Last winter night, I stared at the final number in my trading account, my finger hovering over the uninstall button, unable to press it. 360,000 yuan in principal had evaporated to almost nothing, and I even had to think twice before buying a coffee at the convenience store downstairs—the feeling of being used as a punching bag by the market was truly awful.

The day I deleted all my trading apps, I told myself: I’m done with cryptocurrencies for life. But when spring came, sitting by the window in a café, looking at the remaining 3,600 yuan on my phone, a thought suddenly popped into my mind: Am I really going to walk away in defeat like this? Or should I use this little bit of money to try again—at least don’t let all the tuition fees I’ve paid go to waste. Looking back now, this small amount wasn’t a dead end; instead, it became the starting point for me to truly understand this market.

Comeback doesn’t rely on luck, but on a few hard rules bought with real money—more reliable than any technical indicator.

**First rule: Position management is the key to survival**

I used to believe in “going all in for big returns.” Going full position, betting everything, and as soon as there was a drawdown, I’d get liquidated. It wasn’t until I was left with 3,600 that I realized: in this market, surviving is more important than anything else. Now I set strict rules for myself—never invest more than 25% of my total capital in a single trade, no matter how tempting the opportunity.

Stop-loss is an even stricter rule: if a single trade shows a floating loss of 10%, I close the position immediately and never fantasize about “holding on until it bounces back.” I’ve seen too many people end up ruined just because they couldn’t bring themselves to cut their losses, and in the end...