Rules > Emotions
Cultural Note: The original Chinese title is 规则 > 情绪 (Guīzé > qíngxù). The hierarchy: rules override emotions, always.
Have you had this experience?
Before opening: “Today, no matter what, I’ll only do two trades, strict stop-losses.”
After closing: seven trades, two without stop-losses, three with moved stops, one averaging down, one opened because “I feel it’ll go up.”
Your rules lost. Emotions won.
Beginners Profit on Luck, Veterans Profit on Discipline
新手靠运气赚钱，老手靠纪律赚钱
A beginner’s first profitable trade is the most dangerous thing. The brain builds a circuit: open position → profit → opening = profit. They think trading is easy, they have talent, the market cooperates.
Then they increase size, frequency, and loosen stops — until the first big loss.
Veterans profit on rules. Every trade follows the same process: signal → check conditions → calculate position → set stop → open → wait. Win or lose, they do the same thing.
纪律不是”我忍住了不冲动”，是”我根本没有冲动的机会，因为流程不允许”。 “Discipline is not ‘I resisted my impulse’ — it’s ‘I never had the chance for impulse because the process doesn’t allow it.’”
Why “I Feel It’ll Go Up” Is the Most Expensive Five Words
“我感觉要涨”是最贵的五个字 “‘I feel it’ll go up’ — the most expensive five words”
Intuition comes from two sources: experience (can be trusted) and emotion (cannot be trusted). You cannot tell which is which.
Traders with texture don’t trust intuition — they trust rules. Rules exclude intuition from the decision process, not because intuition is always wrong, but because you can’t know when it’s right or wrong.
Discipline Isn’t Suppressing Emotion — It’s Pre-Deciding Before Emotion Arrives
纪律不是在冲动来的时候压制冲动，是在冲动来之前就已经没有冲动的空间了。 “Discipline isn’t suppressing impulses when they arrive — it’s eliminating the space for impulses before they arrive.”
Move all decisions to before market opens. During trading, you’re not deciding — you’re executing. Decisions happen before. Execution happens after.
The Three Enemies of Discipline
1. Boredom — Solution: set trading hours. Only check signals during specific windows. 2. FOMO — Solution: accept you’ll miss most opportunities. Missing doesn’t lose money; chasing wrong ones does. 3. Revenge — Solution: 24-hour cooldown after big losses. No exceptions.
The Ultimate Discipline Test
Can you do this one thing? Not trade today. Not because the market is bad — because you choose not to.
If you can’t, you’re addicted. Trading is not your money tool — it’s your dopamine source.
纪律的终极形态，不是”我想做但我忍住了”，是”我可以做但我选择不做”。 “The ultimate form of discipline is not ‘I wanted to but resisted’ — it’s ‘I could but I chose not to.’”
Texture Check:
- Last time you opened a position “on feeling” — what happened?
- Have you changed plans mid-trade? Were results better than the plan?
- Can you go an entire day without trading?
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