Last night I stayed up until the liquidation period again, feeling itchy to grab a rebound trade—but I ended up getting educated by my own mistake. When I placed the order, the order book looked fine, so I didn’t scrutinize the depth. I was also too lazy to set tighter slippage, thinking, “It’s only a little bit”… the moment my order went in, the price got pushed right past me by myself. The execution’s average price was downright hideous, the timing was all over the place, and after I chased and added two more times, I only made it worse.

Later I realized it wasn’t that the market was actually that bad—it was that I forced my way in during the moment when liquidity was thinnest, fighting others for the same mouthful of soup. And on top of that, now everyone’s all over the place complaining about MEV and unfair ordering—those few seconds really put retail traders at a disadvantage. Tonight I’ll be honest and behave myself: I’d rather move slower and split it into a few entries, so I don’t keep paying tuition to slippage.