Here's a number that should bother you: a trader won 70% of his trades and still watched his account go to zero. Steadily. Trade after trade.

The win rate was never the problem.

Run the math. Ten trades, seven winners at +$100, three losers at −$300. That's $700 won against $900 lost — minus $20 per trade, on a strategy he's right about most of the time. The platform shows you the big green 70%. It never shows you expectancy: win rate × average win, minus loss rate × average loss. And expectancy is the paycheck.

Where did the $300 loss come from? Not bad luck. One unwritten rule: take profits fast, but when a trade goes against you, wait, move the stop, average down. Cut winners short, let losers run. That asymmetry turns a $100 edge into a $300 wound.

The flip side is the part that sticks. A trend follower who wins only 40% of the time — cutting losers at $50, letting winners run to $200 — earns +$50 per trade. The one who's wrong more often gets paid. The one who's right more often goes broke.

What a disciplined trader does: pull your last 30 trades. Calculate your average win and your average loss, then divide the loss by the win. If your losers are bigger than your winners, no win rate saves you — you're one cold streak from zero. Then fix the exit: cap the loss at (or below) the size of your typical win. In the example above, that one change flipped the account from −$20 to +$40 per trade. Same strategy. Same win rate.

Carry this to your screen: you're paid by the size of right versus wrong, not by how often you're right.

This is educational commentary, not personalized financial advice — trade your own plan.

Full walkthrough with the numbers on screen: https://youtu.be/-AqyT2cbMnE