Today was another hurried day as usual. Around four in the afternoon, I finally found some time to sit at Burger King and type some words.
The guy I've been following these days has fallen again, it’s been about four or five days. He went from five hundred to two thousand. A few days ago, he could still steadily control his situation, but since yesterday afternoon, it’s been chaotic. First, he kept increasing his short position on Jelly at 0.085 and lost over a thousand. This morning, he shorted BEAT at a large position of 2.21 and was completely wiped out by a spike to 2.37. Ultimately, he returns to silence.
I know him too well. He lost a lot of money before, is in heavy debt, stopped for more than half a year and then returned to the crypto world, always wanting to quickly recover everything. Day and night, he has been staring at the market. How many times has it been in the past month? It's all back to zero, and compared to before, there has been no change at all.
This is actually the vicious cycle dilemma of trading - from industry leaders to monitoring machines, from expecting profits to panicking about losing, and ultimately exhausting both body and account.
This is also a common problem that we traders will encounter.
I made this mistake around August and September this year; at that time, waiting for money to do things and wanting to earn money quickly, I frequently took action, thinking about monitoring trading every day. Sometimes I would sit at the bedside at night and accidentally stay up until 6 a.m., resulting in losing everything, and my state was very poor; I knew this was not how I should be.
After the National Day holiday, I chose to forget everything, throw all history into the trash, start anew, improve myself, and then adopt the corresponding strategy to trade slowly.
Now thinking back to that dark history still sends chills down my spine; how could I sit up all night, it's terrifying.
Summarizing this common problem, the core issue lies in two points:
1. Imbalance of mindset: treating 'recovering losses' as the only goal of trading, rather than 'following the strategy and controlling risk'; this urgent desire to turn the situation around will make one overlook market signals, frequently over-leveraging and chasing profits, with each operation carrying a gambling nature, resulting in more losses, and increasing panic.
2. Cognitive misalignment: directly applying the 'diligence logic' from other industries to trading, thinking that 'the longer you stare at the market, the more you operate, the more you can earn', is actually the opposite; less operation and waiting for opportunities is the premise for profit; excessive monitoring will only amplify emotional fluctuations, letting you be led by the ups and downs of the intraday chart, losing your judgment on trends.
Therefore, taking a timely break is the first step to breaking the deadlock.
Stopping is not giving up, but rather jumping out of the 'loss - operation - greater loss' deadlock, to review your trading records: which operations align with the strategy? Which were impulsive trades due to panic and greed? Was the reason for the loss due to poor risk control or a wrong entry point?
After clarifying these, ask yourself two questions:
Do I really understand this market? Does my trading strategy have replicable profit logic?
If you don't understand, find a reliable senior to guide you; it can save you a lot of detours, after all, trading requires experience accumulation and mindset training.
Finally, I wish everyone who is striving on the trading path can break free from the dilemma early, regain the original intention of trading, and also find the light in their eyes.
