I recently came across a real-life video of Jia Ling online and felt that her weight loss has transformed her into a completely different person. Not only has her physique changed, but even her voice and temperament have been altered. I think this weight loss is very likely to change the trajectory of Jia Ling's life. The Jia Ling we once knew may never come back.

I have also been losing weight recently and have now gone from 180 pounds to 147 pounds. I deeply understand the difficulty of losing weight. The challenge lies in the long-term struggle against one's own nature. It's not just a few months or years of being against human nature, but a lifelong struggle. To maintain a good figure, one must control their diet and maintain counter-intuitive lifestyle habits for life. This is very similar to our investment in stocks and funds!

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Yesterday afternoon, while taking a walk, I saw a road sign that read, "Speeding brings temporary joy, but accidents can ruin a life." I think this road sign is very meaningful for guiding our investment, so I took a picture of it. The sentence on the road sign can be changed to "Margin trading brings temporary joy, but a margin call can ruin a life."

Or it could be changed to "Short-term trading brings temporary joy, but consecutive limit-downs can ruin a life." This means that consecutive limit-downs make it impossible for short-term traders to stop losses in time. Just one encounter is enough to cause a devastating blow. Although there are no limit-downs in other countries' markets, they may fall by more than 40% at the opening, and there is no opportunity to stop losses in such markets.

This road sign can remind us investors not to pursue excessive speed in investment, nor to pursue overnight wealth. Investment is like driving, and safety comes first. Methods such as margin trading, short selling, short-term trading, options, and others that claim to make people money quickly are extremely dangerous temptations. Every rational person should stay away from them, or at least strictly control the proportion of their investments.

Recently, the A-share market, like in 2015, has once again caused many people who pursue quick money to suffer heavy losses. Many people who have used leverage have recently been wiped out, and many short-term and swing traders who pursue the lowest prices have cut their losses on the floor before the market surges. Only those of us who are willing to become rich slowly, give up speculative ideas, not use leverage, not arbitrage, not swing trade, not pursue the lowest price, and are willing to be shareholders of excellent companies will go far and steady. In the final analysis, it is not the market conditions that cause us losses, but our speculative and opportunistic mindset.

The biggest life insight and gain in my first half of life is understanding that "speculation and opportunism" are poison, and that being honest and doing things the right way is the foundation and the great way. For example, some people work exceptionally well when their leaders are present, but slack off and cheat when their leaders are not around. Isn't this similar to people going all-in when the bull market comes and staying out of the market when the bear market comes?

I work seriously and according to procedures, whether my leaders are present or not. Isn't this similar to firmly holding blue-chip stocks regardless of whether the market is bullish or bearish? In life and investment, those who speculate and take shortcuts may temporarily take the lead, but in the long run, they are destined to have no good results. This is because life and investment ultimately compete for things that can be sustained for a long time.

Speculation is unsustainable, and investment is eternal. Trading concepts, arbitraging, and swing trading cannot be sustained and profitable in the long run. Investing in a basket of excellent companies' stocks and being their long-term shareholders may bring us lifelong wealth and happiness.Just now, I came across an article on how to gradually become wealthy. Unfortunately, the article, which extensively discussed the "great significance of gradually becoming wealthy and how to achieve it," shifted its focus in the latter half to "how to determine how many chips the main force has." It is quite evident that this is a hastily compiled and plagiarized article created to quickly attract traffic. The author, who advocates for "gradually becoming wealthy," has resorted to unethical practices such as plagiarizing others' work in order to make money quickly.

There are too many temptations in the outside world, such as the lure of quick money, delicious food, luxury cars, and mansions. The immediate gains and losses make it difficult for people to calm down and truly engage in long-term and stable endeavors.