Why is it that even if you're bullish on a coin long-term, using leverage might mean you don’t survive to see it rise? When I first started trading with leverage, I thought as long as I got the direction right, adding some leverage would just amplify the returns. If I’m bullish on BTC for the next six months, going long with leverage seemed more efficient than buying spot. Later, I realized that spot trading is about the destination, while leveraged trading also involves the journey. I used to predict that an asset would rise mid-term, so I opened a high-leverage long position. A few months later, it did double in price, but before it went up, it first experienced a 20% pullback. Spot holders only faced unrealized losses, but I got liquidated before the trend even started. The direction was ultimately correct, but my account didn’t survive long enough to see the answer revealed. Leverage also comes with funding fees, margin requirements, and the constant drain from volatility. You think you’re betting on the price six months from now, but the exchange is checking every moment whether you can survive the next candlestick. The higher the leverage, the less time the market gives you to prove yourself. No matter how solid your long-term logic is, it can’t withstand short-term liquidity sweeps. So before using leverage, don’t just ask if the price will rise in the future. Ask: how much could it drop in the meantime, how much can you handle, and where are your invalidation points? Using long-term bullishness as an excuse to avoid stop-losses is just masking short-term risk mismanagement with big-picture thinking. Remember: spot trading lets you wait for your logic to play out slowly, but leverage requires you to survive the price journey first. Getting the destination right but failing to endure the process still means you won’t reach your goal.