At two in the morning, my phone rang again, this time with the familiar distress call. But I decided to finally speak out about what I’ve been holding inside for years.

Last week, a friend called me in a crying voice: "My account now only has 5,000 yuan… This is the last comeback capital I scraped together by borrowing from friends." The transaction record he sent made me feel a familiar helplessness—over three months, from 52,000 down to almost nothing, heavy positions, all-in bets, never cutting losses—he fell for every rookie mistake.

Eight years ago, I also walked this path. Back then, I truly believed that futures trading was just gambling—either overnight wealth or total ruin. But after three consecutive margin calls, I finally saw through it: the real winners in this market are not those who read the charts best, but those who can "stay until the end." I want to share the survival rules I’ve learned over the years.

**The stop-loss line is actually a life-saving charm**

The most common mistake among beginners is "waiting for a rebound to sell." I’ve seen people hold on with a 5% unrealized loss, only to end up with a zero account balance because they kept believing the market would turn around.

My first hard rule: every trade must have a pre-set stop-loss, with a maximum loss of 5% of total capital per trade. This means even if you’re wrong ten times in a row, you still have half your bullets left to try again. The market won’t pity gamblers; it will only eat those who hold onto false hope.

In practice, I use a volatility-based dynamic stop-loss method. Taking Bitcoin as an example, I refer to the ATR (Average True Range) indicator, setting the stop-loss 1.5 times ATR below the entry price. This provides enough room for normal price fluctuations while allowing for quick stop-outs when the trend is completely wrong.