FREEDOM CAPITAL
Thoughts + Feelings + Actions = Income
I've been watching traders for a handful of years now.
Different strategies, different markets, different risk tolerances.
But the ones who make it?
They all solve a fairly simple but yet complex equation.
Thoughts + Feelings + Actions = Income
Most traders obsess over the Actions part.
Better entries. Tighter stops. Perfect risk-reward ratios.
They think execution is the problem.
It's not.
Execution is the output of the equation.
If your Thoughts and Feelings are broken, your Actions will be broken too.
No amount of technical analysis fixes that.
The Thoughts Problem: You Can't Make Money If You Think Broke Thoughts
A trader sits down to analyze EURUSD.
He sees a liquidity sweep setting up perfectly.
Institutional flow is clear. The setup is textbook.
But his internal dialogue sounds like this:
"If this loses, that's another red day."
"Maybe I should wait for more confirmation."
"Last time I took this setup it stopped me out."
"I can't afford another loss right now."
Those aren't trading thoughts. Those are broke thoughts.
Broke thoughts are scarcity-based. They focus on what you might lose instead of what you're positioned to gain.
They treat each trade like it's existential instead of probabilistic.
They make you hesitate on valid setups and chase after you've missed the entry.
Compare that to how a consistently profitable trader thinks:
"This setup matches my framework."
"My risk is defined at 1% of capital."
"I'll take five more setups this week regardless of this outcome."
"The edge plays out across 100 trades, not one."
Same chart. Same setup. Completely different thought architecture.
The market doesn't care about your financial situation.
It doesn't care that you "need" this trade to work.
It doesn't care that you're down this month.
The market responds to institutional order flow and liquidity mechanics.
If your thoughts are focused on your problems instead of market mechanics, you've already lost. You're trading your psychology, not the chart.
The Feelings Problem: You Can't Hold Money If You're Afraid of Losing It
Let’s say there's a trader on a winning streak
Five trades, all winners. Account is up 20% for the month. Everything is working.
Fear shows up.
"This is too good to be true."
"I should take some profit off the table."
"What if I give it all back?"
"Maybe I should trade smaller now that I'm up."
So they start trading scared.
They cut winners early because they're afraid of watching profit disappear.
They skip valid setups because they don't want to "risk" their gains.
They reduce position size exactly when they should be pressing their edge.
Within two weeks, they're back to breakeven. Sometimes worse.
The feeling of fear didn't protect them, it killed their edge.
Contrast that with a trader who's made and lost money enough times to know it's just numbers moving around: they don't get emotionally attached to unrealized profit.
They don't treat a winning week like it's permanent. They don't change their system based on short-term results.
They understand that money is a byproduct of correct execution, not something to be hoarded and protected.
If you're afraid of losing what you have, you'll make decisions designed to protect capital rather than decisions designed to capture edge.
Fear of loss makes you exit too early, skip valid setups, and abandon your system exactly when it's working.
You can't build wealth while simultaneously being terrified of losing it.
Mark Spitznagel made $1B in 2015 seeing what others missed. Your thoughts determine if you're positioned or panicking.
Crash Expert: “This Looks Like 1929” → 70,000 Hedging Here
Mark Spitznagel, who made $1B in a single day during the 2015 flash crash, warns markets are mimicking 1929. Yeah, just another oracle spouting gloom and doom, right?
Vanguard and Goldman Sachs forecast just 5% and 3% annual S&P returns respectively for the next decade (2024-2034).
Bonds? Not much better.
Enough warning signals—what’s something investors can actually do to diversify this week?
Almost no one knows this, but postwar and contemporary art appreciated 11.2% annually with near-zero correlation to equities from 1995–2024, according to Masterworks Data.
And sure… billionaires like Bezos and Gates can make headlines at auction, but what about the rest of us?
Masterworks makes it possible to invest in legendary artworks by Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more – without spending millions.
23 exits. Net annualized returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5%. $1.2 billion invested.
Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but…
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.
The Actions Problem: You'll Never Achieve Anything If You Don't Take Action
This one sounds obvious. But it's where the formula breaks down for most people.
A trader spends months studying liquidity.
They understand institutional behavior.
They can explain order flow mechanics clearly.
They've watched hundreds of hours of price action.
But they never place the trade.
Or they place one trade, it loses, and they go back to "studying" for another three months.
Understanding without execution is just expensive entertainment. You don't get paid for knowing how markets work. You get paid for acting on that knowledge systematically.
I see this pretty constantly, traders who can explain why a liquidity sweep happens but freeze when it's time to execute.
The market doesn't reward knowledge. It rewards implementation.
You can have the correct thoughts (abundance mindset, probabilistic thinking) and the correct feelings (no fear of loss, emotional neutrality), but if you don't execute, the formula equals zero.
How The Formula Actually Looks
The components multiply, they don't just add.
Correct thoughts + correct feelings + no action = zero income.
Correct thoughts + fear + consistent action = inconsistent income (you'll sabotage yourself).
Broke thoughts + no fear + consistent action = consistent losses (you'll execute the wrong things perfectly).
You need all three components working together.
I'm running a private webinar for traders who want to see how this systematic approach works in practice, how to build the thought patterns, emotional discipline, and execution frameworks that make the formula produce actual income instead of theoretical knowledge.
Not for everyone. Definitely not for people who just want more chart patterns to study. But if you're stuck on any part of this equation, it might be worth your time.
Talk soon
Atif
