One millennial options trader was killing it, then Facebook cost him $180,000

Discussion in 'Options' started by ajacobson, Jul 27, 2018.

  1. Wouldn't get too excited by this fella.

    Best not to confuse brains with a bull market.
     
    #21     Jul 28, 2018
  2. spindr0

    spindr0

    That's true unless you fail to close ITM long options at expiration and then the OCC automatically exercises anything $0.01 ITM (Exercise By Exception) and you find yourself with an equity position Monday morning. Rut-roh!
     
    #22     Jul 28, 2018
    iprome likes this.
  3. wildchild

    wildchild

    I would rather be good and not unlucky.
     
    #23     Jul 28, 2018
  4. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    That is not how your choices are:

    1. Good.
    2. Lucky.

    You can only pick one...
     
    #24     Jul 28, 2018
    ironchef likes this.
  5. clacy

    clacy


    Often times, it's better to be lucky than good. This guy has probably made more from trading than 95% of the people on this board, even after his big loss.
     
    #25     Jul 28, 2018
  6. Bekim

    Bekim

    Luck only last for so long, then you blow up because you were just lucky before
     
    #26     Jul 28, 2018
  7. SunTrader

    SunTrader

    You would think "traders" would know ... there is no such thing as luck?

    All there ever is is probabilities of one thing or another happening.

    And please don't say the risk of something happening. Ain't that either.

    Risk is account funds in play that if that wrong thing happens causes a loss. But the event was not the risk, the bad trade itself was. Luck had nuthin' to do with it.
     
    #27     Jul 28, 2018
  8. ET180

    ET180

    It's not hard to double your money if you're willing to risk losing it all. No intelligent investor would be willing to take that risk. The old saying that a fool and his money are soon parted. And if he's taking such a risk, he should not be buying options on high IV stocks like FB and GOOGL. Everyone is expecting a big move in those names and the option pricing reflects that. He could have bought LUV (Southwest) 55 calls this week for $0.07 per contract. Those calls were trading for over $3.00 yesterday. Same with NOV, LLY, HAS, UPS, and many other less glamorous stocks that had dirt cheap options and made big moves.
     
    #28     Jul 28, 2018
    Clubber Lang likes this.
  9. sle

    sle

    Lucky. No two questions about it.
     
    #29     Jul 28, 2018
  10. ironchef

    ironchef

    Everything is luck because in life there is no absolute certainty.

    Also, "luck of the draw", I cannot select my parents, avoid where I am born (been born in some African nation or in Syria for example), been born in which century, etc.

    There are certain things I can do but these tend to be very limited in scope and won't affect the big picture in life.
     
    #30     Jul 28, 2018