Yesterday, my friend pulled off another trade—tenfold leverage straight into a hotly traded coin. Before opening the position, he was all confident: "This one is definitely going up." And guess what? Ten minutes after a bullish candle, his account was wiped out. He looked at the screen, puzzled: "The direction was obviously right, why is all my money gone?"

All I could do was sigh: Bro, you’re not trading the market, you’re playing into a rigged game designed by the whales.

**How the Harvest Happens**

Here’s what happened. My buddy has decent trading experience. Last week, he noticed a certain coin had a "classic breakout"—two weeks of sideways movement, then suddenly a surge with increased volume. According to textbook technical analysis, this was a genuine breakout, no turning back. He didn’t think twice and went in with tenfold leverage.

What happened after he entered? The price reversed and crashed—down 20%. Forced liquidation, and his principal was gone. Even more outrageous, less than an hour after liquidation, the coin’s price not only recovered but surged even higher.

He was right about the direction. But the money was gone.

This isn’t some market accident. It’s the standard routine of whales harvesting leveraged traders. The whales know that retail stop-loss orders are mostly placed just below key support levels. So they first smash the price to trigger all those stops. Once retail traders are forced out, they reverse the price to trap new buyers, then do a quick rally to harvest the FOMO chasing the top. Perfect plan.

**How the Psychological Game Works**

The whales’ tactics haven’t changed in decades—just now, they have more money and more sophisticated tools. Basically, they don’t need to know your name; they just need to understand your trading habits and psychological patterns.

This market is fundamentally a machine for emotional manipulation. When retail traders panic, they sell, and whales scoop up the chips at the bottom. When retail traders see a rise and impulsively chase, whales turn around and distribute. How does this cycle play out? Accumulate chips → create a breakout pattern → attract retail entry → shake out stops → reverse and rally → distribute at the top.

Ordinary retail traders think they’re trading, but in reality, they’re playing a game designed by the whales. Technical analysis, fundamentals, market signals—these are all part of the setup. Traders using tenfold leverage suffer the most because whales only need to create a 5% fluctuation to wipe out 100% of your capital.

What’s the most heartbreaking? You think you’ve done your homework—studied the candles, understood the patterns, set your stops. But the whales want to strike when you’re most confident. That strike isn’t to kill you; it’s to scare out your chips.

**How Retail Traders Can Survive**

This doesn’t mean trading is impossible. It’s about recognizing your position. With such a huge capital gap, playing high leverage is essentially betting on the whales’ mood.

If you must trade, be honest—stick to spot trading, use low leverage, or even better, invest for the long term. Don’t buy into the myth that technical analysis guarantees victory; in the world of tenfold leverage, those are just illusions. The real winners are those who can endure boredom and stick to discipline.

That last trade your friend made? It wasn’t that he was wrong about the direction. He lost because he treated himself as a player on the same level as the whales.