There's a model psychologists use to describe skill acquisition.

Works for anything - chess, surgery, trading.

Five stages.

And they look as follows…

Uninformed Optimism = You start trading, everything feels possible. "I'll be in a Lambo by Christmas."

Informed Pessimism = Reality hits. The patterns don't work like YouTube said they would.

Valley of Despair = Six months of losses. Maybe longer. The voice that says "maybe I'm just not cut out for this."

Slope of Enlightenment = Things start clicking. Losses get smaller. You see what you couldn't see before.

Plateau of Sustainability = Consistent profitability. Trading actually works.

Stage 3.

Right before everything clicks.

Not because they lack intelligence and not because trading "isn't for them."

Because the valley feels like evidence that it's not working.

It's not evidence. It's the process.

Every profitable trader you've ever seen sat exactly where you might be sitting right now. Wondering if it's worth continuing. Wondering if something is fundamentally broken.

Nothing was broken. They were just in the valley.

The traders who reach stage 5 aren't more talented.

They just had something that compressed the timeline.

A systematic framework that made the valley navigable instead of endless.

Structure that told them "you're not lost, you're here" on the map.

Most people try to grind through the valley alone, building the plane while flying it.

Some find the vehicle that carries them through faster.

Talk Soon,

Atif