Dan Baldwin
@iamdanbaldwin
Founder of TradeCoachX
Hitting a rough patch? Journaling helps until it doesn’t. Stats just confirm you suck. Emotions on paper? Cool, but now what? If you knew how to fix it, you would have already. That’s why I built TradeCoachX to break the slump. Join the beta at tradecoachx.com
I used to fixate only on price when analyzing charts. But every trade has two dimensions: price and time. Ignoring time is like reading only half the story. Great traders pay attention to both.
I used to backtest trading plans before I truly understood the rules. All it did was confirm I had no idea what I was doing. If you’re not crystal clear on your setup, don’t bother backtesting. You’re just proving to yourself that you’re confused.
Trading week is over. Time to reflect: What did I do well? What did I do poorly? What do I need to improve? Success comes from showing up and getting better every time you do.
I used to think lack of capital was holding me back from trading success. Then I got funded. Still failed. It wasn’t the money. It wasn’t the tech. It was my mindset. Success didn’t come until I started thinking differently. Think like a winner, or stay stuck like a loser.
If you’re still in a trade after your planned exit has triggered, you’re no longer trading your plan, you’re trading on hopium.
Just watched a $500 profit fade to break even. I got greedy and ignored my exit rules. The trade was over, but I didn’t want to accept it. Don’t be emotionally driven. Follow your rules.
I’ve made money trading, only to give it right back. Over and over again. If you’re doing well, don’t just keep recycling profits into the market. Take payouts. Buy assets: stocks, real estate, Bitcoin, gold,whatever. Wealth comes from owning, not just trading.
When I talk to traders going through a drawdown, I’ll often ask: is it the technicals? The setup? The plan? Almost every time, the answer is emotions. Trading is a mental game. You must learn to manage your emotions under pressure. It’s not easy, but the payoff is huge.
Earlier today, a huge bullish candle came out of nowhere while I was in a trade. It worked out, but I never saw it coming. And that’s fine. My job isn’t to predict price movement. It’s to identify opportunities and manage risk. If you’re trying to predict, you’re missing the…
Sometimes when I’m in a trade, I get glued to the screen, fixating on every tick. That tunnel vision leads to bad decisions. Lately, I’ve learned that when I notice myself doing it, the best move is to step away, reset, and come back with perspective.
The emotional pressure of trading can be intense. I’ve quit multiple times, not because I lacked money or knowledge, but because the anxiety became too much. What changed? I stopped fighting my emotions and started accepting them. If you’re struggling, you’re not alone.…
Took a $500 loss today. I’m calling it what it is, a tuition payment to the school of trading.
I used to write a trading plan, take a few trades, and if it didn’t work after 5 or 6, I’d ditch it and chase a new one. Truth is, you need at least 30 trades to know if your edge is real. Give it time. Gather the data. Then decide.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our trading losses!
90% of trading success comes down to mindset. Charts and strategies matter, but without discipline, patience, and emotional control, none of it works. Master your mind and the profits will follow.
I like doing hard things off the charts so that when I sit down to trade, the market feels easy by comparison. Build mental toughness outside the session, it pays dividends.
