“I'll close it as soon as it gets back to my entry. No point taking the loss now.”
Have you caught yourself thinking this?
Why does your entry price begin feeling like a price the market owes you?
What's happening psychologically?
The entry price has become a psychological anchor. Once a position moves into drawdown, returning to the entry can feel like the only acceptable exit. The trader may stop asking whether the position remains valid, focusing instead on reaching a number that allows them to leave without recording a loss.
But the market has no obligation to return to an individual's entry price. The emotional significance of that number belongs to the trader, not the market.
Waiting for breakeven can become a way of postponing the decision to accept that the original trade did not work as expected.
Often preceded by
Unrealised losses, missed exits, regret about entering, uncertainty.
May involve
Anchoring, regret avoidance, loss aversion, mental accounting.
Can lead towards
Extended exposure, holding invalidated trades, missing better exits, larger losses.
Catch it
Notice when every move is evaluated by its distance from entry rather than whether the original setup remains intact.
Interruption question
“If I had no position open, would I enter this exact trade at the current price?”
When this thought might be reasonable
Breakeven exits can be part of a legitimate strategy. The concern is when returning to entry becomes an emotional requirement rather than a planned condition.