Beware of Sloppiness

Yesterday I made a trade I shouldn't have, and I made it because I was rushing through my trading routine and not paying enough attention to important little details. In short, I was sloppy. And the result was I lost 21 pips I should never have even risked in the first place. That's the great thing about forex - you can usually put an exact cost on your mistakes.

In retrospect it's pretty clear to me why I was being so sloppy. I really wanted to make a trade, partly to make up for all my lost trades last week. I started updating all my price data with too little time to spare before my 5:00 pm trading window, so I was in a rush as well. Rushed data analysis + irrational need to trade = trouble. So when my system generated what looked like a valid signal, I placed a trade instantly without double-checking the key variables that went into the signal. It's always a good idea to double-check your data - especially if you're in a hurry.

The error I overlooked in my rush to trade was that I'd entered the date wrong. This isn't the first time I've gotten into trouble with dates, but in the past I took the time to double-check them. Not this time around. It's just about the simplest mistake I could make...and surprise, surprise, it's the simple mistakes that always seem to cost me the most. The good thing is they're also the easiest mistakes to catch.

So I guess the lesson here is, look before you leap.