I'm a gambler too. I've been involved in this circle since 2016, and for the past 10 years the market has been taking money from me. Three or four times, I managed to make over a million, but I eventually lost it all bit by bit. Basically, money only ever went in, never out. This time, though, I was pretty lucky. I had around 10,000 yuan, and went all in on STRK before it took off. In fact, going all in didn't mean what everyone imagines—that it either moons or you get wiped out. Even after going all in and hitting my stop-loss, I would still have had half my original capital left. I was just lucky that the market gave me this opportunity. Of course, when I bought in, I personally thought it was the breakout point, because I focus specifically on catching those breakout points. The strategy is generally small losses and big gains. This time it worked, and I made 200,000 yuan.

After closing out STRK, I spotted TIA. This time I was smarter: I moved half my funds out and used it—10—to buy TIA on the spot market, while keeping the other 10 for futures. Since my capital was larger than before, I lowered my leverage from 75x/50x to around 20x/10x. With the leverage down, I had more room and flexibility with my stop-loss. I figured that if I got stopped out, I’d lose about 4, leaving me with around 15–16 in capital overall, so the damage wouldn’t be too bad. Given that, I went all in on TIA. I was lucky: it shot up right after I bought, and made the day’s top gainers list too. I’m not saying to chase pumps and dump into drops; this coin had been on my radar for a long time, so the trade went smoothly. It made me over 10,000 USDT straight away. Based on my stop-loss, that put the risk-reward ratio at about 1:2. Yesterday, I added to my position at what I thought was the low, doubling it. That’s the position I’m holding now. Although the shorter-term price action has gone a little further than I expected and dipped a bit more, I’ve set my stop-loss at breakeven. It hasn’t been triggered yet, so I’m thinking this trade could be worth at least a million. I’ll hold it patiently.

One last thing: in a bull market, you only need to go long. Buy, hold, and the world is yours. You’re better off opening a long-and-short hedge where you think a major pullback might happen than going short against the trend. When the price really starts surging, the hedge will only cost you some of your profit, and you can manage it without taking too much of a hit. Besides, bull markets are where the real money is—the upside is unlimited. Even if you short and the coin goes to zero, your maximum gain is only 100%!

I’ve been adding funds to my account for years and added a lot of merchants on WeChat, but there’s only one I’ve really gotten along with. After all these years, I’d say we’ve become pretty good online friends. Yesterday he said to me, “Man, we’ve known each other for so long and chatted for ages. Let me share one thing I’ve learned over the years: if a position keeps you awake at night, you’d better close it. If you can open a position and sleep peacefully until morning without worrying about a thing, then regardless of whether it makes or loses money, at least you’ve handled it properly.” I really admire this guy. He withdraws his profits and slowly earns back his losses. By the end of the year, he still makes a few hundred thousand. I can’t even express how envious I am. Trading is tied to money, so there are wins and losses. It seems ordinary, yet it isn’t: ordinary like playing cards or mahjong, where you lose today and win tomorrow; extraordinary because it can make the capital you put on the table grow without limit. One hand can decide everything—you lose, and you’re left selling tofu. If only we could treat wins and losses from investing in the market like a casual game of cards: not feel bad when we lose, and just be happy when we win. I think then we’d have made it—and we absolutely can!

At the end of the day, it’s still a question of money management—and I’m not good at managing it either. Take me, for example: I make a few or even dozens of times my money in one trade, and start thinking I’m some kind of market genius who can call the shots. Then one mistake sends me right back to where I started. This time, though, I’ve learned to be smarter: whenever I make a profit, I take half of it out. It doesn’t matter how much I withdraw at first; the important thing is to make it a habit. Black swans can happen at any time, and if something is possible, sooner or later it will happen. Unplugging your internet, getting caught by a sudden wick, or setting a stop-loss—none of it is foolproof. The market can take you all the way down. So there’s nothing wrong with being extra careful.

Ever since I opened this STRK trade, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for several days. I’ve spent almost all my time watching the charts. That shows how much I care about the outcome of this trade. If it works out, I’ll be set—that’s how simple it is. But even if I don’t watch the charts, it weighs on my mind and makes me uneasy. Either way, it has me in its grip. This has made me realize why that first pot of gold is so precious and so hard to earn: it’s the key to changing your mindset about trading. When you don’t have much money, even putting on a trade with a few hundred dollars feels like a lot of pressure. For example, now that I have 20 in capital, I can casually open a position of around 10,000 and set a stop-loss. If I make two or three, I feel no pressure at all. Making one trade’s worth of profit in a month is already two or three months’ wages for an ordinary person. It feels great. So this ties back to what I said earlier: trade with a relaxed mindset, like you’re playing cards, not like a gambler who’s put everything on the table!

I’ve gone on and on, but I’ve just had a lot on my mind this time, so I wrote it down like a diary entry. It’ll be here for me to look back on and remind and motivate myself. If my experience can help you guys get something out of it, that would be one of life’s great joys. Wishing you all winning trades and an early fortune!