People keep DMing me asking, “With the market this volatile and not much principal on hand, is it still worth getting in?”

Every time I see this question, I remember back when I only had $1,500 left in my account—I didn’t even dare go full screen on the futures chart, afraid a single slip would wipe out my last bit of capital. But guess what? I took that tiny amount and grew it to $30,000, a full 20x increase.

At first, I was just like most retail investors: chasing whatever was hot, going all in, buying on the way up, panicking on the way down, getting wrecked by whales until I started doubting myself. After a few heavy losses, I finally understood: trading isn’t really about how smart you are—it’s about sticking to your rhythm and managing your position sizes.

**First, understand how “compounding” really works**

This isn’t some all-or-nothing gamble. It’s about using your profits to generate more profits—a compounding model. When I placed my first trade with $1,500, I only used 30% of my capital. As soon as I made 10%, I locked in the profit—took the gains out to use as the principal for the next round, and kept the original $1,500 on reserve like a moat. I set stop-loss and take-profit levels in advance for every trade. No overthinking, no hesitation. While others were dreaming of getting rich overnight, I just focused on making a little profit on each trade. That’s how I accumulated, rolling my profits bigger and bigger, and only then did I gradually increase my position size. This “snowball effect” feels way more solid than chasing big pumps.

**If you’re wrong, get out fast; if you’re right, add on**

No matter how chaotic the market gets, trends always reveal themselves—go with the trend and it’s your friend, fight it and you’re asking for trouble. With $1,500, I acted like a sniper: never making a move unless I was confident. Once a trend was confirmed, I’d scale in piece by piece, letting profits run a little longer. If I was wrong, I’d cut my losses quickly—never hoping for a magical reversal. Most people fail because they can’t “cut the loss.” What set me apart was my willingness to admit mistakes—stopping out isn’t a loss, it’s saving capital for the next opportunity.

**Compounding is about rhythm, not luck**

It took me just 43 days to grow $1,500 to $30,000. I never went all in, never had insider tips—just stuck to a fixed position sizing strategy and rhythm. I call this approach the “Three-Stage Compounding Method”: initial capital protection, profit acceleration, and mindset breakthrough. Several friends around me followed this idea and most got several-fold returns, but the hardest part is mastering the “timing”—when to scale up and when to lock in profits. Most people mess up at this stage.