work on not being wrong.....it is possible not be wrong....it is hard ...it may take time but decide that is what you WANT
it is a very good question!!! you are unique person here in ET...no one asks me a question, leave alone a good question: they have labelled me as a idiot jack ass. no matter. i fade breakouts from ranges....a range is where both buyers and sellers are active: so if sellers were selling in the range then as sure as night follows day, they will sell the break out....prices are higher and what do every seller want? higher prices. but no one is going to stand in front of a speeding bullet train...they will wait till the move /trend weakens.....i wait too sometimes i ride in the bullet train all breakouts fail....eventually that underlined word is important....print it and keep it on top of your trading terminal..... eventually everything fails it took me ten years of losses to figure this out....i read a book that did not explain it as clearly as i just did and i had to read between the lines and between the charts to see all this....and even when i saw it did not realise that it was a diamond in my hand, i did not trust what i had learned and it took a long time to put it into practice
Not that you need the money, but I want to pay your for this amazing post. I've been forming similar conclusions, but reading you state it so clearly has probably saved me a year of confirming this all for myself. THANK YOU.
There is only one reason to take a loss. Being on the wrong side of a trade and not getting a retracement to get out at break even. Which theoretically is 25% of the situations. Wrong side 0.5 AND No retrace to get out 0.5 Being under over leveraged is reason #1 IMHO Most trade too tight. How many are on the right side but shaken out ? How many could break even but decide to stay ? So we should get minimum break even at 75%. Now you got to keep loss manageable. That’s IMO the #2 cause of death. No matter how little the risk, No matter how much you profit, An unmanageable loss can blow you out. Reason #3 is not enough upside. If your losses are cut short and profits are tiny. Then you’re not profitable. If you get 25% loss at -1% If you get 25% break even at 0% If you get 50% profit at 1% You’re going to be profitable.
I agree with what @Sekiyo has said. Those three reasons are the most common ones to incur a loss. Traders most of the times fail to play well on these three points.
Don’t buy (sell) the top (bottom). Don’t try to get that one tick entry. Don’t try to bet more than optimal size. Don’t try to get away from a loss without SL. Don’t try to force the market to do what you want. Get a realistic plan and execute it. The more aggressive the plan, the greater the failure. Many fail because they are too agressive. Often constrained by time, money or IDK what.
There is an unlimited number of reasons why traders fail. In many cases because they jump in the something before they have all the facts, or just don't feel like doing the research. Other times it could be the market turns around for no reason. Then there's news it comes out that no one can foresee, I put on a trade in Chipotle the day before all those food poisoning issues came out, how could I see that coming? Another trader I know was into Apple when Steve Jobs announced his retirement, some things you just can't account for.
1. Trading on too short of time frame. 2. Hating to take a loss, results in BIG loss or after a couple of losses they switch trading plans. Again. Everyone has losers, that doesn't need to you being a failure. Focus on expectancy and not win rate. The former is the key and the latter is only for your ego. Think about THAT and decide if you can handle being a loser yet profitable. Sounds easy, it ain't for most.
True. Positive expectancy is what a trade is all about. It’s not about winning or losing it. A good trade can turn into a loss. A bad trade can turn into a profit. But over the long run, Bad trades will work against you.
the problem why traders why traders lose money is because they have decided which direction the market is going and when the market signals, it is changing the direction, they do not recognize the signal