Hussain Almatrouk on trading psychology, discipline, and staying in control

Can how you feel impact your trading? For Exness Team Pro trader Hussain Almatrouk, the answer is part of his trading routine. Before making any market decisions, he first considers his emotional state. If he feels anger or frustration from the previous day, he may skip his usual London session altogether.  

At the start of his trading career, Hussain was all over the place, constantly watching markets and chasing opportunities. Now he has developed a more measured routine built around preparation, risk management, technology, and self-awareness. Today, Hussain focuses on trading gold and US oil, while balancing trading with family, business, writing, reading, and physical activity.

In this interview, Hussain discusses how psychology shapes his decisions, why losses can be part of a disciplined process, how AI fits into his workflow, and why execution and overall trading conditions matter when choosing a broker.

What does your trading routine look like?

When I wake up, I usually look at my phone first: emails, messages, and the daily candles for gold and US oil. Those are the two instruments I mainly trade now.

But before I consider if I’ll be trading that day, I check something else: myself. I ask whether I'm emotionally ready to trade. If I'm angry or carrying something from the previous day, I might avoid the London session completely because I know myself. I know I can become aggressive.

Reading is another important part of my morning. I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour reading about business, emotions, or critical thinking. It helps take my mind away from money and the idea that everything has to be perfect.

And, of course, there is coffee. I'm a certified barista, so coffee is part of my routine wherever I am. Even when I travel, I bring my grinder, filters, beans, and scale so I can make my own coffee. 

How has your routine changed since you were a beginner?

Completely. As a beginner, I couldn't sleep with an open trade. I remember trading US oil when futures prices dropped below zero. The position closed, and I was so frustrated that I put more capital into the market. It was an emotional reaction.

I was also obsessed with the idea of making huge amounts of money from individual trades. Today, I'm much calmer. A loss doesn't mean I'm a failure. If I lose today, that's okay. Tomorrow is another day.

Preparation now takes much more of my time than monitoring. I wait for the market to reach the levels I'm interested in rather than chasing a setup. I don't even need to trade every day anymore. Sometimes I may trade only once or twice a week.

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How do you manage a trade once you're in the market?

One thing I deliberately try not to do is stare at the chart. Once I've opened the trade, I set my stop loss and take profit. I don't want to keep interfering with the position because I'm reacting emotionally to every movement.

If the trade develops sufficiently in my favour, I may eventually move the stop to break-even or take a partial profit.  The aim is not to start changing everything immediately.

Preparation should happen before the trade. Once I'm in it, I want to trust the process.

How do you separate a controlled decision from an emotional one?

I'm not going to say I never make emotional decisions. I'm human. The difference now is that  I'm much better at recognizing when a decision is emotional. When that happens, I step away and read. Staring at the chart can make me feel I have to take a trade, so I move away from the computer. My responsibilities have changed too. I have four children, two offices, and people who depend on me. I want to be someone my family, colleagues, and friends can count on.

What is your philosophy when it comes to losses?

A loss that comes from following the plan is different from a loss caused by an emotional decision.

Every trade comes with pressure. If there were no pressure, we'd be robots. But there's a difference between normal pressure and the fear you experience when you're overleveraged or taking too much risk.

I have a simple rule: if I lose two consecutive trades in one day, I stop. After a losing streak, I can become afraid to take another trade. That is when I need to look at my mindset as well as the method.

What role does community play in your trading?

I try to meet other traders and people from my team regularly. Even when we lose, we can talk about what happened together. That gives me perspective.

When markets are moving quickly and I'm frustrated, I may speak with my group and ask what they're seeing. If everybody is finding the conditions difficult, that tells me something about the market. If they're calm and I'm the only person struggling, that tells me I may need to look at my own mindset.

How does technology and AI fit into your routine?

I've always been interested in technology, so I've built a system where different parts of my work connect. I bring trading information, emails, business data, and content performance into one dashboard. It saves me opening lots of different tabs to find what I need. I also use specialized AI agents for research, content, and other tasks. The one I speak to most is my “strategist,” which helps assign work to the others.

How do you approach market analysis?

I'm primarily technical, but I've become increasingly interested in the bigger fundamental picture.

I focus on key levels, liquidity, price action, and the daily timeframe. Instead of chasing the market, I wait for the setup to come to the area I'm interested in.

I've also started reading more about geopolitics. I want to understand why an event matters and whether its effects could be immediate or longer-term. On weekends, I review the economic calendar and mark the important days.

This is relevant when trading gold and US oil because global events can impact both markets.

What should newer traders understand about volatile markets?

My advice is very simple: if you're a beginner, don't trade extremely volatile conditions.

Beginners can see a major event and think it's a huge opportunity to profit. But trading those conditions requires knowledge, emotional control, experience, and risk management.

Early in my career, a mentor told me I had arrived too late, and the opportunities were gone. As I learned, I saw that wasn't the case. Missing one move doesn't mean you have missed your chance to trade.

You don't need to take unnecessary risks because you believe one particular move is your only chance.

Why is execution so important to you?

Poor execution can affect more than a trade’s financial outcome. It can affect your psychology.

A fill far from the price you expected can be frustrating. So can losing more than you’ve prepared for when an order fills beyond your stop loss level.

I want to open the trade as planned and accept the outcome, whether it is a profit or a loss.

Execution becomes particularly important during volatile markets, when prices can move quickly.

What do you look for when choosing a broker?

I ask about withdrawals, execution, and slippage. I also look at spreads and commissions together when considering an account. When I started, I thought the spread was some kind of commission. I didn't properly understand it.

A tight spread doesn't mean it will always stay that tight. You need to understand how conditions change and what the account costs overall.

How has your approach to risk management evolved?

At the beginning, my position sizing wasn't systematic. I would choose one or two lots, or another amount without properly calculating the risk.

Eventually, I started using dedicated calculators, and today I use the  Exness Terminal’s risk calculator.

Risk management starts with knowing where your stop loss is. Once you know that, you can calculate an appropriate position size rather than choosing one arbitrarily.

What does being part of Exness Team Pro mean to you?

For me, speaking to other traders comes with responsibility.

I don't want trading to be presented as hype or as a way to become rich from one market move. I've experienced what happens when emotion, unrealistic expectations, and poor risk management take control.

My message is more rational: prepare properly, understand yourself, manage risk, and accept that losses are part of trading.

Trading has taught me that discipline isn't something that exists only on a chart. It comes from the way you think, work, read, exercise, interact with people, and handle pressure.

The better you understand yourself, the better prepared you are to make decisions when the market tests that discipline.

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