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This one by user tempsy about /r/wallstreetbets from January 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22186392

This comment made me aware of the whole options market and leverage. I didn’t know a thing before reading it.

I made €500k by betting that the Corona virus will have more impact than the market anticipated in February 2020 and got it right. Which of course, was kinda naive and quite lucky. I totally cannot recommend to play around with options at all.




How much money did you turn into 500k? Predicting the consequences of a once in a lifetime black swan event is surely very lucky. But fortune favours the brave as they. You will never win a lottery if you dont buy the goddamn ticket!


Initially I put about €65k into put options. The crash came so fast that it turned into a lot more very quickly. If your bet turns green instantly, you don’t see the risk. I couldn’t do the same thing again. I was very naive, but it helped me to hold with conviction.


Glad you seemed to have learned that you were playing with fire, since that could have easily left you with 65k in the red.


You're probably going to lose it all by betting incorrectly.


No. To be more specific, I made 750k and lost 250k (note: from a German tax perspective, you could subtract the losses instantly from the gains, unlike in the US, where losses are spread over many years).

I learned my lesson already and pulled the plug. At some point I realized that I know nothing and should get back to buy and hold.


> you could subtract the losses instantly from the gains, unlike in the US

I'm not sure what you're saying about the US. If you have a capital loss, you can and must offset capital gains in the same year when computing your gross income. The nuance is this:

* Capital losses can offset an unlimited amount of capital gains, but only a total of $3,000 of other income per year.

* Unused capital losses can only be carried forward into future years. You cannot apply them to income in past years.

So if you realize a large gain in year N, then a large loss in year N+1, you still owe the full tax bill from year N. The solution is to set aside cash to pay the IRS instead of risking it all.


Thanks for clarifying. I mixed up the offset rule and the unused capital losses rule. I’m not very deep into US tax laws ;)


Puts printed when trump put pence in charge of the covid response. given pence let people attacked by another virus die. I lol'd and bought puts.




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