Many friends involved in futures trading have encountered a helpless situation: they correctly predict the market direction, but their positions keep getting thinner, until their accounts are drained. This is not a technical problem, but rather a consequence of being "worn out" by the underlying rules of the contracts.

I have a friend who once held a position for 5 days, with K-line trends perfectly aligned with expectations, yet he was continuously charged fees in the backend until his margin was exhausted. When the market finally soared, he had no chance to see the profits. Such incidents are all too common.

**Why does this happen? Mainly three pitfalls:**

**First Pitfall: Invisible Cost of Funding Fees**

Focusing on market fluctuations often causes traders to overlook the hidden costs of funding fees that are deducted silently. Exchanges settle every 8 hours; during positive fee periods, you pay, and during negative fee periods, you earn.

The key issue is: at high fee rates, even with the correct market direction, holding positions for two or three days can eat up more than half of the margin due to funding costs. The solution is simple—avoid trading during high-fee periods, don’t hold positions blindly for long durations, and try to be on the side that receives the fee.

**Second Pitfall: Liquidation Price Is Closer Than You Think**

New traders often think, "10x leverage means a 10% drop will cause liquidation." But the reality is much harsher—liquidation can be triggered with only about a 5% decline.

Why? Because you’re calculating the theoretical liquidation point, but the platform also adds fees, risk buffers, and other factors. These unseen "cushions" are actually protective mechanisms of the exchange, but for high-leverage positions, they become a death sentence.

The correct approach is: don’t use full margin, enable isolated margin mode, keep leverage between 3x and 5x, and leave enough buffer in your margin.

**Third Pitfall: The Black Hole of Costs with High Leverage**

High leverage can amplify gains, but hidden costs are also scaled proportionally. Fees and funding costs are calculated based on the amplified principal.

Sometimes, the profit looks impressive on paper, but when settling and withdrawing, you realize that fees and various costs have already eaten up most of the profit. This is the truth of high leverage: extremely low tolerance for errors, and small fluctuations can turn profits into losses.

**Key Takeaway**

Many treat futures contracts as a "game of guessing the right direction to make money," but in reality, it’s more like a complex rule system. Market ups and downs are just surface phenomena; the rules and mechanisms are the real determinants of survival.

Exchanges are not afraid of your technical analysis accuracy; what they truly fear is when users learn the rules and understand cost control. Only when you truly grasp how funding fees work, understand the details of liquidation mechanisms, and calculate leverage costs precisely, can you survive long in this market.

There’s no need to chase high leverage bets or always hold full positions. Master the rules, and steady profits will follow. Remember this: the market direction determines whether you can make money, but the rules determine whether you can stay alive.