7 trading mistakes your journal shows in numbers
Most trading mistakes feel invisible in the moment and obvious in the data. Here are seven common ones and the number that gives each of them away.
1. Holding losers, cutting winners
The number: average holding time of losing trades much longer than of winning ones, and average loss bigger than average win. The fix is a stop you don’t move and a rule for when to take profit.
2. Fees eating the edge
The number: total fees for the month compared with net PnL. If fees are a third of your gross result or more, the problem is trade frequency or order type, not entries.
3. Revenge trading
The number: results of trades opened within an hour after a big loss. They are usually larger and worse than average. A daily loss limit is the simplest cure.
4. Overtrading
The number: result per day plotted against the number of trades that day. Many traders make money on days with few trades and give it back on the busy ones.
See these numbers for your own trades
Connect an exchange and your trades load automatically — PnL, fees and funding per trade. The demo works without signing up.
5. One coin carrying all the losses
The number: result by coin. It is common to find that one or two coins produce most of the losses — often the most hyped ones.
6. Trading the wrong hours
The number: result by hour of day and day of week. Late-night trades and weekend trades are frequent leaks.
7. One side that doesn’t work
The number: result of longs vs shorts. Some traders are profitable on one side and lose consistently on the other — simply dropping it changes the month.
How to see all of this
Every one of these numbers is in CheckMyProfit analytics: holding time of winners and losers, fees by period, results by coin, hour, day of week, side and tag — calculated from your real trades with fees and funding.