The Phantom TradeThe Phantom Trade .... In the spirit of Halloween ...
NOTE – This is a post on mindset and emotion. It is not a trade idea or strategy designed to make you money. My intention is to help you preserve your capital, focus, and composure — so you can trade your own system with calm and confidence.
You missed it.
The setup you’d been watching for days, maybe weeks finally played out.
Clean. Precise. Exactly as planned.
But you weren’t in it.
Maybe you hesitated.
Maybe the trigger didn’t line up perfectly.
Or maybe you just weren’t at your desk.
Either way, it’s done.
But your mind doesn’t let it go.
You replay it.
Frame by frame.
You check where you would have entered, where you would have exited.
You tell yourself it’s “reviewing.”
But it’s not.
It’s rumination.
A mental loop that feels productive but keeps you stuck in what can’t be changed.
You’re not trading the market anymore… you’re trading your memory of it.
And every replay reinforces the belief that you should’ve done better.
The body joins in too.
Tight chest. Restless legs.
An urge to make it back .
That’s the real danger.
Because the next trade isn’t about opportunity, it’s about redemption.
And redemption trades rarely end well.
The skill isn’t in ignoring the regret.
It’s in recognising it for what it is: the echo of unmet expectation.
Ask yourself: what am I actually trying to fix here?
The missed trade… or the feeling of not being enough?
The point here is:
Reflection helps you grow.
Rumination keeps you stuck.
Learn to tell the difference.
That’s where real mastery begins.
