I Rewatched Every Losing Trade I Ever Made — Here’s the Pattern I Found
I’ve been trading crypto for a few years now, and like many traders, I’ve experienced both the highs and lows of this volatile market. But there was one day that changed how I view trading forever.
One quiet Sunday afternoon, I sat down at my desk, opened my trading journal, and decided to review every losing trade I had ever made. Not just a handful. Not just the recent ones. Every single losing trade.
It was brutal. It was emotional. And honestly, it was one of the most eye-opening exercises I’ve ever done in my entire trading journey.
Today, I want to share what I found — the pattern that kept repeating itself, the mistakes that almost felt invisible in the moment, and the lessons that completely changed the way I trade today.
Why I Decided to Go Back and Rewatch My Losing Trades
For weeks, I had been feeling stuck. My account wasn’t blowing up, but it wasn’t growing the way I wanted either. I’d win some trades, lose some, and end up breaking even or slightly down.
One day, after closing a losing trade on Ethereum, I felt frustrated. Not because I lost money, but because deep down, I knew the loss could have been avoided if I had just followed my rules.
That’s when it hit me:
“What if the problem isn’t my strategy? What if the problem is me?”
So, I made a decision: I was going to rewatch every losing trade and find out why I lost.
I pulled up my old charts, transaction history, screenshots I had saved, and even voice notes I made during live trades. I wanted to relive each moment exactly as it happened.
And let me tell you — this wasn’t easy. It felt like reliving every embarrassing mistake I’d ever made. But it was necessary.
Step 1: Gathering the Data
The first thing I did was organize my trades. I exported everything from my exchange accounts — Binance, Bybit, KuCoin — into a spreadsheet. Then I filtered only the losing trades.
Out of 500+ trades I had made over the years, around 270 were losses.
At first glance, that didn’t surprise me. Most successful traders lose a lot but still end up profitable because they manage risk well. So the loss percentage wasn’t the issue.
What I really wanted to know was:
Were these losses random?Or was there a pattern behind them?
Step 2: Rewatching Every Trade
This was the hard part.
I opened TradingView, pulled up historical charts, and started going through my entries and exits. I zoomed out to see the bigger trend and then zoomed in to remember what I was thinking at the time.
Some trades brought back good memories. Others? Pure frustration.
And then… something clicked.
By the 20th trade, I started seeing repetition. The same kind of setups, the same kind of emotional triggers, the same mistakes over and over again.
I began writing down notes next to each losing trade, like:
“Entered too early.”“Chased the breakout.”“Ignored the higher timeframe.”“Moved stop-loss too soon.”
It was like peeling back layers of my own psychology as a trader.
The Pattern That Kept Showing Up
After hours of reviewing trades, I realized something shocking:
Most of my losing trades didn’t happen because of my strategy. They happened because of my mindset.
Here were the three biggest patterns I found:
1. Chasing Breakouts Out of FOMO
This was by far the biggest issue.
Every time a coin started pumping hard, my brain would scream:
“If you don’t enter now, you’ll miss the move!”
So I’d jump in — late — at the worst possible time, right before a pullback.
In fact, about 40% of my losing trades were FOMO entries. I wasn’t following my plan. I was reacting to emotions.
2. Ignoring Higher Timeframes
Another big mistake was getting tunnel vision on smaller charts.
I’d see a beautiful bullish setup on the 5-minute chart, but if I had checked the 4-hour or daily chart, I would have seen major resistance sitting right above.
Those trades were doomed from the start.
3. Revenge Trading After a Loss
This one hurt the most because I didn’t even realize how often I did it.
Whenever I took a big loss, I felt this overwhelming urge to make the money back immediately. So I’d jump into the next setup without waiting for confirmation, over-leverage, and — surprise — lose again.
How These Patterns Cost Me Thousands
When I totaled up the damage from just these mistakes, it was painful to see:
FOMO entries alone cost me $8,400.Ignoring higher timeframes cost another $3,000.Revenge trading? Over $6,000 gone in a few months.
That’s over $17,000 lost on mistakes I could have avoided if I had just followed my own rules.
The Changes I Made After Discovering the Pattern
After facing this reality, I knew something had to change. So I came up with a plan:
1. No More Blind Entries
Now, before I enter any trade, I ask myself:
Did I plan this trade in advance?Does it align with my strategy?What’s my risk-to-reward ratio?
If I can’t answer confidently, I don’t take the trade — no matter how good it looks.
2. Always Start With Higher Timeframes
I made this a non-negotiable rule:
Before taking any trade, I check the daily and 4-hour charts first.
If the higher timeframe trend doesn’t support my trade idea, I skip it. Simple as that.
3. The “Cool-Off Rule”
After a losing trade, I now take a 15-minute break before looking for another setup. No exceptions. This gives my brain time to reset and avoid revenge trading.
4. Journaling Every Trade (With Emotions)
Before, my journal only had entry/exit details. Now I write down what I was feeling before and after the trade.
This helped me catch emotional patterns before they turn into financial losses.
The Results After Fixing My Mistakes
So, did all this actually work? Absolutely.
Within three months of making these changes:
My win rate didn’t skyrocket (it stayed around 55%), but my profitability improved drastically.I started letting winners run longer and cutting losers faster.Most importantly, I stopped feeling like trading was controlling me — I was finally in control.
Why You Should Review Your Losing Trades
If you’ve never done this exercise before, I highly recommend it. Not just for the technical insights, but for the self-awareness it brings.
Losing trades aren’t failures — they’re feedback. And if you ignore that feedback, you’ll keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Final Thoughts
The day I decided to review all my losing trades was the day I truly became a better trader.
It wasn’t about finding the perfect strategy. It wasn’t about timing the market. It was about understanding myself — my habits, my emotions, and my patterns.
If you want to level up as a trader, try this:
Go back and review your losing trades.Look for patterns — not just in the charts, but in your decisions and emotions.Fix one mistake at a time.
Trust me, the insights you’ll gain are worth more than any indicator or paid course.
I Rewatched Every Losing Trade I Ever Made — Here’s the Pattern I Found was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.