Tradetopia Field Notes — Issue #17

You Might Not Have a Strategy Problem. But You Definitely Have This One.

This isn’t a strategy issue.

This is about what lives beneath your execution.

The Knowing–Doing Gap isn’t just a performance gap.

It’s a psychological fracture between the identity you claim… and the one that actually takes action.

The Invisible Split

Every trader hits a point where they realize something’s off.

The charts are making sense.

Risk management isn’t a foreign idea anymore.

They even know how to describe the mistake they’re making… as they’re making it.

“I knew I should’ve entered.”

“I saw the setup… I just kept waiting for more.”

“I’ve done this before. I don’t know why I keep doing it.”

But here’s the blunt truth:

You’re not confused.

You’re split.

There’s the conscious version of you: the one that journals, studies, sets rules, says all the right things…

And then there’s the one running the show when it’s time to execute…

The one programmed for safety.

For survival.

For familiarity.

That version doesn’t respond to logic.

It responds to identity.

Why the Gap Exists (and Why Traders Live There)

The Knowing–Doing Gap exists because your nervous system would rather protect your current identity… than risk becoming someone new.

Study feels safe.

Backtesting feels productive.

Planning feels responsible.

But all of those can become rituals of self-deception if you never close the loop with action.

The mind tricks you into thinking you’re progressing… when in reality, you’re circling the same fear… just dressed up in strategy.

You don’t keep missing the trade because you don’t know enough.

You miss it because part of you is still afraid to trust yourself. Can you blame that part of you?

This is why logic alone can’t fix your execution.

Because fear is never logical.

What Bob Proctor Taught Me (I Integrated This To Trading)

In 2021, I studied a concept that shifted everything:

“The Knowing–Doing Gap is not an information issue. It’s a paradigm problem.”

This isn’t some complex idea or anything but truly acknowledging and implementing makes all of the difference.

Bob Proctor broke it down like this:

• You learn with your conscious mind.

• But you operate from your subconscious patterns.

• Those patterns, paradigms, are built to keep you safe, not help you grow.

So when you “know” what to do, but don’t do it…

It’s not because you’re lazy or stupid or undisciplined.

It’s because your internal operating system doesn’t yet support that behavior.

And until you update it, through repetition, awareness, and aligned action, you will continue defaulting to the trader your nervous system knows how to be.

That’s not a strategy problem.

That’s an identity ceiling.

What To Do About It

You don’t close the Knowing–Doing Gap by thinking more. You close it by proving to yourself that you can act differently.

Start with this:

Pick ONE behavior that matches the trader you say you are.

Maybe that’s:

• Taking the next clean setup with zero rationalizing.

• Reviewing your trades same-day, not next week

• Exit with your actual system, not your emotional override

Then do it. Just once.

Then do it again.

And again.

That’s how you override the old script.

That’s how the nervous system starts to trust you.

You really want to cement this?

Track it.

Measure what matters and clearly this is important otherwise you wouldn’t have made it this far in this newsletter 😂

Wrapping Up

You don’t need more information.

You need more integration.

Close the Knowing–Doing Gap.

Rewire the identity.

And become the trader who acts in alignment, especially when it’s clashing with what you want.

From Tradetopia,

Mike Navarrete

PS:

Make sure your notifications are on. The brand reveal video drops this week… and there might be an advantage to being one of the first to see it ;)

Filed: April 2025 | Location: Behind the Screens — South Korea 🇰🇷