After years of trading, I’ve noticed something interesting: many people are very cautious when they first start out. They don’t dare take on a large position, and they set their stop-losses properly. But after two losses in a row, they become a completely different person.

They originally planned to exit after losing 20U, but then they couldn’t accept losing 50U, started averaging down after losing 100U, and eventually got liquidated.

A while ago, one of my followers told me that he’d started trading futures with 1,000U. His first few trades went pretty well, and his account balance even reached 1,250U at one point. He thought he’d figured out how the market worked, so he started increasing his position size. Then, unexpectedly, the market reversed, and he hit his stop-loss twice in a row, taking a substantial hit to his account.

The worst part was that he refused to accept the loss. He immediately opened another large position, thinking he could win back all the money he had just lost. But he misread the market again, and his account was left with just over 400 U.

Later, he realized that what he had lost to wasn’t the market, but the part of himself that refused to give up after taking a loss.

I gave him just three pieces of advice.

Step one: Set a maximum loss for every trade in advance.

Set your stop-loss before entering a trade; don’t wait until you’re losing to decide what to do. You can start by practicing with a risk of 0.5%–1% of your account balance per trade, adjusting as needed based on leverage, volatility, and position size. A stop-loss isn’t about admitting defeat—it’s about preventing one bad call from affecting your entire account.

Step two: After consecutive losses, force yourself to step away from the market.

If you lose two trades in a row, don’t rush to look for a third. Close your trading platform and review your entry logic first. If the problem was execution, address that first; if the market has no clear direction, wait patiently.

Step three: No revenge trading after a loss.

Never treat your next trade as a way to win back what you lost on the previous one. Every trade must be judged independently. Don’t arbitrarily change your position size or direction just because your last trade lost.

Many people treat futures trading like a game to prove themselves. They’re always trying to prove they can buy the bottom, sell the top, or win back all their losses in one go.

But the market doesn’t care how much you’ve already lost, and it won’t give you an opportunity just because you’re desperate to make money.

I’ve always believed that the biggest improvement in trading isn’t going from losses to profits, but going from emotional trading to rule-based trading.

Losses aren’t scary. What’s scary is refusing to accept a loss and handing the rest of your capital over to the market yourself.$ONE $ACT $QNTB