Tuesday I made $2,100 in ninety minutes on a gap-and-go that went exactly like the textbook says. Felt like a genius. Learned nothing — when a trade works immediately and you have no pain, you learn nothing, you just get confirmed in whatever you already believed.
Thursday I lost $1,800 by adding to a loser three times, each add "averaging in" and each add actually just "not wanting to be wrong." Same trade, same size, same stock almost. The difference was that Thursday I was tired and wanted the week to be over, which is, if you think about it for even four seconds, the worst possible reason to place a trade.
Net for the week: +$640. Funny how the good week and the bad week can be the same week.
Rule added to the plan after Thursday: max one add per position, and it has to be at the original entry logic, not "hope." Hope is not an entry signal. Someone should put that on a poster.
2 comments:
Needed this one today. Doubled down on a loser yesterday for exactly the reason you said — not wanting to be wrong — and reading the "hope is not an entry signal" line hurt in the correct way.
Posted by Dana W. · January 25, 2026 at 8:47 AM
"Funny how the good week and the bad week can be the same week" — this is the most honest sentence about trading I've read this year, and it's January.
Posted by ex-broker_ben · January 26, 2026 at 6:12 PM
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