At 3:30 in the morning, my phone screen suddenly lit up in the darkness.

It was a voice message, and the person on the other end was speaking with a choked, tearful voice: "Bro... my account is wiped out, all 5,000 yuan is gone." Sounded like a college student who had just pulled an all-nighter at an internet cafe.

After asking for details, I found out he had gone all-in with his entire principal on an ETH long position, using 3x leverage. The price only retraced by 4%, and his account was instantly liquidated. He sent me a screenshot—he had gone all in with 4,900 USDT, without even setting a stop loss.

A lot of beginners have a misconception that going all-in is fast, accurate, and ruthless. But in reality? Going all-in is like driving without a seatbelt—the slightest bump on the road, and you’re out.

When it comes to liquidation, it’s really not leverage that’s to blame; it’s loose position management.

Let me break down the math for you: suppose you have a principal of 700 yuan.

Scenario A: You put 650 yuan into a 3x long position. If the price moves against you by 9%, you get liquidated.
Scenario B: You only use 65 yuan with 3x leverage. The price would have to drop 92% to wipe out that position—the risk tolerance is 10 times higher.

That guy basically bet 98% of his money, and with leverage, even a small pullback couldn’t be withstood for a few seconds.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen at least 80 or 100 liquidation cases in the space. Later, I came up with three survival rules, and since then, not only has my account not lost money, it’s almost doubled:

**Rule 1: Keep each single position within 8% of total funds**

For example, if you have 5,000 yuan, the maximum for a single position is 400 yuan. Even if your stop loss is hit, you’ll lose at most 20 or 30 yuan—not a big deal. This way, you give yourself a dozen or more chances to try and fail.

**Rule 2: Set a maximum loss limit of 1.2% of total funds per trade**

Using the same example, open a 400 yuan position with 3x leverage, and pre-set a 1.5% stop loss. If it’s triggered, your actual loss is about 12 yuan, which is right at 1.2% of your total funds. Cut losses in time—don’t let a small loss become a big hole.

**Rule 3: Stay out of the market if you don’t understand the trend**

Don’t get trigger-happy just because you made some money the past couple of days. Wait for a weekly breakout of clear support or resistance, with trading volume at least double the usual—then it’s not too late to enter.

I once knew a friend who did short-term trading and got liquidated almost every month. Later, he started using these three iron rules and grew his account from 2,800 to 48,000 in five months. He told me, "I used to think going all-in was the big gamble, but now I understand—managing your positions is the real skill for long-term survival."

One last practical tip: set aside an hour every week, ideally Sunday night, to write down which coins you plan to trade next week, how much you plan to invest, and at what price you’ll enter. Then stick to the plan strictly—it’s way more reliable than staring at K-lines and guessing every day.

Don’t let a single impulse destroy your entire account.