It happens to be the holiday season — a time when many of us are celebrating with family, friends, coworkers, or our communities.
To whatever degree you participate in that, enjoy it.
And also bring a little of that spirit back into your trading life!
All year long, we move through these cycles: January resolutions, the renewal energy of spring, the push of summer, and the ramp-up of fall when we’re trying so hard to achieve something we didn’t have a year ago.
But in all that striving, it’s very easy to forget to do one thing:
Stack the small wins.
It breaks it into three key factors that land directly in our world as traders.
Belief
The point of noticing even the tiniest win — in a day, a trading session, or your personal life — is that it builds belief.
Belief in yourself. Belief that you’re capable. Belief that your decision-making is improving.
This matters more than we sometimes admit.
Identity
Your beliefs shape your identity.
And identity isn’t just the big things — religious beliefs, social beliefs, political beliefs.
It’s also from the roles you have in your life or traits you want to enhance:
- “I’m a trader.”
- “I can manage risk effectively.”
- “I can learn from my mistakes.”
Even believing that you are a trader is a mindset shift. It changes how you behave.
Action
Identity determines action.
If you want to behave like a winning trader — to produce more winning-trader outcomes, whether that’s consistency, larger profits, or smaller losses — you need an identity that actually supports those outcomes.
And that identity grows out of your beliefs.
And your beliefs grow out of those small, meaningful wins.
This is why the tiny stuff counts. More than you think.
How I Practice This: Capturing Gains
At the end of every day, when I’m transitioning from work or dinner into downtime, I pause.
Before I shift gears, I take a moment to “capture gains.”
I start with the wins — but wins don’t have to be positive in the traditional sense.
A gain might be:
- Something that went wrong but I figured out how to handle better
- A stressor I managed well
- A moment I’m proud of, even if no one else saw it
Gains are about recognizing what moved you forward today.
Think about how much happens in a single day. Even a “normal” day is full of small things that are worth noting.
And here’s the powerful part: you get to choose which ones you stack.
Those choices shape your belief system.
That belief system shapes your identity.
And identity drives your actions as a trader.
So if you haven’t already, start small. And start now!
Reflect on yesterday, and think of even just one thing that was a gain. One win. One thing that went right.
And if you can’t come up with anything?
Don’t worry — you’ll get another 24 hours over and over to try again.
~Hima
PS I didn’t coin the phrase “stacking your wins”. I learned it from Dan Martell — an excellent personal development coach and business leader whose book Buy Back Your Time is geared toward entrepreneurs, but honestly, it applies beautifully to traders. He breaks down this concept in one of his free YouTube videos, which you can watch here>>
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