met an ex-institutional trader when I was in Switzerland, clearing $300K/month trading his own capital made me feel broke af he was legit emotionless zero reaction to anything showed me his accounts mid-drawdown like he was checking the weather takes his trades like a fucking machine he taught me something that changed everything about how I trade: we were looking at the charts and I told him I blew a $50K prop account on a strategy that stopped working. I was analyzing what went wrong with the system he fucking laughed at me and said: "You're confused why your strategy failed? The strategy is irrelevant. But understanding what the MARKET conditions are....You think banks have 1 strategy they run all year long?" then he entered a trade without even looking stressed that hit me different you mfs are too attached to strategies. you're "backtesting" systems. you're "optimizing" indicators. you're "tweaking" entry rules. complaining about how the market is bad. not realizing markets always move the same. in cycles. meanwhile killers just read what the market is actually doing. how it behaves. they know how to READ the market. then build whatever strategy fits that. they aren't worried about a "strategy" because they have multiple. old me would've been questioning my entire approach. analyzing the strategy for weeks. probably would've switched to something completely different new me looked at what the MARKET was doing during those losses. saw volume wasn't there. my strategy needs volume. market changed. I adapted. your attachment to one strategy is making you easy to liquidate learn to read the market or stay broke Here's what that mf taught me: strategies are just tools market movement is the truth If you can read what the market is ACTUALLY doing: trending ranging high volatility low volatility seek and destroy directional then you can build ANY strategy around it most mfs do it backwards: they find a strategy (ICT, SMC, whatever) then try to force it on every market condition then blow up when the market changes you think institutions have one strategy? killers do it different they read the market FIRST see it's ranging? build a range strategy see it's trending? build a trend strategy see it's choppy? don't fucking trade the strategy adapts to the market not the other way around you should run multiple completely different strategies depending on what the market is doing same trader different strategies all based on reading market STATE first meanwhile you're trying to make ONE strategy work in ALL conditions that's why you're broke I watched him switch strategies mid-week Monday-Tuesday: market trending, he's trading breakouts Wednesday: volatility dies, he completely stops Thursday-Friday: range forms, he's fading extremes zero attachment to any method pure adaptation to market movement meanwhile you're still trying to make your "strategy" work your problem isn't your strategy It's that you can't read what the market is doing learn to ADAPT to the market first build strategies second or keep doing it backwards and stay broke