Today’s article is on the longer side — and admittedly a bit dry. But if you want to capture real profits in the phase ahead and actually hold onto them, building them into solid capital for your future ventures, then you absolutely must read this to the end.
Patience has always been the dividing line between those who get harvested like weeds and those who are genuinely ambitious predators. You simply cannot imagine a reckless, impulsive person — one who can’t even invest ten minutes in reading — being capable of pouring sufficient effort into anything and achieving real success. Which is exactly why they are destined to be losers: the ones who hand over their chips, roar in frustration, and are ultimately powerless — the eliminated.
The world is fair. In anything, if you don’t invest enough effort to nurture it, you will never achieve lasting progress in any domain. This is especially true in investing — whether in the trading markets or real estate. The logic is the same. And so the longer you immerse yourself in investing, the more it starts to feel like spiritual cultivation (修行).
The reason I open with these words is that a few days ago, someone in Master Chi’s community asked: “I’ve just started investing in the trading markets — where do I even begin?”
Master Chi’s response: Start by losing money. And not just a little — start by losing big.
This isn’t me being cruel or wanting to see people fail. Understand this: luck is the one thing there is never a shortage of in the trading arena. In a bull market, luck is absolutely everywhere — you can make money quite easily. The problem is, if during that process you’re profiting repeatedly by relying on luck, you’ll very quickly start believing, “This is my actual skill.” After that, whatever you do — work, business, career, investing — you’ll think, “I’m someone who’s made 40% returns in a single month. How could I possibly fail? How?”
The truth is, you’ve grossly overestimated your own ability. And when you start failing at things, you’ll still think you’re a genius. But the reality? It was just good luck. You are not as strong as you think.
A major, painful loss will teach you: “Oh — so this is actually the level I’m at.”
That’s fine. Knowing you’re weak, knowing you fall short — that’s the only way to know what you need to strengthen and develop. Master Chi has always been surrounded by market makers and professional trader friends, and come to think of it, not a single one of them has had a smooth, unscathed journey — blown accounts and spectacular blowups during bull markets are par for the course.
But that’s alright. The market’s brutality lies in its mercilessness. Yet its tenderness also lies in that same mercilessness. Because it is merciless, it plays no favorites. And because it plays no favorites, skill alone is enough to rise again.
So why do I say investing resembles “spiritual cultivation”?
This is exactly why. When you begin to seriously study this craft, it’s as if heaven has handed you a blank notebook. You then spar with others, study the notes and experiences of veterans, listen to the boasting and exaggerations of self-proclaimed stock gurus. You keep adding and recording in this notebook. But without real combat, you have no idea whether what you’ve compiled is actually useful. So you put your chips on the table and enter the fray.
In the process, you discover that some lessons are outdated while others are timeless. You further discover that some approaches are orthodox and conventional — yet they don’t necessarily generate fat profits. And some strategies are unconventional and high-risk — yet in your own hands, you can execute them with ease and fluency.
Throughout this process, no one can decide for you what truly suits you. Only you can keep summarizing and refining. Then, after eighty-one trials — after setbacks and tempering — those with strong instincts emerge in five years and dominate. Those of average aptitude achieve greatness after ten years. Nothing is fixed. It’s entirely a matter of natural talent. Like cultivation itself: correct yourself as you go, keep moving forward, never stop, never relent.
How many people truly have that kind of resolve?
A friend recently sent me an article about the 2015 bull run, showing that the top 0.5% of participants took home 99.5% of the total market wealth. Master Chi personally agrees with this data. If you think carefully, you’ll understand why we always call it a “trading arena.” It’s because behind the seemingly simple price codes and individual company names, there are forces you cannot see — market makers, regulatory teams, or others — controlling the rhythm. When you bring your wealth into this arena, you are going directly head-to-head with them. Even if you can never see your opponent face to face.
Sometimes, when your interests and momentum align with theirs, you’ll profit without even trying. Other times, when your timing is completely at odds with theirs, you become their cannon fodder.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, their cognition, mindset, vision, and access to information are comprehensively behind those of professional players. On that basis, six months is more than enough for all participants to go through multiple washout cycles and be collectively defeated.
Many people resist this idea. Some think their abilities are genuinely exceptional; some believe their luck might be extraordinary. Well then — compared to the trading arena with thousands of tickers, why don’t they go compete in something like a Texas Hold’em tournament? Win there, and the payout is also quite handsome. And poker — just a few people and a few cards — is surely simpler and more direct than the broader market, right? How come they go quiet at that suggestion?
Weren’t they supposed to be so capable? They won’t go, because the high-frequency pace of the game would expose them very quickly. Skill levels are visible within ten minutes; chips stripped bare within half an hour.
But the trading arena is different. A single game’s final outcome is measured in months, half a year, even years. This gives the weeds (韭菜) plenty of room for fantasy — they attribute the ups and downs in between to their own credit and capability. And then? The naive and weak deserve to be slaughtered. That is the fundamental reason they will never get rich through the markets.
The pace is too slow, too forgiving. The result? They genuinely believe that by going to work, checking their phones, and clicking “buy” on a few tickers, they can make money. Honestly, this isn’t just blind overconfidence in oneself anymore — it’s practically an insult to those professional players, a massive underestimation of them.
Do you know? When Master Chi first made contact with the market maker circles of Shanghai, I immediately noticed a fascinating culture. Why do these veterans tend to be quite relaxed on Fridays and Saturdays — but without exception organize a card game or mahjong session every Sunday evening?
The Friday-Saturday relaxation is easy to understand — after a hard week, they reward themselves: a quick flight to Southeast Asia, or if it’s a holiday, everyone gathers in LA or the Gold Coast. But that Sunday evening game — barring special circumstances — is non-negotiable. Why?
Common sense would suggest they should be conserving energy to face the next five days of combat. The answer, it turns out, is to get themselves into the right state of mind.
All investing is, in its own unique form, a kind of gambling. And if it’s gambling, then the state of mind (心境) is supremely important. Because a clear, tuned mind allows you to express your full rational capacity at your true level.
Should this particular position enter the market right now? Is the opposing side — the market maker — deliberately baiting you at this moment? You’ve made a decent profit — is it time to learn to walk away? You’re deep in losses — should you retaliate with urgency, or step back, recalibrate, and return stronger?
Sometimes a casual game among friends is a concentrated version of an evenly matched investment bout. That’s why, if you look around, most people who excel at investing are also quite good at gambling-type games — because the required state of mind is largely the same.
So that Sunday night game serves one purpose: to put oneself into a state of coiled energy, already inside the arena. And so when Monday morning comes, you wake up sharp and battle-ready.
This is completely the opposite of ordinary people — one could even say it runs counter to human nature. Look at why so many markets crash hard on Thursdays and Fridays. Most people have never thought about the fundamental reason. The answer: a crash on Thursday or Friday, no matter how brutal, gives most people a full weekend to recover emotionally and reset. Then Monday arrives with a small gain, greed is reignited, and after a few cycles of this, they get harvested on autopilot — almost unconsciously.
See? There’s no “technique” here. It’s precision psychological targeting of human nature itself. How can a flock of sheep compete with people like this? These people are armed to the teeth at the psychological level. The flock? They bring their savings, convinced they too can get rich. Tell me — isn’t that the reality?
All of this preamble today is meant to lead into the question: Do you think you are ready to enter the arena?
You don’t need to rush to answer. Master Chi wants you to sit with this slowly and reflect. Know this above all: the more urgency you feel, the more dangerous it is. It only shows how desperately you want to prove yourself — and that’s unnecessary. Master Chi doesn’t want you to prove yourself with words and logic. Proof comes through real, tangible profits and returns. Those carry far more weight than any words.
If you have no clear sense of how to answer this question, please allow Master Chi to offer a self-assessment checklist, based on the templates of the professional players around me:
1 — Who are the core driving forces behind this current market move?
2 — Through what mechanisms did this force manage to push the broader market up?
3 — How will these mechanisms, while fulfilling their strategic objectives, also ensure their own performance and profits?
4 — Which targets fit the profile of “long-line fishing — patient, not competing for bait, uninteresting to the average person”?
Try to answer these four questions on your own. These are the four core questions every professional player deeply contemplates before every move. Master them and you’ll have a solid read on the overall rhythm ahead. These four questions alone are enough to unmask the self-proclaimed stock gurus around you — not that they can’t make money, but these four points are critically important. Miss any one of them and you’ll definitely miss the “big money.”
Then come the questions about yourself:
5 — How much capital do you actually have available to invest, without putting your daily life under financial pressure?
6 — Do you believe you are smarter than 50% of the players in the arena? Or 99%?
7 — Timing of entry, selection of target, sizing of position — what do you consider appropriate? Is there margin for error?
8 — If you’re so certain and confident, why aren’t you using the margin financing your broker legally offers?
9 — How much profit would actually satisfy you? There must be a specific number — don’t say “the more the better.”
These five questions, likewise, can only be answered by you. They are also the questions only professional traders, private equity funds, and serious market participants would ever think to ask.
Only those who are reckless and don’t know their own limits will answer all five questions with a single wave of the hand: “That ticker looks good! I’m going all in! Let’s go!”
Sure, some people have made money that way — but it’s luck. It’s a windfall from a favorable fortune cycle (财运). When wealth fortune arrives, no one can stop it, right? But this also means that for such a person, after one full bull-bear cycle, the only thing they’ve gained — or lost — is money.
And that’s where it gets dangerous. When gains and losses only show up in the bank account, it means this person has basically played through the entire stretch and walked away with nothing to show for it. How is that possible?
Look — even without a bull-bear cycle, in ordinary times, the market still has its small rhythms and fluctuations. These minor movements also produce plenty of skilled players. The profits may be smaller, but “smaller” is relative — stretch the time horizon and the returns are actually quite substantial. Even in the worst markets, there are master “fishermen” pulling in hundreds of millions annually.
Why can they fish so successfully? Because the total volume of the market is right there — no matter how bad things get, enormous amounts of capital flow through every single year. And because the average participant’s cognition is genuinely so low that even in a bear market, the herd still chases bull stocks and hot stories. There’s never a shortage of fish biting the hook.
Never underestimate the ferocity of the skilled. And never overestimate the stupidity of the herd — always underestimate it instead. Most importantly, remember: if after one full cycle of volatility you still cannot determine whether you have the instincts of a wolf… then you most likely… you know what I mean. I’ll leave the rest unsaid.
Finally, one more thing to address — quite a few new members have joined the community recently, so Master Chi wants to reiterate:
Master Chi’s community is not a place where everyone shouts out stock picks every day in a noisy frenzy.
It is more of a platform where everyone comes with some accumulated skill, and then exchanges knowledge and grows together.
This is a “training hall” — for sharpening your abilities, so that when you step outside, you can outclass the ordinary in the investment world.
Therefore, the topics we discuss here are not limited to investing itself — in fact, investing is the smaller part. The larger focus is the elevation of one’s entire cognition and worldview.
So when you apply to join, please include a brief introduction about yourself in the application field. This helps maintain the overall quality of discussion within the community. Thank you for your cooperation.