Last night, I couldn’t help myself and placed a trade—only to be taught a lesson by myself: the moment I saw the order book jump up, my brain immediately started thinking, “If I wait any longer, I’ll miss it,” classic FOMO getting you high. Bottom line? I was treating the market like an exam, rushing to turn in my answers.

When I look back, the trap wasn’t in the direction—it was entirely in the execution: I set my slippage too wide, the depth was thin, and I dumped my order all at once, so the fills got eaten straight into worse liquidity; if I had split it into several parts and placed orders slowly following the depth, my costs would have looked much better. The pacing of placing orders really has to be restrained—especially in small pools, and when volatility spikes, don’t greedily chase the “instant execution” thrill.

Recently, cross-chain bridges have been having issues again, and there was also that incident where the oracle quotes went haywire—everyone kept shouting, “Wait for confirmation.” But trading is the same: don’t rush to be the first. Confirm the depth and your own slippage tolerance first—going a bit slower actually helps you last longer… for now, I’ll continue on with my practice.