Back in the winter of 2016, I threw all the 50,000 yuan I’d saved for over half a year into the market. I had only one thought in my mind: double my money in three months, and getting a new computer wouldn’t just be a dream. At that time, the mainstream assets were only around 4,000 points. I followed all sorts of “teachers” in various groups, chasing the hottest thing each day—today this one surged so I’d rush in, tomorrow another one was hot so I’d switch. I always felt the next wave of wealth creation was going to be mine.

The result?

Before the New Year even came, my account had gone straight from 50,000 to 25,000. Thinking back now, I wasn’t “investing” at all—I was basically handing out year-end bonuses to the seasoned players.

Spring Festival 2018, on the high-speed train. I stared blankly at the loss numbers on my phone for half an hour, so zoned out I didn’t even notice the lady next to me offering me an orange. In that moment, I suddenly understood: If you want to survive in this market with a small principal, it’s not about “quickly and accurately chasing the hottest trend,” it’s about “staying calm and waiting for the right opportunity.”

**Key Insight: Making 2-3 trades a year is more effective than monitoring the market every day**

The most common mistake beginners make is thinking there are opportunities every day, glued to the screen 24/7, swiping more than watching videos. But the lesson I’ve learned from seven years of blood, sweat, and tears is this: The truly big opportunities you can actually catch only come once or twice a year. It’s like snagging a train ticket for Chinese New Year—wait for the right moment and strike, which is a thousand times better than blindly charging in.

Now I have a strict rule for myself: no more than three proactive trades a year. The rest of the time I either sit on the sidelines and observe, or study the fundamentals. I caught that wave in April 2019 when the market rose from 3,000 to 6,000, and I bought the bottom during the March 2020 crash...