Lesson Learned: Not respecting the chop
Early in my trading journey, I made the classic mistake of trying to actively trade every single market condition. I remember specifically trying to scalp $EURUSD during a period of extremely low volatility and tight ranges, thinking I could just pick off a few pips here and there. What ended up happening was getting repeatedly chopped up, my stops triggered by essentially random noise, and then trying to double down to make back losses. It was a painful lesson in respecting the market's phases and recognizing when to just sit on the sidelines, or at least significantly reduce size.
That's a tough lesson to learn, but definitely an important one. It makes me wonder, how do you personally define 'chop' now, and what indicators or price action patterns do you look for to avoid those situations?