Making the leap into trading can be exhilarating and terrifying all at once. With the potential for life-changing profits comes the very real risk of crippling losses. While experience is the best teacher, starting off on the right foot by avoiding some common pitfalls can save you a mountain of money and misery. Here are the top 10 mistakes frequently made by rookie traders – and how to steer clear of them. Text author: Yurovsky Kirill.
1. Trading Without a Plan
Trading without a concrete plan is akin to setting sail without a map or destination. You may get lucky for a while, but sooner or later you’ll run aground. An effective trading plan covers everything from risk management to entry/exit strategies to position sizing. It’s your guiding light for navigating the choppy markets.
How to avoid: Take the time to develop a written trading plan that specifies your approach, including methodology for selecting trades, money management rules, profit targets, maximum drawdown limits, and defined risk/reward parameters. Refer to your plan constantly and refine it as you gain experience.
2. Over-Trading
A common pitfall is jumping on every perceived opportunity, constantly churning your portfolio. Not only does this rack up trading costs and tax liabilities, but it often stems from impulsiveness rather than objectivity. Over-trading saps focus and increases the likelihood of deviating from your system.
How to avoid: Have preset filters and stick to them ruthlessly. If a trade doesn’t fit your criteria, let it pass no matter how enticing it may appear. Discipline yourself to take only high-quality, high-conviction trades that align with your strategy.
3. Insufficient Risk Management
Failing to implement proper risk management is the route to ruin for many traders. Risking too much capital on a single trade can erase your account with one wrong move. And not employing stop losses leaves you vulnerable to catastrophic losses on unprofitable positions.
How to avoid: One of the cardinal rules of trading is never risking more than you can afford to lose on a single trade – a good rule of thumb is no more than 1-2% of your capital. Always use protective stop losses, and size positions accordingly based on your risk tolerance, account size and trading objectives.
4. Trading Too Big
Just as not managing risk can be devastating, so too can trading position sizes that are too large relative to your account balance. Taking over-sized positions amplifies losses and may trigger emotional decision making in the heat of the moment.
How to avoid: Determine an appropriate level of capital exposure for each trade based on your risk parameters and stick to it religiously. Don’t let the lure of bigger profits tempt you into risking more than you’re willing to lose. Gradual compounding is safer than go-for-broke sized trades.
5. Fighting the Trend
Attempting to pick tops and bottoms by trading against the prevailing trend is a surefire way to get taken to the woodshed. Strong trends can persist for long periods, punishing those who fade the momentum. As the old Wall Street adage says, “The trend is your friend (until it ends).”
How to avoid: Slant your strategies to align with prevailing trends, not against them. If prices are clearly trending up, look for buying opportunities – and vice versa for downtrends. Trade with the momentum rather than trying to catch turning points, which are extremely difficult to time.
6. Overcomplicating Things
The financial markets are complex, but consistently profitable trading doesn’t require mastering every nuanced strategy under the sun. Many novices make the mistake of over-engineering their methodology, adding too many indicators, filters and conditions until their approach is unwieldy.
How to avoid: Start simple. Stick to trading strategies and ideas that make intuitive sense to you. Use technical and fundamental tools judiciously. Remember – more complex isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes the most elegant solutions are the most basic.
7. Letting Losers Run
Humans are psychologically wired to feel the pain of losing much more intensely than the satisfaction of winning. That causes many traders to instinctively hold onto losing positions too long and rationalize why they shouldn’t sell.
How to avoid: Implementing a disciplined exit strategy with predetermined stop loss levels on every trade removes the emotional angst of taking losses. Treat every exit signal generated by your system as automatic – no second-guessing allowed. Cut losses early before they become debilitating.
8. Switching Strategies Constantly
A common mistake among beginners is obsessively jumping from one trading methodology to the next, abandoning their approach at the first sign of a losing streak. Constantly reinventing the wheel makes it impossible to master any single strategy.
How to avoid: Commit to a trading strategy that suits your personality, risk tolerance and objectives. Then work diligently at optimizing and refining it. Give your approach a legitimate chance to work through multiple market cycles before passing judgement. Switching systems obsessively is a recipe for failure.
9. Not Tracking Performance
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Without tracking performance comprehensively, including win rate, profit factor, max drawdown and other key metrics, a trader is trading blindly with no ability to assess and improve.
How to avoid: Track and log every trade exhaustively, recording relevant details on entry/exit levels, reasons for the trade, strategic filters used, and most importantly, profit or loss. Review metrics consistently to understand what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve.
10. Failing to Manage Trader Psychology
Perhaps the greatest challenge for any trader is mastering the mental game. Bad habits like revenge trading, decision paralysis, and unrealistic expectations often derail trading careers before they begin. The markets can be emotionally brutal.
How to avoid: Continuously work on developing discipline and emotional control. Journal your trades diligently to understand your psychological triggers. Embrace trading as a growth process where success may come slowly and inconsistently. And remember – protecting capital is as important as growing it. Master the mind and you have the edge.
The road to trading success is paved with costly tuition for novices failing to avoid these all-too-common pitfalls. Take them seriously and make a committed effort to steer clear of these mistakes right from the start. It’s said that trading is one of the toughest ways to make easy money – avoiding the classic errors gives you a fighting chance of being among the profitable few.