After eight years in this space, the most painful thing wasn’t any particular time I got stuck holding a bag—it was watching a 40x profit slip away right in front of me.

Let’s go back to 2017. That’s when I set my sights on ADA. I started buying in batches at $0.03, and in just three months, this thing shot up like a rocket to $1.20. The digits in my account balance grew by several places. Every morning, the first thing I did was check my phone, grinning like an idiot at those numbers. In my head, I was already planning what kind of house to buy—a three-bedroom, one living room, with good ventilation north to south.

But human nature always thinks you can wait just a bit longer. “Let it rise more, I’ll sell after it goes higher”—day after day, I kept holding on.

Then the market taught me a lesson. The crash came out of nowhere—ADA plunged right back to $0.20. Eighty percent of my profits evaporated in an instant, and I didn’t even dare mention buying a house anymore. That fall hurt, but it taught me one thing: Anyone can buy in, but only those who can sell steadily have truly started to master the game.

Over the years, I’ve developed a method that lets me protect most of my profits without being constantly stressed, glued to the screen.

**Let’s talk about taking profits first.** I use a segmented cash-out approach: say a coin goes from $1 to $2—sell 30% to get your principal back. That way, even if it gets cut in half later, you won’t lose. If it hits $3, sell another 30%. For the remaining 40%, set a trailing stop—if it drops 15% from the peak, sell the rest automatically. The advantage of this is you can ride the main wave up, but not end up empty-handed when you get off.

**Now about stop-losses.** I set myself a hard rule: never lose more than 5% of my principal on a single trade. Every time I buy, I immediately set a conditional order at -10%, like buying myself insurance. Don’t be afraid of missing out—this market never runs out of opportunities. But if you lose your principal, there’s no coming back.

In these eight years, I’ve seen plenty of overnight riches, but even more people riding the rollercoaster of price swings, only to lose everything in the end. The ones who actually keep the money are those who stick to discipline like machines.

I remember once I stopped out of a position, and that coin doubled afterwards. My friends laughed at me for being timid. But three months later, it went to zero. In this market, surviving matters way more than making a quick buck.

I’ve made enough mistakes over these eight years—these lessons were paid for with real money. If you want to pay less tuition to this volatile market, discipline will always be more reliable than luck.