I received a distress call in the early morning. The caller is a trader whose account of 8,000 U was wiped out in a market pullback.

Full position, more than 5x leverage.

I looked at the trading records—opening all positions with 7,700 U at once, with no stop-loss set at all.

Cases like this happen every week. Many traders interpret "full position" as a shortcut to "making money faster," but in reality, it's just self-destructive. Trading with full position is like driving a car without brakes—just one wrong sense of direction and a rollover is inevitable.

Most people’s first reaction after a margin call is to blame the leverage multiplier, but what’s truly deadly is never the leverage itself—it's taking on too large a position.

Let's compare:

With a 1,000 U account, opening a 5x position with 950 U, a mere 6% adverse move can wipe out the account. Similarly, with a 1,000 U account, if only 100 U is used for a 5x position, even an 80% adverse move might only result in a loss. The risk resistance capability differs nearly 10 times.

The real issue with that friend wasn’t the 5x leverage itself, but that she threw over 96% of her principal into the market at once. This kind of position management can't even withstand normal market fluctuations.

After falling into many pits over the years, I’ve gradually summarized three bottom-line principles. By following these, under controlled drawdowns, the account has steadily grown, with a total increase of over 70%.

**First: Use only about 7% of total funds for a single position**

For an 8,000 U account, the maximum single position is 560 U. Even with a 7% stop-loss, the maximum loss per trade is about 39 U, which won't affect the overall trading rhythm.

**Second: Limit single losses to between 1% and 1.2% of total funds**

With a 560 U position and 5x leverage, setting a 1% stop-loss results in an actual loss of about 11 U. If wrong, exit immediately—no holding on, no gambling—this is the minimum respect for your own account.

**Third: Stay out of the market if the trend structure is unclear**

Don’t greedily add positions just because you made some profit once. Only enter when the daily chart shows clear signals, key levels are broken successfully, and volume increases.

I know a trader who used to blow up his account almost every few days. After strictly following these three principles, in just over four months, he grew his account from 4,000 U to over 60,000 U.

He later told me something I’ve always remembered: "I used to think full position meant trying to make money at all costs. Now I realize, true full-position management is actually about surviving longer."

The longer you survive in this market, the more you can earn. Light positions, strict stop-losses, waiting for signals—such a dull but steady approach is often the right path to wealth.