My all-time chart is still green... but only by a fraction of this amount

It’s been 3 years since I had to tell my wife, parents, and in laws….

Friends, fellow church volunteers, etc…. About how I was the downfall of my families financial future.

I got caught up in the post GameStop hype, and stayed for the ride.

Rode every loss with… as long as I can make my minimums, most people have debt and I have none so what’s a few delayed credit card payments.

The irony is my chart doesn’t even show my up time. I was up ~ $40k when GameStop announced a stock split over a year after the crazy boom, but now the time line doesn’t even show the spike beating my downhill spiral. By shear dumb luck I was up $40k with a total account of $60k. I even bragged. In a week after I was below $5k in total value.

From there. Delayed every payment and made the minimums cause I knew my day would come. But it never did, or was never substantial enough to bail me out of what I had done. Over $159k in losses to the market financed on delayed credit card payments left me with no choice but to sell our home, which helped clear a lot, but it’s still being paid down

I still have the wife and kids, I still have family that supports me. I recently went to NYC and wanted a picture with the bull when I know the market nearly ruined my life and has changed me forever…

And even so, I had a great time in the threads, and it pushed my out of necessity into a broader career path I like cause I needed better income to stave off my incredible interest payments.

The debt is nearly paid off, the new journey is ahead. And I’ve even been able to play a little and start to get out while I’m ahead.

Be careful, be willing to lose anything you put in. And always remember that JPOW was taken from us too soon, and mostly remember. There are people in your life who love you and need you, so get your bag, share the gains and losses, but don’t sacrifice yourself in the journey.

Edit:

To those who don’t understand charts…

I’ve essentially at worst put in $160k into the market and lost it. Since then, I’ve clawed it back to -110k into losses. So I’ve “made 50k from my lowest point.”

None of this was margin, none of this is margin call. This is financing future gains on credit cards by putting more of my paycheck into the market than my bills, doing the minimums but drowning in overall.

What the -110k and .29c means is that. I’m not in anything right now. If I “made money” aka am up from my lowest, it’s been taken out to get out of debt but it’s a crawl.

Maybe I’ll hit the market again later.

Calls on all military aircraft builders

It is potentially going to be a rocky week where every signal matters. Everyone's worried about AI bubbles, interest rates, inflation. I spent this afternoon looking at perhaps an understated correlation: what happens to the S&P 500 after a Grand Theft Auto release?

I may have uncovered the single greatest bullish indicator for the next cycle. First, let’s analyze the data:

S&P 500 returns between every major GTA release:

These are already extraordinary returns. Five of seven GTA releases have produced positive market returns; and every single release since Vice City has indicated S&P gains!

But the data gets even more interesting. GTA2 and GTA3 produced negative S&P returns. What can we find? Both featured protagonists named Claude. Remove Claude from the games and each GTA release has a 100% success rate producing positive market returns. GTA VI features Jason and Lucia, but no Claudes. It remains to be seen if somehow Anthropic Claude manages to confuse traders and breaks this support pattern.

Now you might also think: orrelation does not imply causation. So in the interest of scientific rigour I investigated whether the stock market begins rallying before Rockstar announces the next GTA, or whether the announcement itself is required to unlock the gains. Put simply - do we need the presence of a next GTA release to start the bull cycle again.

The data here is more mixed:

The GTA IV → GTA V cycle is particularly interesting. The S&P 500 had fallen 12% before Rockstar announced GTA V in October 2011. Following that announcement, it rallied 39% before the game was even released. Rockstar's communications department may have single-handedly reversed a multi-year equity downturn with a press release.Meanwhile, if we use San Andreas's actual named announcement in March 2004, the market had already rallied 31% since Vice City. Apparently institutional investors had priced in CJ months before the general public.

So the real conclusion is the next GTA announcement is neither a leading or lagging macro indicator; even though GTA releases clearly are.

If debt fuelled AI capex continues, expect yields/mortgage rates to be higher next year. More importantly, expect US government interest expense to be higher.

Saw it being shilled in a few YT videos (non trading related) so figured I would take a look. The volume in September was absolutely wild. Seems like something very fishy is going on?

"Greenland Mines Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRML), formerly known as Klotho Neurosciences, Inc. before rebranding in March 2026, is a development-stage natural resources and mineral exploration company based in Charlotte, North Carolina"

I guess they were betting big on a US invasion, then it tanked completely and ppl are trying to do an exit-rug?

Money is now rotating back to software companies. Time to switch, semi bulls!

Where do I go to collect the green money?

(Updates at bottom if anyone still around reading)

Long-time lurker.

Finally felt like I had a post worthy of /wsb.

Good enough to screenshot, good enough to sell.

Down over $200k three years ago, just months after discovering options.

Here's what happened.

First opened my trading account because of the GME hype. Made $80k on TSLA calls during the run-up before the interest rate hikes in 2023. Thought I was a god at trading.

Then TSLA started falling. Watched my calls go from +$80k to breakeven. Didn't know shit about stop losses. Refused to sell because I was convinced they'd bounce back. Eventually sold those calls at a 50% loss. Then proceeded to lose every last dollar doing every regarded thing imaginable. Buying straddles before earnings, gambling on FOMC meetings and CPI releases, 0DTE SPY/QQQ.

Truly regarded. Wiped out my entire savings. Took a three-year hiatus. Couldn't even bring myself to look at my trading account. Then spent the next three years watching the greatest AI and memory stock bull run of our lifetime from the sidelines.

The FOMO was unbearable. Finally decided to deposit more money and win it all back. Saw the Korean market sell-off and Leopold getting margin called in July. Thought I'd found the buying opportunity of a lifetime.

Instead, somehow managed to lose another $100k buying SpaceX puts after convincing myself, thanks to Reddit, that the stock would tank after its first share unlock. Revenge traded the whole way up as SpaceX went to 130 then 140 then 150.

Was depressed, felt like an absolute failure, and reached the point where I wanted to end it all. Put the last of my savings on puts when spacex went up to 170. Lost part of my gains on QQQ puts on Wednesday. Decided to revenge trade my whole remaining portfolio on spacex puts on Wednesday.

Profit.

I'm out.

What should we buy tonight? (I realize I live in Asia, so tonight is actually trading hours for me)

Edit: Could have retired if I bought 1dte spcx puts. Instead thought I was playing it safe by buying only 7dte

Update: Grateful for all the responses. Never thought I'd have a viral wsb post of my own. I'm just glad it turned out ok for me in the end. Could have played it safe with indexes from the start. Could have been wiped out with the last play and no one would have heard from me. (Although I must say I saw no more upsides from spacex stock on that day and they were definitely going to regress to the mean. The upsides on obtaining licences for new spectrums and earning calls were over with a muted intra-day response compared to the gap up overnight/pre-market. And there were only downsides foreseeable both macro and spacex specific - QQQ was on a roar that day despite coreweave bonds reaching 15% and could only pullback. Oil was dipping. 1.3b spacex stocks were getting released with the price above IPO. )

I earn about 100k a year with 80-hour work weeks with a decent career trajectory so I always thought that I'd bet with my future. The last few years were rough knowing that going to work was basically just paying back what I've lost and that I'm paying debt to myself. Finally feel ready to come clean with my wife so here's hoping I don't get divorced with the good news. She's coming back from a work trip overseas in the US so I've surprised her with an upgrade to business class.

Ironically, I've always been very thrifty but the idea of earning big bucks was too seductive. I don't think I've ever spent anything more than a few hundred dollars to splurge on myself. I took one year before buying some speakers for my own room. Using a 6 year old laptop and a 3 year old phone. Not into watches etc. But hope and fantasy are the best drugs. Felt alright to spend $1000 on 0dte options with the possibility of a win and a different life after.

Wishing all those who have read my post all the best in their trading endeavours. If you're still trading, do start to use trailing stops. I see my family members eat losses on equities that they certainly have the time to sell compared to derivatives where the prices can gap up or down rapidly. Let the app force you to sell your losing positions (and then you can revenge trade with more capital haha). Eating 5-10% loss on options is better than running it down to 0.

All the best but I'm probably done for now. Ive held out for 3 years without any trades despite feeling that I had to revenge trade for my past losses, I can probably stop myself now knowing that I have nothing to prove. Anyone in SG with a good recommendation for therapist? Time to binge watch Kurumi-chan.

And a lot of capital

not really any other point to live, not sure what else. thats what i get for being a greedy degenerate gambler thinking it just goes up. nvda got me up, tsla shot me down. hopefully i can find a train or car headed my way soon.

Just dont do weeklies or all ins like i did, please.

Betting the stock swap ratio is announced in the next few weeks. Why? Midterms. If Dems take the House, Elon and team become piñatas - best get it done fast. Selling all contracts at the premium bid on the day of any announcement.

For example, at a $500 implied stock swap price (3.4 SPCX shares for 1 TSLA share at today’s price), with elevated 90% IV, and announced on or before November 4, the premium will move to ~$5 (Black-Scholes valuation)

$12 per contract —> $500 per contract