Half a year ago, I opened my first position in @Falcon Finance and was confident that I had thought everything through. I read the documentation, watched a few videos, understood the basic mechanics. I thought – what's so complicated about this? You put down collateral, take USDf, and monitor the ratio. Simple. Now, looking back at those first weeks, I find it funny and a bit embarrassing. Because I made practically all possible rookie mistakes.
The first and biggest mistake – I took too much liquidity at once. I saw that with my ETH I could take USDf up to a ratio of 130%, and thought – oh, cool, let's take the maximum, it will be more efficient! Collateral ratio 135%, it seemed there was still a 5% buffer. ETH fell by 8% in two days, my ratio dropped to 124%. I immediately panicked. At 120% liquidation starts, that is, another 4% drop – and that's it. I couldn't sleep all night, watching the charts, imagining losing all my collateral. What saved me was that ETH bounced back, but I don’t want to repeat that stress ever again. Now my iron rule is – never go below a 180% collateral ratio. Yes, I take less liquidity, yes, it’s “less efficient.” But I sleep soundly.
The second mistake – I didn’t set up alerts right away. I didn’t know that I could get notifications about changes in the ratio. I just logged into the app several times a day to check manually. It was exhausting. I constantly thought about the position, distracted from work, from life. One time I forgot to check in the evening and night, woke up – overnight the ratio dropped from 180% to 155%. Nothing critical, but if ETH had fallen a bit more, it could have been bad, and I found out about it after 8 hours. After that, I finally set up alerts at several levels – 200%, 170%, 150%. Now my phone warns me, and I react quickly, without constantly checking.
The third mistake – I used all my ETH as collateral. I had 3 ETH, I put them all in. I thought – I'll maximize my capital. The problem arose when the price began to fall and I needed to add collateral. I didn't have any free ETH. I had to urgently buy on the exchange, transfer, lose time and nerves during the market downturn, when every minute is critical. It was a nightmare. Now I always keep a reserve – if I put ETH in $FF , then a maximum of 70-80% of what I have. The rest is ready in case of a quick add. It's better to have extra than to search in panic.
The fourth mistake – I didn't understand how gas fees work. When I first returned USDf and wanted to withdraw my collateral, I was shocked by the transaction cost. Ethereum was congested, and it cost as much as a small vacation. I didn't take this into account when planning, thought everything would be almost free. It turned out that every interaction with the smart contract costs – opening a position, adding collateral, repaying debt, closing a position. If the network is congested, it’s expensive. Now I look at the gas price before transactions. If it’s high and not urgent – I wait. Working hours in America – gas is expensive, late night or weekends – cheaper. In half a year, this saves a considerable amount.
The fifth mistake – I immediately went to experiment with several assets. After ETH, I thought – oh, in #FalconFinance you can have different assets, let's try everything! I opened positions with three different tokens and quickly got confused. Each asset has its volatility, its risks, its optimal ratios. I couldn't keep track of all of them, constantly getting mixed up – in which position what ratio, which is the riskiest. I had to close two and focus on one. I needed to understand it in detail, feel all the nuances. Only then, after a month, when I confidently managed one, I gradually opened a second. Admitting that I overestimated my capabilities – that’s also a lesson.
The sixth mistake – I didn’t keep records. I just used it, but didn’t document my actions and results. After a month, I couldn’t remember – why did I decide to add collateral then? What was the logic? Did it work? Without records, you can't learn systematically, you can only rely on memory, which is selective. I started keeping a simple journal – date, what I did, why, what happened, whether it was right. Now I see patterns – when I make the right decisions, when I make mistakes.
But not everything was bad. I also did the right things. When I understood each mistake, I immediately corrected it. I didn’t wait, I didn’t hope that "maybe it will work out." After that stress with the low collateral ratio, I immediately added collateral. After problems with alerts – I set everything up in an hour. When I lost money on gas – I started studying when it's cheaper to make transactions. I reacted quickly, didn’t allow mistakes to repeat.
Another right thing – I didn't give up everything after the first blunders. I could have thought "this isn’t for me, too complicated," closed my position and forgotten. But I understood that @falcon_finance is a powerful tool, I just need to learn how to use it correctly. Like with any complex tool – at first, you make mistakes, then you learn. No one sits behind the wheel and drives perfectly the first time.
I also started communicating with other users in the communities. It turned out that many people made the same mistakes. This was reassuring – I wasn't alone. And I began to learn from others' mistakes too, reading other people's stories, asking for advice from experienced users. This accelerated my learning exponentially.
Now, six months later, I look at that version of myself at the beginning of the journey and think – God, how many mistakes I made. But at the same time, I'm grateful for these mistakes, because each of them taught me something important. It taught me to be more careful, to plan better, not to risk unnecessarily, to keep reserves, to use monitoring tools. The main thing is that I corrected all these mistakes quite quickly and didn’t lose much money in the process. Learning cost me nerves and a bit of money on extra gas, but it didn’t cost me all my capital.
If I could give advice to myself six months ago, I would say – start conservatively. Don’t rush for maximum efficiency right away. Open a small position with a high collateral ratio, watch it for a month, feel how everything works. Set all alerts before something goes wrong. Keep reserves. Keep records from day one. Don’t rush to experiment with many assets. And remember – it’s better to earn a little less, but sleep soundly, than to chase efficiency and lose everything due to one mistake.
Now I feel much more confident. I have a system, I have rules, I understand my limits. Do I make mistakes? Yes, sometimes. But they have become smaller, rarer, and I notice and correct them faster. #FalconFinance taught me not only how to use collateral protocols but also how to manage risks, how to control emotions, how to plan several steps ahead. And these are invaluable skills not only for DeFi but also for life in general. My mistakes cost me something, but what they taught me is worth much more.
#FalconFinance @Falcon Finance $FF
