The Night of 20x Leverage
At 3:17 a.m., his phone vibrated.
Lin Hao jolted awake from a light sleep, grabbed his phone, and glanced at it. His heart clenched. A liquidation alert from Binance, in white lettering, cold and stark: Your position has been liquidated.
He stared at the screen, fingers trembling. Three minutes earlier, he had still been holding a 20x leveraged long position of 120 GTC, with an average entry price of $0.248. Just moments ago, GTC’s price had flash-crashed to $0.223. His margin ratio had fallen below the maintenance threshold, and the system had liquidated him before he could even react.
Account balance: $0.03.
Lin Hao put down his phone and lay there, staring at the ceiling. Three months earlier, he had transferred 50,000 yuan from his regular investment fund into his futures account. Things went smoothly at first. GTC rose from $0.15 to $0.22, and he used 10x leverage, making 8,000 yuan. Then came ERA, which climbed from $0.05 to $0.08. With 20x leverage, he made another 12,000 yuan. He started to think he’d cracked the code, that futures were an ATM.
His last deposit was last week. He’d taken a cash advance of 20,000 yuan on his credit card and put it all into his futures account. This time, he chose GTC, 20x leverage, a position of 120. He’d calculated it in his head: as long as GTC went up 5%, he’d make nearly $300. If it rose 10%, he’d make $600.
But he’d never calculated what would happen if it fell 10%.
Tonight, GTC had pulled back from a high of $0.289, and he’d been able to hold on at first. At $0.26, he told himself it was just a correction. At $0.24, he started to panic. At $0.23, he was desperately praying in his head. Then came $0.223, and it was all over.
He opened his trading history and looked through every trade, from the first to the last. In three months, he’d made 47 trades: 28 winners and 19 losers. But all his wins combined weren’t enough to fill the hole from tonight.
50,000 yuan in principal, plus the 20,000 he’d taken as a cash advance, plus the smaller amounts he’d deposited along the way: 73,000 yuan in total. Now all that was left was $0.03.
Lin Hao thought of his father, who had called last month to ask how he was doing. He’d said things were going well, that he was working on an investment project. His father had told him to be careful and not let anyone scam him. He’d laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I have a strategy.”
He turned off his phone and rolled over. It was almost dawn outside, and the city was slowly coming to life. The exhaust fan at the breakfast shop downstairs began to hum, and someone called out, “Soy milk and youtiao!”
Those sounds had nothing to do with him anymore.
He didn’t know how to explain to anyone how an adult could turn 70,000 yuan into $0.03 in three months. He didn’t even have the courage to open Binance and look again.
But I know he will. Because if GTC rebounds tomorrow, he’ll deposit more money and get back in.
That’s futures trading.
#合约爆仓 #加密货币 #GTC
At 3:17 a.m., his phone vibrated.
Lin Hao jolted awake from a light sleep, grabbed his phone, and glanced at it. His heart clenched. A liquidation alert from Binance, in white lettering, cold and stark: Your position has been liquidated.
He stared at the screen, fingers trembling. Three minutes earlier, he had still been holding a 20x leveraged long position of 120 GTC, with an average entry price of $0.248. Just moments ago, GTC’s price had flash-crashed to $0.223. His margin ratio had fallen below the maintenance threshold, and the system had liquidated him before he could even react.
Account balance: $0.03.
Lin Hao put down his phone and lay there, staring at the ceiling. Three months earlier, he had transferred 50,000 yuan from his regular investment fund into his futures account. Things went smoothly at first. GTC rose from $0.15 to $0.22, and he used 10x leverage, making 8,000 yuan. Then came ERA, which climbed from $0.05 to $0.08. With 20x leverage, he made another 12,000 yuan. He started to think he’d cracked the code, that futures were an ATM.
His last deposit was last week. He’d taken a cash advance of 20,000 yuan on his credit card and put it all into his futures account. This time, he chose GTC, 20x leverage, a position of 120. He’d calculated it in his head: as long as GTC went up 5%, he’d make nearly $300. If it rose 10%, he’d make $600.
But he’d never calculated what would happen if it fell 10%.
Tonight, GTC had pulled back from a high of $0.289, and he’d been able to hold on at first. At $0.26, he told himself it was just a correction. At $0.24, he started to panic. At $0.23, he was desperately praying in his head. Then came $0.223, and it was all over.
He opened his trading history and looked through every trade, from the first to the last. In three months, he’d made 47 trades: 28 winners and 19 losers. But all his wins combined weren’t enough to fill the hole from tonight.
50,000 yuan in principal, plus the 20,000 he’d taken as a cash advance, plus the smaller amounts he’d deposited along the way: 73,000 yuan in total. Now all that was left was $0.03.
Lin Hao thought of his father, who had called last month to ask how he was doing. He’d said things were going well, that he was working on an investment project. His father had told him to be careful and not let anyone scam him. He’d laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I have a strategy.”
He turned off his phone and rolled over. It was almost dawn outside, and the city was slowly coming to life. The exhaust fan at the breakfast shop downstairs began to hum, and someone called out, “Soy milk and youtiao!”
Those sounds had nothing to do with him anymore.
He didn’t know how to explain to anyone how an adult could turn 70,000 yuan into $0.03 in three months. He didn’t even have the courage to open Binance and look again.
But I know he will. Because if GTC rebounds tomorrow, he’ll deposit more money and get back in.
That’s futures trading.
#合约爆仓 #加密货币 #GTC