**I've Fallen into the Trap of 'Buy the Rumor, Sell the News' – A Real Review from a Veteran Retail Investor**

Brothers, the moment the Fed minutes came out, the detail about "discussed raising rates but kept them unchanged" totally baffled the market. Many people breathed a sigh of relief when they saw "rates unchanged," but then when they dug into the details, panic set in again.

I'm not new to making mistakes with this kind of news. The worst time was last year at a certain Fed meeting. The market was expecting a rate cut, but the minutes turned out hawkish. Back then, I thought, "The news is out – it's a sell-the-news event, time to exit." So I sold at the low, only to see prices rebound later due to other factors. My decision process was simple: my first reaction was "risk is coming, lock in profits," without calmly analyzing whether this hawkish tone was a real threat or just routine discussion.

Looking back, I made two fatal mistakes:

First, **only reading the headlines, not the details**. Many people went all-in on risk assets after seeing "rates unchanged," ignoring the more important signal that "someone internally proposed a rate hike."

Second, **emotions dominating trades**. Excitement over good news, panic at a hint of hawkishness – forgetting that the market had already fully priced in the expectations.

Now I've learned my lesson: when faced with Fed news like this, the first thing is not to rush to trade, but to ask myself – **how much of the expectation has the market already priced in?** If it's already fully priced, then "buy the rumor, sell the news" is indeed the right move. If not, it could be a contrarian opportunity.

Have any of you ever fallen into the trap of 'buy the rumor, sell the news' with Fed news or major events? Tell me what you were thinking at the time, and whether that now seems right.