A perfect trade… and a bad decision | Personal experience

josevas217 (80)in PussFi 🐈 • 4 days ago

Hello PussFi community friends, there are definitely lessons you don't learn by reading books or looking at charts, but by experiencing them firsthand, and trading is full of those kinds of lessons.

We often think the biggest challenge is finding a good entry point, predicting the market direction, or having a "winning" strategy, but over time you realize that the real challenge lies in emotional management, especially knowing when to take profits and not letting greed ultimately work against you... And I'm speaking from experience.

A few days ago, I had a trade that, technically, was very well planned. The risk was clear: $30. The market moved in my favor almost from the start, and in a short time, the trade reached a 200% return on my initial risk. Simply put, I had $60 in floating profit. It wasn't a fortune, but it was an excellent risk-reward ratio, the kind you're always looking for.

The logical, disciplined thing to do would have been to close at least part of the position, lock in profits, and let the rest run if I wanted, just as I usually do. But no, at that moment that familiar inner voice in trading appeared: "it can go higher," and I truly thought it was the beginning of a major rally.

And that's where the problem begins. When you're already in profit, the market stops being a chart and becomes expectations. You start imagining what you could earn if it keeps going up, and without realizing it, those $60 that were already there start to feel "little." It's absurd, because just minutes ago they didn't even exist, but that's how the mind works when greed creeps in. The initial plan dissolves, the rules become flexible, and "just a little more" becomes the perfect excuse not to close the position.

The market, as usual, didn't ask about my expectations. It reversed, started to pull back, and I, still convinced it was just a pullback, made no decision. The price continued to fall to the entry point, and the trade closed at break-even. Final result: zero dollars in profit. I had a flawless trade and ended up exactly where I started, only with an extra lesson learned.

These kinds of experiences make one thing very clear to me: not taking profits is also a decision, and often a bad one. In trading, it's not the one who's right the most who wins, but the one who manages best, definitely. Greed isn't about wanting to make a lot of money; it's about not being satisfied with what the market is already giving you. And the market doesn't reward that; on the contrary, it often punishes it.

Learning to take profits isn't a lack of ambition, it's survival. It's understanding that the goal isn't to catch the perfect trade, but to build consistency over time. Sixty dollars taken wisely, repeatedly, is worth infinitely more than waiting for the "big trade" that almost never comes. Furthermore, taking profits strengthens discipline, reduces emotional stress, and keeps you connected to your personal plan, not your impulses.

In the end, trading is a pretty honest mirror. It shows you exactly where you're failing, not technically, but in your human skills. That trade wasn't a financial loss; it was an investment in learning, and I prefer to see it that way. And like any good lesson, it hurt more for what could have been than for what actually was. Goodbye, take care.

^{Note: Images are screenshots from my futures account on Binance.}