Three years ago, I only had $3,000 and charged into the cryptocurrency market like a headless fly. I couldn’t understand what candlesticks were, and every day I just followed the "gurus" in the group shouting buy or sell, step by step. The result was naturally repeated disappointment from stop-losses. At my worst, I could lose half a month’s salary in a single trading day.

It was late at night when I flipped through my trading records, trembling—suddenly I realized a cruel truth: everyone’s profits come from understanding the market, while every penny I lost was due to complete ignorance. At that moment, fear overwhelmed me. If I kept going like this, my account would be wiped out, and my confidence would vanish.

The first decision I made was to immediately leave all trading groups, completely cutting off reliance on shout signals. Looking back now, this was probably the wisest choice I’ve made in my trading career.

The period when I was analyzing charts was a nightmare. I couldn’t understand what candlesticks, moving averages, or volume meant at all. But I stubbornly treated the charts as textbooks, staying up late to watch the market, pulling historical data during the day to review, and recording every detail of each trade. Although that half-year was exhausting, it became the fastest phase of my progress.

About half a year later, I finally started to get a little clue. Not that I suddenly became an expert, but I began to understand what the market was saying. The reactions of prices at support and resistance levels, the market sentiment revealed behind volume, these previously ignored pieces of information started to become important references before I placed orders.

The most important lesson was: the market always moves along the path of least resistance. This sounds simple, but truly understanding and applying this principle in practice took countless trial and error in trading.