14 Years of Trading Psychology in 15 Minutes

I've been trading for 14 years, made $4.5 million in profit. $2.5 million of that I made this year in one payout, which was the largest payout in prop firm history, and I'm going to compress

14 years of trading psychology into 15 minutes. There are five levels you have

minutes. There are five levels you have to go through in order to become a profitable trader, but most traders don't even make it past the first one.

Your strategy won't make you rich. I

used to lose money with the same strategy that ended up making me millions of dollars, and it took me years to realize this. Even the best strategy collapses when emotions take control. My biggest losses never came

control. My biggest losses never came from bad setups. They came from good setups traded badly. Revenge trades,

hesitation, overconfidence. That sound

familiar? Here's how it usually goes.

You see a perfect setup. Everything

lines up. Your indicators, your structure, your entry rules, but you hesitate. Maybe you just took a loss

hesitate. Maybe you just took a loss yesterday, or maybe you're dealing with stress from work or life. So, you sit there frozen watching the trade play out exactly as you predicted without you.

Now, you're angry at yourself, at the market, at everything. The next setup comes along, but this one's marginal. It

barely meets your criteria, but you take it anyway. Why? Because you're not

it anyway. Why? Because you're not trading your plan anymore. You're

trading your emotions. You're trying to prove something to yourself, and you lose again. Now, this isn't about being

lose again. Now, this isn't about being a bad trader. This is about being human.

Your brain doesn't distinguish between physical threats and financial ones. So,

when you lose money, your nervous system responds in the same way it would if you were being chased by a predator.

Adrenaline floods your system, logic shuts down, and survival mode kicks in.

Now, you're probably wondering, why does this actually happen? What most traders don't realize is that trading forces you to confront who you really are. Your

self-worth, your patience, your deepest fears. And every time you click that

fears. And every time you click that button, you're not just risking money, you're risking your ego. So, in that sense, there's so many emotions involved when you're trading. Now, when you're inexperienced, you won't realize this until you've had a major blowup, until

you've had that one moment where you're staring at your screen thinking, "How did I just do that? I knew better." Now,

the truth is, emotional self-awareness is the real edge. The moment you feel urgency, fear, or euphoria, you've already lost perspective. Now, here's a solution that actually works. I started

doing something that changed everything.

Emotional journaling, not just trade notes. I recorded what I felt before,

notes. I recorded what I felt before, during, and after each trade. So, here

are some examples. Felt anxious before this trade because I lost yesterday or felt euphoric after three wins. Got

overconfident on the fourth. Or was

angry at my boss today, took it out on a revenge trade. Over time, patterns

revenge trade. Over time, patterns emerged. Anger before impulsive entries.

emerged. Anger before impulsive entries.

Euphoria before blowups, fear before missed opportunities. Once you name the

missed opportunities. Once you name the emotion, you can neutralize it. So,

start simple. Before every trade, ask yourself, "What am I feeling right now?"

If the answer is anything other than calm and confident, don't trade. It's

that simple. After every trade, write down how you felt during the decision-making process. And you're

decision-making process. And you're going to start seeing the same emotional triggers appear over and over, and that's when you can actually start working on them. So, the biggest thing is that you're not trying to control your emotions. You're just trying to

your emotions. You're just trying to manage them. But even if you master your

manage them. But even if you master your emotions, there's another trap that kills most traders. They think trading is about being smart. It's not. I get

asked a lot about how I was able to get the world record payout. And the truth is, it was really repetitive and boring.

Now, let me paint you a picture of what successful trading actually looks like.

Because I promise you, it's not what you think. Imagine sitting at your desk for

think. Imagine sitting at your desk for 6 hours and taking one trade or none.

Not because there wasn't other opportunities, but because only one met your criteria. Meanwhile, traders in a

your criteria. Meanwhile, traders in a Discord are posting screenshots of 15 trades a day, talking about how they're grinding. But here's what they don't

grinding. But here's what they don't see. That one trade made more money than

see. That one trade made more money than all 15 of theirs combined because they couldn't sit still. They needed action.

They needed to feel like they were working. And this is the part that

working. And this is the part that nobody tells you about successful trading. It's repetitive. It's boring.

trading. It's repetitive. It's boring.

Some days you sit there all day and don't take a single trade because nothing meets your rules. That is

discipline. Now, the harsh reality is I didn't become a millionaire because I found some magic setup. I became one because I followed the same boring rules for 5 years straight. No exceptions. No,

just this once. No, I'll break my rule because I really feel this one. Think

about it. How many times have you broken your own rules? You know you should wait for confirmation, but you enter early anyway. You know you should cut the

anyway. You know you should cut the loss, but you give it just a little more room. You know you shouldn't trade on a

room. You know you shouldn't trade on a Friday afternoon, but you do it anyway.

The problem is that discipline feels dull. And most traders crave excitement.

dull. And most traders crave excitement.

They want to feel like they're doing something. But the markets reward

something. But the markets reward monotony. They reward the trader that

monotony. They reward the trader that shows up every day, executes the plan, and doesn't deviate. Now, here's what most people get wrong. They think

discipline is about willpower. It's not.

Discipline is about building systems and structures that make good decisions automatic. You need a routine, the same

automatic. You need a routine, the same routine every single day. Not because

routines are magical, but because they remove decision fatigue. When you have to make 50 small decisions before you even place a trade, you're exhausted before you start. But don't try and change everything all at once. That's

how you fail. You want to start small.

Maybe you just commit to checking the same three things every morning before you trade. Market structure, key levels,

you trade. Market structure, key levels, and news events. Do that for a week.

Then maybe add a pre-trade checklist.

Test it for a week. If it improves your trading, keep it. Your routine should be so ingrained that you don't ever have to think about it. You should feel uncomfortable when you don't follow it.

That's when you know it's working. And

here's the key. You need a routine that matches your trading style. If you're a day trader, you need a morning routine that gets you sharp and focused. If

you're a swing trader, you need an evening routine for reviewing setups.

There's no one-sizefits-all here, but everyone needs something. But here's

what nobody tells you. You can have the perfect discipline, follow your process every single day, and still get destroyed. Because losing streaks are

destroyed. Because losing streaks are going to test you in ways that you can't imagine. Whenever I was in my first few

imagine. Whenever I was in my first few years of trading, no matter how much I made, I would end up blowing it in one bad streak because of this one single trigger that sent me spiraling. Here's

the pattern that destroys most traders.

You have a great week, maybe even a great month. You're feeling confident,

great month. You're feeling confident, and you're thinking about quitting your job. You're calculating how much you'll

job. You're calculating how much you'll make if you keep this pace up. Then you

lose. No big deal, right? Losses happen.

But then you lose again and again. And

suddenly you're in a hole. Not a deep hole, maybe just a few percent. But now

you're not thinking clearly anymore. You

come into the market the next day with one goal. Make it back. That's not a

one goal. Make it back. That's not a trading plan. That's revenge. You start

trading plan. That's revenge. You start

looking for trades that aren't there.

You start seeing setups that don't exist. Convince yourself that marginal

exist. Convince yourself that marginal entries are actually good ones. Now, the

worst part is you increase your position size because in your mind, you need bigger wins to recover faster. So now

you're taking worse trades with bigger size. And that's the death spiral. I've

size. And that's the death spiral. I've

seen traders wipe out six months of profits in two weeks, not because their strategy stopped working, but because they couldn't accept being wrong because they let their ego get involved. When

you're in a draw down, every loss starts to feel personal. You start questioning everything. Am I actually good at this?

everything. Am I actually good at this?

Was I just lucky before? Should I quit?

Your confidence, which took months to build, evaporates in days. And here's

the cruel part. The more desperate you become to fix it, the worse you trade.

It's like quicksand. The harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Think about

trading like surfing. When the water's choppy, you can see what looks like a big wave forming, but by the time it reaches you, it's nothing. Why? Because

the water receding is fighting against the water coming in. And that's choppy market conditions. You think you see a

market conditions. You think you see a trade, but it doesn't pan out, and the momentum dies. The breakout fails, the

momentum dies. The breakout fails, the reversal doesn't hold. That's the market telling you, "Not now. Wait." And real traders know how to wait. Sometimes for

days, sometimes for weeks. They don't

force trade when conditions are bad just because they want to trade. They

preserve capital and wait for the right environment to come back. Just like the professional surfer, he's not going to go out in the choppy conditions. He's

just going to wait for days, maybe even weeks for better weather. Now, after

blowing up multiple times, I implemented these pause rules that become non-negotiable. Rule number one, if I

non-negotiable. Rule number one, if I lose two trades in a day, I'm done. Not

done, but I'll sneak one more in.

Actually done. Computer off, walking away. Rule number two, if I have three

away. Rule number two, if I have three losing trades in a row, I cut my position size in half for the next week.

Not because I've lost my edge, but because I've lost my emotional equilibrium, and I need to rebuild confidence with smaller risk. Rule

number three, I don't check my P&L during the trading day. Because when

you're watching your money go up and down, you're not trading setups anymore.

You're trading your emotions. These

rules feel stupid when you're winning, but they save your career when you're losing. The key insight here, detach

losing. The key insight here, detach your results from your self-worth. You

are not your P&L. A bad week doesn't make you a bad trader. It makes you a trader who had a bad week. Learn the

difference. Even if you survive the draw downs, there's a bigger problem waiting.

The market will eventually kill your edge, and that's when your ego becomes your worst enemy. The strategy that made me my first 100,000 stopped working after a while. I held on to it for 3 months and lost 25K and almost gave up

on trading because I didn't realize this. Here's what happens to every

this. Here's what happens to every trader. Eventually, the thing that's

trader. Eventually, the thing that's been working for you stops working.

Maybe volatility changes. Maybe market

structure shifts. Maybe other traders crowd into the same edge and arbitrage it away. But you don't notice at first.

it away. But you don't notice at first.

You think it's just a rough patch, just variance, you tell yourself it'll come back. Month one passes, you're down, but

back. Month one passes, you're down, but not catastrophically. It's just a bad

not catastrophically. It's just a bad month. Month two, now you're down more,

month. Month two, now you're down more, but you tell yourself, "This is what I do. This is my strategy. I'm not giving

do. This is my strategy. I'm not giving up on it." Month three, the losses are adding up. Your win rates dropped. Your

adding up. Your win rates dropped. Your

average loss is increasing. Every single

data point is screaming, "This isn't working anymore." But you don't change.

working anymore." But you don't change.

Why? Because you attach your identity to your method. You're not just a trader

your method. You're not just a trader anymore. you're a support and resistance

anymore. you're a support and resistance trader or a breakout trader or an ICT trader, that strategy is you. And

admitting it doesn't work anymore means admitting you were wrong, that you wasted months, that you have to start over. Your ego just doesn't allow it.

over. Your ego just doesn't allow it.

Now, the difference between traders who last 10 plus years and those who blow up is simple. The survivors treat their

is simple. The survivors treat their edges like perishable goods. They know

everything has an expiration date. And

just because your strategy works now doesn't mean it's going to work in the future. They're constantly collecting

future. They're constantly collecting data, constantly analyzing, constantly asking, "Is this still working? Not

emotionally, statistically. What's my

win rate over the last 50 trades? What's

my profit factor? How does it compare to my baseline?" And when the data changes,

my baseline?" And when the data changes, they pivot. They don't get stuck and

they pivot. They don't get stuck and attached. They don't let their ego tell

attached. They don't let their ego tell them, "But this is who I am. I'm a

support and resistance trader, or I'm an ICT trader." Great traders are problem

ICT trader." Great traders are problem solvers who happen to use specific tools. And when those tools stop

tools. And when those tools stop working, they just find new ones. That's

it. No drama, no identity crisis, just adaptation. Now, here's a framework that

adaptation. Now, here's a framework that saved my career. Step one, track everything. Every trade, entry, exit,

everything. Every trade, entry, exit, win loss, setup type, market conditions, and emotions. Use a spreadsheet or a

and emotions. Use a spreadsheet or a journal, it doesn't matter. Just track

it. Step two, review your stats every week, not your P&L, your statistics, win rate, average win versus average loss, profit factor, expectancy, and the results of your tagged emotions, anger,

fear, overconfidence, etc. These numbers tell you the truth. Step three, if anything deviates more than 15% from your baseline for two consecutive weeks, investigate it. Is this normal variance

investigate it. Is this normal variance or is something fundamentally changing?

Step four, be willing to pivot. If the

data says your edge is gone, just accept it. Don't fight it. Study new setups.

it. Don't fight it. Study new setups.

Test new approaches. Adapt or die. It's

that simple. The hardest part isn't the technical stuff. It's the ego

technical stuff. It's the ego management. You have to be comfortable

management. You have to be comfortable saying, "I was wrong. The market

changed. I need to change, too." Most

traders can't do that. their ego just doesn't let them. But if you can separate your method from your identity, if you can stay humble and curious, you'll outlast 90% of traders who can't.

But constantly adapting, constantly grinding, constantly managing risk, it's going to burn you out. Which is why the final lesson is the one that most traders completely ignore. I used to be one of the traders who thought practice

made perfect until I realized this. Let

me describe a version of yourself you might recognize. You've been trading

might recognize. You've been trading every single day for weeks. No breaks,

no weekends off. You're grinding because that's what you think winners do. Your

morning routine starts slipping. Instead

of preparing properly, you just jump straight to the charts. Instead of

journaling, you think, "I'll do it later." and never do. You stop

later." and never do. You stop

exercising, stop seeing friends. Your

entire life becomes wake up, trade, analyze, sleep, repeat. And then

something weird happens. Your results

start deteriorating. Not in one big blow up. It's death by a thousand cuts. You

up. It's death by a thousand cuts. You

start making small mistakes. Taking B

setups when you should have waited.

Cutting winners early because you're anxious. Letting losers run because

anxious. Letting losers run because you're too mentally exhausted to manage them properly. You wake up one day and

them properly. You wake up one day and realize you can't think clearly anymore.

There's a fog in your head. Your

decision-m is off. Your patience is gone and you're burned out. Trading is unlike almost any other profession because it's entirely mental. You're not moving boxes

entirely mental. You're not moving boxes or building houses or running meetings.

You're sitting in a chair clicking a button. So, the fatigue is invisible

button. So, the fatigue is invisible until it's too late. You can't see mental exhaustion the way you can feel physical exhaustion. There's no muscle

physical exhaustion. There's no muscle soreness, no shortness of breath, just a slow degradation of decision-making quality that you don't notice until you've already made costly mistakes. And

here's the trap. When you're losing, you think the solution is just to work harder, trade more, analyze more, study more, but you're already operating on an empty tank. More work just accelerates

empty tank. More work just accelerates the burnout. After burning out hard, I

the burnout. After burning out hard, I completely changed my approach. I

started treating recovery like a performance skill, something you practice and optimize, not something you do when you feel like it. Here's what

that actually looks like. After every

trading session or even after every trade, take a 20 to 40 minute walk. No

phone, no podcast, nothing. Just

walking. It's your mental reset button.

Your brain needs to decompress after holding focus for hours. At the end of every week, do a mental flush. Journal

three things. What did you learn this week? What are you grateful for? What

week? What are you grateful for? What

mistakes are you trying to improve? This

last one is key. You have to consciously let go of losses and errors or they accumulate as mental baggage. Three,

have hobbies outside of trading. This

isn't optional. You need activities that stimulate different parts of your brain.

For some people, it's working out. For

others, it's reading, playing music, building things, cooking. For me, I play paintball. It doesn't matter what it is.

paintball. It doesn't matter what it is.

The point is to give your trading brain a break. Four, take forced breaks. After

a break. Four, take forced breaks. After

every 4 weeks of active trading, take 3 to 5 days completely off. No charts, no Twitter, no Discord. Schedule it like you'd schedule a dentist appointment.

It's non-negotiable maintenance. You

have to understand that recovery isn't laziness. It's not taking it easy. It's

laziness. It's not taking it easy. It's

a strategic investment in your long-term performance. Think about professional

performance. Think about professional athletes. They don't train 365 days a

athletes. They don't train 365 days a year at maximum intensity. They have

offseasons. They have recovery periods.

They have maintenance work. Why? Because

they know that peak performance requires rest. Your brain is the same way. You

rest. Your brain is the same way. You

can't make clear decisions in chronic stress mode. You can't spot

stress mode. You can't spot opportunities when you're mentally exhausted. You can't execute with

exhausted. You can't execute with discipline when your willpower tank is empty. The goal isn't endless grind.

empty. The goal isn't endless grind.

It's sustainable excellence. Mastery

isn't about how long you work. It's

about how well you recover. If you

ignore this lesson, you're either going to burn out and quit or you're going to become one of those traders who's been almost profitable for years, but can never quite get over the hump. Because

you're always operating at 60% capacity and never giving yourself the rest actually needed to perform at 100%. With

these five lessons, you now have 14 years of trading psychology. But knowing

these mistakes isn't enough. You need a proven system to avoid them. That's

exactly why I built my mentorship the way I did, where I sit and trade with my traders live, correcting their mistakes and saving them from blowing their accounts, making sure they stick to one simple approach to the markets. Due to

the intimate nature of my mentorship, I don't work with just anyone. But if

you're approved, then you have my word that I'll stay by your side until you're funded. To be clear, you don't need this

funded. To be clear, you don't need this to be successful. It's really just a matter of whether you want this to take years or if you want to fast track, learning from my mistakes instead of making them on your own. Regardless if

we work together or not, I'll still be putting out videos every week for free here on YouTube.