These past few months after my portfolio got halved have made me completely realize one thing. The money I made in the past few years wasn’t entirely from 'cognitive monetization'—a lot of it came from the liquidity blessing. During those years, the Fed unleashed an epic flood of liquidity, global markets were overflowing, and the crypto space entered the altcoin season. As long as you had capital, dared to buy, and held on, many assets eventually made money. The real test comes after the liquidity tide recedes. When the market stops rising across the board, when valuations start to shrink, and when every trade needs to be backed by fundamentals and logic, that’s when you truly understand which profits were gifted by the times and which ones genuinely belong to you. This pullback isn’t a bad thing for me—it’s made me respect the market again. It’s also taught me that investing can’t rely on luck, and you can’t mistake a bull market for your own skill. In a bull market, you’re making liquidity-driven money. In a bear market, you’re making knowledge-driven money. Only by surviving through a full bull and bear cycle can the money you earn truly be yours.