The #1 Cardinal Sin of Trading is...?

Not having a method that has well tested edge.

 

Letting a small loss turn into a something you regret. It only took once. Thank God. Took me 6 months to just get back to even.....20 years ago.

 

Agree with size, you always have to live to trade another day.

 

Buying fresh highs
Selling fresh lows

 

Bud can't stop doing it,,.,

 

Money management.

 

No risk management at all. You might as well give me half your monies now. I would have saved you losing ALL your monies. You will blow up your account.

 

not using tight stops, overleveraging & trading choppy charts

 

Trading without a plan. or having a plan & not following it.

The plan needs to cover risk/trade mgmt. in depth. I bet that very few of all active retail traders have a comprehensive plan on how to deal with draw-downs or protecting large gains - you can sure bet the pros have this well planned out.

Suffering a growing draw-down or having large & fast gains are were traders often lose their discipline and begin spiraling down. Very few have any plans for dealing with either scenario.

 

Being a dipstick:

Buying the dip on the way down.
Shorting the dip on the way up.

dip·stick
/ˈdipˌstik/
noun

1. xxxxxxxxx (fill-in-the-blank)
2. a stupid or inept person.