When he added me, his account only had 800U left, which was the 'remaining value' after his fourth liquidation. At two in the morning, he messaged me with a tearful tone: 'Bro, this is my last bit of money; if I lose this, I really have to sell my car to pay off debts.' I opened his trading records and saw a screen full of 'full contract' and 'buy high sell low' — a typical rookie mindset of 'trying to gamble to recover losses' — it looked just like me when I first entered the market and lost half a year's salary.
On the first day, I taught him to 'test with 2% position size' using 16U to open a long position in BTC. He was anxiously sending voice messages: 'Bro, what can this little position do? Someone in the other group made five times their money with a full position in ETH in one day!' I directly sent back his past liquidation records: 'What you want is to 'recover losses', not 'liquidate again' — first learn to survive, then talk about making money.' He was silent for half an hour before finally sending, 'I bought it.'
The market has been moving more smoothly than expected; in 7 days, the account has gained 42%, turning 800U into 1136U. I told him to immediately transfer the 336U profit to a USDT wallet and only use the principal to continue trading. 'Profit is not profit; only what is converted to stablecoins counts. It’s like catching fish: you first marinate them to preserve, then go catch the next one.' During that time, he seemed like a different person, organizing his trading records into tables and sending them to me daily, marking support and resistance levels with different colors, and discussing market logic with me at four in the morning.
1500U, 3800U, 12,000U, 21,000U... On the 32nd day, when his account broke 32,000U, he suddenly posted a profit screenshot on his social media, captioned 'Making money in the crypto world isn’t hard; just find the right method.' I privately reminded him, 'Post less about profits and review more,' but he replied, 'Bro, so many friends are asking me to lead trades; do I count as a 'crypto expert' now?' I didn’t respond, but deep down, I felt something was off — the inflation that profits bring is often more dangerous than losses.
On the 37th day, I discovered that his account suddenly lost 18,000U. Upon questioning, I found out that he secretly bought a low-market-cap altcoin with a full position and added 3x leverage, saying, 'I watched the K-line for five days; this coin is sure to pump; if I miss it, I won’t get another chance!' When I asked him to set a stop loss, the price had already dropped by 30%, but he stubbornly replied, 'Let’s wait; it will definitely bounce back.' From that day on, he changed completely — he stopped keeping trading logs, raised his stop loss from 2% to 5%, and even started making short-term contracts based on 'feelings,' a stark contrast to the cautious person he once was.
On the 40th day, when I deleted him from WeChat, his account only had 15,000U left. It wasn’t the loss of 17,000U that pained me, but seeing him throw away the 'light positions, stop loss, profit protection' — the discipline we had honed over 32 days. Those late nights spent watching the market together, the repeatedly emphasized risk controls, ultimately couldn’t withstand his obsession with 'proving himself as an expert.'
The cruel truth of the cryptocurrency world is not that one 'can't make money,' but rather that 'one makes money but can't keep it.' I've seen too many people turn a few thousand U into hundreds of thousands U, only to fall back to square one due to greed and arrogance. Remember, the crypto world is not a casino; it is a battlefield that requires precise calculations — what enables you to navigate bull and bear markets is not some 'divine operation' that yields explosive profits, but rather the instinct forged from ingraining 'discipline' into your bones. As seasoned traders often say, 'The market will always be there, but if you lose your capital, you have nothing left.' How much you can earn depends on how much you can hold; how much you can hold depends on how much you respect discipline.
