Sebastian

Trading Psychology | Helping struggling traders become consistent

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

https://t.co/Ef92uMGHAV

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Funded traders who got paid: what did you do with your first payout?

Be honest. Mine didn't calm me down the way I thought it would.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Before I enter I make myself write down what's against the trade, and I only take it if that side is short.

For years I only stacked reasons to get in. Bias, liquidity, the FVG, the time of day. That list is always long because you're looking for it to be long.

Now I write the other column too. Opposing level right above, ugly displacement, news coming, I'm already down this week.

If the "against" column has real stuff in it, I sit.

It's slowed me down a lot, and the trades I do take feel a lot calmer.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Today's trade

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Passing an eval felt worse than failing one.

Failing, I knew what to do. Buy another one, start over.

Passing, the balance was basically zero above the drawdown and suddenly every trade was the whole account.

5 passes. Same feeling every time.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Scrolling other traders' wins in the middle of my session was quietly wrecking my trading for a long time (Save this).

I'd sit two hours with nothing setting up, do the right thing, then open X and see somebody posting a huge day off the same open.

And right away my two hours felt like a waste.

Next thing I know I'm taking something just to feel like I was part of it.

What I never saw in those posts: their size, their account, their losing days, how many accounts they had running. I was comparing my whole morning to one cropped picture of theirs.

Now the phone stays away during the session. I check stuff after I'm done, when nothing I see can turn into a click.

I still feel it sometimes when I scroll. It just doesn't get to move my mouse anymore.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

When I take a loss, the day's done for me. The dangerous part is the 20 minutes right after.

That's when I want to:
- open the chart again "just to look"
- pull up a second account
- rewatch the trade and argue with it
- scroll other people's green screenshots

So for 20 minutes I don't touch anything trading related. Phone down, platform closed, walk.

After that I write what happened in the journal, while it's fresh and I'm calmer.

The trades I regret most were taken in that window, back before I had the rule.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Before I look for a reason to trade, I ask what would make me skip today, and that question has saved me from a lot of bad mornings (Save this).

For years premarket was me hunting for a trade. Marking levels, finding the bias, getting excited about where price might go.

All of that was me building a case for clicking.

So now the first question goes the other way. What would make me not trade today?

- I slept badly and I'm already irritated
- I'm still chewing on yesterday's loss
- there's news I don't understand sitting right on top of my window
- I need today to be green for some reason outside the charts

If any of those are true, I either sit out or I get extra strict with the paper rules.

Some mornings the honest answer is I shouldn't be here. Those are the mornings that used to end with a blown account.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Lessons

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

The first $4k: how I sit at a small funded balance without blowing it

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Lessons

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

@DodgysDD https://t.co/m9iWUnDKnf

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Quiz trade from today

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Quiz trade from today

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

BE

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

The biggest change from following my rules showed up outside the charts, in how my mornings feel (Save this).

I used to wake up already in fight or flight. Phone, futures, heart going before I'd even had coffee. If the overnight move went against my bias I was annoyed before I sat down.

Trading days felt like walking into a fight I might lose.

Now the plan is on paper the night before. Valid setup only, premarket done first, $250 risk, and my stops for the day: 1 win, 1 loss, or 2 break-evens and I'm off.

So the morning is kind of quiet. I already know what can happen and what I'll do in each case.

I didn't expect rules to make me calmer as a person. That part surprised me more than any of the money stuff.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

A missed trade used to bother me for hours.

So I'd chase the next thing that looked anything like it. Worse location, later entry.

Looking back, the chase is where the money actually went.

Now I screenshot the one I missed and write one line about why I wasn't in.

Most days that line just says I hesitated.

That one I can work on tomorrow.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

Position size was the main way I managed my feelings for years, and it had nothing to do with the setup (Save this).

Down on the day? Size up so one trade fixes it.

Scared after a loss? Size way down so it doesn't hurt, and then cut the winner early anyway.

Feeling great after a win? Size up because I'm "in rhythm."

Bored? Size up so the trade at least feels like something.

Every one of those decisions happened in the moment, heart going, on the same setup I'd trade at normal size any other day.

What changed for me was taking that decision away from the version of me sitting at the screen. Risk gets set before the session. $250 a trade, and the number doesn't care how I feel.

Some mornings that feels like wearing a seatbelt to sit on the couch. Then a morning comes where I'm angry, and I'm really glad the number was already written down.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

When I'm building the first $4k on a funded account, every $200 loss is 5% of the goal.

Once I started looking at it like that, one red trade stopped feeling like the end of the account.

It's 5%. I can make that back.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

I had 400 entries logged before I trusted my model.

Before that I'd judge a strategy after a handful of trades.

A couple of red ones and I'd start shopping for the next one.

That's how I ended up blowing 5 systems.

Now I count trades before I'm allowed to have an opinion about a strategy.

Yours probably needs a lot more of them than you've given it.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

I blew accounts on 5 different systems, and the same guy was clicking the buttons on all five of them (Save this).

Every time one stopped working I had a whole story ready. The market changed. This model doesn't fit indices. I need something with more confluences.

So I'd find the next one. A first strategy I bought for a couple hundred dollars. Then ICT. Then my own mix of everything.

And the first week on a new system always felt amazing. Clean slate, no losses on it yet, nothing to feel bad about.

Then the first red week would show up and I'd start shopping again.

Looking back, I never stayed on one long enough to find out if it worked. I left every one of them in the middle of a normal losing streak.

What finally changed it was boring. One model, the same entries, over and over, until a losing streak just felt like part of the week.

[Sebastian @InnerTraderss]

The weeks where nothing sets up used to wreck me way worse than the losing weeks (Save this).

Monday, nothing. Tuesday, a setup that's almost there and then falls apart. Wednesday I sit two hours and the chart just chops.

By Thursday I'm not even trading the market anymore. I'm trading the feeling that I've wasted the week.

So I'd take something on Friday that I would never take on a Monday. Smaller timeframe, half a confluence, "close enough."

Those Friday trades cost me more than any honest loss.

Now when it's a slow week I let it be slow. Two-hour sits with no trade are part of the job for me. The market doesn't owe me a setup because I showed up every day.

Some weeks the right number of trades is zero, and I'm slowly getting okay with that.