After years in the market, here's what I think actually separates traders who last from traders who blow up
Been trading for a while now, and I've seen a lot of people come and go. It's almost never about the strategy. Most experienced traders have a workable edge. What kills people is usually one of three things, and they're sneakier than you'd think:
Risk management doesn't fail suddenly — it erodes. The rules that kept you safe at small size get quietly bent as your account grows. Bigger position sizes creep in, you start making "just this once" exceptions. Nobody blows up because they didn't know the rules. They blow up because they stopped following them without noticing.
Discipline breaks after winning streaks, not losing ones. Everyone tightens up after a drawdown — the pain forces you to. It's the overconfidence after a good run that gets people. That's usually when the account-ending trade happens, not during a rough patch.
You stop reviewing trades once you're "good enough." Early on you analyze every loss. Once you're consistently green, it's easy to get lazy about it — and that's exactly when the market shifts under you and your edge starts decaying quietly.
None of this is groundbreaking advice. But I think most blowups trace back to one of these three, not to a bad strategy.
Anyone else notice this in themselves or people they know? What's actually gotten you at your worst moments — was it risk, discipline, or just going stale?