Discipline and patience are the most powerful weapons for retail investors in the crypto space.

People often ask me, "I don't have much money, can I still do contracts?" I say yes. But the gameplay is vastly different. Large funds rely on time to accumulate returns, while small funds depend entirely on discipline to support the market. Based on my practical experience over the past few years, I want to talk about how small capital can gradually grow through contracts.

**The Underlying Logic of Making Money with Contracts**

Simply put, crypto contracts are a price prediction game. You don't need to actually buy and sell Bitcoin; you just need to judge whether the price will go up or down in a certain period, and profit from going long or short.

The attractive part is the power of leverage. With 1000 yuan, using 10x leverage, you can control a position of 10,000 yuan. A 1% price movement results in a 100 yuan change in your funds, which is a 10% fluctuation of your principal. Sounds exciting, but don’t forget—leverage is like a knife; it can cut others but also cut yourself. Many beginners open 50x or 100x leverage right away. That’s not investing; that’s gambling.

**My Three-Position Management Framework**

Last year, I started with 8,000 RMB (about 1,100 USD), and now my account has multiplied a hundredfold. It’s not some myth of getting rich overnight, but sticking to these principles:

The first strategy is to divide the principal into three parts. My 1,100 USD allocation is: 600 USD for main trading (55%), 400 USD as flexible funds (35%), and 100 USD as a safety net (10%). Each trade only uses about half of the main trading funds, roughly 300 USD.

It sounds cautious, but this conservative approach is what allowed me to survive during consecutive losses. Most account blow-ups happen because of one reckless bet; a single stop-loss can wipe out half a year’s profit.

The second principle is strict stop-loss. Set a loss limit, and when it’s reached, exit immediately. My standard is: close the position if a single loss exceeds 2% of the account. No bargaining. Even if I lose 10 times in a row, I still have 80% of my account left, and the chance to bounce back remains.

The third is to avoid chasing highs or bottom-fishing. When the market is crazy and rising, that’s when impulse hits hardest. Instead, I wait for volatility to normalize before taking action. The profit might be smaller, but the risk of loss is much lower.

**Mindset Determines Success or Failure**

Skills like technical analysis, capital management, and luck can all be learned. Discipline, however, must be cultivated by oneself. People with small funds actually find it easier to survive because they don’t have the capital to make big mistakes. As long as you stick to a fixed monthly return of 5-10%, your account will start to breathe after a year. The process is boring, but boredom is precisely the price of making money.