Trader's Story: There is no gain without pain—growth comes only after letting go
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Trader's Story: There is no gain without pain—growth comes only after letting go
I've learned to walk away from trades that once seemed profitable, reserving my precious positions for those with the highest risk-reward ratio, greatest win rate, and clearest visibility.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsHello everyone, I'm Agony—that's my WeChat nickname. But those who know me well in QQ groups probably recognize me by another name: Bai*.
To be honest, I don't consider myself outstanding enough to share insights with others. Here, I’d like to sincerely thank PenTou Ge for his support and recognition. I’ve always been quite insecure, and his validation gave me tremendous confidence. Without meeting PenTou, I wouldn’t have joined pentotrader (the pre-selection platform for Pento Capital), and there would be no "me" today as I am now. If anything I say can offer even a little inspiration, that would be wonderful.
Before encountering PenTou in 2019, I had already been around the crypto space for one or two years. Although back then the market was extremely volatile and making money seemed easy, I hadn’t deliberately built any trading system. When favorable trends emerged, I could catch them and achieve high returns—but after several market cycles, I retained almost none of those gains. Seeing so many legendary stories of people going all-in and getting rich quickly stirred up impatience in me as a young trader. So every day, I spent countless hours watching price charts, reading analysts’ opinions, and studying technical analysis books, desperately trying to find a path to sudden wealth within candlestick patterns.
At first, I did manage to achieve astonishing returns from a few big moves. However, my immature mindset wasn’t ready to handle such rapid wealth accumulation. Of course, this is something I only realized later—people in the market can only control wealth that matches their level of understanding.
Naturally, during the subsequent trend reversal, I nearly lost all the profits I had made earlier—and the process was incredibly painful.
Looking back at my trading behavior during that period, it was essentially trading for the sake of trading—completely undisciplined, and I honestly can’t remember what I was thinking at the time.
Through this endless cycle of winning and losing, I gradually realized my trading frequency was excessively high, and my position sizing was completely arbitrary. I recognized that while I had the ability to make money, I was terrible at avoiding losses. Reducing loss-causing behaviors would elevate my trading system to the next level.
I wanted to change and tried to change, but the power of habit is terrifying. Overcoming deeply ingrained bad habits requires immense willpower, and any slight lapse would undo all progress.
Self-discipline—two simple words, yet when you actually try to practice them, you realize how profoundly difficult they truly are!
That’s when I met PenTou—the 40-year-old bald man, loaded with crypto, so profitable that Xu Mingxing once called him begging for mercy.
Through his pentotrader selection process, I underwent rigorous risk management training—an experience that completely transformed me. Its strict rules—maximum loss per trade, leverage limits, target return rates—eliminated every trader unable to maintain control.
The selection consisted of three rounds, with the first being the most demanding—and the most beneficial for me.
The rule capping maximum single-trade drawdown was particularly challenging. It meant I had to carefully select entry points to avoid forced liquidation before turning a profit. It also meant that after just a few consecutive liquidations, my total loss would hit the elimination threshold! Each stop-loss brought me one step closer to disqualification. I had to force myself to abandon most trades and reserve precious positions only for those offering the highest value.
In the past, using my personal account, whenever I saw an opportunity, I jumped in—regardless of entry quality, timeframe, or risk-reward ratio. I chased everything, big and small, only to end up with nothing. As the saying goes, there is no gain without sacrifice. Once I learned how to “let go,” gaining became much easier.
Under the strict constraints of pentotrader, I learned to give up trades that once seemed profitable, reserving limited capital only for those with the best risk-reward, highest win rate, and clearest setups. For unclear market conditions—even if volatility was massive—I could now keep my hands off and stay calm.
After completing the three rounds, these disciplines had become deeply embedded into my trading system, naturally evolving into habits. Even after becoming a collaborating trader under less stringent requirements, I maintained self-discipline, truly embodying the principle: “Trade your plan, plan your trade.”
I’m sure many of you have heard so-called “truths” like “cut your losses and let your profits run,” “only trade what you understand,” or “trade your plan, plan your trade.” Yet in actual trading, most people do exactly the opposite. Because real discipline is hard. Aside from a few exceptionally strong-willed individuals, most need external constraints combined with personal effort sustained over time to turn discipline into habit. And Pento Capital provided precisely those conditions, helping me become far more disciplined.
Now, let me briefly describe my trading style. I focus on medium- to long-term swing trades due to my relatively low risk tolerance. My average return may not match Minime’s (an external collaborating trader at Pento Capital), but surviving in the market is paramount—avoiding losses matters most. I recently reviewed my personal account performance from the first half of the year, so I’ll lazily just share screenshots—bear with me: (ST stands for Swing Trading)
PS: I took a break after a few short-term trades in May and June, so there’s not much to report. Currently working on improving position management, hoping to achieve higher returns while maintaining stability going forward.
Perhaps many want to hear more about how I analyze direction or place trades, but honestly, these aren’t the key things anymore. The crypto market is really easy—if you learn any mainstream technical method, you can make money. In my view, the most critical skill here is learning how *not* to lose money. Consistently discarding unworthy trades and staying out of unclear markets remains my primary focus. After all, from the initial pentotrader selection of over 6,000 participants down to the current first batch of external asset management collaborators (only 10 remain), only Minime and I have stayed profitable throughout. Objectively speaking, survival isn’t easy.
If you’re interested in my trading logic, feel free to follow my TradingView: https://cn.tradingview.com/
Note: Posts infrequently, and content may not represent actual trading plans.
Finally, as an amateur trader, it’s an honor to share here. Thank you again to PenTou Ge and all of you. Let’s together protect the world’s greatest PenTou and welcome the coming bull market.
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