Recently, some friends around me have lost everything and left the scene. On X, I’ve also seen quite a few A8 and A9 traders suffer massive losses in this market cycle, which has made me start to reassess and reflect on my own trading. There’s an interesting phenomenon in the capital markets: Warren Buffett is still active on the frontlines of investing at 95, Charlie Munger lived to 99, Philip Fisher to 96, and Walter Schloss to 95. These value investors mostly engage in low-frequency trading, holding great companies for the long term, waiting decades for businesses to grow and compound returns. On the other hand, the "King of Speculation," Jesse Livermore, became rich four times and went bankrupt four times, ultimately ending his life at 63. There are similar cases in China. Fu Xiaojun turned 50,000 yuan into a fortune worth hundreds of millions, but he blew up his account in one heavily leveraged trade. "Xiaoyao Liu Qiang" once achieved a 20x return in a single year, but he lost everything in the extreme market conditions of 2015. Of course, this doesn’t mean value investing guarantees longevity—there’s definitely some survivorship bias at play. But the vastly different outcomes of these people at least point to one thing: Your trading style will eventually become your way of life. Value investors earn money from business growth and the compounding effect of time. They don’t need to predict daily market movements or be right every single time. Even if they pick the wrong company, they usually have time to correct it. Speculators, on the other hand, make money from volatility and the mistakes of others. They trade frequently, use high leverage, and are constantly glued to the screen, living in a state of perpetual tension. What’s even harsher is that speculation has almost zero margin for error. You could be right 100 times in a row, but one wrong heavily leveraged trade during an extreme market event could wipe out all your previous gains. That’s why I’m increasingly convinced that the best path for ordinary people is still investing. You can allocate a small amount of money for speculation to satisfy your curiosity about the market and trading. But when it comes to the core assets that determine your life, it’s better to entrust them to great companies and time. In the end, the market isn’t about who doubles their money the fastest in the short term—it’s about who moves more steadily and lives longer.