Confirmation bias
Only noticing information that supports the direction you’re already positioned in, while tuning out signals that contradict it. Once you’re in a position, you tend to seek out only the news and charts that agree with you.
Loss aversion
Feeling a loss far more painfully than an equivalent gain feels good. This is why losing positions get held "until it just breaks even," while winning positions get closed too early out of fear the gain might disappear.
Recency bias
Giving disproportionate weight to your most recent experience. A few recent wins make you size up recklessly; a few recent losses make you hesitate and miss genuinely good setups.
Sunk cost bias and the role of your journal
Holding onto a bad position because of the time or money already sunk into it. What all four biases have in common is that they all run on "how it feels right now." A trading journal forces you to compare that feeling against real historical data — keeping any single bias from fully taking over your decision.
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