Coming back from a drawdown without blowing up

After a drawdown, the instinct is to trade bigger to get it back. That is the exact behaviour that turns a bad week into a bad year.

Stage one: two sessions at a quarter of normal risk, one setup only, journaling every trade. The goal is process compliance, not profit.

Stage two: half risk for ten trades. If your compliance score stays above 90%, move on. If not, repeat stage one.

Stage three: full risk. Most traders skip straight here and repeat the cycle. The staged version is slower and it is the only version that works reliably.