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Glossary

Revenge trading

Revenge trading is entering a trade mainly to win back a loss, rather than because the setup meets your plan.

The trigger is the loss, not the market. The entry comes quickly, often larger than usual, and the reasoning afterwards is about getting back to even instead of about the chart. Because the motive is emotional, the trade usually ignores the criteria you would normally require.

It shows up in a record as a pattern: short gaps between a losing trade and the next entry, an increase in position size, and a lower average result in R for those trades compared with the rest. You can check your own history for exactly that, and the answer is more useful than any general warning.

The usual defence is a rule written in advance that interrupts the sequence: after a loss, leave the desk for a set time, or take no new entry until you have written one line about why the next trade qualifies. The rule has to be physical and specific, because you will not judge well in the moment it is needed.

Revenge trading is a close relative of tilt, but narrower: tilt is the general loss of composure, revenge trading is one of the things it produces.

In Trader Reflect

Quick re-entries after a loss

Reflect measures the minutes between a losing trade and your next entry and compares the result in R of fast re-entries with the rest of your record.

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Read more

Revenge Trading: How to Recognise It and Stop ItHow to spot revenge trading at the desk, why willpower fails, and four rules set in advance that interrupt it, plus a way to check they work.

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Trader Reflect reads your Money Circle journal and names the habit costing you most. Open it from your Journal or see what membership includes.

Educational content, not financial advice. Trading involves risk of loss.