Just saw a pretty intense “story car” meme surge up, and after thinking it over, I decided to set a stop-loss order first before going to sleep.

If you’ve been growing vegetables for long enough, you know this—no matter how fertile the soil is, pests will come, and no matter how hot the story is, it’ll cool down. A lot of people these days don’t even set a stop-loss and just rush in. It’s like planting without putting up a shelter in the garden—you don’t panic until the heavy rain hits.

Honestly, I’m usually using about 10% of my position to play with these “story cars.” I set a firm stop-loss of 15%-20%, and for the rest of the upside—how high it runs, let it run as high as it wants. Either way, once the principal is locked in, it’s like buying an anti-pest net for the garden.

Lately, the whole thing about rate-cut expectations moving in sync with risk assets—up and down together—really is confusing. I can’t really tell either, so I’d rather watch less of the macro picture and focus more on the stop-loss.

When it comes to trading, don’t always think about “beating” someone. Put simply, it’s practicing how to deal with your own fear. I went through another round today too. For now, that’s it.