Futures Trading Strategies: What 10x Leverage Actually Taught Me

10x leverage.

Those two words have destroyed more trading accounts than any market crash ever could.

I should know. I've been on both sides. The euphoric "I just 10x'd my money in an hour" side. And the devastating "I just lost everything in 15 minutes" side.

Guess which one happened more often?

The Leverage Trap Nobody Warns You About

Here's what the YouTube gurus don't tell you about futures trading strategies:

Leverage doesn't increase your edge. It amplifies your mistakes.

Read that again.

If you're a losing trader on spot, you'll be a faster losing trader on futures. That's it. That's the whole truth.

I spent my first year in futures thinking leverage was the answer. "If I can just catch one good move with 20x..."

Spoiler: I caught plenty of moves. In the wrong direction. With 20x leverage. You can do the math.

What Actually Works in Futures

1. Lower Leverage, Longer Holds

Controversial opinion: I rarely use more than 3x leverage now.

"But that's basically spot trading!"

Yeah. And I'm still here. Still trading. Still profitable. Can you say the same about the 50x leverage warriors?

Lower leverage means:

• Wider stops (you can actually survive volatility)
• Less stress (your heart doesn't stop every red candle)
• Better decisions (fear doesn't cloud your judgment)

2. The Funding Rate Game

This is something most retail traders completely ignore.

Funding rates. Every 8 hours on most exchanges. Free money or slow bleed, depending on which side you're on.

When funding is extremely positive (longs paying shorts), guess what? The market is probably too bullish. A correction is coming.

When funding is extremely negative? Everyone's shorting. Squeeze incoming.

I don't trade based on funding alone. But I absolutely factor it into my conditional orders on dashpull. High funding + price at resistance + bearish divergence? That's a short setup I want to automate.

3. The Liquidation Hunt

Here's a dirty secret about crypto futures:

Market makers hunt liquidations. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's just how the game works.

Where are the liquidations clustered? Just above resistance. Just below support. Those obvious levels where everyone puts their stops.

So what do I do? I wait for the hunt to happen FIRST. Let price spike through the level, trigger all those stops, then reverse.

The best entries come after the fake-out. Not before.

My Actual Futures Strategy

Alright, let me walk you through a real setup I trade.

The Liquidation Sweep Entry

1. Identify a clear support/resistance level
2. Wait for price to break through (the "sweep")
3. Watch for immediate reversal back inside the range
4. Enter on the reversal candle close
5. Stop: beyond the sweep wick
6. Target: opposite side of the range

This works because:

• Weak hands already got stopped out
• Liquidations already happened
• The move is exhausted
• Smart money is stepping in

The problem? These setups happen fast. Like, really fast. Blink and you miss it.

That's why I set up conditional orders that watch for exactly this pattern. Price sweeps below support AND closes back above within 2 candles? Execute the long. I don't need to be watching.

Risk Management (The Boring Part That Keeps You Alive)

I know, I know. You want the sexy strategy stuff. But here's the truth:

Risk management IS the strategy.

My rules:

• Never risk more than 1% of account per trade
• Never use more than 5x leverage
• Never add to a losing position (seriously, never)
• Always have a stop loss BEFORE entry

That last one is crucial. I see so many traders enter a position and THEN decide where their stop should be. By then, you're already emotional. You're already attached to the trade.

Set your stop first. Calculate your position size based on that stop. Then enter.

With dashpull, I build the stop loss right into my conditional order. The entry and the stop are one package. No room for "I'll move my stop just a little bit" nonsense.

The Psychology of Futures Trading

Let me tell you about my worst trade ever.

I was up 400% on a long position. Four hundred percent. Life-changing money (at the time).

Did I take profit?

Of course not. I was going to ride this to the moon. This was THE trade. The one that would change everything.

You know what happened next. The market reversed. I watched my 400% gain turn into a 50% loss. Then a 100% loss. Then liquidation.

I sat there, frozen, unable to close the position. Watching my money evaporate in real-time.

That experience broke something in me. But it also fixed something.

Now I have take-profit orders. Multiple ones. Scaling out of positions. Locking in gains. Not hoping for more.

Greed killed that trade. Automation saves me from greed now.

Futures vs. Spot: When to Use What

Quick framework:

Use spot when:

• You're building a long-term position
• You're not sure about the timing
• You can't watch the market closely

Use futures when:

• You have a clear, time-sensitive setup
• You want to short (obviously)
• You have strict risk management in place

I use both. Spot for my core holdings. Futures for tactical trades with defined risk.

The Tools That Actually Help

I'm not going to pretend I trade futures with just intuition and vibes.

Here's what I actually use:

• Coinglass for liquidation data and funding rates
• TradingView for chart analysis
• dashpull for conditional order execution
• A spreadsheet for tracking every trade

The spreadsheet is key. I track:

• Entry reason
• Exit reason
• What I did right
• What I did wrong
• Emotional state during the trade

Sounds tedious? It is. But it's also why I'm still trading after 10 years.

The Bottom Line

Futures trading isn't for everyone. The leverage is seductive. The gains can be incredible. But the losses can be devastating.

If you're going to trade futures, do it right:

• Lower leverage than you think you need
• Stricter risk management than you think you need
• More patience than you think you need

And for the love of everything, automate your execution. Your emotional brain will betray you at the worst possible moment.

That's why dashpull exists. Not to make trading easy—it's never easy. But to make it consistent. To execute your plan even when you're scared, greedy, or asleep.

The market doesn't care about your feelings. Your trading system shouldn't either.

Ready to automate your futures strategy? Try dashpull →