Can you make money with contracts? The answer to this question is quite harsh — yes, but the probability is much lower than you think.

At the start of 2026, the Shanghai Aluminum options saw a single-day increase of 112%, and indeed some people managed to catch short-term gains in the volatile market. The power of high leverage is right there; if used correctly, it can turn the tide with minimal effort. But the problem is, most people use it the wrong way. The data is heartbreaking: 70% of beginners choose leverage over 50x right from the start, resulting in their accounts being wiped out when prices fluctuate more than 2%. The situation gets even worse — greedy re-entries, stubbornly holding onto losing positions, making mistakes once in ten trades, and their principal is gone.

This is a zero-sum game in the market. Institutions hold the advantage in information and technology, while retail traders rely solely on luck? That’s just being harvested like leeks.

But those who truly survive do things completely differently. They have a set of comprehensive survival rules: only participate with idle funds, keep single-loss trades within 1% of the account, with clear rules for entering and exiting, never letting emotions influence decisions. In other words, they treat contracts as a skill that requires discipline, not a gambling table.

Risk control is embedded in their trading logic — using rules to fight human greed and fear. That’s the only way to survive in volatile markets. The secret to making money with contracts is actually quite simple — yet so difficult.