Honestly, many beginners in futures trading are not careless; the key is that they have limited capital, lack experience, and their mindset collapses at the first sign of loss.

Today, we won't talk about fancy techniques. Let's focus on a core issue: how can beginners survive in the futures market first, and then gradually make money.

**Your capital determines your way of survival**

Suppose you currently have only 1000U. What should be the first step? Divide this money into parts.

Not all-in, but split into 10 portions, each time only using 100U, with 20x leverage. The remaining 900U stay in your financial account; don’t touch it even if you get itchy. The benefit of this approach is simple—it gives you room to make mistakes.

When these 100U are lost (which is very likely), do not immediately add more positions, and don’t think about making it all back in one shot. Stop, rest for 1 to 2 days, and think carefully about why this trade lost and where your judgment went wrong.

Once you truly understand, then split the remaining 900U into 10 parts again, each 90U, and start over. Take profits when you can, and keep your mindset stable. This is much more worthwhile than chasing quick money.

**A one-sentence summary of the essence of futures trading**

Futures trading is not about risking everything; it’s about position management.

With 10x or 20x leverage, if your direction is wrong, full position basically means a death sentence. No matter how good your judgment is, one big loss can wipe out all your previous efforts, and your account will be wiped clean.

So, the rules must be ingrained in your mind:

- Always keep a light position; this is the first rule
- If a single loss exceeds 2%, be alert and stop betting
- If losses reach 6%, clear all futures positions and take a forced break
- Don’t chase rallies; don’t add positions emotionally just because you feel good
- When adding positions, do it immediately or wait until the market has finished its correction
- When profitable, don’t get cocky; if profits exceed 200%, take action

**How to lock in profits**

After your account profits exceed 200%, set some positions with trailing stop-loss to take profits, and lock others at the break-even price. This ensures that profits won’t be lost.

There are also a few especially important points that many people don’t want to hear:

When you’re in a bad mood, life is tough, or you’re losing consecutively—don’t trade.

In obvious counter-trend markets—don’t touch.

Always keep some core positions; the truly trending directions often continue to give you profits, so no need to tinker every day.

**Most practical operation template**

Here’s a straightforward approach for beginners:

- Opening position: 30 to 50U
- Leverage: 20x
- Stop loss: exit when losing 20 to 30U
- Take profit: take profits when a 30% retracement occurs
- Withdrawal: withdraw immediately after profits, don’t leave money in the account
- Deposit frequency: each time 500 to 1000U, never go all-in at once

The core logic is this: practice first, get a feel for the market, learn to survive without dying. Once you can truly survive stably, making money will become much more natural.