The Hidden Factor Sabotaging Your Trades (And How to Fix It)

Kate Mulder

Getting Started

You’ve optimized your strategy. You’ve studied every market pattern.

So why do some traders still hesitate, overtrade, or blow up after a loss?

For traders chasing the next level of performance, the problem isn’t lack of knowledge or discipline.

It’s something deeper—something most traders never think to optimize.

If strategy and discipline alone were enough, every trader would have mastered consistency by now.

But 95% of decisions are driven by subconscious patterns, not conscious effort.

And if those patterns aren’t aligned with your goals, no amount of willpower can override them.

Why Some Traders Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes

Most traders assume that refining their technical strategy, improving discipline, or logging more screen time will solve their performance issues.

But if you’ve ever found yourself making the same mistake—hesitating on a winning trade, revenge trading after a loss, or failing to size up when the opportunity is there you know it’s not just about knowledge. That's your conscious mind.

🔹 The conscious mind is NOT the primary driver of execution.

Studies in cognitive neuroscience show that by the time you “decide” to enter or exit a trade, your subconscious has already made the call milliseconds earlier.


🔹 Trading isn’t just numbers—it’s pattern recognition.

And the patterns that shape your trading decisions aren’t just in the charts; they’re running in your subconscious as pre-programmed scripts.


🔹 Even elite traders battle these hidden forces.

All humans have a subconscious. Some recognize it and address it. Others fight against it with brute force—and eventually burn out.


The Neuroscience Behind the top 1% of Performers


🔬 “Probably 95% of all cognition, all the thinking that drives our decisions and behaviors, occurs unconsciously.” — Harvard Business Review


The Conscious Mind vs. The Subconscious Mind

🔹 The conscious mind processes only 40 bits per second.

🔹 The subconscious mind processes 40 million bits per second. (Tor Nørretranders, The User Illusion)

💡 This means subconscious patterns always override conscious effort.

Your subconscious is like a trading algorithm—running pre-programmed scripts based on past experiences and emotions.

🔹 If an old script is coded with fear, hesitation, or any doubt in a trader's ability to outperform their peers, it will execute that behavior automatically—no matter how much the conscious mind says otherwise.

🔹 qEEG studies show that traders in high-performance states activate different brain regions than those struggling with overthinking or hesitation.

🔹 When subconscious scripts are optimized, the brain functions in a Whole-Brain State, where execution is fluid and confidence is automatic. (Dr. Jeffrey Fannin, QEEG Research)

How Your Subconscious Determines Risk Perception

If past experiences—even outside of trading, (or all the way back from childhood)—have wired fear into risk-taking, the brain will trigger:

🚫 Hesitation

🚫 Avoidance

🚫 Emotional reactivity

Even when logic says the trade is sound, subconscious fear overrides execution.

The Good News: The Subconscious Can Be Rewired

Here’s what most traders don’t realize:

🧠 Your subconscious isn’t fixed—it’s programmable.

🔹 The same way a faulty trading algorithm can be updated, so can your subconscious scripts.

🔹 You don’t need years of therapy.

🔹 You don’t need endless self-analysis or mindset work.

💡 You just need the right method to identify and rewire the exact subconscious script disrupting execution.


Example: James and the Cycle of Giving Back Gains

James was a sharp, analytical trader - experienced, disciplined, and strategic. He wasn’t reckless, and he wasn’t undisciplined.

But every time he built up significant gains, something strange would happen…

💡 He would start making impulsive trades.

💡 Taking unnecessary risks.

💡 Or hesitating at the wrong moment.

And without fail, he would give back all his profits.

James even worked with a performance coach to build discipline and refine his execution.

But no matter what he tried, the pattern continued.

He could make money, but he couldn’t keep it.

What was happening?

Through subconscious testing, we uncovered the real reason—something James had never consciously considered.

📌 Years ago, his father suffered a major financial loss.

James had watched as his father, a self-made entrepreneur, lost everything in a single devastating business deal.

That event wired James’ subconscious with a coded belief that “big gains don’t last”—that what goes up must come crashing down.

Without realizing it, his subconscious had been executing a hidden algorithm—one designed to protect him from experiencing the same fate as his father.

🚫 Every time he started making significant money, his subconscious mind would execute the “give back gains” script—ensuring he lost it again before disaster could strike.

Rewriting the Code → Changing the Outcome

Once that faulty trading script was rewritten, everything changed.

✔️ His execution became effortless.

✔️ He stopped self-sabotaging his wins.

✔️ His P&L finally reflected his skills—not his subconscious hesitation.

The difference?

🚀 He wasn’t fighting his subconscious anymore—he rewired it.


How Do You Fix It? (The Part Most Traders Miss)

🚨 You CANNOT rewire your subconscious through:

Positive thinking or visualization alone

More discipline, willpower, or screen time

Performance Coaching or therapy—these only work on the conscious mind,

💡 Some traders turn to biohacking, meditation, or cold exposure to regulate stress. Others explore hypnotherapy, breathwork, or visualization to access the subconscious.


🔹 These methods can create general shifts, but they don’t pinpoint and rewire the exact subconscious scripts blocking peak performance.


🔹 They can’t verify whether a faulty subconscious code has been fully erased or rewritten.

Here’s the truth—if you want to rewire your subconscious and achieve Whole-Brain coherence, you need a protocol that operates at the subconscious level where true behavior and execution happens.

Reprogramming subconscious scripts requires a verifiable, neuroscience-backed method—one that ensures changes are made at the root level, not just at the surface.

ReCode: The Solution for Precision Rewiring

🚀 ReCode is a research-backed neuroscientific protocol designed to precisely rewire subconscious scripts affecting execution.

🔹 Unlike other methods, ReCode precisely identifies the exact subconscious script causing hesitation, fear-based trading, or self-doubt—rewires it, and verifies the change in real time.

Think of it as an advanced debugging system for the brain—eliminating hesitation, emotional overtrading, and doubt at the source, while reprogramming a hyper-performance algorithm to align execution with calm, decisive trade execution, risk precision, and peak performance under pressure.

🔹 This eliminates guesswork and ensures permanent upgrades to a trader’s mindset and execution.

Key Takeaways for Traders:

Track Your Reactions

Your conscious mind doesn't know what your subconscious is running, but you can track patterns. Before and after each trade, notice what thoughts or emotions come up. If hesitation, fear, or frustration are patterns, they’re likely driven by subconscious programming.

Stop Fighting Against Yourself

More discipline won’t fix a subconscious pattern. Reprogramming it will. Instead of forcing discipline, identify and shift the underlying belief or script causing the behavior.


Look at What the Top Performers Actually Do

The best traders aren’t just more skilled; they are wired differently. Their subconscious is programmed for precision, confidence, and calm execution under pressure.

Final Thought: Why This Matters

If your subconscious is aligned with consistent gains, trading success becomes fluid, decisive, and natural.

If it’s not, it will keep pulling you back into old patterns—no matter how much you refine your strategy.

📌 Have you noticed patterns affecting your trades?

📌 If you’re ready to eliminate hesitation, self-sabotage, or emotional trading at the source, let’s talk.

🚀 Let’s optimize your mental code for peak performance. Click here to schedule a call.

Curious about unlocking peak trading performance with neuroscience?

 Discover how ReCode can rewire subconscious patterns for sharper decision-making, risk management, and consistency.

Learn More:  ReCode For Traders

About The Author

Kate Mulder facilitates ReCode, a research-backed protocol developed by leading neuroscientists. This proven method rewires subconscious patterns, replacing them with optimized mental scripts for peak performance. In addition to her work in neuroscience and subconscious reprogramming, she has led initiatives in impact finance, venture ecosystems, and international development. Kate has collaborated with institutions such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, JP Morgan, Blackrock, and Draper University.

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