A trader recently took rolling over positions to a heart-stopping level.

He started by going long on ETH with 500,000 at the 2,840 mark, continuously rolling over and adding to his position, with unrealized profits peaking at 3.34 million. It looked great on paper, but rolling over is essentially dancing on a tightrope—the liquidation price kept getting pushed higher, and eventually got stuck at $3,000.

What happened next? In the early morning, ETH had a pullback and dropped below 3,000. Two liquidations were triggered like dominoes. By the time he realized, his position was down to 730,000, and over 3 million in profit had basically evaporated. To make matters worse, he was just $42 away from his next liquidation.

So what if you got the direction right? Violent market swings can still wipe out your profits completely. With the current extreme volatility, high leverage is basically gambling with your life.

At the end of the day, investing should be steady. When the market is good, you can make some moves, but you really should avoid rolling over like this. Principal is the foundation of survival—protecting your capital is always more important than maximizing profits.

If ETH doesn’t climb back above 3,000, liquidation chain reactions will keep coming one after another. Manage your risk and survive—only then will you have a chance to make big gains in the next bull market. Don’t get blinded by numbers on the screen and end up with nothing.