Why Clarity—Not Control—Is the Key to Trading Success
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When I first started trading, the thing I struggled with the most wasn’t losses. It wasn’t discipline, either.
It was not knowing when the next opportunity would come.
I’m driven by action—by doing, practicing, improving. But trading isn’t like most skill-based fields where you can control your practice.
Some days, the market would be full of setups. Other days? Dead silence. And that drove me crazy. Because if I couldn't control the flow of opportunities, how could I control my growth as a trader?
Like most traders, I tried to force control:
Jumping into mediocre setups just to "practice."
Micromanaging every position to feel in charge.
Taking profits too early just to secure a winner.
But forcing control in an environment that can’t be controlled is career suicide.
That’s where a shift in perspective is needed.
To trade well, you need to know exactly what you can control—and just as importantly, what you can’t. You need a way to separate the two and build acceptance around what’s outside your hands.
This is where the Circle of Influence comes in.
The Three Circles That Define Your Trading
This framework contains three layers:
Circle of Control – Things you can directly influence with your thoughts, words, and actions.
Circle of Influence – Things you don’t control, but can still impact through the choices you make.
Circle of Concern – Things completely outside your control.
The key to success? Shift your energy to your Circle of Control.
The Market Rewards Clarity, Not Control
In the early stages of trading, I was obsessed with external factors—trying to predict the market, analyzing news events, and soaking up other traders' opinions (lots of them). I believed that if I gathered enough information, I could somehow control the market.
Everything I learned had that goal in mind.
As ridiculous as it might seem, I would spend hours marking charts with top-down analysis. But if price failed to react to them, I’d erase everything and start over.
Later on, in another phase of my journey, I learned the difference between what I could and couldn’t control—and I thought I had that lesson locked in.
But that knowledge was just surface-level. It wasn’t ingrained as a belief yet.
Then, as I progressed and consistently acted on what was within my control, I started to experience what Mark Douglas talks about:
You don’t need to know what’s going to happen next to make money.
And that shift—from intellectual knowledge to lived experience—is what turns information into deep belief.
True confidence in trading comes from knowing that focusing on the Circle of Control is enough to see long-term results.
If you want a deeper breakdown of how to shift your focus and build true confidence in trading, Upgrade to Paid for exclusive insights.
Mapping the Circles in Trading
If we break this framework down for trading, it looks like this:
Circle of Control:
When and how you enter and exit trades
Risk management (position sizing, stop loss placement)
Trade management (trailing stops, scaling in/out, break-even adjustments)
Emotional regulation (self-awareness, impulse control)
Journaling & trade review
Your trading routine & preparation
Sticking to your strategy
Continuous learning & development (backtesting, reviewing stats, studying yourself)
Circle of Influence
Individual trade outcomes
Win rate & expectancy over time
Your reaction to market conditions (how well you adapt to volatility or different environments)
The quality of your trade setups (following high-probability patterns increases success, but no guarantees)
Your ability to recover from losses
The effectiveness of your mindset work (you don’t control emotions, but you influence how you respond to them)
Circle of Concern:
Market movements (price action, trends, volatility)
News events, macroeconomic data, interest rate decisions
Other traders' decisions, predictions, and opinions
Black swan events (unexpected crashes, global crises)
Broker slippage, execution delays, platform issues
Whether a trade will win or lose in the short term
The speed of your progress as a trader (you control effort, but not how fast you’ll succeed)
Why is the outcome of each trade in the Circle of Influence and not in the Circle of Concern?
The simple reason I put it there is we have five possible outcomes for a trade:
Small winner
Big winner
Breakeven
Small loser
Big loser
The only real threat? The big loser.
And that’s something you do control.
Moreover, although you can't affirm the outcome of each trade, active trade management can transform a potential loser into a breakeven or even a small winner. And many times, this comes with some level of intuition built through experience.
At the end of the day, you have more control than you thought.
I break down how to shift from outcome to process-driven inside the paid version—Upgrade to Paid to dive deeper.
The One Outcome You Must Avoid
If you focus on capital preservation, your job is simple:
Avoid the big loser.
There are two ways big losses happen:
One mismanaged trade – You held the loss too long or didn’t use a stop loss.
Multiple small invalid losers – These destroy your strategy stats, making your results random—about as effective as playing slot machines.
The first issue is easy to fix—most traders do use a stop loss.
The real challenge I see with the traders working with me is the second. Impulsivity leads to small, low-quality losses that chip away at confidence and performance—something I covered in detail in Why You Struggle with Impulse Control—and How to Fix It if you want to learn how to regain control.
How to Stay Focused on the Right Things
Keeping your Circle of Influence visible every morning is a great way to stay grounded.
It also helps you assess whether your focus is in the right place. Ask yourself:
Am I spending most of my time in the Circle of Control, Influence, or Concern?
What specific actions under my control are required for me to perform at my best?
How can I expand my Circle of Influence to improve my trading?
When you answer these questions, you’ll realize something:
Your Circle of Control is bigger than you think. You might just not be using it to its full potential.
Peaceful trading,
Sara
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Excellent article! Yesterday I had a large loss due to not putting a stop loss in place. This was definitely in my control.
this helped me think out my recent process a bit. Thank you. I’ll add 3 more. Know your broker. & what your platform is capable of doing and use its features to the fullest. Lastly, data subscription, I’m guilty of this. Giving yourself the right data that is as accurate and fast. Not double paying or paying for something i don’t use. Etc etc. optimizing tax strategy.