The string of red numbers on the screen is enough to make one suffocate; it's the third time in two years I've seen an account liquidation scene.

I still remember a night in 2021 when I dropped my phone on the sofa, an ashtray filled with cigarette butts, neon lights flashing outside the window. Starting with a principal of 80,000 yuan when I first entered the circle, I continuously invested another 120,000 yuan in the middle, and in the end, it all disappeared. Zero after two years.

The first liquidation was caused by a little-known "potential coin." Someone posted a screenshot of triple returns in a single day, and I impulsively went all-in with 50,000 yuan. As a result, the project team ran away overnight, and the money was gone. The second was even more outrageous; I blindly trusted a so-called "big shot" calling trades, used 20x leverage to bet on Ethereum's correction, and was forcibly liquidated at 3 a.m., only then realizing that the so-called "insider information" was just a scam script. The third and most ironic time, I learned a bit about K-line analysis and thought I could predict the market, but a small fluctuation completely wiped out my funds.

Lying on the sofa at that moment, I finally understood a truth: the crypto world isn't that no one makes money, but that I have been using gambler's thinking to send myself to death.

In the following half year, I reviewed all my trading records, writing down the reasons for each liquidation on the wall, then repeatedly studied the logic behind the actions of real experts. Gradually, I uncovered three particularly counterintuitive truths.

**First truth: The power of patience far exceeds frequent trading**

This is common among beginners: seeing market fluctuations, they want to place orders, trading ten or more times a day, paying lots of fees, but their accounts keep shrinking. At that time, an experienced trader told me to do an experiment—look at the charts for a week without trading, just note down the coins I want to buy, then review after a week. The result shocked me: those "bottom-fishing" points I thought I was aiming for were never reached; instead, my frequent trades caused me to lose about 5%.

Later, I realized that mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum have cyclical volatility. Not every fluctuation is worth betting on. The truly profitable traders wait for those "highly certain" opportunities to appear, rather than trading on every little movement.

**Second truth: Leverage is an abyss, not a quick wealth machine**

The time I liquidated with 20x leverage, I lost more than three times my principal. That made me realize what "gambling with borrowed money" really means. Even minor market tremors can wipe you out instantly, and you often don't even understand why you got liquidated. Later, I encountered several consistently profitable traders, all of whom used low or no leverage. The key is to seize 5% to 10% certain gains, not to gamble for a double or nothing.

**Third truth: Learning some K-line knowledge doesn't mean you can trade**

Understanding moving averages and support levels doesn't mean you can predict the market. Truly skilled traders ask themselves three questions first: What is the risk-reward ratio of this trade? Why am I placing this order at this point? If the market moves against me, how much could I lose? I once skipped these three questions and just placed a bet, and an unexpected fluctuation wiped me out completely.

Looking back now, the crypto world isn't short of opportunities; what’s lacking is patience to resist trading. Profitable people are waiting—for the most certain opportunity. But I used to always rush, rushing to participate in every opportunity that seemed profitable.

It's that simple.