No one has ever asked, but some may be wondering what my interest in /wsb is all about. I simply see it as a unique subculture on the web where young wanna-be traders (who are much closer to degenerate gamblers) convene and throw nonsense around. Sometimes it’s amusing. Occasionally it’s tragic.
This go-around, it’s a bit closer to the latter. I stumbled upon a chap who apparently had his luck YOLOing his way into hundreds of thousands of dollars in gains. Given the insane run-up in crappy stocks from January through July, it’s no surprise. He knew what he was doing was reckless, but he got a huge charge out of it, and he made a lot more money than he lost.
And as he succeeded, he made increasingly large bets, including this recent one.
Since all these wild call option plays were doing so great, he treated Yellen and Powell as divinities. He did this post, for instance.
And his hatred of bears was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Here’s a post he did against bears (one of many) which portrayed them as hapless cucks.
All the while, however, he would occasionally mention he recognition that some day this might blow up in his face, and he would – – whether sincerely or not – – plea for help from others.
While at the same time increasing his bet size.
Besides being a seat-of-the-pants trader, he also seemed woefully ignorant about anything to do with taxes. He put up a post musing if he should leave the U.S. just to not have to pay taxes on his trading profits, which also included the idea that he should buy a Tesla in order to deduct the entire vehicle since he would be able to use the touchscreen to look at quotes (Pro Life Tip: this deduction would be disallowed, probably followed by an ass-beating).
This poor sap just kept sloshing buying power around, all the time calling out for help.
Plus he offered up a pledge to knock off all this crazy nonsense if he could just cross the million dollar mark. For those of you who are perhaps under 4 years of age, let me mention here that, were he to cross the million dollar mark, he would have cranked up his trading more than ever.
If people would make comments asking questions or expressing doubt, he would double down on hubris.
Well, I think you know where this is heading. On Tuesday night, AMD reported earnings, and in spite of a huge bounce immediately following the news (which surely thrilled our anti-hero), the stock weakened, and it went into an absolutely free-fall on Wednesday. This guy was extremely deep into his AMD calls, and he made the same prayer to the gambling gods that degenerate gamblers have made since the ancient Egyptians…………..
Thus, having seen a six-figure bet on AMD get completely blown to bits, he did the obvious:
Here’s how he characterizes this “trade”, and it’s pretty damned sad (emphasis is mine):
I’ve rolled my entire AMD position into Shopify calls. I’ve realized I need something with a catalyst if I’m going to make my money back. SHOP is dirt cheap after this market tank. Yet they had stellar earnings last quarter. I believe with all my heart and mind and soul that SHOP will have and ER beat and we will rocket. I will make all my money back.
I’ve sold the entire AMD call position for a 175k loss. I had to deposit more money for this Shopify play. Much of this money I maxed out all my credit cards for. Almost 50k is on my credit cards. I will make it all back with this yolo at the market bottom. Originally I was just going to roll into AMD long calls, but SHOP has a juice catalyst. After I make the money back I will delete Robinhood and never touch options again.
The “juice catalyst” happened, and SHOP wound up about as exciting as an oil painting. As with AMD, the stock cruelly blasted higher immediately after the news, only to let those gains vanish. There’s no rocket here. More like a dud firecracker.
And, thus, the shit truly hit the fan.
Let’s review:
- Made something like $300,000 in profits from YOLO trades;
- Borrowed something like $75,000 from credit cards;
- Lost $175,000 on AMD;
- Lost $200,000 on SHOP;
- The only man left standing: $75,000 in high-interest credit card debt.
And that, more than anything, summarizes the entire world of trading that Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Jerome Powell have created for this poor schmuck.
