The simplest—and cruelest—truth of the capital markets: the vast majority panic and sell at a loss in bear markets, then pile in at the top in bull markets. The truly skilled always build their positions in bear markets and exit in bull markets.
Markets never create wealth; they only transfer it. At its core, every cycle from bull market to bear market is a game of exploiting human nature. Retail investors don’t lose because of the market itself, but because of their emotions, their greed, and the way they get the order of their trades backward.
Many people don’t understand market cycles and keep doing the exact opposite of what they should.
What is a bear market?
It’s the bottom, when bargain-priced assets are everywhere and the bubble has been completely flushed out. The market is filled with pessimism, the news is all bad, and everyone is anxious and panicked. Retail investors can’t bear the slow decline or stomach their paper losses, so they keep selling at a loss, tears in their eyes. When everyone is fleeing, giving up, and writing off the market, that’s precisely when the risk is lowest and the opportunity is greatest.
Top capital never joins the excitement in a bull market; it only quietly sets the stage in a bear market.
What people call “setting the stage” isn’t betting on a double in one night—it’s slowly accumulating, positioning at low levels, and patiently lying in wait when nobody cares. In a bear market, you don’t compete on speed, and you don’t bet on short-term rises or falls—you compete on cognition, resolve, and patience. When others are afraid, I’m greedy; when others are cutting losses, I’m biding my time. Collect quality shares in the trough, strengthen your base during periods of consolidation, don’t chase rallies, don’t make a fuss, don’t trade frequently—then calmly wait for the cycle to reverse.
Every drop in a bear market is squeezing out the market’s inflated bubbles. Every period of fluctuation is eliminating impatient, restless followers. Only those who can endure the cold winter’s loneliness and hold onto shares at low levels have the right to welcome the coming spring-like opportunity.
And in a bull market, it has never been a feast that makes people rich—it’s the endpoint where you cash out and leave.
Many retail investors’ biggest misconceptions: in a bear market they don’t dare to buy, always fearing it will fall further; in a bull market they don’t dare to sell, always hoping it will keep rising.
By the time the market fully recovers—when good news is everywhere, everyone is trading stocks, and everyone talks about doubling—when the new guys around you are already making money, risk has quietly arrived. At this point, stock prices discount the future aggressively, valuations are sky-high, market sentiment is wildly overheated, and countless latecomers who missed the move rush in at high levels to take the bags with impulsiveness and greed.
Smart people who positioned themselves early in a bear market had already begun a staged profit-taking strategy.
They never cling to the bull market’s last little upturn, and they don’t chase the final wave of extreme profits. The hotter the market gets, the crazier people become; they stay calm, quietly take profits, and step away steadily—turning paper gains into real, secured money. While ordinary people rush into the market filled with joy, dreaming of getting rich, the pros have already withdrawn with substantial returns.
That’s the age-old rule of the stock market: sow in the bear market, reap in the bull market; set up at the trough, exit at the peak.
Why can’t retail investors ever make big money?
Because most people follow human nature—chasing surges and selling at declines:
In the low end, be pessimistic—cut losses blindly and hand over cheap shares to others;
When it’s overheated at the top, go heavy and chase—standing in place on the mountaintop for others.
Capital’s playbook never changes: use fear in the bear market to trick retail investors out of their cheap shares; use greed in the bull market to harvest retail investors’ principal bought at high prices. With each cycle of bull and bear alternating, a perfect transfer of wealth is completed.
Real maturity in trading is never about technique or luck—it’s about restraint against human nature.
Understand the cycle, and then you’ll be calm:
In a bear market: cultivate your mindset, plan, accumulate—quietly set the stage, and wait for the flowers to bloom;
In a bull market: be disciplined, take profits, exit gracefully, and turn gains into real money—safeguarding your profits.
Don’t envy others’ short-term windfall profits or crave the market’s final frenzy. Know how to hold your ground when nobody is watching, step away when everyone is chasing hype, keep to your own pace, and respect the market’s cycles.
Life is like this—so is trading.
Understand the cycle, hold your ground through the lows, and keep your balance amid prosperity.
Position when nobody cares, take profits when the crowd is roaring.
That is the highest-tier trading wisdom of ordinary people