Stock/Option "trading", I mean, gambling

This is my first post ever on this forum/website and activated an account just to share my story which has been a roller-coaster ride to say the least. It all started about 10 years ago when I had just turned 18. I have always considered myself an "entrepreneur" and have a very strong drive to start a business and "make it big" while doing so. I have always had a strong drive to get rich quick that I cannot seem to overcome. Anyway, when I was around 18 years old I had a good friend who had the same mentality as me and his family was very well off and he had a father who was teaching him about the stock market which he then would teach me. I was completely infatuated with the idea of trading stocks and identifying trends, interpreting news, reading sec filings, and identifying the best time to buy and the best time to sell. I thought I had a special talent and wondered why more people didn't "know" about the stock market. I was especially interest in stock options and earnings plays which could turn $500 into $5,000 overnight. After hitting it big a few times in a virtual account I made a huge mistake. I thought wow, I want to be a day trader / option trader for a living. I took out a $15,000 loan at the age of 18 and proceeded to loose $7,000 in about 3 weeks. I was mentally destroyed. What had I done? I thought I had ruined my life. This is where I made a good decision; I withdrew the remaining $8,000 and paid 8k in principle; it took me 9 years to pay off the 7k I lost.

Throughout the next 8-9 years I gave up trading completely and decided to focus on college, graduated, and started work full time. Don't get me wrong, I still had a passion for option trading and would see opportunities I missed and would think, when I am in a position to I will make it big trading options.

About 8 months ago I was in a financial position to trade again and was excited to live my dream of trading options successfully. Keep in mind, I don't have a lot of money but do have a full time job that many would be more than grateful to have. I decided to invest $1,600 cash (I will never trade on margin or with loaned money again after my first experience and I would never recommend anyone ever trade on margin). I bought some Apple and BABA leap options (about 3 months out to expiration) with the $1,600 and was risking it all, I sold 2 weeks later for $6,000. I thought WOW I am really doing it! I have the knowledge now to make it in this business! Things were going great. I made a few more trades again on Apple and BABA and made another 1k in 2 days. My account was at $7,000 and I was on top of the world ready to become a full time day trader. Then I lost about 2k on various trades which brought my account back down to around 5k, I thought, no big deal its all part of the game. I then did an earnings play on Qualcomm and turned $480 into $4,000 overnight. My account value was now $9,000 with an original investment of $1,600 all within the course of about 4 weeks, I finally had figured it all out. I was cocky at this point. I proceeded to loose it all but $1,000 in the next few weeks. I hit another big trade and turned my $1,000 into $4,800 and lost all of it in about 4 weeks. You can only imagine what was going through my head and the rollercoaster of up, down, up, down. At this point I was very depressed, had I done 1 or 2 things differently I would have made 20k easily, should have followed my gut I thought. Yesterday I invested another $1,000 thinking if I was smarter I could make it big this time. I turned it into $1,500 yesterday and proceeded to loose it all today on a trade I sold too early which would be worth 2k right now if I had held onto it for 3-4 hours longer. Now I am driving my self crazy thinking why didn't I hold for the rest of the day?? What was I thinking? I sold for $200 and could have sold for $2,000 4 hours later. Can you say depressed?

I found this forum and it has helped me realize how much more there is to life than money and trading. I still think if I had enough capital to start with I could make it big trading which I need to get out of my head. I love my job and have been taking it for granted by day-trading when I should be focusing on my work; I also end up working very late nights because I spend to much time during the day following my options. They are so volatile I feel like I have to watch them all the time. Basically, I have decided I need to give it up and focus on work, I am only 28 years old now and still have a lot of time to make up my losses. I think if I focus on work and get promoted there is a much bigger ROI in that vs. day trading options. Over the last 10 years I have lost around 10k trading options and I think it is finally time for me to stop the madness. I still have the urge to invest more in options and think I can make it big but I need to be strong and just stop. Any thoughts you all have are appreciated.

My husband is day-trading almost full-time, but its only in simulated markets. He has spent the past 10 years studying different strategies, investing close to $100k total in learning to trade successfully. Does this sound like a problem to anyone? He is earning money from another business but spends at least 40+ hours per week pursuing trading. He says he's still not "ready" to trade real money, which is good because we're not losing money, but seems like a game that will never end. Please help me know what to think about this situation. Thank you.

flmom wrote:My husband is day-trading almost full-time, but its only in simulated markets. He has spent the past 10 years studying different strategies, investing close to $100k total in learning to trade successfully. Does this sound like a problem to anyone? He is earning money from another business but spends at least 40+ hours per week pursuing trading. He says he's still not "ready" to trade real money, which is good because we're not losing money, but seems like a game that will never end. Please help me know what to think about this situation. Thank you.

I find it hard to believe that someone could day-trade full-time for the past 10 years, while investing $100K of his money just to "learn how to trade". But I don't want to come to a conclusion as I do not know the full story. Do you have access to his bank account or have you seen his bank statements?

Is it just possible that he is obsessed with "trying to crack the code"? Maybe... But I have never heard of anyone day-trade on a simulator for +10 years.

What are your instincts telling you though? Has it affected your relationship? Does he seem withdrawn and out of touch?

flmom wrote:My husband is day-trading almost full-time, but its only in simulated markets. He has spent the past 10 years studying different strategies, investing close to $100k total in learning to trade successfully. Does this sound like a problem to anyone? He is earning money from another business but spends at least 40+ hours per week pursuing trading. He says he's still not "ready" to trade real money, which is good because we're not losing money, but seems like a game that will never end. Please help me know what to think about this situation. Thank you.

He has spent 100k in real money? Or simulated?

He seems to be a compulsive money chaser, like all of us here. In life, "get-rich-quick" schemes rarely pan out. Your husband could benefit from a good counselor. I think all submersion into gambling comes from grief of some type.

This is a very important topic, and I would like to share my story to help me and to help others...

I have been trading for a very long time (close to 20 years), my Father was a very successful buy and hold investor, and I made money also that way, but then (close to 8 years ago) I start thinking that I can make more money "trading" (or gambling), I start with buy/sell stocks short term, and make a little and lose a little, then I start buying options, and make a little money.
Close to 7 years ago a "friend" told me that I can get until 400 times leverage with Forex, so i try that, went to seminars, read more books, watch DVDs, with the secret that will make me a lot of money... and in 2 years I lose in forex close to US$20,000

I continue learning, I thought that futures was the answer, so I trade with a stop loss, and make an average of 2% per month per one year, until I all the profits and a loss close to US$30,000

I'm obsessed and persistent, and after a lot of thinking I want to the realization that if most people lost money buying options and is a zero sum game, the options sellers, must make the money...

I find some "Experts" in this area, and they confirm that with their studies, so I start selling options on futures and stocks, and make on average of 20% per year from 2009 to 2012, until a big correction come in the silver market, and the price when down from $50 to $14 (this week), my account was liquidated when silver was at $34 and I lose close to US$70,000 on this bet... my stomach hurt a lot and feel very bad, but I thought never give up!

I thought that the problem was futures, and I only need to sell options on stocks and ETFs, so I did that, and from 2012 to Jun. 2015 I had a good return of close to 15% per year, winning most of the time... Since I thought that I was so smart I start managing other people money (I have close to 10 accounts, and close to US$500,000 under management), but from june 2015 to august 2015, I had a big loss with Puts that I sold on AAPL and China, and I feel very bad, and I loss all the profits from 2013, and I'm down in most accounts that I manage 20%, I really feel bad, and I'm not sure of to fix that because I have responsibilities with the people that trust in me...

This is part of the problem...

I feel stress, spend a lot of time watching the markets, and learning (also I estimate that I spend all this years close to US$5,000 in "education")

, and I'm distracted of my real JOB that thanks GOD is good...

a few weeks ago I had a week of vacations with my family and I was anxious about the quotes, watching my phone, and my laptop to "manage positions" and I thought that don't want to be attached to the quotes or any other game...and after that a friend send me a link of Gambles Anonymous and was crazy how similar is... I always thought that I was an investor, and I still believe that selling options is the way to go (if you don't use more than 2X leverage and sell only puts or covered calls) but now I don't want any strategy that I can loss more than 10% of my capital in a year, and that need that watch it or spend more than a few hours per month...

Thanks God close to 2004 I bought a rental apartment, that want up in price and I receive rents...

I'm thinking to move to bonds, real estate and cash secured puts on index and stop trading...

Hope that help and any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks

I am an options trader (ahem, gambler) also.

I don't really have a horror story to tell, but I have lost large amounts of money trading options so I have been there too.

I actually have been trading stocks and options for about 15 years and have had some very profitable years, so that's why I don't have a horror story. However, many of those profitable years have been wiped out by years of large losses.

With all the trading I do, with the research and chart watching, and risk taking and everything else, I kind of just vacillate back and forth from year to year between profit and loss.

I think it's safe to say I am a gambler. Unfortunately it's like heroin to me.

rikkong wrote:This is my story. I have been trading stocks since 2003. In the beginning i knew nothing about the market and traded on pure luck. I quickly lost all my 5k initial investment. i later did my mba and in 2006 started yrading again with my new found "knowledge". i started doing daytrading and needless to say i lost money. it is basically impossible to profit longterm by daytrading. later i opened a margin account and in 2008 i lost about 70k. in 2010 i put 600k into a stock which i held until 2014 at which point it was worth 1.1M. i then got careless and confident and started writing naked put options without DD on the targets until they went bust, which threw me back to 830k. after this huge loss i went into a terrible depression and anxiety which made me want to recover my money. i started doing compulsive short term put writing which in the end cost me another 50k. no i am at 780k and still struggling with anxiety and depression. i am obsessed at making my money back but i think i now realize trading options and stocks is a losing proposition. i feel terrible thinking about the money i lost. i believe the only way to make money is buying and holding long term. but frankly i am too anxious to even try that again. i feel tempted to trade again to make back my money. its a never ending obsession and hellish anxiety. now i feel i rather just save my money in a bank and forget about the market. not worth the stress. ongoing obsession, anxiety, ptsd

If most people loss money buying options, and it's a zero sum game, doesn't make sense that the options sellers (writing naked options) make this money? it seem that your mistake is that you make sold a big position...

Hi All,

I find myself in the same position that tbone3443 was in.

I'm 22, have a good job but have always been fascinated by trading - and this has become a problem, I have probably around the 8k mark over the last year - and it needs to stop. I have months where I don't trade, but then I have free cash and just think why not give it another go.

I have about 25k in savings and I don't want to get to the position where I loose this. I don't know where to start, should I do some sort of diary?

All the Best,

Harry

Hi
One idea I can suggest is to tie up the money in a CD (safe) and if you take it out early you'll get a penalty. If you have 25K now and tie up 20K of it you'll feel less pull to trade and frankly, given how trading goes, you'll probably lose it so fast you'll have nothing left to trade (I lost a lot) 5K can disappear in the market in a day. Really you should tie up more than 20K - just leave enough to live but getting the majority off the playing field would be a good idea.

I was just laughing at a trading platform commercial. TD Ameritrade saying 'you got this' to prospective customers. No, there is no 'you got this' in the market. You can plan and strategize forever and when the market decides to wipe all chips off the table it will and your money will go with it. Maybe 40 years ago the market was good, now it's so volatile I can't see how anyone can make money. You can't time the market and absent of knowing what's going to happen you just wake up one day and all your money is gone

Hang in there. Do your best to stay out of the market

HI everyone. I found this board while looking for help with CFD trading and in particular the large loss I have managed to accumulate in 24 hours of manic trading.
My story is I am 37, single and live in Australia. I Have been interested in stock trading since about 2000 but about 2007 discovered trading on margin. In the UK its known as spreadbetting but here in Australia, CFD. Basically your entire deposit goes into 1% of the trade value. Like forex but with stock indices. I dread to think how much I've lost over the years as I tend to trade for say a month, make a large loss, close the account and self exclude from that site. Then after a period of time I'll do something like hear about someone making some money on the stock market and I will start to wonder. So then I have a relapse. I remember the early days as I was still married. I remember dreaming about charts. I would wake at 4am to see how asia was doing. The staring at a screen, sweaty palms, heart racing. So in the last say 5 years I have gambled, stopped for 2 years at a time then had a very destructive relapse. We aren't talking huge sums but a lot to me - maybe 5 or 6k.

So I stopped in 2011 and moved to australia. I relapsed in 2013 and lost $6k. Then I stopped again. I relapsed this last July and made $400 trading on the china stock market of all things. I had originally made $2500 but lost most of that. I would just go mental tho with a huge stake on margin, making dozens of trades a day. Its such a stressful situation. But its exciting and therein lies the appeal. So I quit for a month then made some money on regular stocks and on Thursday opened a CFD account again. I was feeling pretty broke after just buying a car so I deposited $1.5k and lost that in a few hours. Then yesterday I deposited $5k and lost that in a day making dozens of bets on tiny movements in the DOW. I'm so annoyed with myself for relapsing again and the relapses are just getting worse.

So after 8 years of this I am now going to start going to GA meetings. Its so frustrating as I know I can quit and forget about gambling then out of no-where I will relapse and do something crazy. I need to break the link. I'm pretty gutted about losing the $6.5k as its more than I earn in a month but I know its gone and I will never get it back. I just need to break this cycle.

I know I have a problem and I know I can quit and not think about gambling for long periods at a time. But how do people who have successfully quit not relapse?

Help appreciated