20 Most Common Trading Mistakes
And How You Can Avoid Them

Of course, that's until you discover that trading can be brutally difficult. If you play the trading game, you are going to make mistakes -- maybe even some like these:

• agonising endlessly over when to enter or exit a trade
• trading like a maverick, risking too much of your capital
• beating yourself up when a trade goes against you
• losing $1 million in a single trade
• clicking 'buy' instead of 'sell'
• buying 10 000 units when you only meant to purchase 1000.

20 Most Common Trading Mistakes reveals market mishaps from some of the biggest names in trading. Everyone - from stellar traders to complete novices -- can use help learning how to trade in the black. Why not learn from the masters how to turn blunders into profit?

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction xi

1 It’s not my fault — I didn’t even know it was a mistake!

Mistake 1: defining a trading mistake (with Dr Van Tharp) 1

2 The horse goes in front of the cart

Mistake 2: jumping into the market before having learned the required skills (with David Hunt) 13

3 Failing to plan is planning to fail

Mistake 3: not having a clearly defined and documented trading plan (with Justine Pollard) 23

4 Get that monkey off my back

Mistake 4: not trusting your own ability (with Louise Bedford) 35

5 Nice knowing me

Mistake 5: not aligning your trading strengths (with Brett Steenbarger) 45

20 Most Common Trading Mistakes

6 Easy come, easy go

Mistake 6: overcomplicating the entry process (with Russell Sands) 57

7 Complex complexity

Mistake 7: making trading too complicated (with Davin Clarke) 65

8 Too many contracts, not enough shares

Mistake 8: not understanding money management (with Ryan Jones) 73

9 1000 per cent return in three days — sure, it happens all the time

Mistake 9: paying good money for a dodgy trading ‘system’ (with Wayne McDonell) 87

10 Heads, I win; tails, you lose!

Mistake 10: failing to understand the numbers (with Gary Stone) 97

11 Bet big to lose big

Mistake 11: misusing leverage and margin (with Christopher Tate) 111

12 What’s the time, Mr Wolf?

Mistake 12: confusing time frames and trading strategies (with Jake Bernstein) 125

13 Where the ^!*# is the exit?

Mistake 13: not having a clearly defi ned exit strategy (with Larry Williams) 135

14 But the guy on TV said it would go up tomorrow!

Mistake 14: listening to the advice of media and others (with Glen Larson) 147

15 Half price and still too expensive

Mistake 15: averaging down (with Tom Scollon) 157

16 I’m right! The market’s wrong

Mistake 16: lacking discipline (with Dr Harry Stanton) 165

17 The emotions of a robot

Mistake 17: emotive and subjective trading (Kel Butcher) 173

18 Overworked and underpaid

Mistake 18: overtrading (various) 185

19 Fat fingers, 10 000 too many, and busting trades

Mistake 19: operational errors (with John Robertson) 197

20 I’m sure I filed that somewhere …

Mistake 20: avoiding the paperwork (with Jason Cunningham) 207

Glossary 217

Index 225