We can safely state that a core of a typical trader's misery lies a very simple fact that is often overlooked. A typical trader does not look upon his trading as a business. As a consequence, he approaches the market without any business plan. This is a classic and very common mistake that, strangely enough, somehow seems to come with a territory. In almost any other field, a sloppy attitude towards one's own PROFESSION will quickly stand corrected. Banks will not grant credit without seeing a proper business plan; partners will not hook up when confronted with a flaky organization; if one carries a flimsy product, customers will soon play judge and jury. Yet when it comes to trading, the freedom is overwhelming, the anonymity complete. A trader could simply decide not to take any responsibility at all, to hide himself completely in a make-believe world, to deviate at a whim from whatever rules he laid out for himself and not give it a moment's thought. He has not customer to satisfy, no partner to answer to, no banks to please. As long as there are still funds left to trade, it just so easy to entertain the illusion that things will turn around, that good times will come and that eventually the inevitable profits will come falling from the sky.
Bob Volman