Biggest Challenges You Experienced in Trading?

[Trader H.C.]

What are the biggest hassles or challenges you experienced with trading?

😖

And if you had the chance, what you hope you've learned before it happening and how you'll do things differently?

For myself, overlooked risk management rules and overcommitted on trading strategies that don't have an edge were the biggest mistakes I've made.

I wish I did take them seriously and practice with a smaller amount to confirm their performance with the least amount of drawdown as possible.

 

[tomorton]

Time and again I have failed to follow my own rules - in one of two ways usually. When I've been winning, I have increased the % capital risked per trade way too quickly. When I have been losing I have ditched the strategy too soon and tried to develop a better one.

 

[Nowler]

My biggest challenges were over-trading, and being overwhelmed by all the information/indicators/ strategies.

My inability to leave the account alone was detrimental...I just had to be in a trade. Now I swing trade and will wait for great opportunities to present themselves. For the most part anyway

In terms of the overload from indicators and information - I looked into so many things for the first 12 months that I burned myself out. I stopped trading for about 4-5 months and when I came back I took the simple-is-best approach. Give me a chart, moving averages and some volume.

I slowly increased the amount of reading I did and videos I watched - I have listened to about 350hrs of trading/investing/psychology audiobooks and probably double that in discussions/interviews/podcasts. Understanding the Macro side of things makes it much easier for me to pick opportunities. Then I scale into the position.

 

[wonge]

Great question!

There are so many but I'd probably say:
1) In my early days - risk management - i.e. risking too much per trade and/or not having a standardised approach for risk
2) Dealing with a losing streak - you can have a system that works great for a while and then a run of losing trades causes you to question everything and can be very demoralising. Best advice I can offer is stick to the basic - remember your process, review your system in a structured way and trust that it will turn around.
3) Patience - as said above - it can be really detrimental always wanting to be "in a trade". Learn to control your impulses and let the trades come to you.

 

[Nowler]

Exiting a trade when the trend seems to be moving in my favor. And till date I am struggling with it.

Having a confident exit target in mind might help you..., and then when its reached, reduce your position bit by bit as price continues to move ahead.

Provided you have a hard stop when it moves beyond your target, you are not risking what I have already gained.

Some people will use a trailing stop for this situation you mention

 

[Beast45]

Exiting a trade when the trend seems to be moving in my favor. And till date I am struggling with it.

That's a situation that troubles many traders.

 

[NVP]

The most difficult challenge i had to take up is so far to master the Darwinex VaR (Value at Risk) to be able to build the double track-record : Trading Account track-record + Darwin track-record

hahaha...another Darwinex clone ...bit of a plague everywhere at the moment in forex forums ....hopefully they will all fade away soon into the mist....

 

[NVP]

the biggest problem in Trading for most is Losing money .....over 97% in fact or more ....

and all those nice trading people on Youtube and instagram offered instant riches ?

 

[CavaliereVerde]

Biggest challange: be profitable.

 

[Pure Pip Producer]

another Darwinex clone

But that one will show you the purity of his trading... Something that you're probably dreaming since you discovered that you can place orders in the market.

the biggest problem in Trading for most is Losing money

And that one will transform you as a winner in trading as you can "trade him" by trading his Ultra Liquid and FCA regulated Financial Asset nammed a Darwin... Something that you're probably also dreaming since you discovered that you can place orders in the market.


So, you should thank him instead...

 

[Nigul]

To control over trading initially.

 

[itglive]

It is very difficult to bear the money loss. After losing money in trading, it is very difficult to prepare our mind positive and restart the game again.

 

[Beast45]

It is very difficult to bear the money loss. After losing money in trading, it is very difficult to prepare our mind positive and restart the game again.

Agreed! That's a tough situation, but one who learns to overcome such a phase, goes long in this game

 

[vlakis]

It is very difficult to bear the money loss. After losing money in trading, it is very difficult to prepare our mind positive and restart the game again.

But in fact, this is an irresistible part of trading.

 

[jonfuentesx]

Several months-long drawdowns, no doubt.

 

[MichaelJohnFX]

For me, it's the drawdowns (months). Those can be hard, regardless of how long you've been trading for. There's not really much you can do different except from stick to your system. It helps when you've got a significant secondary income too e.g. a job or a business

 

[MichaelJohnFX]

Time and again I have failed to follow my own rules - in one of two ways usually. When I've been winning, I have increased the % capital risked per trade way too quickly. When I have been losing I have ditched the strategy too soon and tried to develop a better one.

Re. increased capital per trade, I've found increasing it incrementally after a set period. For me, I review quarterly sometimes even every 6 months. How have you dealt with this?

 

[tomorton]

Re. increased capital per trade, I've found increasing it incrementally after a set period. For me, I review quarterly sometimes even every 6 months. How have you dealt with this?

My rule is that every trade is of standard risk percentage - i.e. the % risk is fixed at 1%, being the maximum capital that could be lost if the initial stop-loss is hit. For me this is continuous, so tomorrow afternoon it would be a different amount in £ than tomorrow morning. But I have ignored this rule at times so that either the positions are not large enough or the risk exceeds the 1% ratio.

Having a e.g. 6mth lag between risk reviews and amendments might not be a bad idea.

 

[MasterOfCoin]

To remind myself to keep the amounts risked on each trade in check, I keep tally on the average profit of each winning trade over the previous 6 months period. This simple exercise tells me just how many successful trades will be needed to cover a given stake at risk should it result in a loss.

Believe me, when you're looking at needing 2 weeks worth of good trades to cover one bad one, you think twice.

 

[MichaelJohnFX]

To remind myself to keep the amounts risked on each trade in check, I keep tally on the average profit of each winning trade over the previous 6 months period. This simple exercise tells me just how many successful trades will be needed to cover a given stake at risk should it result in a loss.

Believe me, when you're looking at needing 2 weeks worth of good trades to cover one bad one, you think twice.

I'm not sure which broker / platform you use, but IG have an excellent trade analytics tool that does this all for you.