What Revenge Trading Looks Like
The tell is urgency.
Revenge trading usually includes: - immediate re-entry - size creep - stop drift - lower-quality setups
If you want to stop it, stop treating it as a mood and start treating it as a sequence.
Key Points
- •Urgency is the signal.
- •It is a sequence, not a single trade.
- •Stop the session before the sequence compounds.
A Circuit Breaker That Works
Use two layers: pause and limit.
Layer 1: post-loss cooldown - timer + leave desk + 3-line note
Layer 2: enforced stop - max loss OR max trades OR max time
Optional layer 3: reduced risk - half-size after any rule break
The goal is prevention. If the circuit breaker prevents one bad trade per week, it is worth keeping.
Key Points
- •Cooldown breaks urgency.
- •Hard stops prevent a bad day becoming account damage.
- •Reduced risk helps when you insist on continuing.
How to Review and Remove the Trigger
Review the first rule break.
When you spiral, the first rule break is the fork in the road. Identify it, then build the next week constraint around that moment.
Examples: - first break was re-entry speed: install cooldown gate. - first break was size creep: install half-size rule. - first break was stop drift: install “moved stop ends session.”
Key Points
- •Find the first break, fix that moment.
- •Use constraints, not resolutions.
- •Change one lever per week.