The ones who ultimately survive are never those who think they are smart gamblers.

Back in 2017, I jumped into the deep waters of cryptocurrency with 8000U. At that time, I couldn’t understand candlestick charts at all, and I had to ponder for a long time just to figure out what yin-yang lines meant. Needless to say, three months later, my account hit rock bottom.

That period was almost like being possessed. When the coin price rose by 1 percentage point, my heartbeat would start racing. When it dropped by 2 percentage points, I’d toss and turn all night, unable to sleep. At the craziest times, I even borrowed money to throw into the market, sinking deeper and deeper.

The turning point came during the 2018 bear market. At that moment, I saw through one thing completely: this market will never teach you how to get rich quickly; it only teaches you how to survive longer. After eight years of ups and downs, I finally understood — those who live longer win the most.

Those past "cut-loss lessons" helped me start over. I gave up all dreams of overnight riches and began learning the basics. I set three strict rules for myself:

Never touch coins I don’t understand; never open a position without a stop-loss; and when greed arises, force myself to exit.

Sounds stupid, right? But it was these "stupid methods" that allowed me to gradually recover a few hundred U. Later, that 1800U slowly grew into 58,000U. Not by luck, nor by some advanced skills, but simply by sticking to these seemingly boring fundamentals.

Many beginners entering the market are filled with thoughts of "how to make big money." But the real question should be "how not to lose money." Risk control is always the first lesson; being smart or not is actually less important.