The phone ringing at two in the morning is particularly jarring; all I hear on the line is suppressed sobbing. 'He disappeared... my money is gone.' My best friend Xiao Lin finally managed to squeeze out these words.
Xiao Lin is my friend of ten years, the girl who once was full of spirit, but now has been deceived by the 'perfect boyfriend' she met online, losing 200,000 of her savings, along with a pile of online loans to repay. She is slumped on my sofa, her phone filled with a flood of collection messages.
'Teach me how to trade cryptocurrencies; I know you can make money.' She grasped my hand, as if holding onto the last straw.
My heart tightened. The cryptocurrency world is not a place where beginners can venture. It's a place that devours people without a trace. But looking at her hollow eyes, I ultimately couldn't bear to refuse and set down the rules: 'If you want to learn from me, you must first engrave these 6 iron laws into your bones.'
1. Trading volume is the market's breath, not background noise.
A slow rise seems like large funds are quietly building positions, while a rapid decline often indicates panic selling by retail investors.
Many people experience rapid heartbeats at price fluctuations, but I only focus on the rhythm of trading volume. When the market shows a rapid rise followed by a slow decline, don't rush to chase the highs. The true peak often ends with a "surge and crash"—that is the sound of large funds leaving.
The first lesson I taught Xiaolin: forget about the price, first listen to the market's breath. When trading volume shrinks to the extreme, it indicates that the market is about to choose a direction.
2. A sharp drop is the market's "harvest," not a "gift."
When the decline is both swift and fierce, but the rebound is weak and powerless? That's large funds cautiously retreating; don't comfort yourself by saying it's an "opportunity to buy the dip."
Xiaolin once asked me, "It's dropped so much, shouldn't it rebound?" I replied, "How do you know there isn't a deeper hell below?"
In the crypto space, the most feared mindset is one-sided thinking. The market won't rebound just because it has "dropped too much"; the true bottom requires patient waiting for confirmation signals.
3. The calm at high levels is the prelude to a storm.
A surge in volume doesn't necessarily indicate a peak, but a decrease in volume at high levels is the most dangerous signal.
It's like a noisy KTV suddenly going silent; the next moment could be the sound of glass shattering. When the market suddenly loses vitality at high levels, it often means that large funds have quietly exited, leaving only retail investors in self-indulgence.
I made Xiaolin develop the habit of staying alert when the market is most euphoric and being vigilant when it is dead silent.
4. The bottom is tested, not guessed.
A single surge in volume may be a trap, while a subsequent surge after a series of decreases is the true signal of large funds entering.
Xiaolin always wants to time the bottom perfectly; I told her, "We are not gods, we can't buy at the lowest point. But we can act after confirming the bottom area through changes in trading volume."
To survive in the crypto space, one doesn't need a crystal ball to predict the future, but rather the ability to identify trends and the courage to act.
5. Forget about candlesticks; understand the temperature of trading volume.
Candlesticks are traces of past prices, while trading volume is proof of real-time capital flow.
When trading volume shrinks to the extreme, it indicates a quiet market; when trading volume suddenly expands, it means that capital is starting to act. I taught Xiaolin to view trading volume as the thermometer of the market—it can tell you the true health of the market.
6. The ultimate realm of trading is "nothingness."
No attachment: being able to take profits timely during gains and walk away; no greed: being able to control the impulse to chase highs during surges; no fear: being able to calmly buy in during steep declines.
This isn't about being indifferent, but about instincts forged from lessons learned. I've been in the crypto space for five years, witnessing too many myths of overnight wealth, as well as more tragedies of instant zeroing out. Those who truly survive are those with iron rules.
A year later, Xiaolin paid off all her debts. With red eyes, she found me and said, "What you gave me was not a trading rule... it was the courage to live again."
A comeback has nothing to do with luck, but with discipline and execution ingrained in one's blood. In this market, living longer is more important than making quick profits. Follow Ake to learn more about firsthand information and precise points in the crypto world; become your navigation in the crypto space, for learning is your greatest wealth!#巨鲸动向 #加密市场观察 $ETH
