I received a WeChat message from a friend in Tianjin early in the morning. In the voice message, he was panicked: "I went all-in with 10,000 USDT at 10x leverage, and just a 3% pullback wiped out my funds. What’s going on?"

Looking at his trading record, he invested 9,500 USDT all at once without setting any stop-loss. This issue is actually very typical—many people think that going all-in means you can "hold out," but the opposite is true. Using it incorrectly, going all-in can lead to faster liquidation than using a position-by-position approach.

**Position size is the real culprit behind liquidation**

Let’s take a 1,000 USDT account as an example. Opening with 900 USDT at 10x leverage, a 5% adverse move would wipe it out completely. But if you only invest 100 USDT at 10x, it takes a 50% move to get liquidated. My friend put 95% of his principal all in, with 10x leverage, so a slight market correction would clear his entire account.

So the core issue isn’t the leverage multiple, but how much you put in at once.

**3 Ironclad Rules to survive half a year without liquidation and still double your funds**

First: No single trade should exceed 20% of the total account. For a 10,000 USDT account, never invest more than 2,000 USDT at once. Even if your judgment is wrong, a 10% stop-loss would only lose 200 USDT, which is 2% of your total funds. The account remains alive, with opportunities to recover.

Second: Never lose more than 3% of the total position in a single trade. For example, with 2,000 USDT at 10x leverage, set a stop-loss at 1.5%, so the loss is exactly 3% of total funds. Even if you make several wrong trades, you won’t be wiped out.

Third: Avoid opening new positions in choppy markets. Don’t chase profits once you’ve secured some gains. Only trade trend breakouts. Even in sideways markets, stay cool; once you open a position, set your stop-loss and take-profit levels beforehand. Don’t let emotions take over.

**The essence of going all-in: it’s about tolerance, not gambling your life**

The all-in mechanism is designed to handle volatility, but only if you start with a small position and enforce strict risk control. I had a follower who kept getting liquidated every month. After following these three rules for three months, he turned 5,000 USDT into 8,000 USDT. He later told me, "I used to think going all-in was gambling my life, but now I realize, going all-in is actually about staying safer."

The rules of crypto trading are simple: it’s not about who makes money faster, but who survives longer. As long as your account is active, opportunities remain. Those who try to bottom-fish, chase highs, or go all-in on a single trade, usually end up with their accounts wiped out. The ones who truly make money tend to survive the longest.

$ETH Recent market volatility really tests your mindset. Next time the market moves, try using this approach: small positions, strict risk management, only trend trading. You might find that consistent small gains, accumulated over time, are more solid than one big win.