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90% traders fail because the number of ways things can go wrong in trading is extraordinarily high
and very few type of behaviors translate into profit. Keeping your behavior within this narrow range of profitable behavior is super hard.
Think of throwing a dart, 90% people will never hit the bulls eye, copying the loser or doing the opposite of the loser won't help!
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but in a way you can win by doing the opposite of losers, the trick is not do the opposite of buy/sell but do the opposite of their behavior.
eg: losers don't manage the risk well, you do the opposite
losers don't have emotional discipline, you do the opposite... etc. etc.
if you succeed in the above things probably you are sitting on a big pile of money!
fading a loser will work only if he is a consistent loser; but, you never know that for sure. he may be a temporary loser and his method may reverse soon. the other important point is that most traders that got ruined were probably not consistent losers but just unfortunate victims of bad risk and money management, or were not able to overcome commission cost and slippage.
Most lose because they don't keep their losses small and take their profits too quickly. Even if they were to trade their set ups in the opposite direction the fear of taking a loss and the fear of losing what they have gained will result in the same outcome. Until a trader overcomes his Fears and accepts the risk involved he will continue to experience the same end result.
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
I would say that the best way for you to satisfy yourself regarding this issue is to do the "random line experiment" or "coin flip experiment". Believe me, at one point in time, I was also seriously considering this 'strategy' in my trading.
So the premise:
Let's face it, most traders are just making random trades based on oscillators and magical levels. Hence why 90% of traders fail.
To the experiment goes something like this
Part 1:
Either make random levels on a chart go long when market is above and coming into it, go short when then market is below and coming up into it. OR, flip a good ol coin, heads go long, tails go short.
Part 2:
Implement strict money management rules to every trade you enter (e.g. 2 contracts with initial 12 tic stop and a first target of 6 tics, second target of 20 tics. and then move stop to -6 once first target is hit. You can also try doing it with a all in all out strategy say 2 contracts with 8 tic stop and 8 tic target.).
Do this over a decent size sample may 100 trades, and look at the results in a trade analyzer.
There is another practical problem considering the individual loser ...
Some years ago, some fellow traders and I had an uncanny Elliot Wave oracle.
When this guy put up larger positions, you could bet the farm on the contrary.
Consequentially - but unfortunately for us - our oracle went belly up.
We actually put up (to a certain extent: self-serving) support for him.
Only after that he realized what he did - and left trading.
So I can tell you: It's really hard to find and keep a loser on a consistent "hot streak".
When you close your position, ask yourself "Why did I do that?"
If the answer starts with "I was afraid that -----." You are operating out of fear.
Once you overcome your fears and accept the risk involved trading becomes easy.
The hard part is determining what it is that you are afraid of.
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard