What is Your Biggest Weakness As a Trader?

[Jack Francisco 10]

Are you successful now? How did you overcome yourself as your weakness? There must have been a turning point when you said, "Aha! I've got it now. This is what I need to do!"

 

Please elaborate what weaknesses do you have in order to get rid of it?

[mohsinqureshii 10]

Are you successful now? How did you overcome yourself as your weakness? There must have been a turning point when you said, "Aha! I've got it now. This is what I need to do!"

 

Please elaborate what weaknesses do you have in order to get rid of it?

 

Nice Question:

 

I have been trading from last 5 years and my biggest weakness was that I usually get very much emotional and was unable to cut my losses - Every trader has this problem and if he is able to cut the losses that is a turning point.

 

When I started trading with strict stop losses and was able to cut positions in losses that was the turning point and It started to pay me - I paid a lot of price for that in thousand of dollars and wish no one pay such.

 

Cut your losses when they are small and float your profits.

 

Happy Trading

[diablopiyush 10]

I used to assume things out of anxiousness and entered positions just before the break of critical levels, hoping price will do what i expect, and most of the time, price went in the other direction. I also never used to calculate Risk/Reward ratio.

Now i wait, for critical levels to break, calculate R-R ratio, I don't get anxious, and now I do what price expects me to do. If at all i get euphoric, i exit the market.

Basically you have to be emotionless while trading, and learning to be in that state took most of the time and energy.

Good luck

[Jack Francisco 10]

I used to assume things out of anxiousness and entered positions just before the break of critical levels, hoping price will do what i expect, and most of the time, price went in the other direction. I also never used to calculate Risk/Reward ratio.

Now i wait, for critical levels to break, calculate R-R ratio, I don't get anxious, and now I do what price expects me to do. If at all i get euphoric, i exit the market.

Basically you have to be emotionless while trading, and learning to be in that state took most of the time and energy.

Good luck

Thanks for your advice. By the way, What is the R- R ratio?

What is the use of this and how can it be helpful in trading?

Please elaborate a little more on it.

Thanks

[diablopiyush 10]

Its Risk/Reward ratio, assuming you don't know about it at all, its one of the simple money management techniques, that helps in filtering away trades that have more risk and less returns.

Having Risk/Reward calculated before entering the trade itself, helps me ascertain the maximum risk I'm willing to take for the potential reward.

Typically my Risk/Reward is 2:1 to 4:1.

Hope it helped,

Google it for more info...

PS: are you trading on leading indicators alone?

[joshdance 10]

Thanks for your advice. By the way, What is the R- R ratio?

What is the use of this and how can it be helpful in trading?

Please elaborate a little more on it.

Thanks

 

Every trade will incur a monetary risk. You want to ensure that your potential profit (reward) is large enough to offset the risk incurred, over a large sample of trades.

 

For example, if you consistently risk $200 to make $200, but you are only right about half the time, then you will not make money.

 

You would not likely loan someone $10,000 to grow a business (risk), if the business only had $5,000 in sales for the year.

 

Trading is foremost about risk management. If risk is not managed, it only takes one big mistake to wipe you out. People do not play Russian Roulette for one simple reason: the chance of losing may be small, but the risk is too high to play the game.

[Mysticforex 13]

Gaining faith in my analysis and letting my profits run. When I entered a trade I would set my TP and S/L with a good R/R. But I always cutoff my winners and took profit early.

This eventually hurt my R/R because I needed that profit to offset the inevitable losses.

[Obsidian 10]

Are you successful now? How did you overcome yourself as your weakness? There must have been a turning point when you said, "Aha! I've got it now. This is what I need to do!"

 

Please elaborate what weaknesses do you have in order to get rid of it?

 

Patience

 

I realized that spending too much time watching the market made me impatient. I changed to the right time frame for my personality...

[henryduncan12 10]

My biggest weakness is avoiding set stoploss in profit situation and finally I face lose.

[aster9 10]

Not running a profit long enough

[Obsidian 10]

seems like finding exit points are harder than finding entry points?

[Judah 10]

As a trader when i know that the specific currency behavior and my prediction still goes in right direction but i can be confuse about the trade and i do not put the trade but the results tends the my good prediction so this is a big drawback and lack of the decision power.

[Jack Francisco 10]

Thanks your kind advice. This is rarely beneficial to me and I will put this in practice.

[SpearPointTrader 10]

The biggest issue for me is psychology. If I am under any pressure at all, I start to get tunnel vision, and miss all my warning signs that tell me not to trade. This leads to losses.

 

I have a rule though. If I lose more than 70% of my trades, I quit trading for a week or so. That seems to really help me keep my game on.

[TheNegotiator 13]

As a trader when i know that the specific currency behavior and my prediction still goes in right direction but i can be confuse about the trade and i do not put the trade but the results tends the my good prediction so this is a big drawback and lack of the decision power.

 

It's all too easy for those winners in that you never took to stick out in your mind. The losers are forgotten and the picture is distorted. If you note down every single trade you might take then come back and say the same thing, I doubt you'll still not take those trades in the future. Also, the other point is you don't know for certain whether or not you'd have held those trades which turn out to be 'winners' all the way to any target you have.

[TheNegotiator 13]

The biggest issue for me is psychology. If I am under any pressure at all, I start to get tunnel vision, and miss all my warning signs that tell me not to trade. This leads to losses.

 

I have a rule though. If I lose more than 70% of my trades, I quit trading for a week or so. That seems to really help me keep my game on.

 

More than 70% of how many? 1? 10? 632? Or are you talking about your trading capital?

[SpearPointTrader 10]

More than 70% of how many? 1? 10? 632? Or are you talking about your trading capital?

 

I am talking number of trades. I usually count out the last 10. Every once and a while I count back the last 100. I win 70 to 80% of the time, if I am on my game. However, if I am not, sometimes I slip down to 60, or 65% for a while.

 

There are times, like if I am under some sort of stress or pressure, where I drop to 50% or below. In those cases I have to recognize I am suffering some sort of psychological issue that is clouding my mental clarity, so I stop trading. It's times like that where keeping my wins larger than my losses protects my account.

 

If I catch a good trend, I can hit 100% wins for the whole trend though. It all depends on how kind the market God's are to me.

[Jack Francisco 10]

The biggest issue for me is psychology. If I am under any pressure at all, I start to get tunnel vision, and miss all my warning signs that tell me not to trade. This leads to losses.

 

I have a rule though. If I lose more than 70% of my trades, I quit trading for a week or so. That seems to really help me keep my game on.

:helloooo:

Guys- Did you observe the moment that when you enter buy, the market reverses the direction and is going to the side of seller? What would happen to your account if on your first trade during that day you give the highest possible lot size that you can trade?

Sure thing you will wipe your account. To have a 100% profitable trade, enter small lot size, and when the market move against you, wait for another 100 pips and enter again small lot size.

[Lavazza 10]

... is laziness. Sometimes it's so hard to get up and make myself a cup of coffee that I feel like dying of thirst :crap:

[barako 10]

Are you successful now? How did you overcome yourself as your weakness? There must have been a turning point when you said, "Aha! I've got it now. This is what I need to do!"

 

Please elaborate what weaknesses do you have in order to get rid of it?

 

I tried different demos in the past and saw forex as a game, not much knowledge i had back then, so I opened a live a ccount with hotforex, and the first week (more like a couple of days) I blow it due to my silly mistakes, taking up high risks and not sticking to my SL and TP.

 

It took 2 days for me to move on and go back to leaning more about the basics, and i shifted from a scalper to a position trader, I still have my day job and i earn extra from trading forex, at times its break even but im happy with my pace

[TheRumpledOne 14]

The biggest weaknesses are:

 

* Thinking the reason you enter a trade has a bearing on the outcome

 

* Thinking after you a trade, you can make it a winner.

 

* Taking losses personally

 

* Impatience / over trading

 

* Believing in concepts rather than reality

[Obsidian 10]

...

* Believing in concepts rather than reality...

 

this one is the most important imvho.

[Jack Francisco 10]

I tried different demos in the past and saw forex as a game, not much knowledge i had back then, so I opened a live a ccount with hotforex, and the first week (more like a couple of days) I blow it due to my silly mistakes, taking up high risks and not sticking to my SL and TP.

 

It took 2 days for me to move on and go back to leaning more about the basics, and i shifted from a scalper to a position trader, I still have my day job and i earn extra from trading forex, at times its break even but im happy with my pace

 

Some silly mistakes that you tried to avoid in trading , otherwise Forex will wipe you

 

1.Over trading is another top reason for trading failure. We need to understand the root of the problem. The root of the problem usually stems from one of the following:

 

Setting unrealistic goals (trying to grow your account too fast)

By having set targets which you are trying to meet.

Trading for a living with an undercapitalized account.

Trying to claw back losses.

 

2.It is important for traders to know what not to do.

Being too proud to close out for a loss

Trading because of the buzz it gives

Over-leveraging and putting too much risk on the table

Closing out a winning position too early

Trading with a small account

Feeling you always have to be in a trade / over trading

 

Trading is such a complex business. It's a learning process which will continue for the rest of your trading life; every true trader never stops learning.

[straddle 10]

... is laziness. Sometimes it's so hard to get up and make myself a cup of coffee that I feel like dying of thirst :crap:

 

Hence the username :drinker:

 

 

Mine is Lack of confidence . Not sure if I made the right chioce I close my position quiclly .

 

This actually saves me from heavy losses but i lose potential profits .

 

Aw long as I am winning 5 and losing 3 I am ok but if i start losing 7 then i will sloooooooooowly zero my account.

[Obsidian 10]

applying what you have learned (i.e. the strategy you plan to use) in real time would help you master your plan, you wont be thinking for hours if you should click the button or not.

 

analyze your trades, what pairs are more profitable for you or suits your trading style (you may not use the same strategy on different pairs because they have their own characteristics), what went wrong and your sl was taken, how did prices move after you entered the trade etc...

 

most of beginners biggest weakness is being human. by being human, I am not talking about discipline. I am talking about following the simplest rules. Reading tons of pages cant make you a trader. you should be able to use what you learned...