Which mistake would you not repeat if you could go back in time?
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I would have trained and learned and practiced and demo traded so that by the time I put real capital into trading I was already competent, not just lucky.
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Prematurely exiting winning trades. My strategy calls for two open positions: one is closed after a pre-fixed pip distance (but variable, depending on the instrument, etc.) and the other is left to run - but I invariably end up closing it too soon. I guess my trading “school report” would read “could do better” 
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I would have taken trading more seriously and did the correct education before I jumped in and assumed I could make some easy money.
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Hmm. 
Personally, I would have spent less time demo trading that I actually did. Sometimes, I feel like I took so long on demo and lost a lot of opportunity to grow as a trader in my first year of trading. 
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Surely this means you closed the first half way too soon?
It might sound like that at first but, no, it doesn’t mean that at all! 
We need to remember that markets are not trending all the time, rather they tend to spend a lot of their time consolidating/retracing/ranging.
So the first position has a fixed pip target based on my recorded data on what is a typical distance for the price to move without a strong trend (call it ATR if you like). This catches the moves that a trend strategy would get whipsawed with, and accumulates a fairly steady measure of pips during each month.
If I don’t see a trend forming then both positions are set with this TP. It is only when a trend seems likely that the second position is left open, usually with a safety net trailing stop behind it.
If the trend develops then I gain more, and if it doesn’t then the first position’s gain covers the loss if the trailing stop is still on the other side of B/E.
I don’t rely on just waiting for the trailing stop to get hit because that gives up too much profit. I aim for identified PA-based targets.
I think the hardest thing in trading is identifying where to exit - both stops and targets. This way, I feel I get at least a fair share of any move. Afterall, no-one gets it all!
There is also a lot of discretion in this. For example, the first position might be twice the size of the second position, But the risk is that neither position actually reach the fixed target and both get stopped out - but that is the risk with any position, anyway. As long as the overall risk is within the pre-set parameters!
So, in wordy terms, the first position is just a routine profit pump, regardless of the final distance of each move, and the second position is a speculative gamble on a longer trend evolving (which no one can predict in advance).
Does that make any sense?
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Yes - it does make sense, but I find the use of MAs converging (a bit like MACD Histogram) useful - 8EMA and 20SMA
I day trade, mainly 1min and 5mins only indices with no targets. If I get a runner I will add. I am mindful of Daily Pivots and may close a trade at that point but it will tell me whether to hold or fold.
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We seem to have very similar approaches! I also use only MA’S (and their convergence/divergence) and mainly stock indices. Although oil is also good. I use the MA’s divergence/convergence to define the underlying momentum/strength in the move (or lack of) and only trade the growing momentum. When I was younger I also traded the short TFs 15m/5m. Nowadays, I do the same but with the 4h/1h combo.
So you will obviously understand that when I say I anticipate a longer trend starting it means when the 1H and 4H are in agreement. That is when the second position is freed.
When the 1H reverses against the 4H then it is a retracement and both positions are then fixed-pip targets during this kind of situation.
But this thread is about mistakes and not strategies - but nice talking to a similar mind for a change!
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Really? You know, my first trading experiences were as a young commercial bank forex trader back in the days before MS Windows and when technical analysis was ridiculed as some kind of witchcraft, charts were drawn by hand and obviously on daily data only. I have only used MA’s ever since those ancient times! 
How on earth do you still manage to concentrate on such short term TFs!? I am truly impressed!!!
PS. where does the 1974 come from in your username?
PS; I could also add that my first home PC as a retail trader was still a DOS system and black/white!! (actually it was orange text/black,) there was no such thing as a colour screen in those times! 
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Keeps my mind active and hopefully staves off dementia a bit!
1974 is just a memorable year when Captain Christy won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, ridden by my friend the great jockey Bobby Beasley 
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I just looked him up. He was from an Irish family. Are you also from Ireland? I am UK born but emigrated from there a long time ago. I no longer recognise the UK as my home country and really feel like a foreigner whenever I visit relatives there. Nothing negative in that, it has just changed so much, that’s all.
How long have you been trading? Tell me your history, I am really interested. PM if you don¨t want to write here on BP?
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Probably revenge trading when a trade went against me and I would immediately open a trade in the other direction. Price would switch against me almost immediately. I had times when I did this a couple times in the same trade or set of trades!
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You know, this can actually be a virtue if you can tame the animal!
Some big traders, like Tom Hougaard, for example, actually commend those that can flip their view in an instance.
The only prerequisite is the reason for the change in view. If your stop just happened to be too tight then there is no reason to reverse your view. But if the set-up reverses, then it is truly courageous to flip your view in an instance! Only the most flexible of traders can do that!
I have often found that if a trade in one direction fails and is immediately followed by an opposite setup in the other direction, then the subsequent setup has a much higher probability of success and even justifies a bigger position size, purely because the opposite setup failed. But it has to be a reverse setup not just an unfortunate stoploss hit.
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Mistakes just adds to the process of elimination until you find gold the holy grail
It’s all variables
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I’ve had some workout. More didn’t work out, at least early on in my live trading. But I think I was being too impatient, and like you said, stop loss was too tight.
I like to trade with the trend. But if I find one of those trends within a trend and I can catch it early at the top of a channel, or when there’s plenty of consolidation to look at, I’ll trade it.
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“Maybe I can not use a stop loss just this one time.” 
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Even if you put a stop loss miles and miles away you might one day save 50% of your account. 
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Ugh aren’t you the truth teller 