A-share professional gamblers returning home for the New Year, how should they face their relatives?
When a professional gambler who trades stocks for a living goes back to their hometown during the Spring Festival, they often face awkward questions from family and friends about their career and financial situation. How should they handle these conversations to maintain dignity and avoid unnecessary conflicts?
**Tips include:**
- Preparing honest but tactful responses
- Avoiding bragging or revealing too much about their trading strategies
- Focusing on family and personal matters instead of work
- Managing expectations and explaining the risks involved in stock trading
By doing so, they can enjoy the holiday season peacefully and preserve family harmony despite their high-stakes profession.

I have to go back to my hometown for a few days during the New Year, and I can’t avoid seeing many relatives. Being asked about my job is a routine question, but as a professional “leek” in the A-share market, I don’t know how to answer.

As a poor kid who came from a remote countryside to a first-tier city through the college entrance exam, I used to be a role model in the eyes of relatives. When I returned to my hometown before, relatives often told their children in front of me: “You should learn from your XX brother (or XX uncle), study hard, and make big money in the big city someday.”

Relatives in my hometown think that as long as you get into university and come to a big city, you can naturally make a lot of money. In fact, after I graduated, I worked part-time and started a business, facing many setbacks along the way. I suffered ten times more hardship than I did in the countryside, and I didn’t earn much money. My wife and I lived frugally, and with good luck, we barely managed to buy a house and a car. In recent years, with the difficulty of doing physical businesses, I closed my company, and it’s even less likely for middle-aged people to re-enter the workforce. So I simply became a professional gambler in the A-share market.

Honestly, over the past few years as a professional gambler, making money has been much easier than working part-time or running a business before. I’ve had positive returns every year. But I know in my heart that this is mainly due to good luck. The path of investment amplifies human weaknesses many times over. Not everyone can walk this path, and it’s certainly not the route that children of rural and small-town relatives should prioritize. The right path for them is still to study hard and change their destiny through knowledge, even in today’s environment where degrees are increasingly devalued.

In my relatives’ understanding, investment—roughly speaking—is just stock trading, which is gambling, a way of wasting time, and unproductive. If I told them I was a stock trader, they would definitely be disappointed and it would ruin the inspiring image they have of me. The longer I live, the more I see things clearly. I no longer care about my image now, but I think they still need a positive role model to motivate their children. Maybe I was that role model in the past, and I don’t want their faith to collapse.

Sigh, when relatives ask me what I’m doing now, how should I answer? It’s really too difficult!