The Unified Logic of Trading and Investing: Be Friends with Time, Filter Noise with Distance I have some more thoughts. I increasingly feel that trading and investing are part of the same logic. This topic is inspired by a theory: distance creates beauty: 1⃣ Maintaining an appropriate time, space, and psychological distance during the aesthetic process allows for a better appreciation of beauty. 2⃣ Being too close or having too long a time, space, and psychological distance can weaken the aesthetic effect. In investing, this means that if you are optimistic about a project, after thorough research and confirming your decision, you shouldn't keep excessive tracking. Otherwise, you may find that your Bullish perception of the project can easily be shattered by some details, and you might even turn Bearish, leading you to actively Fud the project, which is what they mean by turning from a fan to a critic. Considering that most of my followers are seasoned Backpack users, let’s use Backpack as an example. The initial process of everyone getting to know Backpack and gradually becoming bullish is quite similar: 1⃣ A brand new CEX, a simple interface, an efficient unified account model, automatic lending, and convenient lending pools... 2⃣ Further research reveals that this CEX has a decentralized underlying architecture and has chosen a verifiable compliance route, aiming to knock on the door of TradFi... From the product to the vision, it seems there are vast stories to tell, so everyone decides to make a big push during the points season. However, rushing into the abyss of cognition, the filters shatter in endless comparisons, especially in the fast-paced Crypto world, where Bearish sentiments come quickly: 1⃣ Fatigue stems from what seems like an endless season. After all, the human brain prefers certainty; people favor projects that yield immediate results, ideally with instant returns on current investments. However, Backpack's points season has always been unclear, and the TGE timing has never been mentioned, which is the first bucket of cold water extinguishing the enthusiasm. 2⃣ The second bucket of cold water comes from direct comparisons with other un-TGE PerpDex. Although upon closer inspection they are not in the same lane, the funds available for point accumulation are limited. Worse still, the attention span during the same period is also limited. Competitors continuously optimize and quickly roll out new features, while we can only see Armani repeatedly shouting "Brick by Brick" in the community, but the K-line on Backpack's mobile app still shows no open positions or cost lines for pending orders (here's a shoutout to @邻山🤣).... The subtle differences are the most disheartening, as this is still a service-oriented industry, and many people's expectation management starts to collapse at this point. 3⃣ The final bucket of cold water is the uncertainty of compliance. At least S2 has given Backpack a ".eu" domain, but the mountains of the US and Japan are much harder to cross. It could be a difference in information between users and the project team, or perhaps a worse situation: the project team is also uncertain, making it inevitable to turn Bearish at this stage. "Is Backpack playing a strong hand slowly, pretending to be sophisticated? Or is it out of cards, with exhausted power?" This question hangs over all Bullish sentiments like the sword of Damocles. Okay, using Backpack as an example, I briefly reviewed this classic process of turning from a fan to a critic. Now, let's get to the main topic: what does it mean that distance creates beauty in investing? It’s more intuitive to explain it through trading: "If you choose a 4h trading level, then don’t pay attention to the fluctuations at the 15min level, and certainly don’t focus on the noise at the 1min level." Of course, in practice, it’s not that dogmatic. People might argue that the best entry and exit points for a trade might require attention to lower time frames, or that lower-level fluctuations can be leading indicators of trend changes in the current time frame.... But the overall principle is that focusing on lower-level fluctuations can affect your holding mentality to some extent, leading to frequent switches between bullish and bearish. For a defined trading model, K-lines can still be quantified into useful signals and useless noise, but those "lower-level fluctuations" in investing are hard to quantify. Signals and noise directly depend on your perspective. Since there is no definitive "investment model" to help you distinguish lower-dimensional signals from noise, if you want to hold your chips long enough, you only need to focus on the core variables that inform your long-term investment decision and maintain a certain distance from the team. Taking Backpack again: 1⃣ This 4h level trade is equivalent to an investment measured in quarters or even years. 2⃣ The 15min level fluctuations are the new features released in the past two weeks, or the daily trading volume, OI, and other statistics on Backpack Stats (thanks to Backpack! They provide such transparent data, with daily content available for fud!). 3⃣ The 1min noise is you directly moving to Backpack's Tokyo office, eagerly tracking Armani's working hours... Considering this situation: 1⃣ From a 1min perspective, you might conclude that if Armani worked one hour less today, Backpack is doomed. 2⃣ From a 15min perspective, after the big liquidation on October 11, Backpack's lending volume has yet to recover, so Backpack is still doomed; 3⃣ If you look a bit further, making a 4h level investment, the situation doesn’t seem so bad. At least EU compliance has been secured; perhaps the narratives around JP and US compliance can materialize in the coming months? This could brew a super bullish 4h candle for Backpack. 4⃣ If you take a long-term view and stick to a 1-day decision, you might find that the player composition in the Crypto market could change dramatically in the coming years, carefully selecting the most likely development paths, and then just placing your bets. So, distance creates beauty. Choose the right time frame, focus only on the core factors that matter for decision-making, and don’t easily stick your head out to receive market noise (of course, if you are confident in your ability to discern signals, this is also a viable approach). This helps extend the holding time of your Backpack positions, allowing you to enjoy the feeling of valuation surging. I have seen too many examples of startup team members selling their shares early, and VCs dumping their low-priced shares obtained in Series A after the IPO. Perhaps they have reasons to exit, after all, a successful exit strategy is a balance between long-termism and risk management. However, if your financial pressure is low and your chips are cheap enough, holding on a bit longer and being friends with time might lead to a very different situation. In conclusion, I actually prefer investing over trading. After all, I am somewhat lazy and dull. You just need to find an energetic and responsible entrepreneur like Armani in a rapidly growing market, let the team handle the market noise, and then you will find: "Brick by Brick" is what the project team hears, while my investment philosophy is "Time by Time."