From age 30 to 38, I have been in the market for eight years.
There are no legends, more often it is trial and error, correction, and then survival.
At 30, I faced business failure and the end of my marriage, with only 10,000 left in my account.
In a small rented room, I invested my last funds into the cryptocurrency market, and from that day on, I no longer left myself an escape route.
Looking back now, what truly brought me to today was not a particular profitable trade,
but a few rules that seemed very 'foolish', yet were executed repeatedly.
First rule: profits must be realized
As long as a single profit reaches 10% of the principal,
I will take out part of the funds and not leave them in the trading account.
These years, I have repeatedly done the same thing:
turning 'paper profits' into 'money that already belongs to me'.
Because only the funds that leave the market no longer bear risks.
Second: Do not bet on direction, only do structure.
I do not judge whether it is a bull or bear market,
I only look for positions to participate in the market fluctuations.
When the trend is clear, follow the trend.
Control risk and reduce frequency during the oscillation phase.
Sometimes it's not that the market is hard to trade,
but that people are too anxious, insisting on finding certainty in uncertainty.
Third: Treat stop-loss as a cost.
The risk of each trade is predefined.
I accept small losses, even get used to small losses,
because that is just the 'ticket' to participate in the market.
In the long run,
as long as the risk-reward ratio is reasonable, the win rate does not need to be very high.
Over the years, I have consistently adhered to a few simple things:
Diversifying positions to prevent one mistake from destroying the account.
Stop when experiencing continuous losses to calm yourself.
When capital grows, transfer part of it to allocate to more stable assets.
Now at 38 years old, the account has reached a level I once dared not imagine.
But what really matters is not how much you earn,
but —
that you were not eliminated by the market along the way.
Slowly you will understand:
The market does not punish those who make mistakes,
It only eliminates those who trade without rules and rely on emotions.
What you need to fight against is never the market,
but your own greed and fear.
In the end, it actually comes down to one line:
Discipline is the only thing that remains effective in trading over the long term.
As for how the path is taken,
some explore on their own, while others choose to follow.
The key is not speed, but —
whether you can keep going.