ECO - Thanks for your useful trading thoughts, and if more adhered to them they would limit loss and be more prone to gain. Just stopped in after reviewing your profile and your post on another board this morning.
Personally, (and I realize no one asked), I think the largest causes of trading failure are multifold"
Not limiting loss is most common. Gain is easy to work, but loss is a great deal more difficult to manage due to a number of factors:
1. the trader hates to admit he has picked incorrectly and hence made a mistake. He may have chosen the wrong entry, or even done everything right but perhaps news came out and destroyed the SP.
2. Greed is always present and very dangerous and detrimental to traders too greedy and you become history.
3. People get wrapped up in stories many times especially in what they perceive as opportunity stocks, rather than merely identifying them as cheap issues which are seldom really undervalued but do spike a in spurts 1-5 sessions then fall like a stone.
4. The biggest cause imho is NOT ELIMINATING EMOTION while trading.
I use bracketed orders to do that and the trading becomes automatic and not emotional. I set the profit exist and a TS loss % at
entry using the ATR guide and then it is on auto pilot.
BOL nice board - hope you didn't mind me posting this.
T2M I 100% agree with you Charts are the way to go, and if we identify resistance and support you find the entries and exits far far better.