u/KONGBB

Over these past few years with TQQQ, I’ve gone through it many times. I built my position in October 2021, right around the high levels, then the Russia‑Ukraine war hit the following year, and by 2023 inflation and rate hikes came in.

In 2023, every time CPI hit a new high, the Fed raised rates. That was when many people let the news sway them , selling their stocks, buying long bonds, and some even went into TMF ETF The outcome was brutal.

In 2023, staying patient and holding on proved to be the better choice. Even when the market dipped after CPI releases, it soon recovered.

Do you remember? Then in 2024 came the yen unwind, Trump being shot during the election, in 2025 China’s DEEPSEEK AI appeared along with tariff disputes and America’s first bunker‑buster strike on Iran, and by 2026 the U.S.–Iran war…

Over these four years, the chart may have gone up, but the days were anything but calm. Don’t let today’s high market levels make you overly sensitive to headlines. This strike in Korea may not be as serious as the media makes it sound. They just want attention.

In last week’s article, the Buy & Hold strategy suddenly gained several hundred thousand dollars. During a market breakout, Buy & Hold is truly unstoppable. I usually run my signal strategy alongside it for comparison, and now Buy & Hold is catching up fast , the gap between us is narrowing, and it might soon overtake my strategy. Honestly, if it weren’t for the devastating MDD that Buy & Hold suffers during crashes, going all‑in on TQQQ would almost be the strongest strategy

Chart 1.) Buy & Hold

Chart 2.) Signal Strategy

Chart 3.) 9SIG

Chart 4.) 200‑SMA Strategy (using QQQ 200‑SMA)

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ps . The accuracy of Chart 4 is questionable. It feels like the numbers are too low, and I’m not sure how reliable the Python code generated by Google’s AI actually is

1.) When price falls below the 200‑SMA and you exit, the cash position earns 0%.

2.) If QQQ closes above the 200‑SMA today, you only buy TQQQ tomorrow.

Still, B&H comes with the most pressure. The fear of losing hits harder than with the other three strategies, and with loss‑aversion in play, it’s tough to stay calm. In the end, B&H is actually the hardest strategy to stick to

The market rewards discipline and buries greed. Opportunities are never scarce , what’s scarce is the patience to wait for them. True winners aren’t the ones trading nonstop, but those who lie in wait like a cheetah, striking only when the odds are clear. Sadly, most traders let itchy hands take over, convincing themselves a small gain is harmless. What they don’t realize is that the market’s deadliest traps are baited with those tiny, tempting profits.

You think it’s easy money, but really you’re tearing down your own defenses. Sitting on cash feels painful only because you haven’t yet been burned by reckless trades. One lucky scalp might look like a win, but it cracks the wall of discipline.

Then comes the slide , you start testing patterns, telling yourself short trades worked before, so why not again? Until one impulsive move wipes out months of gains and you finally realize the key to Pandora’s box was handed over by you. Are you here to make money, or just to feed the brokers with fees?

The market humbles anyone who refuses to listen. It trains retail traders with random rewards, making them believe they can beat the rules. But statistics don’t lie: most losses come from impatience, from staring at prices with itchy fingers, chasing tiny profits when there’s no signal at all.

This isn’t trading, it’s gambling. Why do we always lose to itchy hands? Because human nature craves speed.

When you’re flat, the brain magnifies the fear of missing out ,what if it goes up? Better do something than nothing. But have you ever done the math? Ten random trades, nine small wins, one big loss, and you’re back to square one overnight. Worse, once you taste that quick win, discipline collapses like dominoes.

Today it’s a small scalp, tomorrow you jump in early, the next day you go all‑in on a hunch. Before long, your system is just scrap paper.

I once saw a short‑term trader in another forum who multiplied his account several times in three years. Then one day, out of boredom, he took a counter‑trend position. Seven straight losses later, his mindset broke. He admitted it wasn’t about skill ,the moment he broke discipline, he couldn’t stop. It’s like sneaking that first bite of cake on a diet: once the gate of desire opens, the flood is unstoppable.

Remember this: the market’s harshest punishment isn’t losing money, it’s making money the wrong way. Once you start leaning on luck, your strategy becomes decoration. The real pros would rather miss ten trades than take one bad one. And in this TQQQ community, I see most traders holding firm to discipline, sticking to their systems.

We’ve lived through COVID‑19, the Russia‑Ukraine war, inflation shocks, tariff battles, Middle East conflicts, the AI revolution , and still stayed the course. That alone is no small feat. Whatever strategy you use, staying true to your core principles is something to be proud of.

So shut off those tempting price charts, delete the random watchlist tickers. Our blades should only leave the sheath at the best moment , not to swing wildly, but to strike with certainty. Don’t let small gains stain your edge, and don’t let them ruin your craft. In trading, choose one path… and guard it with discipline.

The market keeps pushing higher, and a short‑term pullback is as normal as breathing. Still, it makes your scalp tingle how deep will it go this time? Is it just a correction, or the bubble bursting? Your strategy hasn’t given a signal yet, so what if the drop comes suddenly?

That’s human nature: the worry when facing uncertainty. The only way to fight it is through the faith you have in your system. And that faith grows by constant refinement , backtesting across different periods, proving to yourself again and again that the rules hold. Only then can you trust the plan when the market tests your nerves.

In the past few years , my strategy has already doubled my account. A few years ago I was just a broke kid, but through research I started to change my fate. I went from being an ordinary retail trader chasing short‑term buy‑low sell‑high moves, to becoming someone who sticks to a trading strategy with discipline. These years of mindset change have taken me from restless and anxious to calm and steady

The first chart shows when I sold during the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war, after TQQQ dropped 37%. Fear drove that decision, since I didn’t yet have today’s strategy. But that panic sell turned out to be the starting point of my current approach—because it luckily avoided the following ‑40% drawdown. That’s when I realized TQQQ must avoid those long, grinding downtrends that cause decay.

So I went back to study my 9‑SIG strategy. Basically, if you had a million dollars, by the 2022 bottom you’d be left with barely over a hundred thousand. And without a crystal ball, the fear of the future still puts enormous pressure on you.

May 2022 was the turning point in my life.

My experience in the U.S. stock market

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I’m sure the U.S. market will eventually pull back, but I remind myself that all my personal thoughts are wrong—the system is pure math, without emotion. Many times I’ve felt fear and greed, but the system’s signals kept my hands tied. Maybe that’s the self‑discipline I’ve built over these years, and slowly it paid off. Still, the excitement of the market isn’t as strong as it used to be