Looking back, this is one of the easiest trades to identify as a mistake. It happened on 8 April 2026 — you can find all the details in my journal. This was not a good trade because it did not align with my rules. There were three main rules I broke that I should not have.
I have learned this the hard way: it is never going to happen that one day we wake up and become the most disciplined trader or the best version of ourselves. We just have to practice discipline every day. And one more thing — just because we practice every day does not mean we will never make mistakes again. We are human. There is only one thing to do: keep going and minimize the number of days we are not disciplined.
The 1-Hour Chart
As we can see in the image above, there was a clear uptrend, then a short consolidation, then another Break of Structure (BOS) with huge candles, which formed a large Fair Value Gap (FVG). After the BOS, I waited for price to retrace back into the 1H FVG, then shifted to the 15-minute chart to look for an entry point.
Price did break the consolidation zone, but if we look closely, it barely closed above the swing high. I ignored that. That in itself was also a mistake — but I want to focus on the three bigger ones.
The trade failed. Looking back, the reasons are obvious.
The 3 Rules I Broke
Rule 1 — I moved my stop loss.
On the 15-minute chart, the FVG was quite large. My default is to place the stop loss beyond the FVG. But doing that here would have made my risk more than 1% of my account. Instead of simply skipping the trade, I moved the stop loss up to fit my risk. That was the first rule I broke.
Rule 2 — I entered without confirmation.
After price swept the liquidity on the 15-minute chart, there was no BOS. No confirmation. I jumped in anyway. There was no BOS — but there was a BOR: a Break Of Rules.
Rule 3 — I changed my Risk-to-Reward ratio.
My R:R is supposed to stay below 2. On this trade, I changed it to 3. That was the third rule I broke. I was not improving the trade. I was simply changing the target so the trade looked more attractive.
Why Did All of This Happen in One Trade?
I was desperate to make more money.
That is the honest answer. Most of the time I follow all my rules. But every now and then, desperation overrides everything — and when it does, it does not break one rule. It breaks all of them at once.
As I said before: we cannot be perfect. We cannot stop desperation from showing up. We can only stop letting it make our trading decisions.
Bye for now — take care.
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