I've been in the market for about four years now. My first year was all about understanding how the market works—I never did paper trading; instead, I traded with real small amounts to get hands-on experience. I explored leverage, option buying, lot sizes, position sizing, and how brokers operate. That entire year was dedicated to building my foundation through real exposure.
By the first half of my second year, I had learned almost every strategy and trading concept in theory, along with how to code strategies in Pine Script. I followed almost every trader on YouTube, watching their live trades and absorbing their insights. One thing that stuck with me from all those mentors was that trading can lead to financial freedom, but it doesn’t happen overnight. I also learned that, if mismanaged, it can wipe you out faster than any business. This made me focus heavily on risk management—I only risked what I was comfortable losing and never let greed take over.
At that stage, I was winning some trades but losing it all back because I was too curious. I wanted to go deeper, testing why certain moves happened the way they did. Most of the time, I let the market slap me on purpose—I needed to experience those painful lessons firsthand to ensure I wouldn’t fall for the same traps in the future. That was my first 1.5 years in trading.
During that period, I also learned:
To limit my watchlist to just five markets instead of chasing everything.
The more I traded in a day, the more I gave back to the market—so I cut my trades down to just three per day, strictly based on my best strategy.
That Risk-to-Reward with strict Discipline is the closest thing to a holy grail in trading.
By the second half of my second year, things started to turn around—I finally went consistently green.
Here is the thing I want to share from my experience if anyone needs it:
People often say trading is all about the mental game; keeping emotions in check and mastering psychology. While that sounds good on paper, it unintentionally creates unnecessary stress for traders. Why? Because it makes them believe that if they fail, it’s because their mindset isn’t strong enough, rather than simply needing more experience and analysis.
Here’s the truth: trading isn’t about some abstract "mental game" it’s about how long and experienced you’ve been in the market.
Experience Over Psychology
With time and proper analysis, you start to see patterns, market structure, and liquidity traps without overthinking. It becomes second nature to spot the next move or when to avoid the market altogether. No amount of psychology tricks can replace raw market time and real-world experience.
The only psychological factor that matters? Probability and Discipline.
Understanding risk-to-reward and probabilistic outcomes with strict discipline to trade only the best set-up is the closest thing to a "mental game" in trading. But even that is rooted in numbers, not emotions.
Final Thought- Next time someone tells you trading is all about psychology, remind them: experience sharpens intuition, not mindset hacks. The longer you’re in the game, the clearer the market’s movements become.
Remember, Rome was not built in a day and so goes with trading. And Don't ever trade with Amount you are not comfortable to lose.
-Silverfox Walls Nagaland