Last night I paid my tuition again. I originally wanted to chase a short move while things started to warm up emotionally, but when I was posting the order, I thought it was a hassle and just went straight with market price—slippage hit all at once and wiped out my profit room, and I also ended up getting pushed to an even worse spot. Looking back, it’s kind of ridiculous: I’d been staring at the depth chart for ages, yet I still got taken out by that one moment of “fear of missing out.”

When I look back, there are really just two traps: first, the pool/order book looks like there’s volume, but the instant I slam in my size, it’s gone in a flash; second, my order timing was too rushed—I should split it into two or three pieces, test for a fill before adding, otherwise I’m just handing liquidity to other people. Lately everyone’s been arguing about re-staking, shared security, and whether stacking yield is some kind of nested trick; I feel like it’s a bit like stacking expectations in trading: the surface yield looks great, but the real key is the underlying pressure and the depth when it comes time to exit. Anyway, I’d rather make a little less for now—figure out slippage, depth, and the execution path first, then press the button… that’s it for now.