At 2:17 AM, the night rain in Binhai City wraps around with biting cold and dampness, heavily pounding against the glass of the rental apartment's bay window.
Han Li is curled up in a slightly worn-out esports chair, his eyes bloodshot, staring intently at the flickering candlestick chart on his phone screen. His knuckles are pale due to the excessive force he is using to grip the phone tightly.
On the screen is the recently skyrocketing RAVE/USDT trading pair in the cryptocurrency market. The fifteen-minute candlestick chart is soaring, with each bullish candle more aggressive than the last. The price has just forcefully broken through $2.8, and the 24-hour increase is directly fixed at 88.80%. In the right-side transaction volume column, huge transaction numbers are constantly fluctuating, and the total liquidation amount across the network is also surging crazily.
This is a completely irrational financial game, a life-and-death struggle between bulls and bears, and a purgatory for countless speculators.
"Will it really pull up to 3.5? Absolutely impossible."
Han Li murmured softly, his fingertips hovering over the 'Open Short' button on the trading interface, hesitating to press it.
He was not a blindly entering novice; in the three years since entering the cryptocurrency trading circle, he had relied on his extraordinary talent to read through hundreds of professional books on trading, quantification, and K-line patterns, reviewed countless historical trends of various coins, and developed the ability to see through the main force's trading methods. Once, relying on precise wave operations, he had turned a few thousand in capital into several hundred thousand in account funds, gaining some fame in the circle, and many called him a genius trader.
But all of this slowly turned to nothing amid the series of market prediction failures.
To gather the principal for a comeback, he had long given up the obsession with full-time trading, running deliveries under the scorching sun and against the cold wind during the day, weaving through the streets of Binhai City, earning a few bucks for each delivery, enduring the wind and rain, suffering cold stares, and at night, returning to this small, dilapidated rental room, studying the market until the early hours with his phone, running back and forth, exhausted but not daring to stop.
This time, he put all his hard-earned money saved from running food deliveries, and even borrowed money from his delivery brothers and former classmates repeatedly, enduring ridicule and evasion, just to gather the full 100,000 USDT margin, all of which was placed on the RAVE short position.
He spent a full three days and nights without closing his eyes, forcing himself to deliver food during the day while secretly checking the market during delivery breaks, and at night, he would go home and stay awake, repeatedly reviewing the market trends of RAVE, calculating the holding costs of the main funds, analyzing the divergence signals of every technical indicator, and simulating every possible spike market.
$3.2 was the previous spike high of RAVE, a very strong resistance level; the market's moving average system showed serious divergence, and the oscillation indicators were already stuck in the overbought zone, unable to break upwards again; more critically, the trading volume continued to shrink during the rise, which was a typical signal of exhaustion in the rally and the main force's bait.
All technical and financial indicators pointed to the same conclusion—RAVE was about to plummet, and the short market was about to erupt.
Han Li took a deep breath, suppressing an inexplicable unease in his heart, his gaze becoming resolute.
Twenty times leverage, 100,000 USDT margin, 50,000 RAVE short positions.
This was his do-or-die battle; if he won, he could not only regain all the funds he lost but also pay off his debts and completely turn his life around, no longer delivering food in the wind and rain, standing tall; if he lost, he would have nothing, be burdened with debt, and completely fall into the abyss.
Thinking of this, his ex-girlfriend Liu Ruyan's face unconsciously appeared in his mind, and his heart felt heavy.
Liu Ruyan was his girlfriend for two years, exceptionally beautiful, and never lacked suitors. When Han Li's trading was going smoothly and he was financially stable, Liu Ruyan relied on him for everything; but ever since he suffered trading losses and his funds were depleted, having to lower himself to deliver food for a living, everything changed.
Liu Ruyan began to disdain his smell of cooking oil, his clothes always carrying the scent of sweat from the delivery box, disdainful of the fact that he was always dirty and sunburned, and that he was incapable of earning big money, only bringing endless suffering to her. At friend gatherings, she no longer wanted to bring Han Li along, and even in front of others, openly regretted being with him, mocking him as just a lowly delivery guy with no future.
A few days ago, the two had a complete explosive argument; Liu Ruyan decisively proposed breaking up and turned to embrace a boss who drove a luxury car and was generous with money. Before leaving, she said, "Han Li, in your lifetime, you can only deliver food; don't dream of getting rich anymore," which felt like a needle, brutally stabbing into his heart and never being pulled out.
Apart from Liu Ruyan's disdain, the interpersonal relationships around him had also changed flavor. Colleagues who ran deliveries together mostly thought he was not doing his job properly, spending all day holding his phone researching useless things, secretly mocking him for his unrealistic ideas; former classmates either avoided him or made it difficult for him when borrowing money, full of contempt in their words; even his parents far away in his hometown were filled with worry when they called, advising him not to stir things up anymore, to honestly find a stable job, their helplessness weighed heavily on him.
He wanted to win so badly, to regain the dignity he lost, to slap Liu Ruyan in the face, to make everyone around him respect him, and to give his parents a stable life.
"Let's take a gamble, my judgment won't be wrong."
The fingertips pressed down heavily, and the screen instantly popped up a prompt saying 'Commission Successful', with the opening price accurately fixed at $2.81.
At the moment the short position was established, Han Li's heart raced uncontrollably; he stared at the market price, every tiny fluctuation pulling at every nerve in his body.
In the first half hour, the market moved just as he had predicted, with prices fluctuating narrowly between $2.80 and $2.85, with no significant surge or immediate decline. Han Li quickly checked his maintenance margin ratio; under twenty times leverage, the maintenance margin ratio for RAVE was only 5%. As long as the price did not rise and break above $3.30, his position would be extremely safe; as long as the market fell back as expected, he could instantly reap huge profits.
He firmly believed that his trading system would not go wrong; in this game, he was sure of victory.
However, the market is always the cruelest and most unpredictable.
At 3:05 AM, the originally calm market was suddenly disrupted, huge buy orders surged in, and the price of RAVE skyrocketed like it was on a rocket!
2.82, 2.85, 2.9, 2.95...
On the K-line chart, a glaring huge bullish candle rose up, directly breaking through all resistance levels, and the trading volume suddenly expanded, completely shattering the previous illusion of low-volume gains.
A cold sweat broke out on Han Li's forehead, his shirt soaked through with cold sweat, and he felt cold all over. He quickly calculated in his mind that under twenty times leverage, every time RAVE's price rose by $0.1, his account loss would increase by a full 5,000 USDT, and at this moment, the price was getting closer and closer to his liquidation price.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible, this is the last temptation of the main force; they will soon crash the market!"
Han Li bit his teeth tightly, his fingers trembling, yet he did not press the stop-loss button, nor did he choose to increase his position to average down. He still believed in his judgment; the previous high resistance level of $3.2 was absolutely insurmountable for the main force, and this wave of upward movement was just to explode all the short positions in the market.
He was waiting for the market to rise and then fall, waiting for the victory of the bears.
But reality dealt him the heaviest blow.
At 3:42 AM, the price of RAVE strongly broke through $3.0, showing no signs of stopping, directly jumping to $3.1.
On the phone screen, the glaring red liquidation warning popup appeared out of nowhere, occupying the entire screen: [Insufficient margin, account will soon be forcibly liquidated!]
Han Li's hands began to tremble uncontrollably, he frantically refreshed the page, trying to find a hint of a market reversal, but what met his eyes was only the continuously rising price and the rapidly shrinking margin in his account.
He even saw that in the cryptocurrency community, a large number of unknown accounts suddenly surged in, frantically promoting RAVE's positive news, shouting slogans like "RAVE is going to hit $10" and "A hundred times coin is just around the corner", completely igniting the market's blind enthusiasm, leading more retail investors to follow suit and further pushing up the price.
The on-chain large capital flow data also showed that huge funds were continuously flowing into RAVE; everything was overturning all his previous predictions.
At 3:47 AM, the price of RAVE broke through $3.2 without resistance; the absolute resistance level he had identified was easily breached.
"No—"
Han Li's pupils shrank sharply, his eyes filled with despair and disbelief; his trading system, his proud talent, was utterly powerless in the face of this crazy market.
In the next second, the cold system prompt sounded like the decree of death, echoing in the silent room.
[Forcibly liquidating...]
In just 0.1 seconds, the red liquidation prompt filled the entire screen, and Han Li's account with 100,000 USDT margin, along with his 50,000 RAVE short positions, was all forcibly liquidated, turning to nothing.
Account balance, zero.
The liquidation amount was clearly displayed on the page—100,000 USDT, equivalent to nearly 700,000 RMB.
Han Li slumped in the gaming chair, completely drained of energy, staring blankly at the screen, his mind a blank.
The rain outside was getting heavier, pattering against the glass like it was hitting his heart, completely plunging him into the abyss.
This was his third liquidation.
The first two times were due to his inexperience and reckless operations when he first entered the market; he could still rely on his talent and persistence to climb back up, even if he had to deliver food, he still had hope. But this time, he had staked everything, put aside all dignity, and meticulously arranged everything, yet in the end, he still lost everything.
He recalled the chaos of running deliveries during the day, being challenged by customers, chased away by security, and delivering in heavy rain; he remembered Liu Ruyan's disdainful gaze, her bitter sarcasm; he remembered the attitude of friends and classmates who avoided him, and the helpless sighs of his parents; he remembered the trading notes he wrote late into the night, filled with charts of K-line patterns, summarizing countless trading rules...
All the efforts, all the expectations, all the desires to turn things around, at this moment, all turned into a huge joke.
On the screen, RAVE's price was still crazily rising, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5... eventually reaching $3.52, with a 24-hour increase directly breaking through 100%; the market was in a frenzy of bulls, while he was the most tragic loser in this celebration.
"Why... why is this happening..."
Han Li repeatedly refreshed the K-line chart, replaying it over and over again; he couldn't find any logical mistakes in his trades; all technical indicators, all trading rules had failed in this extreme market.
Despair, pain, unwillingness, regret, countless negative emotions flooded over him like a tide, completely drowning him, making it hard for him to breathe. He even started to mock himself, thinking he was just a bottom-level food delivery guy, unworthy of dreaming of getting rich overnight, unworthy of having a decent life, unworthy of being respected.
His consciousness gradually blurred, an overwhelming fatigue and despair swept over him, Han Li's vision became darker, and the phone in his hand fell weakly, thudding onto the carpet.
The light of the screen continued to flicker in the darkness, reflecting his pale, desperate face, and the last glimmer in his eyes gradually extinguished.
"If... if I could do it all over again..."
This was the last moment before Han Li's consciousness faded, the only thought deep in his heart, strong and intense. He wanted to start over, to protect his principal, to slap all those who looked down on him in the face, to live the way he wanted.