Building the Right Mindset
Knowing what mistakes to avoid isn't enough. You need to build the mental habits that stop you from making them in the first place.
Your mindset drives your decisions. Your decisions drive your results.
Fix how you think and most of your trading problems disappear.
Plan before you're in the trade
Once you're in a position, emotions show up. Fear, greed, hope. They cloud your thinking.
The fix is simple: make decisions before you enter.
Set your profit target
Know where you'll cut
Write it down if you need to
If you're constantly changing your plan mid-trade, emotion is running the show.
Plans change. But having one stops you from doing something stupid in the moment.
Process over outcome
A good trade can lose money. A bad trade can make money. This is hard to accept but it's true.
If you judge yourself only by results, you'll learn the wrong lessons. You'll repeat bad habits that got lucky and abandon good habits that hit variance.
Focus on whether you followed your process. Did you:
Enter for the right reasons?
Size correctly?
Stick to your exit plan?
If yes, it was a good trade regardless of outcome. If no, it was a bad trade even if you made money.
Accept losses as a cost
Losses aren't failures. They're the cost of playing.
Every trader loses. The difference is how you respond. If every loss sends you into a spiral, you won't last. If you treat it as a normal expense, you stay clear-headed for the next opportunity.
Think of it like a business. Businesses have costs. Yours is losing trades. As long as your wins outpace your costs over time, you're profitable.
Detach from individual trades
No single trade matters that much.
If you're obsessing over one position, checking it constantly, unable to think about anything else, you're too attached. That attachment makes you do stupid things. Hold too long, cut too early, size up to "make it count."
Zoom out. One trade is a data point, not your identity. You're playing a long game.
Review without emotion
After a trade closes, win or lose, review it.
Not to beat yourself up. Not to celebrate. Just to learn.
Ask:
Why did I enter?
Did I follow my plan?
What would I do differently?
Write it down somewhere. Even one sentence. Traders who review improve faster than traders who just move on to the next thing.
A simple note after each trade builds more edge over time than any tool or indicator.
Stay in the game
Trading isn't about being right every time. It's about staying disciplined long enough to be there when real opportunities show up.
Protect your capital. Protect your head. You don't have unlimited amounts of either.
If you haven't already, read through Common Mistakes. Knowing what to avoid and knowing how to think work together.
If you can stay in the game, the wins eventually come.