Who can understand this kind of despair? The night before yesterday, I was still hoping that ZEC could rebound, thinking I could make up for last week's small loss. But I was suddenly awakened by a message on my phone, and as I opened my eyes, I saw my account balance plummeting. The 400 stop-loss line was completely broken through, and those positions I once couldn't bear to close were instantly wiped out.

What’s even more painful is that upon review, I found that ZEC gave me four chances to return to the cost price before I went to sleep. It was this mindset of "wait a bit longer, it might still go up" that kept me stuck in the position, watching my profits evaporate right before my eyes.

Having been in this circle for nearly ten years, I have to honestly say—stop-loss is not a matter of skill, but a matter of survival. There are many who set stop-losses but cannot hold to them. Everyone holds onto the hope that "the market will rebound sooner or later," but the market is never sentimental; it only punishes those who can't make up their minds.

This bloody lesson has brought me three truly effective stop-loss execution methods, all verified with real money:

**Method 1: Use data to speak, not intuition.** Stop relying on gut feelings to set levels like 400 or 500. Use the ATR indicator (Average True Range) to quantify the stop-loss point. For ZEC, recently the ATR value has been around 15, so set the stop-loss at the buy-in price minus twice the ATR. This approach can filter out false breakouts caused by normal fluctuations and also allow timely exit during genuine trend reversals.

**Method 2: Delegate to the system, avoid giving yourself the chance to regret.** Set automatic stop-loss triggers; once triggered, close the position automatically, completely eliminating manual intervention. This time, I was lazy and didn't enable automation, thinking I could grasp the timing myself. But what happened? The market didn't give me that opportunity.

**Method 3: Mental preparation should be done in advance.** Treat every stop-loss as a small insurance premium, not a failure. Accepting a 3-5% stop-loss is far better than being forced to accept a 30-50% liquidation. This logic sounds simple, but executing it requires constant reminders to oneself.