Why Discomfort Can Skyrocket Your Trading Gains!

The Hidden Cost of Comfort: Why Most Traders Stay Stuck at Breakeven

Most traders don’t lose because they’re dumb.

They lose because they keep optimizing for comfort instead of profit.

They move stops to breakeven so they can “feel safe.”

They cut winners the moment a candle pulls back.

They avoid risk like it’s fire — then wonder why their equity curve is flat or slowly bleeding.

Trading is a probabilistic game played by humans who are wired for certainty.

Until you fix that mismatch, no strategy, indicator, or course will save you

The Fantasy Equity Curve vs Reality

When people start trading — forex, crypto, options, stocks — they imagine a smooth line up.

The fantasy is simple: learn a system, follow the rules, and the money grows like a career promotion ladder.

Reality?
Your equity curve looks like a heart monitor.

You can have a great week and still give it all back in two trades.

And even when you do everything right, the next candle can still punch you in the face.

That gap between “what you expected” and “what trading really is” is where most people mentally quit — even if they keep clicking buttons.

The Certainty-Seeking Brain vs a Probabilistic Game

In trading, you never truly know what the next candle will do — whether it is in 5 minutes, 3 hours, or 5 hours.

You can have your best setup, perfect confluence, and a clean 3R or 5R on the chart, and the very next candle can still go straight against you.​

For a normal person, that is not just uncomfortable; it feels unnatural.

In everyday life, most choices have clear cause and effect:
take a job → get a salary,
study → usually get better marks,
go to the gym → usually get fitter over time.​

In trading, you can do everything right and still lose on that one trade.

You can do everything wrong and still win on a lucky spike.

That clash between our need for certainty and the market’s probabilistic nature is a big reason trading feels so hard.​

The Pain of Being Right… and Still Losing

One of the most painful trading experiences is this: you were right on direction, but you still made no money.​

A 3‑hour or 5‑hour setup runs cleanly in your favor, up 2R, 3R, or more.

On the chart it looks perfect, but in your head another story starts:
the trade is in profit, fear kicks in, and a voice says, “What if it comes back? What if this winner turns into a loser?”​

So you do what feels safe and logical: move the stop to breakeven to “protect” yourself.

Then the familiar sequence:
price pulls back,
a small wick taps your breakeven stop,
you exit at zero,
and then price takes off in your original direction without you.​

Watching a strong trade go from big profit, to breakeven, to “it flies without me” is brutal.

It hits your confidence, and if it happens often, it starts to damage how you see yourself as a trader.​

This is not only a beginner’s problem.

Intermediate and advanced traders feel it too, because nobody knows what the next few candles will do.

Sitting in a winning trade, fully aware it can disappear, is one

Why This Feels So Wrong for Normal People

For someone used to jobs, steady income, and fixed routines, trading feels upside down.​

In normal life:

• Security is rewarded.
• Stability is respected.
• Avoiding risk is called “being responsible.”

In trading, those instincts backfire:

• Chasing safety too early (moving SL to breakeven just for comfort) can quietly destroy your edge.​
• Trying to “lock profits” fast often kills your long‑term expectancy.
• Avoiding emotional discomfort leads to early exits, late entries, and revenge trades.​​

Most people are not wired to sit calmly in uncertainty.

They want guarantees and outcomes they can lean on emotionally, but markets do not care.

Markets reward only those who can execute with discipline when nothing is guaranteed on a single trade, only over many trades.​

That is why consistent profits feel so hard.

The same habits that make you a “normal”, “sensible” adult in real life often hurt you in trading.

Breakeven: The Comfortable Place You Slowly Bleed

There is another trap: breakeven.

On the surface, being breakeven feels okay:

• You are not blowing up.
• You are not losing huge money.
• You can tell yourself, “At least I’m not losing.”

But breakeven often hides a slow bleed:

• Commissions and fees.
• Slippage.
• Missed big winners.
• Emotional burnout.​

You can spend months “stuck at ”zero” — not blowing the account, but not growing it either. Inside, it feels like:

• “I show up every day.”
• “I’m learning and improving.”
• “So why am I still not moving up?”

Again, the answer is discomfort. Most traders quietly design their behavior to avoid short‑term pain:

• Move stops to breakeven too soon to feel safe.​
• Cut winners early to avoid the stress of pullbacks.​
• Overtrade after a frustrating stop to escape the pain of missing out.​

These choices make you feel better in the moment. But they slowly kill your long‑term edge. That is why so many stay around breakeven or bleed out over time.​

Everyone’s Journey Is Different

Another key point: what works for one trader may not work for another.

Each trader has different:

• Psychological strengths and weaknesses.
• Account size and risk tolerance.
• Timeframes they see best.
• Emotional triggers like fear, greed, FOMO, or boredom.​

Your strength might be my weakness. My edge might be your blind spot. So copying someone’s rules 1:1 will not automatically solve your discomfort.

The real work is:

• Seeing where discomfort makes you break your rules.
• Noticing how you react in profit, in loss, and during drawdowns.
• Find where your need for certainty shows up: early exits, skipped entries, revenge trades, or constant stop changes.​

This inner work is not glamorous. But it is necessary. There is no one-size-fits-all solution because there is no one-size-fits-all brain.​

The Only Real Solution: Practice Being Uncomfortable

One of the most dangerous illusions is that trading should feel easy, smooth, and certain.​

A better expectation:

• Holding a good trade will often feel wrong.
• Risking money with no guarantee will feel scary.
• Watching a winner pull back will feel frustrating.
• Taking a clean stop will still feel painful, even when you follow your plan.​​

That does not mean you are doing it wrong.

It means you are playing a probabilistic game with a brain built for certainty.​​

What can you do?

• Show up every day.
• Follow your plan, not the need for instant comfort.
• Practice staying with discomfort on purpose, again and again.​

Over time, you do not erase discomfort; you build the ability to work inside it.

Real trading is uncomfortable.

Most people lose because they try to turn it into a safe job with a guaranteed salary, but markets only reward those who can sit with uncertainty and accept short‑term discomfort as the price of a long‑term edge.​

That hidden discomfort quietly kills most traders’ edge.

Learning to live with it is what can move you from stuck‑at‑zero to truly profitable.​

Why Discomfort Can Skyrocket Your Trading Gains! was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.