It wasn’t until I finally closed my positions that I realized the most hidden leverage in this game was never on the chart—it was added into my own life.

I thought I was just placing a few orders, but in reality, I had unknowingly put those steady days, my parents’ hopes, and the tears I shed—all of it—up as collateral. The candlesticks stretched my dopamine threshold to a twisted level, numbing me to every ordinary warmth in reality. In the end, the Fed released a hawkish signal, and my dreams shattered. Turning around, I could barely hold onto the care my parents extended. I always thought I was playing against the market makers, but I was just a madman—trading the most genuine human emotions for a pile of illusory bubbles. The moment I shifted the center of my life onto the chart, I had already lost.