Don’t rush to call me any kind of master—I’m just a battle-scarred veteran who’s been battered in the cryptocurrency market. When Bitcoin halved in 2019, my account went straight to zero. In 2021, during the altcoin chasing craze, I lost so much that I survived for three months on instant noodles. Making it this far, every lesson has been paid for with real money and real pain.

This week, the market taught everyone another lesson—Bitcoin crashed through the $86,000 support, over 170,000 accounts were liquidated in a single day, and $528 million vanished in an instant. In times like these, you’ll realize that surviving is a thousand times more important than getting rich quick.

Last year, a friend came to me with $2,700, hoping for a comeback. I didn’t show him any candlestick charts or talk about complex indicators—I just gave him three straightforward survival rules. He followed them diligently for three months, grew his account to $50,000, and came through this crash completely unscathed.

**Rule One: Divide Your Capital into Three Parts**

That $2,700 has to be split into three $900 portions, each with a clear purpose. The first part is for short-term trades—no more than two trades a day, and close the trading app immediately after. The longer you watch the market, the more likely you are to make mistakes. The second part waits for major trends—unless there’s a clear bullish pattern on the weekly chart and a breakout above key resistance with strong volume, that money just sits idle. Trading aimlessly in a choppy market is just a donation to the house. The third part is your lifeline—when something like ETH crashes 7% in a single day, this is what keeps you afloat. Remember, liquidation is like losing a finger; losing your principal is losing your head.

**Rule Two: Only Eat the Middle of the Fish**

I used to get chopped up nine times out of ten trading in choppy markets. Now, I stick to three ironclad rules: if the daily moving averages aren’t in a bullish alignment, stay out of the market—better to miss an opportunity than make a mistake; only test the waters with a small position after a strong breakout above previous highs and a daily close above resistance; once you’re up 30%, immediately cash out half, and set a 10% trailing stop on the rest—only profits in your account are real profits.

**Rule Three: Lock Your Emotions in a Cage**

Before every trade, write out your plan. Set your stop loss at 3%—if it hits, close the position automatically, no wishful thinking. Once you’re up 10%, move your stop loss to your entry price, so you can’t lose on that trade. Shut down your computer at midnight every night, no matter how tempting the charts look—losing control of your emotions is the deadliest enemy in crypto.

Now, the total market cap of crypto has already evaporated by $1.2 trillion. Opportunities are there every day, but once your principal is gone, you’re out of the game for good. Forget about Elliott Waves and Gann Angles for now—carve these three rules into your bones first. The more respect you show the market, the higher your chances of survival.

The market will always be there, but you have to make sure you’re still at the table.