Trading is much like seducing a girl. You can't be too needy, otherwise she will run for the exit pronto.
most traders do not wait for good set ups..... you need to recognize good opportunities..... i had that problem for years. wait for the obvious entries and do not overthink them. it is much easier nowadays to know technical analysis and most traders know it. but they do not understand it. knowledge is not understanding, and you need perfect understanding just to survive. if you survive then you thrive. it took me a long time to find out what the market does all the time. then you can make winning trades.it is not rocket science and most people are over qualified for trading. observation is better than analysis. analysis leads often to paralysis
the title of this thread is interesting...it asks why traders do not make money not why financial traders do not make money. trading anything profitably-from cars to lawn mowers etc is difficult bordering on impossible.
on a more advanced note my losses stopped once i stopped buying below bars and sell above bars..... i now buy above bull bars and sell below bear bars and scalp out. i do that for 12-15 hours a day on a five min .
if there is a strong trend, then trend lines and channel lines are critical for entries. watch out specially for break outs from one channel which then forms another channel higher or lower. draw the trend line first and then copy and paste this trend line and drag it to the other side to form the channel line. this will keep you updated about the trend and its strength. And allow to make informed trading decisions. see the chart below as an illustration of this powerful method. try it on demo/sim and know it.