I haven't doubled my holdings in a day, nor have I caught any hundredfold coins. It's all the same for ordinary people.

But I have blown up accounts, crossed bear markets, and watched batch after batch of people exit this circle. I've had my accounts wiped to zero several times, and my mindset has been completely shattered. Those days of topping up margin—working during the day and watching the charts at night—life was a bit messy.

The more experiences I have, the more I understand: whether you can make money in the crypto world isn't about intelligence. The key is how long you can survive. If you don't make it to the day the bull market arrives, all analysis is pointless.

The following points are not from any book. They are all lessons learned through real money, gained from blown accounts and sleepless nights, blood lessons.

**First, principal is your life.** During a bear market, the most important thing isn't making money, but preserving your principal. As long as your principal remains, a bear market is an opportunity to buy the dip. Once the principal is gone, even the best market conditions can only be watched helplessly.

**Second, greed really can kill you.** I've seen too many chasing high with FOMO. Don't chase the top; take small profits at the right levels and lock them in, repeat this process. Consistent small gains with compound interest are far more reliable than going all-in on a single shot.

**Third, focus your fire but don't go all-in.** After choosing a good track, you can hold a heavy position, but always leave some room. No one can predict the turning points of bull and bear markets; keeping some reserves helps you respond to sudden market moves. That's the secret to surviving longer.

**Fourth, trading with a light position is easier to profit from than heavy positions.** This sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. With a light position, your mindset stays stable—you won't panic sell when the market drops, nor get thrown off by large losses. Heavy positions often lead to blown accounts or stubbornly holding through dips, eventually crushing you.

**Fifth, open positions slowly, close quickly.** When building a position, watch the K-line and enter in stages. But once you hit your take-profit or stop-loss point, never hesitate. Exit immediately—hesitation can cost you another round of losses.

**Sixth, profits have a ceiling, but losses have no bottom.** This is the truth about leverage. One wrong step can lead to a chain reaction; a single mistake with leverage can wipe you out entirely. This isn't alarmist—it's a real risk that has happened.

**Seventh, stop-loss is life-saving.** Many dislike stop-losses, thinking they're troublesome. But once the stop-loss line is hit, you must execute it. It's not about giving up; it's about survival. Hesitating and trying to hold on often leads to deeper trouble.

**Eighth, money in your account isn't real until you withdraw it.** Unrealized gains don't mean much. When the market reverses, everything can disappear. Profits should be taken out—that's the real gain that belongs to you.

These principles seem dead simple, but actually doing them is incredibly hard. Many people are confident during a bull market but can't hold on during a bear market.

In the crypto world, the winners are never those who make the most money the fastest, but those who can endure and dare to cut losses.

Memorize these lessons; at least they can save you three to five years of wasted effort. Next time you watch the charts, I hope you're taking profits, not trying to rescue your position.