That night when the account number jumped to 360,000, I was alone in my rental room finishing three bowls of instant noodles. I didn't take pictures to show off, nor did I call home; I just stared at the phone screen, repeatedly confirming that string of numbers was real. My fingers were cold, but my back was sweating.

I've been in the circle for four years. I started with 5000U to test the waters, and now my hair has noticeably thinned out, and my sleep has turned into fragmented sessions. My phone stores 1460 days of trading records, and I remember every profit and loss clearly. Today, I'll break the rule and share six survival rules I've summarized from the pitfalls over the years. Each rule is a lesson bought with real money, and if I had known these back then, I would have at least lost a minimum of 100,000.
**Article 1: Keep an eye on the trading volume, that is the breathing rhythm of large funds.**
The price rises slowly like climbing stairs, but when it falls, it’s like going down a slide—this is all due to the heavyweights at work. If you see a rapid surge followed by a slow decline, you need to be cautious. Especially when there's a large bearish candle with high volume at a high position, that's basically a signal for cutting leeks. The tuition I paid on this back in the day was enough for a down payment on a Tesla.
**Article 2: A rebound after a sharp decline is mostly a trap.**
Many people believe that "after a lot of drops, it should rise," but in the crypto world, we've seen many situations where prices drop through the floor and into hell. Those quick rebounds after a flash crash are often just big players painting a rosy picture for you, waiting for you to enter and take over before they continue to sell off. When it comes to making a move, the main players never show mercy.
**Article 3: A high-level reduction in volume is more dangerous than an increase in volume.**
An increase in volume does not necessarily mean a top, but a reduction in volume at high levels is definitely a warning. It's like a lively bar suddenly going silent; a storm is about to arrive. During the crazy market for Dogecoin in 2021, I relied on this signal to clear my positions three days in advance and avoided the subsequent halving disaster.
**Article 4: The real bottom takes time to brew.**
A sudden spike in volume in a single day is mostly a bluff. The true bottom must go through a period of low volume consolidation, followed by several days of moderate volume increase; this is when large funds are quietly accumulating positions. Whether you can keep up or not tests your patience and courage.
**Article 5: Don't stare at K-lines, listen to the volume.**
The K-line chart can only tell you what has happened in the past; the trading volume can reflect the true thoughts of current funds. Understanding the changes in volume is more useful than studying various technical charts by a factor of ten.
**Article 6: Cultivate Three Mindsets.**
Do not stubbornly hold onto losing positions, do not envy others' hundredfold myths, and when the market plummets, first look at the volume before deciding whether to act. This is an instinctive reaction honed from countless thrilling escapes.
Turn off the trading software, those three bowls of instant noodles have long gone cold. Suddenly, I realized one thing: in this 24-hour continuously operating market, the numbers in the account are not the most important. What is truly valuable is the calmness to eat instant noodles after going through the storms and hardships. What you need to cultivate is not the ability to catch the trend, but the survival ability to remain at the table after the storm.
$ETH