♨️ Educational Post 📛
Break-Even Stops: Why “Playing Safe” Often Kills Good Trades
This image I've unloaded explains a mistake many crypto traders repeat — moving stops to break-even too early.
In the first phase, price breaks support and a short trade is taken. The idea is valid. Structure breaks, momentum follows, and the trade initially moves in your favor.
Then comes the emotional decision. Price moves slightly lower, and instead of letting the trade develop, the stop is moved to break-even to “remove risk.” On the surface, this feels responsible.
But markets don’t move in straight lines.
Price pulls back into the broken support — not to reverse, but to retest it. This retest is normal behavior. However, because the stop is now too tight, the position gets taken out.
What happens next is the painful part: support holds, momentum resumes, and price continues in the original direction — without you.
The trade idea was correct. The entry was correct. The exit logic wasn’t.
Break-even stops often protect emotions, not accounts. They turn winning trades into missed opportunities and create the illusion of safety while slowly destroying expectancy.
Stops are meant to invalidate ideas — not eliminate discomfort.
If the reason you entered the trade hasn’t failed, moving to break-even too early is not risk management. It’s fear management.
#Breakeven #TradersAnalysis #TraderMistakes