Freya Futures: Trading Mindset and Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

I am joined by Judy, the creator of Freya Futures, who began trading about a year and a half ago as a way to apply concepts from a book she was writing on overcoming limiting beliefs and identity shifts. Judy describes trading as a tool for confronting fears like loss aversion, greed, and FOMO, noting her biggest challenge was handling red days and placing stop losses too tightly when trading her own capital. Based in Sydney, she trades the London session after work and limits herself to two to three setups per week. She outlines an ICT-influenced approach focused on prior-day high/low sweeps, confirmations, and targeting liquidity areas, typically aiming for 1:1 to 1:2 with small risk. She now mixes prop and live accounts, finding prop firms reduce psychological pressure, and emphasizes process-focused goals and hard daily loss limits. Enjoy the conversation!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Before we get started, I want to just say that anything you hear me or any of the guests on this podcast say is to be considered for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a financial advisor. You should do your own research before taking financial decisions. And with that, please enjoy the podcast. All right. The woman behind it is Judy. Welcome, Judy, to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hey, um, so I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a little bit about the the Freya Futures moniker and so on, but maybe you could just start out by telling us a little bit about your background, um, just in basics and also how you got into trading in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, um how I got into trading uh a few years ago. I started writing a book on overcoming limiting beliefs and mindset shifts and you know, working on, you know, how we can rebuild identity that overcomes like fears or doubts and things like that. And I realized that I needed to apply those concepts to my own life. Um, you know, I didn't just want to write about those ideas theoretically. I had a lot of ideas about that. Um, so I wanted to find something that was genuinely difficult and challenging. Um, so yeah, I ended up choosing trading, I guess, because it is an intimidating industry and it is something that I would have loved to see myself do, but I didn't think that I would be able to. And um yeah, there's a lot of assumptions with trading, um, you know, with needing to have a finance background or an economics background, or only having people in your family who are traders or certain connections. And so I think a lot of those beliefs subconsciously kind of hold people back from even trying. And I recognize that those were limiting beliefs that I had internalized as well for myself. And yeah, I was drawn to the independence and the idea of creating an income without having to work for anyone. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

So so so so day trading really to me as well is the essence of you know confronting your self-limiting beliefs. Did did you feel like so so so that writing that book um is is was kind of an experiment for you as well to also push your own limits, not just theoretically write about it, but but use yourself and as an experiment, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah, 100%. I mean, I had so many ideas uh on you know how the mind keeps us small and holds us back. And writing this book, I started to think like, hang on a minute, I can't really talk about this without really applying it to myself and having a concrete example of how it works.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

And and so have has do you consider that to be a success? I can imagine there's also other parts of anyone's life really where you are where you are held back by limiting beliefs, right? Um, I don't know if that's something that you've encountered before you started trading, or there's some other aspects of your life where where you realize, at least in hindsight, seeing that okay, I was held back here. If I could have done something different, um, I would have come out better or stronger. And then maybe trading is also some way to teach you to to overcome things. Is that is that a fair point?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah, definitely. Uh, you know, when you're going through the process of learning how to trade, you really confront yourself, you really confront the uh, you know, like inner demons that you might have, such as greed and fear of missing out, and self-worth, and um yeah, like that that that really gets amplified in trading.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It does. Yeah, and it's and it's very um, you get that immediate feedback from the market, right? As soon as you make a mistake, bam, there's your feedback, right? It's very um, it's very tangible, like that. Cool. Um, so so all of these things, fear of missing out, being greedy and so on, what would having having now traded, how long have you traded now?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Uh around a year and a half now.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

A year and a half. Have you, I'm sure you've come you've you've been confronted with these things. What would you say is your main challenge when when you trade?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Oh, my biggest challenge would have been fear of loss. Okay. Um, not being able to handle red days. So often when I had a red day, I was trying to trade it back, or I would set my stop loss to be too close because I wanted to, you know, not lose much money, especially because I started off trading live. And it's a very different psychology when you're trading your own capital. Um, because when I started, I didn't even know about it prop firms. I didn't understand them, I was very skeptical.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So yeah, it's um that that's very um that sounds very familiar to me as well. I was also, I started out with live capital, just a little bit of money, and I told myself I was ready to lose it. Turns out when I'd lost about a third of it, I wasn't ready to lose all of it. So I that's also when I found prop firms, right? Um, there was some a relative of mine the other day who I tried to explain prop firms, and his response was sounds like a pyramid scheme. And and it's it's it's not a pyramid scheme, right? But it's it's it's certainly a zero-sum game. I don't know if you've had trouble explaining to people what it is, uh what it is the prop firm does, and and if you actually mainly trade prop now. Um, but but it can be so circling back, it can be very lonely as well, right? Because you're battling with these things, these self-limiting beliefs. You're writing a book about it, but it is a battle against yourself, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, 100%. And when you're learning trading, it takes so much of your time and energy. You really just pull back from people in your life, and you're just focusing on the trading, especially working a full-time job as well. Um, yeah, it's how do you manage that?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

How do you manage job versus trading? I mean, what is the um what's the balance that that you manage to strike in in the day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Oh, I I find it works really well actually because being in Sydney, Australia, and working full-time, I'll get home maybe 4 or 5 p.m. And then that's when London session opens.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

So it works out well. Um, it's not so good for the social life when you know you're working full time and then training when you get home from work, but yeah, it works.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Do you do you get some of that social input from work then from your day job?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

And and the weekends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

So so it's around dinner time, 6 p.m. that's London session, 5, 6 p.m.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, that's right. And I my schedule, you know, being so busy and having all these other pressures has really contributed to my strategy as well. Okay. Um, yeah, so I would find that trading every day just didn't suit me, didn't suit my schedule. I didn't have the time to sit down at the computer every day. Um, so taking only, you know, two to three setups a week has um, you know, really helped with being able to juggle it all.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, and that's a great point as well. I mean, most experienced traders will also say trade less, not more, right? So I think you've already figured that out. Um maybe from from necessity, right? From not being able to trade that much, but that's a really that's a really strong approach to it, also after having traded only one to one and a half years, right? Um, so so is that diving a little bit into your strategy, what what do you see more setups than you're able to take, or are the setups actually only a few per week?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

The setups are generally only a few per week.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Can you can you explain a little bit? Uh maybe not, I don't know if you want to share any secrets as to your strategy, but uh, but what is it you're looking for?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Um, well, I use mainly ICT concepts. Uh so generally I want to see um market structure shifts. So I'll wait for a sweep of the prior day highs or prior day lows, and then wait for confirmation there and then take a snippet of the move um when it reverses.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Right. So so for the non-ICT people like me, um, so you'll you'll have the sessions marked out, right? Asia, London, New York, and then you're waiting for sweeps of of those sessions high or low? Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

No, I actually only wait for sweeps of the prior day highs and the prior day lows generally, yeah.

unknown 8:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And then you you want, I guess you want to couple that with a confirmation that it's a sweep and not a continuation.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah. And what kind of risk reward, if we want to talk about what kind of risk reward is your typical, like do you have the data on that or do you do you just generally go for high risk reward or low risk reward?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I tend to risk less than 100 US per trade. And I will target the like a higher time frame fair value gap or a higher like an area where liquidity is likely to be drawn, such as a you know, previous session high or session low. Right. And I'll just target a snippet of that. I generally do prefer having a higher win rate and smaller risk to reward. Right. So I'll target a one-to-one or a one-to-one.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah. I find that I mean, also with futures, because they are they move so much in waves, it's like, I mean, the the for me at least, and the the strategy that I apply, it's very difficult to get the high risk rewards. You would have to, you'd have to bet on on the trending days, right? Um, which is just it's it's very unlikely. Um, so I end up also mostly just taking one-to-one or even less than that, right? Um, but that that's that's that's interesting. So so you trade ICT with with your own tweaks or your own your own sort of uh overlay. Um do you also take entries on fair value gaps, or is it you only use them for targets?

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I'll generally take entries after seeing an inversion, and then I will wait for confirmation on a lower time frame, um, such as narrowing down to the one minute or the 30 second before I enter. That's when I I tend to use EMAs as well. So I'll wait for a pullback to the 9 or 20 EMA. It just really depends on you know how strong the setup looks and what I feel with the move as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, so there's some discretion to it as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah, and I mean like every trading day is so different, it's never gonna be the same. So you really have to just adjust.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I think there is, I don't think there's any trader successful or not out there who's not applying some level of discretion. I I always doubt it a little bit when you hear about these 100% mechanical approaches or or algorithms, uh, expert advisors, whatever it's called. Um, I think there is always some level of of discretion to to trading in any way, because like you say, every session is different, right? You might see some patterns that that repeat, but every every session is really different. I I've just read uh Mark Douglas's Trading in the Zone. Have you read that one?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, and and and and he has this concept of the now moment opportunity, right? There is there is always a now moment, and it's always different from anything in the past, right? Um, which means the future will also always be different from anything in the past. So it's it's about staying in that now moment and seeing the opportunity uh that arises. So that resonates with a lot with what you're saying, that yes, you have your mechanical system, you have your indicators, but there is that level of discretion overlay to put on top of it, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, definitely. I really liked how he combines the importance of staying present and you know the whole spirituality of that with trading.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Right, right. Oh, you you you you triggered me now, spirituality. There was something um, so I've been following you, and just also to throw it out there if that's okay with you, Freya Futures. Um, I've just been following you on your Instagram. It's a very nice mix, I think, of what you're posting is is trading. So you I will see charts uh often from from your side, uh markups, strategies, like what are you doing? What did you do in this trade? You will also, I think you've also posted sometimes when you are in a trade, like actively having a trade on, which is really cool. Um, and then sometimes you'll have some stories on being in the forest uh and just like send moment kind of thing. Do you do you use your Instagram as that as well, for kind of a balance or or or maybe communicating that balance, which is yes, I'm on the charts, but I also need that other the other aspects of life with the peace and the calm, and maybe that actually is a connection that trading can give you. That's a deep question. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, well, I mean, trading is all about psychology, isn't it? It's all about controlling our mindset and you know being in a state where we're able to execute these trades. Um yeah, yeah, so it's really important to have that balance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

So what so if you were massively successful with your trading and you've you've made millions of dollars, what what would be your priorities in life from that point on?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Well, I think it really comes down to the fact that I don't think we are really designed to be working seven to eight hours a day, nine to five, five days a week. So it really comes down to taking control of our lives back and having that autonomy in a day-to-day life to be able to do what we want, to be able to just you know go and travel and not have to ask for permission to take time off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Do you do you do you like traveling?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah. So so being in Australia, what what what what are your favorite uh destinations?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Oh, well, I love nature and love hiking. So I like going on little road trips to find different areas, and I think we're really lucky in Australia we have so much grassland and so many forests to explore.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

100%. Yeah. I was just in New Zealand last year. That is also an amazing place. I don't know if you've ever been there.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I haven't yet.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Uh you should try it, it's it's really great. Um, cool. So so when you are massively successful from your trading and you've overcome all those self-limiting beliefs, um, what I'm hearing is trading is actually kind of a tool for you to obtain that kind of freedom and break break out of the red race and and the concept of having a job, having a nine to five, all of that. So is trading a tool for you, like like I just described, or is it also passion? Is it both?

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Well, I think when I started trading, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I wanted to overcome those limiting beliefs and do something challenging for myself. It wasn't really about the money at first. Um, obviously, I don't think anyone is being honest if they say they're not trading for the money. Um, but yes, the goal is to quit the nine to five and just focus on trading full time.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, I will say though, there's a lot of, I mean, we all do it for the money in some in some respect, right? But but I don't think a lot of people stay in the game if they're not also some somewhat passionate about the the the game, the process itself, right? I'm sure you've also developed that kind of if if I mean if not passion, then then at least interest in in the actual act of trading and the probabilities and how you trade well, how you don't trade well, overcoming your own psychology, all of that, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah, trading is definitely something that has become my identity since starting. It's really um there's a lot of passion there. It's my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I think traders really just become immersed in it.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

For sure, 100%. Yeah. Um do you have any kind of like Australia or online? Is there any way to you know live out that passion except for you being on the charts? Um, I mean, do you have community? Do you have other traders that you talk to, or is it is it that proverbial lonely journey as a trader?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Well, when I started learning trading, I didn't know anyone else that did it. I didn't have any family or friends that even thought about trading. And so that was one of the reasons why I ended up creating Freya Futures is to connect with other traders and to connect with the community. And I've really done that. Like I've met so many um friends online, so many other traders, and you know, now I've got people to talk to about trading.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah, it it it matters so much, right? Yeah, even even just a DM chat or a Discord online. I mean, I have that as well, and where we just daily because that's that's the outlet, right? That's where you can actually uh get get out with with that passion, right? That's really cool. Um excellent. So so Freya Futures, I just have to ask, you had a Norwegian flag on your profile as well. Is there something Norwegian in there? That's actually why you and I started talking to begin with, because I was looking for traders in Scandinavia, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah, well, my family is Norwegian. I was born in Australia, but yeah, my nana migrated from Norway. Um, she started teaching me how to speak Norwegian too. I'm not going to repeat it because I'm not very good at it.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

That's fair. So so have you ever been to Norway?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Um, no, I haven't. That's definitely fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, for sure. It is fantastic. Cool. So just to sort of we're about to wrap up, Judy, but um what would you say? So you're trading props mainly now?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

I am currently trading props. Um, so I have a mix of my live account and my props, and I've just started incorporating a copy trade software where I can do all of the above. So that's really exciting. But I'm finding yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I'm finding now that I've been introduced to the prop firm world, that it's really eliminated a lot of the psychological battles that I would have had before, such as placing my stock too close. And now with a prop firm, I've um I'm just at a better mindset to take the trade. So I find that I'm actually starting to steer away from risking my own capital and just focusing purely on prop firms.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. Also, because I mean, essentially, if you start getting payouts, then you can put some of that money aside and then eventually you can trade your own capital, right? Also, I find prop firms to be a very good arena for learning, like like cutting your teeth and and getting that experience in without the added risk, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So if I would go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

It's a lot easier to cope with losing uh, you know, like a few hundred dollars of a prop firm account rather than your own money, because you're only ever really losing the fee of access to that account.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Also, one of the things that I'm really concerned about with my own psychology when I'm trading my own capital, is what if I go on tilt? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine going on tilt with your own money? That that would be uh I'm I'm not very prone to tilting, but it happens. Um, so so I can I can only imagine what the the damage would be. Um so if I were to ask you, say six to twelve months from now, just being where you are now, where is Frey Freya Futures and where are you in your trading a year from now?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Oh, that's a good question. Um, well, I mean, the goal hasn't really changed. I haven't set time limit expectations on achieving my goals because often we find that you know what we're striving toward can happen a lot faster than we expect. And also having that time limit, it's very similar to saying, for example, I want to make $500 today in the market. That that's that kind of mentality is only gonna hold you back. Um, so yeah, definitely look, I find that I'm improving my trading so much month after month, and where I'm gonna be in a year's time is just really exciting, that level of growth and progress. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to looking back in a year's time.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Super cool. And and I I really agree also, I I've been really, I mean, on about you you see this online as well all the time. Uh 100,000 a year is only $200 a day and so on. But have you ever met anyone day trading who consistently made $200 a day? I don't think so. So so that's setting your setting monetary goals like that. I love the fact that you push back on that because you, I mean, it's like telling yourself I'm gonna have a hundred thousand in payouts in a year, that's actually gonna, ironically, that's gonna keep you away from getting the $100,000 in a year, right? Um, and also what I hear you saying is if you are to set any goals, it's actually on the process on psychology, like I want to develop from here to here, and then it will spill over into my trading. Is that a fair point that that if you have any if you have any kind of goals for yourself, they're more related to process and psychology rather than dollars and payouts and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, definitely. Uh it's when you have monetary goals, um, I feel like that's always going to hold you back because you can never predict what's going to happen. The only thing that you can really control is yourself and your mentality, which then transfers into your trading.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Pure wisdom, right there. I think that's a that's a really good. Want to end on um Judy. So thank you very much for joining. Um I think we'll just uh just leave it there. Any uh any final words you want to share with the listeners? Any advice, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Oh, um well, firstly, thank you for having me. It was great to chat. Um, and my advice would be definitely a good one that I've um really liked is setting hard daily loss limits on your trading platform. So, for example, if you have a daily loss limit of $500, setting that to instead be $100. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

That's a great point. Also because it it limits your size, it limits your risk, and it keeps you in the game, which is really what it is about, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Excellent advice. Thank you so much, Judy. And I'm sure we'll be able to catch up as well, either either on the podcast or maybe just uh just uh bilaterally over time. I wish you all the best of success with your personal development and then with your trading. Thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

All right, thank you.