These past two days, the backend has been flooded with the same question:

-- How is the US stock market really doing?
-- Is it going to pull back? What should I do?
-- Can I hold my position? Has this asset changed?
I didn't reply to a single one.
It's not that I didn't want to, but the question itself is wrong.
You're asking about the market, but what you're really anxious about is your position.
In the same market today, seeing Samsung's profit increase 18 times while its stock price drops, seeing SK Hynix about to list but instead retreating, some people are wailing in the group, "Is it going to crash?", while others calmly say, "This is a good time to add more."
What's the difference? It's not about who can predict accurately — no one can.
The difference is whose position is comfortable.
A fully-invested person panics when the market drops because he has no way out.
He fears giving back gains when it rises, and fears being trapped when it falls — both ups and downs are torture.
His emotions are no longer under his own control; they are handed over to every single candlestick in the market.
Someone who keeps 30% cash is happy when it drops, because a decline is a discount and an opportunity, not a disaster.
In the same market, with the same bearish candle, your position determines whether you are a hunter or prey.
So those who come every day to ask "How's the market?" never really want a judgment on the market.
What they want is an external voice to ease their anxiety of not being able to hold, to endorse their position, and to find an outlet for their fear.
But that outlet does not exist.
Because the answer is simply not in the market.
The answer lies in the moment you entered, in the choice between a heavy position or a light one.
This is why I say that experts never manage their positions — they manage their posture in the face of uncertainty.
The cash you keep is ammunition on the surface, but essentially it is the right you give yourself to "stay calm."
The worst thing for a fully-invested person is not losing money, but that he has also bet this right away, so from then on, gains and losses are not up to him, and his moods are dictated by the market.
😂😂😂
The market filters out two types of people every day.
One type uses their position to make money, the other type uses their position to place their anxiety.
The former is waiting for opportunities, the latter is gambling on relief.
And a downturn is the only time both types reveal their true colors.
One calmly adds to positions, the other cuts losses and exits. What separates them is not the profit or loss this time, but the vast difference a decade later.