Recently, I've found the phenomenon of contract trading competitions quite interesting.

Starting with a capital of 10,000U, in just a few weeks, it needs to grow to 30,000U, 50,000U, or even more to make it to the leaderboard—this is fundamentally not investing, but a competitive game. Moreover, since it's a contest, participants often tell themselves "this money isn't my real hard-earned money," and the psychological pressure instantly disappears.

Under this mindset, leverage must be maxed out. There's no other way. Because stable compound interest simply can't meet the ranking requirements, so they can only go all-in to gamble. If they win, they can boast "I'm really awesome"; if they lose, the psychological preparation is already in place—after all, the contest mentality is a high-stakes gamble, and it's not surprising to get liquidated and lose everything.

But looking at it from another perspective, if the available funds are 1 million U, real money, most traders' behavior would be completely different. They wouldn't take reckless risks but would honestly use a steady strategy to gradually accumulate. Risk management awareness would immediately return.

To put it simply, the root cause of liquidation isn't the leverage itself, but participants' perception and mindset towards this money. The competitive mentality makes people forget about risks; having real funds makes people respect the market.