Life Adrift in the Stock Market: A Retail Investor's Self-Cultivation

This book tells the story of an ordinary retail investor, Gao Siyuan, and his decade-long journey through the stock market, written with real money and countless sleepless nights. In the summer of 2015, as the Shanghai Composite Index climbed to a peak of 5,178 points, Gao Siyuan, then a graduate student, entered the market confident that "reason could overcome anything." But instead of an easy road to riches, he was disabused of his intellectual arrogance. From the early thrill of acting on tips and following influential online commentators to the crushing despair of watching his account lose half its value in the crash, he records in vivid detail the confusion and pain every retail investor has experienced. This book does not create a "stock-market genius"; it shows an ordinary person wrestling with greed and fear. He moves from blindly searching for a "Holy Grail" indicator to building an investment system grounded in "value as the anchor, trends as the sail, and position management as the lifeline." He goes from chasing rallies and selling in a panic, driven by emotion, to making peace with his inner fears. Alongside a review of the classic bull and bear cycles of the past decade, the book recounts the composure of his colleague Lao Chen, the guidance of his senior, Yu Zhanyuan, and the real moments spent alone at night facing the numbers on his loss statements. This is more than a book of investment methods; it is a personal account of "upgrading one's understanding." The author ultimately realizes that all external swings in wealth are simply financial records of one's inner level of understanding. May this book be a faint light for you, too, as you make your way through the stock market, helping you find your own composure and resolve amid its turbulent waves.