When a lending position is just three steps away from the liquidation line, I usually first kill the “hero dream.” Don’t think about riding out a rebound to prove yourself—lower the leverage first. The most common move I make is: add a bit of collateral, conveniently repay a bit of the debt, and move the small amount of assets I least want to sell out of the way as “psychological insurance.” In any case, pull the red line farther away first—sleeping well is better than anything.

Recently, people have been talking about some region increasing taxes and tightening compliance, then relaxing again. The point is that for someone like me whose deposits and withdrawals aren’t that smooth, when expectations change, my mindset shakes; the more it shakes, the easier it is to make messy trades. So I now just adjust my goal downward: I don’t chase a full position, and I don’t chase extreme utilization. Every day, I simply keep my position a little farther from the liquidation line… and somehow that lets me hold on longer. Even if an under-the-radar pool is tempting, it’s still not worth being woken up in the middle of the night by liquidation text messages.