What are the sorrows of traders?
It has been my twelfth year in trading, and I feel both fortunate and challenged. The challenge lies in the fact that I once hit rock bottom, trapped in the quagmire of human nature; the fortune is that I emerged without debt, avoiding the abyss, and eventually found the right path to slowly rise again.
As a full-time trader, one must endure so much that only those who have experienced it can truly understand. The world of trading is indeed a place filled with lamentations, and due to the 80/20 principle, it is destined that a small portion of people will take away the majority of the money, a reality that can never be changed.
The trading industry is a tragic world that only looks at outcomes, not the process. Sometimes in other industries, if your results are not good, you can still argue that you have worked hard, the process was arduous, and you still gained something in the end. But in the world of trading, there are only winners and losers, with no middle ground.
No one is interested in your research process or your hardships; if you make money, you are a god, and if you lose, you are a gambler.
In the early days, when I just returned from Africa, I still had some money, and people around me were relatively polite. Later, as I started trading and lost for two years, my financial situation became dire, and people began to distance themselves from me, even criticizing me, thinking that I was uneducated and that a good person was wasted, and so on.
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This included my childhood friends who grew up with me; even when inviting guests for a meal, they would deliberately avoid me. But once you make a comeback, you are the one they want to bring along everywhere.
Only after going through this do I realize that as a trader, you can only gain the respect of others if you are successful; if not, you are nothing. The trading industry is too close to human nature, both painful and lonely.
In addition to experiencing the joys and sorrows of human nature in the world, the closest is still the human nature in trading, facing one's own desires is an extremely difficult thing.When you suffer losses, you fear losing even more; when you make profits, you want to earn even more. You must exercise self-discipline, you must learn, you must forcibly control your desires, and you must constantly fight against your own human nature, otherwise you won't make money. This feeling is extremely painful.
Moreover, many people, including myself, have invested a significant amount of capital. I once spent a lot of time and energy researching various trading methods, yet I still couldn't achieve profitability. I didn't know what was right or wrong, which direction to go, as if the world was filled with dead ends, and no matter how much I bumped into them, I couldn't find my way.
At that time, under the state of loss, I bore all the pressure, my spirit became extremely tense, irritable, and coupled with the result of the loss, it made me feel even more suffocated, utterly disappointed in myself.
Later on, when I started making money, it seemed like I entered another world. You become extraordinarily clear-headed and transparent. Looking back at past experiences is like overlooking an entire maze; you clearly know where the exit is. You watch the people in the maze wandering around, and you tell them what is right, but not many understand. They would rather continue to hit walls than believe in your thoughts and ideas.
At this time, you are lonely, just like Ding Yuanying in "The Way of Heaven." What you say may not be understood by others, and you cannot communicate on equal terms with others, eventually choosing to live in seclusion. Of course, I don't have his wisdom, but in the field of trading, especially in the field of technical analysis, I have seen through everything.
You think it's financial freedom, but it may be the abyss of desire.
Most people enter the trading world in pursuit of financial freedom. They like to gamble with small stakes and go all-in.
However, trading is actually a battleground where risk is exchanged for profit. If you are not willing to take out your risk expectations in exchange for profit, you may end up being chewed to the bone by others, not an exaggeration.
So the only way to make a profit is to go against human nature. When others indulge, you restrain; when others go all-in, you control your positions; when others don't learn and just jump in, you study and learn well; when others pretend to work hard, you really work hard; when others don't do risk control, you strictly control risks; when others are overly happy or sad, you remain calm and composed.
Over time, you will learn less and less, and trading will become simpler and simpler, eventually becoming a few K-lines, a method, a few varieties, and a type of market condition. Trading returns to its most essential need: making money, making money stably.You will no longer pursue any big profits, because behind great gains lies great losses, and whether you have made money overall is something only you know.
The trading industry indeed involves a lot of pain, and many people cannot break free from it. But when you do break free, the world in front of you becomes clear and bright, and I hope everyone can find their way out.
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