Every bull market has a strange phenomenon: 99% of retail investors lose money. But this is definitely not because the market is weak; on the contrary—the more intense the market, the worse the losses. To put it simply, human nature is playing tricks.

Bull markets have never been about everyone getting rich. Their essence is the redistribution of chips. Those who stick around at the bottom and those who jump in midway are destined for different outcomes. What truly affects how much you can earn is not how much the bull market rises, but whether you are prepared before the market arrives.

Retail investors always fall for the rhythm. During declines, they flood social media with bad news, becoming more anxious the more they watch, and the more anxious they are, the less willing they are to act; when the market rises again, they start comforting themselves, saying it’s a slow bull, and there’s still a chance for a pullback. As a result, they see one green candle after another, and their mentality collapses. Finally, they chase in? It’s no coincidence—they just become the main force’s dumping ground.

The operational routines are almost identical: during sharp declines, they desperately buy at the lowest prices; during rapid rises, greed takes over, chasing at the top. It’s not that they don’t want to be serious; every time they "try," they just happen to do the opposite.

The cruelest part of a bull market is that it amplifies all your shortcomings tenfold. When greedy, you think you’re a genius trader; a slight pullback makes you doubt yourself immediately. Seeing others double their money, you can’t resist switching coins; watching a small coin surge, you fantasize about recouping your losses in one go, only to give back all the hard-earned gains earlier.

To be blunt, most people are not really here to invest—they are gamblers wearing a bull market disguise. They don’t study cycles, don’t analyze market structure, and don’t want to understand the main force’s tactics. They only focus on whether it will rise today or whether it can multiply tenfold tomorrow. For these people, a bull market is just a tool to accelerate losses.

Those who truly make money in a bull market are the ones who stay calm. When everyone is excited and screaming, they quietly reduce their positions; when the market is desperate, they have already held tight to their chips. A bull market is just a realization of accumulated knowledge; it’s not a stage for learning and improvising.

Ultimately, a bull market is not here to save retail investors; it’s here to clear out chips. Whether you end up making money or not has long been decided by every previous decision you made.