A couple of days ago, when Bitcoin surged to 92,500 in the early morning, a friend of mine called me in the middle of the night like she was losing her mind.

She was almost crying on the phone: "I went all in with $10,000, 10x leverage long, and it only dropped 3% before it was all gone. What the hell?"

I checked her position records and was stunned—she went all-in with $9,500, stop loss? Doesn't exist.

A lot of people think cross margin mode is like a safe, but actually, it's the opposite. If you don't understand how cross margin works, you'll lose even worse than with isolated margin.

When it comes to getting liquidated, leverage only takes half the blame—the real culprit is your position size. For example: if you have $1,000 and use $900 to open a 10x leveraged position, a 5% move against you wipes out your account; but if you only use $100 to open the same 10x position, the price would have to drop 50% to get liquidated. My friend put in 95% of her capital, so with 10x leverage, even a minor pullback meant game over.

I've been grinding for six months and doubled my account with zero liquidations, relying on three ironclad rules:

First, never put more than 20% of your total capital into a single trade. For example, with $10,000, never put more than $2,000 in one go. Even if you make a mistake and cut at a 10% loss, you only lose $200—not a big deal.

Second, cap your loss per trade at 3% of your total account. Using $2,000 with 10x leverage as an example, set a stop loss at 1.5% in advance, so if triggered, you lose $300—which is 3% of your total. Even a streak of bad trades is manageable.

Third, don’t trade during sideways markets, and don’t add to winning positions. Only bet on clear breakout trends, no matter how tempting a choppy market looks. After opening a position, don’t chase—don’t let your emotions dictate your pace.

The essence of cross margin is to give you room to make mistakes, not to gamble your life on probabilities.

Its design logic is to provide a margin of error for handling volatility, but only if you use small positions and strict risk management. I knew a guy who used to get liquidated every month, but after following these rules for three months, he turned $5,000 into $8,000.

He later told me, “I used to think cross margin was gambling with my life. Now I get it—it’s a tool to help you survive longer.”

In this game, it’s never about who runs the fastest—it’s about who can laugh at the end. Not sure about your timing? Instead of fumbling around, watch more real-time analysis and wait for the right entry.