The important thing to remember , is that your P&L over say a year… is made up of a lot of trading profits and losses. Your goal is simply to have the P bigger than the L. How you get to that will include many losses along the way. However the key is to minimise those losses, and maximise your profits. This is where setting both profit taking levels and stop losses are elementary to managing your trades. If you only get 5/10 trades correct, you can still be a profitable trader if the 5 profits are bigger than the 5 losses…. So imagine what you can do if you get 7/10 trades correct and still keep the same profit to loss ratio. This took me at least 10 years to realise…. And to stop letting my ego get in the way of running losses and taking profits too early…. You aren't here to be “right’... you are trading to maximise gains on the times you are right… and minimise losses on the times you are wrong. This is how you make money over a year.