A screenshot from May 1st’s opening position exposed the three most painful things in my trading

Pull up this May 1st simulation-trading screenshot:

BTC long position, average entry price 77,587.9, marked price 80,900.5, profit +40.94%
ETH long position, average entry price 2,315.05, marked price 2,377.45, profit +26.24%

Clean, neat, and held all the way through.

But on the same day, in real trading, I kept going back and forth—holding positions despite losses, panicking to take profit, and missing out again and again.

Same market judgment, same direction for the long positions. Big gains in the simulation, and real trading left me exhausted.

When I zoom in on this screenshot, I finally admit three core problems—

1. Loss aversion makes me “buy a set” with real money

When the simulation was showing an unrealized loss, I could hold calmly because it wasn’t my own money. In real trading, the moment I saw a floating loss, I started calculating “how much I’ve already lost.” I couldn’t bear to stop the loss, so I chose to hold. I held until the floating loss became bigger, until my mindset completely collapsed. To avoid losing just that little bit, I ended up losing more. This screenshot tells me: if real trading executed the same way as the simulation, the profits would have already been in my hands.

2. Frequent trading—taking total profit before the market even kicks off

In the screenshot, BTC went from 77,587 to 80,900, and ETH went from 2,315 to 2,377. In the simulation, I just “kept holding without doing anything.” In real trading, what happens? After gaining 3%, I’m afraid the profit will be given back, so I close it right away; when I see it keeps rising, I chase in again. I kept tinkering back and forth—commissions plus slippage—and my returns ended up being worse than just lying flat. The best move is often not to trade at all.

3. A heavy position is the starting point of the mindset collapse

With the same 10x leverage, in the simulation I could sleep, but in real trading I couldn’t sleep. The only difference is one thing—my position size was too large. Once you go heavy, the fear that “one needle can liquidate you” will drown out all reason. Holding through losses, randomly setting stop losses, and trading emotionally—everything is caused by going too heavy. The heavier the position, the worse the mindset, and the more distorted the decisions become.

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I’m going to keep this May 1st screenshot. The next time I want to go heavy, take profit early, or hold through positions in real trading, I’ll pull it out and take a look.

Trading isn’t about who can make money faster for a moment—it’s about who can last longer and make fewer mistakes.

$ETH ‌