I have been trading cryptocurrencies for ten years, making eight figures at my peak, and going to zero three times.

Last year, a brother came to me when he had only 4876U left of his principal, and his voice was trembling. Four months later, his account had 200,000U.

Many people think this is luck, but experienced traders know — those who have survived three cycles of bull and bear markets no longer rely on luck to make a living.

The following experiences, which I gained through real money, may help you avoid five years of detours.

1. Only play with “understandable cards”

I told him to clear all the altcoins and only keep BTC and ETH. Newcomers always want to find hundredfold coins, but in a bull market, the leaders rise the most steadily.

In January 2024, we built our ETH positions in three batches at an average price of 2280U, based on one logic: the Layer 2 narrative must ferment before the Cancun upgrade. Don’t touch technologies you don’t understand; you can only survive by making money within your understanding.

2. Positioning is an art, not mathematics

I taught him the “pyramid averaging method”: the base position accounts for 40%, add once every 8% retracement, and the total position should not exceed twice the principal.

When ETH surged to 3500U in March, he had made over 120,000U in unrealized profits. Always keep bullets; only when the market is at its craziest can you afford to stay calm.

3. Stop-loss lines are lifelines

I forced him to set hard stop losses: any single loss over 15% must be cut. Once, he got stuck playing a MEME coin, and I directly cleared his position for him.

Later, that coin went to zero, and he thanked me with red eyes. Here, discipline is a hundred times more important than cleverness.

4. Filter information; don’t be an information garbage can

I told him to unfollow all signal-calling influencers and only focus on three things: Glass blockchain data, Coinbase order book changes, and the Federal Reserve's interest rate minutes. It’s better to find signals in noise than to wait for opportunities in signals.

Now he often asks me whether he should take profits, and I say: “Remember how you endured it in the first place. The bull market is a meat grinder for retail investors and a granary for hunters.”

After ten years, I’ve seen interns staring at their screens at 3 AM and suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding, as well as middle-aged men smoking on rooftops after leveraged liquidation.

This market does not reward the brave; it only rewards those who live long and stay awake.

If you still haven’t found your rhythm, stop and think: are you investing in the future or gambling on tomorrow?

There are no myths in the crypto world, only survivors. Behind those doubling stories are all the scars left by cutting losses.

Once, I was stumbling in the dark alone; now the light is in my hands.

The light is always on; will you follow? @今酒