Why does it seem so easy for other traders, but not for me?

Thank you for your wisdom, really appreciated.
Pls preach more when you find some time.

I am doing the same for 15 YEARS......
Find something others if you want to make big money. Modern market is just pure manipulation. Day trading is just a waste of time for most people including me.

That’s tough… but honestly, you’re not alone in feeling this.
9 losses hurt, especially after years of effort but it doesn’t erase your progress. Right now it’s more mental pressure than strategy.
Stop comparing yourself to othersmost only show wins.
Take a short break, reduce risk, and remove the pressure of “going full-time.” Trade to improve, not to escape.
You’re not stuckbyou’re just exhausted. Reset, then come back clear.

You changed my mind, man. I realized there are a few things I should’ve done earlier, and your explanations are really clear and detailed. I’ll try focusing on minimizing losses before thinking about profit.

Ok, I can see the gears turning in your head, but you still haven’t grasped the most important part — and it’s the root cause behind most traders’ struggles.

The problem isn’t strategy or psychology.

The root cause is a faulty understanding of what profitable trading actually is.

Because of that, you’re using the wrong measuring stick and learning from a very bad "teacher".

Right now, your “teacher” is your P&L:

1. Up → you think you did something right → feels good → euphoria & greed
2. Down → you think you did something wrong → feels awful → depression & fear

This feels logical, but is completely misleading.

Your P&L doesn't tell you whether your trade was good or bad — only what happened.

And as long as that’s your feedback loop, you’ll keep reinforcing the wrong behaviors.

Understand the difference between the struggling trader:

1. Learns from P&L
2. Measures success by money
3. Reacts emotionally to every fluctuation
4. Poor results = emotional rollercoaster = thinks psychology is the problem

And the professional trader:

1. Learns from the market
2. Measures success by alignment, success = exit when misaligned, failure = overstaying after misalignment was recognized
3. Ignores P&L during the trade
4. Focuses on reading and reacting, not being "right" = no emotional reaction to win / loss

The pro is reacting to what the market is telling him. The amateur is reacting to money.

This is the shift you need to make:
Market alignment is the foundation of profitable trading.
Reading the market and recognizing misalignment is the skill that needs to be learned.

Minimizing losses is just the result of that — not the goal.

I was where you’re at and it took over 10 years for my light bulb moment: I failed because I had a faulty trading mentality.

This is what I did to de-program and reprogram my mentality (warning: profitable trading is very boring)

1. Manual historical backtesting on a random asset or currency pair
2. Go back to a random point in history, I chose higher timeframes above 1 hour to reduce noise
3. Enter trades randomly (coin flip), set a 1:1 fixed SL and TP

Now the only rule:
I exit only when the market tells me I’m wrong— not because of P&L. I stay in winning trades, until the market tells me to get out or the TP takes me out.

During the trade, I use my analysis skills to focus on:

1. price behavior
2. trend movements
3. structure and momentum
4. whether my position is still aligned
5. whenever I noticed my analysis skills were lacking in the above, I knew what I needed to study and learn that week.

Very important: Ignore P&L completely, it’s just noise and irrelevant.

New mentality: I measure success by how well I was aligned with the market—not P&L. If I based my exit decision on my market read and exited before my SL got hit, then it was a successful trade, even if it resulted in a loss.

When I finally made the decision to go full-time, I spent the first 1½ years, 60+ hours a week (no trading with real money) on what I described above and learning until it finally started to click.

The first few months focused on reading the market to cut losers. Later, when I got good at this, I took away the TP to let winners run and got out when the market told me to.

I journaled my trades, highlighting what exactly (trendline break, moving average turn, support/resistance break etc) I based my exit decision on in order to speed up learning. In between these practice sessions, I focused on learning and improving my analysis skills (trend analysis, momentum analysis, cycles, multi-timeframe analysis, intermarket correlations etc) until I found my own style.

Result: today, I can be profitable with any strategy including no strategy with no perceivable “edge”, i.e. random coin flip.

If you’re serious about wanting to do this full time and really want to learn, I suggest you pause trading with real money for now.
Because as long as real money is involved:

1. your P&L will hijack your attention away from what the market is telling you
2. your emotions will override your perception
3. and you won’t be able to build the necessary trading skills properly

You can’t rewire how you think about trading while you’re still being conditioned by P&L.

Final point:
Most traders believe that success = consistent profitability = consistent money. Their mentality is tied to money = emotional trading = inconsistency, making it impossible to achieve this “success”.

Pro traders know consistency = process that focuses on reading the market, recognizing when a position is misaligned and getting out.
Once you can do that consistently:

1. losses take care of themselves
2. winners take care of themselves
3. ICYMI, cutting losses short and letting winners run is the exact same skill

But until then, everything will feel random — no matter what strategy you use or how much you try to minimize losses.

Take your time to consider if you really want to do this, because it’ll require more than just a small adjustment.
It’s a complete mental re-wiring in how one thinks about trading.

You're spot on Sir.

CoffeeFreak got it right. The loop is broken, good trades can appear as bad trades in the end (even if the possibility of profit was 80%), and its quite disheartening.
Also, don't forget, most of the people online are LARPing. Even on this forum, but especially on Youtube/tiktok (yuck), instagram etc. Nobody is gonna diminish their results, they will only boast about it. Even if they are down $10k, they will post their profitable trades, to make themselves feel better about it all.
The 'safe' advice is solid though. Just trade on demo account. Pretend its real money. Smartest peope I know still traded on demo for like a year and a half. There's no shame in that.

I really appreciate it, your comment helped me realize I need to focus more on cutting losses when the market moves against me.
Can I ask where you learned market structure? Is it from experience, or is there somewhere I can learn it? I want to get better at knowing when the market is going wrong.

You need to focus on reading the market and alignment (not cutting losses), cutting losses happens after you read the market and recognize misalignment (market moves against you). I strongly recommend you do not take shortcuts.

I learned a lot of the foundational knowledge from dozens of books and mentors helped me to practically apply the knowledge.

Fractal market structure theories have been around a long time and there is a ton of free and premium resources. There are several schools of technical analysis and frameworks which overlap with each other because they are variations of the same core concept:

Markets organize in nested structures across multiple time horizons

Each one has its own terminology, strengths and weaknesses:

1. Wyckoff Method - Richard Wyckoff
   1. One of the earliest (and most complete) frameworks and is the basis for many other schools of TA
   2. Many swear by ICT / SMC. However, IMO they are a watered-down, subset of Wyckoff with renamed terminology. The ICT / SMC inventors also failed as traders, which is why I recommend Wyckoff (the OG) - it's more complex but also more complete

   
   
   

2. Elliott Wave Theory - Ralph Nelson Elliott
   1. There's lots of fantastic foundational knowledge in EW theory, unfortunately many traders takeaway, misapply and fail with the least important part: wave counting. Focus on proportionality and recursive structure, ignore wave counting

   
   
   

3. Hurst Cycle Analysis - J. M. Hurst
   1. Eye opening stuff and has a cult following on FF

   
   
   

4. Bressert Cycles - Walter Bressert
   1. Builds on Hurst but isn't as well known

   
   
   

5. Market Profile / Auction Market Theory - J. Peter Steidlmayer
   1. has a large following on FF

   
   
   

6. Dow Theory - Charles Dow
7. Mandelbrot / Fractal Geometry - Benoit Mandelbrot
   1. Market Microstructure Scaling is used in quants today - influenced by Mandelbrot

   
   
   

8. Market Fractal Theory - Edgar Peters
9. Gann Theory - W. D. Gann
   1. Some swear by it, others say Gann was a fraud, it didn't fit my personality so I never got too into it

   
   
   

10. Harmonic Patterns - Scott Carney
    1. very interesting application of physics and geometry in financial markets

    
    
    

11. Multi-timeframe trend alignment - Brian Shannon
12. DSP cycles - John Ehlers
13. Chaos Theory - Bill Williams

My personal approach is my own but is built upon these concepts, principles and elements.

EDIT: The above is what I personally needed to read the market, some traders don't need more than price action and Support/Resistance analysis. It's impossible for me to say what you would need, this is something you will need to figure over time through trial & error.

As I said earlier, to make money in financial markets you have to compete with financial institutions, hedge funds, banks and other professionals. And their knowledge & skills vs part-time retail traders is like comparing real professional engineers vs Lego builders, golf tour pros vs weekend golfers, professional race car drivers vs hobby racers and so on. Unfortunately most traders (including me) were seduced by the "get rich quick and easy" marketing and usually end up quitting when they realize how complex and time consuming the learning will be.

Reality check: Aspiring traders that want to make a living from financial markets first need to catch up to the professionals before they can start competing with them and making money.

Ok, this is a simple example but hopefully it gets my point across.

When I was a struggling trader, this is the confusion I went through trying to trade "simple" trendlines. Here's a chart with the Auto Trendlines indicator that draws trendlines completely blind to the market structure



There are so many ways to draw a trendline, it can get confusing, where to get in, where to get out? When the losses started piling up and my emotions were all over the place, I thought that a "simple" trendline strategy shouldn't be that complicated so it must be my psychology. Finally I moved on, believing trendlines don't work.

Here is the same chart, but this time I'm putting up trendlines based on my reading of the market structure



Now the trendlines are in sync with the market, it's easy to see where to get in and where to get out with a high degree of confidence.

Now it looks like a "simple" trendline swing strategy that is profitable. It's like an iceberg: a strategy that looks so simple on the surface, but hidden underneath is the years it took to learn how to read the market in real-time.

This is possible with virtually any strategy or indicators (including no strategy, no indicator). This is why pros can choose a strategy based more on personal preference rather than necessity.

Hope this made sense.

What you're going through; the entire experience & thoughts/aspirations - I just mean: into to of what you've written out here - it's EXACTLY what am facing/dealing with, and so are waaaay many other traders too.

But here's the thing(which I'very found helpful along the way):
1) Keep it(your trading System ie. Chart) really simplet, and you can practice it so, and assimilate

2) Protect your Capital: It's very imperative that no matter what, how, when - just make sure your 'Capital' can survive another day eg. Utilise smaller Lot sizes, and reduce Leverage Ratio eg. 1:200

Basically, thi's sounds ordinary, but no one will tell you what or how much your psychological stands can impact on your trading journey, and the two points listed above - help's in tackling it a great deal.

Goodluck, and God bless.

It's clear that I don't fully understand all your techniques yet, but I hope that after a few months of learning, when I come back, I'll be able to grasp them much better.

"Hi Nguyenduy, first of all, thank you for being so incredibly honest. In a world full of illusions where everyone only shares their wins, it's rare to find a brave soul like you who speaks openly about their losses. This courage is a sign that you are searching for the truth.
You should know that even if it seems like everyone is making money, most are losing. Even those who appear to be winning for 3 to 6 months eventually give it all back. Don't let the 'easy money' posts fool you; the reality is much harsher.
We are often trapped by algorithms that constantly evolve. Conventional strategies create a false sense of security, gathering retail traders into a collective trend only to trap them all at once. We are essentially being taught how to become liquidity for the big players.
So, what’s the solution? You cannot fight high-speed algorithms with human emotions and manual execution. Only human-led, algorithmic fast-learning systems can compete in this environment. My suggestion is to prepare for this battle using PyTorch and Neural Networks. By integrating your strategy into a system that learns and adapts, you can finally stand a chance against the traps set by the market.
You are not alone in this exhaustion, but it might be time to upgrade your tools and change the way you fight."

To win, you need to build a defense mechanism for yourself. Just like the following:

It will be bigger challenge than learn to trade ?

Learning to trade is the biggest challenge, but believe me, once you start, you'll be relieved of a huge burden. Moreover, everything you learn has a lifespan; it can all be wasted in an instant.

You’re not alone losing streaks happen to everyone, even experienced traders. The key isn’t trying to control the market or force wins, it’s learning to manage losses and stick to your process. Scale down risk, focus on execution over profit, and treat the 9 5 as your safety net while you build consistency. Step back if needed, protect your mental state, and remember: edges are realized over many trades, not each one.
What timeframe and style are you trading right now intraday, swing, or longer-term?

Time for a Reality Check
Look, I’m not going to give you clichés like "everyone loses, don't lose heart." On the contrary, you are currently standing on the most dangerous threshold of thought. Finding excuses like "I’m losing, but so is everyone else" is the first step toward a trader's downfall. Other people’s losses won't save your account. Let’s be brutally honest about your current situation:

1. Stop the Deception: Saying "I lost because I didn't follow my psychology or risk management" is an escape. These words are an illusion used to cover up the fact that your strategy might no longer be working.
2. Your Method Might Be Obsolete: If you’ve been trading for years and are still stuck in the same spot, don’t just blame your mindset. It’s very possible that the method you’re using is simply no longer valid in these market conditions.
3. Be Realistic: If you’ve lost, and you keep going with this same mindset, you will lose again. The market is trying to tell you something: either your game plan is flawed, or the rules of the game have changed and you haven't adapted.

You need to ask yourself: Do you actually have a strategy, or are you just selling yourself hope? If your current method isn’t getting you out of your 9–5 job, it’s no longer a "tool"—it’s a "burden." You have to find a new way, a new perspective. Period.

Hello. I would like to share a bit of my experience on 3 aspects based on your posts.

1. Take trading as a hobby/side investment (first). I have a job I enjoy a lot and pays okay, so my privilege probably is not having the desire of trading for living. I would recommend others to take trading this way no matter their end goals of their trading journey. In reality, as we all hear and know, only very few people can actually achieve to trade for living, especially for retail traders. In a long run, you may be able to achieve that. But consider you still consider practicing and not truly stable in trading yet, I don't think it is wise to hold your dream at this point.

2. Set trading goal to "not lose money". From my day 1 learning trading 5 years ago, I have only 1 KPI for my trading: not to lose money. Any profit is bonus. Develop a solid risk management plan. My first live account is $4k, and I risk 0.2-0.5% per trade. I still keep this as my acc grows and getting prop firm accounts with more capital. As you understand your trading strategy more, you can go further by improving your plan.
Take example of me now (prop firm acc is summarized every time period), my trade size goes smaller and smaller every trade no matter it is winning or losing, just getting more strict to enter higher R:R setups if I am in losing streaks. This way, at least for me, can basically keep myself finishing each period at par if not profit.
Risk control is top priority. Once you get stable at trading your strategy, you can gain more simply by increasing your account size, but not your risk or try to put in more trades and twist your method.

3. Stability can be pretty long-run. If you look up statistics, representative sample size for any cohorts is 160-384. I believe there are methods you tried and worked in backtest or a few months, but I would put it in over-simple way: "you need to see this method, executed perfectly, and fails in the next 384 trades to prove it is no longer working". Right now, I only trade 1 method. If there are no valid setup, then I just don't enter trades no matter how long it takes.

To show you how exactly it is. below is my trade journal for Jan and Mar. Jan was bad month for my method, so there was a losing streak. I used my plan as per point 2, so my month still ended up little positive. This month so far, it is working very well.
I do not trade a lot when I was busy in early Jan traveling, and I only trade 1-2 positions a day and never chase win/loss (as I see trading the way in point 1).
And this exact method I have been using it for >4 years.




These are just very small aspects I am sharing, and if I would summarize them, I would say you need to have discipline and take trading easy.

You’re not the first one and you’re not the last, who claims this. I had a similar thing back in the day, when I thought that I'm a smart one and finding so “magic” trading strategy which is better than previous one and following strict risk management would help me to become consistent. Nah it didn’t work, even though i did everything like in the book, reality is different. You know what helped me? - Focus on the process instead of results. I just stopped giving a f*ck, executing the most convenient and backtested strategy, focusing on very small 1:1 RR. And you know it started clicking…

I guess this is a sacrifice you pay for making something out of trading - mental burn out, sometimes even not making anything out of it. But your observations about “other profitable traders” might be wrong. You didn’t check their P&L for real and what they post can be easily taken from the context and photoshopped. I don’t say, don’t believe anything you see on the Internet, but I’d treat these "successful stories” with a caution.
The solution to your struggles is a system and mindset. Takes time to develop yours and treat trading differently, accepting losses and understanding that trading is all about increasing probability, not certainty. Sounds too philosophical but it works.