At three in the morning, the glow of the phone screen hurt my eyes. A message popped up: "Bro, I only have 5,000 U out of 100,000 U left. Is there still hope for me?" followed by three crying-laughing emojis.

I stared at the screen, the ashtray was full of cigarette butts. Having been in the crypto circle for ten years, I've received over a hundred such pleas for help, but every time I see them, my heart still tightens. I replied to her: "Don't cut your position yet, wait for me."

Five years ago, I went through the same hell. During the 2018 bear market, my 3 million position crashed to just 230,000. I stood on the balcony smoking half a pack of cigarettes, my mind full of thoughts of giving up.

But I didn't do that because I suddenly remembered I still had two bitcoins in my pocket — my last trump card for a comeback. It took me two and a half years to climb back with just those two coins.

The process of helping her stop the bleeding isn't complicated, but it requires ironclad execution.

First, divide the remaining 5,000 U into three parts. Immediately withdraw 500 U to your bank card — this is life-saving money, don’t even think about touching it. Keep 2,000 U as a core position in spot trading, no matter how urgent, don’t move it. The remaining 2,500 U will be used for swing trading with me.

I set three strict rules for her. The maximum loss per trade is 5%; once triggered, close the position and walk away. If the total loss in a day reaches 10%, don’t look at the market that day. When profits exceed 30%, withdraw some principal; greed is the biggest trap in crypto.

The trading method is quite "dumb." Only focus on three coins, only trade during the four-hour liquidity peak in the European and American sessions, and set stop-loss and take-profit points for every order.

She asked if she could chase hot trends. I told her, hot trends are like a meat grinder; retail investors simply can't keep up with the pace.

In the first two weeks, she only earned 400 U, which seemed painfully slow. But by the third week, we caught a breakout in Ethereum, and 2,500 U suddenly turned into 7,000 U.

That day, she sent me her first voice message, her voice trembling with tears, saying, "Bro, I can finally sleep tonight."

The real turnaround came three months later. With her capital growing to 20,000 U, we made two full-position trades in a wave from 6.3 to 9.7 in a certain link coin, buying and selling twice, and finally the account stopped at 198,000 U.

That night she called me after closing her position, with the sound of wind and rustling leaves in the background, saying she was watching stars from her hometown roof: "Turns out you can really see Venus when it's almost dawn."

Ten years in the crypto world, I’ve realized that the most crucial thing isn’t some high-end technology.

It’s knowing when to put down the phone and cook a bowl of noodles, understanding that after smashing your position, you should first sleep rather than rush to recover your principal. It’s truly understanding that every piece of money you earn is a realization of your cognition — money won by luck will eventually be lost through strength.

A few years ago, I was blindly stumbling in the darkness alone. Now, I hold a light in my hand.

The light has always been on. Do you want to follow?