In the years of trading, I increasingly feel that what determines a trader's professional lifespan is not how many sophisticated techniques he has mastered, but to what extent he can keep his restless heart in check.
Technical analysis is easy to learn, and building a trading system is not particularly complex. The real challenge lies in whether you can execute according to established rules like a precise component without emotions when prices fluctuate violently on the screen.
1. The 'black hole' between knowledge and action.
In trading, we often fall into a kind of 'illusion of diligence'.
We spend a lot of time studying indicators, reviewing history, and optimizing parameters. But this diligence often avoids the most core pain: the monotony and anti-humanity of execution.
Understanding a system requires logic, but executing a system requires muscle memory and mental cultivation. Between 'knowing' and 'doing', there exists a huge black hole. This black hole is filled with fear, greed, and the delusional pursuit of 'certainty'.
Most people's failures are not because the system is bad, but because when the system sends a signal, they have a thought: 'This situation seems a bit special; maybe I should wait and see?'
This tiny thought is the beginning of the collapse of execution.
Two, execution is essentially honesty towards randomness.
Why is execution so difficult? Because the human brain is inherently averse to uncertainty.
When we establish a trading system, we are essentially dealing with probabilities. A system with a 60% win rate means you have to face mistakes 40% of the time. The core of execution is that during that 40%, you can still press the close button with a blank expression just like when you're making a profit.
Many people attribute poor execution to 'lack of willpower', but I believe this is more due to an insufficiently honest understanding of probability.
If you truly accept the fact that 'the result of a single trade is random', you will not feel pain when stopping losses, nor will you feel elation when making profits. Execution is no longer a painful self-restraint, but a natural process.
Three, protect your 'mental bandwidth'.
Execution is not just an attitude; it is also a limited resource.
Every hesitation in the face of loss and every greed after profit is consuming your 'mental bandwidth' intensely. When you spend all your energy fighting against human nature and testing the edges of the rules, you no longer have extra energy for rational decision-making.
Mature traders understand 'effortless self-discipline'.
They simplify rules to reduce reliance on willpower. When your trading plan is clear enough (for example: stop loss at point A, take profit at point B), your brain no longer needs to engage in complex competition.
Top-notch execution often appears to be 'dull'. Because in their eyes, the market is no longer a battlefield of competition, but an automatic teller machine operating on a specific logic.
Four, your moat is your reverence for the rules.
On internet platforms, new technologies, new indicators, and new wealth codes appear every day. But these are all external.
A trader's true moat is their absolute reverence for their own rules.
Technology can be replicated.
Messages can be shared.
Only that kind of execution that remains unshaken in extreme volatility cannot be taken away.
This sense of reverence keeps you restrained when the market is crazy and patient when the market is sluggish. It makes you understand that you are not earning the market's money, but rather the rewards given to you by 'consistent behavior'.
END
Over the years of trading, I have learned not to pursue perfect predictions, but to pursue perfect execution.
Perfect predictions are God's work, while perfect execution is a trader's cultivation. If you can manage 50 consecutive trades without any 'exception' actions, even if your system is simple, time will reward you richly.
In a chaotic world, hold on to the only order within your heart. This is the ultimate practice of a professional trader.
