Woken up late at night by a phone call, the person on the other end almost crying: "The account has been wiped out... Fully long, and it just pulled back three points..."

I hung up and stared at the ceiling for a while. This scene was like a mirror, reflecting the reckless version of myself from a few years ago—that time I also believed "All in is the real man," thinking that not daring to go all-in was just being a coward.

The outcome? An ordinary fluctuation, the account wiped out, and what was called courage turned into a joke.

Let him send the trading screenshot over, the problem is clear at a glance: all 9,500 USD of principal bet on one trade, too lazy to even set a stop-loss. Is this trading? Clearly playing with fire.

Too many people think putting the entire net worth in is how to make big money. Actually? That’s the fastest way to get out. Full position is like tying a rope around your neck—if the market moves slightly against you, you don’t even need anyone to act; the market will just push you out.

I told him a harsh truth: "You’re not losing to the market, you’re losing to your position."

Here’s a simple analogy—
If you hold 1,000 USD: using 900 USD with 10x leverage, a 5% drop means Game Over; but if you only use 100 USD for the same leverage, it takes a 50% drop to blow up.

The difference between these two has nothing to do with how good your skills are; it’s purely about "survival space."

These past years, the market has beaten me up badly. The painful lessons have boiled down to three iron rules:

**Rule 1: Never risk more than 20% of your principal on a single position.**
Even if you hit stop-loss, it’s just a superficial wound, not a root injury.

**Rule 2: Strictly limit each loss to within 3%.**
Even if your direction judgment is correct, never give yourself the chance to gamble your entire fortune.

**Rule 3: Stay away from choppy markets.**
Money can never run out, but life must be kept. Don’t risk your account just to join the fun.

Thanks to these three rules, during those years—when others faced massive liquidation—I didn’t lose a dime of my principal, and my account gradually grew from 7,000 USD to nearly 40,000 USD.

Later, that buddy followed this approach and started over. After three months, he messaged me: "Bro, my account doubled! I finally understand what stable profit means."

I responded: People who blow up are waiting for a pie to fall from the sky; those who truly survive are quietly earning compound interest.

I’ve used this method for five years, with zero blow-ups. Want to learn? Don’t rush to ask how the market is moving today—learning to "stay alive" is the first lesson you need to master in this market.