I started trading in 2021.
I had a strategy that worked. I'd tested it. I'd watched it win more than it lost. But something changed the moment I traded with real money.
"Just a little more room," I told myself, every time a trade went red. Sometimes it came back. Most times it didn't.
Then came revenge trading. After a loss, I couldn't just walk away — I needed to win the money back right now, in the same session. I'd size up. I'd close winners early out of fear. I'd abandon strategies after one bad week and go looking for the next one.
By the time I added it up, I was down about $6,000. Not from one big mistake — from hundreds of small decisions, made in the heat of the moment, that had nothing to do with my strategy and everything to do with my state of mind.
It took time. I didn't turn it around overnight. But by 2024, I had become consistently profitable — and I've stayed that way since.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're not broken, and you're not "just not built for this." You're dealing with the same five patterns almost every struggling trader deals with. This guide names them, and gives you a specific rule for each one.