$BTC Recently, a follower in the community privately discussed with me. With only 1000U in hand, he kept asking me the same question day after day: "Brother Tong, how long will it take for me to grow my account to 100kU and turn things around?"

I didn’t casually promise him a timeline, nor did I feed him any get-rich-quick nonsense. Instead, I calmed down and asked about his daily trading habits.

His trading pattern was very typical: whenever a certain coin surged in price and hype, he would immediately chase in; when the market pulled back, he would stubbornly hold on, and only when his mentality completely collapsed would he reluctantly cut his losses. After exiting, he would frantically search for the next target, repeating the cycle over and over.

After hearing his description, I understood clearly. This wasn’t trading at all—it was just continuously paying tuition to the market.

Drawing from the insights I’ve gained through my own cycles, I gave him two paths for breaking through with small capital.

The first is to lay low and accumulate potential coins in advance, quietly waiting for a bull market dividend. But the inherent flaws of human nature are hard to avoid: panic during downtrends prevents holding positions, and when the market rallies with a little profit, one is eager to take money off the table. In the end, you’re stuck in a vicious cycle of making small gains and suffering big losses—ordinary people can hardly stick to long-term holding.

The second is the approach I have always practiced and recommended: trend-following rolling position trading.

Deeply understand the principle of waiting for opportunities. When the market is unclear, choose to stay on the sidelines, and only enter after a clear trend emerges. For every trade, reserve some position margin—never go all in. If the direction is correct, let the profits compound; if the market moves against your prediction, set a loss boundary in advance to keep each loss within a controllable range.

That follower eventually chose to settle down and cultivate the second trading system. In the early stages, he still couldn’t avoid paying the cost of trial and error, but his mindset underwent a qualitative change: eliminating emotional trading, avoiding chasing highs and selling lows, and no longer blindly adding positions after a loss to average down costs.

By following the rhythm of several market cycles step by step, his account gradually showed a steady upward trend.

One thing he said afterward has stayed with me to this day: "I used to be obsessed with the miracle of getting rich overnight in the market. After going through the grind, I finally realized that making money in trading never relies on luck or gambling. By adhering to the correct trading principles day after day and repeating compliant operations, compounding will naturally reward you."

Trading and self-cultivation come from the same source. As they say, "After perceiving the Way for ninety thousand miles, one returns to poetry, wine, and the fields." The ups and downs on the charts are all battles of human psychology. Only by enduring loneliness and waiting for opportunities, and by adhering to discipline to curb greed, can one navigate the cycles of bull and bear markets.