How can retail investors finally beat institutional investors in trading? This question is worth breaking down.

Frankly, investing is like a game of strategy. To win, you need to know yourself and your opponent, using your strengths to attack their weaknesses. Institutional investors are our main opponents, so what are their trump cards?

Advantage One: Information. Institutions receive news quickly, there's no denying that. They may have access to some insider information, getting ahead of retail investors by a few steps. But this advantage has a natural limitation—it’s only effective in the short term. Market fluctuations over days or weeks favor them. What about us ordinary investors? Don’t compete with them for this advantage. Ignoring the news and avoiding short-term trades is a smart way to stay out of their crosshairs.

Advantage Two: Capital. Large funds entering the market move prices accordingly. Exiting also requires pushing prices down to get out fully. This seems to be their moat, but in reality, it also becomes their burden—the friction costs of trading are too high.

The key is that receiving information early doesn’t necessarily mean understanding it deeply. This is where retail investors have an opportunity. By deepening our expertise in our own areas, we can develop a better understanding than them in certain fields, compensating for the time lag.

So the strategy is clear: avoid the strengths of institutions (timeliness of information, capital size), and focus on areas where we excel (deep research, focused expertise, medium- to long-term perspective). In this way, retail investors may still have a chance to succeed.