Let me talk about my experience.
I was born in March. Before the college entrance examination, around May, I bought my first mutual fund. It wasn’t much, just 1,000 yuan. I earned 20% in two weeks, bought it on Sunday, and sold it the following Monday after coming home on Friday night. I was lucky to buy at the lowest point and sell at the highest point. At that time, I was only 18 years old, and I felt extraordinarily talented. I decided to go all out after the college entrance examination and put all 1,200 yuan into Yu'ebao. After the exams, I went to my aunt's factory and slacked off for two months, earning 6,000 yuan (my aunt's factory was doing well, and I was given 3,000 a month just for my face because I really did nothing. I only experienced being a factory worker for half a day, and at the end of the day, they even treated me to a cup of milk tea, a 20-yuan mango sago dessert. At that time, I didn’t even know if half a day’s work could earn that much). I took the 6,000 yuan and started trading futures. The first few operations went well, and since I was studying during the summer vacation, I was lucky to earn 1,700 from a batch of soybean meal and starch, and I made a profit of 500 on methanol within half a day. At that time, being 18, I thought that as long as I continued like this, I would be able to buy a car and a house right after graduation. Until after the Spring Festival, I kept making profits, turning my 6,000 into 15,000 in five months. This was a huge amount of money for me, who was not yet 20.
The crash happened during the glass bull market in April 2021. At that time, my family believed in me, and I believed in myself too. I felt that I would make a living from trading in the future. Back then, I bought a lot of soda ash, made five jumps, and after deducting the handling fee of 24, I could receive 76. I worked at Starbucks for an afternoon, from 1:30 to 3:00, received two or three short orders, and enjoyed a cup of coffee, feeling like I was in the upper class. After returning to school, I made a profit on the short-term glass market and closed my position after reaching the previous high, receiving 80 points, and then I went short!
Those who have experienced that market wave should understand. The glass daily chart showed 14 consecutive bullish lines, and the shorts were thoroughly beaten, while the glass bulls achieved a great victory. However, because of my stubbornness, my capital quickly shrank. Specifically, after making two or three bullish lines, I got itchy hands and opened a short position again. My floating profit went to zero, and I got hit hard. For those few nights, I would run on the playground after class and return to the dormitory at 8:30. Flat glass felt like a rubber band tightening around me. I didn’t know exactly where it was tight, but it should be around my neck, because when I shorted and the price rose rapidly, even breathing was painful. But I had to cut my losses, witnessing the price hit my stop loss. My account balance quickly shrank, and in the end, when the market ended, my account dropped from 150,000 to 20,000.
This is the story of the first half of my 19-year-old year. You ask why I didn’t talk about the second half? Because I lost money for two months. In the second half, I caught the coal bull market, but I traded methanol, making a profit of 120,000 after going long and then short.
In fact, 100,000 yuan, or my initial 6,000 yuan, is relatively small for most people. It’s not a problem to save that much money after a few months of frugality during your first job or student life. Even if you lose all of it, you won’t feel too heartbroken. The key is whether you have the perseverance to keep learning. I have been learning trading knowledge since I was 18. The teachers in the square may deceive you, but the knowledge gained from learning and practical operations will not lie.
Society rewards adventurers. As long as you are willing to increase the volatility of your life, society has a thousand ways to give you that volatility. It’s important to grasp it well. I feel that when people reach middle age, they are unwilling to accept large fluctuations. They are polished by society and lose the courage and vitality they had at 18, which is due to being broke. Those with money will go to the stock market, futures market, or cryptocurrency market to redistribute their wealth.
