higher probability of working, rinse repeat...
I guess that as important is knowing why you lose as why you win. If you don't track your trades, successful and non successful, then there is no room for improvement. Building the right strategy and adjusting it to your results is essential for making earnings.
Just my guess: Knowing all that why you lose and never doing any of them may not change you to a profitable trader! However, knowing and doing all that why you win, even without knowing all that why you lose could probably still help you becoming a profitable trader.
YEAH, I don't like to lose, DUH. How many times we see posts by some trader who has 3 grand burning in his/her pocket and just opened a trading account, hell they have no clue of trend, how much to risk or even know name of a stock symbol. It is called Waiting people, wait till you know what it has done in past, Wait till you know all the patterns a trade should not be placed, Wait if market has gone to far too fast, Wait so long to change target to breakeven. I work hard at being in the market least amount of time even if is four years but shows no reason to get out. Many overstay their welcome, instead of taking a loss, they expand stops.