“Everyone is making money, but I am losing money.” Whenever a bull market arrives, this sigh always lingers in the hearts of countless traders.

You watch Ethereum soar from 1300 to 5000, see MYX perform a 200-fold surge in just 40 days, and Twitter is filled with stories of doubling down. In Telegram groups, someone makes 300,000 from an initial 10,000 in a single day. But when you look down at your own account, the balance keeps shrinking amidst the bull market's frenzy.

You chased the hot trends, bought in just as the price started to rise, thinking you could ride the wave, only to find yourself trapped moments later; you waited for a pullback, hoping to buy low, but watched helplessly as the price continued to climb, completely missing out; you tried to hold long-term, but got shaken out during the volatile market, becoming a joke to others.

A bull market should be a feast for everyone, but for the vast majority, it feels more like a luxurious “gallows.” I have experienced three such bull markets, witnessed the most outrageous surges, and endured the most brutal crashes. It wasn't until I was battered and bruised that I realized: the key to making money in a bull market is never about the market itself, but whether you have a set of foundational trading rules that allow you to “survive.” Without these rules, no matter how hot the market is, it will only become a trap for your losses.

Today, I will share my experiences and the five trading rules I developed to return from the brink to the peak. For those who can understand, this bull market will likely allow you to become one of the few who laugh last.

Rule One: Only make two trades at the same position

In a bull market, the most common way to “die” is not by misjudging the direction, but by stubbornly fighting at the same position — sometimes even making money at first. The deadliest poison is not the one that directly wipes you out, but the one that gives you a little sweetness first, making you let your guard down, only to completely devour you later.

It's like shorting at a strong resistance level: the first time, the market dips sharply, and you make a small profit and exit, feeling pleased; the second time, the market hits that resistance again, you increase your position and short again, the market dips again, and you make a profit, your confidence skyrocketing; the third time, you go all in, thinking you’ll make a fortune, but the market directly breaks through the resistance, wiping out your position completely.

There’s a market rule: strong resistance often takes three attempts to break, and strong support often takes three attempts to break down. But ordinary people, especially those who know a bit of technical analysis but haven’t mastered it, often die on the third attempt. The lucky profits from the first two attempts push you to a desperate high ground, and the third time is the moment you fall from that high ground.

So I established my first iron rule: only make two trades at the same position. The first trade should be with a larger position, the second with a smaller position to test for profit, and on the third return to the original price level, resolutely avoid it — because by then, the probability of losing has significantly increased.

If you were wrong on the first two attempts, it’s not the market deceiving you, but rather you not understanding technical analysis at all. In this case, making a third attempt is not trading, but waiting to die. Those who can resist making a third trade are the ones qualified to survive into the latter half of the bull market.

Rule Two: Never trade in a vacuum market

Many people think the most painful part of a bull market is not having money to enter. But this is actually a typical “retail investor mindset” — the real pain in a bull market is having too many opportunities, so many that it dazzles you, ultimately exhausting your capital through frequent trades.

Today, Trump calls for interest rate cuts, and related concept coins rise in response; tomorrow, a new coin skyrockets, and someone claims it’s the next hundredfold myth; the day after, a new “refining” track emerges, and the social media is filled with recommendations. You scroll through the candlestick charts, thinking every hot trend can double, so you chase this one and that one, only to find yourself either getting dumped right after entering or stuck at a high price, unable to move.

I once fell into this trap. In the last bull market, I traded almost every day, buying this coin today, selling that coin tomorrow. My account seemed lively, but I perfectly missed a major upward wave. During that time, my account growth was not only slow but even lower than the growth of spot trading — effectively losing money.

Later, I realized: true trading experts have “vacuum periods.” They dare to completely stop trading for a while, just observing without acting, like a sniper lying in the grass, even when they see the enemy pass by, they don’t pull the trigger, waiting for the most lethal moment to strike.

I know a big player in the U.S. stock market, with extremely ample funds, but he only trades three or four times a year, each time precisely at the most extreme points of the bull market. The rest of the time, he either travels the world taking photos or plays golf. Yet, in those three or four trades, he makes more money than others do in years of hard work. Occasionally, when he feels bored, he might play with a tiny portion of his funds in options, but it ultimately proves that the returns from options trading are far lower than the profits from low-frequency trading.

Remember: many times, not trading is also the most important form of “trading.” When faced with a vacuum market, learning to stop can help you avoid exhausting yourself through ineffective operations.

Rule Three: Concentrate your firepower, aim for extreme points

In a bull market, the moments when you can truly make money are actually very few, but the vast majority waste their “bullets” on insignificant small fluctuations.

I have a senior who is over fifty. For the past two months, he hardly made any trades, and people around him laughed at him for being lazy, but he didn’t argue. Until the day Bitcoin broke through a key point with significant volume, he went all in, and a man in his fifties stayed glued to the screen for 48 hours. In that wave, he made three times the profit — and it was with large capital. The returns others struggled for over five or six months to chase hot trends, he made in just two days.

This is the difference between experts and ordinary people: ordinary people think trading wins through “frequency,” believing that watching more and placing more orders will lead to victory; but experts know that the market only rewards those who can concentrate their firepower on “extreme points.”

Just like when I previously called for “go all in” around Ethereum at 1800, while most people were still hesitating and doubting, I had already put in most of my position. Because I knew that such a market might only happen once a year, and if I missed it, there would be no more opportunities. It was precisely that moment that took my trading career to the next level.

So don’t let the market’s noise distract you, don’t waste your bullets on small fluctuations. Save all your money and energy for those few opportunities that can truly change the fate of your account — seizing one could be worth countless scattered operations by others.

Rule Four: Break free from the “calculator mindset”

I used to have a bad habit that cost me at least a few million: I always liked to hold a calculator and “calculate profits.”

For example, watching Ethereum rise from 1000 to 4100, I would calculate: if I bought in fully leveraged at 1000 and sold at 4100, then shorted back, I could at least make 400,000; if I entered with 1 million, I’d come out with 40 million, and if I put it into USDC’s financial products, 8% interest would yield 3.2 million in a year…

It sounds great, but the reality is: no one can truly “hold” such a perfect market. Before fully awakening, most people panic and close their positions at the slightest market pullback; even if they really wait for the target price, they only have a tiny position left — this position is not enough to achieve financial freedom, but instead leads to extreme regret and pain.

This is the fourth rule that must be followed in a bull market: break free from the “calculator mindset.” The most toxic aspect of this mindset is that it makes you believe in the existence of “perfect operations.” But you are not a robot; you have fears, greed, and hesitation, and the market and the main players are precisely using these emotions to create false breakouts and false bottoms, making you give up your chips for nothing.

True experts never calculate the profits of “full positions from start to finish”; they only care about whether they can steadily hold 30%-50% of the profits in a trend. Only when you dare to admit that you cannot achieve perfection do you truly have a chance to survive.

A simple standard to judge whether you have broken free from this mindset is: when reviewing historical market conditions, you can calmly admit, “If this position came again, I still wouldn’t dare to enter,” or “Even if I entered, I wouldn’t be able to hold it” — only then can you be considered truly free from the poison of the “calculator mindset.”

The market does not test whether you can calculate; it tests whether you can hold onto a real profit amidst the fluctuations.

Rule Five: Learn to be in cash; being in cash is the most powerful position

In a bull market, the biggest illusion for retail investors is: “I must be present at all times.”

Have you ever felt this way: when you have no position, you feel anxious, your eyes glued to the candlestick chart, a single green bar makes you feel like you’ve missed a chance to get rich, while a single red bar makes you feel like you’ve escaped a disaster. Before even placing an order, you’re already tortured to the brink of collapse by the market.

This mindset is what the market loves most — the main players know that as long as you don’t dare to be in cash, you will definitely operate chaotically in anxiety, ultimately giving up your chips.

I myself have died from this “death.” That year, when ETS rose to 4800, I should have stayed in cash and remained calm, but my social media, Twitter, and Telegram groups were all filled with voices saying, “The historical bull market has arrived”: some showed off 500% profit screenshots, while others shouted, “Go all in to change your fate.” I couldn’t resist, thinking, “If I don’t enter now, I’ll miss a lifetime opportunity,” so I went all in with a large account at 4700.

As a result, that night, the market plummeted directly to 4100, and my account was liquidated. I stared blankly at the liquidation email, with only one thought in my mind: if I had done nothing yesterday, I would still be doing just fine.

A common problem for retail investors is treating being in cash as “cowardice,” thinking that only holding positions counts as “fighting.” But in reality, being in cash is the most powerful position — it means you are not being controlled by emotions, you don’t have to worry about your phone notifications waking you up at night, and you always have bullets ready. While others are fully invested, you still have the strength; more importantly, being in cash proves that you maintain clarity amidst the madness of the bull market.

When you stay clear-headed, the opportunities you can identify are a hundred times more than others.

Let me tell you another “dark secret” of the main players: they love to use the emotions of the bull market to create countless “fast-moving hot spots” — today it’s MEME coins, tomorrow it’s refining, the day after it’s some new narrative. You think you’re smart by chasing the hot trends, but you don’t realize that every time you chase in, you’re using your position to pay for someone else.

Meanwhile, the real big players watch retail investors chase highs and lows while they remain in cash, observing coldly from the sidelines. They wait until all retail investors are exhausted, until the entire market is left with numbness and despair, before they truly enter. At that moment, all the bullets are in their hands, while you have long been depleted.

So you must understand: being in cash is not incompetence, but restraint; it’s not retreating, but building strength. Behind being in cash is a complete mastery of human nature. Those who can resist being in cash are the ones qualified to hold onto the real big trends.

There’s a saying in the market: “Being in cash can save you countless times; being fully invested only takes once to bury you.” I only fully understood this after blowing up my account three times.

In a bull market, there are countless ways for retail investors to “die,” but ultimately, they all fall into these five traps. Conversely, avoiding them is the trading rule that can allow you to achieve a leap in wealth during a bull market.

I have walked these five wrong paths and blown up my account three times before realizing: trading is not about technical skills, nor is it about luck, but about who can survive. Surviving gives you the opportunity; being able to endure allows you to hold on; being able to stop allows you to go far.

Next time you feel the urge to trade, think about these words. The market will not reward you for “trading hard”; it will only give you a break for your calmness and restraint.

A bull market has never been a feast for everyone; it is a “gallows” that selects the strong. Most people rush in with smiles but leave in tears. And those who can truly laugh last are always the few who are willing to restrain themselves, dare to be in cash, and maintain their grasp on human nature.

I hope that in this round of the bull market, you can be the one who laughs last.

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