Lessons from an Imperfect Trader: Swap Market Noise for ProfitsBitcoin / U.S. dollarBITSTAMP:BTCUSDDavid_PerkHey, what’s up, traders? In today’s article, I want to talk about something that’s incredibly important: trading frequency. I’ve experienced this myself many, many times. Trading more doesn’t mean making more money. In fact, from my own experience, it’s often the complete opposite. The reason is simple. We bring the mindset from a normal job into trading. In the 9-to-5 world, more hours, more effort, and more work usually mean more money. Trading doesn’t work like that. In trading, you’re paid for making the right decisions in the right time. not for being busy not for effort. You’re paid for waiting patiently, executing your plan, staying disciplined, and letting your trades play out. The market rewards quality, not quantity. There’s another important point: Every trade you take is another opportunity to make a mistake. Think about it for a second. If you’re constantly entering the market, you’re constantly giving yourself more chances to be wrong. And depending on your win rate, that can become a serious problem. The lower your winning percentage, the more selective you should be with your trades. Sometimes the fastest way to improve your results isn’t by finding more setups. It’s by trading less. Now, I want to show you something from my own trading journal. I have selected a few months where I made mistakes or where I know I could have traded much better and we will see interesting psychological patterns. I’m not here to pretend that I’m a perfect trader. I’ve been trading since 2013, and I still have months where I break my own discipline or make decisions I know I shouldn’t have made. Im still working on it by analyzing those mistakes instead of ignoring them. 🧪 High-frequency overtrading. I was basically trading almost every single day from the very Right in the first week, I traded on Friday, and I made a mistake that resulted in a loss The following week, I recovered some of those losses during the first two trading days. At that point, I should have been satisfied with how the week was going. But instead, I traded again on Friday and ended up taking another large loss. That put me into two consecutive losing weeks. After that, I continued trading almost every day, making the same mistake over and over again.Then look at the fifth and final week. That was actually my best week of the month because I took three days off and waited for high-quality setups. When they finally came, those two trading days turned out to be some of my best. This proves the point. Waiting patiently for the best setups is far more effective than feeling like you have to trade every single day. That’s something I should have applied much earlier. 🧪 Forcing the profit and trying to make it a profitable month In the first week I started with a decent gain. Then, in the second week, I added a little bit more. In the third week, I ended with a small losing week. So, if you look at the first three weeks together, I was sitting at around $800 in profit. Then look at what I did. During the fourth week, I basically traded every single day because I was trying to turn it into a great profitable month, whatever it took. Instead, I turned it into a $9,000 loss. After that, I walked away and didn’t trade for the rest of the month because it was affecting me mentally. This is exactly the point I’m trying to make. Instead of forcing trades after a slow start, you should take a step back, be patient, and wait for the best setups. Don’t force the market to give you profits. Market doesn't own you anything and it rarely ends well. 🧪Not leaving casino when it profit. In this month, I started quite well. The first week was profitable. In the second week, I took a fairly big loss, but the very next day I had a big winning trade and recovered everything.Then, in the third week, I had two more profitable trading days. At that point, I was up around $35,000. That was the moment when I should have walked away and said, “I’m done for the month.”But look at what I did during the fourth week. I ended up giving back around $13,000 in profits. Yes, overall, it was still one of my best months. But the reality is that I didn’t need to trade that fourth week at all. I should have recognized that I had already made enough and simply protected what I had earned. 🧪Trading Fridays and Mondays Okay, it's nicely profitable month, but again, we can improve something. Just have a look at the Fridays and the Mondays. You can see that on the first Friday, I had a quite big loss, and then most of the Mondays are not winning for me. And I went through my trading journal and I realized that usually on the Fridays and Mondays is when I am losing the most. So, here comes some conclusion. Go through your journal and find out the profitability of the days. And when you find out that the Fridays and Mondays or whatever days are not good for you, basically skip them. You will be trading much better. 🧪When I realized Trading Less is better Every time, Im traveling and not solely focusing to trading in other words not forcing it I trade well. This January in Thailand, I wasn't forcing anything. I wasn't by charts all days. And basically it ended up by 10k a month. And as you can see, the first few weeks wasn't anyhow bigger profitable. But then, when the best setup has came, the A-plus setup, it has hit. And this is where I realized I might should reduce trading a little bit. 🧪Perfect Month Now, this is something what I consider as a perfect month, because as you can see, the losing days are very, very small numbers. If you look at the profitable days, they are bigger profits, right? Now, ignore the dollars value. I have split my account to few smaller ones, because sometimes I have a dilemma if I should keep or close the position, and I basically close it on one accounts and keep it on another. And it's much better for my trading psychology. But the important is that basically I trade very small frequency. I know when not to trade and when walk away from casino with profits and this is how it works best for me. It would be great if lesson from mistakes will help you avoid them on your accounts. But I don't think it's gonna happen, we all have to go thru it. But at least it can inspire you what to focus on to improve on your journey. Adapt useful, Reject useless and add what is specifically yours. David Perk 🚀Boost | 🔁 Share | 💬 Comment | ✅Follow for more Education