It is touted as the 'shortcut to overnight wealth', yet it is also the execution ground for big players to go bankrupt within three days; it is Wall Street's 'financial nuclear bomb', and a blatant 'retail harvesting machine' in the crypto circle. Cold data shows: 83% of global lightning wealth myths are related to contracts, but 98% of retail investors ultimately become cannon fodder for this feast.
Origin: A lifesaver for farmers, now a nightmare for miners
In 1848, Chicago, USA. Vegetable prices fluctuated wildly like a roller coaster, leaving desperate farmers with white hair overnight. To combat this unpredictable risk, the 'agricultural contract' was born to lock in price fluctuations—initially a magic tool for stabilizing the market (locking price fluctuations usually within ±5%). Fast forward to today's crypto world, roles have reversed, and the dilemma remains: Bitcoin miners fear price halving, exchange quant teams engage in high-frequency arbitrage using contracts, while countless retail investors play a deadly game of Russian roulette at the 'perpetual contract' table.
Mutation: Leverage Poison and Bare Harvesting
Traditional contracts seek 'stability', while crypto contracts head towards extreme alienation:
Leverage Addiction: Agricultural contract leverage is moderate, while modern crypto platforms openly offer deadly temptations of 125 times or even 300-400 times. This is no longer a risk management tool, but a turbo engine accelerating self-destruction.
Precise Hunting: The shocking situation behind the exchange—**90% of retail investors' opening lines are alarmingly close to the liquidation red line! In contrast, institutions generally have a preset profit and loss safety margin that is over 300% lower than retail investors. This is not a technical gap, but a natural divide between prey and hunter.
The Double-Edged Tool: Tesla uses contracts rationally to hedge raw material risks; however, unscrupulous exchanges and market makers systematically devour retail margin using perpetual contract mechanisms (such as manipulating 'mark prices'). On-chain data does not lie: **30% of liquidation orders from a leading exchange trace back to a targeted demolition from the same IP cluster.
Essence: A zero-sum battlefield, you are either the hunter or the prey
Peeling away all the glamorous trappings, the core of contract trading is the ultimate form of 'zero-sum game'. Every penny of profit you earn inevitably corresponds to a deafening 'liquidation notice' from a counterpart account. Leverage is a double-edged sword—it amplifies the illusion of profits while exponentially consuming your principal. The exchange's 'insurance fund'? Often just a band-aid covering the wound of liquidation; big players’ coordinated control? A sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of retail investors.
When contracts are revered as 'spiritual opium', and leverage becomes an invisible 'gallows'—please honestly ask yourself: in this naked and brutal game, do the chips in your hand place you in the position of a predator, or have you long been destined to become a lamb to the slaughter?
