Revenge trading
Revenge trading is trying to win a loss back immediately with bigger or unplanned trades. The objective quietly shifts from executing a strategy to erasing a number, and sizing discipline goes with it.
The sequence is consistent: a loss produces urgency, the next trade is taken sooner and larger than the plan allows, and a second loss lands on the enlarged size. Because size grows while judgment degrades, the damage is usually done within two or three trades, not ten.
Prevention works better than in-the-moment willpower: a personal daily stop set below any external limit, a mandatory pause after two consecutive losses, a hard cap on size for the rest of a losing day, and an honest journal field for the emotional state each trade was taken in. Revenge trading and overtrading feed each other, so the same structures address both.
Example
A $10,000 evaluation account has a 5% ($500) daily loss limit. You lose $200 on a planned one-lot trade, then double to two lots to win it back. At $20 per pip, a 17-pip move against you costs $340 — total for the day $540, and the account is breached in two trades.
In a prop-firm challenge
Loss-chasing after a red trade is among the most commonly cited reasons evaluations fail, and each failure has a price when attempts cost a typical $50–$600. A personal cutoff near 2–3% — well inside the firm's daily loss limit — leaves the attempt alive for tomorrow, a discipline expanded in why traders fail challenges.