Why 90%+ of Traders Lose and Are Not Profitable

Mental Mental Mental

 

1/8 (-$1,944)

 

December was $5k+ in profits and started the New Year week off great. Was up $1,550 for the week coming into Friday and gave it all back and more in one day for my first red week since I became consistent in September.

 

 

Absolute meltdown day. I have to get up and leave when a decent size mistake happens – I let 1 morning mistake turn into many many many. Wost part of the whole day, I didn’t take a $500 profits on $CLWD, because I wanted to gain everything back in one trade. Ended turning that trade into a $500+ loss because I got greedy and then added when I was down. 

 

 

My mindset throughout the whole day. Started from the previous day trade with $SFOR where I was going to hold a small position overnight – bought 10 minutes before the close at .0535 – ended up getting shaken out and wanted to play it safe – the stock ended up doing what I thought, it closed at about .057 and gapped up and opened at .064

 

Now Friday – it gapped up and morning spiked a little and then pulled back and I bought it thinking it was going to continue – it didn’t and I should have cut losses quick – and I just got greedy – I didn’t sell and then added on a loser and held for several hours – missing all the crazy crypto runners with bitcoin passin 40k

 

I ended up messing up a good setup because I was still in the $SFOR trade and not mentally there – lost $168 and then said screw it and sold $SFOR

So now im down like $450 – now all im thinking is making this money back in 1 trade

 

After selling $SFOR I should have left the house re group mentally and come back ready for power hour. I didn’t leave I just sat there and tried to find any stock I could to make the $450 back and this is where things drastically fell apart.

 

 

Got in $CBTC that was breaking out ( Actually was a great setup and great buy execution, but where things went wrong was I got greedy and didn’t take what the stock was giving me. I could have been out for a small win when I saw huge sellers and it wasn’t able to take out the day high) 

There was a huge buyer at $0.0099 with $6M shares showing, so I thought I was OK – well I placed my limit at .0099 (should have done it lower just in case) – I put my order in as the $.01 buyers were getting taken out, but those 6M shares ended up getting taken out before I got executed and this stock fell and then I added more shares and it fell more and had to cut it for a HUGE loss

Now I am down around $1,320

 

Worst part of the whole day, I didn’t take a $500 profit on $CLWD, because I wanted to gain everything back in one trade. Ended turning that trade into a $500+ loss because I got greedy and then added when I was down. **Not only did I not take the $500 win, which would have put me down from $1,320 to now down $820 on the day – I now took a $500 loss which put me down from $1,320 on the day to now down $1,820 on the day – A $1,000 difference**

I was not thinking clear - my thought was "I don't want to be down $820/ What's the difference between down $820 and $1,320" "I want to be down to $0 or Green on the day" 

 

 

Looking back at it – All my trades, but $CLWD were good setups that I always trade. The problem was all mental and being greedy and not taking what the market gave me. Also staying at the computer after being down $450 was a terrible decision – I was not there mentally to be trading and was not thinking clearly and it caused the day to absolutely blow up!

I always leave my house for a couple hours between 11:30 and 12:00 and I get back to my house a little before 2:00 to prepare myself for the last 2 hours of the trading day. 

So, the conclusion and why I think 90%+ of traders lose.

 

Letting small mistakes turn you into Emotional Trading/Got To Make Money Attitude which turns into huge Mental Disasters.  Also another thing to note, which is a huge negative thing I did, is I more than doubled my position size the rest of the day when I went down $450 to try and make that money back the next trade. 

 

My most comfortable position size right now is between $1,500 and $2,000 – Friday I was trading with around $4,500 position sizes. Not only was I in a mental state where I should not have been trading, I compounded the problem and made the situation worse by going bigger. 

 

I tell myself all the time to protect my Overall Profits. I got caught up In the moment and was worried about the -$450 and not looking at the big picture of how great my week had been and how great I ended 2020 and that I was still green.

 

The first week of the year I went from being up $1,550 in 4 days to being down almost $400 in 1 single day. Not because I am a bad trader, but because of me mentally melting down, getting greedy and having the wrong Mental Attitude!

 

Friday is done and gone.  I let my bad morning trade turn into a disaster day, now I can’t let my disaster day turn into a disaster month/blow me up and give all my profits back!

 

I have gone over all my trades for Friday! I have posted a sticky note next to me with my overall profits since I became consistent in September and have “Protect my Profits” next to it! 

 

 

One last thing I want to add and another big reason Why 90%+ of Traders Lose and Are Not Profitable

 

(This reason comes before what I just talked about.)

The reason is because new traders come in and want to make a ton of money as fast as possible and they blowup before they can even give themselves enough time to truly learn the process.

 

-           You have no idea what setup fits you the best

-           You don’t know how fast and how crazy these stocks move

-           You don’t know the crazy games market makers make to manipulate the stocks     (showing fake bids/fake asks on level ll)

 

Use small size that doesn’t matter during the initial learning process.

 

Starting out Don’t focus on making money – just focus on trying to learn everything you can. And there will be a lot of mistakes you will make starting out. 

 

Focus on your % gain. 

A 10% win on a $200 position is nothing, it is $20, but focus on the big picture! 10% is a great trade and know that 10% will be big money on a big position size down road when you learn the process and find your most consistent setups.

 

After you learn the process and find your best setups then you can size up and start making money and things will compound quickly.

 

Now you find your best setup and size up! You take that same exact trade you did for a 10% win previously on that $200 position size for a $20 win, but now it’s a

 

$10,000 position size and a $1,000 win!

$50,0000 position size and a $5,000 win!

Same exact pattern and trade, but the only difference was your position size!