The teenage day-trader who lit the markets on fire: Today's highly-recommended profile is by Michael Lewis from 2001, and it's a great reminder that history repeats itself. Long before WallStreetBets existed, there was teenage day-trader Jonathan Lebed. In 2000, he was prosecuted by the SEC for stock manipulation. He was making $800,000 trading on stocks he promoted on Yahoo Finance forums before school. If there's one thing you read today, let it be this.(The New York Times) "If it wasn't for everybody manipulating the market, there wouldn't be a stock market at all."
So he made at least 1.2 MM (probably way more) and had to pay only 285K as penalty. 15% extra tax is doable I guess. His success didn't last: "In 2010, he was living in Wayne, New Jersey and the sole owner of Lebed Biz LLC, which runs a website touting penny stocks. In 2008, a company won a $2.56 million judgment against Lebed."