Lesson: Don't chase that 'one last trade' on a Friday afternoon

Thought I'd finally introduce myself here. Been trading forex and indices for a few years now, mostly short-term stuff. One of the harder lessons I had to internalize, and it cost me a decent chunk early on, was the allure of the 'one last trade' on a Friday afternoon. You know the one – you've had a solid week, maybe you're up a little, market's starting to thin out, but there's a chart setup that just looks too good to pass up. For me, it was usually $EURUSD or $GBPUSD. I'd convince myself to take a slightly larger size, because it was 'low risk' or 'sure thing'. Inevitably, liquidity would drop off a cliff, a news headline would pop up out of nowhere, or price would just grind against me into the close, leaving me holding a losing position over the weekend or taking a much bigger hit than I intended. The psychological drain of starting the next week down and having to fight back from a self-inflicted wound was far worse than the financial loss. Took a while to learn that leaving money on the table is often the most profitable decision.