As promised, some personal lessons heading into 2026. Keeping it brief and skipping what’s already been said. 1) You can often front-run a trade by better estimating incentives. Price moves when certain players are forced to act. The edge is knowing who they are and why. 2) Narratives don’t matter without a marginal buyer. If you can’t identify who buys next, you’re probably already late. 3) Chop is a tax on impatience. In flat conditions, activity is the enemy. Doing nothing is often the right choice. 4) The need to explain a position is usually the first warning. Trades that work don’t require constant narration. 5) Capital stuck in dead ideas is invisible risk. Letting go isn’t pessimism, it’s freeing optionality. 6) Most losses are structural, not intellectual. Wrong size or timeframe turns correct analysis into a losing trade. 7) Being early only works if you can afford to be. If survival requires averaging or stress, the position was mis-sized. 8) We under-appreciate good conditions and end up fighting over scraps in bad ones. We tend to take good conditions for granted, then over-trade and fight for small edges when conditions turn bad.