A trader can lose money on a trade they never entered. Not because of slippage. Not because of leverage. Because of opportunity cost. Imagine two traders watching the same market. Trader A sees no setup and stays in cash. Trader B sees no setup, but enters anyway because “something has to happen.” The market moves sideways for hours. Trader B pays spread, commissions and potentially takes a loss. Trader A loses nothing. But here’s the interesting part: Trader A can still make a mistake. If the market later produces a high-quality setup and A is mentally exhausted from waiting, distracted, or no longer paying attention, the cost of doing nothing wasn’t the trade. It was what happened to the trader while waiting for it. This is why inactivity isn’t automatically discipline. Sometimes it’s patience. Sometimes it’s avoidance. Sometimes it’s simply indecision wearing a professional disguise. The difficult question isn’t Should I trade? Its What am I doing while I’m not trading? Because waiting is also a decision. And like every decision in markets… it has an opportunity cost.