Everything Is a Hold Until It Isn’t: A Practical Philosophy for Retail Traders

Some traders have an entry problem.
Some have a risk problem.

Most retail traders?

They have a holding problem.

They cut winners because they get antsy.
They hold losers because they don’t want to take the loss.
And they sell too early because they don’t want to lose their paper profits.

At some point I realized my entire approach could be summed up in one sentence:

Everything is a hold — until it isn’t

That’s become the backbone of how I trade.

It influences how I size, how I manage risk, and especially how I behave after I press buy. If you’ve read things like My Best Trade of 2024 or my reflections in Year-In-Review you’ll see the same theme running through everything:

1. Reduce noise.
2. Decide ahead of time.
3. Then get out of the way.

Holding Is the Default

When I enter a trade, my default assumption is simple:

I’m going to hold this position.

Not because I “believe” in it. Not because I think I outsmarted the market.

But because before I entered, I already decided:

• where I’m wrong
• where I’ll take profits
• and how I want the trade to behave

So unless one of those conditions changes?

I hold.

That means:

• no random tinkering
• no itchy profit-taking “just because”
• no reacting to every red candle
• no mid-trade negotiations with myself

This gets rid of almost all reactive decision-making — which, in my experience, is where most damage happens.

I wrote a bit about this mindset shift here:
Why I Limited Myself to Fewer Trades.

A Trade Only Ends Three Ways

For me, a trade resolves in one of exactly three scenarios:

1. It hits my profit target

→ sell as planned. Done.

2. It violates risk or structure

→ exit. No arguing. No “just one more day.”

3. Nothing invalidates it

→ I hold.

That’s really it.

It sounds boring — and it is — but trading goes better when I’m not making constant game-time decisions based on how I feel that day.

A good example of this in real time was my INTA trade —
price action told the story. I just tried not to interrupt it.

Most Bad Trades Aren’t Entries — They’re Exits

Looking back over the years, I can honestly say:

My worst outcomes rarely came from “bad picks.”

They came from bad reactions:

• cutting winners because I got uncomfortable
• moving stops because I didn’t want to be wrong
• selling just because the stock “felt tired”
• boredom
• fear
• ego

All variations of the same problem:

I broke the hold before the market broke the trade.

A good example of wrestling with this tension was here:
NTRA — Taking a Partial Profit. That post isn’t about the ticker — it’s about mental pressure.

This philosophy — “everything is a hold until it isn’t” — is really just a way of protecting myself from… myself.

It Forces You To Be Honest Up Front

Once you adopt this mindset, you can’t just wing trades anymore. You’re forced to answer questions first:

• What proves me wrong?
• Where is invalidation?
• What structure am I willing to sit through?
• What noise am I willing to ignore?

If you can’t answer those?

You have no business entering.

And yes, that filter alone eliminates a lot of nonsense.

The Real Edge: Letting Winners Run

Retail traders rarely get big winners — not because they don’t find them — but because they tap out early.

The moment winning gets uncomfortable… they sell.

This mindset keeps me from constantly “locking profits in” just to relieve pressure.

If the trade is still valid… then I’m still in it.

That’s how you end up not just being right —
but staying right long enough for it to matter.

I talked about this quite a bit in
My Best Trade of 2024 —
and none of it felt easy in real time.

And Sometimes You Still Get Smacked

Let’s be honest:

Holding isn’t heroic.

Sometimes a winner rolls over. Sometimes you get shaken out. Sometimes the market doesn’t care about your plan.

That’s part of the deal.

I’d still rather get stopped following my rules than sabotage myself and then pretend it was “risk management.”

The Hardest Skill: Non-Interference

The real work isn’t entries.

It’s not touching the trade.

That means:

• no quietly adjusting stops “just in case”
• no shaving gains randomly
• no reacting to every opinion online (looking at you X)
• no fiddling

My job inside the trade is basically:

observe → don’t negotiate.

Simple. Not easy.

What This Philosophy Isn’t

It’s NOT:

✘ buy-and-pray
✘ diamond-hands nonsense
✘ ego commitment
✘ stubborn loyalty to a ticker

It IS:

✅ decide first
✅ execute second
✅ review later

No drama required.

The Real Win: Psychological Calm

The biggest improvement hasn’t been performance.

It’s peace of mind.

• less second-guessing
• fewer impulse decisions
• no endless replaying trades in my head

Because the rules are already set.

And until one of them triggers:

Everything is a hold until it isn’t.

Final Thought

None of this makes trading easy.

But it does make it quieter.

Define risk. Plan exits.
Let valid trades breathe.

And hold…

…until you honestly shouldn’t anymore.

That’s been enough for me.

If you liked this, I think you’ll like these too:

• My Best Trade of 2024
• Year-In-Review Reflections
• INTA — Trade Breakdown
• NTRA — Partial Profit Reflection

They go deeper into the execution + psychology side of trading.

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