My friend previously followed the trend and invested in shanzhai coins, experiencing three daily limit-downs in two days and losing his rent money. When he came to me, he was already at his wit's end. I didn't explain any complicated candlestick theories; I simply set three life-saving rules for him.

**Rule 1: Divide your funds into three parts**

Split the $1500 into three portions. $300 for short-term trading within the day, making only one trade per day, taking profit at 5% and then exiting; $300 reserved for swing opportunities, holding until support levels are confirmed; the remaining $900 frozen as an "emergency fund," untouched even if everything collapses. He initially complained a lot, thinking this small capital would never turn around "in the Year of the Monkey or later." It wasn't until he saw a colleague's contract vaporize overnight that he finally opened up to placing orders in batches.

**Rule 2: Only ride the upward waves, avoid chopping in consolidation**

Most of the market time is boring. When it's consolidating, go to the gym or read books—staring at the screen is just a waste of life. Once, a certain coin was sideways for a week, and he messaged me at midnight asking "Should I start positioning early?" I replied with just "wait for volume." The next morning, a big bullish candle broke through the consolidation zone, and he gained an 18% increase. Only then did he realize that "doing nothing costs ten times less than messing around." Every time he made over 15% profit, I forced him to move one-third of the gains to his bank card—no matter how pretty the numbers on the screen, nothing beats the real deposit notification.

**Rule 3: Let the system execute trades**

Set a 3% stop-loss on each trade, with automatic closing if triggered. When profits exceed 8%, immediately move the stop-loss to break even—don't give the market a chance to take back gains. During a LTC trade, I told him to wait when it was only 0.5% away from stop-loss, then I sent him a screenshot of a margin call from three months ago.

Things didn't last long. When his account exceeded $20,000, he got cocky. Started joining various signal groups and even mocked other members, saying "cowardly people can't make big money," secretly leveraging and going full margin chasing MEME coins.

When his capital dropped back to $10,000, he sent me a long message at 3 a.m.: "If I had listened to you and gone all-in earlier, I’d be at $50,000 now. It’s all your conservative approach that caused this!"

I scrolled through our previous chats and saw his words: "Thanks for teaching me risk control, now I don’t have to fear a margin call." Suddenly, I realized one thing: the market never eliminates the poor; it only destroys gamblers who can't play by the rules.