Top Five Stupid CFD Trading Mistakes
There are certain silly mistakes that all traders have made at some point in their trading careers, even though there are simple techniques that can be used to avoid them.
Buy or Sell, Which Button Was That
It is not unusual for a trader to push the wrong button when entering or exiting from a trade. It is most common to push sell to get out of a short position, when you really meant to buy. Sometimes it just gets so confusing, so instead of being out you end up with double the quantity.
This mistake is easily caught by checking in with your open positions after you place a trade to ensure that the trade you have placed did what you expected. If caught immediately this mistake is easily rectified and is likely to only cost a small sum for a stupid mistake. If you do not realise your mistake and the position is left open this can have disastrous consequences for your account.
Alzheimers And Trading Don't Mix
If you exit an order when you are watching the screen, make sure you remember your stop orders. Assuming you have placed a stop on the trade, which you always should, then you must cancel the order if you exit before the stop is triggered. Forgetting your stops is a risky exercise and if the stop is triggered it could be hours before you know that the order was traded. The market may move in your favour, but it is not something I would like to gamble on.
Before exiting the trading platform at the end of a trading session make sure you check your open positions match your stop loss orders to avoid any surprises when you next enter your trading platform.
Zeros Don't Mean Nothing
While it is possible to get the maths wrong when calculating your position size it is far more common to get the number of zeros wrong when you place the trade. An extra zero means your risk increases by a factor of 10 times and forgetting a zero reduces your profits to 1/10th.
Checking your open position after the order is placed should enable you to pick up this error as the size of the position will be very different to your normal trading size.
Avoid Placing Your Stops Too Tight
A very common mistake made by traders is to use very tight stop losses. If the stop order is very near to the current price it can be hit by the normal fluctuations that occur. Tightening the stop loss does not prevent losing money, it often creates it.
Stops must be placed far enough away from the price action to exit you from a position if your trade view turns out to be wrong. Give the underlying share room to move to avoid getting caught by this CFD mistake.
Discipline Is Essential
The last common CFD mistake is to enter a trade when you know that you should not. It is common for new traders to chase a share and jump on board after the share has been moving, however they will quickly learn the error of their ways. A beginner has an excuse, they do not know any different, but even more experienced traders are caught in this trap.
The market offers an unlimited supply of trading opportunities, far more than you could ever possibly trade. If you miss a trade today, there will be another trade along soon enough. By following a trading plan you can avoid getting caught by impulsive trades, which can prove to be costly.
These simple mistakes can be eliminated by learning a number of simple habits that can dramatically improve your profitability. - 23210
Buy or Sell, Which Button Was That
It is not unusual for a trader to push the wrong button when entering or exiting from a trade. It is most common to push sell to get out of a short position, when you really meant to buy. Sometimes it just gets so confusing, so instead of being out you end up with double the quantity.
This mistake is easily caught by checking in with your open positions after you place a trade to ensure that the trade you have placed did what you expected. If caught immediately this mistake is easily rectified and is likely to only cost a small sum for a stupid mistake. If you do not realise your mistake and the position is left open this can have disastrous consequences for your account.
Alzheimers And Trading Don't Mix
If you exit an order when you are watching the screen, make sure you remember your stop orders. Assuming you have placed a stop on the trade, which you always should, then you must cancel the order if you exit before the stop is triggered. Forgetting your stops is a risky exercise and if the stop is triggered it could be hours before you know that the order was traded. The market may move in your favour, but it is not something I would like to gamble on.
Before exiting the trading platform at the end of a trading session make sure you check your open positions match your stop loss orders to avoid any surprises when you next enter your trading platform.
Zeros Don't Mean Nothing
While it is possible to get the maths wrong when calculating your position size it is far more common to get the number of zeros wrong when you place the trade. An extra zero means your risk increases by a factor of 10 times and forgetting a zero reduces your profits to 1/10th.
Checking your open position after the order is placed should enable you to pick up this error as the size of the position will be very different to your normal trading size.
Avoid Placing Your Stops Too Tight
A very common mistake made by traders is to use very tight stop losses. If the stop order is very near to the current price it can be hit by the normal fluctuations that occur. Tightening the stop loss does not prevent losing money, it often creates it.
Stops must be placed far enough away from the price action to exit you from a position if your trade view turns out to be wrong. Give the underlying share room to move to avoid getting caught by this CFD mistake.
Discipline Is Essential
The last common CFD mistake is to enter a trade when you know that you should not. It is common for new traders to chase a share and jump on board after the share has been moving, however they will quickly learn the error of their ways. A beginner has an excuse, they do not know any different, but even more experienced traders are caught in this trap.
The market offers an unlimited supply of trading opportunities, far more than you could ever possibly trade. If you miss a trade today, there will be another trade along soon enough. By following a trading plan you can avoid getting caught by impulsive trades, which can prove to be costly.
These simple mistakes can be eliminated by learning a number of simple habits that can dramatically improve your profitability. - 23210
About the Author:
Jeff Cartridge is a private trader from New Zealand and co-created the website LearnCFDs.com Discover Ways to Make Serious Money with a Small Investment CFD Trading Strategy
posted by X - Men @ 3:02 AM
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