Last winter, when A-Zhe reached out to me, he only had 1,500U left in his account.

His voice was terribly hoarse: “If this goes on, I won’t even be able to pay next month’s rent.” Twice, he’d gone all-in on shitcoins and got liquidated, losing all his living expenses. I didn’t talk to him about candlestick patterns or indicator formulas—I just gave him three hard rules. Three months later, his account shot up to 42,000U. But in the end, I still deleted him.

**Rule One: The Three-Part Capital Principle**

Split the 1,500U into three parts, 500U each. Use the first part for short-term intraday trades—no more than one trade a day, take profits immediately at 3%. The second part waits for swing opportunities; don’t enter if the price is consolidating and hasn’t broken key levels. The third part is your last resort—keep it for emergencies, no matter how much the market drops, don’t touch it.

At first, he thought it was too slow and complained, “At this rate, I’ll never make it.” But after seeing a few guys in the group go all-in and blow up their accounts, he finally listened. Position sizing is simple in theory, but few people can actually stick to it.

**Rule Two: Trend is King, Rest During Sideways Markets**

In crypto, 80% of the time is just grinding sideways. The best strategy during consolidation is—uninstall the app, stop watching the charts.

I remember one time BTC was flat for five days straight, and A-Zhe was itching to enter a trade. I held him back: “Wait until it breaks out, don’t rush.” On the sixth day, BTC suddenly pumped, and we caught a 12% move. After that, he finally understood that “waiting” is a skill.

Another principle: Every time you make more than 20% profit, withdraw half. Only money in your pocket is real profit—the numbers on your screen can change in an instant.

**Rule Three: Use Rules to Lock Down Your Emotions**

This is the most important one. Set your stop loss in advance—if you lose 2%, cut the position. If you’re up more than 5%, sell half. Emotional trading is the number one killer in crypto.

Once, he was trading ETH, and as he was about to hit his stop loss, he wanted to add more to his position and hold. I remotely closed the trade for him. ETH kept dropping after that, and he broke out in a cold sweat. He never dared break the rules again.

Rules aren’t for negotiation—they’re for execution.

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But once his account hit 42,000U, A-Zhe started getting cocky.

He began bragging in the group that “he could lead others to make money,” and behind my back, he went heavy on some altcoin. He lost 30%. Instead of reflecting on it, he blamed me: “If I’d done things my way, I would’ve doubled my money by now.”

Looking at those chat logs, I suddenly realized something: The scariest thing in crypto isn’t the market volatility—it’s people who lose their respect for the market after making some money. Making money makes people arrogant; losing money wakes them up.

Before deleting him, I left him with one last message:

**“Going from 1,500U to 42,000U wasn’t luck—it was discipline. But you forgot: discipline is the foundation that keeps you alive.”**

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Having a small starting capital isn’t scary; what’s scary is always thinking about getting rich overnight. The ones who survive in the market are never the luckiest—they’re the ones who know how to control themselves.

Rules and human nature are always at odds. If you stick to the rules, you’ll keep your money; if you don’t, the market will teach you a lesson sooner or later.