From investment genius to a 27-square-meter subdivided flat, my 540 days and the philosophy of suffering in cryptocurrency.

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

Everyone loves to showcase their profits, share screenshots, and flaunt skyrocketing gains, but few talk about the pain.

If you want to achieve something in the crypto space, you must first endure pain.

The key issue is how you respond to that pain.

Levels of Pain

1) Pain from Missing Opportunities

Too early, too late. Selling at the bottom, shorting at the top, chasing in the middle.

Symptoms: Compulsively checking market charts, instant regret.

Cost: Fees, small losses, erosion of confidence.

2) Pain from Jealousy

Others are taking action while you watch from the sidelines. You call it "crime," saying "the profits are ill-gotten," say whatever you want.

Symptoms: Frenzied scrolling, moral preaching, excessive muting.

Cost: Missing trends, shrinking networks, lagging learning.

3) Life-Changing Pain

Real-life risks: Leverage collapse, counterparty defaults.

Symptoms: Lack of sleep, fear of bills, avoiding phone calls.

Cost: Capital depletion and years of ongoing mental trauma.

The Trap of Pain

People are always eager to sell rising tokens out of fear of loss.

People insist on doubling down when they are losing because they are unwilling to endure pain.

People often mistakenly view temporary pain as permanent damage.

Does all this have any meaning? No, it just allows pain to take the wheel.

Reframing Pain

Pain is Tuition

You have paid the price to learn; complete your homework: write down what happened, why it happened, and how to respond next time.

Pain is Proof of Experience

You have taken enough care in your risks, which is good. Keep a good balance to continue moving forward.

Pain is a Signal

Are you playing a game you want to win? Traders, investors, miners, builders—different games have different thresholds for endurance.

Turning Jealousy into Action

You look down on Aster, calling it dirty money, and then miss a great opportunity. Then… the results speak for themselves.

My mom is a traditional Asian mother; when I was a child, she was very competitive and had to compare everything. If the neighbor's child did better than me on a test, a slipper would immediately fly at my face.

I had two choices: outperform him or befriend him. Most of the time, I chose to befriend him and then learn from him. Since I could get what I wanted, why take the hard road?

This instinct shaped how I handle jealousy in the crypto space. I don’t waste time on resentment; instead, I turn jealousy into information.

How to turn jealousy into an advantage:

When others offer insights, don’t rush to dismiss them; first, understand why they say that.
Reverse analyze early signals: on-chain fund flows, Telegram community discussions, abnormal perpetual contract rates on centralized exchanges, KOL social dynamics, liquidity injection strategies.
Add this information to your own checklist.

Jealousy doesn’t have to erode you; it can sharpen you, as long as you turn it into action.

Some say you have to go through it once to reshape yourself. Maybe, but once you get through it, the only thing to do is to never go through it again.

What is life-changing pain? Here is my experience.

I once worked in the building materials industry. After making a good profit share, I invested everything in Hong Kong real estate. I was basically cycling leverage within the rules, buying two properties and parking spaces in Hong Kong at a young age, feeling invincible at the time. I kept paying the mortgage without being liquidated, only going up, never down.

My first cryptocurrency investment cycle also went smoothly, so I increased my investment.

Then UST and FTX collapsed one after another. My liquid funds were almost wiped out, and even the deposit for my second property was lost. At that time, I had already quit my job to trade full-time, and to survive, I had to rent out my own home to pay the mortgage, squeezing into a subdivided flat of less than 27 square meters for a year and a half. The 540 days of confessing to my girlfriend, hiding from my family, and avoiding friends felt like dragging myself over broken glass. (Note: A subdivided flat, also known as a "room within a room," generally refers to a unit in a building that has been divided into two or more independent rooms.)

Fortunately, with the help of the Arbitrum DeFi ecosystem and Pendle, I got back on my feet and completely changed.

I learned risk management through painful lessons. I promised myself to never create life-changing pain again; I know it’s a stroke of luck that I can rebuild my life.

Don’t take a trader's "if I die, I die" too seriously; the joke stops being funny.

How to Effectively Alleviate Pain?

1) Label the Pain Level

Say it out loud: Is it timing, jealousy, or a life turning point? Naming the pain can help avoid overreacting.

2) Segment Your Funds

Survival funds, growth funds, speculative funds. Protect your survival capital at all costs; future opportunities require you to be alive.

3) Set Exit Rules

Maximum daily loss, maximum loss per position, maximum drawdown before closing. Rules made when calm are always better than decisions made in haste.

4) Review from Different Angles

Winners and losers, what are the key signals, and what is market noise? How will you respond when the same situation arises again?

5) Jealousy Response Rules

If a coin you once mocked has risen fivefold, the next step is to privately message the relevant person instead of making veiled comments. Find a new signal from this trend to update your investment strategy.

6) Monthly Calibration of Trading Systems

Advantages will fade, and the market will saturate. If your trading system stops "printing money" by the end of 2024, it’s not a system failure; the environment has changed, and you need to update your strategy in time.

My Current Situation

I have ample positions and reserves, allowing me to sleep soundly at night.

I capture positive expected value opportunities within my psychological tolerance.

I use mining profits to continuously replenish other positions.

I use exploratory positions for high-odds speculation, calmly accepting most stop losses.

While the market still has opportunities, I increase the frequency of pair trading and swing trading.

Adapt at a speed that surpasses your ego.

Important things are said three times because that is the way of life.

The pain brought by the crypto market is inevitable, and such experiences should not be wasted.

The market rewards those who learn quickly and can persist long enough; they will eventually succeed.

Face your pain, turn it into experience, and then keep moving forward.

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