You Don't Have Bad Habits. You Have an Identity Problem.

🟣 Tradetopia Field Notes — Issue #34

Imagine this: You promised yourself you wouldn't do it.

This time, you swore, would be different. You see the setup, you take the trade, and then... that old familiar feeling creeps in. The trade moves a little against you, and your finger starts twitching over the mouse.

You move your stop. Just a little. Just to give it room to breathe.

And just like that, the promise is broken. RIP. The cycle repeats.

We've all been there. We beat ourselves up over our "bad habits"… revenge trading, FOMO entries, moving stops. We try to fix them with sheer willpower, but it feels like fighting a ghost. The harder you punch, the more tired you get, and the habit is still standing there when the dust settles.

BUT what if I told you… the problem isn't the habit. shock

The Identity Layer

James Clear nailed it in Atomic Habits: "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become." Oh I remember when I first read this one…

Here's what most traders miss though... you're already casting votes and PLENTY of them. The question is: who are you voting for?

When I brought this up in a recent coaching session, the reactions said it all.

"It's not about habits anymore, it's about who you've decided to be."

We're so focused on the what (the bad habit) that we completely ignore the who (the identity driving it).

If you have one or two bad habits, you're in a fight to be better. However, if you're stuck in a cycle of them… if you've got a whole stack of behaviors you can't seem to shake… you've stopped fighting the habits. You've started living out an identity.

An identity of a trader who is "impulsive." An identity of a trader who "can't hold winners." An identity of a trader who "always gives back profits."

Your actions will never permanently rise above the opinion you have of yourself. You can't out-discipline a faulty identity.

The Consequence of Being

We get it backward. We think, "If I make X amount of money, I'll be a successful trader."

But that's not how it works.

Success isn't the goal; it's the byproduct.

"Making X amount of money is not a goal, it's a consequence of becoming a certain person doing certain things."

You don't attract what you want, you attract who you are. Your outer world is always a reflection of your inner state. Your trading results today are a perfect mirror of the identity you've been operating from. They are the consequence of being you.

Profitability is the result of embodying the identity of a consistently profitable trader. Discipline is the result of embodying the identity of a disciplined trader.

So, if you want to change your results, you have to change the who. You have to go deeper than the surface-level habit and ask: What underlying belief is keeping this habit alive?

• Do you move your stop because you have a "bad habit," or because you have a deep-seated fear of being wrong, and taking a loss makes you feel wrong?

• Do you jump into trades too early because you're "impatient," or because you believe you're the kind of person who will miss out if you don't act now?

See the difference? One is a behavior. The other is a belief about who you are.

Mark Douglas said it best: "The consistency you seek is in your mind, not in the markets."

The Awareness Shift

David Hawkins, in Letting Go, talks about how we resist what we don't want to feel. We avoid the discomfort of being wrong, of losing, of uncertainty... and that resistance creates the very patterns we're trying to escape.

The trader who can't take a loss isn't struggling with risk management. They're struggling with identity. They've unconsciously decided that taking a loss means they are a loser. So they avoid it, move stops, rationalize, hope... anything to avoid confronting that feeling.

But here's the thing: you can feel something without becoming it.

You can take a loss and not be a loser. You can feel fear and not still take action.

When you separate the emotion from the identity, everything changes. You stop resisting. You stop fighting yourself. You start executing.

How to Rewire Your Trading Identity

This isn't about wishful thinking or affirmations you don't believe. It's about intentional rewiring through aligned action.

1. Define Your Ideal Trader Identity

Get crystal clear. Who is the trader you want to become? Write it down. Is this trader patient? Decisive? Resilient? A master of their system?

Don't focus on the money. Focus on the characteristics. The money is the consequence, remember?

2. Identify the Incongruence

Where is your current behavior out of alignment with that identity? Where does "Impatient You" take over from "Patient Trader You"?

Awareness is the first step. You can't change what you can't see.

3. Cast New Votes

Every action is a vote. Start taking small, deliberate actions that align with your new, chosen identity.

If your ideal trader is disciplined, then the next trade you take, your only goal is to follow your plan perfectly, regardless of the outcome. That's one vote for the new identity.

Do it again. Another vote.

Over time, the votes stack up. The new identity becomes the default. The old one fades into the background like a ghost that finally got tired of haunting you.

As James Clear says, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." But I'd add: you fall to the level of your identity.

Build the identity. The systems follow. The results follow.

The Truth About Change

Lasting change doesn't come from fighting who you are. It comes from deciding who you want to be and proving it to yourself, one action at a time.

You're not broken. You don't need to be fixed. You just need to stop voting for the old version and start voting for the new one.

The trader you want to become is already inside you. You just have to give them permission to show up.

PS:

Take a minute and ask yourself: What identity have I been unconsciously living out in my trading? What story have I been telling myself about the kind of trader I am?

PPS:

Just becoming aware of that story is the first, and most powerful, step to rewriting it.

From Tradetopia,
Mike Navarrete 🧙🏽‍♂️

Filed: October 2025 | Location: Behind the Screens — Chicago, IL