Having immersed myself in the digital asset trading circle for many years, today I want to share some heartfelt thoughts—Is making trading your livelihood truly feasible?

My answer is straightforward: Yes, it’s possible, but definitely not in the "sleep and make money" style.

**1. The story of 22x returns, just listen**

Turning 270,000 into over 6 million sounds incredibly exciting. Brother Bin definitely deserves a thumbs-up for this. But there’s a fatal logical flaw—mistaking a one-time huge profit for a repeatable ability.

What’s the most painful truth in the crypto world? An account gained through luck today could be wiped out tomorrow by a technical mistake. I’ve seen dozens of times where a 10x or 20x profit was instantly wiped out in a margin call. So don’t mistake a market rally for your own skill, and don’t impulsively resign and go all-in out of excitement. Such thinking usually ends with "returning to the poverty line overnight."

**2. The three hurdles of full-time trading—missing one means failure**

Want to rely on this for a living? First, ask yourself these three painful questions:

*Is your capital reserve sufficient?* At least 12 months of living expenses should be sitting in your account, untouched. If you plan to use your rent and food money to gamble on price swings, once your mindset collapses, your decisions will turn into reckless gambling.

*Do you have the mental resilience?* Market fluctuations 24/7, a single needle in the middle of the night can keep you awake all night. More challenging is if you lose money for three consecutive months—can you still calmly follow your trading plan? Or will you panic and chase the market, making irrational decisions?

*Do you have a genuine trading system?* This isn’t something you can develop just by listening to podcasts or looking at candlestick charts. A system means clear entry signals, strict stop-loss points, and precise position sizing. For example, I personally limit each loss to within 2% of total capital. No matter how tempting the market, I won’t go all-in.

**3. Don’t be blinded by futures contracts—there are many ways to make money in this circle**

Many people think of full-time trading as just leverage and chasing highs and lows—that’s too narrow. In reality, this ecosystem offers a variety of ways to profit:

For example, studying a project’s airdrop rules to participate in ecosystem building at low cost; or selecting promising new coins for medium- to long-term positions; or learning DeFi liquidity mining techniques… There are also traders who specialize in arbitrage opportunities in obscure trading pairs.

The key is, don’t put all your chips on short-term volatility with high leverage. Diversify your strategies—multi-pronged approaches are the secret to long-term survival.

**4. Market cycles are a big trap**

In recent years, the crypto market has gone through a full cycle—from bottom rebounds, to crazy peaks, to merciless declines. Some caught the start of a bull run, others caught the depths of a bear market. If you enter full-time at the wrong time window, even the strongest mindset can’t withstand half a year of continuous downturns.

So what’s the practical approach? Start with spare funds to test the waters, understand your true psychological resilience in volatile markets, then consider going full-time.

**5. Final ramblings**

Many can trade full-time, but very few can maintain steady profits for over three years. The toughest part of this industry isn’t technical indicators but staying rational amid tempting profits and crushing losses. Many succeed in the former but fail in the latter.

So, full-time trading is possible, but you must first overcome these realistic hurdles one by one.