For crypto traders, this is the real test: accepting a losing trade and cutting it at a small loss without letting emotions take over—rather than watching your position bleed down to zero while clinging to recovery hopes. That mental shift separates survivors from blown accounts. It sounds simple in theory, but emotionally? It's brutal. The psychology of "maybe it bounces back" is powerful. Yet the traders who master this discipline—setting clear stop losses and actually executing them—tend to preserve capital better and live to trade another day. Everyone talks about HODLing winners, but knowing when to admit defeat quietly is what actually keeps you in the game.