Many people treat "buy more as it drops" as the ironclad rule of value investing, but in fact, it's a big trap.

Buying more as it drops ultimately just means holding through the decline, just with a more respectable name. Price is what you pay, value is what you truly get— but there's a prerequisite: you must buy when the price is already close to the value, not when it's still in free fall.

Experienced investors do this:

First, respect the market trend itself. Look at whether the candlestick chart shows signs of stabilization, whether selling pressure has been digested, and whether market sentiment has truly been released. When the price repeatedly tests lows but can't go lower, the market is telling you that most of the risk has already been priced in. Buying at the "stabilized" level is different from buying while it's still "falling."

Second, selling is just as important as buying. Fisher once said something very insightful: "The true enemy of investors is the obsession with not wanting to sell." Only buying and never selling results in long-term lock-in; taking profits at high points is necessary, or else the paper value will always be just a numbers game.

The complete value investment cycle looks like this: buy in low-risk zones, sell in high-emotion zones. Those who only add positions on dips but never exit at high points are actually just disguised leeks, only labeling themselves as "value investors."

True value investors understand both value and price; they have patience to wait until it stops falling, and are willing to fully exit at high points. This is not a matter of faith; it's discipline.