I once chatted with a veteran crypto player who’s been in the space for more than ten years.

After a few cycles of bull and bear markets, the account numbers were already far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Han Xin thought he would talk about some advanced battle tactics or god-level indicators—but the very first sentence left me stunned: Most people lose money, not because they can’t understand the market, but because they can’t control themselves.

Later, after talking for a few hours, I found that everything he said was the most basic stuff.

He said many people get anxious the moment prices start rising, fearing they’ll miss the opportunity. By the time they finally jump in, it’s often already when emotions are at their hottest.

When it’s up, they fear missing out; when it’s down, they fear going to zero.

So they end up taking bags at the highs, cutting losses at the lows—going back and forth until they eventually wipe themselves out.

There’s another kind of person who especially loves catching the bottom.

If it drops 20%, they think it’s cheap; if it drops 40%, they think they’ve found money; if it drops 60%, they start going all-in.

But the cruelest thing about the market is: just when you think it’s already bottomed out, it can keep falling.

A true big bottom is never formed by everyone rushing to buy. It forms slowly while most people have already lost the desire to watch the chart.

He said that over the years, the times he made the most money were actually when he traded the least.

When the market was unclear, he waited. When a trend hadn’t emerged, he just watched.

During sideways consolidation, he’d rather stare blankly than trade just for the sake of trading.

Because a lot of losses aren’t caused by getting the direction wrong—they’re caused by placing too many meaningless trades.

Later, when he looked back, he realized:

Chase it up once, lose a little;

Catch the bottom乱 once, lose a little;

Hold the position once, lose a little more;

Each time isn’t fatal, but after enough times, the account is naturally gone.

In recent years, the market hasn’t changed much.

What has changed is only the people participating in it.

Some people spend every day searching for the “holy grail,” swapping indicators, switching strategies, changing teachers; others have been practicing the same thing all along—controlling emotions and executing discipline.

In the end, what remains is often not the smartest person, but the one who can restrain themselves the most.

If you’ve been constantly chasing and killing—buying and then it drops, selling and then it rises—lately,

don’t rush to blame the market.