Limitless Forex Academy

Self Assessing your State and Adjusting your Approach for Higher Performance

No one is firing at 100% at all times. Some days you will be in a peak mental flow, others your mind
will feel clouded, tired, impatient, you will find concentration difficult etc. The key is dropping the
ego and honestly assessing yourself in order to adjust your approach, so that you can maximise
your best days while also getting maximum performance from the days you are not in peak mental
flow.

Different States

A
 B C

 
 

This is your peak mental This is your most common There is something
state. You are focused, well mental state. You are substantial holding you
rested and alert. There is feeling good, and have a back from focus today. You
nothing at all that is high level of mental could be really tired, be in
hanging over you to performance possible. You a string of losses that are
distract you from your are not in peak flow, but stressing you, or feel some
trading, and emotions are you have lot to give. other stress or mental
non-existent. difficulty distracting you.

General Distribution of States

Likely Output/ Results in each State

In trading, without adapting your approach or understanding yourself enough to recognise your
mental states, your general results will be up and down depending on the state you are in.

When in your A state, you will get great results - we all know the feeling of when it feels every trade
is a winner and you have a great day or week, but then it can feel frustrating when those results
don’t carry on and you are left wondering why you can’t trade like that all the time. The A state is
highly effective for trading, but is not the most common because it involves peak mental
performance, which is never going to happen every single day for humans.

In state B, you are capable of getting good results trading. Some days will be good, some average,
but in state B you have the capacity to perform well even if some mistakes and lapses in
concentration and focus occur.
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State C is the state that can be dangerous to your account if you let it. Everyone has those days
where they are just not feeling great. You may be really tired, you could have something causing
you a lot of stress, you could feel ill, distracted by something, the list goes on. Even when feeling
like this, it is possible to be profitable in the markets, but state C becomes dangerous if you allow
yourself to spiral out of control - for example by revenge trading, or taking lots of trades outside the
plan, or impulse trading etc. State C needs to be controlled and adapted to, because then we can
profit even when we are running at nowhere near 100%.

Positive
Growth

Break
Even

Negative
Growth

How to Adapt

How you adapt will vary from trader to trader, depending on your trade style, whether you are
aggressive or conservative, based on your personality and also based on how honest you are in
your self reflection.

The biggest adaptation to your trading approach will be when you are in C state, because we want
to work on maximising performance, but also make sure we avoid spiralling into big losses, which
could then also have a knock on effect on future trading days too. Personally, I find the best
adaptations for when in C state are cutting risk (risking less means losses can not build up in a
spiral in the same way) and/ or limiting the number of trades I can take in the day. For example, if
you are hugely tired one day, and you assess yourself as in C state, you could approach the
markets with the goal of taking just one trade in the day, and trying to make it a good one. No
matter the result, loss or win, that is your one trade. This way, you are limiting losses for if you do
take poor entries, but you are also approaching the market with the mindset that you are waiting for
the one clearest and cleanest set up of the day, or you won’t be trading at all. By focusing in like
this, you can channel as much of the mental performance you have available that day on to just
one task and one set up.

Adapting to your State is about optimising your trading conditions to give yourself the best chances
of high performance, even if you are not operating at peak mentality.
 Limitless Forex Academy
What to do Every Day



Every morning, when you get to your charts, assess yourself and categorise your current State into
A, B or C. Write this down, and reflect, also writing down the reasons you have put yourself in to
each State that morning, and how to then adapt for the day. This is few minutes is extremely
important because it will lay your blueprint for how to maximise your performance for the day.

For example, here is an assessment of mine from one morning in July:




‘Todays State: B.

I am well rested and motivated to get started today, feeling good. I have done some good analysis
already with some clear structures.

However, a move happened in the markets this morning just before I could enter, as I was getting
to the end of my overall analysis. Do not get impatient to enter again.’

What I did here was note my general State, but also note there was one small potential issue that
could hold me back from being in a peak flow A State. This is why I judged myself as in B State
and wrote down what to watch out for in my own mentality for the day. It worked well, and I had a
profitable days trading.