Let me make it clear first: I don’t sell courses, I don’t give signals, and I don’t charge agent fees. I’m just an old player who’s taken enough hits in this market.

Last year, a friend came to me with $2,700, saying he wanted to make a comeback. I didn’t bother with any fancy technical indicators, just gave him three hard rules I learned from losing my own hard-earned money. He followed them for three months, his account grew to $50,000, and he never got liquidated once. Whether these rules can help you depends on how much respect you have for this market.

**Rule One: Split your funds into three parts—survival is everything.**

I told him to divide that $2,700 into three $900 portions, no exceptions—this is a lesson I learned after going all-in and getting liquidated, staring at the ceiling awake all night:

The first part is for short-term trading. No more than two trades a day, and close the app when done—even a glance more can make you itchy to trade. The second part waits for big trends. If there’s no clear bullish structure on the weekly chart, no breakout with volume above key resistance? Then play dead. Trading in choppy ranges is just handing money to the whales. The third part is your lifeline. If the market suddenly dumps and threatens to liquidate you, use this to save your position—at the very least, it keeps you at the table.

Getting liquidated is just a flesh wound, but losing your principal is fatal. Without principal, no opportunity matters anymore.

**Rule Two: Only trade certain setups—be a turtle the rest of the time.**

I used to get slapped around in sideways markets, losing nine out of ten trades to the market.

Now I only recognize three entry signals: Are the daily moving averages not in a bullish alignment? Stay in cash, and stop worrying about “missing the bull run.” Is there a breakout above previous highs with volume, and the daily candle closes strong? That’s when you can test the waters with a small position. When your profit reaches 30% of your principal? Withdraw half immediately, secure it, and set a 10% trailing stop on the rest—only money in your pocket is truly yours; don’t try to squeeze every last drop from every move.

**Rule Three: Lock down your emotions—mechanical execution is the way to go.**

Before opening a position, write out your trading plan and stick to it no matter what: Stop-loss is always at 3%, close automatically if hit, no “let’s wait and see.” When you’re up 10%, immediately move your stop to break even—anything after that is a bonus from the market. Shut down your computer at midnight every night, don’t look at the charts no matter how tempting they are; if you can’t sleep, just delete your trading app. The longer you stare at the screen, the easier it is to lose control, and once you do, you’ll make mistakes.

Opportunities are everywhere, but if you lose your principal, you lose everything. Master these three rules first, then you can look into Elliot Waves and complex indicators later.