My friend entered the market at the tail end of the bull market last year, confidently investing 500,000. At first, everything went smoothly; he engaged in copying others, trading contracts, and chasing trends, with his account doubling at one point. He began to feel like the 'chosen one' and said, 'I’ll quit my job and trade full time.'
But as you know, the market doesn't always provide perpetual gains.
After a series of declines, he was reluctant to cut his losses, frequently increased his positions, and ended up blowing his account three times, turning 500,000 into less than 50,000. That day he sent me a WeChat message with just four words: 'Am I done for?'
I only reminded him of three things:
First, the money was not lost due to market conditions but due to his own actions. Market fluctuations are normal; what truly determines profit or loss is your decision-making. Not setting stop-losses, not controlling positions, and not reviewing trades are not issues with the market but issues with the trader himself.
Second, don’t think you can make it all back in one go, and definitely don’t think you can turn things around with a single trade. Many people make the mistake of being 'eager to recover losses' after losing money. The result is one blown account after another. The real way to recover is to gradually make small trades, control the pace, and restore your mindset and system.
Third, what you are losing now is not money, but tuition fees; don’t pay them without learning. Losing money itself is not scary; what’s scary is not summarizing your experience. If you can come out of this loss and establish your own trading system and risk control mindset, then you have simply 'lost money to avoid disaster'; otherwise, it’s just the beginning of a larger problem.
