At two in the morning, the cryptocurrency community was still bright, an ID called 'Xiaoyu' sent three messages in a row, the last one with a crying tone: 'Who can point me a way? If I keep losing, I really have to sell my house.'
Clicking into his homepage, the latest update is a screenshot of liquidation from three days ago—full contract, margin cleared to zero, with only a note saying 'this month's food money' of 1400U left. I privately messaged him, and he almost replied instantly: 'Brother, I've been liquidated three times already, this 1400U is what I scraped out from my rent. If I lose it again, I will completely roll out of this circle.' His words were filled with urgency, asking at one moment 'are there any coins that can rise by tomorrow,' and at another moment fearing 'that if I miss this wave of market, there will be no chance,' reminiscent of a person at the gambling table clutching their last chips, with only 'recouping losses' in their eyes, long forgetting they don't even have room for error.
I didn't recommend any coin to him, just threw out a question: 'Do you want to gamble this 1400U and run, or do you want to slowly build up your account and really turn things around?' The chat box was silent for almost half an hour, until three in the morning, he sent two words: 'The latter.'
1. The dispute over 140U: 'This isn't even enough for the handling fee.'
The next morning, I asked him to take out 10% from 1400U—140U, to open a light position first. No sooner had I sent the message than his phone rang, his voice tense: 'Brother, 140U to open a position? Even if it rises 20%, that's only 28U, not even enough for the platform's handling fee; when can I turn my fortunes around?'
At that time, I was nibbling on takeout in front of my computer, watching the steam rising from the breakfast stall downstairs, slowly telling him: 'What you lack most now is not how much money you can make, but the opportunity to 'not be eliminated.' With 140U to open a position, even if the market reverses, you still have 90% of your principal to hold; if you go all in, one fluctuation will wipe it out. What you want is to 'grow the 1400U larger,' not to 'gamble away the 1400U.'
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while, followed by the sound of mouse clicks, he said: 'Okay, I’ll listen to you brother, let’s open with 140U.' Later he told me that day he wrote a sentence in his notebook: 'Light positions are not cowardice, but reserving principal, leaving opportunities to come again'—looking back now, this sentence became the key for him to later reach 54,000U.
2. 36% profit: first take out 50U, leave the principal untouched.
On the third day after opening the position, the market moved in the predicted direction, the 140U position earned 36%, exactly 50.4U. He excitedly sent a screenshot, adding: 'Brother! It's risen! I'll add to the position, maybe I can double it!'
I immediately replied to him: 'First, take out the profit of 50U, transfer it to an off-site bank card, consider it this month's 'safety cushion,' and keep the principal of 140U, don't touch a cent.' He sent a string of question marks: 'Isn't profit meant to be reinvested? It's such a waste to leave it there.'
'Profits need to nurture profits, but they must be separated from the principal.' I opened my account screenshot, pointing to the 'profit account' column for him to see, 'Look at me, every time I profit, I only leave 30% in operations, the rest is withdrawn. This 50U is your 'risk-free' income; even if there’s a problem with your principal in the future, this part can still be preserved. The core of rolling positions is not 'profit stacking on principal,' but 'solid principal, experimenting with profits,' so you can roll more safely.'
3. From 'panicking' to 'serious': His transformation began.
Since then, we became 'market partners': every night at eight, we reviewed the market, he would break down the day's K-line into 15-minute lines, using a red pen to mark support levels and a blue pen for pressure levels, writing beside them 'why to enter here'; before each position, he would calculate the position ratio, screenshot it for my confirmation, and never exceed 15% of the principal; even if a profit exceeded 60%, he would only withdraw 40% as 'living expenses,' leaving the remaining profit as 'spare bullets.'
His mindset also changed: before, he refreshed the market every ten minutes, wanting to sell with every small rise and panicking with every small drop; later he learned to hold positions according to plan, and even if the market fluctuated, he would first check whether the stop-loss line was triggered. Once, to understand the reason for a small loss, he reviewed the market software until four in the morning, listing every order record in a table until he found the problem—'Entered too early by 5 minutes, didn’t wait for confirmation signal.' This kind of 'seriousness' reassured me more than the numbers in the account.
The numbers in the account also jumped bit by bit: from 1400U to 1920U in 8 days; from 1920U to 5300U in 11 days; then to 8900U, 16,000U, 33,000U... By the close on the 28th day, he sent a screenshot, the balance stopped at 54213U, with a crying emoji added: 'Brother, I've never seen this much U in my life.'
4. 'Can I guide others to trade now?'—a dangerous signal.
On the night of the 28th day, he sent a message, his tone barely hiding his pride: 'Brother, I’m at 54,000U now; can I guide others like you? Several of my friends want to follow me, saying they’ll give me commissions.' He even sent a screenshot of a chat record in which he told his friends 'Following me guarantees profit; I turned 1400U into 50,000U.'
My cup paused in my hand. It wasn't that he lacked ability—over the past month, he had shown a good grasp of market judgment and position control; but from his words, I saw familiar 'danger signals': he took 'temporary success' as 'his own ability overwhelming,' forgetting that behind it was 'discipline' supporting him.
I didn't directly refuse, just replied: 'Settle for another three months, wait until you can consistently follow your operational rules for three months without breaking them, then we can talk about guiding others. In the coin circle, preserving profits is ten times harder than earning profits.' He replied 'Okay, brother,' and the chat box was silent, but I knew in my heart that some things had already changed.
5. 43% loss: he ultimately gambled.
On the morning of the 34th day, as soon as I opened the market software, his message popped up, in a panic: 'Brother, I lost... a lot.' Opening the screenshot he sent of his holdings, I frowned instantly: he heavily invested in an altcoin with a market cap of only 80 million, with the position accounting for 62% of the total account, and he hadn’t set a stop loss. The night before, this coin suddenly plummeted 43%, directly shrinking his account from 54,000U to 30,800U.
I asked him: 'Why didn't you discuss it with me? We agreed before that altcoins should only take up to 5% of the position, and heavy positions should absolutely not be touched.' His reply made my heart sink: 'I saw everyone in that coin's community saying it would moon, and the K-line looked particularly good, I thought it could double... I wanted to test my judgment, I didn't want to always rely on you.'
This sounds reasonable, but I knew he had forgotten the original intention of 'discipline.' He thought his previous success meant 'he could read the market,' but forgot that every profit was built on 'light positions + stop losses + reviews,' not 'gambling luck.'
6. Gambler's loop: losing makes him more anxious, the more anxious he gets, the more mistakes he makes.
From that day on, he seemed like a different person: chasing trends every day, today buying 'new coins in the metaverse,' tomorrow copying 'new DeFi projects,' with heavier positions and wider stop-loss lines. I advised him several times to return to his previous pace, but he always said 'wait a bit longer, I can definitely earn it back.'
He completely fell into the 'gambler's loop': losing made him want to recoup losses, recouping led to heavy positions, and heavy positions resulted in further losses. Once he told me 'Just hold on for another day, this coin will definitely rebound,' but that day it dropped another 20%, he gritted his teeth and added to his position, filling in all the remaining profits—at that time I knew he could no longer listen to advice.
7. The blocking on the 36th day: I'm not blaming him for losing money, but for losing his original intention.
On the 36th day, I blocked him.
Not because he lost money—no one in the coin circle can guarantee they won't lose, I myself have moments of judgment error; but because he forgot the first thing I told him: true turning around is never reliant on a one-time big win, but on the repeated execution of a 'discipline system.'
1400U can roll to 54,000U, it's not luck, but 'calculating the ratio for each position, timely splitting profits for each win, and seriously reviewing each mistake'; losing back from 54,000U to 30,000U is also not bad luck, but because he lost 'discipline,' turning 'investment' back into 'gambling.'
8. The truth of survival in the coin circle: self-discipline is the last bit of principal.
In the past half a year, I have seen too many people like Xiaoyu: climbing up from the bottom, only to fall back to the bottom again. They always think 'making big money relies on opportunity,' but forget 'opportunities are only given to those with discipline.'
Some people only have 500U in principal, steadily rolling it to 100,000U; some people go from 100,000U to 1,000,000U, but lose it all due to a moment of gambling impulse—the difference lies in that the former treats 'discipline' as the survival baseline, while the latter treats 'profit' as reckless capital.
Every day, someone in the community shouts 'I want to turn my fortunes around,' but those who can truly turn their fortunes around are never the ones with a mindset of 'instant wealth'; rather, they are those who can harden their hearts, operate according to rhythm, stop losses by the rules, and overcome their 'gambling nature.'
After all, in this unpredictable market, 'staying alive' is the top priority; and 'self-discipline' is the last bit of principal that allows you to stay alive.$BTC $ETH 
