I still remember that afternoon when I first transferred 1000 yuan to my trading account—my mood was a mess. Excited, nervous, and a bit scared. In the stock and fund markets, this amount is nothing, but in the crypto world, how it grows depends entirely on how you play.

Today, I won't talk about the myth of getting rich overnight—that's all nonsense. What I want to share are the real pitfalls I've stepped into and the life lessons I've learned.

**The Life of Small Money**

Initially, my account had just this much capital, no different from most beginners. But I quickly realized one thing—small funds are not about how much you make on a single trade, but whether you can keep rolling it over.

Back then, my approach was quite simple: divide the funds into three parts, and only use one part at a time to test the waters. I targeted coins with a sudden trading volume surge of over 300% in a day, focusing only on ultra-short-term trades. The most important thing was to set a strict rule: a single loss must never exceed 5% of the principal.

Many people think that hot coins are high-risk small coins, but that's not necessarily true. I would select from the top 200 projects on mainstream data platforms, then check their social media buzz, and pick projects with solid technical backing and reliable teams. This filtering significantly reduces the risk.

**The Leverage Trap**

The biggest killer of small funds is actually greed. I've seen too many people open high leverage positions, and a single bad judgment causes them to get liquidated immediately, wasting all their hard work.

My strict rule is simple: never use more than 5x leverage. Sounds conservative? But in the crypto world, staying alive is more important than making money. Those who go for ten or twenty times leverage may look glamorous when they profit, but when they lose, it can break your spirit.

Strict self-discipline is so boring. But it's this boredom that allows you to persist in this crazy market until the end.