Something for a quiet sort of session – here’s an interview with Mark Minervini in ‘Trader’s World’ magazine in which he gives the 7 common reasons most traders fail in the markets.

1. Most traders follow a flawed strategy with poor selection criteria, usually this is based on personal opinion or bad advice

2. Even when they find a good approach, the majority of traders don’t stay the course; they suffer what we call “style drift”, changing strategy when short-term results are unsatisfactory or become boring

3. The #1 mistake made by virtually all investors is they don’t cut losses

4. Most of the traders that blow themselves up usually do so by adding to losing positions

5. The grand majority of stock traders don’t know the truth about their trading – they fail to conduct in-depth post analysis regularly; they simply don’t know the math, so they have no idea how to manage risk in relation to reward

6. Many traders start with unrealistic goals; they want too much too fast and become disinterested when success doesn’t come quickly

7. Most failures in anything stem from a lack of belief in your own abilities; most people just don’t believe they can be exceptional at stock trading, but they can, if they really want it and follow the right plan