Learning from Mistakes

If you make mistakes during trading, go back in your mind to see what you could have done better, or differently. There is usually something to learn from each trade. For example, did you stay too long in a single trade? Did you trade too aggressively, or not aggressively enough? Should you have cashed in (or added) some contracts, but didn’t?

Mistakes don’t matter much if you learn from them. Analyze mistakes, use them to adjust, and move on to do better next time. Large mistakes, horrendous mistakes, are usually self-correcting. Generally when we make one, we will not repeat it. Mistakes always seem like failures at the time, but they really are not – they are really a step forward. 

There is always more to learn in trading, no matter at what level we are. The education is never complete. The journey goes on, with endless course corrections and continual adjustments.