Eight years in the space—if you ask me which period was the craziest, it has to be 2017. No contest.

Back then, I set my sights on ADA, this altcoin, and started building a position in batches from $0.03. In less than three months, it shot straight up to $1.20. There were so many zeros behind my account balance I couldn’t even keep count—forty times return, right in front of my eyes. Every morning, the first thing I did was open the app and calculate if this money could cover a down payment on a house.

And what happened? I didn’t sell.

You can probably guess the rest—ADA crashed all the way down to $0.20. I gave back 80% of my profits, and the dream of buying a house went completely cold.

That painful loss taught me a crucial lesson: in crypto, anyone can buy in, but the truly skilled know when to get out.

The take-profit and stop-loss strategy below is something I developed with real money on the line. It’s especially suitable for regular players who don’t want to watch the charts 24/7.

**Let’s talk about taking profits first.**

I use a “laddered take-profit” method. For example, if a coin goes from $1 to $2, I sell 30% of my position—that covers my cost right away. If it climbs to $3, I sell another 30%. The remaining 40% I set a trailing stop: if it pulls back 15% from the peak, I sell everything. This way, you can ride the main surge without ending up with nothing.

**Now for stop-losses.**

I have a strict rule: never lose more than 5% of my capital on a single trade. In practice, as soon as I buy, I immediately set a conditional order: -10% triggers an automatic stop-loss. It’s like buying insurance for the trade. Don’t worry about missing out—there are always new opportunities in this market, but once your capital is gone, it’s really gone.

One last heartfelt thought. Over these eight years, I’ve seen countless stories of overnight riches, but way more people get shaken out on the roller coaster and end up losing their principal. The ones who truly pocket their profits are those who execute their rules as strictly as robots.

I remember once I stopped out of a position, and that coin doubled afterward. My friends said I was too timid. I have no regrets. Three months later, that thing went straight to zero.

In this space, surviving is a thousand times more important than making a quick buck.