Two traders explain how a winning first trade inflates confidence and leads them to oversize the next position, often erasing gains. One made $40k then lost $20-25k by chasing the win. Journaling exposed the pattern and helped them stop and wait for better setups instead.
I've had days where, like, on the open, I'll make 40 grand and then the next trade, because of that confidence, I'll size up. I'll lose 20 or.
25 or maybe lose more.
And I've learned that through journaling. And I'm like, hey, I've noticed my size stays at this current level at trade one, but trade two, my size goes up double. Why is my size going up double.
When I just had a.
Good opening trade? It shouldn't go up double. It should stay the same or go down. But it's like the confidence kicks in.
And now I want to trade more. I want to put on more size because I'm like, oh, if I put on more size in the first trade, instead of 40 or.
50, I could have made 80. Usually what I used to do is I would now size in and to remake that money back. So instead of saying, I took a bad trade, I lost 20,000.
Let me go and look.
For a new opportunity. Now it's like, no, I need to find a new opportunity to make that 20k back. Boom. I'm. I'm, like, in. In red zone right away. And most of the time those days where I should be down 10,000 or 20,000, I end up being down 40 or plus more because of that first open trade. And I learned that through intentional journaling.
