Why I firmly believe that ordinary traders should refuse to adopt a ranging strategy, apart from the fact that the main source of large profits comes from trend following. There is another important reason:

Psychological erosion.

Once you sit in a ranging market for a long time, with a high win rate, you will habitually cultivate your own bad nature and unconsciously feel that your thoughts are correct. Over time, during a trend breakout, you will stubbornly stick to your views, abandon stop-losses, and continue to be wrong until you ultimately suffer.

In a ranging market, not using stop-losses or relaxing stop-losses often allows you to 'hold on' or even turn losses into profits. This can form a deadly bad habit: underestimating stop-losses, even believing that stop-losses are ineffective or foolish. You have turned a risk management tool into an obstacle to profit.

Traders heavily influenced by the ranging mindset typically go through the following thought processes:

1. Disdain:

"It's fake; it will definitely come back." (Based on past high win rate experiences);

2. Adding positions:

"Just right, I will add positions at a better price to average down the cost." (Reinforcing the belief that 'I am correct')

3. Anger and stubbornness:

"How could it keep rising/falling? This doesn't conform to fundamentals/common sense!" (Bound to analysis, fighting against the market)

4. Fear and despair:

Massive unrealized losses, far exceeding psychological tolerance, ultimately leading to cutting positions at the end of a trend or direct liquidation.

He did not die from one trade; rather, he perished because of the 'deadly habit' he carefully cultivated with a high win rate.

In a ranging market: you are contending with the 'market average' and 'short-term chaotic fluctuations.' Your opponents are other equally smart short-term traders; this is a zero-sum or even negative-sum melee.

In a trending market: you are aligning with the 'market center' and 'long-term certainty.' When a trend forms, you are in harmony with the enormous power of the market; behind you are the forces of macroeconomics, industrial cycles, and capital flows. Your opponents are those counter-trend and stubborn traders.

The greatest disadvantage for ordinary traders is not technology, nor information, but the immaturity of their mindset and lack of discipline. The ranging strategy precisely magnifies and erodes this weakest link.

The continuous trial-and-error stop-losses of trend-following trading will not cause you to fail; rather, they will cultivate your increasingly resilient execution capability, and a sufficiently large trend profit will further strengthen your confidence in sticking to the strategy.