When it comes to trading, it basically comes down to two approaches.

One is to treat money like it’s air. With zero psychological pressure, you’re bold with your position sizing, entering and exiting trades as freely as if you were on a demo account. You’ll notice a lot of people see their demo accounts skyrocket, but once it’s real money, they fall flat—that’s exactly where the problem lies.

The other approach is the complete opposite: you watch every single dollar like a hawk. Out of fear of losses, you keep your position sizes tight, enforce stop-losses without mercy, and your main goal is simply to survive until the next cycle. This is a purely defensive strategy.

The contradiction is, nowadays, many people are unwilling to go all in, but also can’t cut losses decisively. Whether it’s spot trading or derivatives, they hold heavy positions and stubbornly refuse to sell, torn between fearing losses and refusing to act. Are you really taking money seriously, or not at all?

This is a question you need to figure out. If you realize you don’t have that kind of demo-account-level discipline and mindset, then the only way to survive is to strictly control the size of every position, turn your extreme fear of risk into discipline, and let a sense of caution drive your survival in the market.