Watching the prices in the account fluctuate up and down, I increasingly understand a truth: the real difference between retail investors and mature investors is never technical skill, but the patience to endure cycles.

What’s most exhausting in the market isn’t actually the crash—crashes can even prompt decision-making. The real hardship is sideways movement. A coin that clearly has the potential to multiply tenfold, but remains stagnant for three days, causes everyone’s expectations to drop from 10x to 2x. No bad news, no negative signals, just two words—"no rise"—and it can wear down people’s confidence.

That’s why the true test is never whether you dare to buy, but whether you dare to hold. When a coin worth 100U drops to 1U and you hesitate to buy, then falls further to 0.6U and you still think it’s hopeless—on the surface, it’s fear of losing money, but in reality, it’s fear of not being able to hold onto gains. Enduring the decline without selling, not because of diamond hands, but because you simply didn’t have time to escape—this is not strength, it’s reaction. True resilience is remaining steady after the price surges. How many people start to panic and want to sell after tripling their holdings?

Ultimately, most retail investors aren’t afraid of losing money; they’re afraid of making money. The main players understand the psychological game best: slowly eroding your confidence over years, turning your hundredfold expectation into a gradual "as long as I break even, it’s fine." When everyone is disillusioned and lying flat, that’s when the market manipulation truly begins.

A bull market isn’t created by a direct rise; it’s forged through dips, sideways movements, and long-term endurance. Those who live to witness the bull market are never the ones best at guessing the top or bottom, but those who understand the cycle’s rhythm and can withstand market torment. The market’s harshest blow isn’t when prices fall to levels no one dares to buy, but when they rise so high that no one dares to hold. The trend will always come, but opportunities never wait.