Author: 2Lambroz Compiled by Tim, PANews Everyone loves to show off their earnings, screenshots, and stock price surges, but few people talk about the pain. If you want to achieve something in crypto, you have to go through pain first. The key is how you deal with pain. Pain Level 1) The pain of missing out Too early, too late. Cut at the bottom, empty at the top, chase halfway. Symptoms: Compulsively checking market charts and instantly regretting it. Cost: Fees, small losses, erosion of confidence. 2) The pain of jealousy Others are taking action, but you are just watching. You call it a "crime," you call it "illegal gains," you call it what you will. Symptoms: Crazy screen swiping, moral preaching, and abuse of muting. Cost: Missing out on trends, shrinking connections, and falling behind in learning. 3) Life-Changing Pain Real life faces risks: leverage breaks down, counterparties default. Symptoms: Lack of sleep, fear of bills, avoiding phone calls. The cost: financial loss and years of emotional trauma. Pain Trap People are always eager to sell coins that have risen in value, simply because they are afraid of incurring losses. The reason people insist on doubling down on their losses is because they don't want to endure the pain. People often mistake temporary pain for permanent damage. Is there any meaning in all this? No, it's just letting pain take the wheel. Re-understanding pain Pain is tuition You paid the price to learn, do your homework: write down what happened, why it happened, and how you will respond next time. Pain is proof of experience You're taking risks with caution, which is good. Keep it in check so you can continue. Pain is a signal Are you playing the game you want to win? Traders, investors, miners, builders—each game has its own threshold. Turning jealousy into action You looked down on Aster, calling it dirty money, and missed out on a great opportunity. And then... the results proved it all. My mom is a traditional Asian mother. When I was a child, she was very competitive and always wanted to compete with others. If the neighbor's children did better than me in the exam, she would immediately hit me in the face with a slipper. I had two choices: to outdo him or to befriend him. Most of the time, I chose to befriend him and learn from him. Why take the hard way when you can get what you want? This instinct has shaped how I handle jealousy in the crypto space. Instead of wasting time on resentment, I turn jealousy into information. How to turn jealousy into an advantage: When others put forward their opinions, don't rush to deny them, but first understand why they say that. Reverse analysis of early signals: on-chain capital flows, Telegram community discussions, abnormal perpetual contract rates on centralized exchanges, KOL social dynamics, and liquidity injection strategies. Add this information to your own checklist. Jealousy doesn't necessarily 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 reinvent yourself. Maybe, but once you've gone through it, the only thing left to do is never go through it again. What is life-changing pain? Here’s how it happened to me. I used to work in the building materials industry. After earning a healthy share of the profits, I invested them all in Hong Kong real estate. I essentially leveraged within the regulatory framework. At a young age, I bought two properties and a parking space in Hong Kong. At the time, I felt invincible. I held onto my mortgage payments to avoid liquidation, and the market only rose, never fell. My first cryptocurrency investment cycle also went well, so I increased my investment. Then, UST and FTX collapsed in quick succession. My liquidity was practically wiped out, and even the down payment for my second property was gone. Having quit my job to focus on crypto trading, I rented out my home to pay off the mortgage, living in a subdivided apartment of less than 27 square meters for a year and a half. Those 540 days, confessing to my girlfriend, hiding it from my family, and hiding it from my friends, were like walking on broken glass. (Note: A subdivided apartment, also known as a room within a room, generally refers to a building unit shown on the original approved building plans that has been divided into two or more separate rooms.) Fortunately, with the help of the Arbitrum DeFi ecosystem and Pendle, I stood up again and changed completely. I learned a hard lesson about risk management. I promised myself I would never again create life-altering pain, knowing full well that I was lucky to have been able to rebuild my life. Don't take the trader's words "die if you die" too seriously. The joke will stop being funny if it goes on. How to effectively relieve pain? 1) Mark the pain level Say it out loud: is it timing, jealousy, or a life transition? Naming your pain will help you avoid making a big deal out of it. 2) Split funds Survival funds, growth funds, and speculative funds. Protect the foundation of survival at all costs; future opportunities depend on your survival. 3) Set exit rules Maximum single-day loss, maximum single-position loss, maximum drawdown before closing a position. Rules made in a calm state are always better than decisions made in an impulsive state. 4) Review from different angles Winners and losers, what are the key signals and what is market noise, and how will you respond when the same situation arises again. 5) Principles for dealing with jealousy If a coin you once mocked has quintupled in value, your next move is to privately message the relevant individuals 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 markets will become saturated. If your trading system stops printing money by the end of 2024, it's not a system malfunction, but rather a shift in the landscape, requiring a timely update. My current situation The positions and reserves are sufficient, so you can sleep peacefully at night. Capture positive expected value opportunities within your psychological tolerance. Use mining income to continuously replenish other positions in the ammunition depot. Use exploratory positions for high-odds speculation and be comfortable with most stop-losses. While there are still opportunities in the market, increase the frequency of pair trading and swing trading. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Important things should be said three times because that is the way of life. The pain brought by the crypto market is inevitable, and such experience should not be wasted. The market rewards those who learn quickly and persist long enough, and they will eventually achieve success. Face your pain, transform it into experience, and move on.Author: 2Lambroz Compiled by Tim, PANews Everyone loves to show off their earnings, screenshots, and stock price surges, but few people talk about the pain. If you want to achieve something in crypto, you have to go through pain first. The key is how you deal with pain. Pain Level 1) The pain of missing out Too early, too late. Cut at the bottom, empty at the top, chase halfway. Symptoms: Compulsively checking market charts and instantly regretting it. Cost: Fees, small losses, erosion of confidence. 2) The pain of jealousy Others are taking action, but you are just watching. You call it a "crime," you call it "illegal gains," you call it what you will. Symptoms: Crazy screen swiping, moral preaching, and abuse of muting. Cost: Missing out on trends, shrinking connections, and falling behind in learning. 3) Life-Changing Pain Real life faces risks: leverage breaks down, counterparties default. Symptoms: Lack of sleep, fear of bills, avoiding phone calls. The cost: financial loss and years of emotional trauma. Pain Trap People are always eager to sell coins that have risen in value, simply because they are afraid of incurring losses. The reason people insist on doubling down on their losses is because they don't want to endure the pain. People often mistake temporary pain for permanent damage. Is there any meaning in all this? No, it's just letting pain take the wheel. Re-understanding pain Pain is tuition You paid the price to learn, do your homework: write down what happened, why it happened, and how you will respond next time. Pain is proof of experience You're taking risks with caution, which is good. Keep it in check so you can continue. Pain is a signal Are you playing the game you want to win? Traders, investors, miners, builders—each game has its own threshold. Turning jealousy into action You looked down on Aster, calling it dirty money, and missed out on a great opportunity. And then... the results proved it all. My mom is a traditional Asian mother. When I was a child, she was very competitive and always wanted to compete with others. If the neighbor's children did better than me in the exam, she would immediately hit me in the face with a slipper. I had two choices: to outdo him or to befriend him. Most of the time, I chose to befriend him and learn from him. Why take the hard way when you can get what you want? This instinct has shaped how I handle jealousy in the crypto space. Instead of wasting time on resentment, I turn jealousy into information. How to turn jealousy into an advantage: When others put forward their opinions, don't rush to deny them, but first understand why they say that. Reverse analysis of early signals: on-chain capital flows, Telegram community discussions, abnormal perpetual contract rates on centralized exchanges, KOL social dynamics, and liquidity injection strategies. Add this information to your own checklist. Jealousy doesn't necessarily 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 reinvent yourself. Maybe, but once you've gone through it, the only thing left to do is never go through it again. What is life-changing pain? Here’s how it happened to me. I used to work in the building materials industry. After earning a healthy share of the profits, I invested them all in Hong Kong real estate. I essentially leveraged within the regulatory framework. At a young age, I bought two properties and a parking space in Hong Kong. At the time, I felt invincible. I held onto my mortgage payments to avoid liquidation, and the market only rose, never fell. My first cryptocurrency investment cycle also went well, so I increased my investment. Then, UST and FTX collapsed in quick succession. My liquidity was practically wiped out, and even the down payment for my second property was gone. Having quit my job to focus on crypto trading, I rented out my home to pay off the mortgage, living in a subdivided apartment of less than 27 square meters for a year and a half. Those 540 days, confessing to my girlfriend, hiding it from my family, and hiding it from my friends, were like walking on broken glass. (Note: A subdivided apartment, also known as a room within a room, generally refers to a building unit shown on the original approved building plans that has been divided into two or more separate rooms.) Fortunately, with the help of the Arbitrum DeFi ecosystem and Pendle, I stood up again and changed completely. I learned a hard lesson about risk management. I promised myself I would never again create life-altering pain, knowing full well that I was lucky to have been able to rebuild my life. Don't take the trader's words "die if you die" too seriously. The joke will stop being funny if it goes on. How to effectively relieve pain? 1) Mark the pain level Say it out loud: is it timing, jealousy, or a life transition? Naming your pain will help you avoid making a big deal out of it. 2) Split funds Survival funds, growth funds, and speculative funds. Protect the foundation of survival at all costs; future opportunities depend on your survival. 3) Set exit rules Maximum single-day loss, maximum single-position loss, maximum drawdown before closing a position. Rules made in a calm state are always better than decisions made in an impulsive state. 4) Review from different angles Winners and losers, what are the key signals and what is market noise, and how will you respond when the same situation arises again. 5) Principles for dealing with jealousy If a coin you once mocked has quintupled in value, your next move is to privately message the relevant individuals 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 markets will become saturated. If your trading system stops printing money by the end of 2024, it's not a system malfunction, but rather a shift in the landscape, requiring a timely update. My current situation The positions and reserves are sufficient, so you can sleep peacefully at night. Capture positive expected value opportunities within your psychological tolerance. Use mining income to continuously replenish other positions in the ammunition depot. Use exploratory positions for high-odds speculation and be comfortable with most stop-losses. While there are still opportunities in the market, increase the frequency of pair trading and swing trading. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Adapt at a speed beyond your self-esteem. Important things should be said three times because that is the way of life. The pain brought by the crypto market is inevitable, and such experience should not be wasted. The market rewards those who learn quickly and persist long enough, and they will eventually achieve success. Face your pain, transform it into experience, and move on.