Now in the crypto space, it is definitely a (transformation of old investors). After the ETF big shots entered, this place has upgraded from 'newbie village' to 'king's match', and our retail investors' meager skills are just adding bricks to the KPIs of the institutional big shots.
Do you remember the 'pure bull market' from 21 years ago? Back then, you could close your eyes and invest in a low-quality coin, and when you woke up, you might be driving a Maserati — although it was probably just a dream. Now? As soon as you buy, it immediately 'technically corrects'; as soon as you sell at a loss, it instantly 'rebounds fiercely'; if you try to 'build your position in batches' to lower your costs, it directly gives you a 'golden pit 2.0', burying you with only your phone left to place orders outside.
Why is it so difficult? Because the players in the market have changed. Previously, it was just rookies pecking at each other, now it's Wall Street wolves hunting with quantum computers. Your opponent is no longer another naive kid dreaming of getting rich, but algorithms that can monitor global sentiment and trade tens of thousands of times per second. Every U you lose becomes their permanent ATM password, and they will just turn around and exchange it for Bitcoin or US treasuries to earn interest, while no one plays 'value investing' with you.
The market is becoming increasingly fragmented, with more project teams than dog urine moss after rain. The U you hold is spread across ten 'top-tier projects', each claiming to change the world, but the combined effect is to collectively change your asset allocation — successfully transforming from 'liquid assets' to 'frozen assets'. You exchange real money for their 'future equity', and they use your U to buy sports cars and yachts; this business model is more civilized than robbing a bank.
So what can we small investors look at? News? That's just a notification text when others are reeling in their nets. Information? That's an invitation to a banquet waiting for you to fall into the pit. Even Trump has started to announce trades; the difficulty of this game has been upgraded from 'normal mode' to 'hell mode', and the only relatively fair ones left are giants like BTC and ETH, because they are so heavy that even the market makers have to practice squats before they can pump the price.
In the past, the bull market was everyone taking the elevator up together, now institutions hold elevator cards, specifically waiting for you to come in and press the 'rapid descent' button. They understand your fears and greed better than you do; if you just hold, they'll wash the market until you question your life; if you trade in waves, they'll just manipulate the market to leave you hanging on a mountaintop, enjoying the wind.