Last month, I witnessed something pretty surreal—a friend took his remaining $800 principal and turned it into $18,000 in less than 30 days.

To be honest, at first I thought it sounded far-fetched. After all, there are so many people in the market saying “small capital has no chance,” only to go all-in, chase the pumps, panic sell on the dips, and end up watching their account balances dwindle with despair.

But this time was different.

**Why do most people always lose money?**

From what I’ve observed, there are just a few ways people get wiped out:

- Going all-in and getting liquidated in one shot
- Cashing out too early after a small gain, only to watch the market take off
- Flipping positions from long to short every day, changing directions faster than flipping pages, and ending up with almost nothing left in the account

To put it bluntly, it’s not about bad luck. The real problem is not being able to control your own actions.

**So how did that $800 grow?**

The key is just one word: rhythm.

I had him split the principal into eight parts, $100 each. Always use just one part for a test trade, so even if you get the direction wrong, the loss stays within a manageable range.

What if you get it right? That’s where it matters—use the profits to scale up, letting your winnings ride for higher returns, while always protecting the principal as your bottom line. Remember this principle: **The principal is your lifeline; profits are the bullets you can risk.**

Also, every time the account doubles, immediately cash out a portion and lock it away. Even if the market reverses later, at least you won’t give everything back and have to start over.

**Here’s how it played out:**

First trade, $100 test, made a 30% profit;

By the third trade, used profits to increase to a $300 position, netted 60% on that one;

By the eleventh trade, the account had already crossed $3,000;

Then continued following the trend, rolling up all the way past $16,000.

He later told me that watching the numbers jump felt almost unreal.

**Why might you not be able to do it?**

It’s not about the method.

It’s about being unwilling to cut losses when you should, selling too early when you should let profits run, and itching to trade when you should be sitting on your hands—that’s the real issue.

In trading, skill is only part of it. More often, it’s about whether you can control yourself. The market won’t tolerate anyone’s bad habits; it will only show you, with real money, what discipline is worth.