At night, my phone lit up, and a message broke the silence. It was from my trading friend Xiao Lin, and every word was filled with urgency.

"My account has 12,000U, and I opened a 3x short position with full margin. It only moved 4 points, and my account was wiped out. How is that possible?"

Opening his trading record, I saw that he had poured the entire 12,000U in without any reserve, not even setting a basic stop-loss. Seeing such operations, I could only shake my head.

Many novice traders have a misconception that full margin can "withstand volatility." In reality, full margin is like driving without brakes; even a slight gust of wind can cause a rollover much faster than with isolated positions.

The real cause of full margin liquidation is never how high the leverage is, but how full the position is. Here's a simple example: with a 10,000U account, if you use 8,000U to open a 3x leverage position, a 3.5% move against you will trigger a liquidation. But if you only use 1,000U to open a 3x position, even a 25% fluctuation won't threaten your principal. Xiao Lin put 100% of his capital into the position, and with 3x leverage, that small increase was impossible to withstand.

In fact, full margin can also be used to make steady profits. I’ve practiced this for over half a year and summarized three principles. Not only have I avoided liquidation, but my account has also been steadily growing. Let me explain this method to Xiao Lin in detail:

**First, only use 8% of your capital for each trade.** For a 12,000U account, this means a maximum of 960U per trade. Even if you hit a stop-loss, the loss is small and won’t cause serious damage.

**Second, limit single-loss to no more than 1.5%.** For example, using 960U with 3x leverage, set a stop-loss at 1%. Worst case, you lose 28.8U, which is only 0.24% of your total capital. Risk is fully controlled.

**Third, avoid full margin during sideways markets.** When the market has no clear direction, simply don’t take full-margin positions. Wait for weekly signals before entering, and never be tempted to add to positions during short-term volatility.

One of my students, Xiao Wu, used to get wiped out once a month due to full margin positions, and his account was often emptied. After following these three principles for two months, his 6,000U account gradually grew to 7,800U.

He later told me, "I used to think full margin was the last chance to gamble big. Now I realize that first, you need to stabilize your principal before talking about making money."

Those so-called "unexpected liquidations" in trading are mostly due to not following basic rules. Full margin isn’t impossible, but the key is not to treat it like a gambling table. As long as you follow the principles, risks can be controlled, and making money becomes more reliable.