The ten square meter rental room in the urban village of Shenzhen, winter 2018.

Staring at the computer screen, BTC jumped from 18k USD to 19k, and my account balance skyrocketed from 300,000 to 3,000,000 — at that moment, I truly believed that this was my chance to turn my life around. And what happened? Three days, just three days, the market turned and ran away, and my position was completely wiped out. On Christmas, I opened my account, balance: 590,000.

Eight years have passed. Looking back on the lessons learned with real money over these years, it's worth discussing.

**About Leverage**

The most ruthless time was when I used 20x leverage to trade ETH, earning 400,000 in one day. I was on cloud nine, feeling like I was the chosen trader. Until that day on May 19, 2021—within two hours, 600,000 was gone. Leverage has never been the wings that let you fly; it is the knife hanging around your neck.

Now my rules are very strict: leverage limit is 3x, and the maximum position size is 5%. Want to dance on the edge of the cliff? First, consider how strong the wind is.

**The Cost of All-In**

Years ago, I heavily invested in a project that claimed to be a "domestic public chain." When my initial capital of 250,000 grew to 1.5 million, the project team kept shouting about "consensus revolution" and "ecosystem explosion." I believed it and didn't sell a single coin. What happened later? The price fell to below 0.001 dollars, and it went to zero.

My position allocation is now boring to the extreme: 85% in BTC and ETH, the remaining 15% to play around with altcoins - dreaming is fine, but don't put all your savings in.

**About the Stop Loss Hurdle**

Every transaction must set an 8% hard stop loss. Once triggered, just walk away, no hesitation, no looking back. This rule has saved me many times. A stop loss is not giving up, it's leaving a way out for yourself, waiting for the next opportunity.

What is the funniest thing in the crypto world? A bunch of people get stuck and shout "value investing", but in reality, they are just stubbornly refusing to admit their mistakes. Ask yourself a question: If your account were to be wiped out tomorrow, could you calmly go out for a hot pot? If not, then you shouldn't be doing this.

After eight years, I've seen too many newcomers rush in and also seen veterans go back to zero. I crawled out of the pit; I used to bump around blindly, but now I at least hold a bit of light in my hand—that's the lesson learned from money spent, and it keeps shining.