"Three days, 400,000 gone."

This is not an exaggeration; it’s the harsh reality I witnessed in 2018 in a cramped rental in Shanghai, pointed out with my own fingers.

The room was stifling, the old fan creaked and spun, yet I didn’t feel the heat at all. My eyes were glued to the screen, the red and green movements on the candlestick chart seemed magical, pinning me to my seat. My fingertips trembled.

The scene from three days ago is still vivid in my mind.

The account showed a floating profit of 430,000, and the number in the balance column was climbing every day. I sat there dazed, my mind already playing movies—resigning, changing houses, freedom—as if these had already been decided, beckoning me. At that moment, I truly thought I had hit the turning point for a comeback. Even my breathing felt more confident.

But the market never shows mercy to your fantasies.

In the early hours of the third day, Bitcoin suddenly plunged sharply. Consecutive red candles hammered down, floating profits were like a tablecloth being flipped over, instantly vanished. I hadn’t even recovered from the shock when half of my principal was cut. When I regained awareness, only blinding numbers remained on the screen—70,000.

The room was eerily silent. The fan was still spinning, the takeout had long gone cold, and I didn’t dare move a muscle.

That feeling wasn’t heartbreak over money. It was the sudden realization—I had never truly grasped anything.

Later, I understood that the market’s trick is like this: the sweet rewards are never announced in advance, but when it pulls back, it does so mercilessly. The "profit" you think you’ve made, as long as it’s not really in your pocket, will forever remain just flickering numbers on the screen. In the face of volatile markets, all illusions shatter instantly.