Last week at the community delivery station, I personally witnessed my neighbor Lao Yang patting his chest, sharing 'investment insights' with the delivery guy — just a month ago, he was squatting by the flower bed, extinguishing a cigarette while staring at his phone's K-line chart, with a worried expression. As an analyst who has been struggling in the crypto space for five years, I originally thought he was going to lament his liquidation and blood-soaked history, but he said something that nearly made me drop my coffee cup: '3000 dollars principal, turned into 75,000 in 7 weeks, this time it wasn't about luck, it was all about self-control!'
In the first three years of Lao Yang's cryptocurrency journey, it was simply a 'specimen record of retail investors': chasing highs and selling lows, leveraging and gambling, drowning sorrows in alcohol after liquidation... It wasn't until his account was left with 3000 dollars that he finally awakened: 'In the past, I looked at the K-line like gambling, excited with the red and panicking with the green, and all my money went to emotional taxes.'
1. The truth about cutting韭菜 (leeks): 90% of losses stem from 'gambling cycles'
Lao Yang's past is a reflection of most people. The most common scams in the crypto world come in three forms:
Pumping and dumping: traders accumulate chips at low prices and create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) to attract retail investors to chase prices, then sell frantically. For example, some altcoin projects rely on 'celebrity endorsements + high return promises' to attract attention, and quickly crash after retail investors flood in.
Information asymmetry: project parties and big holders always know the good and bad news earlier than retail investors. Lao Yang once believed in 'insider information' and ended up repeatedly getting trapped.
Emotional manipulation: during market frenzy, social media is flooded with 'soaring predictions' that confuse people; during crashes, 'collapse theories' trigger panic selling.
What the traders fear most is not the technical players, but the players with a 'robotic discipline'—just like Lao Yang later insisted: 'Cut losses immediately when the trend breaks, take profits when targets are met, never cling to the battle.'
2. The core of Lao Yang's turnaround: two 'stupid methods' beat 90% of gamblers
1. Only follow trends, do not guess tops and bottoms
In the past, Lao Yang was always entangled in 'Is this the bottom?' 'Will I miss out?' Now his trading interface only has two moving averages (MA30/MA60). He enters in batches when the price stands above the moving average and clears his position when it breaks below, absolutely not reversing his operations. He said: 'Missing out just means less profit; being trapped is deadly. The market never lacks opportunities; what’s lacking is the capital to survive until tomorrow.'
The logic behind this strategy is that corrections in a bull market are normal phenomena. For example, Bitcoin experienced eight corrections of 25%-35% during the 2017 bull market, but ultimately reached new highs. Counter-trend bottom fishing is like driving against traffic at high speed, with a very low survival rate.
2. Position management is more important than entry points
Lao Yang changed his 'all-in addiction' to 'no single stock over 20%': mandatory profit-taking at 15%, stop-loss if loss exceeds 5%. He even set rules for his apprentices: withdraw 50% of the profit to lock in gains, for example, a convenience store owner who made $3,000 from $500 should first withdraw money to buy an electric bike; a programmer who made $30,000 should immediately buy a bag for his wife.
Those who die the worst in the crypto world are always the greedy 'old hands.' I have a fan who once turned $10,000 into $30,000 but leveraged to bet $100,000, resulting in a total loss overnight. Meanwhile, Lao Yang and others win by 'taking profits when they see gains'—the market rewards not courage, but restraint.
3. Industry warning signs: after the leverage frenzy, there must be a clearing
Lao Yang was able to successfully avoid risks because he avoided the recent deadly pits in the market. Since October, Bitcoin has plummeted from a high of $126,000 to below $100,000, with over $2 billion in liquidations across the network. Especially when stablecoins decoupled (like XUSD dropping to $0.26) and ETF funds continued to flow out, it indicates that market sentiment has turned cautious.
Behind these fluctuations are the chain reactions of leveraged trading: a large number of retail investors leverage to chase prices at peaks, and once prices correct, the liquidation mechanism accelerates the crash. Lao Yang's 'moving average discipline' just helps him avoid this kind of strangulation.
4. Advice for ordinary people: surviving is more important than getting rich quickly
Reject the 'gambling mentality'
There is no 'guaranteed profit' in the crypto world; any promise of high returns is a trap. Lao Yang often says now: 'If a trade makes your heart race, it means your position is too heavy.'
Invest with spare money, and maintain the bottom line of life
The first thing Lao Yang did after turning his fortunes around was to transfer half of the profits to buy wealth management: 'Money in the crypto world is always just numbers; cashing in is what truly belongs to you.'
Long-termism is the ultimate protective moat
Market cycles always exist. A bear market is an opportunity to accumulate chips, while a bull market is a stage to realize profits. Just like Lao Yang, during the lows, he finished reading my three years of analysis notes before developing a 'calm mindset towards rises and falls.'
Lao Yang's story lacks mythical colors but shatters the biggest lie in the crypto world: what you think is 'gambling luck' is actually 'gambling with your life.' When he removed his trading software for three days and calmly reviewed on the balcony, he finally understood: the market is not terrifying; what is terrifying is uncontrolled human nature.
If you are still anxious about being trapped or fantasizing about making a big comeback, ask yourself: Are you here to invest or to gamble with your life? Remember, those who can survive in the crypto world are always the rational ones who 'follow trends carefully and maintain stable positions.'
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