🟣 Tradetopia Field Notes — Issue #36
How You Feel in the Moment Puts a Filter on What You're Seeing

Three losses in a row.

Your account is down. Your confidence is shaken. You open your journal and all you see is a list of mistakes, bad habits, and proof that you're not cut out for this.

You think, "I'm a mess. I'll never get this right."

But here's what you don't realize: how you feel in the moment is putting a filter on what you're seeing.

That same journal, on a day when you're up, would look completely different. You'd see progress. You'd see lessons learned. You'd see a trader who's figuring it out.

Same data. Different emotional state. Completely different story.

The Emotional Filter

Your emotions aren't just feelings. They're lenses that color everything you perceive.

When you're frustrated, every trade feels like a battle.
When you're anxious, every setup feels like a trap.
When you're euphoric, every signal feels like a gift from the market gods.

None of these are reality. They're just your current emotional state projecting onto the screen.

The problem? Most traders don't realize they're wearing these filters. They think what they're seeing is the truth. So they make decisions based on distorted perception, and then wonder why their trading is so inconsistent.

One of the traders in my recent session, almost quit. She had a rough stretch where old habits resurfaced. She felt like she was back at square one, like all her progress had evaporated.

She walked away from trading for a few days. Came back with a clear head. Took one trade. Followed her plan perfectly. Had a great day.

Nothing about her system changed. Nothing about the market changed. Her emotional state changed.

And suddenly, she could see clearly again.

Pain Isn't Going Away. It's Going Through.

Here's the hard truth: pain is part of the process.

Losses hurt. Being wrong stings. Watching a winner turn into a loser feels like getting punched in the gut.

Most traders try to avoid pain. They move stops to delay the inevitable. They skip trades to avoid the risk of being wrong. They overtrade to "make back" what they lost because sitting with the loss is unbearable.

But avoidance doesn't make the pain go away. It just makes it worse.

The only way through pain is... through.

You have to feel it. Sit with it. Let it move through your system without acting on it. Because when you resist it, when you try to avoid it or numb it or fix it immediately, you're giving it power.

Think about it like this: if you get injured and you're bleeding, you don't just ignore it and keep running. You stop. You clean the wound. You bandage it. You let it heal.

Trading pain works the same way. You take the loss. You feel the sting. You process it. You move on.

But if you don't do that... if you just keep trading through the pain without processing it, you're bleeding out emotionally. And eventually, you blow up.

One Trade Should Be Borderline Irrelevant

Let's be real: you're treating individual trades like they're life or death.

One loss and you're spiraling. One win and you're invincible. One missed entry and you're beating yourself up for hours.

But here's what the best traders know: one trade means almost nothing.

Take the process seriously. The outcome comes and goes.

You're not building a career on one trade. You're building it on hundreds, thousands of trades executed with discipline over time.

So why are you letting one trade dictate your emotional state?

When you zoom out, when you see trading as a long game, individual trades lose their emotional charge. They become data points. Feedback. Part of the process.

But when you're zoomed in, when every trade feels like it defines you, you're going to be on an emotional roller coaster. And you can't trade well from that place.

How to Manage Your Emotional State

1. Recognize the Filter

Before you make a decision, ask yourself: "How am I feeling right now?" If you're angry, anxious, euphoric, or frustrated, pause. You're probably not seeing clearly.

2. Process the Pain, Don't Avoid It

Take the loss. Feel it. Journal about it if you need to. But don't immediately try to "fix" it by jumping into another trade. Let it move through you.

3. Zoom Out

Look at your last 20, 50, 100 trades, not your last one. Look at your progress over the last three months, not the last three days. Perspective kills emotional distortion.

4. Separate Performance from Identity

You had a bad trade. That doesn't make you a bad trader. You had a good trade. That doesn't make you a genius. You're a trader executing a system. Some trades work, some don't. That's it.

5. Build Emotional Resilience Through Reps

The more you expose yourself to losses, the less they sting. The more you practice sitting with discomfort, the easier it gets. This is how you build emotional calluses.

The Truth About Emotional Mastery

You're never going to stop feeling emotions. That's not the goal.

The goal is to feel without becoming.

You can feel frustrated without being a frustrated trader.
You can feel anxious without being an anxious trader.
You can feel pain without being broken.

When you separate the emotion from your identity, you stop letting your feelings dictate your actions. You start executing from a place of clarity, not chaos.

And that's when your trading transforms.

PS:

Next time you're about to make a trading decision, pause and ask: "Am I seeing this clearly, or am I seeing this through an emotional filter?"

PPS:

The answer might save you from a trade you'll regret.

From Tradetopia,
Mike Navarrete 🧙🏽‍♂️