It's a bit awkward to bring this up, but I think I need to talk about it.

I've been trading cryptocurrencies for 8 years, and the most profound lesson I learned was in 2017. At that time, I went all-in on ADA, starting from 0.03U, buying on dips, and within three months, it skyrocketed to 1.2U. You heard right—40 times the unrealized profit.

During that period, I was completely out of sorts. The first thing I did every morning after waking up was to check my account balance on the exchange. I was already dreaming about renovating a house and buying luxury cars. I had the address of the Porsche 4S dealership all mapped out.

And then? I didn't sell a single coin.

You all know what happened next. ADA dropped to 0.2U. I watched helplessly as the zeros in my account were wiped out one by one, and my profits shrank from 40 times to 5 times. That moment, I finally understood: no Porsche, no escape.

That day, I sat in my office staring at the screen for a long time. Suddenly, I realized something—there are many people who buy coins, but very few who actually sell.

Someone asked me why I am now so steady. Is it because of good skills? Not really. Honestly, it's because I lost so badly that I finally learned to be smart. Over the years, I’ve developed a method, paid the price of heavy losses, which is especially useful for working folks.

Let’s start with profit-taking.

I gave up trying to guess the top long ago. Now I use the "batch exit method"—selling 30% when the price doubles, so I can recover my principal and stay calm. When it triples, I sell another 30%, locking in most of the profits. The remaining part is set with a trailing stop-loss order, for example, if the price drops 15% from the peak, I sell everything.

It sounds complicated, but it’s just one principle: people who aren’t greedy move the fastest.

More importantly, stop-loss. This is what most people hate to do.

My strict rule is simple: no single loss exceeds 5%. Once I sense something’s wrong, I run. The faster, the safer. After each purchase, I immediately set a stop-loss order. Think of it as fastening a seatbelt on your account.

Of course, I also regret sometimes. Last month, I set a stop-loss on a coin, and it later doubled in value. My friends kept mocking me for being timid.

But three months later, that coin plummeted from its peak straight to zero.

The one who laughs last is me.

The crypto world is never about who can make the most money, but about who can survive until the end. Over the years, I’ve seen too many people who earned six or seven figures, only to lose it all when they turn around. It’s not that they lack analysis skills, but they can’t break two bad habits: reluctance to sell, reluctance to stop-loss, reluctance to admit mistakes.

The most expensive thing in this industry isn’t technical indicators; it’s self-discipline. Those who truly make money are those who can execute discipline like machines. They aren’t driven by emotions, nor are they greedy because they think “it will go up again.”

I used to stumble around in darkness, but now I hold a lamp. The lamp is always on—are you following?