Recently, I got a bit confused by the recent ZEC market movement. Last night, I was so happy to see a slight increase, and at 2 a.m., I was still contemplating whether to add to my position. But when I woke up and checked the market this morning, I jumped straight out of bed—green waterfall coming so fierce and fast, the previously set 400 risk line was rendered useless, pierced through overnight.

The most painful part isn't the loss itself, but realizing after reviewing the overnight trend that this asset actually retested near my cost line four times while I was asleep. Four times, which means the market gave four chances to escape, but I missed all the exit points. Now, watching the account balance shrink and hearing only "I should have known..." in my mind, I feel nothing but regret. I even considered reversing my position, but luckily I managed to stay calm in the end.

Many people probably have experienced this kind of situation, especially with volatile assets like ZEC. The gap from expectation to despair can drive a person crazy. Today, I won't talk about the abstract; based on this recent movement and practical experience, I will summarize some of the most common pitfalls that most traders fall into—lessons learned the hard way with real money.

**First Pitfall: Stop-losses are meaningless**

Many traders set their stop-losses and then start fooling themselves—"The market might rebound"