Mistakes I make as a trader..

[john_1]

I will be twice as profitable if..after every winning trade I leave my office for 15 minutes...preventing me from going back into the market....Second..when I have an instict to trade wait 5 minutes for the market to catch on to what is going on..ie wait for a little comformation.

[#2]

Allowing emotions to cloud my judgement (Fear, Hope). Translating to not allowing small loss and hence taking bigger losses, and taking profit too soon in fear of loosing them. If i could remove emotions from my trades i will be on my way.

[#3]

that is the glory and downfall of traders no one else to blame but ourselves

[#4]

... I get an inch when I haven't made a trade in longer than 48 hours :/ I feel like I'm missing out - then I just force them...

[venice]

You're completely right. I have a friend who is a trader that makes an absolute fortune. He trades with a partner (trading room concept) and they check each other, so his trading partner will tell him to go home when he is having a bad day or after a huge gain to the point of locking him out the office if he won't see reason. Because we are all human with emotions that cloud our judgement and ruin us as traders.

[trigger]

aaahhh, yes, me too - you think one could win masively in the market if you traded for someone else and there was absolutely nothing in it for yourself? not a practical question is it?

[JDT]

I can associate with your Second point John... I frequently jump in to a trade too early.

[#8]

Yip , just had the same on the FTSE

[Surf_Rat]

Well not sure but at 21000 on all share I told myself I am out and put alot in cash and wait still think we are seeing a bear rally so basically believe there is a lot of time to get in again even if we rally up I am not sure how much more money we can make the world is still getting hammered

[DR_1]

I have a few rules, that when I violate them I loose big time, but has not prevented me from messing with them : When my system and gut tells me its time to sell, I sometimes do not in anticpiation of it going a little higher Greed...10-15% per trade is good enough, wanting more has cost more money, classic example on MTN, when itwent up, I enterd a short trade, was R25K up, then thought i could get some more, Greed cost me R60K, as I closed out R40K loss... Dont listen to others, trust your system, if it works for you

[venice]

I think this is a very constructive post. You only learn when you lose money so its great when traders are prepared to talk about their mistakes and save you money. I am embarassed to say I have almost blown a futures account in the last few days because I listened to advice. The source of my advice has made tens of millions out of the derivatives market so a more credable source you can't have, yea right. What's worse is everything I did went against my rules of trade, size of my position, holding overnight ect. Its been years since I have made this particular mistake. The lesson is rules and disipline keep traders in the game. Without rules and a game plan any money you make is luck which will eventually be bad and the rest is a blown account.

[#12]

John mentions waiting for confirmation when trading. I, like most, trade a system with very clear entry and exit points. This is to avoid any interpretation or guess work but every once in a blue moon I find myself being smarter than my system, i.e. I try to get in or out because "it's just SO obvious what will happen next", MISTAKE - this almost never works, and this is probably my worst flaw as a trader, to avoid scratching that itch... only until it's time to start scratching off course :)