- Refusing to define a loss.
- Not liquidating a losing trade, even after you have acknowledged the trade’s potential is greatly diminished.
- Getting locked into a specific opinion or belief about market direction. From a psychological perspective this is equivalent to trying to control the market with your expectation of what it will do: “I’m right, the market is wrong.” [private]
- Focusing on price and the monetary value of a trade, instead of the potential for the market to move based on its behavior and structure.
- Revenge-trading as if you were trying get back at the market for what it took away from you.
- Not reversing your position even when you clearly sense a change in market direction.
- Not following the rules of the trading system.
- Planning for a move or feeling one building, but then finding yourself immobilized to hit the bid or offer, and therefore denying yourself the opportunity to profit.
- Not acting on your instincts or intuition.
- Establishing a consistent pattern of trading success over a period of time, and then giving your winnings back to the market in one or two trades and starting the cycle over again.[/private]