1. Not enough experience
Let’s be honest, you are probably not going to become profitable in less than a year or even in less than 18 months. I don’t want to discourage you, but that’s just the reality of trading.
There are 2 scenarios where traders can become profitable in less than 18 months. Scenario one is where you are a trader at a trading floor and have constant professional advice all around you, so you very quickly learn the ropes of trading. Scenario 2 would be a mix of natural talent for trading and a ton of hard work.
Achieving either of those 2 scenarios is not meant for the majority of traders. For the rest of you that will take longer than 18 months, never forget that experience is necessary for profitability, in anything in life you need experience to become a professional.
There are many ways to get there faster like getting a mentor, or someone who has more experience than you to help you.
So what should you do in the mean time?
Choose 1 strategy and stick with it for life.
Always ensure you are following your rules and using proper risk management.
Learn how to control yourself by journaling all your emotions.
And most importantly, remain patient and wait for your time to come.
2. Strategy hopping
A lot of traders constantly change strategies, all it takes is one losing streak and they change everything because they believe the strategy no longer works.
To tell you the truth, even if a strategy has 100 losses in a row, you should stick to it.
What you should do instead is make small tweaks. If the strategy underperforms, find out why then find how you can make a small change to improve it. Keep repeating that until your strategy can survive the long run and make money over 100+ trades.
If you don’t know what to look for in order to help improve your strategy, here are some key things you can study about it:
Look for improvements at entries & exits.
Changes in Risk to Reward ratio in order to find one that is the most consistent.
Look at your losing streaks/drawdown periods and structure your risk management accordingly.
Always remember that any change you make to your strategy must be tested at least 100 times before you implement it. Testing it 100 times just proves whether it actually works long term or not.
3. No self control
Most traders have impulses that they just can’t seem to get over. It’s always controlling them, telling them to enter early, or not enter at all. Telling them to exit early, or exit a little later.
Your emotions are your biggest enemies in the market.
The simplest way to overcome this is to write down all your rules, and before every decision you make, look at your rule set to ensure you are making the correct decision.
Another great thing you can do is to set alerts. When you are waiting for your entry/exit, set an alert at the level and don’t look at the charts if the alert hasn’t been triggered yet, this will help you detach from the trade, and as a result your emotions will be much less.
Keep in mind, everyone is unique and not everyone goes through the exact same experiences, don’t compare yourself to others, you are on your own journey.
(This is just my opinion, not financial advice)