Trading questions
Each page opens with the complete answer, then the reasoning and the numbers behind it. No wind-up, no gated ending.
Make the fix mechanical, before the loss: a fixed cooldown after any losing trade, a hard size cap on the next entry, and log the loser before you may take another. Willpower in the moment is what revenge trading has already defeated, so the rule has to exist first and the checking cannot be left to you.
Track what you knew at entry, not just what happened after: the thesis in one sentence, entry price, stop, target, size and the percent of the account at risk, then the exit and how you managed the trade. Add one line about your state going in. Outcome fields alone repeat what your P&L already told you.
Compute expectancy on a written sample: average win times win rate, minus average loss times loss rate, per trade. A positive number over enough trades is an edge; around 25 trades is where a result starts to separate from luck, and below that a hot streak proves nothing. Then check the number you actually keep, because broken rules can spend a real edge in execution.
Usually because one costly habit repeats, not because the strategy is wrong. Oversized trades after a loss, winners cut early, extra trades with no setup or entries off the plan carry most of the losses. Grade your last 30 to 50 trades on whether they followed the plan, add up the ones that broke it, and fix the single biggest habit first.
Put three limits in writing before the session: a maximum number of trades per day, a daily loss limit after which you stop, and a setup checklist every entry must pass. Then tag each trade as planned or unplanned and compare the two groups after a month, so the cost of the extra trades shows up in dollars.
Most traders do best between 0.5% and 2% of the account per trade, fixed, sized from the stop. At a 45% win rate a run of 6 losses in 100 trades is more likely than not, and 10 has at least a 1-in-10 chance. At 1% risk that run of 10 costs about 9.6% of the account; at 3% it costs about 26%.
Closing a winner feels safe and closing a loser feels like admitting a mistake, so both protect your mood instead of your account. It is called the disposition effect. Decide the stop and the exit rule before you enter, let the stop be the only way out of a loser, and trail winners by a rule rather than a feeling.
You need what a coach does: someone or something that sees the habit you cannot see in your own trades and holds you to the fix. A human coach brings judgment at a high monthly price. An AI trading coach reviews every trade you log. Either way, check that it grades the decision, names your costliest habit and tracks your later trades against the fix.
Mostly on the loss limits, not the strategy. A normal losing streak, sized for the profit target, breaks the drawdown rule. At a 45% win rate a run of 6 losses is more likely than not over 100 trades: about 5.9% of the account at 1% risk, about 11.4% at 2%. Size from the drawdown limit and set your own daily stop below the firm's.
Use a Flex Query. In the IBKR Client Portal, open Performance & Reports, then Flex Queries, make an Activity Flex Query with the Trades section at Execution level, and save it. Then either paste the Flex token and Query ID into your tool, or download the report as XML and upload the file.
