The Chan Theory Heir: Lin Shen's Story

He once thought Chan theory was a way to get him through a crisis. His mother's surgery costs loomed over him like a mountain, and his fingers trembled as he clutched that yellowed notebook. The phantom on the other side of the screen was always drawing circles on the candlestick chart. “This fractal is a hook. If it catches your greed, you'll take a fall. That consolidation is a cradle. Keep your mind steady, and you'll be able to rest.”

He went from being unable to tell bullish candles from bearish ones to catching swings in a choppy market. He traded his wrench for a keyboard, and when his oil-stained fingernails tapped out his first profit, his mother's heart monitor settled into a steady line. But when his account balance was finally enough to cover all her medical bills, the phantom stopped in front of the screen and wouldn't leave. “Technique is the key that unlocks the door. Method is the oil that keeps the key from rusting. But the Way... Look at all those red and green lights. Don't they look like countless eyes hoping to make money?”

He suddenly understood. Those retail investors ruined by greed, those beginners who panic-sold at a loss, had all once clung to “technical analysis” as a lifeline, just like he had. So he turned the zigzagging lines in his notebook into comics, and explained the obscure concept of “consolidation” as a stall in a farmers' market: “After prices rise too much, they need a rest, just like a stallholder has to mark things down to clear their goods before packing up.” He compared “divergence” to “a traveler bent over, gasping for breath. If they run any farther, they'll fall.”

Some people laughed at him for turning the true teachings into plain language, but he looked at the thanks constantly popping up on his screen: “Following your method, I've saved enough for my child's tuition.” “At last, I don't have to borrow money for my spouse's medicine.” The phantom laughed from within the screen. “You see? Technique can earn money to save lives, method can help you hold on to what you've earned, and the Way... is letting that light reach a few more people.”