A couple of days ago, I got a call for help from my old friend Amei. She was crying her eyes out on the video call, her husband silently smoking beside her, with a pile of their child's bills and medical invoices on the coffee table. She shoved her phone screen up to the camera—wallet balance: $2,000.

"This is our last bit of liquid cash at home. Can you give us some guidance on what to do? We really can't hold on any longer..."

I understand that kind of desperation. After years of toiling in the crypto market, I've never had so-called insider info, nor have I caught any of those wild, irrational bull runs. Getting Amei from $2,000 to $360,000 was all about using the simplest method—like farming: reviewing trades daily (watering), patiently waiting for trends to develop (waiting for seeds to sprout), and absolutely never making impulsive moves out of anxiety (pulling up seedlings to help them grow).

What got us through those 1,095 days wasn't luck—it was the awareness we gained from all the mistakes we've made and the tears we've shed together. Today, I'm sharing 6 lessons paid for with real, hard-earned money. If you can absorb even one of them, you'll save yourself at least three years of tuition.

**Rule 1: Sharp surge followed by a slow decline? Don’t panic sell just yet**

A common problem is that people's hands move faster than their brains. When they see the price shoot up and then start to pull back, they panic-sell before they've even thought it through—don't do this!

This pattern usually isn’t a crash signal; it’s the big players quietly accumulating. I made this mistake in the early days: one coin jumped 20% in a day, then slowly fell back to a 10% gain over the next three days. I got nervous and sold everything. The next day, it shot up another 30%. The regret was unreal—I wanted to slap myself.

What’s a real danger signal? When you see a sudden surge on huge volume, followed by an immediate nosedive. That’s when you need to get out fast, or you won’t even get the scraps. Slow declines are usually just a shakeout—don’t let yourself get shaken out.