The ONLY mistake I made is: 1. Trading Real Money Before Making Money in Simulator for +6 months first.
Most people are too dumb to understand that mistakes are part of the process. I hang out with traders who STILL get excited when they are right and upset when they are wrong. They also love to point out when others are right and others are wrong. This is dumb, dumb, dumb. I don't have enough money to move the markets. The big guys do. So, I just need to get a good piece of their move. Sometimes I misread what they are doing. That's OK.
Repeated mistakes are a pattern. Traders with strong pattern recognition can do well. If a pattern is a negative one (repeated behavior), it's important to dissect it, to tweak your own flawed decision process. Since only a few trades create the biggest losses, identifying and correcting that subtle flaw can result in positive long-term results. Other points... 1)-The biggest losses come from chasing (buying high), which creates holds that can fall forever. 2)-Failure to take profits (holding for more) also hurts. While not directly creating big losses, this habit contributes to the ability to offset any reds you've taken along the way. "You see green, take it. Find the next trade." 3)-Position size, using more than 20% of your capital on a single ticker (overexposure) 4)-Failure to exit a bad trade before it goes past a 10% loss makes a small loss a big one These are "starter points," there are many more, but number 1) is the biggie. Final point...how to grow your account... "You don't need every top or bottom, just consistently take a slice out of the middle , then get out." When you're out, your capital is safe. Happy trades!
You are correct. "Emotion is the only reason traders lose money." The market is fear-based, a useful tool against traders. Fear of loss, and greed is also fear, simply the fear of missing out, which results in chasing. All emotions, very well-observed. Happy trades!
Mistake in trading is a common problem, but need to handle with care, as retail trade which start with small capital, can't make the price moves, there are so many trading strategies developed to catch profit from the forex market. there are about five common mistakes faced by traders according to Gary Thomson. 5 common issues that traders often face 5 Common Issues that Traders often Face Understand in Details and Get the Answers from the Experienced Forex Traders and FXOpen Forum Members.
Random betting which doesn't involve emotions will also cause loss albeit at slower pace if stop loss is used because your guesses will be correct approx 50% of times and spread will do its job to drive expected return below 0
The problem with stops is that they don't have to be filled, able to essentially be "skipped" by MMs, which most traders don't know, completely legal, but in the meantime you "show you hand" to the MMs, who then intentionally use that intel to knock you out, and flip your shares to a gain. The skipping of stop losses and profit takes happens every single day at the open. Happy trades!