These should be my biggest losses and lessons over the past few years

1. No stop-loss, or set but don’t execute
The most classic way to die. When floating losses occur, tell yourself "just hold a bit longer, it’ll come back," then hold from -5% to -50%, finally cutting at the bottom. Stop-loss isn’t meant to be triggered; it’s meant to admit you were wrong. People who don’t admit mistakes, the market will help them realize.
2. Cannot hold onto profits, stubbornly hold onto losses
Make 10% profit and run faster than a rabbit; endure a 50% loss and feel as steady as Mount Tai. This is human nature—fear of giving back profits when winning, fear of realizing losses when losing. But the anti-human aspect of trading is: you should hold onto winning positions, and cut losing ones. Most people do the opposite.
3. Emotional trading—FOMO chasing highs, panic cutting losses
Jump in when you see others sharing wins, close positions during crashes. FOMO makes you buy at the top, panic makes you sell at the bottom. Between buying and selling, the money is gone. Emotions are the biggest enemy in trading, bar none.
4. No trading plan, just trade on feelings
Wake up in the morning, glance at the candlestick chart, "feeling it will rise," then jump in. "Feeling something’s wrong," then jump out again. No entry logic, no take-profit target, no stop-loss level, no position management. Trading on feelings = gambling with luck. When luck runs out, that’s the day you go broke.
5. Poor position management—either too light or too heavy
Afraid of losing money, so always trade with 0.1 position size; profits feel insignificant. One day, suddenly overconfident, go all-in with leverage, losing three months’ profits in one shot. Unbalanced positions, risk exposure fluctuates wildly, leading to inevitable long-term failure. A trading system without proper position management is a fake system.
6. Overtrading—unable to control your hands
Making a dozen trades a day, wanting to touch every coin. Frequent trading = high transaction fees + frequent mistakes. The real profit opportunities might only be two or three times a month; the rest is noise. The root of overtrading is greed—thinking every candlestick is an opportunity, but in reality, each one is a trap.
7. Copy trading, listening to news, copying homework
Buy whatever the KOL calls, chase whatever the group says. When others profit, you follow along; when they run, you stand foolishly. You never know their costs, positions, take-profit points, or exit timing. Relying on others’ brains to make money only ends one way—getting handed the bag.
8. Making a habit of holding positions—turning short-term into long-term
Originally trading on 15-minute charts, after losing, saying "I’ll hold and wait for a rebound." A 15-minute trade becomes a 15-day long-term investment. The logic of short-term and long-term trading is completely different; the entry point for short-term from a long-term perspective is often halfway up the mountain. Don’t deceive yourself. If you lose, you lose.
9. Only review profitable trades, ignore losing ones
When making money, feel proud and share screenshots in groups; when losing, pretend it never happened, selectively forget. Not reviewing losing trades means missing lessons; next time, you’ll fall into the same trap. Growth doesn’t come from winning trades, but from those painful losses.
10. No reverence for the market—think you’re smarter than the market
After a few wins, start to get cocky, think you’ve figured it out, found the holy grail. Then increase your position size, ready for a big turnaround. But the market hits back hard. The most expensive phrase in trading is "This time is different," and the dumbest mindset is "I’m smarter than the market." Don’t fight the market; it’s your parent.
All of these, I dare say, anyone who has traded cannot escape. The difference is some keep making the same mistakes after a year, while others learn after getting beaten up.