Foreword:

Only through discussion do we realize certain issues are actual pain points.

A lot of people struggle with the idea that turning small funds into big money is near impossible—it feels like trying to climb to the heavens.

But that’s not really the case. If you want to grow small funds or step into the primary market, the key is to establish your own trading framework. (And yeah, I cringed a bit writing that again.) Everyone talks the talk, but barely anyone discusses the real, gritty details—how exactly do you build a system? How do you clarify and understand it thoroughly?

That’s fine. I’ll talk. I’ll write. My writing style has always been raw and a bit rough around the edges—sometimes too blunt, not polished, and definitely not full of wishy-washy pleasantries. But that’s not a bad thing. This market needs someone to write about this stuff.

Also, fair warning—this article is pretty text-heavy, which might seem a bit tedious. But for those familiar with my work, you know I prioritize practicality and actionable insights. So I genuinely believe this piece is highly valuable. If you’re feeling lost, be a bit patient, read through carefully—you’ll get something out of it.

Based on my own experiences, I’m laying out a concrete strategy and roadmap for going from a few hundred U to breaking through the 1 million U mark.

As of now, I haven’t fully reached “A8” yet—I’m still quite green, nowhere near as sharp as some of the real OGs. So I won’t be talking about the path to A8.5 or A9 since I don’t have firsthand experience.

As for my own journey, I don’t think I’m truly successful yet, so I’ll save that story. Maybe once I cross the 5 million U line, I’ll flex a bit more.

Enough chit-chat. For retail investors, “small funds” really means small—some folks have a few hundred U, others might have more, say 1K to 10K U. For this article, let’s use 300 U as the starting point. So this is a practical strategy and path for navigating the primary MEME market from 300 U to 1 million U. Hopefully, it helps you avoid some unnecessary detours.

(And by the way, all the data and calculations in this article come with some bias—they’re only one part of the puzzle when it comes to judging effectiveness.)

1. Data Breakdown (Using PUMP as an Example)

Let’s start with some data analysis.

On April 15, a total of 43,271 meme tokens were created via PUMP. However, only 408 tokens graduated (i.e., completed full launch with max contribution).

That’s a graduation rate of just 0.94%—less than 1%. In other words, 99% of tokens died within the internal market.

Here’s the data on the 408 tokens that managed a full launch:

2. A Clear Breakdown of Strategy

All trading strategies ultimately boil down to two variables: how often you trade and the level of profit you target.

When combined, this gives us four core strategic models:

1. High trade frequency + High profit targets

2. High trade frequency + Low profit targets

3. Low trade frequency + High profit targets

4. Low trade frequency + Low profit targets

Next, we’ll quantitatively analyze these four models in detail from a mathematical standpoint to evaluate their pros and cons.

Since this article focuses on small capital strategies, all following examples will be based on an initial capital of 300 U (which was also my own starting point). Strategies for larger capital ranges—10K–200K U and 200K–1M U—will be discussed later in the article.

If you’re starting with 300 U, that’s currently about 2.4 SOL. For ease of calculation, let’s round it to 2.5 SOL.

Now, let me quickly clarify how profit percentages really work in this context. Due to gas fees and bribes, if you sell at 0.1 SOL per transaction, the cost per trade (based on standard network speed) is around 0.005 SOL. If you want to just break even, you’ll need to make another sell order, which also costs 0.005 SOL.

So with two trades, your total cost is 0.01 SOL. This means that unless your position gains at least 10% profit, you’re actually losing money after fees. Any “paper profits” under 10% are just that—paper.

1. High Trade Frequency + High Profit Target Model

For ease of calculation, let’s ignore transaction costs for now. In this model—frequent trades with high profit targets—imagine you have 2.5 SOL in a day, and you deploy 0.1 SOL per trade, making 25 trades. There’s no stop-loss applied because the goal here is to hunt for huge multiples.

Assuming you’re using a strategy that requires a single big win to break even, you’ll need to hit just one 48x token (4800% gain) out of those 25 attempts.

To achieve that kind of return, there’s only one path: buy from the internal market (among the 43,271 tokens) and hit one of the 16 tokens that reached over 100K market cap. With 25 chances, your probability of hitting one and at least breaking even is 0.92%—meaning there’s a 99.08% chance of loss.

If you drop the goal from 48x to 25x (2500% gain), the odds don’t improve much. Based on the average market cap range (53K–100K), hitting 25x means you’d have to enter at around a 3.06K market cap. But PUMP’s typical starting market cap is around 3.8K, so your only viable path still involves reaching over 100K in market cap. In this case, the break-even probability rises slightly to between 0.92% and 2.06%, but the loss rate remains near 98%.

Summary:
Why are the odds of loss so high here? Simple—you don’t have enough capital. And by “not enough,” we mean you don’t have at least 500 SOL.

The big players who engage in PVP daily? They won’t tell you this, but they’re working with over 2000 SOL for meme coin sniping, yet they only put in 2–10 SOL per trade. They have enough capital and patience to catch that one major hit that covers all losses—and more. From a mathematical standpoint, this strategy only works if you have that kind of capital.

For small players, unless you have crazy luck and exceptional intuition—able to pick one super-moonshot out of 40,000+ tokens and ride it all the way—you’ll likely just burn through your funds.

2. High Trade Frequency + Low Profit Target Model

On PUMP, the average token increase is around 663%. We’ll define low profit targets here as anything from 15% to 100%.

In theory, that profit range is achievable within any segment of the market. So let’s break it down by market cap:

(3.8K–53K): The Internal Market

Here, the best strategy is to buy in and get others to follow—basically, push for others to jump in after you. With low profit targets, all you need is a modest price bump to exit profitably.

This is doable. Because internal market caps are low, it takes very little buy pressure to create a price spike. To double your entry, you’d only need around 4000 U in buys—about 40 people. That’s not hard if you’re active in quality Telegram groups, sharing contract addresses and pushing a solid narrative to FOMO others in. This approach is popular among people who’ve fully quantified their strategy.

(53K–100K): Mid-Range Market

Requires more buy pressure, and it’s much harder to manually rally enough people to sustain a move. Unless you have deep insights and narrative timing, this range is tough. And on PUMP, most launches get dumped hard right after liftoff, so this segment often lacks real upside. We’ll skip this one in terms of mathematical viability.

(100K–500K): High-Value Range

Price action here is typically driven by:

1. Small influencer-led entries

2. Decent meme narrative and virality

Let’s assume we don’t rely on influencers and instead focus purely on narrative quality. Even stripping out subjective judgment, the math is favorable:

• There are 16 tokens over 100K market cap

• 50% of these hit between 100K–500K

• The rest exceed 500K or even hit 1M+

If you enter every token in this range, the win rate is ~43%, and estimated cumulative profits range from 125% to 675%. Surprising, right?

(500K–1M and Above): Moonshot Territory

Tokens in this range are driven by:

1. Big influencers

2. Whales/manipulated markets

3. Tier-2 or better level narratives

You can’t control whether a whale enters unless you’re close with them. So you’re left with:

• Identifying manipulated markets

• Judging narrative quality and virality

These are still highly subjective. But mathematically, if you ignore experience-based filtering and just ape into everything, you’re looking at estimated returns of 223%–1250% and potentially higher. The wide range reflects variability in your profit-taking strategy.

3. Low Trade Frequency + High Profit Target Model

At first glance, this strategy might seem inherently contradictory. It demands exceptional ability and experience, and the success of this model is heavily dependent on those subjective factors. Because of that, we won’t go into detailed analysis here—from a beginner retail trader’s perspective, this strategy offers no practical guidance.

That said, I bolded two words in the original text for a reason: if you’re not operating with small funds, then this model isn’t necessarily contradictory. If you have enough experience and skill, then spending time pursuing this strategy can be totally valid.

4. Low Trade Frequency + Low Profit Target Model

Conditions:

• Trade frequency: Low (1–3 trades max)

• Profit target: Low (take-profit capped at 100%, with stop points between 25%–100%)

• Capital per trade: 0.5 SOL

In this model, the 100K market cap level becomes a crucial dividing line. We’ll combine everything above 100K into one group and set the upper bound at 5M.

With that in mind, let’s calculate the expected return when making an average of 2 trades, each using 0.5 SOL, and targeting an average 62.5% profit across two market cap zones:

Did you catch the key insight here? It’s a wake-up call.

Why? Because in the 100K–5M market cap range, your probability of hitting profit is a whopping 99.67%.

That might not feel that significant at first glance. So let’s flip it: if you enter trades in this range, your mathematical chance of failure is just 0.33%.

That’s right—low frequency + low profit targeting is the optimal strategy among all four models.

Summary:

When starting with small capital and removing experience/skill as variables, you’re left with four primary scenarios. The data in the chart below (not shown here) offers a more realistic, broadly applicable overview of how these strategies perform.

3. Mastering the Art of Trading – The Psychological Account

Up until now, I haven’t once mentioned a factor that significantly impacts trading—your mindset. Why? Let me explain in detail.

At the beginning of your journey as a small-cap retail trader entering this market, beyond setting up your capital account, I’m introducing you to another crucial concept—your psychological account. Since we’re calling it an “account,” let’s talk about how it can increase or decrease, and the consequences of each.

Here’s what happens to a lot of people:
They enter the market and get swept up in all the wealth myths. Mimicking others, they start aping into every hype coin, fantasizing about catching the next 10x, 100x. Jumping from token to token, they repeatedly take losses, constantly panic selling.

During this whole process, their psychological account never grows—instead, it’s constantly drained. Over time, they lose courage, doubt themselves more and more, and spiral into a lack of confidence.

After enough consecutive failures, ask yourself—what gives you the confidence to bet big and win next time?

They’re influenced by the belief that small capital must chase huge multipliers from the get-go, dismissing more rational, calculated opportunities. They’re addicted to the hype cycle, never pausing to reflect on what strategy actually suits them. They never quantify a realistic, executable trading system.

They don’t know anything else, except one flawed rule: “high odds are everything.” And so, without ever building a true foundation, they spiral into an endless downward death loop, eventually exiting the market in quiet defeat.

It’s a tragic outcome.
Imagine one day, after countless hardships, you finally stand before the dragon. You realize, if you swing your sword, you could transcend to the heavens. But your sword is now rusted and broken. You’ve burned through your courage, your drive. Even if you swing—it might not be strong enough to slay the beast. Or worse, you no longer have the courage to swing at all.

If you’re reading this now, I hope you pause. Reflect on what I’ve said. Think seriously—what specific strategy should you pursue? How can you clarify your system?

The benefits are obvious:
You gain confidence. You become more self-assured. The internal friction fades. You find peace in your daily mindset and can think more clearly. When big opportunities come, you’re more likely to recognize them—and more importantly, you’ll have the courage to take action.

There are countless other upsides, but I won’t keep repeating them.

4. Detailed Execution of Specific Strategies

So how exactly should you execute? Here’s a thorough breakdown:

Strategy for 350 U to 200K U

Start by dividing your 2.5 SOL capital into two hard-separated accounts:

• Trading Account: Allocate 1.5 SOL

• Reserve Account: Allocate 1 SOL

For the trading account, only use 10% of the total per trade—that’s 0.15 SOL per entry.

At the beginning, it’s best to start with MEME tokens that have already successfully bottomed out. For example, recent tokens like $RFC, $DARK, etc. Start by riding their short-term waves. There aren’t many good entries per day, so be patient. Otherwise, the chance of hitting your stop-loss increases. Wait for a solid setup, enter, and once you get a decent gain (even just several percentage points), take profit.

Be strict—don’t chase high returns. Continue this process to build up experience and grow your psychological account.

Now, for the reserve account (1 SOL):
Don’t touch this frequently. This account is to train your judgment for major high-conviction opportunities.

What counts as a high-conviction opportunity? These don’t come often. Some classic examples:

• November’s Binance listing of $ACT—after the announcement, it surged 25x in one afternoon.

• The AI narrative surge—leading tokens pumped in unison.

• The day Trump suddenly launched a token.

When something like this happens, make your call—then use 30% of your reserve account to buy in.

Once you successfully call three of these events in a row, you’ll have built solid judgment for such high-impact plays. After that, when you spot similar setups, you can start going all-in from this reserve account, rolling your profits forward.

Keep following this strategy. Your capital will scale from 300 U all the way to 200K U.

At the A7 level, your mindset undergoes a major shift. Withdraw 50K U—go enjoy life a little, satisfy some material desires. Trust me, it’ll elevate your psychological account. You’ll no longer be bogged down by everyday worries, giving you a mental edge.

At this stage, you’ve got a strong psychological account and a solid base of experience. It’s time to calm down and think strategically.

You have two main paths from here:

1.Refined Trading Approach

• Reduce trade frequency

• Focus on established MEME tokens

• Spend more time researching and hunting setups

• Important: Even with this much capital, do NOT go all-in—repeat after me:
  Do not go all-in. Do not go all-in. Do not go all-in.

• Use only 20% of your funds for active trading \
  With 150K U rotating in this way, you will cross the 1M U threshold eventually.

2.PVP Mode (High-Risk, High-Reward)

• Allocate capital toward new launches and presales

• At this level, your capital can absorb losses

• Your psychological account is robust, meaning you’re mentally ready to withstand swings

• You can take many shots, and one big win can cover all your losses—and then some

5. Some Final Thoughts

It feels like the MEME coin space has now been split into two distinct eras: the pre-Trump era and the post-Trump era, which is where we are now.

Those who caught the Trump wave pulled out massive liquidity, partying every night, some even retiring. Meanwhile, those who missed it are still grinding it out in the trenches—bumping into walls, struggling daily, with little to show for their effort.

I’m not great at giving long-winded pep talks. But one line has always stuck with me and kept me going: Markets are born from despair.

Let me share a bit of my own story. Toward the end of 2023, during a different cycle, the market had completely dried up—liquidity was gone. That was my low point, full of uncertainty about the future and dissatisfaction with myself.

I was furious. Frustrated. I hated myself.
Why wasn’t I the one making money?
Why did I always lose?
Why couldn’t I live the life I wanted?
Why did I miss every single opportunity?

But maybe the one thing that made me different was that even in the depths of despair, I stayed in the market. I wanted to see for myself if that phrase—Markets are born from despair—was really true.

One day, it happened. I caught the wave. I jumped on that one rocket that always seems to emerge in a hopeless market, and I made it out.
I don’t think it was skill. It was just persistence.

“Never say there’s no path forward. Even in the deepest abyss, a revelation awaits.”

Disclaimer:

1. This article is republished from [7UpDAO]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Shanks]. If you have any concerns regarding the reposting, please contact the Gate Learn team. They will handle it according to the appropriate process.

2. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.

3. Translations of this article into other languages were done by the Gate Learn team. Please do not copy, distribute, or reproduce the translated content without explicitly mentioning Gate.io.