Have you often heard the saying that in trading, technique is secondary, and the hardest part is mindset? Many experienced traders emphasize that greed and fear are the real reasons behind your losses. It sounds reasonable, right? But today, I want to present a counter-consensus viewpoint: the trading mindset itself might be a severely overrated and even fundamentally flawed concept. The reason you often feel like your mindset is poor is not that you truly have a bad mindset, but because your understanding of the underlying principles of trading is not in place. The essence of the mindset issue is a cognitive problem. What we usually refer to as a mindset collapse is simply a few manifestations: holding on when in profit, stubbornly enduring when facing losses, becoming anxious after consecutive losses, leading to more mistakes, feeling flustered right when entering the market, always thinking your account will explode in the next second, feeling elated after making a little money and collapsing after losing a bit. Many people repeatedly tell themselves to stay calm and rational, even resorting to meditation, exercise, and psychological suggestions, but what happens? They still panic in the next trade. Why? Because you are only managing emotions without addressing the root of those emotions, which is your unclear and even incorrect understanding of risk-reward, trading systems, and the essence of the market. True experts never manage their mindset; they have simply integrated these underlying logics into their very being. Whether you are using spare money or life savings is crucial. Many people say they can accept risk, but once they start losing, they can't sleep. Why? Because they have not truly allocated their assets correctly. The money you can bring into the market must be funds you won't need for the next 3-5 years—funds you are willing to lose completely without affecting your basic living expenses. If you can't achieve these three points, it doesn't matter whether your account has 10,000 or 1,000,000; you are gambling, not trading. The so-called stable profits don't exist; only long-term survival exists. Many people pursue a holy grail trading system, hoping that learning a specific technique will allow them to make money every day. But the truth is, even Buffett has lost, Soros has blown up accounts, and Livermore ultimately committed suicide. No one can truly achieve stable profits. Trading is not a money-making plan; it is a risk-gambling plan. What you really need to do is not avoid risks but to earn as much as possible when you are making money and lose as little as possible when you are losing. In the long run, profits can cover losses. Once you understand this, you will no longer doubt yourself due to consecutive losses. Losses are normal, and profits are normal; gains and losses come from the same source. You only need to care about whether your trading system can have a long-term positive expectation. You are not a soldier; you are a sniper. Many people turn trading into a suicide squad mode, frequently entering and exiting, emotionally charged. A truly mature trader is more like a sniper: they only place trades they understand, setting stop-loss and profit-taking limits in advance for every trade. They do not act on opportunities that do not fit their system, even if everyone around them is shouting that an opportunity has arrived. You should not fight against emotions but go with the flow. If you feel flustered and unsure and are afraid to place an order, don’t force it—that indicates your system is still not mature, and your understanding is not yet in place. Keep waiting and learning. So how should you manage your mindset? The answer may surprise you: you don’t need to manage it at all. Just like when you fell and cried as a child, you don’t cry now when you fall; it’s not because you manage your mindset better but because you have grown up, and your understanding has changed. Trading is the same. When you truly trade with spare money, accepting losses becomes inevitable. With a trading system that has a positive expectation, taking only trades you can understand, you will find that those mindset issues you once thought were problems will naturally disappear. You will no longer dwell on single trades’ gains and losses, will not rush to break even, and will not be unable to hold onto profits because you clearly know that every trade you make is a rational decision based on long-term logic. The results are merely a natural presentation of the process. To sum it up, the so-called mindset problems are actually external symptoms of cognitive problems. Elevate your understanding, grasp risk system trading, and your emotions will naturally align. All mindset issues are just pretentious; it's like you were nervous and hesitant to get on the highway before you got your driver's license.
