#Gate广场万圣节 #每周来晒
The Most Unforgettable Night of High-Stakes Trading — The Night Dogecoin Liquidated Me
Many years have passed, and the crypto market has cycled through bull and bear runs. I’ve seen countless surges and crashes, but whenever I think of that night in 2021, my heart still tightens instinctively. It was a brutal slap in the face in my trading career, and a lesson etched into my bones.
2021 was the craziest year for Dogecoin. Musk was constantly hyping it on social media; a single tweet could send its price straight up. Stories of “Dogecoin made me financially free” were everywhere. Everyone in the community was talking about it, and myths of profits multiplying several times or even dozens of times were all around. Back then, I had put 50k U into futures, trading in and out with the rhythm of the bull market. As I watched the market climb, my greed and wishful thinking were slowly fed by the market.
That night, as usual, I stayed up late watching the charts. The market pulled back, and Dogecoin kept sliding. Watching the candlesticks sink lower and lower, I kept turning it over in my mind, convinced that this was just a normal correction during an uptrend, that there was no room left to fall and a rebound was just around the corner. My bull-market mindset had taken hold: I kept thinking the overall trend was up, so a dip was a chance to make easy money.
Without giving it much thought, I went long with 20x leverage, using half my position.
What does 20x leverage mean? Even a slight move in the wrong direction can trigger liquidation. Looking back now, that decision had already put me on the edge of a cliff. After my order was filled, I stared at the screen, expecting the market to reverse and rally as I’d predicted. But things went the other way: the market didn’t stop falling; it kept plunging, one red candle after another.
My unrealized losses grew rapidly. At that moment, my first thought wasn’t to cut my losses and get out, but to ride out the position. My bull-market conviction had trapped me: Musk was still backing it, the big move wasn’t over, this was just a brief shakeout. If I held on, once it bounced back I could not only break even, but make a huge profit. “Take a gamble, and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle”—the phrase kept running through my mind. I deleted the stop-loss I should have set in advance and stubbornly held on, hoping the market would turn around any moment.
That one hour passed as fast as a nightmare. The market showed no mercy to my hopes; a waterfall-like plunge broke straight through my liquidation price. The moment the liquidation notice appeared on the screen, I froze. The profits I’d been imagining just minutes earlier vanished in an instant. Hundreds of thousands were gone in a single night.
I closed the page and lay down, but couldn’t sleep at all. Chills ran down my back, cold sweat soaked through my pajamas, and I was alone in the empty room. Overwhelming disappointment, regret, and helplessness came rushing over me. This wasn’t spare money. I didn’t dare tell my family and had no idea how to bring it up, so I could only swallow the pain in silence. Even today, I remember that hollow, utterly desperate feeling vividly.
The market continued to rise and fall, and Dogecoin rallied again at times, but by then it had nothing to do with me. No one else was to blame for that liquidation. Every mistake was the result of my own choices.
It was only after that sleepless night of liquidation that I gradually collected myself and wrote down three lessons I’d learned through crushing losses. Even now, I remind myself of them whenever I trade: First, never put too much into a position. Leverage is a double-edged sword; once your position gets too large, your margin for error shrinks to almost nothing, and one bad call can be devastating. Second, always use a stop-loss when trading futures, and never ride out a losing position. The market won’t move according to what you want, and it has no obligation to save your position. Holding on isn’t perseverance; it’s gambling with your life. Unrealized losses only get bigger the longer you hold on, and by the time you’re liquidated, you won’t even have a chance to exit. Third, let go of wishful thinking for good. Don’t keep hoping to get rich on a single gamble. “Turn a bicycle into a motorcycle” is a fairy tale for a tiny minority; more often, high-leverage bets will make you lose every chip you have.
After all these years, I no longer dream of getting rich overnight. That night Dogecoin liquidated me, and it was the most expensive lesson of my trading journey. It constantly reminds me: trading isn’t about having the courage to go all in; it’s about risk management, respect, and restraint. There will always be opportunities in the market, but once your principal is gone, you’ll never get another chance to play.
The Most Unforgettable Night of High-Stakes Trading — The Night Dogecoin Liquidated Me
Many years have passed, and the crypto market has cycled through bull and bear runs. I’ve seen countless surges and crashes, but whenever I think of that night in 2021, my heart still tightens instinctively. It was a brutal slap in the face in my trading career, and a lesson etched into my bones.
2021 was the craziest year for Dogecoin. Musk was constantly hyping it on social media; a single tweet could send its price straight up. Stories of “Dogecoin made me financially free” were everywhere. Everyone in the community was talking about it, and myths of profits multiplying several times or even dozens of times were all around. Back then, I had put 50k U into futures, trading in and out with the rhythm of the bull market. As I watched the market climb, my greed and wishful thinking were slowly fed by the market.
That night, as usual, I stayed up late watching the charts. The market pulled back, and Dogecoin kept sliding. Watching the candlesticks sink lower and lower, I kept turning it over in my mind, convinced that this was just a normal correction during an uptrend, that there was no room left to fall and a rebound was just around the corner. My bull-market mindset had taken hold: I kept thinking the overall trend was up, so a dip was a chance to make easy money.
Without giving it much thought, I went long with 20x leverage, using half my position.
What does 20x leverage mean? Even a slight move in the wrong direction can trigger liquidation. Looking back now, that decision had already put me on the edge of a cliff. After my order was filled, I stared at the screen, expecting the market to reverse and rally as I’d predicted. But things went the other way: the market didn’t stop falling; it kept plunging, one red candle after another.
My unrealized losses grew rapidly. At that moment, my first thought wasn’t to cut my losses and get out, but to ride out the position. My bull-market conviction had trapped me: Musk was still backing it, the big move wasn’t over, this was just a brief shakeout. If I held on, once it bounced back I could not only break even, but make a huge profit. “Take a gamble, and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle”—the phrase kept running through my mind. I deleted the stop-loss I should have set in advance and stubbornly held on, hoping the market would turn around any moment.
That one hour passed as fast as a nightmare. The market showed no mercy to my hopes; a waterfall-like plunge broke straight through my liquidation price. The moment the liquidation notice appeared on the screen, I froze. The profits I’d been imagining just minutes earlier vanished in an instant. Hundreds of thousands were gone in a single night.
I closed the page and lay down, but couldn’t sleep at all. Chills ran down my back, cold sweat soaked through my pajamas, and I was alone in the empty room. Overwhelming disappointment, regret, and helplessness came rushing over me. This wasn’t spare money. I didn’t dare tell my family and had no idea how to bring it up, so I could only swallow the pain in silence. Even today, I remember that hollow, utterly desperate feeling vividly.
The market continued to rise and fall, and Dogecoin rallied again at times, but by then it had nothing to do with me. No one else was to blame for that liquidation. Every mistake was the result of my own choices.
It was only after that sleepless night of liquidation that I gradually collected myself and wrote down three lessons I’d learned through crushing losses. Even now, I remind myself of them whenever I trade: First, never put too much into a position. Leverage is a double-edged sword; once your position gets too large, your margin for error shrinks to almost nothing, and one bad call can be devastating. Second, always use a stop-loss when trading futures, and never ride out a losing position. The market won’t move according to what you want, and it has no obligation to save your position. Holding on isn’t perseverance; it’s gambling with your life. Unrealized losses only get bigger the longer you hold on, and by the time you’re liquidated, you won’t even have a chance to exit. Third, let go of wishful thinking for good. Don’t keep hoping to get rich on a single gamble. “Turn a bicycle into a motorcycle” is a fairy tale for a tiny minority; more often, high-leverage bets will make you lose every chip you have.
After all these years, I no longer dream of getting rich overnight. That night Dogecoin liquidated me, and it was the most expensive lesson of my trading journey. It constantly reminds me: trading isn’t about having the courage to go all in; it’s about risk management, respect, and restraint. There will always be opportunities in the market, but once your principal is gone, you’ll never get another chance to play.
