Late at night at 3 a.m., still watching the market, a notification popped up—"Teacher, the market is dropping so much now, should we buy the dip?" Seeing this message, I was reminded of myself eight years ago, holding a few tens of thousands of yuan, trembling fingers in front of a limit-down K-line chart in the middle of the night.

Having been in this market for so many years, I've seen too many newcomers rush in shouting "get rich overnight," and I've also seen many friends who persisted gradually grow their small capital into seven figures. Today, I won't talk about motivational clichés; instead, I want to share my real experience of going from unable to pay rent to slowly saving money—centered around three counterintuitive iron laws.

**The difference between a sharp plunge and a slow decline is significant**

I have a very deep impression of the big drop in 2016. At that time, my account had only a few tens of thousands of yuan left. A friend was eager to tell me, "Quickly buy the mainstream coins," but I didn't even understand the fundamentals at that time. Summoning courage, I asked, "Such a severe drop, aren't you afraid of being trapped?"

He replied with a phrase I still remember: "Survive, then there's a chance to make money."

Later, I realized that the biggest trap in this market is rushing to buy the bottom when seeing a sharp decline. During rapid drops, people are most likely to collapse. Large funds tend to dump the market at this time to harvest retail investors. But if the market is declining slowly? The longer the decline lasts, the more it can wear down the patience of the small investors. When those who are not truly committed are washed out, that’s when the real opportunity appears.

In 2020, I set my sights on a promising coin, from...