Back in 2017, when I entered the market with $5,000, the derivatives market was like a meat grinder—I saw guys going all-in by mortgaging their houses, and others wiping out their accounts and disappearing overnight. But my account has survived until now, and my maximum drawdown has never exceeded 8%. It’s not luck—it’s treating trading like dismantling a precision machine.

**First Rule: Let Profits “Run Away”**

Every position I open always has a take-profit and stop-loss—this is the bottom line. If my unrealized profit reaches 10% of my principal? I immediately withdraw half and put it in cold storage. The remaining part is “casino chips”—if it goes up, let it ride; if it drops, I don’t care—the principal is already in my pocket.

In 7 years, I’ve withdrawn crypto 37 times. Once I withdrew $180,000 in a single week—the exchange’s customer service even video-called me to verify my account, suspecting something abnormal. But it’s just a strict rule: always withdraw profits, never get greedy.

**Second Rule: Lurk Where Others Get Liquidated**

I watch three timeframes at once—daily for the big trend, 4-hour to define the consolidation range, and 15-minute to find entry points. I open two positions on the same coin: Order A is a breakout long with a stop-loss at the previous daily low; Order B is a short order set in the overbought zone, with stop-loss limited to 1.5% of principal. Take-profit? At least a 5:1 reward-to-risk ratio.

The market ranges and chops 80% of the time. Retail traders get whipsawed chasing pumps and dumps, but I position on both sides to steadily profit from the swings. During the 24-hour LUNA crash last year, when there was a 90% wick in extreme conditions and countless people got liquidated trying to catch the bottom, my long and short take-profits both hit, and my account grew 42% in a single day.

**Third Rule: Stop-loss Isn’t Losing, It’s Buying a Ticket**

Many see stop-losses as disasters—I see them as the price of admission. A small 1.5% cost buys me a seat to catch the trend. If the trade goes my way, I move my stop to let profits run; if it goes against me, I admit defeat and exit—never hold and hope.

My win rate is only 38%—sounds bad, right? But my reward-to-risk ratio is 4.8:1, so my expected value is a positive 1.9%. In plain English: for every $1 risked, I steadily make $1.90. Catch just two real trends a year, and the returns crush any wealth management product.

**I never break these three iron rules:**

Split capital into 10 parts, never risk more than 1 part per trade, and never hold more than 3 parts at once; take a break after two consecutive stop-losses—shut down the computer and hit the gym, never revenge trade; every time the account doubles, withdraw 20% to buy US Treasuries or gold, so I can sleep soundly even in a bear market.

Crypto isn’t a casino—it’s a battlefield that requires discipline and math. Those shouting “all-in to change your fate” only end up changing their fate—for the worse.