Having navigated the crypto world for so many years, I am increasingly convinced of one thing — most people lose money not because of technical issues, but because of a moment of weakness.

The market direction might be correct, and the position size might be reasonable, but unfortunately, it all comes down to two words: greed. After making a profit, some still want to squeeze out the last bit of gains; when prices fall, they dream of miracles. I’ve repeatedly fallen into these traps myself, bringing my account to zero more than once, until I set five strict rules to stop the bleeding.

These restrictions may sound harsh, but the results are truly obvious:

**Rule 1: Never be fully invested.** No matter how confident you are, never allocate more than 20% of your funds; keep the rest in reserve.

**Rule 2: Quit when you’re down.** Adding more funds isn’t a strategy — that’s just throwing a tantrum. Replenishing positions only deepens the wounds.

**Rule 3: Let it go when it rises.** No matter how tempting the gains, don’t chase after them. There are so many coins in the market, no need to get emotional.

**Rule 4: Limit your monitoring.** One hour is the cutoff; once your emotions flare up, any technical analysis becomes useless.

**Rule 5: Don’t hold positions overnight.** The market keeps moving even while you sleep, and midnight fluctuations can’t wait for you to wake up.

Using this set of rules with the same capital, my account’s drawdowns have significantly decreased, and the curve is starting to stabilize and trend upward. Only then did I truly understand one thing — the secret to making money for experts isn’t how much they can earn, but how much they can lose less.

If you’re still in the “itchy hands, unable to resist” stage, don’t think about complicated trading systems yet. Put discipline first. The real killer in the crypto world isn’t leverage or charts, but one word — restraint.