Having battled in this market for eight years, my most painful lesson wasn’t missing out, but not being able to hold onto my profits.

I remember the 2017 bull run when ADA soared from three cents all the way to $1.20. My account balance multiplied by forty times—I’d stare at it and laugh like a fool every day, even started browsing for ocean-view houses. Greed turned me into a statue—I just watched as it fell back to twenty cents, and eighty percent of my profits turned into nothing but numbers.

That crash and liquidation woke me up. The real pros aren’t the ones who catch the moonshots, but the ones who know when to exit.

After that, I set strict rules for myself:

When a position doubles, I withdraw 30% as principal; when it triples, I take another 30% off. The remaining 40% is set with a mechanical take-profit if it pulls back 15%. This way, I can ride the major uptrend without getting caught when the market reverses.

My stop-loss is always set at 5%. If I enter with $10,000 and lose $500, I immediately cut my losses. Now, I always set a -10% conditional order when opening a position—trying to hold through losses can wipe out half a year’s gains in one go.

I’ve also given up on trying to time the top. I leave the first and last bites to others—I just want the juicy middle. It may seem conservative, but this year I’ve locked in a steady 35% return.

I’ve seen too many people become paper millionaires, only to give back even their principal in the end. Surviving, sticking to discipline, achieving steady compounding returns—that’s the real skill to weather any cycle.