In the autumn of 2017, I was holding 30,000 yuan that I originally planned to use for starting a business, and as I saw Bitcoin surge past the $5,000 mark, I gritted my teeth and jumped into this trap. Back then, my friends were showing off their profit screenshots every day, and I was staring at those red Candlesticks, calculating in my heart: I'll pull out when it rises to $10,000 and buy my parents a more spacious house.

I didn't expect that just two months later, the coin price would really soar to $12,000. I looked at the 150,000 in my account and sat on my small bed in the rental house grinning like an idiot, while that business plan had long been shoved deep into the cabinet collecting dust. But before I could figure out how to withdraw, the market turned and crashed down. I just couldn't bear to cut my losses, and I listened to what a "teacher" in the group said and added leverage, thinking "the more it drops, the more I buy to lower the cost." As a result, just a few days after New Year's, a liquidation message popped up—only 50,000 was left in the account. I didn't earn enough for the house down payment, and I lost more than half of my principal.

For half a year, I didn't dare to bring this up with my family. Every night, I was reviewing charts in front of the computer until three or four in the morning. After ten years of ups and downs, the myth of getting rich overnight didn't happen to me, but I did manage to summarize a few painful lessons.

**Cognition is a filter.** Back when I followed the trend to buy coins, I couldn't even pronounce the words "blockchain" clearly. I lost a lot and had to force myself to digest white papers and browse GitHub codes. Later, I found out that those projects shouting "hundred times, thousand times" had their code submission records all fabricated. The market never gives red envelopes to confused people; it only makes you pay real money as tuition.

**Position management is a lifesaver.** Now I divide my money into three parts: half to buy Bitcoin as ballast, 30% for cross-platform arbitrage to earn some pocket money, and the remaining 20% for stable investment that can be withdrawn at any time. Last year, during the 30% market crash, I held on with arbitrage profits and didn't blow up, finally not experiencing that kind of despair again.

**Leverage is like a bomb.** After that liquidation, I deleted all the contract apps on my phone. Leverage may seem like it can amplify profits, but in reality, it will make you lose your footing in the ups and downs, and by the time you realize it, your principal has already turned to dust.

Now that the account is slowly rising back to 600,000, I no longer have the initial impatience. This market is like the sea; some chase the waves and end up getting swept away, while others calmly extract salt from the seawater. True wealth accumulation is never about luck or a gamble but rather the understanding gained through perseverance and the discipline maintained.

This light has been on, will you follow or not?