🧠 Mindset: Failures

A reflection on the many things I tried on my trading journey that didn't work for me — though they may have worked for others.

🚫 Things That Didn't Work for Me

1. Following Others

• Taking advice from others without context.
• Mimicking strategies that didn’t fit my situation.
• Comparing my progress to other traders.

No one knows our circumstances better than we do.

2. Strategy Missteps

• Changing my approach based on others' temporary success.
• Isolating concepts — looking for price patterns without broader market context.
• Scalping low time frames with high leverage for small gains.
• Trying to trade every swing to capture the full move.
• Chasing price — increasing risk while lowering reward probability.
• Top and bottom ticking — aiming for perfect entries and exits.

3. Risk Management Failures

• Using heavy leverage to make back losses.
• Trading without a plan — often led to reactive and emotional decisions.

4. Event-Based Mistakes

• Planning for “big events” and trading differently because of them.
• Trading based on economic data — attempting to predict price moves.
• Relying on event-based models like news catalysts — no consistent edge.

5. Time and Session Models

• Time-based models:
  Looking for repeating price cycles based on time schedules.
  Example: sequences like 12345 repeated over large datasets — price may overlap at these levels, but this doesn't confirm a valid cycle. It didn't lead to consistent results in my experience.

• Session-based models:
  Breaking the day into fixed time blocks (e.g., overnight, RTH open, RTH close) and trading based on those divisions.
  While RTH open and close are typically high liquidity periods, this doesn’t imply a causal relationship between sessions or that we can expect specific behaviors just because it's "that time of day."
  I’ve found that trying to trade sessions as if they follow predictable, repeatable rules didn't work consistently. The session structure often just defines ranges, which can be traded directly without the session label or assumptions.

6. Automation Attempts

• Built several fully automated trading bots — none were consistently successful.

💡 Final Thought

Many of these approaches may work for others, but they didn’t for me. Through these failures, I learned to tune out noise, avoid mimicry, and focus on building a trading process rooted in my reality — not someone else’s.

Trading requires resilience and tenacity — the ability to fail, reflect, and try again. It’s a long journey that tests not just skill, but character.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

Failure isn't the end — it's part of the process. Every failed attempt has moved me closer to clarity. What remains now is a quieter, more focused approach: my own process, shaped by experience, not imitation.

✅ Take the Next Step

If this post resonated with you, here are a few ways to stay connected:

• 📬 Subscribe
  Get more posts like this — straight to your inbox. No fluff, just real trading insights.

• 🔁 Share
  Know someone on a similar path? Share this post and spark the conversation.

• 🔍 Explore More
  Dive deeper into mindset and method — check out Mindset: The Path of Least Resistence or browse our full collection of posts.