There are only two types of people who truly make money in the market:

One type is the talented, extremely intelligent, and very hardworking individuals. They possess a fox-like sharpness for market opportunities, often able to seize major trends, turning hundreds of thousands into tens of millions in just a year or even a few months. Many leading investors are of this type. However, this type of person is generally very difficult to learn from; most people may spend a lifetime trying but will never succeed, as their talent, personality, and intelligence are innate.

The other type consists of individuals with average intelligence, personality, and talent, but they have a positive outlook on the market, possess their own understanding and principles. They only buy well-recognized good assets or leading stocks, hold them for the medium to long term, and seem to do nothing, yet end up making dozens of times their investment.

The sad part is:

The first type is extremely hard to learn from, perhaps less than 1% can do so, yet people crowd to learn from them.

The second type can be learned from, but many people disdain to learn.

Because the first type appears "cool," "glamorous," and "fast."

The second type appears "slow," "rustic," and "lacking in action."

But the outcome is often:

The first type cannot learn, ultimately losing money impulsively and becoming a joke.

The second type is unwilling to learn, resulting in losses and exiting during a bull market.

What is truly worth cultivating is the ability to be like the second type of person.

It’s not about being inactive; it’s about being less active. It’s not about holding on blindly; it’s about holding based on a big-picture logic.

If you want to become the second type of person, the key is to accomplish these few things:

Cognitive stability: Why are you holding it? Industry, structure, cycle? Can the logic be clearly articulated?

Setting principles: Profit-taking points, frequency of increasing positions, and loss tolerance must all be predetermined.

Being as immovable as a mountain: Not being led by emotions, not operating blindly based on news.

Tolerating profit drawdowns: In a market wave, wanting to capture the entire segment without giving back a few times is unrealistic.

Avoiding heavy positions in emotional stocks: No matter how hot the theme is, do not gamble recklessly away from the fundamentals.

During the holding process, what I believe is most important is principles. Wanting to take profits when it rises, wanting to cut losses when it falls, hesitating to add positions for fear of further losses. Or having a predetermined strategy to buy on dips, but not daring to add positions when it falls—these are all manifestations of lacking principles. Selling high and buying low is essentially not wrong, but after selling, if the price doesn’t drop back or doesn’t reach your desired level and then rises again, you will likely exit at that point.