The Mental Edge: Trading Psychology Podcast

You keep taking impulsive trades, even when you know they are not in your plan.In this episode, I’m breaking down the real reason that happens, and it’s not because you lack discipline. Most impulsive trading is an attempt to escape an internal state, a feeling in your body that gets loud enough that your survival brain takes over.We’ll unpack the five most common emotional drivers behind impulsive trades, why phone-driven overstimulation makes patience feel unbearable, what happens in your brain when you try to “white knuckle” discipline, and then I’ll give you four exercises to interrupt the cycle in real time.In this episode:Why impulsivity is often relief-seeking, not profit-seekingThe difference between discipline tools and regulation toolsThe five emotions that most often sit underneath impulsive tradingWhy overstimulation makes patience feel like dangerHow stress shuts down your prefrontal cortex in the exact moment you need itFour exercises to widen the gap between the urge and the click When what comes up is bigger than trading and what to do nextNote: These exercises are self-awareness tools, not therapy, and they are not a substitute for working with a licensed professionalSubscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coResearch:Haynes, T. (2018). "Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time." Harvard Medical School Science in the News.Arnsten, A. F. (2009). "Stress signaling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function." Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410-422.Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). "A neural substrate of prediction and reward." Science, 275(5307), 1593-1599.Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). "Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli." Psychological Science, 18(5), 421-428.Siegel, D. J. (1999). The Developing Mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. Guilford Press.Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Arnsten, A. F. T., & Li, B. M. (2005). "Neurobiology of executive functions: Catecholamine influences on prefrontal cortical function." Biological Psychiatry, 57(11), 1377-1384.Qin, S., et al. (2009). "Acute psychological stress reduces working memory-related activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex." Biological Psychiatry, 66(1), 25-32.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

You finally got your first payout, you proved you can do this, and then a couple days later you blew the account. And now, no matter what you try, you can't get back to where you were.In this episode, I’m breaking down what actually shifts in your brain and nervous system after a payout, and why trading often gets harder after success, not easier.This isn’t a discipline problem. It’s not that you “forgot how to trade.” Your brain recalibrated. Your identity shifted. Your nervous system started treating every trade like a threat to your worth.I’ll walk you through the three patterns that trap traders in the post-payout spiral (revenge trading against your own history, the paradox of trying harder, and the eval fee treadmill), and then I’ll give you a clear four-week recovery roadmap to rebuild self-trust and make consistency sustainable.In this episode:Why “losing what you had” hits different than chasing something newWhat changes in dopamine, stress response, and identity after a payoutThe post-payout spiral patterns traders repeat without realizing itShame vs guilt, and how to get out of the shame loopA 4-week roadmap to reset your nervous system and rebuild process-based consistencyA readiness checklist so you stop buying evals from panicDownload the workbook here: https://mentaledgetrading.kit.com/651c0fd2e4Key Studies:Kahneman & Tversky (1979) - Loss Aversion (Prospect Theory)Arnsten (2009) - Stress & Prefrontal Cortex FunctionSchultz (2015) - Dopamine & Reward SystemsBalban et al. (2023) - Physiological Sigh Research (Stanford)Lally et al. (2010) - Habit Formation (66-day average)Frameworks Referenced:Siegel (1999) - Window of TolerancePorges (2011) - Polyvagal TheoryKübler-Ross (1969) - Five Stages of GriefTangney & Dearing (2002) - Shame vs. GuiltLinehan (2015) - DBT SkillsShapiro (2001) - EMDR & Bilateral StimulationRecommended Books:"The Body Keeps the Score" - Bessel van der Kolk"Thinking, Fast and Slow" - Daniel Kahneman"The Power of Habit" - Charles DuhiggDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

Your brain will follow your plan flawlessly… right up until you are about to hit your goal.In this episode, I’m breaking down a pattern I named Finish Line Freeze, and why it has nothing to do with discipline.This is nervous system survival. It is shame. It is identity. It is your brain trying to pull you back to what is familiar the moment success becomes real. More importantly, I’m giving you practical tools to rewire it. Not mindset hacks. If you are tired of collapsing right before the payout, this is the episode that explains what is happening and what to do next.Topics covered:What Finish Line Freeze is and why it shows up right before payouts and goalsThe three layers driving the freeze: your body can’t hold peace, your mind rejects the win, and your story is built on collapseHomeostatic resistance and why your nervous system chooses familiarity over progressImposter syndrome, cognitive dissonance, and the urge to sabotage to protect identityCapacity trauma and the “upper limit” that shows up in your numbersWhy shame is the real driver behind holding losers, moving stops, and spiraling after lossesThe SAFE method to interrupt the pattern in real time (Spot, Anchor, Feel, Execute)Exposure-style tolerance building through micro-risking and progressive overloadCrisis tools: STOP method, urge surfing, and quick regulation techniquesPre-commitment systems that protect you when you cannot trust yourself under pressureSubscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coRESEARCH:van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking.Brown, B. (2006). Shame resilience theory: A grounded theory study on women and shame. Families in Society, 87(1), 43-52.Hendricks, G. (2009). The Big Leap: Conquer your hidden fear and take life to the next level. New York: HarperOne.Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Foa, E. B., & McLean, C. P. (2016). The efficacy of exposure therapy for anxiety-related disorders and its underlying mechanisms: The case of OCD and PTSD. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, 1-28.Bowen, S., Chawla, N., & Marlatt, G. A. (2010). Mindfulness-based relapse prevention for addictive behaviors: A clinician's guide. New York: Guilford Press.Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. New York: Viking.Siegel, D. J., & Hartzell, M. (2003). Parenting from the inside out: How a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.Miller, A. (1981). The Drama of the Gifted Child: The search for the true self. New York: Basic Books.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

Your brain is lying to you when you trade in ways that quietly sabotage your edge every single day.You don’t see the chart as it is. You see it through beliefs, emotions, recent experiences, and what your nervous system is doing in that moment.In this episode, I’m breaking down the five most expensive cognitive biases in trading: confirmation bias, recency bias, overconfidence bias, hindsight bias, and availability bias.More importantly, I’m showing you why you can’t “think” your way out of these patterns, and how to build external systems that catch them before they cost you real money.This is how the human brain actually works under uncertainty. And once you see which bias is running your decisions, you can finally start trading what’s real instead of what your mind is projecting.Topics covered:Why your brain filters the chart to match your thesisThe confirmation bias trap and why traders add to losersHow recency bias makes you abandon profitable strategies in drawdownThe Dunning-Kruger effect and the danger of early confidenceWhy hindsight bias rewrites your memory after every moveHow availability bias makes rare events feel commonWhy all cognitive biases get worse when your nervous system is dysregulatedPre-trade, in-trade, and post-trade regulation toolsHow to build checklists, alerts, and tracking systems that override biasSubscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coResearch:Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175-220.Wason, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(3), 129-140.Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81-97.Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121-1134.Fischhoff, B. (1975). Hindsight is not equal to foresight: The effect of outcome knowledge on judgment under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1(3), 288-299.Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 207-232.Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

How to Overcome the Fear of Losing Money in TradingYou see a perfect setup, your rules say take it, but you can't pull the trigger. Or maybe you're in a trade and it goes fifty bucks against you, and suddenly your chest gets tight, your palms start sweating, and you're thinking about closing it even though it hasn't hit your stop yet.Afterward, you think, "Why am I so scared? Why can't I just execute my plan?" But nothing is wrong with you. Your brain is treating financial loss like a survival threat. And that's biology, not weakness.In this episode, I break down the complete neuroscience of why losing money feels so painful. You'll learn what's happening in your amygdala, insula, and stress response system when you lose money, where this fear actually comes from, and the exact tools to retrain your nervous system so fear doesn't control your trading anymore.What's Inside:Why losing $100 hurts 2.5x more than gaining $100 feels good (loss aversion research)The biology of financial fear: amygdala activation, insula pain processing, and cortisol floodingHow childhood money scripts wire your nervous system (and why financial trauma can pass through generations)Money personality types: Why savers and spenders struggle differently in tradingThe trigger-thought-action loop that creates revenge trading, early exits, and freezingWise Mind: How to integrate emotional and rational thinking for calm execution3 practical tools: Planned Loss Exposure Drill, STOP Skill, and Identity AnchoringThe Future Self Letters exercise: Which version of you are you investing in today?This isn't theory. These are nervous system-based interventions that actually work.KEY RESEARCH CITED:Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263-291.De Martino, B., Camerer, C. F., & Adolphs, R. (2010). Amygdala damage eliminates monetary loss aversion. PNAS, 107(8), 3788-3792.Eisenberger, N. I., & Lieberman, M. D. (2004). Why rejection hurts: A common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(7), 294-300.Blair, C., Berry, D., Mills-Koonce, R., & Granger, D. (2013). Cumulative effects of early poverty on cortisol in young children. Developmental Psychobiology, 55(6), 619-634.Knutson, B., et al. (2007). Neural predictors of purchases. Neuron, 53(1), 147-156.DISCLAIMER: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

Why You Can't Control Yourself After a Loss (It's Not Discipline)You take a loss, panic rises, and you know you should stop... but you can't. You take another trade, and another... until the account is blown or you're locked out.Afterward, you think: "What's wrong with me? Why can't I just be more disciplined?"But nothing is wrong with you. Your brain is doing exactly what it's designed to do.In this episode, I break down the complete neuroscience of revenge trading. You'll learn what's happening in your amygdala (threat detector) and striatum (habit center) when you take a loss, why discipline doesn't work, and what to do instead.I'm giving you the 5-step Threat Mode Protocol (adapted from aviation safety) to interrupt the automatic revenge trading pattern and retrain your brain.What's Inside:- The neuroscience of threat mode (amygdala activation, prefrontal cortex shutdown)- How your striatum learned revenge trading through repetition and intermittent reinforcement- Why trying harder makes it worse- The 5-step protocol to interrupt the pattern- Realistic timeline (months 1-12) for retraining your brainDownload the free checklist here.This is a printable protocol with all 5 steps, threat mode indicators, regulation techniques, and timeline guide. Print it and keep it next to your monitor.DISCLAIMER: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

You know what you're supposed to do, you understand your strategy, but when you're sitting at your desk, you can't execute.Maybe you freeze at perfect setups. Maybe you can't stop overtrading. Maybe you take one loss and spiral into revenge trading. Or maybe you just disappear and you can't bring yourself to open your platform for days or weeks.In this episode, I'm breaking down the four types of trading self-sabotage: The Hesitator, The Pusher, The Self-Punisher, and The Disappearer. More importantly, I'm giving you three exercises for each type to regulate your nervous system before these patterns destroy your account.This is how your biology was designed to work. And once you understand which pattern is yours, you can actually fix it.Topics covered:How to identify your primary self-sabotage patternThe nervous system state driving each type (freeze, fight, shame spiral, flight)12 regulation exercises (3 per type) you can use immediatelyWhat happens when patterns collide and how to interrupt themWhat triggers shifts between types (sleep, stress, winning streaks, losing streaks)Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance. All trading involves risk, and you should never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. The content shared reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a retired therapist turned trader and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition. Always consult with qualified financial and mental health professionals before making trading or personal health decisions.

Why do capable traders blow their accounts right before their first payout or within days after getting it?In part three of this funded trading series, I break down what happens to your brain when you get close to a payout and why your nervous system shifts into protection mode right when you need to stay sharp.This episode walks through reward proximity and how dopamine builds as you approach a goal, the threat window that makes normal pullbacks feel like danger, and why three specific things happen after a payout that set you up to blow the account.You'll learn:Why a $50 pullback at 95% feels completely different than the same pullback at 20%How your brain shifts from approach mode to protection mode and what that does to your tradingThe three things that happen after a payout: dopamine crashes, your brain relaxes its monitoring, and identity shifts that pull you back to old behaviorsWhy the limbo zone between payouts is the most dangerous time for your trading and sets up your next cycleWhat to do if you blow an account at 95% and how to recover without carrying shame into your next attemptFive regulation exercises that keep your prefrontal cortex online when the pressure hits: threat signature mapping, payout distance anchor, stillness tolerance test, dopamine trough rehearsal, and identity stability checkThis is a longer episode because I'm walking through both the neuroscience of what's happening and the exact protocols to work with your nervous system instead of against it when real money is on the line.Part one covered why getting funded is so difficult. Part two covered why traders blow funded accounts. This episode shows you how to actually get your first payout and keep your account afterwards.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance.

If you're struggling to keep your funded account, much more goes into it than being "undisciplined."In part two of this three-part funded trading series, I break down the biological and psychological shift that happens the moment a challenge becomes a funded account and why your nervous system interprets success as a threat.This episode walks through the dopamine crash that happens after passing, how your brain shifts from pursuit mode to protection mode, and why the urge to intervene, control, and fix your trades gets stronger even when you're doing everything right.You'll learn:Why dopamine crashes the moment you pass and how that affects your tradingHow your nervous system shifts from exploration to protection when real money is at stakeThe three silent killers that blow funded accounts before you realize what's happening: the need to prove something, emotional overmanagement, and the pressure of unstructured timeWhy your body becomes hypersensitive to internal sensations and starts misreading normal market behavior as dangerWhat the protective instinct surge is and why it makes you want to close winners early, move stops, and intervene in perfectly valid tradesThe six specific exercises that rewire your nervous system so you can sit with discomfort without blowing your accountHow to detect when you're not in a state to trade before you ever open the chartsWhy identity debt causes self-sabotage right after success and how to stabilize into the identity of a consistently funded traderThis is a longer episode (69 minutes) because I'm giving you both the complete why and the exactly how in one sitting, no cliffhangers. Just the full framework you need to finally stay funded.Part one covered why getting funded is so difficult. Part three will break down what happens psychologically right before and after your first payout and why traders often blow accounts at that exact moment.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: https://mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance.

Why do so many capable, intelligent traders keep blowing prop firm challenges right before they pass?In part one of this three-part funded trading series, I break down what’s actually happening in your brain during a prop firm challenge and why willpower and discipline stop working when your nervous system shifts into survival mode.This episode walks through the neuroscience behind emotional trading, how specific prop firm rules activate stress and urgency responses, and why traders tend to implode in the final stretch even when everything was going well.You’ll learn:Why your brain reacts to losses, drawdowns, and missed trades as real threatsHow emotional momentum builds and hijacks decision-making during challengesWhy discipline breaks down under pressure even when you know your rulesHow traders shift into survival-based behaviors under stress, including impulsive escalation, urgency-driven decisions, shutdown, and autopilot tradingHow dopamine, urgency, and nervous system fatigue create the reset loopPractical tools to interrupt emotional spirals before they destroy your accountThis episode removes the shame around “lack of discipline” and gives you a clear framework for understanding why getting funded feels so difficult and what actually needs to change for consistent execution.Part two covers why traders struggle to stay funded. Part three breaks down what happens psychologically right before payouts and why success often triggers self-sabotage.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical or financial advice. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial guidance.

You can't just "be more disciplined" after you take a losing trade because your brain sees a loss as a threat to your survival.In this episode, I break down the neuroscience of why revenge trading feels impossible to stop and give five easy-to-implement exercises that you can start tomorrow to stop help stop revenge trading once and for all.You'll learn:What the dopamine-cortisol loop is and why it hijacks your trading decisionsWhy revenge trading is about restoring your identity, not your account balanceThe tension rating system to catch yourself before you spiralThe Micro Move Reboot that physically resets your nervous system in under 60 secondsHow to use the Damage Cap Protocol to stop the bleeding after one emotional tradeThe marble and groove analogy that explains why you keep repeating the same patternsWhy calling yourself out in real time reduces shame spirals laterThis episode explains why revenge trading is a nervous system problem, not a discipline problem, and gives you 5 protocols to interrupt the cycle before it blows your account.Want more? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for trading psychology insights you won't find anywhere else: mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.

Your nervous system completely reorganizes the moment you switch from demo to live trading.What You'll Learn:Why your brain shifts from pursuit mode to protection mode when you activate a live accountThe dopamine crash that happens right after you pass an evaluation (and why it feels like anxiety)How your amygdala hijacks your thinking brain when real money is at riskThe 3 patterns that silently destroy live accountsThe 3 exact scenarios where demo traders blow their accounts (and what they feel like in your body)The NAMES protocol: a 5-step nervous system regulation technique you can use in real timeThe daily audit that tells you whether you're in a state to trade or notWhat your trading looks like when you learn to bring the same regulated state from demo into liveTHE NAMES PROTOCOLUse this protocol any time you feel activated on live (chest tight, stomach dropping, urge to close early, pressure to force a trade)N - NAME the sensation out loudSay out loud: "This is anxiety" or "This is urgency" or "This is fear"Do not say this in your head. Say it OUT LOUD.A - ACKNOWLEDGE the state changeSay out loud: "My nervous system shifted from demo mode to live mode. This is protection mode activating. This is normal. This doesn't mean I can't trade live."M - MOVE your body to signal safetyDeliberately drop your shoulders. Let them fall.Plant your feet firmly on the ground. Feel the weight of your body in the chair. Feel your feet on the floor.E - EXHALE to activate your calm responseBreathe in through your nose for a count of 4Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 6Repeat 3 timesS - SIT STILL for 90 secondsDo absolutely nothing for 90 secondsDon't touch the trade. Don't adjust your stop. Don't close anything. Don't open a new chart. Don't force an entry. Don't move.Observe the urge like you're watching a wave in the oceanLet the urge rise, peak, and fall on its ownTHE DAILY AUDITComplete this every single morning BEFORE you open your chartsScore yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each area (1 = worst, 10 = best):Emotional stability - How stable do you feel emotionally right now?Physical tension - How much tension are you holding in your body?Intrusive thoughts - How much are intrusive or racing thoughts present?Impulsivity - How impulsive do you feel right now?Patience - How much patience do you have available today?Mental clarity - How clear and focused is your thinking?Add up your total score:Above 42 out of 60: You're in a reasonably regulated state. You can trade.Below 35 out of 60: You are NOT in a state to trade today. Step away.Want more? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for trading psychology insights you won't find anywhere else: https://mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.

Why can't you stay patient in trading even when you know better? Your nervous system is stuck in survival mode.In this episode, I break down the neuroscience behind impatience and the 5 fears disguised as greed in trading.You'll learn:Why your brain treats waiting as a survival threatThe 5 fears that show up as greed (FOMO, inadequacy, scarcity, regret, and losing control)The 3-Tier Risk Ladder to rebuild trust after blowing an accountHow to use tension ratings to trade from calm instead of chaosThe micro rewards system that retrains your dopamine to fire for discipline instead of random winsWhy funded accounts make all of this worseThis episode explains why patience isn't a personality trait and how to train your nervous system to feel safe while you wait.Want more? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for trading psychology insights you won't find anywhere else: mentaledgetrading.coDisclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.

Why does a $200 loss send you into total panic one day when you could handle a $500 loss just fine last week? It's because of your Window of Tolerance.In this episode, I break down a concept from DBT therapy that explains why your emotions take over at the worst possible times and what to do about it.You'll learn:What your Window of Tolerance is and why it's the foundation of emotional regulationThe two ways you leave your window (hyper arousal vs hypo arousal) and which one you default toWhy stress, losses, and pressure shrink your window exactly when you need it mostHow to recognize the warning signs before your emotions hijack your tradingFive practical tools to bring yourself back into your window in real timeThis episode explains why you can't out-discipline a dysregulated nervous system and how to stay regulated enough to actually execute your edge.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.

Why do you blow your account right before payout? Why does success feel more dangerous than failure? In this episode, I break down Finish Line Freeze. This is the nervous system pattern that makes you sabotage yourself when you're closest to winning.You'll learn:Why your brain treats success as a threat (and failure as safety)The science behind why you're more comfortable in chaos than calmHow conditioned distress keeps you stuck in the grindWhy success demands emotional skills your nervous system doesn't have yetHow to retrain your body to hold wins without panicking or pulling backThis episode explains why "one more trade" destroys your account, why calm feels dangerous, and how to build a nervous system that can handle success, not just hustle.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.

What is trading psychology, and why do smart traders keep breaking their own rules? In this episode, I break down the neuroscience behind emotional trading and why discipline isn't your problem, your dysregulated nervous system is.You'll learn:Why your brain treats losses like life-or-death threatsThe step-by-step process of how emotions hijack your tradingThe four trader types (Fighter, Flighter, Freezer, Follower) and which one you areWhy you can't out-discipline a nervous system stuck in survival modeHow to start recognizing when your emotions are running the showThis episode removes the shame around "lack of discipline" and gives you the framework to understand what's really happening in your brain when you trade.Disclaimer: I am a retired therapist and no longer practicing. I am not a licensed professional providing clinical advice. Everything shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care or financial advice.