In 2016, when I rushed into the crypto world with a few thousand in 'spending money,' I thought this was a place where 'if you buy the right thing, you can win effortlessly.' I didn't expect that after two rounds of bull and bear markets, I would find that it felt more like a 'refining furnace'—burning away greed and refining reverence, with the last remaining thing called 'survival.'

2017: Learning to 'let go' in the bubble.

The madness of the first bull market still feels like a dream when I think back on it. At that time, opening the exchange felt like rockets were strapped to the candlesticks; buying any altcoin could lead to gains. People in the group were constantly posting screenshots of 'turning a monthly salary of 3,000 into a net worth of a million.' I once chased an air coin labeled 'blockchain + gaming' with leverage, and it multiplied five times in three days. I couldn't sleep at night, planning that 'if it rises one more wave, I'll cash out and buy a house.'

What awaited me was an ICO ban, causing a cliff-like drop in coin prices. Watching my account go from a floating profit of hundreds of thousands to losing all my principal felt like my soul was pulled away. I stubbornly held on, thinking 'I'll run when it rebounds,' even borrowing online loans to add to my positions. Until one early morning, a liquidation message popped up, and the moment my balance turned to 0, I suddenly woke up—before the market, the phrase 'I thought' is the least valuable.

That day, I deleted all the signal groups, transferred out the remaining few hundred, and told myself: this money isn’t lost; it bought a ticket that says 'don’t be too greedy.'

2021: Learning to 'acknowledge mistakes' in the volatility.

In the second round of bull and bear markets, I started trading contracts. With the lessons from the last time, I dared not to heavily invest again, learning to read MACD, draw trend lines, and even made 'stop loss' the first rule of trading. When Bitcoin surged to $60,000 in 2021, some around me shouted, 'A hundred thousand is just around the corner,' but I focused on the divergence signals in the daily chart and quietly closed my long position.

The later bear market is even more 'gloomy' than the previous one—it's not just a continuous decline, but rather a pattern of three days of rises followed by five days of falls, repeatedly harvesting profits. I've seen too many people blow their accounts in the fantasy of 'buying the dip,' and I've also seen someone turn from profit to debt because they thought 'holding on would bring them back to breakeven.' I set a strict rule for myself: if a position loses 5%, no matter how unwilling I am, I will cut it immediately.

Once, while trading Ethereum contracts, I clearly saw bullish signals, but suddenly bad news hit, and I faced an 8% loss in an instant. My hands were shaking, but I still clicked to close the position. Later, as I watched the price fall through support levels, I realized: in contracts, 'acknowledging a mistake' is more important than 'guessing right.' Sometimes being a bit 'cowardly' can help you survive longer.

Over the years, the three things I most want to tell beginners are:

1. Don’t believe in 'guaranteed profits'; every bit of profit in the crypto world carries the shadow of risk.

2. Leverage is a double-edged sword; it can amplify your gains but can also cut away everything in an instant when you get greedy.

3. Bull and bear transitions happen quickly, but your growth can be slower—first learn to survive, then talk about making money.

In the future at the square, I plan to discuss the 'pitfall diaries' in real trading, such as 'how to experiment with small positions without hurting too much,' 'how to respond to black swan events,' and even 'how to adjust your mindset during consecutive losses.'

After all, the crypto world is not short of myths; what it lacks is companions who can help you step-by-step avoid traps.