The High-Performing Trader

The High-Performing Trader

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The High-Performing Trader
The High-Performing Trader
Why You See the Warning Signs—But Still Blow Up

Why You See the Warning Signs—But Still Blow Up

Learn how to catch the shift before it spirals and stop trading your emotional state instead of your strategy.

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Sara
Apr 13, 2025
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The High-Performing Trader
The High-Performing Trader
Why You See the Warning Signs—But Still Blow Up
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Level up your mindset. Grow your PnL.


When Lawrence came to me, he already knew what being a great trader felt like.

But every now and then, he’d still have a blowout day—and lose his TopSet accounts.

Over time, we realized there was a clear cycle going on that looked something like this:

Lawrence’s cycle.
  1. A blowout

  2. A recovery period—one to two weeks of no trading

  3. A return to the charts—calm, detached, focused

  4. Slowly, attachment crept back in

The spiral repeated.

It was always the same. And it wasn’t sudden. Clear signs showed up every time when he was about to pass to Phase 4. But he either missed them or didn’t give them the value they deserved.

And that’s exactly what this post is about: The early micro-moments that matter—and why you keep ignoring them.

You Know You’re Not Supposed to Trade Emotionally.

But still—you sit through tiredness. You push after mistakes. You feel tension in your body but keep going.

You check your PnL. Scroll X. Drop to a lower timeframe…

Most traders I get in touch with wait until things are already spiraling to intervene. They try to fix the mistake in the middle of it. By that point, it’s too late. If that emotion goes unrecognized, it starts driving your decisions.

That’s when the pattern takes over, and you find yourself revenge trading. Now, you’re trading your state, not your strategy.

So What’s the Fix?

Don’t try to change the pattern when it’s fully formed. Catch the shift before it becomes a monster.

To do that, you need two things:

  1. Learn your personal warning signs.

  2. Build a system around them.

That’s what this post is about.

Today, you’ll learn:

  • The 2 types of warning signs

  • Why traders see them but still ignore them

  • Lawrence’s case study on how we tackled his blowout days

  • And a downloadable Notion Warning Sign Tracker you can start using this week

By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of how to stop repeating the same mistakes before they happen.

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