One of the most famous quotes in financial markets comes from economist John Maynard Keynes "markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent".It captures one of the most important lessons in trading: being fundamentally correct does not necessarily mean making money.Traders often identify situations where asset prices appear disconnected from fundamentals. A stock may look overvalued or a currency may be excessively strong. However, recognising a mispricing and successfully trading it are two different things.Imagine a traders believes a stock is significantly overvalued and decides to short it at $100, expecting it to fall towards $80. Instead, the stock continues rising to $120 or even $140, despite no meaningful improvement in its fundamentals. The traders might eventually be proven right, but that doesn't mean he will survive long enough to benefit from the correction.This is especially dangerous when leverage is involved. Borrowed capital amplifies both gains and losses, meaning even relatively small adverse price movements can trigger margin calls or forced liquidations. Leverage effectively reduces the amount of time a traders has to be right.Markets are not driven exclusively by fundamentals. Expectations, positioning and momentum can overpower fundamentals, especially over shorter time horizons. An asset with weak fundamentals can continue rising if markets are heavily positioned for further gains. On the other hand, an overcrowded short position can trigger a sharp rally when a positive catalyst forces investors to cover their positions.This is why timing and catalysts matter. A traders might correctly identify an overvalued asset, but without something that changes market expectations, the mispricing can persist. A catalyst can force markets to reassess expectations and trigger trend reversals.Being right but being early is the same thing as being wrong. Mispricings and periods of irrationality can provide incredible mean-reversion opportunities. However, traders need to wait for the right catalysts and survive periods of drawdown to make money in the long-term. This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.