Accepting a weak position — choosing to swim with it instead of fighting it

Core idea

Financial markets are not a level playing field among small investors — they are controlled and moved by a small but highly influential group of market makers. Stepping in without acknowledging that fact means every time you get thrown around, it breeds a psychological conflict with no way out. The first thing to do isn't learning analysis, but putting the word "acceptance" first, then choosing a position: fight it, or swim with the big money to take your own cut.

Details

The illusion you must drop first

Beginners default to assuming they're stepping into a place made up of investors who are equal in position, in profit potential, and in risk. Not so. This is a game created by one person or a group of people for others to take part in — so from the very moment you step in, you are already the weaker party.

The evidence the teacher uses is something topical at the time of teaching: just two individuals in conflict with each other and the entire market got thrown around — dropping deep then snapping back, dragging millions of accounts along with it. The retail crowd, however large, is not the side that decides the price path.

This is not a crypto-only phenomenon

The same structure repeats across every asset market — only the size of the biggest fish differs:

What this table means: there is nowhere to run to for something "fairer." Switching markets doesn't change your position; it only changes your mindset.

Two positions to choose from — differing only at the first step

Position 1 — the "ideologue" (fighting it). You enter the market carrying a big belief: Bitcoin will eventually change the global financial system, blockchain will eventually improve everything. Because of that belief you hold through every downswing, expecting the market to turn out rosy. Outcome: if you win, you win very big — but the real question is whether you can survive until then. The teacher says it bluntly: choose the ideologue's position instead of the financial investor's position and "you're dead on the spot."

Position 2 — swimming with the flow (going with it). Acknowledge that you're the weaker party, then shift the entire question to: what does the market-maker group want at this stage, and what will they do to get it? Once you understand their goal, move in the same direction and take your own share of the profit.

The point to remember: these two positions differ only in the first piece of mindset, before knowledge or analytical ability even come into it — yet the results down the line are completely different. Choose the wrong position and no matter how good your analysis is, you're swimming against the current.

The question that replaces the forecasting question

Once you're in the swim-with-it position, the daily question is no longer "will the price go up or down?" but "what do they need at this stage?". The teacher points out two typical goals and the corresponding actions:

• Goal: fast, strong profit → push the price up, pump supply. You have grounds to expect it to follow through. When the money flow runs dry, the market no longer has force to go up → that's the time to exit.
• Goal: accumulate supply for a new season → needs small investors to get discouraged and let go of their holdings. The method is to let the market drift, letting it grind and wear people down; the recovery swings that "look just pretty enough" are actually there to continue the decline.

Only by recognizing which stage you're in can you combine technical analysis with the money-flow context, instead of reading the chart in a vacuum.

Putting it into practice

1. Before discussing tactics, answer one question with pen and paper: am I in the fighting position or the swim-with-it position? If you still have the thought "this price makes no sense, the market has to turn back," you're in the fighting position.
2. At the start of each market phase, write one hypothesis line: "This phase, big money seems to be [pushing the price / accumulating supply / letting it drift], because [sign]." Then trade in line with that hypothesis until the signal changes.
3. Use the word "acceptance" as a psychological pressure valve: when the market gets yanked hard by an event, the right reaction is "that's exactly how the game works," not "how can this be?" Psychological conflict only arises in someone who hasn't yet accepted the rules of the game.
4. Don't place big expectations on an asset's potential when your position is that of a follower. Expecting potential is a tool for someone who can wait for years and won't get liquidated.

What the teacher stresses / common traps

• "Don't be naive" — the teacher repeats this even knowing the whole class has heard it before. The naivety here isn't a lack of knowledge, but assuming the playing field is fair.
• Failing to accept this fact doesn't immediately cause a loss; the consequence is a big psychological and emotional conflict — and that conflict is exactly what spawns the chain of wrong decisions (Psychological developments on the chart — why you still make mistakes even with the knowledge).
• Careful: Swimming with it ≠ guessing the sharks' intent swing by swing. This is a context layer, not an entry signal. Your entry point must still come from the pattern on the timeframe you're trading (Risk wave vs profit wave (the 80/20 rule), High-probability patterns). Anyone who uses "the sharks are accumulating" as a reason to enter a trade has turned a mindset framework into an excuse.
• Careful: The table of market-maker tiers above is a descriptive model, not a specific accusation against anyone. When you use it publicly, phrase it at the level of market structure, without naming names.

Related lessons

• News & the market (narrative, good/bad news, capital flow) — news is a tool of the market-maker tier, not the cause of the price path
• Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty — the second layer of "acceptance": accepting you'll never be 100% certain
• Don't predict the market — "to make money, you don't need to know what happens next" — a direct consequence: turning the forecasting question into a context question
• Volume & the DXY index — the traces big money leaves behind on the chart