I met a friend in the same line of work. He used to be a coder at a software park, writing code for a small outsourcing firm. The pay wasn’t great, but it was steady, and after a few years of living frugally, he’d saved around 200,000.
When the last big bull run came along, he couldn’t resist jumping in. At first, he thought spot trading was too slow to make money, so he switched to futures, steadily cranking up the leverage.
At his peak, his unrealized profits shot past 400,000. He got completely carried away, sneaking glances at intraday charts on a small screen at work, convinced he’d found the secret to changing his life. Then the market suddenly reversed and plunged straight down, wiping him out. Not only did all his profits vanish, but almost all his original capital went with them. Along the way, he even took cash advances on two credit cards to top up his margin and keep his positions open.
When the debt was piling up, he kept deleting and reinstalling his trading app. For more than twenty days straight, he couldn’t even bring himself to open the charts.
What eventually got him out of that hole wasn’t some legendary market-bottom call that made him rich again. It was facing reality and admitting defeat.
On the whiteboard beside his desk in his rented apartment, he wrote a set of ironclad rules in thick marker: Never use leverage. Trade spot only. Never put more than 20% into a single position. Once profits reach 30%, always take half off the table.
The writing was messy, but he couldn’t look up without seeing it. Whenever he felt himself losing it, he forced himself to shut everything down. During the day, he went to work and steadily paid off his debts; in his spare time, he took on freelance outsourcing gigs wherever he could to bring in extra cash.
After that, all he could do was grit his teeth and keep moving forward, one day at a time. He wrote down the reasoning behind every trade in a notebook. When he made a profit, he didn’t add to his position and gamble on luck; when he cut a loss, he didn’t spitefully jump straight back in.
After seven or eight months, he’d gradually paid off most of his credit card debt, and his account balance was back in a range that let him sleep peacefully. There was no overnight-riches miracle, no triumphant comeback drama. He’d simply managed to get his life back on track after it spun out of control.
A couple of days ago, he told me that these days he can fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, without watching the market all night. Have you ever gone through a time when you hit rock bottom and had to grit your teeth and claw your way back, little by little? $BTC
When the last big bull run came along, he couldn’t resist jumping in. At first, he thought spot trading was too slow to make money, so he switched to futures, steadily cranking up the leverage.
At his peak, his unrealized profits shot past 400,000. He got completely carried away, sneaking glances at intraday charts on a small screen at work, convinced he’d found the secret to changing his life. Then the market suddenly reversed and plunged straight down, wiping him out. Not only did all his profits vanish, but almost all his original capital went with them. Along the way, he even took cash advances on two credit cards to top up his margin and keep his positions open.
When the debt was piling up, he kept deleting and reinstalling his trading app. For more than twenty days straight, he couldn’t even bring himself to open the charts.
What eventually got him out of that hole wasn’t some legendary market-bottom call that made him rich again. It was facing reality and admitting defeat.
On the whiteboard beside his desk in his rented apartment, he wrote a set of ironclad rules in thick marker: Never use leverage. Trade spot only. Never put more than 20% into a single position. Once profits reach 30%, always take half off the table.
The writing was messy, but he couldn’t look up without seeing it. Whenever he felt himself losing it, he forced himself to shut everything down. During the day, he went to work and steadily paid off his debts; in his spare time, he took on freelance outsourcing gigs wherever he could to bring in extra cash.
After that, all he could do was grit his teeth and keep moving forward, one day at a time. He wrote down the reasoning behind every trade in a notebook. When he made a profit, he didn’t add to his position and gamble on luck; when he cut a loss, he didn’t spitefully jump straight back in.
After seven or eight months, he’d gradually paid off most of his credit card debt, and his account balance was back in a range that let him sleep peacefully. There was no overnight-riches miracle, no triumphant comeback drama. He’d simply managed to get his life back on track after it spun out of control.
A couple of days ago, he told me that these days he can fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, without watching the market all night. Have you ever gone through a time when you hit rock bottom and had to grit your teeth and claw your way back, little by little? $BTC