I have seen too many people who spend every day immersed in candlesticks, their fingers opening orders as if they were cramping. Do you think this is an addiction to gambling? No, this is the sickness of poverty.
When your wallet only has 200U, not 200 BTC, a 5% fluctuation is a huge deal—it's not that you want to gamble, but that you can't afford to wait. Traditional finance says 'money has a time value,' but in the crypto world, time is compressed into a spring: 12 seconds for a block, 1 minute to complete 15 candlesticks, and a million at 30 and a million at 60 are indistinguishable here because you might not live to see 60 and get washed out.
1. The arithmetic problem of the poor: slow means death
Value investing tells you 'hold Bitcoin, a thousandfold in eight years,' but the reality is:
The Bitcoin bought for $10,000 in 2017 will only reach $60,000 in 2025; an annualized 25% sounds good, but eight years ago you only had $50,000 in capital, and you might have sold at $30,000 due to FOMO, turning it into worthless altcoins.
You have 800U, earning 120U at an annualized 15%, and you can't even afford to change your phone; but with 50x leverage catching a 10% rebound, your account instantly increases by 500%—slow means death, fast is the only way to survive.
This is the survival logic of retail investors: capital is too short, they can't afford to wait for a 'four-year cycle,' and can only desperately chase every seemingly opportunistic chance. Just like a Texas short stack player, with only 10 big blinds, there are no options other than all-in.
2. The essence of frequent trading: Survival anxiety, not gambling addiction.
Why can't you help but FOMO? Because the 'opportunities' in the cryptocurrency world are endlessly amplified by social media:
A line in the group '20 times tonight, villa by the sea' is more thrilling for the nerves than Buffett's 'slowly getting rich.'
When the Google search popularity of a certain token peaks, it's often the tail end of the market—higher popularity means more exiters.
But you can't blame yourself for being impulsive. Research shows that low-frequency traders (the lowest 20% of users by trading frequency) have an annualized return of 18.5%, far higher than high-frequency traders at 11.4%. But when your capital is thin, stable returns mean nothing; what you need is an overnight turnaround.
3. The gap between institutions and retail investors: The poor talk about win rates, while the rich only talk about positions.
The essential difference between institutional markets and retail markets is:
Institutions use macro research and industry logic for decision-making, while retail investors are led by emotions.
Institutional funds have strict risk control, but retail investors often fall deeper into the 'break-even obsession'—it takes an average of 120 days to recover 50% of your assets, but in the cryptocurrency world, 120 days is enough to miss countless opportunities.
The harsher reality is that institutions treat trading as a business, while retail investors treat it as a gamble. When you risk 100U for 10,000U, institutions earn 100U from 10,000U—one gambles destiny, the other makes a profit.
4. The way to break through: When you're poor, you need to learn to 'shrink your position'
I'm not advising you to give up, but to help you recognize reality:
Ask yourself: 'Can I still afford instant noodles after being liquidated?' If you can afford it, then go for it; if you can't, first reduce your position to a level where you can sleep peacefully.
Use tools to combat human nature: Set hard stop losses + inverted pyramid take profits (the higher it goes, the more you sell), or directly give it to a grid trading robot to avoid emotional interference.
Spend your time watching the market to earn capital: The cryptocurrency world is not short of opportunities, but short of people who can survive until spring. If your capital increases tenfold, your mindset will naturally be as steady as an old dog.
Lastly, let me say something unpleasant.
Frequent trading is not shameful, nor is being liquidated; what is shameful is that it's 2025 and you're still deceiving yourself with 'going to zero,' resulting in having no Bitcoin even at zero.
The first lesson in the cryptocurrency world is not technical analysis, but to admit you're poor—only when you stop deceiving yourself with 'changing your fate' will you start to think: How to survive on 800U instead of betting on tomorrow.
Follow Xiang Ge to learn more first-hand information and precise points of cryptocurrency knowledge, becoming your guide in the cryptocurrency world; learning is your greatest wealth!#巨鲸动向 #加密市场观察 $ETH
