I spent years trying to beat the market. I failed.
Worse, I kept beating myself—making costly mistakes with surprising creativity.
Losing money wasn’t the hardest part. It was realising I’d paid for lessons I could have learned for free—if my ego hadn’t convinced me I was the exception.
I used to think trading was about being smarter than others. It’s not. It’s about discipline. And I didn’t have any.
My Rules Lasted Five Days
I wrote clear rules. No emotional trades. No exceptions.
By day six, a stock surged—fast and wild. My rules suddenly felt useless. A voice whispered: This is different. Don’t miss it.
So I broke the rules—not out of recklessness, but because I thought I was being smart. That made it dangerous.
The Trap of “Work”
I loved the prep work: charts, backtests. It felt productive. But most of it was just market porn—feeding a craving to feel almost right, without actually improving.
It rewarded my delusion. And that made it addictive.
The Monthly Reality Check
Every month, I’d open my account and feel confused. I’d worked hard. I’d tried. But the numbers showed the truth:
I wasn’t trading. I was flinching—chasing moves, reacting to tweets, changing plans mid-trade.
The Real Problem
My worst trades weren’t the wrong ones. They were the ones I didn’t even know why I traded. No plan. No understanding. Just hope.
What Changed
After enough losses, clarity arrived—the kind that makes your past self look foolish.
I now follow five boring rules. They’re not clever. But they work.
- Only buy what I understand
If I can’t explain how a company makes money—in plain English—I don’t buy it. - Keep 80% in index funds
I lost money not from ignorance, but from overtrading. Index funds quietly beat my “smart” picks. Now most of my money sits still. The rest I use for small, controlled bets. - Never invest money I’ll need in two years
Life happens. Markets don’t care. Investing money I couldn’t afford to lose turned investing into hoping—and hope is expensive. - Check my portfolio once a month
I used to check daily. Every dip made me anxious; every rise made me greedy. Then I went days without looking—and nothing broke. I realized: most checking just invites bad decisions. - Write down why I’m buying—before I buy
Many ideas sound great in my head. On paper, they collapse. If I can’t write a clear reason, I don’t buy.
The Only Contest That Matters
Trading isn’t a battle against the market. It’s a battle against yourself—the part that says this time is different.
Beat that version of you, and you’ll do fine. Lose to him, and no amount of intelligence will save you.
The market doesn’t reward the smartest person. It rewards the one who can sit still.
