6) Psychology
Buy-sell, buy-sell, buy-sell. You make 10-15 trades in a single day. It feels productive, but when you check your portfolio at month's end it's in the red? Congratulations, you might have overtrading syndrome — and it's more common than you think.
Overtrading is the habit of executing trades too frequently without strong justification, usually driven by emotion (boredom, greed, or wanting to 'recover' losses). Overtrading erodes profit through transaction costs and increasingly poor decisions from decision fatigue.
Ever played a video game until late at night? At 8 PM you're sharp, reflexes crisp, decisions fast. By 11 PM? You start misclicking, decision-making drops. At 2 AM? Just clicking randomly, no longer caring. Overtrading is the same — the more trades you make, the more tired your brain gets, the worse your decisions become. Except in games you only lose ranking; in stocks you lose real money.
Say you're day-trading ANTM. Morning buy at Rp1,800, up to Rp1,825 you sell (Rp25 profit). Buy again at Rp1,815, it drops so you sell at Rp1,810 (Rp5 loss). Buy again... and so on. By end of day, your total profit might be Rp30/lot but broker fees eat Rp20/lot. Not to mention the time and mental energy wasted. Compare that to an investor who buys BBCA once and holds for months.
After understanding this concept, apply it in tools so decisions become more objective and measurable.
Open Profit / Loss CalculatorWhat's the ideal number of trades per day?
There's no exact number, but for beginners, 1-3 trades per day is more than enough. Many professional traders only take 1-2 best setups per day. Quality matters more than quantity. Warren Buffett even said investors should ideally have only 20 'buy tickets' for their entire lifetime.
How do I stop overtrading?
First, admit you're overtrading (many are in denial). Second, set hard rules: max 3 trades per day, and a checklist must be met before buying. Third, find other activities during market hours so you're not constantly tempted to open the trading app. Exercise, read, or focus on other work.
