r/SKBTradingLab

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Most traders think the biggest danger is the market.

Sometimes, it’s the trader sitting in front of the screen.

I put together the 10 most dangerous “criminals” in trading—the habits and psychological mistakes that can quietly destroy a trading account:

1. FOMO — The Chaser

2. Revenge Trading — The Avenger

3. Overtrading — The Machine

4. Averaging Down — The Trapper

5. Moving the Stop Loss — The Escape Artist

6. Early Profit Taking — The Thief

7. Overleverage — The Destroyer

8. Prediction Addiction — The Fortune Teller

9. Strategy Hopping — The Shape-Shifter

10. Ego — The Mastermind

The interesting part is that most of these don't appear when everything is going well.

They show up when you're angry, impatient, afraid, greedy, or trying to recover a loss.

For me, one of the biggest lessons from trading has been:

A good strategy can't save you from bad discipline.

You don't need to eliminate every losing trade.

You need to eliminate the bad behavior around losing trades.

Which one do you think is the most dangerous?

And which one have you personally struggled with the most?

SKB TRADING LAB

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“Price will move toward Max Pain on expiry.”»

But what exactly is Max Pain—and how should you interpret it?

🎯 What Is Max Pain?

Max Pain is a calculation based on the Open Interest distribution of Calls and Puts.

It identifies the strike where the estimated aggregate intrinsic payout to option holders is lowest at expiration, based on the current options chain.

📊 Simple Example

Suppose the important strikes are:

24,000 → 24,500 → 25,000

After calculating the potential payouts at each expiry price, assume:

➡️ 24,500 = lowest aggregate payout

Then 24,500 is the calculated Max Pain strike.

⚠️ Does Price Always Move There?

No.

Max Pain is not a guaranteed expiry target.

Price can move away from the calculated level because of:

• News & macro events

• Strong market trends

• Changes in Open Interest

• Hedging activity

• Institutional positioning

• Volatility

• New positions entering or being closed

🔄 Max Pain Can Change

The options chain is dynamic.

New positions, position closures, and shifts in OI can cause the calculated Max Pain level to change.

🧠 Key Lesson

«Max Pain is a tool for analyzing the options chain—not a guaranteed prediction of where the market will expire.»

Use it alongside:

Price Action + OI + Volume + Market Structure + IV + Expiry Context

SKB TRADING LAB

Learn | Analyze | Trade | Grow

Educational content only — not financial advice.