I’m away at Lake Tahoe this week and not trading, but I felt compelled to write this.

Many traders take risks when they shouldn’t. They take on too much risk too easily by over sizing, risky bets, etc. They not only lose money but also tie up their time and money managing these trades, and the psychological price they pay is huge.

When the time comes to enter a trade – when the big opportunity shows up, they hesitate. They’ve been so frustrated with the poor performance of the previous trades they’re not able to pull the trigger when they really should.

I wrote more about trading and patience here.

The market is an opportunity-generating machine; we just have to wait for the right opportunity. Trading is as much a waiting game as it is anything else. Waiting for the opportunity and then waiting for the trade the trade to work.