"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson.

This quote might be my favourite of all time, because it makes so much sense. We plan, we plan, and we plan, and then suddenly life throws a big haymaker, and our plans become seemingly worthless.

This principle is applicable to the current market. Some of the investors that recently bought in, were probably already planning their retirement and fantasising about how great it would be to tell their boss I quit! (that is a great thing to fantasise about, don’t get me wrong).

When the bull comes in looking for red, he will find it. Meaning, the bull market is inevitable. This often leads to total abandonment of initial strategies because the bull market was not considered when constructing the strategy (so it seems). Suddenly the plan looks dumb and people second guess their train of thought. Whilst in reality, the plan might not have been that dumb, it just did not consider all possible outcomes.

People frequently visiting this sub might think yeah yeah, we have read this before, but I love a good analogy and I really think analogies are valuable when it comes to awareness and understanding. Staying focussed and leaving emotions out of judgement, is not easy. In fact, it might just be one of the most difficult things in investing because we cannot control emotions when a lot is at stake. That is why a new angle might be an interesting way of looking at this.

Many great boxers stood in the ring with Mike Tyson and they sure had great plans. Unfortunately, most of them ended up in the hospital not remembering their name and eating out of a straw for a couple of weeks. That does not mean they were not great boxers. His opponents have nothing to be ashamed of when they lost to Mike. The same goes for losing against the bull. Don’t beat yourself up if a strategy did not work the way you hoped it would. There is still plenty of time. Learn from it, adjust, and move on. You can still become great.

Good luck out there.