I was told what months and strikes Vic was in. The guy's you're talking about generally don't sell puts 500 points out of the money. Also they'd be more likely to be trading SPX than options on S&P futures.
Losing that is just about as bad as losing the money. This business, after all, is more than just about OPM. It is about OPA, the "A" standing for adulation.
Because this back-fence talk, effectively has been banned to chit chat dungeon (one has to really try to find this place, so why bother). An alternative is to label threads in the news forum with "Rumor", although that is in itself provoking. Is a rumor such as this much different than rumors on Google gPhone, or the Goldman rumor on neg Q3 earnings a while back, or even Steve Jobs health, or (whatever). We should be able to discuss, within reason (ahah! Full Circle, reason = Baron).
Especially for Vic. Anyone reading even a few pages of "Education of a Speculator" will realize that the author is a seriously disturbed individual. Fodder for a David Reisman or a Christopher Lasch, if we had such social commentators in this day. This is the end for Vic. Expect him to follow the same path as that other famous Randian, Mike Mentzer, after a similar defeat. Weakness is the hallmark of the dyed-in-the-wool objectivist.
I was referring to his long slide into madness and absurdity between 1980 and 1990, not his death from heart failure in 2001. Mentzer's death had less to do with his breakdown and more to do with 30+ years of massive steroid (and other drug) overuse. Mentzer did remain delusional until the end of his life and I expect the same of Vic.
I don't read Dr. Niederhoffer's website, but I am surprised that he found Livermore so difficult to understand. Guess that Ph.D. from Chicago only takes one so far. Actually, Livermore's rules are not that hard to figure out, and they work, as long as one follows them. Livermore's problems were the result largely of his psychology, not his methodology.