Why Are You Still Losing Money While Everyone Around You Profits? Hexagram Cui (Gathering Together) Third Six (Six in the Third Place) Reveals: People Who Blindly Follow Crowds Never Make Big Money

Have you ever had this kind of experience?

A friend says they made money buying funds, so you rush to follow suit—only for the price to drop the second you buy in;

A coworker says their stock holdings doubled, so you hurry to jump in—only to get trapped the moment you enter;

A relative says a certain project is super profitable, so you pour all your savings into it—only to find they’ve already cashed out and left, leaving you holding the bag.

It’s always the same: you watch others make money, but the second you join in, you lose. You always think it’s just bad luck, a bad fate, or that you don’t have the wealth fortune.

Actually, it has little to do with luck. The problem is you always like following the crowd, piling in with everyone else, and assuming that wherever everyone goes must be the right call.

Places everyone flocks to are sometimes goldmines, but more often than not, they’re traps. By the time you hear the news and squeeze your way in, there’s not even a drop left for you—and you might even end up getting buried there yourself.

The ancients saw right through this long ago, and wrote about it in the Third Line (Six in the Third Place) of the Gathering Together Hexagram.

The Gathering Together Hexagram is 泽地萃 (Zedi Cui), which is about gathering. People gathering together can be a good thing—but when people gather recklessly, blindly, like headless flies, that’s when it turns bad.

The Line Text for Six in the Third Place of Gathering Together says: 「萃如嗟如，无攸利。往无咎，小吝。」 (Cui ru jie ru, wu you li. Wang wu jiu, xiao lin.)

Gathering together and sighing in despair brings no benefit. Moving forward carries no great blame, but comes with small humiliation and minor awkwardness.

Listen to that—“gathering together and sighing”: a group of people huddled together, staring at each other, moaning and groaning, no one able to make up their mind, no one knowing what to do. How could that possibly be good? You’d be crazy to think you’d make money that way.

Why do people who follow the crowd usually fail to make money? There are three reasons.

First, by the time you hear “everyone’s making money,” the good days are almost over.

Think about it: what kind of news actually reaches your ears?

It’s definitely not the earliest inside scoop. When people first start making money, they keep quiet and rake it in—who goes around bragging about it? By the time everyone knows about it, everyone’s talking about it, even the aunties dancing in the square downstairs are chatting about it—what does that mean? It means this wave of the market has already run its course.

The people who got in early have already made their fill, and are just waiting for latecomers to take over their positions. If you rush in right now, who else are you going to be the fall guy for?

It’s true for the stock market, the real estate market, entrepreneurship—every hot trend works this way. The first movers eat the meat, the followers sip the soup, and the last ones to show up pick up the bill.

You’re always the last one to hear the news, always waiting for everyone else to jump in before you follow—so who else is going to lose money if not you?

Second, the more people there are, the less brainpower you have.

People have this flaw: they’re pretty smart when they’re alone, but their IQ drops the second they’re in a crowd.

Why? Because in a group, people unconsciously give up independent thinking and just go with the flow. Everyone’s doing it, so it must be right, right? Everyone’s making money, so I’ll definitely make money too if I join in, right?

Have you ever stopped to think: why would that be the case?

Things everyone thinks are good aren’t necessarily actually good—maybe everyone’s just been fooled. The direction everyone’s rushing toward isn’t necessarily the right direction—maybe everyone’s just blindly following the trend.

“Gathering together and sighing”—a group of people huddled together, staring at each other, you asking me what to do and me asking you what to do, no one knowing the answer. Like a swarm of headless flies buzzing around, looking all lively and busy, but with no clue where they’re actually going.

What good outcome can you expect from piling in with people like that? It’s nothing more than: when others lose money, you lose money too; when others step into a pit, you step into it too. And you even take comfort in it—at least I’m not the only one losing money, everyone’s losing.

But losing money is losing money. It’s your own money you’re losing—what does it have to do with whether other people are losing too?

Third, you don’t even know why you’re making or losing money. Can relying purely on luck ever last?

Making money by following others is essentially relying on luck. This time you get lucky, follow the right person, and make a little; next time your luck runs out, you follow the wrong person, and lose it all back.

If you don’t understand it yourself, have no judgment, no system—you won’t know how you made the money when you win, and you won’t know how you lost it when you lose. Money made that way comes fast and goes fast too.

People who can make money long-term don’t rely on following trends—they rely on their own judgment. They know what they’re doing, know why they’re buying, know when to sell, and know where the risks lie.

They make money with full clarity, and lose money with full understanding. Only people like that can survive in the market long-term.

If you just rely on following the crowd, piling in, and listening to tips—even if you make money once in a while, you’ll end up losing it all back, and maybe even more.

So how should you actually deal with the situation where “everyone around me is making money”? Remember these three approaches.

First: other people making money is their business—don’t rush to jump in right away.

“Gathering together and sighing brings no benefit”—piling in for the mindless hype does you no good.

When you hear other people are making money, don’t get jealous, don’t panic, don’t let your head get hot and charge in. Calm down first, and ask yourself three questions.

One: are they really making money, or just bragging? A lot of people talk a big game when they’re winning, but stay dead silent when they’re losing. All you hear about are their wins—you have no idea when they’re losing money.

Two: what kind of money are they making? Is it earned through skill, or just luck? Is it long-term stable returns, or a one-time hot trend? They can make money—but can you?

Three: by the time you get in, is there even a spot left for you? How many people have already gotten in ahead of you? How much longer can this market wave last? Are you getting in to sip soup, or to hold the bag?

Think through these three questions clearly before you decide whether to join in. If you can’t figure them out, don’t go in. It’s better to miss out on a profit than to lose money recklessly.

There will always be opportunities to make money—but once your principal is gone, it’s gone for good.

Second: don’t look for opportunities where the crowds are—wait for opportunities where the people are few.

Places everyone is squeezing into most likely have no juice left. Real opportunities are usually in places no one is paying attention to, places everyone writes off, places that are quiet and deserted.

When everyone’s talking about stocks, don’t touch stocks; when everyone’s flipping real estate, don’t flip real estate; when everyone’s starting businesses, don’t jump into entrepreneurship blindly.

Conversely, when everyone’s bearish, everyone’s complaining, everyone’s running for the exits—you can take a look: is an opportunity coming?

Of course, that doesn’t mean places with fewer people definitely have opportunities, or that doing the opposite of everyone else will make you money. It means you have to have your own judgment, and don’t run around blindly following the crowd.

“Moving forward carries no great blame, but comes with small humiliation”—if you move forward on your own, make your own judgments, even if there are small setbacks and minor regrets, there’s no major harm. It’s way better than mindlessly cheering along with the crowd.

Independent thinking is the first step to making money. If you can’t even control your own mind, how do you expect to make money off other people?

Third: understand it first before you act—don’t pay tuition with your hard-earned money.

If you want to make money in a field, you have to understand that field first. Don’t rush in just because someone said a few things; don’t treat your money like a test subject.

How do you understand it? Three steps.

One: study. First get clear on the basic rules, basic logic, and basic concepts. Don’t go trading stocks if you don’t even know what a candlestick chart is; don’t start a business if you don’t even understand what a business model is. You can pay tuition, but don’t pay it for no reason.

Two: test the waters small. Start with a small amount of money to dip your toes in and practice. See if you actually have a knack for it, see if your judgments are accurate, see if you’re suited for this. If you lose, it won’t hurt; if you win, just treat it as practice.

Three: build your own system. When to buy, when to sell, how much profit to take before exiting, how much loss to take before cutting bait, what situations call for decisive stop-losses—you have to have your own rules for all of these. You can’t go by feeling, and you can’t go by tips.

Once your system is built, you’ll have peace of mind. When prices go up, you won’t get cocky; when they go down, you won’t panic. Follow the rules, take the wins and losses as they come, and over the long run, you’ll definitely come out ahead.

At that point, when you look at all those people piling into the crowd, you’ll think—they’re not investing, they’re gambling.

The Third Line (Six in the Third Place) of the Gathering Together Hexagram is all about the pit of “chaotic gathering”: people huddling together for mindless hype, looking like they’ve got it all together, but in reality, it’s completely useless.

Remember: when it comes to making money, it’s always the少数人 who make money off the majority.

If you stand with the majority, then you’re the one whose money is being made.

Don’t crowd together, don’t follow the trend, don’t rush to jump in. Understand it first, test it small, then set your rules.

Money is made by insiders, not by people just there for the hype.