Unrealized losses can really be more tormenting than unrealized gains—my heartbeat changes first, even though my position hasn’t changed. When I’m making money, I think, “Well, it’s okay.” When I’m losing, my brain automatically starts running disaster-movie scenes: Should I cut? Will it dump again? In the end, I wake up twice in the middle of the night to check the candlestick chart, and the more I check, the more anxious I get.

To put it plainly, it’s probably loss aversion: making a little less doesn’t hurt, but a drawdown feels like getting stabbed. Later on, I can only rely on habits to save myself—before opening a position, I write down the stop-loss level and the maximum loss, and once it hits, I execute it; I don’t negotiate with myself. Anyway, I’m not some “natural-born trader”—I only learned after getting burned twice.

Recently, I’ve been looking at the chain game loop of inflation + studio + a coin price spiral, and it’s basically the same. When prices drop, everyone can’t sleep. The more you try to hold on, the worse it feels. Now I’d rather take a small loss and sleep well than try to rely on luck to stay awake until dawn. For now, that’s it.