26 yrs in the markets. Trading psychology & mindset. JP : @23pips ↓ Members-only deep dives
Joined October 2026
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For years I've said a trader's real problem isn't the method. It's thinking and psychology.
It rarely lands.
So I put everything I've learned in 26 years of trading into one guide. I released it 18 months ago and promised to keep building it until it was complete.
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Calm trading is pretty boring to watch.
You check your list. If the conditions are there, you enter. Stop and size are already decided. Then you leave it alone.
No adrenaline, no story about this being the big one. Win or lose, the next trade gets treated the same way.
If trading feels exciting most of the time, where is the excitement coming from?
Scrolling back through old charts and saying "I would have bought here" feels like practice. It mostly isn't.
When you can see what happened next, every good entry looks obvious. You're not testing a decision. You're recognizing an ending you already know.
Real practice keeps the right side hidden. Move forward one candle at a time, write your decision before you see the next bar, and keep the ones you got wrong too.
It's slower. That's the point.
"Just this once" might be the most expensive sentence in trading.
You move your stop a little further. Price comes back. You feel smart.
But the lesson your brain takes from that isn't "I read it right." It's "the stop is negotiable." Next time it moves further. And the time after that.
One lucky save teaches a habit that costs far more than the loss you avoided.
Knowing the rule takes a day. Following it with real money on the line takes much longer.
You can know exactly where your stop loss goes and still want to move it. That's normal. Practice sticking to the rule when it feels hard, because that's when it counts.
Understanding a concept and applying it under pressure are two very different skills.
You can study technical analysis, watch thousands of trading videos, understand market structure and learn every aspect of a strategy.
But when real money is on the line, the experience can be very different.
- You may know exactly where your stop-loss belongs, but still struggle to accept the loss.
- You may understand the importance of patience, yet find yourself chasing a move.
- You may know your trading rules but hesitate when it's time to execute.
This is because knowledge and execution are two different stages of learning.
Knowledge gives you the framework. Experience teaches you how to apply it when uncertainty, fear and emotions enter the picture.
You don't become a better trader simply by knowing more. You become one by learning to consistently apply what you already know, especially when it's difficult.
Some of your best days are the ones you don't trade.
You don't have to be in the market every day. Wait for your setup and let the rest go.
BroTip!
Want to become a better trader? Start by learning when NOT to trade!
Technical analysis is important, but risk management, patience and discipline matter even more!!
You don’t need to trade every day. Sometimes, waiting for the right setup is the best trade!!
A few lessons I’ve learnt over the years:
• Protect your capital.
• Wait for the right setup.
• Control your emotions.
• Cut losses, let profits run.
I've been in the markets since 2016, and honestly, I'm still learning, still making mistakes sometimes, and trying to improve myself every single day!!
One thing I strongly believe:
A good trader isn’t someone who trades every day, but someone who knows when to trade and when to stay away.
Do your best, respect the process and leave the rest to Shree Ram!!🙏
There will always be another opportunity. Don’t rush!!
#JaiSiyaRam
Skipping the 20 "almost" setups is the real work.
If you're not sure it's clean, it's not clean. Waiting is part of the trade.
Your rules matter most right after three wins in a row. A streak feels like proof you're right, but it's only a small sample.
Leave your size and your stop loss where the plan put them. Then the streak stays a result — not a reason to size up.
Your standards are your edge when the market keeps tempting you. An active market that never quite sets up tests your selectivity more than any loss does.
"Data collection mode" is a position in itself. You observe, you adapt, and you keep your process intact.
THE LACK OF CAPITULATIONS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!?
On recent calls w SMB & KTG, I observed that stocks haven’t really been capitulating and that this makes for one of the trickiest market environments.
A slow market, you sit on your hands. But an active market that doesn’t quite setup is the most dangerous. Recently we’ve been seeing some massive moves, but nothing so juicy and nothing so capitulatory. But seductive, it is.
Probably since the “Leopold bottom” stocks have been getting overextended, closing weak, Making it so that you don't position long on the front side only to gap up the next day.
This happened a few weeks ago and with most of the semis, after yesterday's weak price action, it is happening again with today's gap up. Each time, you feel FOMO and question whether this will be the turn and you will have missed it. I think I am not alone when I say that there are many frustrated traders out there right now.
Most importantly, what does one do about it? I think there are a few options.
1. You can conclude that, due to the increase in overnight trading and global trading, there has been a structural change where sectors and stocks are not going to capitulate intraday as much anymore. This is a theory I am certainly keeping an eye on, but I am not so convinced just yet. If this does end up true, it makes trading the overnight sessions far more appealing and tempting, and it requires us to adapt our trading.
2. The second option is: if this isn't a structural change, you can resist FOMO and sit on your hands, maintaining your high standard of selectivity and only getting involved when something truly sets up. This is largely where I currently sit and am not embarrassed to say it.
3. Option three is somewhere in between. When stocks are overextended and closing weak, you can start to structure a front-side position, particularly appealing to do so using call options. My current view on this is really dependent on the implied volatility and the day of the week. On a Monday, I don't find this so particularly appealing. If there are weekly or monthly options, however, as you get closer and closer to a Friday, I do think this method is starting to have some appeal.
A lot of trading is observing and adapting to market structure changes. I do think that markets and position unwinds have increasingly come outside of market hours, but I'm also not negating the fact that we really haven't got that rip-your-face-off melt. If you're patient and not caught offside, that will more than make up for any of the FOMO now.
In a sense, right now I am at a data collection point. I'm observing, I'm thinking, and I'm talking to other traders. I'm not particularly ready to lower my standards or reach a new conclusion.
As I jokingly told a friend, after four or five times of missing these overnight bounces after a weak close, I'm going to position on the front side. That will be the time that we gap down and melt. It's a joke, but I think there's a lot of truth to that, which is why, ultimately, for now, I'm maintaining my process and selectivity.
I would love to hear all of your thoughts on this.
Before you blame your strategy, check how you slept.
Short sleep doesn't announce itself. You don't think "I'm tired." You just miss things: the level you marked yesterday, the news on the calendar, the line in your plan you wrote for exactly this setup.
And a missed detail rarely feels like a mistake in the moment. It feels like "this looks good enough."
So add two questions to your pre-trade checklist: Did I sleep? Have I eaten? If the answer is no, trade smaller or don't trade.
Your rules only work if the person following them is in a state to follow them.
Try this for one week: delete every indicator from your chart.
Almost every indicator is calculated from price, and many only use the close. The candles come first. The indicator is drawn afterward, from them.
So if the candles can't show you what happens next, the indicator can't either.
"The moving averages crossed, so I bought" puts the follower in charge of the leader. Read price first. If you still want an average after that, add it back.
Tools are fine. Just don't let the tool do the looking for you.
"Waiting is a trader's job."
You've probably heard that. I think it quietly sets a lot of people up to fail.
If waiting is the job, every minute without a trade feels like holding your breath. Sooner or later you let it out, and that's usually the trade you regret.
Try a different sentence: "My job is to act when my conditions line up."
Now the quiet hours aren't something you endure. You're just checking a list. Conditions there? Act. Not there? Nothing to do yet. Same screen, same chart. A very different head.
After a losing trade, most people ask, "Why did I lose?"
A better first question: "Did I do what I planned to do?"
If the answer is yes, that loss was part of the plan working. Nothing to fix. Write it down and move on.
If the answer is no, that's the thing to work on, and it would still be worth fixing even if the trade had made money.
"Why did I lose" sends you hunting for a new method. "Did I follow my plan" shows you where you actually drift.
Fear in trading is not a willpower problem. It comes from what you believe a loss means.
If a loss tells you "I was wrong" or "I failed," your mind will fight every stop loss. You hesitate, you move the stop, you close winners too early. Not because you are weak, but because you are protecting yourself from feeling like a failure.
When a loss taken by your rules becomes simply part of how your system wins, there is nothing to protect. The fear does not need to be controlled. It just stops showing up.
People have said “keep a trading journal” forever. But do you actually know what to write? What you need will differ. There is one thing everyone should write down, though.
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It’s a record of your emotions. You were anxious before the entry. You hesitated right before the stop. After a losing streak you wanted to get it back. One line is enough.
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