You entered the trade perfectly. Your target was 3R.
Price hits your target. You do not close.
“It is going higher,” you think. “Just a little more.”
Price reverses. You watch your profit shrink. You still do not close — hoping it recovers.
It does not. You exit at breakeven. Or worse, a loss.
You had a winning trade. Greed turned it into nothing.
Greed is the desire for more — more profit, more gains, more than your plan allows.
It does not arrive before the trade. It arrives when you are winning.
That is what makes it so dangerous. By the time greed appears, you have already done everything right. Then it convinces you to undo it all.
Moving the take profit higher.
Your take profit target was $45,000. Price reaches it.
Greed says it is going to $50,000. You move the target.
Price reverses at $45,200. You exit at $43,000.
Not closing when the setup is complete.
Your analysis said the move was over. The signal is clear.
Greed says stay in just a little longer.
The little longer costs you half your profit.
Overtrading after a winning streak.
Three wins in a row. You feel invincible.
You increase position size. You take lower quality setups.
One bad trade wipes out all three wins.
Adding to a winning position without a plan.
Price is moving in your favour. You add more size impulsively.
The move ends. The larger position gives back everything the original trade made.
You have a trade open with 5R profit. Your original target was 3R.
Greed keeps you in. Price pulls back to 1R. You finally close.
You turned a 3R winner into a 1R winner.
Over 100 trades — that difference is enormous. A system targeting 3R with 45% win rate is profitable. The same system averaging 1R due to greed is not.
Greed does not just cost you one trade. It destroys your entire edge.
Rule 1 — Set your target before you enter.
Your take profit is decided before price moves — not during.
Once set, it does not move. Ever.
Rule 2 — Use a partial close system.
Close 50% at your first target. Move stop to breakeven. Let the rest run.
This satisfies the desire for more while protecting the core profit.
Rule 3 — Measure success by plan execution.
A trade that hits your target and closes is a perfect trade — regardless of what price does after.
You are not trying to catch the entire move. Nobody does.
Rule 4 — Review your greed moments.
In your trading journal — record every time you overrode your exit plan.
Calculate the cost. Most traders are shocked by how much greed has stolen from them.
Rule 5 — Remember: the next trade exists.
Greed assumes this is the last opportunity. It is not.
The market does not close. There is always another setup.
In the next topic we will study overconfidence — the emotion that makes you believe you cannot lose.