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What happens to your decision-making when every market move triggers adrenaline, stress and the pressure to react?
In Episode 6 of Markets and Mindsets, Paul and Emma are joined by Axel, IG’s Chief Technical Analyst, to explore the physical and emotional demands of trading. Drawing on decades of experience, Axel explains why even seasoned traders cannot simply switch off emotion, and why your physical state can have a direct impact on your decisions.
From adrenaline and fatigue to meditation, breathwork and knowing when not to trade, the conversation looks at the routines that support discipline and long-term consistency. The team also discuss how trading stress can spill into family life, why traders should think like high-performance athletes, and why your trading style needs to fit your psychology.
In this episode:
- Why trading affects your body as well as your mind
- How adrenaline and stress show up during fast-moving markets
- Why Axel scores his physical and emotional state every morning
- How personal readiness can determine whether you should trade
- Why fatigue can weaken risk discipline and stop-loss execution
- How trading stress can affect family life away from the screen
- Why traders should treat themselves like high-performance athletes
- How diet, exercise, standing desks, meditation and breathwork support performance
- Why your trading style should fit your psychology
- How overtrading and oversized positions can damage consistency
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction: What Trading Does to Your Body
00:32 – Axel’s Approach to Mindset and Physical Readiness
02:22 – Meet Axel: Decades in the Markets
04:05 – Why Experience Doesn’t Eliminate Emotion
04:29 – The Daily Readiness Score
06:00 – Knowing When Not to Trade
07:37 – Adrenaline, Intraday Trading and Stop Discipline
09:00 – How Trading Stress Affects Life at Home
12:43 – Trading Longevity, Physical Setup and Meditation
15:05 – Overtrading, Position Size and Long-Term Discipline
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Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you originally invested. This podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.
What is Markets and Mindsets?
Markets & Mindsets. Most trading content is about charts and setups. Markets & Mindsets is about something more important: you.
Hosted by Isar Bhattacharjee, Paul Cooper & Emma Binns: this is the podcast that flips the lens from the trade to the trader. Each week, real traders and investors join as guests, send voice notes, or call in to unpack the psychological side of the markets: the confidence, discipline, and mindset that actually separate consistent performers from everyone else.
Boredom trades. Revenge trading. FOMO. Overtrading. Sticking to a plan when everything in you wants to break it. These are the conversations most trading content skips and the ones that make the biggest difference to long-term success. No jargon. No shame. Just honest, direct conversation about the mental game of trading and investing. The hosts share practical ways to trade smarter, safer, and with a better relationship to the markets. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday.