[Red Packet] Weekend Tech Post (6) — Mindset. The biggest enemy of stock trading is never the market, but yourself!

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Today let’s talk about mindset issues—see how many of these you’ve hit:

In the blink of an eye, I’ve been on the road of the stock market for ten years. During this time, I’ve seen countless retail traders rise and fall, including myself in the early days. In the end, I slowly understood that mindset accounts for 4/4 of the win-rate under the “four-point rule”: The market never deliberately sets out to trick anyone, so we should respect the market. The losses of most people—including my own dark period—are not losses to the market, but losses to our own mindset.

Many people enter the stock market to learn indicators, learn how to trade breakouts, learn K-lines, learn MACD, learn all kinds of strategies, and then do post-trade reviews until late at night every day. They search for gurus’ stock picks everywhere, for “universal formulas” everywhere. They think that as long as they learn the technicals enough, they can earn steadily. But in the end, they find that the more they learn technicals, the more messy it gets—while the account keeps getting more and more亏损.

Why does this happen?

After long-term experience and summary, the truth is: technicals only account for 20%–30%, while mindset and discipline account for 40%.

The market is neutral. It doesn’t distinguish between beginners and veterans; it doesn’t favor institutions or retail traders. The rise and fall always follows capital logic. But the biggest problem with retail traders is that they always use an emotional-brain to fight a highly rational, extremely ruthless capital market. Once emotions go over the top, no matter how good the technicals are or how accurate the judgment is, it will instantly fail.

The reason you can’t make money isn’t that you can’t trade stocks—it’s that you haven’t broken the curse in your heart. Below, based on what fans usually tell me about how they’ve “lost badly,” I’ll summarize a few points:

1: A common retail-trader disease: always rushing to make money, never thinking about controlling losses

I’ve seen too many people, including some I know in real life and even myself when I first entered the market. On day one of entering, the goal is to double your money, catch big bulls, grab consecutive limit-up winners, and get rich fast. Almost everyone comes to the stock market for quick money; nobody is here to compound slowly, accumulate slowly. Unless you’re lucky enough to run into a rising market, where in a short time your equity curve shoots up quickly—yet you never think that the profit isn’t within your own model and your own understanding. But then you think you’ve got it, and you can start to handle the market however you want. This mindset from the beginning is destined to end in losses.

**Because people who rush to make money will commit several fatal mistakes: **

If the market is even slightly good, they immediately go all-in, afraid of missing even one fraction of profit.

If the stock in their hands rises just two points, they can’t hold it—they’re eager to take profit and lock it away.

Once their stock is trapped, they instead stubbornly refuse to cut losses, holding onto a sense of luck and waiting for a rebound.

When they see someone else’s stock surge but their own doesn’t move, their mindset instantly breaks, and they frequently switch stocks to chase hot themes.

This is the most standard retail-trader losing pattern: Take small profits and run; when losing big, stubbornly hold; when missing the move, chase; after chasing, get trapped. Many people don’t want to accept the simplest truth in the market: The core of stable profitability isn’t how much you make, but how little you lose—how you avoid big losses.

Many people, over the course of a year, barely manage to earn dozens of percentage points or even double thanks to luck and a favorable market. Then in one single instance, they don’t cut losses, or when the market reaches an ice-cold turning point, they spit out all the profits at once—sometimes even cutting the本金 in half.

What’s most terrifying is: obsession—always thinking you can catch every market wave and squeeze every bit of upside. But in real trading, it’s originally the process of small profit, small profit, occasionally big profit, and avoiding big losses. If you want to make money every day, the market will surely make you lose every day. If you can accept sometimes missing out and accept small pullbacks, you’ll be able to slowly protect your profits.

2: The anxiety from missing the move—is it the biggest factor making you lose money?

Many retail traders lose money not because they can’t read the market, but because their mindset can’t withstand it. When the market is about to come, they’re afraid of missing the action. Watching others make money, while they have no position or only a light position—inside they feel extremely uncomfortable. After hearing this sentence, reflect: do you have this kind of mindset?

There was no suitable buy point in the first place; you also knew the risk at the high is huge; you even planned to wait patiently for a pullback. But then you watch others make money, your mindset collapses, and you rush into some high-priced stock however you can. Most of the brutal chasing that gets you trapped at highs and standing guard at high levels are all trades forced out by the anxiety of missing the move. (While we’re at it, look back at your account—have you also stepped on end-of-line trends like commercial aerospace, AI applications, gold, and silver, and technology lines?)

In my view, many seasoned players I know offline also have technical analysis down perfectly—K-lines, volume/strength, sector logic. But they just can’t get past the “missing the move” barrier. When the market is hot, they can’t control their hands. Even knowing it’s a tail-end move, even knowing it’s high-level tight positioning, they still can’t resist entering to gamble. In the end, when the market pulls back, others see profit retreat; they’re afraid of missing the next move again, so they chase at highs and get deeply trapped, eating the “pain” meal.

To me, truly mature traders are all cultivating one thing: daring to miss the move, daring to watch from the sidelines, daring to be in cash with no position.

The stock market never lacks opportunities—every day has limit-ups, and every year has plenty of stocks that double. But there is no single wave of opportunity that you must participate in. Missing ten waves won’t bankrupt you, but if you make one mistake by taking a heavy position at a high-level “bag-holding” entry, it’s enough to wipe out all the profits you struggled to earn over a few months. Learning to hold no position is our first lesson in advancing—and also the hardest one.

3: The “hope” psychology of not cutting losses in time—is it your second biggest factor behind account losses?

If missing the move is the start of losing money, then not cutting losses is the root cause of losing money.

When all retail traders first get trapped, they probably think the same thing: “It’s just a small pullback; it will surely rise back soon.” “Hold a bit longer; I’ll get back to even and then leave.” “It’s dropped this much—impossible it will drop again.”

Those small self-soothing lines—do they not turn you from being lightly trapped into deeply trapped, then from deep trapped into getting cut at half value, and finally into “lying flat and waiting to die”?

Human nature’s instinct is to hate losses. When the book shows floating losses, we don’t want to admit we made a mistake, and we don’t want to accept the fact of loss. So we choose to stubbornly hold, placing hope on a lucky rebound.

But the cruelest part of the stock market is: The more you refuse to cut losses, the more the market will take you down to the point of death.

If you pay close attention, you’ll find that many stocks don’t fall all at once. They drop a little every day, grind lower a little every day—giving you tiny bits of hope, so you舍不得 cut, and you keep having one lucky chance after another. By the time you finally can’t hold anymore and your mindset fully breaks and you cut, it’s often right when the stage low is forming.

This is the fate of retail traders: Small loss and you refuse to leave; big loss and you’re forced to cut.

Many people say, “I don’t cut losses because it often rises after I cut.” Yes, sometimes that happens. But that can’t be used as a reason to not cut losses. Occasionally being wrong on a cut is a normal trading cost—but a single instance of a heavy-position collapse caused by not cutting losses is enough to instantly wipe out your ten correct trades.

The essence of trading isn’t chasing being right every time; it’s when you’re wrong, you lose small; when you’re right, you make big.

A “don’t cut losses” trade, at its core, is gambling with your life. If you get lucky and the position comes back after you hold, you’ll develop a habit of relying on luck. Next time you will definitely bet again with a heavy position. Sooner or later you’ll hit a systemic downturn and completely wreck the account.

**4:**Restlessness from taking small profits and running—keeps you from ever making big money

Retail traders also have another extremely fatal mindset: they can’t hold profitable trades.

Many people’s stock-picking isn’t actually bad—they often buy at low levels, buy at the launch points, and buy the authentic main-line leaders. But because their mindset is too restless, when it rises two or three points they get panicked; after a slight shake, they fear the pullback and rush to take profit and exit. The result is that as soon as they sell, the stock immediately slams into consecutive limit-ups and the main surge wave begins. Watching a big bull stock take off while they only got to “take one bite of a toothpick of meat”—that’s even more ironic.

What’s more ironic is: Profitable stocks you can’t hold; losing stocks you hold stubbornly to the end.

This is the classic retail-trader reverse operation: cut profits short, let losses run.

Why does this happen?

Because most retail traders enter without a trading plan: no position logic, no take-profit standards. Buy and sell are based on feelings; holding is based on fear. When it rises a little, they fear giving back profits and rush to lock them in. When it falls a little, they fear real loss, but they don’t want to admit it and exit. Emotions completely dominate the trade, completely ignoring market logic.

True stable profitability must be: small losses, small gains, and occasionally big gains.

You can accept multiple small stop-outs, but you must be able to hold the big profits of at least one main surge wave. Otherwise, you’ll spend your whole life repeatedly tinkering—making only scattered small money, and then one drawdown will wipe out everything you gained.

5: Frequent stock switching—the more diligent you are, the more you lose

Most retail traders who lose money: not because they’re not working hard, but because they’re working too hard.

They stare at the order book every day, watching minute-by-minute fluctuations. Up a little makes them excited; down a little makes them panicked. They repeatedly switch during the day. They think about trading every day, think about making money every day. They always feel: if the stock they hold doesn’t rise, it’s trash. If someone else’s stock surges, that’s an opportunity. So they keep selling weak and chasing strong, keep switching stocks, keep trying and failing. Over a year, their trading records become dense, while the account balance keeps shrinking.

There’s a very real saying in the stock market: beginners lose money through diligence; veterans make money through laziness.

The market has temptations every day; there are limit-ups every day. But truly, opportunities that belong to you are actually very few. The essence of frequent switching is greed and restlessness in mindset—always wanting to catch every fluctuation, always wanting to earn every last cent. In the end, it’s just repeatedly messing up timing, repeatedly chasing at highs to become the bag-holding buyer, and repeatedly paying commissions and tuition fees.

A mature trade is definitely about reducing operations and improving quality.

If you can’t read the market, don’t trade. If there’s no certainty, don’t trade. When emotions are chaotic, don’t trade. It’s better to hold cash and rest than to trade blindly.

6: Why can others compound while you keep losing? The gap is in cognition and mindset

Many retail traders keep thinking:高手 make money because their skills are strong, their messages are accurate, and they can catch bull stocks.

The real truth from live trading is: the difference between高手 and retail traders has never been about stock-picking, but about mindset, discipline, and risk control.

With the same stock, a retail trader buys and panics, can’t hold when it rises, and doesn’t cut losses when it falls. A veteran buys with position logic, has a stop-loss level, and a take-profit target, so their emotions aren’t dragged around by intraday fluctuations.

Network wording: retail trading is emotion-driven trading; professional trading is rules constraining emotions.

Most retail traders spend their whole lives seeking outward: strategies, indicators, stock recommendations, secret manuals. True winners spend their whole lives seeking inward: training mindset, training discipline, training greed, training fear.

Once you understand, you’ll gradually realize: when you’re no longer rushing to make money, no longer afraid of missing the move, no longer harboring luck-based hopes, and no longer trading frequently, your account will start to slowly turn red—slowly stabilize.

7: Six sentences for the fans:

1: Never go heavy to bet on one throw

Going all-in and winning feels amazing, but it’s the beginning of destruction. As long as you make even one mistake, all your accumulation is wiped to zero. Always trade in smaller parts, always leave some buffer—this is the foundation of surviving.

2: Accept missing the move, accept imperfection

Don’t envy other people’s profits; don’t be jealous of other people’s consecutive limit-ups. Others make money on their own market opportunities—you just need to guard your own timing. The stock market isn’t afraid of slow; it’s afraid of chaos. Stable compounding beats reckless big wins and big losses by a huge margin.

3: Think about stop-loss in advance for every trade

Before buying, clarify: at what price would it prove I’m wrong? If I’m wrong, I leave immediately—never hold a losing position. Stop-loss isn’t losing money; it’s controlling risk and protecting capital. As long as the capital is still there, opportunities are still there.

4: Reduce trading frequency and improve trading quality

Control your hands—that’s top-tier ability. If there’s no certainty, stay in cash. If the market is chaotic, take a rest. Grab a few main-line market moves in a year—that’s enough to beat 90% of people. Frequent trading only keeps sending money away.

5: Make money within your cognition—don’t be greedy for what you can’t understand

If you can’t understand the hot themes, can’t understand high-level “妖股,” can’t understand complex moves—give them up across the board. You can’t make money outside your cognition. If you make money based on luck, you’ll definitely lose it back by your own strength in the end.

6: After losses, don’t rush to get back to even

Many people lose money, their mindset becomes unbalanced, and they immediately increase position size and trade frequently to quickly get back to even. This is a vicious cycle of losses. After a loss, the first thing is to stop, review, and calm down—not revenge trading.

Conclusion:

In the end, stock trading isn’t really about technology—it’s about human nature. The market amplifies everyone’s greed and fear every day, magnifying your restlessness, luck-seeking, impulsiveness, and stubbornness. If you can’t beat the market, you can only beat yourself.

When you gradually quit being eager for quick gains, quit the anxiety of missing the move, quit the luck psychology of not cutting losses, and quit the restlessness of frequent trading, you’ll find: making money in the stock market isn’t actually hard—the hard part is controlling your own restless heart.

All stable profitability begins with cultivating mindset, guarding discipline, and controlling risk. Slow down, steady down—only those who truly win can win.

To the family members who often like, keep going, and give rewards as a “one-stop” package—I will prioritize following your questions. By accumulating gold powder through likes and rewards, you become a member of the Long family army as a big family. I will focus on your questions, correct the wrong thoughts and direction you have in the market, and help you build your own trading model.

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