35 Top Destroyers of Trading Capital

35 Top Destroyers of Trading Capital

When I asked my Facebook trading group what was the cause of their biggest trading losses, no one had any trouble remembering those painful and valuable lessons. These top 30 insightful answers will benefit new traders and provide a nice reminder for those with more experience.

“What was the cause of the biggest draw downs in your trading accounts?”

  1. Having no exit strategy
  2. Being certain of your opinion on the direction of an asset
  3. Arrogance that you know how the trade will turn out
  4. Thinking that you are invincible
  5. Over-trading
  6. Believing that the market must go down based on a guru’s prediction
  7. Letting a guru convince you that you shouldn’t place a hard stop, but to wait for a reversal
  8. Incorrect position sizing
  9. Greed that causes you to trade too big and risk too much
  10. Margin
  11. No Hedges
  12. Not understanding that a Bull Market has ended
  13. Poor risk management
  14. Not knowing that earnings were about to come out on your stock
  15. Your ego takes over your trade
  16. You decide not to take your initial stop loss
  17. Believing a losing trade just has to reverse
  18. Buying a stock because it is a ‘value’ that drops another 50% from your entry
  19. Trading without a positive expectancy model
  20. Trading options without understanding how to place stops or use proper position sizing
  21. Thinking it “Has To Come Back”
  22. Buying and hoping
  23. Trading with no plan
  24. Not having trading rules for your system
  25. Not following your trading rules
  26. Averaging down
  27. Trading without an edge
  28. Keying error on the trade
  29. Not placing a stop
  30. Trying to out-guess the market
  31. Trading illiquid options
  32. Fighting the trend in your time frame
  33. Not fighting the natural impulses of greed and fear
  34. Using emotions for trading signals
  35. Using greed for position sizing

Thanks to all the members of the trading group that shared their wisdom!

These 35 things can cost a trader a lot of money. If you are able to avoid these errors, you will find yourself on the right side of your trades, with the money of less educated traders filling your account. Trade well.