I have to start with an apology.
I haven’t written here in a couple of weeks, and honestly, that’s on me.
My workload has been insane (and is remaining this way until December), I’ve been stressed because of this, and to top it off, this week I’ve fallen ill.

This is an aspect to my coaching business, which I don't want to outsource and as such my updates will come directly from me where my time permits.

Before I fill you in on an interesting situation in my trading, how many of you have checked out my latest YouTube video?

I dropped some sauce on some of the hard truths about trading psychology that you don’t often hear online:

I want to start by saying that I realise a lot of my posts and write-ups are often framed around something negative in my trading.

This is largely done intentionally - there are many highs and good moments in my trading, but I don't feel like that gives people a real reflection of how hard this game can be.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to go online, scroll through social media, and see what is possible in the trading space.
Everybody is sharing their highlight reel of wins, passed evaluations/challenges, and how many payouts they've had this month.

What they often don't show you is what goes on behind the scenes in terms of losses, drawdown, blown accounts, true expenses, and, for what I want to focus on today, making mistakes.

So yes, I focus a lot on the negative of my trading experiences, but it's with a view to keeping this realistic in terms of teaching you what this game can be like..

The chart below is of AUDUSD.
A green arrow is where I started to build a long position.
The red arrow is where I manually exited based on my feel for what the market was trying to do.

Now it's not completely against my rules to close trades based on the daily close.
However, in the context of what happened here, closing on that specific day wasn't part of my plan.

I should have left the market to hit my trailing stop-loss, which is what happens in most instances.

Now, if you could tell from the picture, the market did actually dip not long after getting out - I managed to get out of this trade just under break-even.
Had I stayed in, the market would have gone on to hit my trailing stop-loss and actually cost me more money.

It would be easy to look at this situation and pat myself on the back, saying my intuition or gut feel saved me money today.

So in this situation, I had to do one of the hardest things you can do as a trader.
I had to mentally tell myself I did something wrong, even though the outcome was somewhat positive.

If I don't train myself to think and measure performance in alignment with my process, this becomes a slippery slope for breaking my rules later down the line.

If I'm being completely honest on this day, I actually broke two of my rules in one go.
The second of which is not important for today's write-up, but it was enough for me to go flat across the board and to ask myself what was going on..

I'm not sitting here telling you that I'm perfect and I never make mistakes.
However, this was my first mistake in quite a few months and to make two in one day is very unlike me.

This is where I take you back to where I started this week’s update - I currently have a lot on my plate.

One of the main reasons I focus on swing trading is because it gives me enough of a life away from the charts to actually run my business.

This is one of the few occasions I have found that the stress and workload from other areas of my life have spilled over into my performance.

I've been juggling a lot, had a lack of mental clarity, and broke my rules, which is not a habit that I want to keep up.

I shared this with you, not because I have anything to gain from this moment.
But purely because I want you to understand that we are just human beings.
We are going to be imperfect, even at the best of times.

Progressing as a trader doesn't mean that you never make mistakes.
It means that you learn to stop the bleed quickly.
I don't double down on my mistakes and try and dig myself out.

I step back and reassess why the situation occurred.
I shift my perspective and get myself back to a state of equilibrium so that I can continue executing my plan.

Does it suck that I made a mistake?
Of course.

But I'm not going to let that be the reason that I'm held back.
After getting myself back in a good headspace and reassessing the market, I managed to re-enter not just this position but another swing trade at a more favourable area, which has subsequently moved in my favour.

At the time of this update going out, I am carrying swing longs in AUDUSD, GBPUSD and NZDUSD.
I'm being careful about how I approach this, given that there is a lot of USD exposure in each market in which I am expressing this idea.
If my idea is not correct, I'm likely to be wrong in all of them, so I'm ensuring that risk is being managed across the board.

If you're curious about the trades themselves, I actually talked a little about my analysis on a previous vlog that I put on YouTube:

So keep this in mind for your own trading.
Sometimes you're going to do things outside of your plan, which gives you a more favourable outcome.

In those moments, the key is not to reward yourself.

Your trade plan should contain criteria and rules that show you the most linear path to maximising profit.
If you don't believe that to be true, then it's going to be easy to justify breaking your rules again and again.

Belief and confidence in your approach come before everything else - it gets tested during the tough times, and that's where your ability to be consistent will really shine.

Thank you to everyone who is subscribed - and a big welcome to anybody who is new here.

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Hope you all had a great week!

I wanted to tune in before this week draws to a close to share an update and some lessons I’ve learned from my first venture back into day trading.

As the title suggests - I blew the first account.

But you may be surprised to know this was the intended outcome after the state of play this week.

Let me explain..

If you haven’t already, I’d recommend checking out this post from a few weeks ago for context of this new journey:
Day Trading > Swing Trading?

A Little History

Before I share my recent experiences and lessons, I think it makes sense to take you guys back a few years for a second.

I haven’t done a huge amount of prop firm challenges, but I first ventured into them circa 2023.

I wasn’t too much of a fan before this, as when they first became a thing, the time limits really capped my odds of success as a swing trader.

So I set myself a goal.
Could I pass a challenge if I gave myself unlimited time and just focused on good risk management?

The outcome was this:

I actually documented this whole journey on X - including a double-digit losing streak.
It took me 8 months, but I bounced back and passed the challenge.

For those of you wanting to see all the details, you can check it out here:
Prop Firm Journey

Now, one thing I’ve learned about prop firms is that they apply rules that don’t exist on personal accounts, which I’ve been used to trading since I got into this game.
And that’s forced me to adapt.

It’s been an odd experience because the skills that make me a good trader in my personal account didn’t immediately carry over to props.

Inversely, I see many prop traders who can do really well in the prop space, but absolutely crumble when they can’t reset a personal account.

So after passing that challenge, what did I learn?
Well, firstly, I know how to manage risk.
This wasn’t a surprise given I’m used to trading live capital.

If I really wanted to, I knew I could spend the time to get funded and get paid.
But was this the most optimal approach?
No.

We went through a phase where payout denials became more frequent.
Prop firms went under.
And it didn’t make sense to invest weeks or months into one firm, only to then hope and pray they didn’t do you wrong.

I realised that being able to pass a challenge and having an optimal approach to the prop firm game were two very different things..

A Different Game, A Different Approach

Fast forward a few years and today, prop firms have seemingly become a lot less swing-friendly.

Consistency rules.
No news / overnight / weekend holding.
One-sided betting restrictions.
FTMO even went as far as to remove swing accounts from people and cap the account size you can purchase on these.

So if I want to leverage this space, I’m forced to adapt.
Hence my recent venture back into day trading, with a view to eventually getting involved in futures.
But this time, I’m approaching the game very differently.

Remember how I spent 8 months passing that first challenge?
Well, I don’t want to do that again.

The playbook this time is to give myself a monthly allowance that I’m willing to spend on challenges.

The aim is to pass or fail the challenge/evaluation as quickly as possible, before then slowing down and maximising the number of payouts on funded accounts.

Essentially, I’m treating the cost of challenges as a business expense.
I know some will fail.
I expect some will pass.

And I’m comfortable with that, provided the approach makes sense over a larger sample.

The important distinction here is that I’m not trying to blow accounts.
I’m simply accepting a higher risk of failure during the evaluation stage in exchange for a faster outcome.

As I heard it most poetically put..
You either pay with time or money..

Of course, whether this approach actually proves to be more effective is something I’ll have to find out.

Which brings me to this week..

Challenge #1: Blown

Going into October, I decided to get aggressive.
And I got absolutely burned this week.

Didn’t do anything wrong in terms of my psychology - no major blowups or going on tilt.

I simply sized up to 2% risk and got caught on the wrong side of a few moves.
That’s the reality of taking on more risk.

Sometimes it works in your favour.
Other times, you can be out of the game pretty quickly.

But past the account itself, this first challenge has been a pretty interesting learning experience.

I’m quickly seeing that adding this day trading approach is coming with its challenges - which was expected.

So what have I learned?

1/ Watching the 5-minute chart the whole session didn’t serve me well.

Factor in that I currently make all my decisions from a daily chart.
That shift in the amount of information presented felt like a lot.
I found myself watching every little move, rather than focusing on the bigger picture.
I’ve decided that the narrative for my trades should come from the H1.
Management once in can then be done from the 5m.

This should help me reduce some of the noise whilst still allowing me to manage trades intraday.

2/ Two losses and I’m done (at least for now).

I had moments where I actually felt myself getting frustrated, with a pull to want to immediately jump back into the market.

This isn’t something I’ve been used to when swing trading, as my next opportunity to make a decision is usually the next daily candle close.
By the time that occurs, much of my frustration has often had time to pass.

But day trading is different.
You can lose a trade and have another opportunity present itself within minutes.
And I’ve quickly realised that this creates a different psychological challenge.

So for now, two losses and I’m done.

Not because two losses necessarily mean the market has nothing left to offer, but because I’m learning how I respond to this new environment.
And until I have a better understanding of that, I think it’s sensible to put some boundaries in place.

3/ My approach isn’t producing as high a win rate as I expect.

The initial goal was to reduce the RR to 1:1 (or sometimes lower) with a few to increase the win rate.

However, I’m trading with an approach that carries a lot of discretion at the moment, and I think that needs to change.

I’m not opposed to discretion.
It exists in my swing trading too.

But for my venture back into day trading, I want something that I have confidence has more substance, because right now it still feels so foreign.

I don’t want to be making decisions purely based on what I think looks good.
I want to have more data behind those decisions.

So next week, I’ll be coming equipped to the market with stats and positions backed by data from Edgeful.

This isn’t an affiliate plug - just sharing resources that I think could be useful and things I’ll be putting my own money against.

The Biggest Takeaway

If this experience reinforced anything for me it’s that there is no top to the mountain with trading.
There are always going to be new levels and new devils to face.

I’ve dealt with drawdowns, losing streaks, and just about every psychological challenge that comes with this game.
But here I am, learning how to navigate a new environment.
And that’s fine.

I think one of the biggest mistakes traders can make is assuming that because they’ve had success doing something one way, those same skills will automatically translate into something different.

Some will.
Others need to be developed.

And that’s exactly what I’m working through right now.

This account might be gone, but I’ve taken some valuable lessons from the experience.
The important thing now is making sure those lessons actually translate into better decisions.

Next week we reset, load up a fresh account, and go again!

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Hope you’re all having a disciplined week!

Before we get into this week’s drop, if you haven't already watched it, please go check out my latest YouTube video!

If you're someone who knows what you should be doing, but can't seem to consistently execute on it, this video is for you.

It's all about understanding how to turn knowledge into action..

On to this week’s question!

This week, a trader asked me…
“Why do I feel like every drawdown is going to be the one I don’t recover from?”

Honestly speaking, I think this is one of the hardest parts of trading that nobody really prepares you for.

I've spoken to so many traders who understand that drawdowns exist.
You can look through your journals/data and see that you've recovered from them before.

But when you're actually sitting in one, it feels completely different.

Suddenly, this one feels worse.
This one feels longer.
And you start convincing yourself that something has changed.

“What if the strategy has stopped working?”
”What if the market conditions are completely different?”
”What if I actually don't recover this time?”

I know this feeling all too well.
I openly speak about the fact that my swing strategy (which is my bread and butter) has moments where it cleans up.. And other times where it feels like it's completely broken.

I operate largely from a daily chart - a typical period of drawdown for my approach is 1-3 months.
I've seen this over the years play out many times, but it's never easy in the moment..

Where It Begins

I think the hardest part about drawdown psychologically is that we experience them looking forward - but we understand them looking backwards.

What do I mean by this?

When you're looking at his historical data, you already know how it ended.
You can see the equity curve recover.
You know, consciously or subconsciously, that another winning period arrives, so there's no uncertainty attached to it.

However, when you're living through drawdown in real time, you don't get that luxury.
You have no idea when the drawdown will end.
The next trade might win.
Maybe you'll lose another five.
The drawdown may end this week.
Or you could still be sitting in a month from now.

Psychologically, I think what we're afraid of is the uncertainty of not knowing what comes next.
This triggers our fight-or-flight response, which drives up the emotional impulse..

The Big Difference

From my experience, I found that most struggling traders treat drawdown as evidence that something is broken.
Again, I know this because I was that guy.

Over time, I've learned that profitable traders treat drawdown as something that needs to be investigated without immediately needing to react to it.

There's an important difference in this.
Accepting drawdown doesn't mean blindly trading a strategy forever regardless of the outcome.
I truly believe that markets can change and edges can erode over time.

On top of that, your execution can deteriorate - this is a popular reason most people end up digging themselves a hole.

But without the investigation and evidence, it's hard to draw any accurate conclusions.

Drawdown can make you feel like you know nothing about trading again - and sometimes that's just the ugly side of a perfectly normal distribution of outcomes.

The Mindset Shift

Let me share one thing that changed massively for me over the years - it's how I defined drawdown.

In my early days, I would see it as evidence that something is wrong.
Now I see it as something I should have expected to eventually happen.

I've experienced long losing streaks.
I've had consecutive losing months (this year has been a prime example of that).
I've backtested periods where my strategy has gone an entire year and ended in the red.

Early into my journey, this sort of data would have destroyed my confidence.
Nowadays, I choose to see it as this being part of the price that we pay to participate in a game that's built around uncertainty.

Now don't get me wrong, in no way am I saying that this makes drawdown comfortable.

But what it does do is stop me treating discomfort as automatic evidence of failure of my strategy.

The goal is not to falsely convince yourself that everything is OK.
The goal is to be aware that you're uncomfortable, but also be mindful that you likely do not have enough evidence yet to conclude that something is actually broken.

That's a far more logical place to start from.

So the next time you’re sitting in drawdown and your mind starts convincing you that this time is different and you need to change your strategy..

Ask yourself this:
Has something genuinely changed in my edge or execution?
Or..
Am I trying to escape the uncertainty of not knowing when the drawdown will end?

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

This was a question a client of mine asked after not being able to catch any of the 1,000 point move rally on NQ this week.

Logically, this sounds like a silly problem to have, right?
Missing a trade I understand is frustrating - but at least you’re not hurting your account balance.
Surely losing money should feel way worse?!

But for a lot of traders, it doesn’t.

Many traders can take a loss and be somewhat ok with it.
But watching a setup you were waiting for run 3R without you?
Suddenly this triggers you in all sorts of ways.

That’s when you start replaying the entry.
Calulcating how much money you would have made.
Start thinking about how close you’d be to passing your challenge.

Before you know it, you’re not even annoyed about missing the trade, you’re annoyed about not making money that was never actually yours.

Where It Begins

From my perspective, a lot of this comes down to the story we tell ourselves around the missed opportunity.

When you take a losing trade, the outcome is pretty black and white.
You took and accepted the risk.
The trade didn’t work.
You lost money.

There isn’t much left to the imagination.

But a missed winner is different - your mind gets to create the perfect version of what could have been.

“I would have entered here”
”I definitely would’ve held to target”
”That would have been an easy 3R”

The real question is.. would you?

Maybe you would have taken profit early.
Maybe moved your stop.

None of the negative outcomes tend to matter because you already know what happened next.

Hindsight has given you the perfect trade and now you’re comparing reality against an imaginary outcome where everything went exactly right.

The Big Difference

Struggling traders think of missed opportunities as losses.
Profitable traders understand that money they never risked was never theirs to lose.

The moment your mind starts creating versions of reality outside of what truly happened, you start accumilating emotional debt.

You start feeling like the market owes you something.
This is normally where the next mistake begins.

Enter all your bad habits - chasing moves, lowering your standards, jumping into mediocre setups etc etc.

Suddenly, one trade you didn’t take has influenced the next three decisions..

The Mindset Shift

I always like to say that your job is not to capture every move.
It’s to capture every move that aligns with your plan.
If the setup doesn’t tick the criteria needed to get you into a position, what happens after that is not an opportunity you should have ever been part of.

On top of that, we also need to consider we’re human beings.
Life will get in the way.
We will miss setups.
We’ll make mistakes.

This doesn’t automatically mean you made a mistake or you’re broken.

Want to know biggest thing I learned from 10+ years as a student of the markets?
The market will never stop presenting good opportunities to make money.
You just have to be patient enough to wait for them.

So the next time you watch a trade run without you and feel that frustration building..
Ask yourself this:

Did I genuinely make a poor decision based on the information I had at the time?
Or..
Am I punishing myself because I now know what happened next?

Missing a winner and making a mistake are not always the same thing.
Learning to separate the two will save you from a lot of unnecessary pain..

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Hope you’re all having a great week!

Before we get into this week’s drop, if you haven’t already, take a few minutes and check out my latest YouTube video:

If you’re someone who has been going around in circles trying to find the right strategy to make you profitable, this is going to give you a lot of the answers you’re looking for!

Ok so this week I don’t have an answer to a question to share with you, but I more so want to talk about a personal experience with trading..

For those of you that know me or are familiar with my content, you will know that I have been a swing trader for many years.

I started off my journey attempting to day trade, but found no consistency in that approach.
Now, in all honesty, looking back, there was a lot that I did wrong, and I didn't give myself the best chances to succeed.

My journey into swing trading not only allowed me to find a certain level of consistency, but it also gave me the mindset and framework to understand how to really succeed in the markets.

So this year, I'm putting that mindset to the test.
For the first time in years, I have adopted an intraday approach to work alongside my usual swing trading.

There are a couple of reasons behind this that I would like to share:

1/ My Swing Trading is Inconsistent
I'd love to sit here and tell you that I make billions sitting on the beach, but there are downsides to swing trading (at least with my approach) that I want to be honest about..

There are particular conditions where I do really well.
And then there are other conditions where I spend my time trying to keep my head above water.

I've always phrased this as:
There are times when you thrive and times when you have to survive.

My swing trading approach has a lower win rate and relies on a larger RR to be profitable in the long run.
This is largely traded on a daily timeframe, and my data and experiences have shown that a typical period of drawdown is between 1-3 months.

Now I know drawdown is normal.
And yes, it’s all relative to the timeframe you trade / frequency / conditions etc.

What I'm looking to do with my day trading approach is have something that reacts to the market conditions a little quicker, as well as focusing on just securing base hits.
That means I'm looking for 1:1RR trades or sometimes less.

For me, there is no point in adopting two strategies, both with a win rate of less than 50% and having to deal with the subsequent longer losing streaks of each.

In an ideal world, the base hits will net off the periods where my swing strategy is not performing great.
And then when conditions shift, the swing strategy will really propel the account.

2/ Prop Firms
Those of you who trade prop firms will know that over the last couple of years they have become increasingly less swing-friendly.

This has naturally made adapting my strategy to the prop environment quite difficult.

I've blown challenges.
I've been funded.
I've been paid out.

But nothing has given me the consistency that I am looking for - and I know there is money to be made.

So my day trading approach is aimed at working well in alignment with their rules, as well as leveraging the potential money that can be made from this environment.

As we stand, I'm about one week into my journey of day trading.

It's been interesting.
I can't lie.

I found myself being very mindful about all triggers that used to send me on a spiral:

• Getting stopped out quickly

• Revenge trading after a loss

• Going on tilt if I take profits too early

The list goes on.
Many years ago, I was not the disciplined trader that I am today.

None of this, of course, guarantees success.
But I do believe I have the odds tipped in my favour.

I now come with many more years of experience, a whole psychological framework, and the benefit of having connected with hundreds, if not thousands, of traders over the last few years.

Over time, you start to notice patterns between what successful traders are doing versus what the others are not..

I plan to document this journey as transparently as possible and will share screenshots and updates of my journey.

I've started off with a $100k FTMO challenge but will start to get more aggressive going into October.
My aim is to also move into the futures space (which is going to be a whole new learning curve) and scale up there too.

I always consider myself a student of the game, and I'm looking forward to the new challenges that will come with this.

I'm sure there will be many things that I learn along the way, and I will document the ups and downs of everything to come.

Attaching below a screenshot of my account so far - no magical strategy, no smoke and mirrors, just focusing on good risk management..

For those of you trading this week, tread carefully around FOMC later today!

Over and Out !

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Firstly, apologies I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks.
I’ve been travelling, then been sick, and been juggling a million different things.

I thought I'd get back into the flow of my weekly updates, and instead of sharing a question that I was asked recently, I wanted to share an L that I was really disappointed about..

For those of you that know me, you know that I put a lot of emphasis on the importance of meditation.

It was a practice that I started way back in 2018, and it went on to completely transform my life.

During that time, I've skipped a handful of days, but otherwise I've largely shown up to meditate every single day.

I was recently on one of my longest meditation streaks ever - 1281 days to be exact.
For those of you doing the math, that's around 3.5 years of showing up to meditate every single day.

This was something that I was honestly really proud of.
I shared this a lot in my coaching calls and with a lot of my clients.
It took a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to make sure I kept that streak up.

So to lose it, yeah I can’t lie, it fucking sucked..
I know to some people, this may seem like nothing.
But it was something that I've worked very hard to maintain for a long period, and it felt like a real blow.

I'd be lying if I told you there wasn't a part of me that wanted to contact the company to figure out if there was a rate to reinstate it 🤡..

But the more I sat with what happened that day, the more I realised I was going down a path that didn't truly matter..

The reality is, I didn't start a streak of meditation for it to become some vanity metric.

I started my practice of meditation initially to help with my mental health and to help me become more self-aware.
It ended up becoming a practice that allowed me to find an enormous amount of peace in almost every avenue of life.

The practice was rooted in the idea of being present, accepting, and letting go of things that we can't control..

The markets, just like life, are going to throw curveballs at you.
So instead of fudging the numbers, I decided to do what has been instilled in me through my practice.

Accept that I can't change the situation.
Accept that it's outside of my control.
Accept the situation for what it is and not what I wish it could be.

Trading is often no different.
Losses.
Periods of drawdown.
Getting stopped out by a tick only to see the market run to target.
Etc etc

These moments all suck, but they will inevitably happen.
Your job is to accept them for what they are, let them go, and continue on the path you set out on.

Trading is imperfect.
Life is imperfect.
What happens matters far less than how you react to it.

If this is something you’re struggling with, I’d highly recommend starting meditation.

Meditation makes you mindful.
Mindfulness creates awareness.
Awareness creates space between your thoughts and actions.
Space gives you time.
Time gives you choices.

This is how you truly change your reactions to any situation in life.
Not through willpower - but through a process of raising your awareness and creating enough space so your mind can consciously choose what to do next..

Speaking of mistakes..

If you haven’t already watched it, I shared a culmination of the 14 years of trading mistakes I made in less than 14 minutes.

No fluff, no BS, just a moment of me sharing my raw, honest experiences..

See you guys next week!

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Last week, a trader asked me..
“Why do I always think I should have known what the market was going to do?”

Man.. this brought back some feelings I used to experience a lot.
You close your trade (for profit or loss).
You zoom out, and suddenly everything looks obvious.

You end up sitting there asking yourself how you missed that.
You tell yourself it was so clear.
And you convince yourself that you ‘knew’ this was going to happen.

The reality is, in the moment, it didn’t feel obvious at all - otherwise you probably would have done exactly what was needed.

In reality, there are always multiple scenarios and infinite probabilities.
Trading is always a game of managing uncertainty.

But that doesn't stop your mind from telling you the moment a trade is closed that you should have been able to predict exactly what happened.

It sucks, but it's completely normal..

Where Does This Come From?

Ultimately, I have to take you back to the idea that the mind hates uncertainty.
We want the world to make sense.

The moment we know the outcome, our brain rewrites the story as if it's something that we should've been able to see coming.

It removes the uncertainty and fills the gap with a narrative that says:
”That was so frigging obvious”

But the truth of the matter is it wasn't.
As we've already said, if it was really that obvious, then anybody looking at the chart would've made money.

But they didn't, and you didn't.

The problem is that hindsight gives us information that we didn't have when the trade was actually live.
We then judge our decisions as if we actually did.
That's a standard that you'll never be able to live up to in the long run.

As I said, I did this countless times - looking back over and convincing myself that I've missed an easy trade or an easy decision.

We tend to forget that in the moment these things are not so obvious..

The Big Difference

Traders that end up struggling in the long run spend most of their time judging outcomes.

They tell themselves “if I had just done/known this, things would've been different”.
With the infinite means of technical analysis, you're always setting yourself up for failure with this.

Profitable traders spend more time judging their decisions.
This is a very different mindset.

Good decisions don't always make money.
Bad decisions don't always lose money.

If you're spending your time purely focusing on outcomes, you're constantly convincing yourself that you were either smarter or more foolish than you actually are.

This is dangerous.
The reality that most people need to accept is that your job is not to know what the market is going to do.

It's to make the best possible decisions whilst managing risk with the information that you have available at the time.

Creating The Mindset Shift

So how do you actually go from one mindset to another?

One of the biggest turning points for me was accepting that uncertainty isn't a flaw in the process.
It is the process.

Every trade you take begins with incomplete information.
This is why we have rules for risk management.
This is exactly why we don't bet everything on the next trade.

The goal has never been to predict the future.
The goal is to consistently make high-quality decisions without knowing what actually comes next.

The irony is the moment you stop expecting yourself to know the future, trading will become far less emotional..

So the next time you find yourself saying..
“I should’ve known.”

Ask yourself this..
Did I actually ‘know’ at the time?
Or..
Am I judging my decisions using information that only became obvious afterwards?

That difference is important - you need to challenge your mind when it is creating a narrative which doesn't support the uncertain nature of the markets.

If you want your mind to produce more logical answers, start asking it better questions..

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Hope you’ve all had a disciplined start to the week.

I just dropped a fresh video on YouTube covering the biggest differences between traders that win and traders that lose.

It’s a culmination of my personal experiences and things I’ve observed from connecting with a lot of successful traders in this game.

There’s a ton to take away to help shift that mindset - check it out here:

Onto this week’s question!

This week, a trader asked me in a community I coach in:
“Why do I keep checking my P&L even though I know I shouldn’t?”

This was definitely one that I was guilty of for a long time.
You enter a trade, and within a couple of minutes, you're checking P&L.
Five minutes go by, and you check it again.

It's a weird one because often the market could've done nothing.
Your plan remains exactly the same.
But somehow, the moment your mind knows that there is something on the line, you feel the need to keep looking.

The most challenging part about this most traders are already aware of - looking at their P&L doesn't really help them.

So why do we keep doing it?

Where It Begins

I realise this will probably sound silly, but I don't think most people are checking their P&L because they're actually interested in the number.

I think beneath the surface, they're checking it because they are looking for certainty.
Trading is uncomfortable.
The outcome is always unknown.
Despite our best efforts, we have no control over what happens next (even more so with Trump in power).

The uncertainty that exists is what creates tension.
Checking your P&L gives your brain something to actually focus on.
For a moment, consciously or subconsciously, it will make you feel like you're back in control.

But logically, we know this isn't the case.
Your mind is seeking information to fix the uncertainty it's feeling, but in this case, it doesn't actually help us to make better decisions.

For most people, it usually does the opposite.
A small profit makes you want to protect it.
A small loss makes you want to avoid more pain.

In reality, nothing has actually changed except the emotional state from which you are operating.

The Big Difference

The pattern that I've recognised is that struggling traders use their P&L to determine how they feel.
If they're making money, they're confident.
If they're losing money, they doubt themselves.

Without a doubt, every truly profitable trader that I've met does things differently.
Their P&L doesn't dictate their emotional state.
Their execution is responsible for that.

The only thing that they are truly focused on is asking themselves
”Am I executing my plan?”

They understand that that's the only thing they can actually influence.
Money is just a byproduct.

I think one of the things that really helped me was changing what I measured during a trade.

Instead of asking myself:
”How much am I up/down?”

I started asking:
”Has anything actually happened that invalidates my trade idea?”

Most of the time, the answer was no.
The market was simply moving in the way that the market does.
It had no bearing on my trade.

The more attention you give your P&L, the more emotional weight you attach to every small fluctuation.

If you stare at it long enough, you'll end up making decisions based on temporary numbers instead of your trading plan.

This is why I always say that detachment is a superpower.
Or the way I heard it poetically put..
”If you watch every tick, you’ll trade like a dick!”

Reflection

So the next time you catch yourself wanting to check your P&L again..

Ask yourself:
"Am I looking at this because it helps me to make a better decision?”
Or
“Am I looking because I'm trying to reduce the discomfort of uncertainty?”

Now that you're aware of it, you should understand that these are two very different things.
Creating awareness is always the first step towards breaking that habit..

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Firstly, I want to express a moment of gratitude - my last two YouTube videos have had a crazy amount of love and support, and I appreciate every single one of you.
I’m a small creator, new to the YouTube game, but have been blown away by the recent feedback.

In keeping up with the momentum, I’ve just dropped some new sauce on the channel!
It’s years of lessons from the markets in how to ‘control’ emotions rolled into one <15min video:

This week, a trader asked me..
“Why do I feel like I’ve forgotten everything after a losing week?”

If I had a dollar for every time I spoke to a trader about this…

Truthfully speaking, I’ve been here myself - I’ve had solid days/weeks of execution and then one bad week comes along, and you question everything..

“Maybe my strategy doesn’t work anymore.”
“Maybe I’ve lost my edge.”
“Maybe I was just getting lucky all along.”

It never fails to surprise me how quickly a handful of trades can make you forget everything that came before them.

Where It Begins

Let’s be clear about one thing - this doesn’t happen because you’ve suddenly become a worse trader.

It happens because your brain naturally places more weight on things that have happened recently - in psychology, they call this recency bias.

A losing week feels fresh.
It’s emotional.
It’s uncomfortable.

The profit you made last week is old news in your mind.
Your brain doesn’t give those thoughts the same attention because they don’t feel like an immediate threat.

This is why, without you even realising it, you begin treating the last handful of trades as though they’re more important than the hundreds of prior trades/backtested examples.

This is a dangerous path because trading has never been about what happened this week - it’s about what happens over larger sample sizes of both trades and time.

I always say our job is to ignore ones and tens and focus on hundreds and thousands - that’s where your edge lives.

The Big Difference

Most struggling traders stay zoomed in - this is natural for most people.
Profitable traders focus on consciously zooming out.

Don’t get me wrong, after a week losing money and being slapped by the markets, it’s natural to review your performance and assess your execution.

But..

What’s not normal is making tweaks and adjustments based on this small sample of data.
One bad week doesn’t erase a good process that has otherwise been working.
Just like one good week doesn’t prove you’ve mastered the markets.

Sounds easy, I know, but all of this takes some mental rewiring..

For me it started with reminding myself that confidence shouldn’t come from recent results - it should come from repeated evidence.

Nowadays, the first thing I do when I have a difficult period is reflect on my journals and my data.
Review old screenshots.
Do some backtesting.
Reflect on past drawdown periods that I’ve overcome.

This perspective reminds me that almost every time it’s not a strategy problem.
It’s a memory problem.
I'm clinging to the wrong memories in this moment.

Your emotions will convince you otherwise - they’ll make it seem so normal to ignore weeks and months of prior progress because this week felt rough.
This is why journaling and data is powerful - it provides you a way to zoom out to truly gauge perspective.

They give you something objective to lean on when your emotions start weighing down on you.

If you’re reading this and you’re not yet journaling, or have yet to collect any data.
Let this be your cue to get started..

Reflection

So the next time you have a losing week and it makes you question everything..

Ask yourself this..
Have I genuinely forgotten how to trade?
Or
Am I simply giving one difficult week more weight than it deserves?

I promise you this - if you have real data to support your approach, more often than not your edge hasn’t disappeared.
Your confidence has just temporarily lost sight of the bigger picture.

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

My last YouTube video was my best-performing one yet, and we saw an influx into our inner circle, which I’m always humbled to see!

If you haven’t already checked out my YouTube channel, I’m dropping tonnes of sauce there!

Check out last week’s drop here (which really resonated with everyone):

And this week’s drop here:

Onto this week’s question!

This week, a trader asked me..
“Why do I trade differently when I’m close to a payout?”

Honestly, I smiled when I read this one because I've had this conversation with so many traders who have gotten close to a payout.

The funny thing about this is the market hasn't changed.
In a lot of cases, your strategy hasn't changed.
Your edge hasn't disappeared.
Your setup is basically the exact same one you've taken dozens of times before..

The only thing that's really different is what's going through your mind.
You now feel like you're one tree away from a payout.
One more winner and the money is yours.

The moment this happened, suddenly every decision felt heavier.
This creates subtle behavioural changes:

• Checking your P&L more often

• Moving your stop to breakeven

• Closing trades before they reach their full target

• Becoming too aggressive to get you past the ‘finish line’

If you have ever passed a challenge or traded a funded account, I'm sure you've experienced this at some point..

Where It Begins

You might be surprised to hear that I actually don't think this is to do with discipline in a lot of cases.
It's everything to do with attachment.
The closer we get to something we want the harder it becomes to think clearly.

The payout stop becoming another byproduct of good trading - it becomes the goal.
This is where everything changes.
Because now you're no longer focused on executing your edge - you're focused on protecting or chasing an outcome you can't control.

I know it's cliché, but the more you think about the payout the harder it actually becomes to reach it.

Most of you in this situation on no longer trading the markets, you're trading your expectations.

The Big Difference

The one clear distinction that I see between winners and losers is that struggling traders attached themselves to milestones.
Whereas profitable traders attach themselves to the process.

Again and with most things, it's a subtle shift, but it completely changes everything.

The reality is the market doesn't know or doesn't care about how close you are to payout.
The probabilistic nature of the markets hasn’t changed.

The honest truth is that one payout is not going to change your life.
Therefore, the idea of a payout shouldn't change how you trade.

If the thought of it does, it should be a wake-up call to understand that you're focused too much on the short term and not zooming out far enough.

Processes within your control.
Outcomes are outside of your control.

No amount of knowledge, analysis or screen time will ever change that.

Reflection

So the next time you find yourself one treat away from a potential payout - ask yourself this..

As the market actually changed?
Or
Has your relationship with the outcome changed?

More often than you will find that the real battle is not external, it's internal.
Expect that this shift will happen and start preparing for it.
Creating awareness of what is likely to happen internally is the first point of call to preventing this in real time..

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

It’s rare I miss a scheduled weekly drop, but this was one of those times..
Had a really busy last few weeks with work/travel, and honestly just didn’t plan well enough to keep these rolling out.

I’ve been on a heavy podcast run, shooting some fresh content for the Prop Firm Trader Podcast.
If you haven’t checked out any of these yet, you’re missing out!
I’ve been fortunate to connect with and interview a lot of successful prop traders and provide you guys with some real sauce.

The latest episode is below 👇

Onto this week’s questions!

This week, a trader asked me..
“Why do I keep taking trades that aren’t part of my plan?”

I think most traders assume this is a discipline or an impulse problem.
I think the issue for most starts much earlier than that.

In my eyes, by the time you click buy or sell, the emotional decision has already been made..

Where It Begins

When I speak to most traders, I find that the moment they sit down at the charts, they are expecting to take some kind of action.

This is inherently the problem.

I feel some kind of pressure to trade.
There's a pressure to ‘work’.
They feel like they need to ‘make this session count’.

Psychologically, the moment the market starts moving, your brain is looking for a reason to justify you getting involved.

This is the moment where a level ‘kind of’ lines up.
A setup ‘almost’ ticks all the boxes.
A candle ‘looks good enough’

It's at this moment your standards begin to slip - not because you like discipline or you're stupid.
But mostly because internally, you've already decided that you want to participate.

The Big Difference

Struggling traders are looking for a reason to be in the market.
Naturally, you always find what you're looking for.

Profitable traders are looking for reasons to stay out.
They only engage when they have lost all reasons to be on the sidelines.

Do you see the difference?
It's not another rule, it's a different way of thinking.

Experience will teach you that good trading isn't always about being active.
It's about being selectively aggressive.

That means understanding that just because the market is moving, it doesn't mean there is money to be made.

This is difficult for most people because patience feels unproductive to the emotional mind.
Patience is ultimately part of your job.

Reflection

So the next time you find yourself taking a trade outside your plan, the reflective question I want you to ask yourself is this..

Did that set up genuinely meet your criteria?
Or
Did your emotions lower the standards of what you look for so that you were able to participate?

Over and Out!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

I want to keep this weekly drop short in length, but impactful in nature..

I’m attaching below two must-watch videos for the week ahead - all to help get you in the right headspace to take action..

This first 2-minute video has nothing to do with trading, but everything to do with the mindset that’s needed to succeed in the markets:

This <10-minute video will help you to understand how knowing your pain tolerance will help you to be consistent - sounds weird, I know, but trust me, it will change your entire perspective..

That’s all the mental shifts you truly need to kick off this week.

Let me know in the comments your biggest takeaway for both!

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Hope you all had a great start to the week!

Yesterday, I dropped some sauce on YouTube covering the 3 biggest reasons as to why most traders will never make money from the markets.. and how to avoid making those same mistakes!

Whenever you get 15 minutes, this will give you a whole new perspective 👇

This week, a trader asked me..

“Why can I be consistent for a short period, but not sustain it?”

I’ve found this to be such a common problem - most people can trade well for a short period, but then something triggers them, and everything changes.

That trigger seems to be different for everyone:

• A loss

• A big win

• A stressful week

• A touch of overconfidence

One simple change in your mindset leads to one justification for breaking your rules.
Before you know it, you’re trading completely differently from your plan.

Where It Begins

Whenever I’ve unpacked this, I never find that consistency disappears in one go.
I find it has been worn down gradually.

Small shifts in emotions.
A tiny rule break here.
A small drop in awareness.

Until eventually you’re not operating from the same mindset that created consistency in the first place.

The problem isn’t that this happens - nobody is perfect and will maintain perfect execution all of the time.
The biggest problem is that traders don’t notice this happening early enough to break the loop and do something about it.

The Big Difference

In my experience, I find struggling traders spend their time focusing on forcing discipline.
”New year, new me”
”I’ll be better next week”.
”I’m never doing that again”

Profitable traders do things differently - they spend time protecting the state that creates good decisions.

It’s a subtle difference but an important one.
One is trying to control behaviour.
The other is trying to regulate the conditions that influence behaviour.

Consistency is not about being perfect forever - I’d argue that’s a standard we will all fall short of at some point because we’re not machines.

Consistency is about learning to catch the drift earlier.

You need to be able to recognise when your emotional state is changing.
Recognise when frustration is rising.
Be aware when your standards are starting to slip.

Awareness creates an opportunity to reset before things start to spiral.

In my experience, that's what long-term consistency looks like.
Not perfection, but a protocol for awareness and recovery,

Reflection

So the next time you notice yourself not being as consistent as you need, ask yourself this:

Has your discipline suddenly disappeared?
Or
Have there been triggers slowly moving you away from the mindset that creates your best behaviour?

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

I normally kick these periods off with good energy and say..
“It’s time to make some money!”

But..
I’ve been in drawdown for a few weeks.

The markets, at least for my swing strategy, have been sloppy!
It’s not a bad thing - we will all go through them, and I think more people need to talk about them!

This week I’ve done a full breakdown on how to work through these periods 👇

On to this week’s drop!

This week a trader asked me..
“Why do I feel like I’m wasting time if I don’t take a trade?”

I always think this mentality is common, especially if you come from a 9-5 background.

No hate or judgement - I’ve been there too!
Somewhere along the lines, we start associating activity with productivity.

If they traded, it feels like they’ve been working.
If they don’t trade, it feels like a wasted day..

Where It Begins

When you really unpack this, it’s not that strange - we’re conditioned to think in this way.
In most areas of life, your level of effort and activity are rewarded.

The more work, the more you produce.
The more you produce, the more you earn.

Trading, however, doesn’t really work like this.

Sometimes your best decision is to do nothing.
Sometimes your edge won’t appear.
Discipline can look very boring.

Emotionally, this is difficult for a lot of people.
’Doing nothing’ creates discomfort because it doesn’t feel like work.
It feels unproductive - somewhat even lazy.

So people force actions just to feel busy.

The Big Difference

Unprofitable traders measure productivity based on activity.
Profitable traders measure productivity by decision quality.

The thing we need to understand is that not taking a trade can and should be considered a successful day if your edge didn’t present.

Your job is to protect your capital unless you’ve lost all reasons to be on the sidelines.
With this perspective, patience is not wasted time.
It’s risk management.

Reflection

So next time you feel frustrated for not taking a trade, ask yourself this:

Did the market actually provide an opportunity in alignment with your plan
Or
Are you just uncomfortable not being in a trade?

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

Before we kick off, I have to start with a selfish plug and ask if you’ve checked out this week’s YouTube video?

Honestly, and I realise you think I’m biased, but this week contains some nuggets of gold I wish I had when I first started my journey.

It single-handedly explains why no amount of chart time will create consistent trading.

There is one belief you need to adopt to find consistency - and I explain the reframe to get you there in <10 minutes 👇

Now, this week’s question was a good one!
A trader asked me…

“Why do I keep doubting myself even when I’ve seen progress?”

I know for a fact there is a good portion of you that feel this.

In my experience, trading rarely feels how you expect it to.

Most people assume progress will give you certainty.
That should create more confidence and stronger beliefs.. right?

In reality, growth often feels uncomfortable.
It’s completely possible to improve your execution, become more disciplined, manage risk better and still question yourself almost daily.

It’s only amplified by inconsistent and unpredictable short-term returns..

Where It Begins

For a lot of traders, this starts because we only recognise progress when we see it financially.

If progress only looks like more payouts, bigger months and more external proof - we tend to set ourselves up for failure.

What makes treating hard is understanding that a lot of your development will actually happen beneath the surface - it won't be visible and can often be ignored.

Your ability to stay calm after a loss.
Your ability to avoid forcing trades.
Your ability to reduce and regulate emotional reactions.

These are all signs of progress.
The problem is they don't create the instant dopamine the way money does.
So most people tend to ignore them.

Because these go unnoticed, most people convince themselves that they're just standing still instead of moving forward.

The Big Difference

The mindset shift you have to make is to stop looking for confidence in outcomes.
Profitable traders build confidence through consistent behaviour repeated over time.

You can only get to this place by understanding that confidence isn't built by avoiding uncertainty.
It's built by surviving it repeatedly.

The goal has never been about suddenly feeling fearless.
The goal is to slowly gather enough proof that you can handle the ups and downs without falling apart.

In my opinion, that's real confidence.
It's not built on hype, motivation or one winning streak.

The moment you have confidence in your ability to execute your edge consistently, you’ll feel more at ease, and you’ll notice money continues to be just a byproduct of consistent execution.

Reflection

So remember if you're only ever judging yourself based on P&L, you have to start by taking a step back,

Ask yourself the important question..
Do I only recognise progress when it shows up financially?
Or
Am I focusing on the way that I'm thinking and behaving on a day-to-day basis?

P&L is a lagging indicator.
Align your actions first, and the money will start to flow..

Over and Out!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

Share Mind Over Markets

This week, I dropped a fresh YouTube video on why the aim of successful trading should be centred around essentially becoming the best loser.

Making money is one thing, but if you never learn how to keep it, your days in this game are numbered.

Check it out below, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it 👇

So this week, a trader asked me..

“Why do I know what to do… but still don’t do it?”

Hands down, this has to be one of the most frustrating parts of trading.
I’ve been here, believe me.

When you get to this stage, the only person you can be mad at is yourself.
Because you know full well the problem isn’t knowledge.

Most traders know they shouldn’t revenge trade.
They know they shouldn’t risk too much.
They know they should be waiting for the right confirmation.

These are not knowledge problems - these are execution under pressure problems.
And those are two very different things..

So, Where Does It Begin?

I think most traders massively underestimate how emotional trading becomes in real time.

It’s easy to follow rules when backtesting/demo trading - essentially when nothing is at stake.

But the moment money is on the line, pressure rises, and frustration kicks in..
That’s when your emotional brain starts battling your logical one.

In that moment, behaviour typically becomes driven by state - not by knowledge.

That’s exactly why someone can tell you in detail as to what should happen as per their plan, but go right ahead and ignore it 10 minutes later.

They didn’t forget - their emotions just reached a tipping point, and they don’t know how to deal with or regulate that.

The Big Difference

One of the best lessons that I took from Atomic Habits (great book if you haven’t read it by the way) is that people often rely on the wrong thing to get by..

Struggling traders rely on motivation and willpower.
Profitable traders have a framework and process.

The former lives in hope that they will be strong enough today to do the right things.
The latter builds a system that makes bad decisions more difficult.

You will only flip the script when you start reframing how you think about the problem.

Trading psychology isn’t fixed with more information.
It’s fixed by becoming someone who can apply information consistently when under pressure.

That’s the real work.

Repetition is actually a huge part of what brings this altogether.
You’re not just building habits - you’re conditioning behaviour to a new default mode of operation..

Don’t overlook the small process-oriented wins.
They stack up to reinforce consistency in the mind.

Reflection

Despite the saying, practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent..

So next time you break a rule you already knew, ask yourself this:

Did you actually lack knowledge?
Or
Did the pressure expose a gap between what you know and what you’ve conditioned yourself to do?

Over and Out!

I just dropped a YouTube video last night on an interesting topic - choosing your pain.

Pain is the one thing I spent years trying to avoid, but actually, when you learn to accept which pain you’d like, it puts you on a more linear path to consistency.

Check out the full video below to see how you can incorporate this into your trading!

Now, this week, a trader asked me..

“Why do I feel the need to win it all back after a loss?”

I think, honestly, this feeling destroys more trailers than the actual loss itself.
A clean loss that is an alignment with your plan actually does very little damage.
It’s a small controlled loss that doesn’t hurt your account.
It's what comes after that's usually the problem..

It's the emotional trade, or the forced set-up or the impulsive re-entry.
That’s normally where things spiral..

Where Does It Start?

In my experience, most traders struggle because they don't emotionally accept losses beforehand.

They say they do - and often, logically, they understand the risks.
But emotionally?
They still expect the trade to work.

So when it doesn't, the loss will always feel wrong, and it's so easy to take it personally.
In that moment, it feels like something needs to be corrected.

The moment this happens, the brain starts searching for relief - and that's why revenge trading seems to make so much sense at the time.

It creates this false illusion for a brief moment that you can emotionally undo what just happened.

The Difference

I find the pattern is always the same - unprofitable traders react emotionally to losses, whereas profitable traders respond probabilistically.

The struggling traders see loss as failure.
The profitable traders see it as another random distribution of outcomes.

The thing you have to come to terms with is that a loss doesn't always require action.
Sometimes, all it requires is acceptance.

This is difficult because acceptance feels passive in the moment.
As a trader, forcing action to escape discomfort is usually what creates more pain.

Sometimes the best thing you can do after a loss is not act, it’s reflect..

You’ll often hear me say that emotions are not problems; they're symptoms.
They are indicators pointing to the fact that something is going on beneath the surface that isn't aligning your mind with the probabilistic nature of the markets.

When you experience pain on an impulse to get back into the market, that's not a sign you should be trading; it's a sign that you should be asking yourself why the pain exists.

If you can raise your level of awareness and understand why the loss is causing you pain, you can actually start working on deeper things to solve the real underlying problem.

In my experience, this is the type of work that most traders will never commit to, and hence, they will constantly live in a repeating cycle.

Reflection

So the next time you feel desperate to win back your money after a loss, ask yourself this..

Are you taking this trade because it fits your plan?
Or
Because you're emotionally trying to erase the previous one?

Over and Out!

But deep down, trading stopped being just about trading a long time ago - it became an escape plan.

Trading is now this thing that has to create freedom.
It has to fix your finances.
It has to remove your financial stress.
It has to prove people wrong.
It has to buy back your time.

Ultimately, you're looking for a way for it to completely change your life.

Honestly, I get it.
A lot of us coming into trading carrying pressure.

That might be the pressure from work, money, life or just from feeling behind in societal expectations.

So naturally, we attach meaning to the outcome, and we tell ourselves that “this has to work.”

And at the start of your journey, that feeling is motivating.
It gives you drive, it forces you to focus, and it gives you an obsession.

It allows you to study for hours, sometimes sacrifice sleep and give up your weekends to backtest.

But over time, that perspective starts to shift - you start to realise that the more you need trading to change your life, the harder it becomes to trade well.

This is one of the biggest paradoxes in trading - the people who emotionally need it most often perform the worst.

It's not because they're lazy or incapable.
It's simply because pressure changes your behaviour.

When trading becomes emotionally loaded, your mind will not be clear.
Every trade now has a meaning.

Every win solidifies the idea that you are finally getting somewhere.
And every loss makes you question whether this will actually work in the long run.

This mentality is dangerous because the market was never designed to carry that kind of emotional weight.

A lot of traders mistake this for a lack of discipline.
But in reality, they're just struggling with attachment to the markets.

They focused on outcomes, trying to meet timelines and have this fixation on what they think trading will do for their life.

Read more

Yesterday I dropped a video on getting your goal right for trading.
I’m speaking to way too many traders that come into this game with completely the wrong focus in my opinion - this needs to change..

Onto this week’s drop!
This week, a trader asked me…

“Why do I overthink my trades right before entering?”

I thought this was an interesting way to look at it because most traders I speak to don’t call it ‘overthinking’

Most traders say it’s “waiting for more confirmation”
Or “being patient”
Or “making sure it’s a good trade”

If they were to be honest, many times this can be stripped back to just plain hesitation.
They’re second-guessing themselves.
They’re looking for a reason not to act.

Where It Begins

I think for most people, the issue begins before their analysis - it often starts with pressure.

The closer you get to entering a trade, the more real the outcome becomes.
Before you enter, it’s just an idea.
After you enter, it actually becomes risk.

Now you actually have something to lose.
Now there’s something that might go wrong.
Now there’s something that can impact your emotional state.

In that moment, your mind starts searching for certainty - that’s where it feels safe.
It just wants reassurance to know you won’t experience pain.
It wants to know this trade will be the one that works.

So naturally, it starts asking questions like:
- Is this the best entry?
- What if the price reverses?
- Should I wait for more confirmation?

None of this is because your plan changed - but it’s because your state did.

The Big Difference

Struggling traders use ‘thinking’ to try to eliminate risk.
Whereas profitable traders use rules and data to execute despite it.

The reality is, no amount of thinking, knowledge, or analysis can ever negate the uncertain nature of the market.
The key is learning to do what you need to do despite it.

Ultimately, overthinking in these moments isn’t a knowledge problem - it’s a trust problem.

And it’s not just trust in your strategy, it’s trust in your ability to handle whatever might happen next.

Because if you truly accept the risk before you enter, there’s nothing left to think about.
There’s no need to seek extra confirmation and delay the decision.

The goal here is not to think more to feel comfortable - it’s to decide and accept beforehand.

Define your conditions for entering.
Position size at an amount you’re comfortable with.
Then execute.
And accept whatever outcome the market will produce.

Ultimately, the trade was valid the moment your criteria were met - not after another period of ‘careful’ analysis.

Reflection

So next time you find yourself hesitating right before entry, ask yourself this..

Are you actually analysing the trade?
Or
Are you trying to avoid the feeling that comes with taking it?

Over and Out!

Have you had a chance to check out my latest YouTube video?
Yesterday I dropped a video breaking down why you have to stop believing what you see online!

Check it out here 👇

This week, a trader asked me…

“How much backtesting is enough?”

I find when most traders ask this, they are looking for a magic number.
50? trades?
500 trades?
1,000 trades?

They want the certainty in feeling that once they've done enough testing, it will guarantee profitability.

The truth is, whilst I'm a big advocate for backtesting, it doesn't automatically instil all the confidence you need.
It doesn't make doubt immediately disappear.

There really isn't one magical number where everything just clicks and trading is easy going forward.

In my experience, backtesting isn't about reaching perfection.
It's about building enough evidence that your mind has something stronger to lean on than emotion - especially during the difficult times.

Where It Begins

I find that some traders aren't struggling because they haven't backtested enough.
They struggle because they still expect short-term outcomes to make sense.

With this mindset, you take a few losses, and you start to panic.
You have a rough month, and you'll start doubting everything.
The moment you go through drawdown, you'll assume something is broken.

Why?
Because without enough context, randomness always feels personal.
Every loss feels meaningful and every difficult period feels like proof that your strategy has stopped working.

This is psychologically why I think back testing matters - not because it predicts the future perfectly, but more so because it teaches your mind what normal should actually start to look like.

I can tell you from personal experience that I've tested my strategy and had many consecutive losing months.
I've even seen my strategy lose money at the end of a year.

Years ago, the thought of that would've broken me mentally, and I would've assumed the strategy was no good.
But these days I see things differently - I don't automatically presume that something is wrong.

Periods of underperformance are a part of the probabilistic nature of the markets - it's the price we have to pay to play a game of uncertainty.

The Big Difference

Struggling traders go into backtesting trying to seek certainty.
Whereas profitable traders use backtesting to help understand probability.

The mental shift you have to make is to understand that the question is not
”How much back testing is enough?”

It's about understanding that what you're trying to do is focus on a sample size so large that it naturally separates randomness from probability.

You’re measuring to see how your edge behaves across that meaningful sample size.

You’re stress testing it to understand how it performs in different market conditions.

The thing you're really trying to build psychologically is enough data to lay a foundation that's so strong that even when trading gets uncomfortable, you don't instantly abandon your plan.

That confidence can’t come from the last few live trades - it should come from testing your strategy and proving that it makes money historically over a meaningful sample size of trades AND time.

Don't trade based on hope.
Trade based on evidence.

So next time a rough week makes you question everything, ask yourself this..
Are you doubting your strategy because it’s broken?
Or
Because you haven’t fully accepted what normal variance looks like for your edge

Over and Out!