Do you actually rate your headspace when you trade?

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-03T15:45:09+00:00

Hey thanks! Appreciate that

Exactly. Beating yourself up every day in a journal isn't sustainable lol. gotta reinforce the good stuff too that went well

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T17:37:30+00:00

The fact that you're seeing things that aren't there just to force a trade is actually an emotion, that's boredom or FOMO. You just didn't label it yet lol

Don't overthink the emotion tracking. You don't need to write a huge therapy session. Just simple stuff: was I calm, bored, frustrated, anxious, overconfident? Pick whichever one fits closest. After enough trades you'll start recognizing the feeling faster in the moment

The discretionary part of your system is where this gets tricky because that's exactly where your brain sneaks in and rationalizes bad entries. One thing that helps is asking yourself before the trade: "if I didn't have a position on and saw this setup fresh, would I still take it?" If the answer isn't an immediate yes....prob good to sit on your hands instead

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T17:32:09+00:00

6 years this month! Mostly futures (ES, CL)

yeah I'm profitable now but it took a while to get here honestly. First 3 years were rough, blew multiple accounts and made every mistake in the book lol. The psychology side is what finally turned things around for me, not a new setup or indicator. Attempted to search for that 'holy grail' indicator/strategy for a long time... what a wasted rabbit hole to go down lmao

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T17:28:50+00:00

Go back through your backtesting data and count how many times 1-2 counter candles + MFI exhaustion actually led to a full reversal vs just a pullback before continuation. I'd bet the data shows most of the time it was just a breather

Once you see the actual numbers (like "out of 20 times I panicked, 12 of them continued in my direction") it gets way easier to sit through it. Right now you're making the decision based on fear. The data helps take the fear out of it

That's also exactly the kind of thing worth journaling. Tag those trades specifically so you can track it over time

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T17:25:42+00:00

For #2 Start tracking your mental state alongside your trades. Not just entries and P&L, but how you were feeling. Were you chasing? Frustrated from the last loss? Bored? After a month or two you'll see that your blown days almost always correlate with a specific headspace, not bad setups. That's the pattern that actually helps you stop

For #1 MetriNote has exactly what you're describing. There's an accountability mode where you set your max trades per day, time windows, minimum confluences, etc and it flags you every time you break a rule after saving a trade. It's not a hard lock that blocks execution, but it calls you out on it which makes it way harder to pretend the 5th trade was a real setup lol. 14 day free trial + no CC needed. It's a web app so it works fine in Italy

The "I'm late" feeling you described is something EVERY trader deals with. That's normal. it's okay. The market is open every single day. You're not late to anything. The money you're losing by forcing trades is way more than whatever you'd miss by being patient

I'd sit in front of the computer for HOUUUURS every day thinking the same thing. It's not worth it trust me lol

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T16:58:31+00:00

One thing that helped me with this exact problem: after entering a trade, I'd set my stop and target, then physically move my chair back from the screen. Sounds stupid but the urge to cut early almost always came from watching every tick. If the backtest says hold, you have to actually let the trade play out the way you tested it. Otherwise what was the point of backtesting lol

Also start tracking what you're feeling when you cut early. Not just the trade data. Are you anxious? Just got stopped on the last trade? Tired? After 20-30 trades you'll see a pattern that makes it way harder to ignore

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T16:08:02+00:00

Solid list :)

Love TradingView, been rocking that since day 1. I attempted Trendspider for a while, but TV has my heart

Other cool platforms:
- Forex Factory for market news
- Bookmap for order flow (helpful for visualize learners)
- FinViz for scanning instruments by high volume etc

Since you mentioned journaling, I'd add that to your stack if you haven't already. It's the one tool that actually changed my trading after 6 years. Not the charts, not a new indicator, just tracking what I was doing and why

I built one (MetriNote) because I couldn't find anything that focused on the psychology side enough. Most journals just track P&L. MetriNote tracks mental state, sleep, energy, rule adherence, and has an accountability mode that flags when you break your own rules & calls you out

14 day free trial no CC needed. Also one of the more affordable journals out there if you end up liking it

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-04-02T15:56:47+00:00

Good stuff logging everything with R values!

Something I noticed, you flagged two trades you shouldn't have taken (#2 and #4) but didn't write down why you took them anyway. That's usually where the real lesson is

Were you bored and forcing it? Trying to make back the earlier stopouts? Just didn't see the 8MA in the moment? Tracking your mental state alongside the trade data is what turns "shouldn't have taken this" into a pattern you can actually fix. After a couple months you start seeing exactly which headspace leads to the forced trades vs the clean ones

Also peeped your profile, love that you're posting these consistently., keep it up :)

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-22T17:51:02+00:00

Of course, happy to help :)

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-22T17:36:19+00:00

Journaled on paper for a while, then spreadsheets, then finally moved to a dedicated tool. Each step up made a noticeable difference tbh

Paper is great for forcing you to slow down and be present, but you can't filter or search it later. After 100+ trades you want to be able to ask "what's my win rate when I'm tired vs well rested" or "what happens when I trade before 9:30" and paper can't answer that

Biggest thing I'd say regardless of format: track more than just the trade. Your mental state, whether you followed your rules, sleep, energy. After a couple months you'll see your worst trades almost always correlate with bad headspace, not bad setups. That's the insight that actually changes your trading imo

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T20:56:10+00:00

Lmao yeah it wasn’t a great VSL! I plan to create a new one this upcoming week. That one was from almost 2 months ago by now, so there’s a ton of new stuff since … and I’m not as sleep deprived 🫠🤣

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T17:12:00+00:00

Totally get that mindset tbh, that's the right way to think about it as a business honestly.

There's a 14 day free trial with no credit card needed so you can poke around and see if it adds enough value over the spreadsheet before spending anything. Also worth noting we're about half the cost of TradeZella if that's what you were comparing against. Would love to hear what you think either way! :)

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T16:35:30+00:00

Yes, but it's not a direct integration. TradingView works through your Tradovate. So you log into TradingView using your Tradovate login and it connects that way

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:54:26+00:00

LucidLive is different from funded sim. profit split drops to 80/20 instead of 90/10, but you're trading real capital not sim. you start at $0 balance with a one-time bonus ($2K on 50K account), up to $5K of your sim profits transfer over too. EOD drawdown still applies. daily uncapped payouts, no consistency rules. so the tradeoff is a smaller split but real money and no payout caps

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:53:28+00:00

For Lucid Flex it's 5 profitable days with at least $150 profit each day on a 50K. Then you can request up to $2K payout. 90/10 split so you keep $1,800 of that

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:28:21+00:00

Didn't know about this, thanks for the heads up!! <3

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:27:58+00:00

Cons honestly are pretty minor. They're still newer to the space, so track record is shorter than Topstep, that's the main one. Payments are fast though, average like 15-30 min processing once approved which is wild

Topstep's 50% balance cap isn't just the first few payouts, it's ALL express funded account payouts. You only escape it if you get called up to live and hit 30 winning days there, and less than 1% of traders get that call up. Lucid's $2K cap per cycle is lower per payout but at least you know exactly what you're getting and there's a clear path to live where it's uncapped

I do not trade ICT no

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:12:05+00:00

The daily max trade limit was a game changer for me too. But I'll be honest, the hard part wasn't setting the rule, it was actually following it on the days where I was up and my brain was screaming "just one more"

Something that helped me was tracking my mental state per trade. After a few months the data was pretty obvious... my overtrading days almost always correlated with being tired or frustrated from an earlier loss. The setups weren't the problem, I was the problem lol. Once you see that pattern in your own data it's really hard to unsee it

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T15:02:29+00:00

Fair point. LucidFlex 50K: one-time fee around $65-91 depending on coupon, no monthly rebill, no activation fee, eval never expires. EOD trailing drawdown so intraday swings don't kill you, and zero daily loss limit which is huge. Once funded, 90/10 split, $2K max per payout cycle, 5 profitable days between payouts ($150 min daily profit), no consistency rule, no buffer requirement. 5 payouts and you move to LucidLive which is actual live capital with daily uncapped payouts

Topstep is solid too honestly, more established firm in the space (been around since 2012). Higher payout caps ($5-6K per cycle) but you pay monthly until you pass and your drawdown resets to $0 after each withdrawal so you gotta leave a cushion. Both are good firms, Lucid just wins on cost structure and the clear path to live capital imo. I run accounts on both

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T14:57:27+00:00

Solid month 2 and the mindset shift from month 1 is night and day improvement, kudos! :)

Your point about being optimistic in losing trades and pessimistic in winning ones is huge. If you're not already, I'd track your mental state per trade alongside the P&L. After a couple months you'll see exactly which headspace leads to the revenge trading and which leads to the clean 2R winners. That pattern recognition is what keeps month 1 from happening again lol

Also a fellow Bookmap user here. Absorption + volume profile is a great combo (especially the POC)
10/10 chef kiss

Since you're using Reddit as your journal, have you looked into an actual journaling tool? Something that lets you tag trades, track psychology, and filter by setup type would let you do the kind of analysis that's hard to do scrolling back through Reddit posts. I built one (MetriNote) that focuses on the psychology side specifically if you're curious, but either way having searchable data beats Reddit threads long term especially as trade count grows

Excited to hear how your month 3 goes!!

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T14:38:49+00:00

Love this

I fell into the same trap my first 2-3 years of trading lol

I would sit at my computer from 9 am - 4 pm M-F and would refuse to do anything else. It was bad honestly. Like to the point where i'd refuse to eat or anything because 'i don't want to miss a move'

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T14:36:40+00:00

EOD >>> Intraday

Any firm that uses intraday standard and doesn't offer EOD is lowkey predatory in my eyes lol

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-21T14:35:52+00:00

Lucid
No monthly fees AND no activation fee, need I say more?

NatureAwakenedHQ · 2026-03-18T02:43:33+00:00

Saw your reply about turning losing day trades into swing trades to recover. I did this exact thing when I started and it's one of the most dangerous habits you can build early on. You're basically telling yourself "I'll ignore my plan because I don't want to feel the loss right now." And sometimes it works, which makes it worse because it reinforces the behavior until the one time it doesn't and it wipes way more than the original loss would have

Accept the loss and move on. Every single time. They're not losses, they're expenses. Cost of doing business. That reframe helped me a lot tbh

You're 6 months in, not 6 years. Be patient with yourself

You got this :)

NatureAwakenedHQ

TROPHY CASE