Lando@LandoInvests
🚨PLEASE READ if you are thinking of getting into OPTIONS! 🚨
(If you don't want to read the context just go down to key takeaways)
Truth is, I didn't want to post this, but the sole purpose of this account was to be transparent.
Back in early September I was getting into options, made a quick $500 and thought this was great. I could easily scale up and grow my account.
I was wrong.
I didn't know what I was doing, thought I did. I thought I understood all the greeks, time decay, macro events, and how IV crush affects them. There's LOTS of variables I didn't consider when doing these trades.
So, I made a HORRIBLE trade on $BMNR. 11/21 $65/$80 calls, and at first they were pumping I was up nearly $400 on them and didn't sell.
After this pump it went down and I decided to hold, then Trump announced the China rare earth dilemma and that tanked the calls.
I bought more to lower my cost average. **Keep in mind I am now significantly over leveraged in a trade I shouldn't be in.** These calls made up roughly 15-20% of my portfolio, I didn't realize it til later and held onto them.
I thought $ETH would catch a bid in coming weeks and $BMNR would rip. That didn't happen. I'm now down -50% on my calls, on a trade I shouldn't be in, and I'm thinking we have rate cuts, Trump/China deal, rotation from Gold to Crypto, and strong earnings season.
What could go wrong?
Well, as everyone can tell from the market this week it's been a blood bath. The calls went from being down -50% to nearly -90% within a week.
Yes, read that again. -90% on a trade I shouldn't be in.
I sold them today to scrape what I can. I should've sold them at -10%, -30%, and -50%, but I waited. I let hope and my emotions get in the way of my horrible decisions. I ignored the problem, didn't want to take the losses because "I was already down so much" I thought to myself.
To those of you that read all of this, just know that I'm fine and this loss doesn't really hurt me in the long term. I'm VERY GLAD I learned this lesson now rather than later when my portfolio is much bigger.
This is just a bump in the road, and my Roth is still ahead and beating the market by a significant amount.
🚨KEY TAKEAWAYS🚨
- If you're thinking of doing options, rethink that decision. Make sure you know EVERYTHING about the greeks, the macro events coming up, and the unexpected events that COULD happen.
- NEVER buy into a losing trade to lower your cost average. A loss is a loss. Take it and learn from it.
- Have a PRICE TARGET and EXIT strategy BEFORE you make the trade. This is a non negotiable.
- Always always always KNOW what you own, do not just buy things because you see someone on X say "The chart is ready to go up". Nobody knows if it'll go up, if someone did they'd be the richest human on earth.
- Don't beat yourself up if you take a bad trade, it's not the end of the world and your life means more than just numbers on a screen. You can lose 10x what I lost, hell even 50x what I lost and still turn it around. The point is, money isn't everything don't let it affect your mood and how you treat others.
- This is a hard game, the hardest game ever created, and we're all playing it trying to make it. A loss should only be a bump in the road, just make sure you have a plan for when it comes up again.
- I lost $1,846. While that may not be a lot to some of you reading this, it's a very large amount to me. I've reflected already and believe me I learned my lesson.
- To all of the traders out there, use me as an example. I thought I could beat the market, I thought I was smarter than everyone, and I thought I'd be able to grow fast. Options are NOT the way if you're a beginner.
This wasn't an easy post to write. If you read it I appreciate it and I just want you to know I'm good.
My head is clear and I'm focused on learning from this experience. From what I've seen on X everyone has a moment like this at least once in their trading career.
I'm glad I had my moment early on with limited capital, and I'm sure this won't be the last time I have a loss, but the important thing is I learned and won't make the same mistake again.
My final message that I want everyone to understand is that money isn't your life. There are far more important things in our lives. Whether it be your family, friends, relationships, your health, or anything else you care about. Focus on the things that matter, it goes God, Family, Relationships/Friends, your Health, and then finances.
Take care X!
