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

Author: 2Lambroz

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

Everyone loves to show profits, show screenshots, and big pump, but very few talk about the pain.

If you want to achieve success in the crypto field, you must first experience pain.

The key to the problem lies in how you cope with pain.

Pain Level

1) The pain caused by missing opportunities

Too early, too late. Cut at the bottom, short at the top, chase in the middle.

Symptoms: Compulsively checking market charts, instant regret.

Cost: fees, small losses, erosion of confidence.

2）The Pain Brought by Jealousy

Others are taking action, while you are merely observing coldly. You call this "crime" and say "the profits come from dubious sources", say whatever you want.

Symptoms: excessive posting, moral preaching, and abuse of mute.

Cost: Missing trends, shrinking networks, lagging learning.

3) The Pain That Changes Life

Real life faces risks: leverage breakdown, counterparty default.

Symptoms: lack of sleep, fear of bills, avoiding calls.

Cost: financial losses and years of enduring psychological trauma.

Pain Trap

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

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

People always mistakenly regard a momentary pain as a permanent injury.

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

Re-understanding Pain

Pain is the tuition fee

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 the proof of experience

You have been careful enough in your adventures, which is good. Keep a good balance to continue moving forward.

Pain is a signal

Are you playing the game you want to win? Traders, investors, miners, builders, the games are different, and the thresholds of endurance vary.

Turn jealousy into action

You looked down on Aster, calling it dirty money, and then missed a great opportunity. Then... the results proved everything.

My mom is a traditional Asian mother. When I was young, she was particularly competitive and wanted to compare everything with others. If the neighbor's child did better than me on a test, a slipper would immediately fly at my face.

I have two choices: to surpass him or to befriend him. Most of the time, I choose to befriend him and then learn from him. Since I can get what I want, why take the hard road?

This instinct shapes the way I handle feelings of 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 present their opinions, do not rush to deny them, but first seek to understand the reasons behind what they are saying.
• Reverse analysis of early signals: on-chain fund flows, discussions in Telegram communities, anomalies in centralized exchange perpetual contract fees, KOL social dynamics, liquidity injection strategies.
• Add this information to your own checklist.

Jealousy doesn't have to erode you; it can also 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've endured it, the only thing to do is to never experience it a second time.

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

I used to work in the building materials industry. After earning a considerable profit share, I invested everything into Hong Kong real estate. I was basically leveraging within the permissible rules and bought two properties with parking spaces in Hong Kong at a young age, feeling invincible at the time. I insisted on repaying the mortgage without being liquidated, only increasing in value without any decline.

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

Later, UST and FTX both collapsed. My liquid funds were almost completely wiped out, and I even lost the deposit for my second property. At that time, I had already resigned to trade cryptocurrencies full-time, and in order to survive, I had to rent out my own home to pay the mortgage, squeezing into a less than 27 square meter subdivided flat for a year and a half. The 540 days of confessing to my girlfriend, hiding from my family, and avoiding my 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 of a building that has been divided into two or more independent rooms according to the originally approved plans.)

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

I have learned the painful lesson of risk management. I assure myself that I will never again create life-changing pain; I know very well that my ability to rebuild my life is nothing short of a stroke of luck.

Don't take the trader's "dead is dead" too seriously; the joke stops being funny after a while.

How to effectively relieve pain?

1) Indicate pain level

Speak up: is it timing, jealousy, or a turning point in life? Naming the pain can help avoid making a big deal out of small issues.

2) Split Funds

Survival funds, growth funds, speculative funds. Protect the foundation of survival at all costs; future opportunities require your survival.

3) Set the exit rules

Maximum single day loss, maximum loss per position, maximum drawdown before closing. Rules made in a calm state are always better than decisions made in a moment of impulse.

4) Review from different angles

Winners and losers, which are key signals and which are market noise. How will you respond when the same situation arises again.

5) Jealousy Coping Rule

If the coin you once mocked has risen 5 times, the next step is to privately message the relevant person rather than making insinuations. Find a new signal from this trend to update your investment strategy.

6) The trading system needs to be calibrated monthly

Advantages will fade, and the market will become saturated. If your trading system stops "printing money" by the end of 2024, it is not a system failure but rather a change in the environment that requires timely updates to your strategy.

My current situation

The positions and reserves are both very sufficient, so I can sleep peacefully at night.

Capture opportunities with positive expected value within the psychological tolerance range.

Use mining profits to continuously replenish other positions in the arsenal.

Use tentative positions for high odds speculation, calmly accept most stop losses.

Take advantage of the remaining opportunities in the market by increasing the frequency of pair trading and swing trading.

Adapt with the speed that surpasses self-esteem.

Adapt at a speed that transcends self-esteem.

Adapt at a speed that surpasses self-esteem.

Important things should be said three times, because this 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, transform it into experience, and then move on.