On that snowy morning in 2017, I took the signboard of the restaurant down and sold it as scrap, losing so much that I couldn't even pay the employees' salaries. It was then that I understood that 'food is the heaven for the people' is not that easy to earn. With the remaining 40,000 yuan, I spent three days and nights in front of the computer, watching the K-line on the screen jump around like my heartbeat. In the end, I gritted my teeth and invested all the money into Bitcoin, which at the time no one dared to touch, and it turned out to be exactly 3 of them.
Looking back now, those two years of market conditions were like a 'wake-up call that stimulated my heart' lesson for me. At the end of 2017, during the craziest peak of the bull market, the numbers in my account surged to 500,000. In a moment of excitement, I placed an order overnight to buy a necklace I had been eyeing for half a year. Wearing it out made me feel like I was walking with the wind, truly thinking I had figured out the code to wealth. However, when the crash came in 2018, my account balance plummeted to 120,000, and the necklace felt heavy around my neck. It was then that I truly understood that paper wealth is just a bubble that can be easily burst.
The real turning point was in 2021, when I completely discarded the mindset of 'chasing highs and cutting losses like a gambler' and shifted to staking crypto assets and NFTs. This work isn't as thrilling as trading coins; it's more like tending to a fruit tree, requiring slow management and patience for results. But it is this stability that allowed my account to gradually grow to 2 million over three years. As a veteran who has been in this circle for 9 years, I've seen too many stories of instant wealth and instant poverty. Today, I’ll share the three ironclad risk control rules I’ve summarized from my experiences; new friends, remember them well to avoid 90% of the detours.
The first iron rule: preserving capital is always paramount; profits are the troops charging forward.
In my early years, I followed the trend and bought a meme coin. At first, it surged dramatically, increasing 8 times, and I was reluctant to sell, always thinking I could wait for it to rise more. But soon after, the project team ran away, and the coin went to zero, leaving no trace of my money. After this big loss, I set a strict rule: as soon as an investment profits 40%, immediately withdraw the principal, and do whatever with the remaining profit. Even if the market later corrects harshly, the loss is just 'pocket money' that I earned, which won't hurt me significantly. Remember, in this market, staying alive is more important than anything else; keeping your principal gives you a chance to turn things around.
The second iron rule: only earn money that can be understood from the 'instruction manual'; vague opportunities are all traps.
In the first two years of the DeFi craze, all my friends around me went to 'mine', talking every day about how much they earned, while I just watched as an onlooker. It's not that I didn't want to earn, but those complex mining logic and smart contract terms, I read several times and still couldn't understand, so I dared not touch that money. In 2022, I heavily invested in the ZK track, having mastered over a dozen technical documents three months in advance, understanding the team background, project white paper, and economic model clearly. My principle is that if any asset has even one piece of information that is unclear, no matter how much others hype it up, I will never reach out. After all, you can't earn money outside of your understanding; forcing it will only lead to being 'cut' by the market.
The third iron rule: position is the anchor; timing is just the icing on the cake.
Many beginners often get caught up in 'when is the best time to enter the market'. In fact, compared to timing, position management is the key to survival. My current position allocation never changes: 50% of funds are placed in large-cap assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum for ballast, like an anchor for a ship, steady against any storm; 25% is allocated to Layer 2 projects with clear practical applications; 15% is used for trial and error in new sectors, even if I lose, it’s within the acceptable range; and the remaining 10% is kept as cash to wait for opportunities to buy the dip when the market falls. Also, there's a strict rule: no single asset's position should exceed 12%. No matter how optimistic I am, I never go heavy; eggs must not be put in one basket.
To be honest, in a bull market, everyone dares to call themselves a 'master', and buying casually can lead to gains. But when a bear market comes, it's easy to see who’s swimming naked. I've seen too many friends trading contracts; this month they say they've doubled their money, and next month they're in a margin call and can’t afford food. This kind of drama plays out every year.
If you really want to leave with profits, the core is eight words: be less greedy in a bull market, stock up in a bear market. New friends, take my advice: don’t think about getting rich overnight as soon as you enter; first, play with a simulated account for half a year to familiarize yourself with the rules, then enter the market with spare money, the kind that won’t affect your life if you lose it. Never gamble with your retirement money or home-buying funds.
Nine years of hard lessons have taught me: making steady profits is a thousand times more reliable than quick profits, and not losing is actually winning. The market is never absent; as long as you keep your principal safe, there will always be a day when you wait for opportunities.
Lastly, let me ask: have you ever had an experience of 'being greedy just once' and ended up getting deeply trapped? Share your story in the comments, and follow me @男神讲趋势 #加密市场观察 $BTC .
