At three in the morning, a notification sound jolted me awake.

I checked my phone to see that Ajie had sent over a dozen voice messages, his voice trembling: "Bro... it's blown up again. Fourth time this month. My girlfriend is asking why my savings have been cut in half, how am I supposed to explain..."

He sent a screenshot—his account balance had dropped from 5000U to 3400U. In the notes section, it said "down payment for the wedding house," which made my scalp tingle.

This kid just got engaged last year. His girlfriend doesn’t know he’s trading crypto; she thinks all the money is in safe investments. But he heard from someone that trading contracts can double your money quickly, so he chased the highs and got trapped, tried to buy the dip and got wiped out, losing everything—even his underwear.

I didn’t comfort him. I asked directly, "Are you going to keep gambling until you can’t even get married? Or are you willing to spend some time learning something real?"

He was silent for two minutes, then replied, "Bro, teach me. I don’t want to lose."

Half a year later. At the wedding.

Ajie, suited up, holding his bride, sent me a video. On his phone screen, his account balance showed 120,387U.

The words "zero liquidation" were typed in the chat box, followed by a string of exclamation marks.

Not only did he save up the down payment for the wedding house, but the wedding was held in style.

I’ve been in this market for eight years. I’ve seen too many people treat the crypto space like a casino, only to lose everything in the end.

But the ones who actually survive and make money are never the lucky gamblers. They’re the traders who have risk control ingrained in their bones.

Ajie’s turnaround wasn’t thanks to some magical strategy, but to three principles so simple they’re boring.

If ordinary people just follow these, they can avoid at least ninety percent of the traps.