Ten years ago, I rushed into this space with 200,000 yuan in hand, thinking I was going to be the next wealth legend. What happened? Three years later, my account was down to just 10,000 yuan.

Relatives gossiped behind my back, saying I was fooling around instead of doing something proper. Friends would half-joke over drinks: "Is there really something wrong with your head?" The harshest was my mom—she directly hid my bank card—"Wouldn't it be better to save it for getting married?"

Those days were really tough. I'd stare blankly at the candlestick charts, and every time I saw those four zeros after the "1" in my account balance, my heart would sink a little more. Countless times I wanted to delete the app and quit for good. But there was always a voice inside yelling: Why? Why can others make money, and I can only be the sucker?

In the end, I was just stubborn. With the 10,000 yuan I had left, I sat down and reviewed over a thousand of my own trades. I dug into every single loss to see what went wrong and slowly started to figure some things out. To be honest, I didn’t think too much about it at the time—I just couldn’t accept losing.

Unexpectedly, I managed to turn that 10,000 into 25.6 million over three years. It wasn’t luck—it was about understanding. This market has never been a casino; it’s a battlefield—a place where your understanding of the rules determines your success.

Today, I’ve summarized the pitfalls I’ve encountered into six lessons to share. Whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, reading these will save you years of detours.

**First: Always use spare money, never touch leverage**

This was the first lesson I learned after losing that 200,000. Back then I got carried away, invested all my savings, and even borrowed 50,000 in online loans to leverage up. One black swan event later, my principal was cut in half.