The biggest pain of Futures Trading is not being wrong about the direction, but clearly being right yet unable to hold on.

A friend who has been doing Futures Trading for two years complained to me last week: "It's not that I can't make money, but whenever there's volatility, I just can't hold on. How can I fix this problem?"

This sounds very familiar. Thinking back to the first few years when I entered the industry, I was just like this — wanting to take profits after a rise of three to five points, fearing a pullback; immediately cutting losses and exiting after a drop of seven to eight points, fearing a liquidation. Holding onto the position makes me anxious, and when I close it, I watch it soar.

Later I realized that the problem was not at all with the technical indicators or the market conditions.

The real crux is: you haven't figured out how to play this game at all.

The turning point happened a few years ago. An old hand who had been in the circle for over ten years chatted with me and said something that woke me up directly: "Do you think the main players are targeting you personally? Wrong. What they fear the most is that retail investors get off the bus early."

At that moment, I finally understood - it wasn't the market that was deliberately going against me, it was the position I was in that was wrong.

When I started trying to look at the market from the perspective of the "controlling party", many things suddenly made sense:

Violent wash trading is actually about clearing out those weak hands with uncertain convictions. Sideways consolidation is essentially about secretly accumulating positions. And the act of price increase always happens at the moment when you are most hesitant and least willing to enter the market.

To put it simply, it's not that you can't hold a position; it's that you don't understand what the opposing side wants you to do. It's not that the market is difficult to navigate; it's that your level of awareness hasn't upgraded yet.

Once the rhythm is in sync, the entire trading state changes: when others are panic selling, you can hold steady with your chips; when others are hesitating at critical points, you have already laid out your plan in advance; by the time everyone is chasing high prices and scrambling for shares, you are already sitting in the car counting your money.

This set of things is not about being exceptionally gifted, but rather the difference in methodology.

What is more interesting is that I have observed some friends around me who have turned from losses to gains, and their transformation follows the same logic - they didn't suddenly become smarter, but finally understood the signals conveyed by the market: fluctuations are a filtering mechanism, sideways movement tests patience, and upward movements are rewards for those who understand the rules.

To put it bluntly: those who only chase uptrends and sell on downtrends will only ever make a small profit. Only those who truly understand the intentions of the main players are qualified to benefit from complete trend movements.

If you often encounter these situations: panicking when you shouldn't leave the market, cutting losses when you shouldn't be afraid, missing opportunities when you shouldn't hesitate, and being right about the direction but not making any money—then what you lack is not luck, nor is it some advanced technical indicators.

What you lack is a cognitive framework that allows you to think from the perspective of the main players.