2025-12-29 19:21:03

The most common pitfalls for beginners in contract trading can be summarized in one sentence — small principal, but overconfidence.

Look at those accounts with only a few hundred or a thousand dollars, yet they operate as if they have tens of thousands. They want to double their money immediately upon entering the market. And what’s the result? Most of the time, they get liquidated within minutes.

On the other hand, small-cap traders who manage to survive in the contract market share some common strategies.

**First bottom line: Never use full position.** Don’t go all-in with 1000U; split it into 5 parts, only risk 200U each time. The remaining funds are your safety net. Losing one trade is just losing a piece of meat, not life-threatening.

**Second principle: Control your leverage.** 5x to 10x leverage is enough to operate. Those 50x or 100x? Don’t treat that as skill; it’s essentially gambling with your life. A 10% move in BTC can cause a 10x liquidation, let alone higher leverage. Professional traders with a 60% win rate are considered experts; why are you so confident that every trade will be right?

**Third iron law: Stop loss when you lose.** Doubling down on losses or increasing leverage to turn things around is the fastest way out. Admit mistakes, take a two-day break for review. The market is open over 250 days a year — your single trade isn’t that important.

**Fourth: Take profits and transfer out.** When you make 500U, transfer out at least 300U, leaving only 200U in your account to continue trading. Having realized profits stabilizes your mindset and prevents a single adverse move from wiping out everything.

Finally, stick to discipline. If you lose 2% of your account in a day, sound the alarm; if you lose 6%, close the software and stop trading. Don’t watch the charts obsessively. Protect your principal first, then let your profits run.

Remember this one sentence: Money is earned gradually, never all at once.

BTC1,59%

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ContractExplorer

· 12-29 19:47

That's a really sharp point; the only disease that needs treatment is greed. I've seen too many small accounts playing with 100x leverage, and they usually don't survive beyond three months.

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ImpermanentSage

· 12-29 19:46

To be honest, I used to be that kind of fool who forcibly invested over ten thousand dollars with just a thousand dollars of principal, and I got liquidated within a week. The feeling was truly incredible. Now I understand why those who survive spread their money around. Investing 200U at a time really doesn't feel wrong; on the contrary, when your mindset is at its peak, you're even more able to stop.

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SchrodingerGas

· 12-29 19:38

In essence, it's a game theory equilibrium problem in risk management. Small accounts using high leverage are essentially gambling with their lives, which completely violates the core principle of the Kelly formula—even professional traders with a 60% win rate wouldn't dare to do this. Those operating with tens of thousands of U.S. dollars in scale but managing only a few hundred U.S. dollars in their accounts are purely a failure of rational expectations. I support position sizing and strict stop-losses—that's the true interactive cost of survival on the chain.

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LiquidatedDreams

· 12-29 19:38

Exactly right, but execution is too difficult. Watching others make money with five times leverage, then turning around and going fifty times, and then losing it all with just one slip.

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GweiWatcher

· 12-29 19:25

To be honest, I've seen too many small accounts that blindly use 50x leverage, and most of them don't survive even a week.

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