Biggest trading mistake?

[Axiory]

Morning traders.

To any profitable traders out there - What was the number one mistake you all corrected to become a profitable trader?



Kind regards,

Axiory

 

[Trembling Hand]

Jumping into accounts provided by FX brokers thinking they had my best interests at hand.

When in fact they haven't by a long shot,

Excessive leverage,
BS about STP,
Spreads many times greater than the real market,
BS about TA,
Crap platforms,
Initial account funding way too small to trade just to get punters in,
Extremely non-transparent market transaction ie no T&S, no volume.
Did I mention excessive leverage.

 

[Axiory]

Would love to hear from anyone else who is willing to share their experiences.

 

[tech/a]

Trading before I knew how to trade.

One size doesn't fit all.---not adapting to market.

Luck will present you with un imaginable profit.
Experience and skill will keep you around for
Luck to have a chance of hitting you.----failure to manage risk

Profitable trading is simple.----- making things too complex.

There are NO SECRETS.----- spending too long finding this out.

 

[gav]

I started trading (gambling) with no plan and no knowledge of how to trade, taking advice from an older friend who was leveraged to the max and making a killing (through 2006-2007). I started early 2008 (great timing ). I didn't have much capital, and threw it all into one stock (based on my mate's tip) which went up 40% in less than 6 weeks. I thought I was a genius. It didn't take long for things to turn ugly, and I made every newbie mistake possible: holding onto losers, cutting winners short, adding to losers on the way down, etc.

However, I faired much better than my friend. He was an emotional roller coaster (really living the highs, as well as the lows). He received margin call after margin call and had to sell the house (right before he was about to upgrade to a large McMansion). Fortunately for him, he is a much better businessman than a trader, and his business has been booming so he has more than recouped his losses. He started trading again, still off fundamentals and "gut feel", but without the leverage.

As for me, I stopped gambling and did as much reading/research as I could for 2 years before I started trading again. I learnt a lot about myself in the process and am now trading profitably. In hindsight, I'm glad I started during the GFC instead of a bull market, otherwise I probably would have ended up like my friend.