My first foray into crypto - a lesson in 'catching falling knives'

Alright, folks. New to the forum, thought I'd drop in with an intro and a cautionary tale from my earlier trading days, which feels particularly relevant given the current market shenanigans. Back in 2017, when $BTC was doing its first major moon mission, I was a complete noob, full of bravado and the conviction that 'this time is different'. I'd missed the initial pump but heard all the whispers about it going to a million. So, naturally, when it pulled back from 20k to around 13k, I figured, 'Aha! Discount!' and threw a chunk of change into it, buying what I thought was the dip. It bounced, I patted myself on the back, feeling like a genius for a day or two. Then, it kept falling, and I kept buying more, convinced each subsequent dip was the dip, averaging down all the way to 6k. My initial conviction morphed into a grim determination not to be wrong, and my stop loss, which was a vague concept in my mind anyway, was moved so many times it effectively didn't exist. Eventually, I got out, licking my wounds and significantly lighter in the wallet, having learned the hard way that 'catching falling knives' often just means getting cut repeatedly. The irony is, had I just held it through the bear market, I'd have been golden, but that's a different lesson entirely: the psychological toll of watching your capital evaporate is a powerful motivator for poor decisions. Now, I'm a bit more circumspect, especially when everyone else is screaming 'buy the dip!'.