## The First Investment in a Predicament

Back in 2016, I only had 50,000 left. Every night, I couldn't sleep, staring at the Bitcoin K-line. At that time, one coin was worth over 6,000, and I could buy just over 8 of them. The moment I pressed "Buy All", my fingers were shaking non-stop—don't get me wrong, this wasn't some bold gambling mentality; to put it bluntly, it was the last straw in a desperate struggle after bankruptcy.

However, I am quite different from many people in the circle. I come from a background of doing small businesses since I was young, and the only thing in my mind is "preserve the principal." No matter how bullish the market is, even if my account multiplies several times, I stick to a strict rule: withdraw the principal first from the money earned. If it rises by 50%, I withdraw the principal, and let the remaining profit float. This habit has saved me several times. Later, many altcoins directly dropped by 90%, but I, on the other hand, avoided the pit because of this "caution."

## How expensive is the lesson of 180,000?

In the bear market of 2018, I watched helplessly as my account plummeted from 800,000 to 180,000. That day I smoked half a pack of cigarettes, which made me truly understand one thing: these numbers are actually all虚的, only when you click the withdraw button does the money really become yours.

Since then, I started to become a little "perverse":

**Don't buy if you don't understand**. During the IEO boom, friends around me were mortgaging their houses to invest in new stocks. As for me, I went through the white papers and found that a bunch of projects hadn't even launched their code, so I just passed. Later, these projects either crashed or disappeared, and I was glad I didn't follow the trend.

**Position management is more important than anything**. My allocation is 70% in BTC and ETH, and the remaining 30% is used to gamble on those small coins with potential. During last year's bear market, many people's accounts shrank by more than 50%, while mine only shrank by 12% at most — not because I have strong coin selection ability, but because I dare to hold cash and am willing to do nothing when there are no opportunities.

## Making money relies on research, losing money relies on greed

Many newcomers feel that the cryptocurrency market is like a casino, but my experience gives me a different impression. Rather than calling it a casino, it is more accurate to say that it is a place that places a strong emphasis on psychology and self-discipline.

The ones who truly survive are never the ones who take the biggest risks. Instead, it is those who are most afraid of losses—because of that fear, they study thoroughly and can act decisively when the time comes. I have seen too many people double or triple their accounts, only to lose everything in an instant, and the reason is simply greed. Once the thought of "getting rich overnight" enters your mind, risk management completely breaks down.

In the past decade in the crypto space, what is most valuable is not those successful trades, but the decisions to cut losses in time and to actively stay out of the market.