Most people think that the secret to trading is to learn a few more strategies, understand macroeconomics a bit more, and look at more charts. In fact, it's completely the opposite. The real breakthrough point is never about how many candlesticks you finally understand, but rather about your willingness to face those already rotten parts of yourself: your fear, your ego, and those little demons you can't bear to show.
I often half-jokingly but seriously say to my friends: it's hard to truly become a long-term profitable trader if you haven't blown your account three times. Because 'winning' is never about how much money you made today, but whether you can still hold onto that money next year, rather than blowing yourself up once again.
I've endured three brutal blows in the crypto world that almost broke me. After each incident, I sincerely thought, 'This time I understand, I've matured, I have discipline, I'm ready.' But the market slapped me again, making it very clear: I haven't learned at all. I can't hold onto money because that weak, prideful, unwilling-to-give-up, self-deceiving part of me is still alive and well. As long as these versions of you exist, you will repeatedly throw your hard-won victories back into the fire to be burned.
This isn't just me rambling. In any field that studies 'humans,' whether it's psychology, philosophy, or religion, they are all talking about the same thing: the old 'you' must first die. Jung called it 'facing your shadow,' Nietzsche spoke of 'killing the false self,' Buddhism talks about 'letting go of ego,' and the Bible says 'put off the old self and put on the new self.' Different phrases, but the truth is the same: you must 'die' once before you can truly live.
In trading and in life, this kind of 'death' isn't just about losing money; it's about a part of yourself being dismantled: that part that panics and makes reckless cuts, that part that becomes greedy and gambles wildly, that part that starts to deceive itself after failure. And when does 'rebirth' begin? It begins when you finally dare to tear yourself open and calmly observe that bare version of yourself from a third-person perspective: your character, your strengths, your weaknesses, your true desires, and those parts you would rather avoid facing when the market is good.
Only in those dark and painful moments, when you feel completely split apart, will you slowly start to see what truly suits your path, what you are really living for, what you genuinely care about, and what your life could become if you stop deceiving yourself. Some say true happiness is when your talent, your interests, and your relentless efforts finally point in the same direction. Whether you can find this direction largely depends on one thing: have you really been split apart by life a few times? Most people never reach that point in their lives, not because they aren't smart, but because they've never been shattered enough.
I know that among those reading this, there must be someone thinking: So much has been said, just tell me which way to trade ETH today?
If you're still thinking this way, buddy, you really have a long way to go.
If you're still trading mindlessly on a whim, you might as well go to a casino and play slots; your odds of winning might even be better than what you're doing now.
Before you impulsively trade again and wipe out your account, go read my article (Day Trading is a Scam) first.
What trading truly lacks has never been 'learning a bit more knowledge.'
What it needs is a brand new you.
The old you won't obediently walk away.
It will cling tightly and make a fuss because it knows it is the true reason you've been losing money all along.
But when that version of you is truly beaten to 'death' by the market, only then will you start to trade like a real profit-taker, instead of giving back all your previous winnings every time there's a market movement.
