You don’t need to time the bottom. You need to know when to take profit.
Rotate early. Don’t marry your bags. They won’t love you back.
Profit isn’t made when you enter. It’s realized when you exit. So stop fantasizing about catching the next 100x from the ground floor.
Start planning how you’ll walk away with your pockets full, not just your hopes high.
That’s the real alpha.
I have a bad experience on this one, and I guess I've said it multiple times here already, but I'll say it again.
Way back in 2021, I had an opportunity to sell all of my assets at a huge profit (I think around x2 or x3), but I said to myself that I will hold it even longer until the market went down, and down, and down and it went into a bear market, and as for me? I haven't sold all of my assets, and I'm still holding it until now (Bitcoin).
That's why this bull run, I will sell most if not all of my assets because like what you said, the real profit lies when you've already sold those assets. Ever since I heard the saying "Don't fall in love in your assets.", I already said to myself that I will buy and sell assets as long as I make money from it. That's why I look at those investors that will not sell their Bitcoins and will hold them forever as stupid. I mean I don't even know the reason why they're holding it for life. We are investing to make profit, and not to hold some digital asset that could change our lives.
As for the market, learning how it moves can help you in determining when to buy, and when to sell. As the OP said, don't fall in love with your assets, and sell it if needed.