The True Proof That I’m a Genius: My Ability to Steadily Execute My Own Strategies Without a Shadow of Doubt

There are generally two investing strategies. The first involves the possibility of losses, and its greatest challenge is perseverance. This type of strategy might win 80 times out of 100 and lose 20. But those 20 losses are rarely evenly distributed—they could all hit within your first 30 trades. That’s when many people’s mental game collapses. After a string of losses, they can’t stick with their plan, start doubting themselves, and eventually abandon their strategy.

Even more common is a sense of humiliation. People tend to anthropomorphize, treating the financial market as a specific person—an opponent. Every time they lose, they feel defeated, as if the market has humiliated them. Then they can’t resist the urge to get revenge, to win back what was lost.

Sun Tzu said that war cannot be waged on impulse. Whether a nation should fight, and to what extent, must follow a strategic model. When it’s time to fight, you fight even if you’re afraid. When it’s not time to fight, you don’t fight even if you’re eager.

This was made clear thousands of years ago. Didn’t later rulers read it? They all did. But how many could actually follow it? Very few. When the enemy sent an insulting letter, Zhuge Liang responded by sending him women’s clothing. Could everyone have stayed as rational as Empress Lü and accepted it as calmly as Sima Yi? Most couldn’t. You’d lose your head and fight back. In that emotional state, you completely forget the strategy you originally laid out. You only feel humiliated by the market and want to prove yourself. And so it ends with you, standing alone on a rooftop in the pouring rain, jumping to your death in despair.

The other type of strategy carries no possibility of loss. The problem with these is that they require patient waiting. They won’t lose money, but trades are rare. Often, while you’re waiting, you begin to doubt whether a trade will ever come through—or whether this is truly a good strategy, or whether switching to something else would yield better returns. That self-doubt can make you give up too.

The reason I call myself a genius is that I’ve never doubted.

If there’s no trade for a day, I wait a day. If there’s no trade for a year, I wait a year. My mind stays calm.

In Journey to the West, during the magic contest in the Country of Chechi, Tang Sanzang tells Wukong: “When it comes to transformations and combat skills, I can’t beat those demons. But when it comes to sitting in meditation, I could sit for a year without blinking.”

Very few people in the financial markets can stay that still.

You don’t envy others making money. You just stick to your trading strategy and quietly live well. Being able to remain undisturbed by the crowd, keeping your mind as still as water—that itself is a kind of genius.

If, under a strategy with possible losses, the hardest thing is overcoming the fear of losing and the fear of missing out, then under a strategy with no possibility of loss, the hardest thing is overcoming the feeling of being inferior to others.

Regardless of which strategy, what is the core human trait? Blame-shifting. When you make money, it’s because of your brilliance. When you lose, it’s the market’s fault.