What’s the most important thing in trading? In fact, trading contracts and playing meme coins are the same.

This question has been asked to death, but 90% of people still get it wrong. Many think it’s the ability to “predict the future,” or so-called “precise entry points.”

I can tell you with absolute certainty that the most important thing in trading comes down to just two words: staying alive.

Does that sound vague? That’s because you haven’t been beaten up by the market yet. The math is brutal: if you lose 50%, you need a 100% gain just to break even; if you lose 90%, you need a 900% gain to recover. No matter how strong your strategy’s attack power is, if your risk control is weak, the market will eventually use a black swan event to take back all the money you ever made—plus interest.

Many retail traders die clinging to the obsession of “getting rich overnight,” going all-in and ultimately falling right before dawn. True trading pros never focus on how much they can make on a single trade, but rather on whether they can stay at the table if this trade goes wrong. Only by staying at the table can the law of large numbers work its magic and positive expectancy systems pay off. So stop chasing those flashy prediction techniques. Etch fund management and risk control into your bones—they’re the only lifeline you have in this brutal market.