Gambling Abstinence Series #4

Every Thursday, I will give away a bowl of pig's foot rice or KFC to a friend who submits a post. Welcome everyone to contribute.
Yesterday, an older brother reached out to me and shared his experiences over the years, hoping for a better tomorrow for himself and warning friends who are still gambling.
Today is March 25, 2026, 10:54 AM Beijing time. At 4:30 AM this morning, my last 20,000 yuan also got liquidated in gold futures. Lying here now, I don’t know who to talk to, so I’m posting this tweet. Maybe this is the state of the most bottom-tier people in crypto and stock trading. Next, I want to talk about myself.
I am 36 years old this year, born in a fairly famous city in Zhejiang. From a young age, elders said I was smart, but I was very lazy. I had smooth sailing in school, then I went to high school. Although I didn’t do homework every day, I was still among the top students in my grade. Until about half a year before the college entrance exam, I felt that going to university was a waste of life, so I decisively dropped out. Many people tried to persuade me at that time, but I was stubborn and hot-headed. When my family couldn’t convince me, they let me and my cousin go learn how to run a shop from a distant relative.
So I started my entrepreneurial journey.
That was probably the beginning of 2009. Bitcoin had just appeared, but I hadn’t heard of it back then. During my days working part-time, those were the happiest and most carefree days of my life. Until October of the same year, I left my relative’s place and went to an ancient capital in the north to start a business. I lived in that city for ten years, experiencing many stories, but I won’t go into detail. I remember the Spring Festival when masks started to become popular, I finished my business and returned to my hometown. That’s my first half of life.
I first encountered Bitcoin in 2014. At that time, mainstream cryptocurrencies were Bitcoin and Litecoin. China hadn’t explicitly banned trading crypto, so I also played around with it for a while, just for fun. Later, I got busy with work and got married, so I stopped paying attention. Sometimes I wonder if I had persisted back then, would I be successful now?
I reconnected with this industry at the end of January this year. Unfortunately, my mindset was completely different—burdened with debt and eager to turn things around. I invested the remaining 1 million+ yuan into the market. On the first day, I made 9.7k, and on the second day, 4.3k. But on the third day, things went wrong. I lost 40k that day, stayed up all night, and on the fourth day, I lost everything—83k remaining after liquidation. Haha, in just four days, I fell into hell—repentance, nausea, dry heaving, feeling it was all meaningless. I swore never to touch it again. That was a classic harvest of a rookie.
In the following ten days, I was lost every day, not knowing what to rely on spiritually.
After ten days, I re-entered the market again. It was Valentine’s Day this year. I thought about just trading 100 USD daily, taking it slow. I did make back about 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, but I only persisted for about ten more days. On February 25, I lost and kept trying to recover, losing again and again. Four times I refused to stop, always aiming for 100 USD. Then I encountered a one-sided market with an auntie, held my position, added to my position, and got liquidated with over 200k loss. I was unwilling to give up, kept trading the next day, got liquidated again, and continued on the third and fourth days. It got even worse when the platform had technical issues, and I finally got liquidated completely. My mentality shattered. On the 28th, I even thought about ending my life.
I was fighting for my rights with the platform at the time, and eventually, we reached an agreement. That gave me a glimmer of hope. On March 9, the platform’s compensation arrived, but on March 16, I was liquidated again.
After a few calm days, I was waiting for a bull market to come back. Two days ago, I discovered that trading small amounts of gold could be a way out, so I started again—day and night. All my self-imposed rules about timing were useless. Yesterday from morning until early morning today, I was finally liquidated again. Just like at the gambling table, a bad bet always ends with zero, and I just can’t control it.
After sharing so much, I realize that for ordinary people, we really can’t do it. I only started paying attention to some data at the end of February. It’s no different from gambling. Unfortunately, I’ve always been unlucky in gambling. I thought I still had a chance, seeing others’ profits on X, and believed I could do the same someday. I thought I wasn’t worse than others, that after learning technical indicators, stop-loss, and discipline, I could make money. But that’s just survivor bias.
All external appearances are just surface. To survive in this market, the only thing to beat is yourself—your greed, your fear, your dissatisfaction. That’s why big players often say not to borrow money or go into debt to play. The mindset is just too different. If I still remembered how I felt when I first encountered Bitcoin over ten years ago, maybe I’d still have a chance. But I know clearly that I don’t anymore. External influences only amplify your greed, fear, and dissatisfaction. It’s too hard.
Sorry, brothers. I’ve failed. I hope I can admit my failure internally. I’ve always liked a saying: If life isn’t gambling, it’s just betting on losing. I admit defeat now. I have to accept it. I can only willingly admit defeat. Unfortunately, the road ahead is still bleak—heavy debt, ruined credit, constant collection calls. But I need to understand that I can’t fall into this trap again.
Crypto is a bright future, though the road is full of dangers. I need to consider the consequences now. I can only look for some certainty. I hope my real experience can serve as a warning to others. For those who haven’t fallen too deep, a piece of advice: you can have skills, but without a strong heart, it’s impossible to succeed—unless you’re very lucky. But don’t keep going. If you must continue, I wish you good luck. And I wish myself good luck too. I hope everything gets better. It’s too painful.
Honestly, I don’t deserve sympathy. I just feel sorry for my family. To those still struggling, after reading so many inspiring stories of others’ gains, I hope you see my experience. Even a little warning is a comfort to me. I hope you all succeed. Wishing everything goes smoothly in the future.
Attached is part of my profit list, all from personal experience. Some platforms I’ve deleted because I don’t want to download their data anymore.