I thought I was being smart. Instead, I lost everything in one trade. This is the honest story of how it happened, and what you can learn from it.
I’m not proud of this story, but if it saves you from making the same mistake, it’s worth telling.
A few months ago, I was feeling unstoppable. I’d had a great run trading crypto — a few lucky longs here, a couple of timely shorts there. Nothing major, but enough to boost my confidence and my portfolio.
And then came Solana.
The price had just pumped. Hard. Everyone on Twitter was screaming “overbought,” “due for a correction,” “short it now!” So what did I do? I threw everything I had into a 10x leverage short on SOLUSDT, convinced it was about to drop.
And i didn’t even have a stoploss. I just watched it drop, hoping it would bounce back.
I Broke the #1 Rule of Trading
Let me be clear: never trade without a stop loss. I knew this. Everyone knows this. But in that moment, I thought I could “watch it closely” and close the position manually if it went the wrong way.
Spoiler: I didn’t.
Solana started moving up. Fast. I told myself it was just a fakeout. Then it kept going. And I still didn’t close.
I was “sure” it would turn around.
It didn’t.
My account got instantly liquidated. Everything I had built over months wiped out in one trade.
What I Learned (the Hard Way)
Leverage is a tool, not a lottery ticket.
10x leverage amplifies gains, but also losses. If the price moves just 10% against you, you’re out. Use it with discipline or don’t use it at all.Hope is not a strategy.
I wasn’t trading , I was gambling. I didn’t analyze, I just hoped the market would do what I wanted. I could’ve gone to a casino and had more fun.Stop losses exist for a reason.
Setting a stop loss isn’t weakness. It’s protection. It keeps your emotions from draining your entire account.Risk management matters more than being right.
Even if your idea is good, bad execution can kill it. Risk only what you can afford to lose. And never open a position with your entire account!
My Final Thoughts
Crypto is exciting. It’s fast, it’s volatile, and yes , it can be insanely profitable. But if you don’t respect the risks, it will humble you quickly.
My mistake wasn’t just technical. It was emotional. Overconfidence, impatience, and the need to be right cost me everything I had in that account.
If you take anything from this, let it be this: always trade with a plan, always manage your risk, and never trust “gut feeling” over proper analysis.
Learn from my mistake so you don’t have to repeat it.
— Daily Crypto Invest
How One Mistake Drained My Crypto Account (And How You Can Avoid it) was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.