21. In addition to life you must also have work and study…

You have already seen that the habit of the “leek” is to want nothing other than trading and more trading… Even if there is someone to patiently and sincerely tell them that “reducing trading frequency” is the only way to escape the fate of a leek, they still won’t stop! Why? What will someone who has given up even their sex life listen to? It sounds funny, but I really feel that “leeks” are very Buddha-like — because they have already given up “worldly affairs”.

But you are different. You want to live earnestly, and you even want to enjoy loneliness.

Even more important is that you also have work, and you have study… Only in this way can you be someone who is always making progress; only in this way can you escape the fate of leeks. I emphasized before the importance of “the ability to make money outside of the market”, because otherwise you will be “short-lived”. Now I am talking about “the ability to develop your brain outside of the market”, because otherwise you will be “frail”.

Leek’s favorite phrase to say is “ALL IN”. What they are unable to understand is that “ALL IN” is the reason why they became leeks. In the end they are nothing more than an old leek… Because, in the end, from the perspective of their actions, ALL IN basically becomes “their money is ALL IN the trading markets" — this is an absolute taboo for trading participants!

Successful traders have this basic quality:

They always keep a certain percentage (or at least a certain amount) in cash.

Because they know what sort of high risk environment they are in. They know that, even if their judgements are very accurate, this world will not necessarily give a correct response at that time… As long as the unexpected exists it will definitely happen! What do you do when the unexpected happens? Without cash there is nothing you can do. There are no saviors in this world, only the risk cash reserves that you have prepared…

With this basic thinking, all successful traders will in the end make the same choice:

Whether it be cash, time, or life, you absolutely cannot be ALL IN in the trading markets.

Why? Because there is risk!

The core reason for doing this is not just to protect from risk. Even more importantly, successful traders all know that what they need most, aside from cash, is their own growth. In the end, all high quality trading decisions come from their own growth… Or, to be more precise, it’s the “cognitive gap” between their level of growth and the normal cognitive level of those who have rejected growth. Those returns are fundamentally a “cognitive gap waterfall”.

Where does growth come from? From work experience and diligent study.

Often old students will seek me out and say that they want to learn to invest full-time. My answer is always the same, but it is hard to explain and understand:

First, investing or trading absolutely cannot be treated as “full-time work”… Because as soon as you are “full-time” you have no way to grow. You must spend a lot of time on life, on other work, and on study… Otherwise, you can only be another leek.

More importantly, investing or trading absolutely cannot be treated as a job where you “take salary”. As soon as you take a salary, your brain starts to be shaped in another direction. Why is “loneliness” one of the most important qualities of this field? I’ll give you another reason: because when you are alone, you don’t have the need to meticulously “perform”. When people are being observed, their movements change — this is why participants in international billiards competitions can casually play a perfect game at home, but when they are in an international competition it is not so easy. Because the external observance that they experience changes their behavior.

So taking investing or trading as a full time job, or even a salary-paying job, is inherently quite dangerous. Even though it’s possible to reshape the brain, once it has been shaped over the long term it is is very difficult to change course. Treasure your brain.

For a long time, I’ve been working on a lot of things. On the one hand, this is so I can “think of as many ways as possible to actively reduce trading frequency”. On the other hand, an even more important reason is that I’m afraid of stagnation, and I’m afraid that I won’t grow. Because if I stop growing I won’t be able to handle the many challenges that will come one after the other… Failure isn’t terrifying; what is terrifying is facing failure and being unable to deal with it.

So, aside from trading, you must have a very good life. A good life is not something that can just be put there. It must be sought out, developed, and managed. In addition to life, you also need work. It doesn’t necessarily have to be work related to investment. No matter what kind of work it is, as long as you want to reach the highest level of achievement, it will be difficult. However, as long as you work at it, you will definitely grow, and reach a new level. Aside from life and work, you also need study. The greatest blessing of modern people is being able to study without the pressures of life. The goal of study is not to get a higher salary or a better position in society, but merely to satisfy your curiosity, and continue to develop your brain…