After many years of trading contracts, I've seen too many smart people stumble in the market.

$BREV's top university graduates, $BROCCOLI714's programming geniuses, $CLO's indicator experts... all kinds of talents are present. But how many can truly achieve stable account growth? Very few.

It wasn't until later that I understood — whether trading makes money or not doesn't depend on IQ at all, but on character.

Skills can be learned, systems can be built. The most fatal thing is that innate "core strength." It's not that these people don't work hard; the problem is that they are obsessed with proving they are right: "The logic is sound, just market manipulation; a little more patience and they'll turn around..." They end up going against the market, treating stubbornness as faith, and persistence as courage.

The market doesn't care how firm you are; a big wave can wipe out months of gains.

The market specifically punishes two types of people. One is those who must prove they are right; when the trend reverses, they explode emotionally and stubbornly hold on. The other always tries to reverse with a big bet, gambling heavily—greedy when winning, blaming others when losing. Essentially, they are gambling with their lives rather than trading.

Those who can achieve long-term stable profits actually understand the value of "retreat."

They know they are just ordinary people, not obsessed with perfect win rates, only avoiding one fatal mistake. They can accept the regret of not acting when they should, and will decisively hold cash when system signals are absent — holding cash may seem less professional than full position, but it actually proves professionalism. Stop-loss? That's just operating costs; opening a shop requires rent, and this money must be spent. Account fluctuations never affect their mindset; they don't get cocky after wins or collapse after losses. Every operation follows the rules, not to prove themselves.

Can't change your personality? Actually, it can be optimized through training:

Before opening a position, clearly write down stop-loss conditions and maximum tolerable loss. If you can't clarify, don't enter. Absolutely prohibit adding to losing positions to average down; if you do it once, force a three-day trading halt. When reviewing, change perspective: see "stop-loss" as "cost" rather than "failure." Within a month, only focus on rule execution rate, temporarily ignoring wins and losses.

The Tao Te Ching says: "The movement of the Tao is reversal; the weak are the use of the Tao."

The "weak" in trading doesn't mean fear of difficulty, but the clarity of not forcing against the market. Let go of the obsession with "must be right," allow mistakes, know when to wash your hands, and admit losses in time. This is the true underlying ability for long-term trading.