In the crypto world, every minute writes stories of someone getting rich overnight and others getting wiped out. But if you only look at these two extremes, it's easy to fall into a trap. The real game rules are actually simple—staying alive is much more important than chasing quick profits.

I often see friends on social media sharing screenshots of their gains, boasting about how great their technical indicators are. When those people are loudest, they are usually closest to liquidation. Looking at their recent updates now, most of them are gone.

Here's a sobering fact: less than 1% of short-term traders can achieve long-term stable profits. What about the other 99%? They didn't really lose because of the market, but because of themselves—greed, impulsiveness, and lack of discipline.

I've carefully observed traders who are actually doing well. I found there's no mystery—it's just that they have ingrained the most basic principles into their bones.

**Capital is your lifeline, not casino chips**

I've seen too many people start by going all-in to gamble on a trend. The result? You can imagine.

Protecting your capital isn't just about slogans; it must be implemented in every trade. How to do that? Before opening a position, think clearly about the worst-case loss, rather than how much you can make. My rule is that risk on a single trade never exceeds 2% of the total account funds, no matter how good the opportunity looks.

Once you learn to strictly cut losses, your trading mindset changes. You won't close positions early out of fear, nor will you hold on out of greed. With a stable mindset, your actions become steady.

**The impatient lose the fastest**

The most ironic thing in crypto is this: the more you want to double your money quickly, the faster you’ll lose it.

The deadliest mistake in short-term trading is chasing speed. Once your mind is full of doubling, you start over-leveraging, holding on stubbornly, and trading frequently. The result? Each time, you're speeding toward the cliff.

True experts are often "lazy"—they don't watch the charts every day but carefully select the highest-confidence opportunities. They'd rather miss 100 chances than take a trap.

The more frequently you trade, the more mistakes you make. This math is simple. Those who trade only a few times a month, with carefully chosen entries, tend to have the most stable annual returns.

**The lesson from the privacy coin rally**

Recently, the surge in privacy coins has given us some insights. Many people see prices moving and rush in without doing their homework. But if you haven't understood why this sector is rising, entering is just gambling.

Gambling ultimately leads to losing.

Valuable trading is based on a deep understanding of a specific market sector or cycle. You need to know the logic behind this trend, how long it can last, and when to exit. All these require time to accumulate—there's no rush.

**Risk management is the core of trading**

Many treat trading as gambling, but in reality, it’s an art of risk management. Stop-loss, position sizing, capital allocation—these may sound dull, but they are the dividing line between 99% and 1%.

How long an account can survive depends not on how much you earn, but on how well you control your losses. A single big loss can wipe out an account, and no gains can recover from that. Conversely, if you only lose 2% each time, even ten consecutive losses won't destroy your account.

That's why the traders who last the longest are often not the ones making the most money fastest. They are the ones who have mastered risk management to the extreme.

Finally, I want to say: opportunities in the crypto world are always there, but your account isn't. Protecting it is more important than anything else.