This is the final installment of my 'Crypto Comeback' series. After writing nine articles about mindset, methods, and techniques, today, I want to share some more fundamental things with you, the most basic survival rules that I exchanged for real money and countless sleepless nights while going through two complete bull and bear markets (2017-2018, 2020-2022).
These rules, each one of them, defy intuition and require you to fight against your instincts. But it is precisely these 'counterintuitive' things that transformed me from a 'lucky profit, skill-based loss' retail investor into a stable profit-making investor who can sleep soundly.
Are you ready? These may be the ten sentences you least want to hear but most need to hear.
Rule One: Slow is fast, less is more
When I first entered the circle, I pursued 'fast': learning quickly, trading quickly, doubling quickly. The result was rapid zeroing. Now I pursue 'slow': slowly researching, slowly building positions, slowly becoming rich. My annualized target is only 20%-30%, but compound interest over 7 years can yield 4-6 times. In investing, slow is the only fast; steady is the only way to make huge profits.
Rule Two: Complexity is the enemy of wisdom
I used to be obsessed with complex indicators, complex strategies, and complex combinations. Later I found that the strategies for making money were so simple that I felt embarrassed to say them: dollar-cost averaging Bitcoin, trend following, buying high and selling low. Doing simple things to the extreme far exceeds the constant search for complex new methods. My trading system now only has three indicators: price, volume, and the 200-day moving average. Simple, therefore reliable; reliable, so it can be executed.
Rule Three: The market does not reward cleverness; it rewards patience
The smartest people in the crypto world are doing quantitative analysis, arbitrage, and high-frequency trading. They have made a lot of money, but their systems cannot be replicated by ordinary people. For ordinary people, the greatest advantage is not cleverness but patience. Patiently wait for opportunities, patiently hold, patiently endure bear markets. In a bull market, you are surrounded by 'stock gods'; in a bear market, those who can still remain are the true investors.
Rule Four: Investing is for living, not to replace life
If you lose sleep, feel anxious, neglect your family, or let your main business suffer because of investing, then no matter how much money you make, you are a loser. Investing should be a tool to make life better, not life itself. My rule is: the investment principal should not exceed 30% of liquid assets (excluding house, car, and emergency funds); investment time should not exceed 1 hour a day. A healthy mind and body, a harmonious family, and a promising main business are your 'ultimate risk controls' in investing.
Rule Five: Be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy, but the hardest part is 'knowing when others are fearful/greedy'
This phrase has been said too many times, but those who can do it are one in ten thousand. The difficulty lies in the fact that when others are fearful, you will also be fearful; when others are greedy, you will be even greedier. My method is 'quantifying emotions': using the fear and greed index, using community activity, using the discussion heat of people around you. Set clear thresholds for yourself: when the index is <20, start buying in batches; when the index >80, start selling in batches. Use data to counter feelings.
Rule Six: Capital is a seed, not a bet
Many people treat their capital as 'gambling money', hoping to turn things around in one shot. I treat my capital as 'seeds', carefully sowing them and patiently waiting for them to grow. The attitude towards capital determines your investment lifespan. My iron rule: a single loss should not exceed 2% of total funds; total losses should not exceed 20% (if triggered, you must rest from the market for a month); only invest spare money.
Rule Seven: You are here to make money, not to prove yourself right
This is the root of 'stubborn holding' and 'not cutting losses'. We fear admitting mistakes because that means 'I was wrong, I lost'. But investing is a probability game; being wrong is the norm. The real winners are not right every time but earn a lot when they are right and lose little when they are wrong. Every time I cut losses, I tell myself: 'This trade was wrong, not me as a person.'
Rule Eight: The more information, the harder the decision
I exited 90% of the communities, unfollowed 90% of the big influencers, and reduced my market watching from 5 hours a day to 1 hour. My decision quality actually improved. In an age of information explosion, attention is the scarcest resource. Protect your attention as you would protect your capital. Look less, think more; act less, wait more.
Rule Nine: The biggest risk is not knowing that you are taking risks
Using high leverage is risky, holding one coin with all your capital is risky, but the biggest risk is that you use high leverage and think you are safe, holding one coin with all your capital while believing you are 'value investing'. Always maintain respect for the market and always assume you might be wrong. My habit is to ask myself before opening a position: 'If there is a 50% adverse fluctuation, can I still survive?'
Rule Ten: Investing is an infinite game; your goal is to stay at the table
The goal of a finite game (like chess) is to win; the goal of an infinite game is to keep playing. Investing is an infinite game. Your primary goal is not to 'win once' but to 'always be able to play'. This means: never leverage, never go all in, never go all out. As long as you stay at the table, there are infinite opportunities. Those who pursue 'turning things around in one shot' have long been eliminated.
None of these ten rules teach you 'what to buy tomorrow that will rise'. Because such things are poison, an excitement that excites you in the short term but is fatal in the long term.
The real 'turnaround' is not from 'losing money' to 'making money', but from 'being controlled by the market' to 'controlling yourself', from 'emotion-driven' to 'system-driven', from 'seeking excitement' to 'enjoying calmness'.
When I started following these 'anti-human' rules, my greatest gain was not the increase in account numbers, but rather:
I can sleep well for 8 hours every day
I am no longer affected by market fluctuations in my mood
I have more time to accompany my family, improve my main business, and develop hobbies
I am filled with calm expectations for the future
The ultimate state of investment success is freedom: freedom of time, freedom of finances, freedom of mind. And these freedoms begin with your awareness, constraints, and transcendence of your own humanity.
This is the last piece of my 'Crypto Comeback' series. Thank you for reading this far. This series won't make you rich overnight, but if you can understand and practice even a few of the points, I believe you can live longer, better, and more calmly in this brutal yet charming market.
I am Lao Li, an investor still on the road. If you find this series helpful, please follow me @币圈罗盘
The road of investing is long, and we travel together. I wish you, and I wish myself, safe travels and a gradual journey to wealth.
#加密市场反弹 $BTC $ETH
