Your example made me think of a Venn diagram -- not to get too philosophical or anything...but alot of things in life revolve around the concept of pairs or two ...they optimally complement, and need, one another for exponential benefits;
However way you'd like to justify your success, mostly its just survivorship bias following a pareto distribution where a few % of traders make the most money due to skill, experience, luck or both. Its basically the same case for any competitive activity with a large number of competitors. (Dating comes to mind...)
Hello, I have loss money in trading because: 1) I did not believe in or have a proven trading strategy. 2) I did not know how to believe in proven trading strategy. 3) I did (and still don't) how to find a proven trading strategy. 4) I did not trader in paper money until those 3 things was accomplished. I think those are the 3 reasons new traders fail.
Many speak of obvious reasons but am often reminded of Kevin Bacon's line in "Animal House-as he is being swatted "Sir, may I have another", you actually need to have little or great deal of sadomasochism within you, you are going to lose money. I believe growing up in a country where we just expect to do well with anything we put our minds into, we often believe the "gods" will think us special and playing a few times, we develop unrealistic beliefs this will be easy like playing Pacman. One who enjoys the process of "work" to overcome what you lack in knowledge, not going to be a weekend or a month or a year but years to decade or more is possible. As child like of "Stunt cars" video, you try making these stunts take a great deal of effort in making them work. You have to be able to take defeat and see it as an "opportunity" of trying again different ways. You learn in pieces. Don't know how many thousands of times of saying same thing "well backtested method", look at your method as your 12 month baby boy, are you smart enough to save his life before he falls into swimming pool? You spend hundreds or thousands of hours to make well back tested method and yet you sabotage your rules more often than trade as designed. You have to be smart enough to believe in the process and dumb enough to overcome personal feelings. So unrealistic beliefs, lack of perseverance, lack of well back tested method and finally being too smart enough to trade it. That's why people lose.
What about dealing with a random environment combined with asymetrical information and being negative sum? Not to mention we ( retail) can't even see what the competition see. Talk about a rigged game that takes extreme skills to beat---
Question: where do you spend most time? Making system that makes most money or making system that offers least risk? Most beginning aim for the first and as you age you concentrate on ladder. One you have no control and other have limited control. More "filters" (rules/patterns) to the left of now to stop you from taking trades is a key to success. Think of yourself of being in the 1950s and you have to make a satellite to circle around Mars, there are going to be thousands of ideas and flaws in getting rocket/satellite to get to Mars. Until it is circling that planet which is the profit, everything of building method will deal with risk. One way to enter and twenty reasons of why not to enter.
And another long post with endless amounts of comments summerized to. Lack of perfection Lack of knowledge the markets are idiotically slow Lack of capital And why does it take years to master, because you have to throw away everything you were ever taught about being a good "employee/citizen/family" and start again from zero, which has nothing to do with trading. Trading is simple, the complexity is in your filters to eliminate the noise everyone else produces.
If again i could give advice to myself I would say Love your failures, Embrace them, Accept them. There is no other way,but don't quit in your pursuit.