Trading Mistakes
The 10 most common retail trading mistakes — and how to see them in your own log.
Ten mistakes account for most retail account damage. Each has a behavioural signature EI ALGOS can surface — a specific footprint in the log that Decision Score, Emotion Score, or Trader Profile can catch.
The list
The ten mistakes, with their behavioural fingerprints.
1) Entering without a setup — Decision Score < baseline. 2) Moving stops emotionally — mid-trade risk edit within X minutes of a drawdown. 3) Taking profits too early — exit before target on winning trades > 60% of the time. 4) Holding losers too long — exit after target-loss on losing trades > 40% of the time. 5) Revenge trading — bigger, faster trades within an hour of a loss.
6) Overtrading — average setup score drift over 20 trades. 7) FOMO trading — average entry gap > X% from intended entry. 8) Not following the plan — Decision Score plan-adherence factor < 3/5 on average. 9) Ignoring position sizing — max position size > 2x baseline. 10) Never reviewing — no journal entries in the last 7 sessions.
How to see them
Read your log for the fingerprints.
Every mistake above shows up as a measurable pattern. Trader Profile summarises the archetypes; Decision Score flags the per-trade instances; Emotion Score catches the multi-trade drift. Read them together to spot which mistakes are yours.
Related reading
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FAQ
Common questions.
What are the most common trading mistakes?
The ten patterns above: no setup, moved stops, early exits, held losers, revenge trades, overtrading, FOMO, plan drift, oversized positions, no review. Every retail trader has some mix.
Why do I repeat the same mistakes?
Recurring mistakes are habits. Habits are only broken by measurement plus friction — you have to see the pattern first, then add something that interrupts it. Trader Profile plus Decision Score is designed for that.
Can AI catch every mistake in real time?
The pre-trade ones (setup, sizing, FOMO gap) can be caught in real time via Decision Score. The behavioural drift ones (overtrading, plan drift) are caught in a shorter window via Emotion Score — daily, not per-trade.
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