22 Bad Trading Habits

22 Bad Trading Habits

Here are the best answers from my Facebook trading group when I posted the following question:

What is one of your bad trading habits that causes you to lose money?

  1. Underestimating the possibility of volatility expansion at times and taking too big a position size.
  2. Overly optimistic that the market will trend well… only to reverse.
  3. Averaging in on losing positions.
  4. Not studying more.
  5. Not following the trend and trying to predict the top or bottom.
  6. Following other’s trades.
  7. Deviating from positive expectancy models.
  8. “Fighting” back instead of taking the loss/killing a bad trade (bad trade = against the plan)…
  9. Trading too large for my account size.
  10. Overtrading.
  11. Starting the day “looking” for something to trade like a trading addict.
  12. Wishful thinking for big profits.
  13. Taking trades that aren’t “my” trades.
  14. Focusing on returns instead of risk-adjusted returns.
  15. Closing trades too soon.
  16. Not being consistent in daily activity but being inconsistent is not something I do consistently.
  17. Going all in.
  18. Probably tweaking my strategy too much during drawdowns.
  19. Moving my stop up too quickly.
  20. Not being patient.
  21. Feeling like I have to do something.
  22. All of the above.