On that snowy night in 2018, I squatted downstairs in my community, gnawing on a cold egg pancake, while the number 'account balance 180000' on my phone screen was more dazzling than the streetlights. Three hours ago, I had just signed the lease termination contract for my sea view apartment in Sanya, and half a year ago, I was still on the terrace of that apartment popping champagne, watching the waves shatter the moonlight, thinking I held the 'golden key' to the crypto world.
As an analyst who has been in the industry for ten years, I have seen too many stories of 'overnight fame' and 'instant collapse,' and I was once the craziest one among them. Today, I won't talk about vague market predictions; instead, I will share four iron rules that I have forged with real money. Those who understand them will at least be able to catch their breath in the next storm.
One, cognitive differences are the real capital; don’t be a 'blindly charging' retail investor.
When I first entered the circle, I was bolder than anyone. In 2017, there was a call group that was constantly spamming 'missed the opportunity to make a fortune'; that night when FOMO was at its peak, I dumped all my profits from six months into a project claiming to have 'hundredfold potential'. As a result, 30 minutes later, the K-line crashed through the floor; I was staring at my phone, hands shaking, and only when dawn broke did I remember to check the project’s white paper—good grief, on the second page they wrote 'decentralized' as 'decentralized conversation', and the logical flaws were worse than my window screens.
Later, I finally figured it out: the crypto market is never about 'betting high or low', but about 'competing cognition'. Those who can remain stable are not just lucky; they have already thoroughly understood the project’s technical architecture, team background, and community ecology before taking action. Now when I train newbies, the first thing I always say is 'read ten white papers before buying coins'—charging in without knowing what the project is about is no different from crossing the street with your eyes closed.
Two, allocate positions well, and you won’t worry during a crash.
The worst time I got liquidated, I put all my funds into a single cryptocurrency and leveraged it; thinking about it now makes me want to slap myself. Now my position allocation is humorously dubbed by fans as the 'safe sandwich': 60% mainstream assets as the 'bread base', choosing those that have survived through bull and bear markets and have high consensus, stabilizing the fundamentals; 30% is used for low-risk grid trading or cross-platform arbitrage, like the 'lettuce and ham' in the middle, earning a bit of stable money as a buffer; and only 10% is daring enough to be invested in high-potential emerging sectors, even if it loses everything, it won't affect my life.
Remember, your position is your 'lifeboat', not a 'speedboat'. Don’t always think about 'going all in to make big money'. True experts quietly put their eggs in different baskets and even equip each basket with a protective net. Last time during extreme market conditions, someone I knew lost so much they had to sell their house, while I relied on this strategy, not only avoiding losses but even picking up some cheap chips.
Three, leverage is a 'mirror for revealing monsters', specifically for greedy people.
I will never forget that text message at 3 a.m. in 2017—'Forced liquidation' in big letters jolted me awake from my dream, and my account was instantly cleared. That day, I sat on the windowsill watching the dawn and finally understood: leverage amplifies not the profits, but your greed and fear. When the market is good, it makes you feel like 'money comes too easily', pushing you to increase your position; when the market drops, it amplifies your panic to force you to cut losses at the lowest point.
Since then, I have cleaned out the contract software completely. Now when someone asks me, 'Can I leverage a bet?', I advise them to do the math first: 10x leverage means that if it drops by 10%, you're done; and even if it rises by 10%, the money you earn carries the risk of going to zero at any moment. In the crypto circle, surviving is a thousand times more important than making quick money; don't let leverage turn you into the 'gambler' you once looked down upon.
Four, finding the right information source is 100 times more effective than staring at K-lines.
There’s a strange phenomenon in the circle: many people check market software every day, staring at K-lines to guess rises and falls, yet they don’t even know the latest updates from the project team. The last time I avoided a 70% crash, it wasn’t because I was lucky, but because I discovered a problem three days in advance in the project's code repository—sudden interruption of the core development team's submission record, which was clearly a 'running warning'. I immediately liquidated my positions, and three days later, the project had issues, while those still shouting 'buy the dip' in the group were directly buried.
Real valuable information is never the 'inside scoop' from the group, but rather the project's public reports, code updates, and community discussions. While others are driven by emotions, you dig for these 'hardcore information', and your decisions will naturally be more stable than others. It’s like in a battle; while others guess, you rely on intelligence, and your winning odds are certainly different.
Now I drive the car I earned, and every time I pass the streetlight where I used to eat egg pancakes, I feel particularly grounded. The crypto circle never has a permanent bull market or a permanent bear market, but there are always 'survivors'. Those who can survive do so not by luck, but by a clear mind and solid preparation.
