This passage has been very popular in the trading circle recently,

I've read it for a long time,
Not because it's written so exquisitely,
But because the person he talks about,
I know too well.
That person is me from years ago.
I wrote this article over two days,
I always feel I should
Say something to those friends...
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I was like this many years ago,
Not only did I fail in entrepreneurship that YQ year,
My account also lost a big chunk,
Leaving less than 10k yuan in the account.
And I still had credit card debts,
My wife was complaining all day that life was hard...
The first thing I do when I wake up every day is not to check the market,
It's to calculate how much more I need to pay this month.
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Back then, I traded not for financial freedom,
I just wanted to quickly recover my losses,
Quickly fill the hole,
Quickly catch my breath.
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And the result? The more anxious, the more I lost, the more I lost, the more anxious I became.
Clearly knowing to cut losses,
But I just couldn't do it.
Because that loss-cutting money,
Is money I need for next week.
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Clearly knowing to go flat, but I couldn't resist.
Because when I was out of the market,
I would think of bills,
Think of others' opinions,
Think of my own unaccomplished self.
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Clearly knowing not to be greedy and to take profits,
But I chose to hold floating gains and add positions,
Fantasizing about making a big profit,
To restore life to how it was before.
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At that time, I didn't care about emotional trading.
All I knew was, I couldn't hold on anymore.
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Later I realized:
It's not that my skills are bad,
It's that I treated trading as a life raft.
And the market, it’s never a life raft,
It’s a magnifying glass.
It magnifies your fears,
Your greed, your every moment of impatience.
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Why are the poor more prone to emotional trading?
Let me do some math for you.
A person has 5 million yuan, takes out 1 million for trading,
Loses 10k yuan, he can still sleep at night,
His emotional fluctuations can quickly settle,
Because that 10k yuan doesn't affect his life.
.
Another person has only 100k yuan in total assets,
Uses all 100k yuan for trading,
Loses 10k yuan, he loses 10% of his total assets.
He can't sleep.
.
Because this 10k yuan
Could be his mortgage for several months,
His child's milk powder money,
The hole he dares not tell his wife about.
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The same fluctuation,
For the rich, it’s just a number,
For the poor, it’s life or death.
That’s why the smaller the capital,
The more prone to emotional trading.
It’s not that they lack willpower,
It’s that they can’t afford to lose.
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If you can’t afford to lose,
You’ll hold on to positions;
If you can’t hold,
You’ll take heavy positions;
If you take heavy positions,
You’ll get margin called.
This isn’t a technical issue,
It’s a survival issue.
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Why is emotional isolation so hard?
Because your emotions are connected to your reality.
If reality is bitter,
Your emotions will be bitter too;
If your emotions are bitter,
Your trading gets chaotic.
If you want someone with a mortgage, kids’ tuition,
And parents’ medical bills to stay calm and cut losses,
It’s like telling a drowning person not to thrash.
It makes sense, but it’s impossible.
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Don’t learn from those speculators’ stories,
Some will say: Look at those speculators,
They also started with small funds, right?
They also suffered hardships, right?
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Yes. But what you don’t know is:
Out of ten thousand who suffered,
Only one became a speculator,
The other nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine,
Became market fertilizer.
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The success of speculators, besides effort and talent,
Includes luck of the times,
Luck of capital,
Even luck of opponents making mistakes.
These things, you cannot copy.
If you imitate their heavy positions, their all-in,
You’re very likely to blow up your account,
Not become a successful speculator.
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I saw someone,
Watched an interview with a certain speculator,
Thought he could succeed, so could I.
He put all 100k yuan from his home into it,
Trying to copy that leading strategy of the speculator.
Three months later, his account was down to 20,000.
He’s not lazy, he just doesn’t understand:
The stories told by speculators,
Have already filtered out all the dead.
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So, don’t learn from speculators.
Learn from those who survive,
Those with an annual return of 20%, a drawdown of 10%,
Who quietly did it for ten years.
They’re not exciting, but they’re alive.
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So what should you do? I’ll give you three paths.
I won’t tell you to take it easy,
That’s too light.
I’ll tell you three real paths,
I’ve walked them myself, or watched others walk them.
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First path:
Accept reality, separate trading from life-saving money.
If you rely on trading to eat,
Pay debts, or turn things around,
Then don’t trade.
Because you can’t afford to lose.
Those who can’t afford to lose, will definitely lose.
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First, find a job,
Even if it’s delivering food, driving Didi, or part-time work.
Save up a sum each month that you can accept losing,
And then use that money for trading.
If you can afford to lose, you can follow the rules.
If you follow the rules, you have a chance to survive.
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I know this is hard.
But it’s the only way to turn
gambling back into trading.
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Second path:
Separate the pain from trading.
Your pain is because of reality.
Then deal with reality first,
Don’t let reality weigh down on trading.
How? Not by getting rich overnight.
But by lowering expectations.
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The maximum annual loss in trading
Should not exceed two months’ salary.
Can’t do it? Then only trade on a demo account,
Until you can go three months straight without losing money,
Then return to real trading.
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The pain won’t disappear,
But you can outsource the pain to work,
To life, to other outlets,
Instead of bearing it all in trading.
Trading is just trading, not your life.
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Third path:
Accept that slow is fast, even if slow makes you unbearable.
You can’t wait to make money slowly,
Because you think slow means hopeless.
But do you know?
Those who finally make it out,
None did so because they were happy.
They survived because they didn’t die.
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You earn 2% a month,
With 10k yuan principal, after a year it’s 12.4k yuan.
It seems small. But if you don’t lose,
And you hit a few market opportunities,
Maybe it can turn into 50k yuan,
You won’t get rich overnight, but you won’t die either.
Most people, after five years, their accounts go to zero.
And you keep growing.
Slow is the only moat for ordinary people.
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I’m not just talking without understanding,
I understand your pain,
I’ve also stared at K-lines late at night,
Hands trembling, shouting inside,
Just let me make this one trade, just one.
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But the market won’t let you go because you’re suffering.
It will only take away your last bit of money faster if you mess around.
You’re not losing to the market, you’re losing because you want to win too badly.
You’re not greedy, you’re just too苦.
But remember:
Trading is not your savior.
You are your own savior.
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I’ve walked this path before.
I know how hard it is.
But I also know, you can walk out.
Because, I’ve made it too.