The necessary losses are actually not your fault

On the path of trading, what we may first need to reconcile with is not the market, but rather our own innate fear and resistance toward 'losses'.

Most traders spend their entire lives struggling not with unplanned mistakes, but precisely with losses that occur even when following the plan strictly.

When you enter the market based on system signals, at the retracement zone after a trend reversal has been confirmed, and the market then pulls back further than expected; or when you follow through immediately after a breakout, only for the price to reverse unexpectedly and push you out—this is not your error.

This is an inherent part of your strategy itself: it's the 'cost of trial and error' you must pay to test a particular market hypothesis.

Just as a farmer plants seeds, not every seed will sprout—empty holes are an inseparable part of the logic of harvest.

Therefore, a mature trader develops two clear ledgers in their mind.

One tracks individual gains and losses, filled with randomness and noise; the other evaluates the purity of behavior—did I take the correct action every time a signal appeared? If the answer is yes, then even if you face a string of stop-losses, you should not feel anxious. Short-term profits or losses, whether consecutive wins or losses, hold no decisive significance in the long run of probability.

The real challenge arises when, over time, your equity curve keeps eroding and fails to rise steadily.

At that point, the nature of the problem has changed—it rarely stems simply from 'a particular indicator failing' or 'this cycle not working.'

It points to a deeper 'complex system failure': perhaps your risk tolerance and capital management no longer align with the market's volatility structure, or execution has subtly distorted under prolonged pressure without your awareness, or the market logic underlying your strategy has quietly evolved. At this stage, what needs fixing is not just one component, but the entire ecosystem.

Thus, the highest level of trading wisdom lies in learning to make a clear distinction: calmly accept 'losses within the system' as necessary tolls on the path to truth; remain sharply alert to 'losses outside the system'—they are the bottomless abyss that can devour your journey.