New traders rarely fail for exotic reasons. It's the same seven mistakes, in roughly this order.
1. Trading without a written plan
Fix: one page — setup, entry, stop, target, size formula. If it's not written, it doesn't exist.
2. Oversizing
The account-killer. Risking 5–10% per trade means a normal losing streak is fatal. Fix: 1% risk per trade, sized from the stop distance, no exceptions.
3. Trading without a hard stop
Fix: the stop order goes in with the entry. Mental stops fail precisely when markets move fast.
4. Revenge trading
Fix: a hard daily loss limit (e.g. -2%) after which the platform closes. Decided in advance, enforced mechanically.
5. Strategy hopping
Fix: commit to a minimum sample — say 50 trades — before judging any approach. Ten trades tell you nothing.
6. Ignoring swaps and spreads
Fix: know your all-in cost per trade. Our costs comparison is the starting point.
7. Choosing a broker on marketing
Fix: regulation first, then costs and platform fit. That's this entire site's reason to exist.
Related broker reviews
Want to compare your options in more depth? Read our full VT Markets review (9.3/10) and StarTrader review (9.1/10), or see how they stack up head-to-head in our VT Markets vs StarTrader comparison.