Dude buys Tesla LEAPs 18 months out in 2018 for 30K (average strike is $300). In 2019 summer Tesla tanks to its lowest, the value of the position falls to 3K. Dude keeps holding, (not selling at 350, 400, 450) eventually cashing out yesterday for a profit of 130K, or 330% return. Edit: Apparently dude doesn't do math correctly. (well, he is on Wallstreetbets, so not a big surprise) He actually only made ~70K, so about 130%.
I can't really agree in this case... Tesla is a cult stock and there can be some nut jobs who happen to have a few bucks to gamble. the overall index however, you can make legit money with balls that don't even have to be brass... like the dip last night.
This another dude made a similar play, but timed it much better, going long when Tesla was bottoming. He bought in 2 months ago for 15K and got a 10 times return when he sold yesterday:
it's really no big deal.... so millions of monkeys gamble in the casino everyday, some of them will be big winners... statistically speaking.
This is not what I would have called good trading. He should have cut losses. Waited. Waited. Waited. Until it looks like it bottomed and started going up then go big in. That usually works out better than the hail mary let's see what happens. once in a blue moon, it comes back. It could have expired worthless.
I didn't call it good trading by the way, I called it ballsy. The P/L seems to disagree with you. Now let's assume (well it is kind of obvious) that the dude's timing sucks generally, so in that case he did the best, used LEAPs and waited the fluctuation out. Although the selling timing was pretty damn good. How many of us would have sold at 350 or 400, when the position was already down to 180 at one point??
I have been at this trading thing a few years now and I can enthusiastically say that I have had my own pair of brass balls early on and I am glad to be rid of them. The more you know about "trading" the less you need or want brass anything. Especially balls. I am happy for the OP that things worked out for him, but anyone who has leveraged this kind of method/psychology against the markets will eventually be castrated, mercilessly mocked by his peers and sent home to contemplate the meaning of life and perhaps the value of the next one.
Very few traders could sit through the pain of watching open position profits grow bigger and bigger without booking the profits. I'd say a person able to to sit on their hands during such times has the potential to be a great trader.