The night I went short on GTC, I lost all my principal
Lao Chen stared at his phone screen, his fingers trembling slightly.
GTC’s price showed 0.11254 USDT, with the 24-hour low. He took a deep breath and thought that this lousy coin had already dropped almost half from its peak—so it definitely had to keep getting hammered down. He opened the futures interface, chose to go short, set 20x leverage, and poured his entire remaining 3,200 USDT into the position.
"If it drops another 10%, I’ll make 6,400." He silently calculated in his head, and even a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Lao Chen had been trading crypto for three years. At first, he made a little money trading spot. Later he kept going bigger—from ETH to SOL, from SOL to all kinds of small coins—until finally he was left with only futures. Spot was too slow; he couldn’t wait. What he wanted was fast money, the thrill of doubling overnight.
At 2:00 a.m., the price was still hovering around 0.113. Lao Chen set a take-profit at 0.105, then lay down to sleep. In his dream, he saw his account balance turn into 9,600. When he woke up, the first thing he did was withdraw.
But he didn’t know that, forty minutes after he closed his eyes, a large order smashed into GTC’s buy side.
At 7:00 a.m., his phone started vibrating like crazy. Half-asleep, Lao Chen picked up his phone and saw the futures screen covered in blood-red. GTC’s price shot up like a rocket to 0.15200. His position had long been liquidated—his margin was wiped out, and the account balance showed 0.00.
He couldn’t believe his own eyes. From 0.11254 to 0.15200, the increase was more than 35%. With 20x leverage, a reverse move of just 5% was enough to trigger liquidation. And GTC climbed by nearly 40% that night.
Lao Chen slumped on the bed, his mind completely blank. 3,200 USDT—two months’ salary. He had planned to use that money to pay his daughter’s next semester tuition.
He opened the forum and saw people posting their long positions on GTC, while others wrote things like, "Bargain bottom caught successfully—turned it into a double and withdrew." Those words stabbed his eyes like knives. In the same candlestick, some people made three months of income, while others lost two months’ worth of wages.
Later, when he reviewed the chart, he realized that day GTC surged all the way from the low of 0.11254 to 0.16812—the highest increase was close to 50%. If he had bought spot, even if he only put 1,000 USDT in, it would now be worth 1,500. But he chose futures—he chose 20x leverage—and he chose to short at the lowest point.
Lao Chen closed the trading app, went out to send his daughter to school. On the way, his daughter asked him, "Dad, aren’t you happy today?"
He smiled and said, "No. Dad just didn’t sleep well."
After that day, Lao Chen uninstalled the futures trading interface. He finally understood something: in this market, the most expensive thing isn’t the trading fee—it’s the confidence that makes you think you’re smarter than the market.
#合约爆仓 #GTC #加密货币故事
Lao Chen stared at his phone screen, his fingers trembling slightly.
GTC’s price showed 0.11254 USDT, with the 24-hour low. He took a deep breath and thought that this lousy coin had already dropped almost half from its peak—so it definitely had to keep getting hammered down. He opened the futures interface, chose to go short, set 20x leverage, and poured his entire remaining 3,200 USDT into the position.
"If it drops another 10%, I’ll make 6,400." He silently calculated in his head, and even a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Lao Chen had been trading crypto for three years. At first, he made a little money trading spot. Later he kept going bigger—from ETH to SOL, from SOL to all kinds of small coins—until finally he was left with only futures. Spot was too slow; he couldn’t wait. What he wanted was fast money, the thrill of doubling overnight.
At 2:00 a.m., the price was still hovering around 0.113. Lao Chen set a take-profit at 0.105, then lay down to sleep. In his dream, he saw his account balance turn into 9,600. When he woke up, the first thing he did was withdraw.
But he didn’t know that, forty minutes after he closed his eyes, a large order smashed into GTC’s buy side.
At 7:00 a.m., his phone started vibrating like crazy. Half-asleep, Lao Chen picked up his phone and saw the futures screen covered in blood-red. GTC’s price shot up like a rocket to 0.15200. His position had long been liquidated—his margin was wiped out, and the account balance showed 0.00.
He couldn’t believe his own eyes. From 0.11254 to 0.15200, the increase was more than 35%. With 20x leverage, a reverse move of just 5% was enough to trigger liquidation. And GTC climbed by nearly 40% that night.
Lao Chen slumped on the bed, his mind completely blank. 3,200 USDT—two months’ salary. He had planned to use that money to pay his daughter’s next semester tuition.
He opened the forum and saw people posting their long positions on GTC, while others wrote things like, "Bargain bottom caught successfully—turned it into a double and withdrew." Those words stabbed his eyes like knives. In the same candlestick, some people made three months of income, while others lost two months’ worth of wages.
Later, when he reviewed the chart, he realized that day GTC surged all the way from the low of 0.11254 to 0.16812—the highest increase was close to 50%. If he had bought spot, even if he only put 1,000 USDT in, it would now be worth 1,500. But he chose futures—he chose 20x leverage—and he chose to short at the lowest point.
Lao Chen closed the trading app, went out to send his daughter to school. On the way, his daughter asked him, "Dad, aren’t you happy today?"
He smiled and said, "No. Dad just didn’t sleep well."
After that day, Lao Chen uninstalled the futures trading interface. He finally understood something: in this market, the most expensive thing isn’t the trading fee—it’s the confidence that makes you think you’re smarter than the market.
#合约爆仓 #GTC #加密货币故事