I'm not sure what you mean by dumb stop-loss orders. Stop losses should be set together with entrance, prior to making any trade. If the trader just makes a random decision on where stop loss is then okay, that is dumb, but basic trading means you make clear headed decisions as to where you want to enter and where you want to exit (not so much when). However, if those exits never arrive, which is unlikely if you are a medium and long term trader, then yes, of course you make decisions to rethink.

The biggest mistake that day traders make (especially crypto day traders) is believing that they have an edge over everyone else because of the charts they look at. The biggest mistake is not believing that day trading is 100% gambling, because that is exactly what it is. The only way to consistently make money over the long term is to invest based on value and fundamentals.

Okay, I will try to explain. For example, some novice trader reads it in a book on trading that he should always place stop-losses, so he blindly does exactly that but still ends up always losing. The market knows everything about your stop-losses obviously, and it may go specifically after them. This is what flash crashes basically are all about, to trigger a lot of stop-loss orders. On the other hand, an experienced trader takes into account these tricks and cannot be fooled by such attempts because he follows some other metric in his trading decisions. It doesn't mean that he will never close a losing position. It means that he is well prepared for this hunt for triggering stop-losses.


I don't know why you think that day traders believe that they have an edge over the rest of the pack. I for one don't feel like that. I'm a day trader in some assets and a long-term holder in other assets. Though I agree that short-term trading is mostly gambling unless you know what you are doing. But this is the whole point of this thread.

Yes I ever in that situation a lot of times, in trading there  should be an exit strategy to prevent deeper lost, but it all will depend on the traders, sometimes the drop down still got chances to go up again, I think the decision to put stop lost limit is depend on the experience and the market situation, most of the traders not get enough information so they make the wrong choice

A great mistake of every trader is focusing on their possible profit without setting out the possible loss you may incur, meaning setting up your target and cut loss price can help you secure the money. Day trading is really risky and if you are just depending on any luck I'm sure you'll be stuck forever on that.

I don't really get what you're saying here. But I'm assuming that you're saying that people should ready themselves for anything and even if when SHTF they have a clear strategy of what they want to do instead of following their emotions?

If that's true, then yeah. It's definitely one of the skills you have to have trading and speculating on bitcoin.

It's all psychology. If you bought in december and sold in January, then you would have made out a 70% loss. It's tempting to sell when markets are tanking like that for sure. Either have a stop-loss, or just hold it through, and unless you really need the cash or in some extreme circumstances, don't liquidate your position. That's my strategy at least, dunno about you.

Exactly, I usually consider day traders as gamblers whom have decided to take massive everyday risk. With the unstable price of bitcoin, I do wonder how they make their gain; though some traders claims it very gainful. Its takes one with huge capital and heart hardened to become a day trading. Because for me alone, bitcoin trading is a perfect risk on it own. I most times soley depend on long time investment.

It may of course be the most common mistake but I'm trying to trace this and other mistakes to their root cause in this topic. I'm not defending short-term trading vs long-term holding because these approaches to trading (investing) have their cons and pros. And frankly, I don't feel like my trading psychology is messed up or even fucked up. As per OP, it is not so much about closing a losing position, it is more about your whole mental outlook you have in trading as well as in other activities. For example, you buy at the top but you expect the price to plunge and decide beforehand that you won't get out even if Bitcoin goes down to zero. Then you won't be liquidating and that's okay because you know what you are doing.

I'm responding to vintages, not OP.