Let go of obsession—when you're fixated on "I must make 100k," you might end up flustered if you can't even make 10k.
Let go of obsession—fixation on outcomes distorts your trading actions. Release your targets, focus on execution, and the results will follow.
📖 This Issue's Term: Letting Go of Obsession
🎯 Difficulty: ⭐⭐ (Intermediate Entry)
🔥 Emotional Danger Index: 🔥🔥🔥 (Level 3)
💡 Key Insight | Breaking it down in plain language
Obsession is the excessive fixation on a specific outcome—like "I must make 20% this month," "I need to break even on this trade," or "I absolutely cannot take a loss." When you trade with this mindset, your actions get distorted: you'll hesitate to cut losses when you should, hold on when you should take profits, and jump into a trade when you should be sitting on the sidelines.
Let go of obsessions—not by giving up your goals, but by shifting your focus from "results" to "the process." You stop getting stuck on "Can I make X?" and instead focus on "Did I follow the trading rules?" When the process is done well, the results will naturally come. The more you stare at the results, the more your actions get distorted—and the worse the results become.
🎭 The inner journey of a real trader | These experiences, you’ll surely relate to
"At the start of the month, I set a goal for myself: to make 20% this month. The first two weeks went smoothly, and I’d already made 15%, just 5% short of the target. I started getting anxious. I didn’t want to wait for the system’s signals, so I thought, 'I can just push one more time' to complete the task. So I chased a small coin higher, and ended up getting trapped. To finish the task, I added more and averaged down, but the deeper I went, the worse it got. At the end of the month, after tallying everything, I hadn’t made 20%—I even gave back the original 15%."
I lost to my own obsession."
⚠️ The trap of "must make X" | Why does this kind of thinking make you pay a price?
It takes you off course from your trading system: to reach your goal quickly, you loosen your entry criteria, increase your position size, and shorten your holding time—everything that goes against your trading system.
Leads to revenge trading: when you’re just a bit away from your goal, you get anxious. When you’re anxious, you do things impulsively. After a loss, you go heavy to "make up the gap," and the losses only get bigger.
It prevents you from enjoying the trading process: trading becomes a stress test—every day you watch how far you are from your target, instead of experiencing the calmness of executing the rules.
Causing a mindset to collapse: when you don’t achieve your goal, you feel frustrated. This negative emotion carries into the next trading cycle, creating a vicious cycle.
🔧 Practical solutions | 3 immediately actionable steps
Shift from "monthly goals" to "daily process goals"
Don’t ask, "How much did I make today?" Instead ask:"Did I open the position according to the rules?"
"Did I strictly follow my stop-loss/take-profit?"
"Did I take any off-plan actions?"
Once you hit the process goal, the results will naturally follow. Even if the short-term outcome isn’t ideal, you’ll know the problem isn’t execution.
Set up a "compulsion detector"
When you have the following thoughts, it means the obsession has taken over:"I’m still short by X% this month. I have to make it today!"
"This trade has to be right—otherwise I’ll lose big!"
"I can’t accept losing money this month!"
Once a compulsion is detected, pause trading immediately. Do 10 deep breaths, then ask yourself: **"If today I were here to execute the rules instead of making money, what would I do?"**
Adopt an "infinite game" mindset
Trading isn’t a finite game of "must win this month." It’s an infinite game of "I want to do this for the rest of my life." The gains or losses of a monthly goal are meaningless in a ten-year trading career.When you lengthen your perspective, you won’t twist your actions for short-term goals. Mark it on your calendar: today is day X of your ten-year trading career—this makes it easier to let go of obsession.
🧘 Quick emotional reset | a 30-second first-aid method
When you keep telling yourself in your head, "I must make X"—
Close your eyes and take one deep breath. Silently repeat: **"I let go of my attachment to results. I’m only responsible for the process. Results are just a shadow of the process."**
Then open your eyes and focus on the rules you need to execute right now—don’t ask about profit or loss.
📝 A line worth remembering
Obsession is the biggest leverage for a trader, but it amplifies losses. Let go of obsession—you can then hold the profit.
💬 Share your experience | See you in the comments
"Have you ever twisted your actions because you 'must make X,' and ended up losing money? In the comments, tell me what your 'X' was—what happened afterward?"
⏭️ Next episode preview
In issue 87, we’ll explore "a calm mind"—why do top traders always seem like they're "fine"?
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