When the market is bad and you’re on the wrong side of a trade, never wait for “just a little profit before exiting.” Instead, always stick to one core principle—capital preservation comes first. If it’s becoming clear that the market might move in the opposite direction, why not protect your profits first? Why insist on taking a loss? Doesn’t that make sense?

Many people are always thinking about making a big profit in one go, but real trading isn’t about one single win or loss. It’s about gradually increasing profits through countless trades. Even if you only make a small 1% profit each day, over time this will still add up to a very considerable return.

So, if you’re a true trader, the first lesson is never “how to make money,” but “how not to lose money.” That’s why I always teach everyone to become proficient with tools like trailing stop-losses and scaling out of positions. First, make sure you don’t lose money. Once you’ve achieved a risk-free position, then it’s just a matter of how much you can make.

Even if you occasionally get stopped out at breakeven, it’s as if you never opened that trade at all—there’s no loss. But this kind of operational logic and mindset is something you can’t truly understand unless you’ve placed trades yourself and personally experienced the market’s ups and downs.

Remember: If you can protect your capital, you’ve already won half the battle.