--- title: "How to lose 55% of the principal" type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/36756971.md" description: "Some thoughts I've been wanting to write about this year, hoping to help fellow beginners like me wake up sooner. Last night after opening, the market went high then low, so I just went to sleep without looking. Woke up today with a floating profit of $500. Summarizing why beginners like me can't make money. First, I'm just a beginner with no technical skills. I can't read charts, I can't analyze fundamentals, I can't accurately calculate valuations. I love listening to big shots, I love following trends, and I love hot stocks. I adore Tesla's limitless imagination, enjoy small rockets' volatility, fantasize about Alibaba representing the East's rise, and was once obsessed with Xiaomi's ultimate blueprint of people-car-home..." datetime: "2025-11-26T23:51:48.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/36756971.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/36756971.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/36756971.md) author: "[长期主义接班人](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/16386327.md)" --- # How to lose 55% of the principal Some reflections I've been wanting to write about this year, hoping to help fellow newbies like me wake up sooner. Last night, the market opened high and closed low, so I just went to sleep without looking. Woke up today with a floating profit of $500. Summarizing why I and other newbies can't make money. First, I'm just a newbie with no skills. I can't read charts, I can't analyze fundamentals, I can't calculate valuations accurately. I love listening to big shots, I love following trends, and I love hot stocks. I adore Tesla's limitless imagination, enjoy the ups and downs of small rockets, fantasize about Alibaba representing the rise of the East, and was once obsessed with Xiaomi's ultimate vision of 'people, cars, and homes.' So in December last year, I deposited 400k, bought Tesla at 432, and also built a position in Xiaomi at 34.1. Tesla kept falling the more I averaged down, while Xiaomi kept rising the more I bought. Then I started buying 2x leveraged Tesla, which also kept falling. That's when I made the first mistake of retail investors. 1\. Fighting the trend. Going all-in long during a downtrend, averaging down after small dips, buying more only to see it fall harder. Meanwhile, my other account's Xiaomi kept making money the more I bought, so I made the second mistake. 2\. Crazy margin trading. As I kept leveraging and buying, Xiaomi made an 80k profit, and I used margin to hold 10,000 shares of Xiaomi. I'll never forget February 27th. Xiaomi opened high but then plummeted, and I got my first margin call. I panicked. Then came the third and fourth mistakes. 3\. Chasing rallies and selling dips. I sold during the drop and bought during sharp rebounds. 4\. Overtrading. I made over 40 buy/sell trades in a single day, each time selling everything or going all-in with margin. Like a demon, I sat motionless at my desk, trading with a stern face and pale complexion. By the close, I'd not only wiped out the 80k profit but also lost 10k of principal. I finally remembered the saying: "The gains you make by ignoring risk will eventually be lost by ignoring risk." Later, I bought Nvidia at 100, TSMC at 200, Google at 150. Did I profit? No. No ifs. Because I made the fifth mistake. 5\. Holding losers too long, selling winners too soon. Right during the tariff war, a golden pit appeared—and I was the one who fell in with all my positions. I held stubbornly without hesitation, only to sell for a tiny profit after breaking even. That's it for today. Timeline-wise, it's only April now. After depositing 400k over 5 months, only 220k principal remains. Next time: how to turn things around.$NVIDIA(NVDA.US) $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) $Rocket Lab(RKLB.US) $Unitedhealth(UNH.US) $Alphabet - C(GOOG.US) $XIAOMI-W(01810.HK) $Alibaba(BABA.US) $Tesla(TSLA.US) $Apple(AAPL.US) ### Related Stocks - [01810.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/01810.HK.md) - [TSLA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSLA.US.md) - [09988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09988.HK.md) - [TSM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSM.US.md) - [NVDA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDA.US.md) - [GOOG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOG.US.md) - [GOOGL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOGL.US.md) - [XIACY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XIACY.US.md) - [81810.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/81810.HK.md) - [89988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89988.HK.md) - [BABA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABA.US.md) - [TSDD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSDD.US.md) - [TSLL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSLL.US.md) - [TSLQ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSLQ.US.md) - [09366.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09366.HK.md) - [07766.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/07766.HK.md) - [07366.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/07366.HK.md) - [TSLR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSLR.US.md) - [KBAB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KBAB.US.md) - [BABO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABO.US.md) - [HXXD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HXXD.SG.md) - [HBBD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HBBD.SG.md) ## Comments (56) - **仙股之王 · 2025-11-29T08:16:34.000Z**: I want to ask you, how to communicate😂 - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-29T08:35:33.000Z): Just here. Nothing to ask for advice, just chatting. - **暴富之王 · 2025-11-28T14:15:40.000Z**: From April till now, if you still went all in, you should have broken even - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-29T08:39:20.000Z): Yes. Holding full positions with leverage would have made a fortune by now. - **limit · 2025-11-28T13:18:44.000Z · 👍 1**: TSMC at 200, drooling like crazy. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-28T13:19:52.000Z): It hurts my brain to see it drop from 200 to 132. - **limit** (2025-11-28T13:22:11.000Z): TSMC is rock solid - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-28T13:23:15.000Z): The panic of retail newbies might be beyond the understanding of the big shots. Haha. - **散户锤庄 · 2025-11-28T12:34:09.000Z**: I feel like you're talking about me - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-28T13:05:31.000Z): Some read jokes, some look in the mirror - **fishsteak · 2025-11-27T03:46:16.000Z**: It's no problem to top up Tesla - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T04:22:03.000Z): Whether Tesla is overvalued or not is all a gamble now. - **蝸牛投资 · 2025-11-27T02:49:25.000Z**: Entered the Hong Kong stock market in April, with the same capital as you, now suffering a loss of more than 50%, still working hard to break even, keep it up👏🏻 - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T04:22:18.000Z): Come on. Failure is also experience - **Jason4HK · 2025-11-27T02:00:06.000Z · 👍 1**: Is this how Value Bro's little fan does it? Bro - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:09:19.000Z): Hahaha. Didn't understand the value of Brother Value back then - **Jason4HK** (2025-11-27T02:15:55.000Z): I really wish you had come in at this time to know the value, bro! I only had time to follow BRKR and Amazon before I was beaten! A few BRKR calls directly put me in the top 5%. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:40:36.000Z): Value Brother was the first person I followed. But back then, I bought TSMC at 200 with him, and it kept falling to 150. At the time, I was a bit doubtful, but looking back, Value Brother had great fo - **CS7 · 2025-11-27T01:56:29.000Z**: Where in the country are you from? You look familiar. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:09:23.000Z): Qingdao - **不愿意透露姓名的网友 · 2025-11-27T01:31:46.000Z**: Similar to you, looking forward to updates - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:09:30.000Z): Come on - **長野原烟花店交易员 · 2025-11-27T01:30:14.000Z**: Faith is one thing, but when it comes to operations, it's another matter—account funds don't lie. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:09:45.000Z): Yes, the simulated account has already made a profit of 800,000. - **長野原烟花店交易员** (2025-11-27T02:10:30.000Z): How much is the actual profit? - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:11:48.000Z): Forty to fifty thousand. It was already over a hundred thousand in October, with a severe pullback. - **阿日（休息一下 · 2025-11-27T01:24:16.000Z**: Looking forward to sharing, also stepping into pitfalls - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:10:08.000Z): Go go. Let's make money together - **DeepBamboo · 2025-11-27T01:12:36.000Z · 👍 1**: Hurry up, looking forward to the next one - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:10:13.000Z): Haha, don't rush - **知止而進的交易員** (2025-11-27T02:16:20.000Z): Bro, I've lost 50% of my principal. I bought BLSH on its listing day, and even though I tried day trading to save myself, it still got halved. It's quite a blow, and I've already withdrawn my funds. I - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:38:54.000Z): Breaking even was indeed lucky - **水水柠檬 · 2025-11-27T01:04:29.000Z**: While buying the underlying stock, you should also sell some call options to offset part of the losses during the decline - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:10:23.000Z): Didn't understand at that time - **随便起了个名字 · 2025-11-27T00:52:34.000Z**: Dude, what's the deal with your personal return rate being in the top 7%? - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:10:34.000Z): Later made a profit - **小小睿睿 · 2025-11-27T00:25:39.000Z · 👍 3**: Others' experiences are ultimately fleeting; only by investing tens of thousands in the market for two years and enduring the hardships can you gain true personal wealth. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:10:54.000Z): Yes. So summarize your experience appropriately. - **刀子向上 · 2025-11-27T00:25:31.000Z**: Stocks are an investment in value and a test of human nature. Only after experiencing these can one remain calm and composed. - **长期主义接班人** (2025-11-27T02:11:03.000Z): Agree - **新用户_lwQvZ51 · 2025-11-27T00:23:59.000Z · 👍 1**: Are you a Hong Kong account? Aren't you afraid of getting calls from the mainland? - **Emjuju** (2025-11-27T00:31:03.000Z): 400,000, others can't be bothered with you - **新用戶_nZne3U** (2025-11-27T00:48:59.000Z): How can you fight if you can't fight the regular ones - **新用户_lwQvZ51** (2025-11-27T01:13:19.000Z): Seeing your large trading volume, they will call you to pay taxes - **零度热饮 · 2025-11-27T00:08:55.000Z**: Looking forward to sharing - **柮壮生长的韭菜 · 2025-11-27T00:06:17.000Z**: Wait for the next one