In early December, the trading records of a certain whale once again made the rounds in the community—a single day saw them increase short positions in BTC, ZEC, and SOL. Among these, their average ZEC position went from $344 straight up to $360, with a total exposure reaching $17.29 million. At first glance, does this look like a prime bottom-fishing opportunity? Not so fast.

A closer look at this account’s position details reveals something off: the BTC short was opened with 40x leverage, already showing a paper loss of $40,000; the SOL position was even more aggressive at 20x leverage, racking up a direct loss of $150,000; and the only profitable trade, the ZEC short, was just a modest gain of a little over $20,000. With “two out of three positions losing money,” this hardly looks like a sound strategy—it feels more like gambling on an extreme market move in one direction.

Digging into this account’s trading history gets even more interesting—back in September, they turned $3 million into $30 million in just two months, which sounds impressive, right? But starting in November, they hit a string of setbacks and nearly gave back all their previous profits. That streak of 15 consecutive wins was indeed remarkable, but the problem is, with high leverage and frequent trading as a combo, even a minor market swing can wipe the account back to square one.

What can ordinary traders learn from this case? First, don’t blindly copy so-called “whale trades”—they may have hedged positions or capital resources you can’t see. Second, leverage does feel great when you’re making money, but losses come even faster—especially since most retail traders don’t have deep pockets and can’t withstand a few heavy losses. The ones who truly survive in this market long-term don’t rely on a few lucky strikes, but on steady position management and risk awareness. The market will keep testing everyone’s ability to manage greed and fear. Technical analysis is just a tool; mindset is the real foundation.