ITU Rise Live 2026 Recap: Breaking Trading Cycles Through Structure, Discipline, and Awareness

The December 11 ITU Rise Live session was not a highlight reel. It was a real, unfiltered look into what professional trading actually demands. Over the course of 92 minutes, traders at different stages of their journey walked through wins, drawdowns, emotional battles, technical execution, and economic awareness. What tied it all together was one central theme: cycles.

Every trader is in a cycle. The question is whether that cycle is producing growth or reinforcing limitation.

Professional Profits Without Emotional Chaos

The session opened with Joshua sharing his recent trading week, which included multiple five-figure and six-figure days. The most important takeaway was not the profit itself, but how it was handled. Joshua described the moment many traders fantasize about and then mishandle. Instead of emotional spikes or overconfidence, he emphasized staying grounded and treating trading as a business.

Preparation created the result, and discipline preserved it. At ITU, this is the standard. Profit does not change process. Process creates profit.

Drawdowns, Risk, and Decision Making Under Pressure

One of the most impactful segments of the live was Joshua walking through a trade that experienced a drawdown exceeding $200,000 before turning profitable. This moment exposed the difference between reckless risk and calculated exposure.

The trade was not held out of hope or ego. It was held because higher time frame structure, volume context, and confirmation supported the position. Risk was sized appropriately, and when profit reached a logical objective, the trade was exited without greed.

This reinforced a critical truth for traders: drawdown alone is not danger. Unmanaged risk is.

Trading Styles Are Tools, Not Identities

Joshua also addressed trading styles, explaining that he uses scalping, intraday, and swing trading depending on market conditions. However, his preference remains aligned with higher time frame swing opportunities that move with the dominant trend.

Counter-trend trades are acknowledged as possible, but dangerous if misunderstood. They require smaller exposure, faster exits, and clear intent. The market punishes traders who confuse flexibility with inconsistency.

Mentorship, Simplicity, and Market Clarity

With over eight years in the markets, Joshua emphasized how mentorship shaped his development. Learning from experienced traders like Zae and Michael helped him simplify the market instead of overcomplicating it.

This aligns directly with ITU philosophy. The market rewards clarity, not complexity. Traders lose when they pile indicators on top of uncertainty instead of building repeatable structure.

The Emotional Reality of Trading

As the session continued, the conversation expanded to the emotional side of trading. Michael Franz shared openly about emotional fatigue, near-quit moments, and the mental toll of drawdowns, even with experience.

This honesty matters. Professional traders still feel emotion. The difference is that emotion no longer dictates behavior. Discipline and structure override reaction.

This led directly into the core theme of the live.

Understanding and Breaking Cycles

Mindset coach Daniel Schuler delivered a deep breakdown on cycles, explaining that cycles are not accidents. They are practiced behaviors reinforced by belief systems.

Revenge trading, fear-based exits, over-leveraging, and self-sabotage are not personality flaws. They are learned patterns. The good news is that anything learned can be relearned.

Daniel explained that most trading cycles originate from identity-based beliefs, not charts. Traders unconsciously tie missed entries, drawdowns, or profits to personal worth. When belief systems are not addressed, traders repeat the same outcomes regardless of strategy.

The solution is structure strong enough to override emotion. Trading plans, checklists, journaling, and process reduce decision fatigue. When emotion appears, the system carries the trader forward.

Market Cycles and Economic Awareness

The discussion then moved into market cycles from a technical and economic perspective. Michael Franz broke down how interest rates, inflation, employment data, and global economic forces shape market behavior.

Understanding news is not about prediction. It is about context. Traders who ignore economic cycles trade blind. Traders who understand timing, scheduled risk events, and macro pressure points position themselves instead of reacting.

This included discussion on global employment data, central bank decisions, and how different sessions behave across markets.

Technical Cycles and Session Awareness

From a technical standpoint, the group reviewed how price moves in cycles on charts. Using GBPUSD as an example, the session highlighted how bullish and bearish phases repeat within structure.

Traders often lose money not because they are wrong, but because they trade at the wrong time. Choppy days, low-liquidity sessions, and news-driven volatility require restraint.

Every day is not a trading day. Recognizing when to stand aside is a skill.

Risk, Prop Firms, and Reality

A major portion of the Q&A focused on prop firm trading. One key point stood out clearly: traders do not trade the account size, they trade the maximum loss.

Increasing lot size simply because the account balance grows is over-leverage. Risk does not increase until accuracy and consistency justify it. Ego has no place in position sizing.

The conversation reinforced that slow, controlled growth outlasts aggressive attempts to scale prematurely.

Why ITU Rise Matters

The session closed with a clear message. Trading success is not found in YouTube hopping, strategy collecting, or chasing fast money. It is built through structure, self-awareness, accountability, and repetition.

This is exactly what ITU Rise Live, January 14th through 18th, is designed to deliver. Technical execution, economic understanding, and mindset conditioning all integrated into one framework.

General admission is free. VIP access offers deeper implementation and accountability.

If you are tired of repeating the same cycles and ready to build a system that works for you, this is your entry point.

Watch the full ITU Rise Live 2026 session here:https://youtu.be/xC1WMTabop4?si=0uVJLuhfm3zT_mj3

Register for ITU Rise Live:https://rise.myitu.org

The market rewards preparation, not hope. At ITU, we build traders who last.