Join Me and Trading Psychologist & Performance Coach Andrew Menaker for a Conversation About Self Compassion

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role self-compassion plays in trading.

Most traders I know—including myself—are pretty damn good at beating ourselves up. We hold ourselves to impossible standards. We expect precision, consistency, and control in a game that’s built on uncertainty, randomness, and noise. And when we inevitably fall short? We kick ourselves. Hard.

But here’s the thing: self-criticism doesn’t make us better traders. If anything, it keeps us stuck.

The longer I’ve been at this, the more I realize that real growth in trading—hell, real growth in life—starts with self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance means telling the truth about who we are and where we are in our journey, without shame or spin. It means admitting we messed up a trade, or panicked and bailed early, or got too big because we were chasing. And instead of using that moment as a reason to hate ourselves, we use it as a reason to understand ourselves.

That’s self-compassion.

And it’s not soft or weak. It’s actually a form of emotional strength.

Because here’s what happens when we practice self-compassion in trading:

We notice our patterns instead of reacting blindly to them.

We pause before repeating the same mistake.

We forgive ourselves and move on faster.

We trust ourselves more—and that trust is everything in this game.

We can’t trade with clarity if we’re constantly bracing for the next wave of self-loathing. And we certainly can’t follow our process or take smart risks if we’re afraid of our own judgment every time we falter.

Self-compassion doesn’t mean letting ourselves off the hook. It just means we stop swinging the hook at our own heads.

It means talking to ourselves like we’d talk to a friend who’s learning.

And the truth is, we are still learning. We always will be. The market makes sure of that.

So today, I’m inviting myself—and maybe you too—to look at our trading mistakes not as failures, but as feedback. To treat ourselves with a little grace. To build a relationship with the person behind the trades.

Because if we want to last in this game, we need more than just edge and discipline.

We need some softness, too.

I'll be joined live on Thursday, July 17th by Trading Psychologist and Performance Coach Andrew Menaker at 5:30ET to continue this conversation about Self-Compassion in trading. Tune in and be part of the conversation.