Recent content by LukeArdenCo

The losing streak began three days ago. Not dramatic losses—just a steady erosion that's brought your account down 8% from its recent peak. You're staring at your screens with a familiar tightness in your chest. Your strategy hasn't changed, yet every setup looks suspicious. You catch yourself...

Week 36 of The Psychology of Trading Implementation Series The news breaks thirteen minutes before the open. You watch pre-market prices gap violently against your overnight position. Within seconds, the carefully cultivated calm of your morning preparation dissolves into something primal—a...

Your weekly audit reveals a clear pattern: the techniques that worked in range-bound markets are falling short in trending conditions. Your measurements show stagnation despite consistent practice. You've got undeniable evidence something needs to change—yet you keep repeating the same routines...

Here's an uncomfortable question: How do you actually know if your trading psychology is improving? We track every aspect of our financial performance—win rates, drawdowns, risk-adjusted returns—but when it comes to the psychology driving those results? We rely on vague feelings. "I think I'm...

Hey everyone, Week 33 of the implementation series is up, and this one tackles something that affects every trader but rarely gets discussed—psychological drift. You know how it goes. You finish a trading week and realize your stops have been gradually widening. Your entry criteria have...

Hey TTW community, Wanted to share a practice that's been transformative for my psychological development as a trader: the structured weekly audit. The Problem We're Solving Most of us end the trading week with vague impressions. "Something felt off Wednesday." "I probably shouldn't have...

Here's a scenario many of us know too well: You've had a challenging session, processed what happened, identified valuable insights—and then simply shut down your screens and move on. The next morning, you face a remarkably similar situation to what caught you yesterday. But without any bridge...

After three losing trades today, you sit down to review your session. As you scroll through executions, that familiar self-criticism starts: "Another terrible day. I keep making the same mistakes." What should be productive learning becomes psychological self-flagellation that undermines...

We all know we should review our trading, but how many of us actually do it systematically? And more importantly, how many of us do it in a way that actually improves our psychology rather than just making us feel worse? I've found that the 30-60 minutes immediately after closing your platform...

Most traders close their platforms and assume the session is over. But without deliberate psychological closure, the trading day persists internally—replaying losses at dinner, strategizing revenge at bedtime, disrupting sleep at 2 AM. The Hidden Cost of Incomplete Closure Without proper...

The Problem: You start trading sessions sharp and disciplined, but 6 hours later you're checking phones, hesitating on valid setups, and that morning trader seems like a different person. This is psychological capital depletion—and it silently destroys decision quality. Understanding...

You're deep in a position testing your stop. Your mind fixates on one interpretation: this trade is doomed. Your chest tightens. Every tick confirms what you "know" to be true. You've become psychologically locked into one narrow viewpoint—and this tunnel vision is about to drive a poor...

You've been trading for two hours when you notice it—tension building, thoughts accelerating, an urge to act on every price movement. After three consecutive losses, you're slipping into reactive mode. You can either push through it, step away feeling defeated, or implement a strategic pause...

It was 11:47 AM when I felt my chest tighten. I'd been managing a position that had just experienced a sharp adverse move—nothing catastrophic, well within my risk parameters, but enough to trigger that familiar cascade of physical tension. My breathing had become shallow. My shoulders were...

It's 11:47 AM. You took a loss on your first trade this morning—frustrating but manageable. The second position didn't work either. Now you're watching your third setup deteriorate in real-time, and you can feel something shifting inside. Your jaw is clenched. Your thoughts have narrowed to one...