Retail traders face an inherent structural disadvantage in the market. Institutions operate with deeper capital reserves, superior market data access, negotiated fee structures, and execution technology that retail can't match. The speed alone—milliseconds matter—tilts the field dramatically.

Once you stop expecting fairness and reframe the game itself, something shifts. Losses become data points instead of personal failures. You stop asking "why wasn't this fair?" and start calculating odds. Probability replaces grievance.

That mental pivot changes everything. Not because the institutional advantages disappear, but because you're no longer playing their game by their rules.