The Year Everything Changed

2025 was a year of transformation for me.

The transformation touched numerous places in my life, but for our purposes here, we'll talk about my trading.

Performance-wise, I had my best year in at least ten years. Maybe longer? But for me, it goes way beyond my P&L.

What really improved for me in 2025 was my trading confidence.

I tried new things. I took bigger risks. I took a couple hits. But I survived and thrived. And going into 2026, I've never been more confident in my ability to extract money from the markets.

Let me break down what changed.

First, I stopped playing not to lose and started playing to win. We talked about this earlier in the year—that shift from avoiding negatives to pursuing positives. It sounds subtle, but it changed everything about how I approached trades.

Second, I expanded my toolkit. I wasn't just running the same plays over and over. Iron condors when volatility spiked. Bull put spreads in strong markets. Calendar spreads around earnings. Naked short puts when conditions aligned. I learned to match strategy to environment instead of forcing my favorite plays regardless of conditions.

Third, I got comfortable being uncomfortable. My biggest winners all required holding through moments that felt wrong. Sitting on large gains while the market tested my resolve. That discomfort is where the real money lives.

Fourth, I let go of needing to be right. Some of my best trades this year were bearish positions in a raging bull market. Some worked, some didn't. But I stopped caring about being aligned with the market narrative and started caring about whether individual setups had merit.

Fifth, I created space. Literal space—taking that Hawaii vacation while managing positions remotely. Mental space—those morning hikes where my best ideas emerged. Emotional space—learning to sit with wins and losses without immediately reacting.

The confidence didn't come from never being wrong. It came from knowing I could handle being wrong. From trusting my process enough to take calculated risks. From understanding that losses are part of the game, not evidence of failure.

I took hits this year. Real ones. Positions that didn't work. Strategies that failed. Moments where I questioned everything.

But here's what's different: I didn't let those hits define me. I didn't spiral into self-doubt or abandon my process. I adjusted, learned, and moved forward.

That's confidence. Not the absence of failure, but the ability to fail and keep going.

The P&L reflects this shift. When you trade from confidence instead of fear, when you're willing to take intelligent risks instead of playing it safe, when you trust your process enough to let winners run—the results follow.

But the results are almost secondary. What matters more is how I feel going into 2026.

I feel ready. Not in that cocky, market-owes-me-something way. But ready in the sense that I know I can adapt to whatever conditions emerge. I've got the tools. I've got the experience. I've got the mental framework to navigate uncertainty.

This transformation didn't happen overnight. It was the accumulation of thousands of small decisions, honest self-reflection, hard lessons, and the willingness to change patterns that weren't serving me.

Some of it was trading-specific. A lot of it was personal work that bled into my trading. The therapy sessions. The men's group. The psychedelic integration work. The trader circle where we talk about feelings, not just positions.

All of it contributed to becoming a more complete trader and a more complete person.

If you'd told me at the beginning of 2025 that I'd have my best trading year in a decade while also doing the deepest personal growth work of my life, I'm not sure I would have believed you. But looking back, it makes perfect sense.

The trading improved because I improved.

So as we close out 2025, I'm not just celebrating the P&L. I'm celebrating the confidence. The growth. The willingness to transform.

And I'm excited to see what 2026 brings.

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Sean McLaughlin | Chief Options Strategist, All Star Charts