Seeing a seasoned trader admit defeat truly resonated with me.

This market is really not to be taken lightly—if you start off by misjudging the trend direction? You're basically on a dead end. Even more so, even if you judge the overall direction correctly, if you’re unwilling to exit when the trend is about to reverse, you’ll still end up losing. What’s the most frightening? After a series of failures, your mindset collapses, and you go all-in with a heavy position to try to turn things around—that’s truly game over.

Honestly, trading is extremely challenging. When you hear so-called trading gurus talk about the "garbage time theory," I think it’s just survivor bias at play. Why? Because those who speak out are the very few winners who have survived in this market—they have substantial capital, can withstand various trial-and-error costs, and can keep experimenting in the market.

This is why I’ve always emphasized: other people’s success models are simply uncopyable. Whether you trade high-frequency or low-frequency, the group that ultimately makes money, their experience is inherently filtered through a "survivor’s lens." What’s the truth? The vast majority of participants are losing money and paying tuition to the market.

The market is brutal, but it’s also very real.