Pulled out of my addiction of gambling stocks/crypto. Total loss is 70k(69%, poetic)

Sheepinator · May 23, 2021

OP, good post. Too often we only hear about winning trades, which can reinforce risky behavior trends. You've learned a valuable lesson, but thankfully you're still in a strong position to recover from it. A friend of mine lost 101% of his portfolio (not a typo) in less than a year back in 2000/2001. They cashed his portfolio out on a good market day and sent him an invoice for some more money he owed them, hence 101%.

I understand why you sold it all and will close RH, and it's the right call to switch to broad ETF's and not spend too much time and energy on it going forwards, however you may want to reconsider ICLN later. As a green energy ETF of now around 84 holdings, yes it will be more volatile than SPY, but it also won't have the risk profile of a single stock, or crypto which can apparently be tossed around by Elon "SEC can't touch me" Musk with impunity.

In case you aren't aware, you can offset $3K per year of your capital losses against income indefinitely. Or you can offset all the losses against future capital gains.

"diamond hands" generally means one of two things. It's either, "Everyone else please buy, and nobody sell before I do.", or it means, "I'm so far underwater, fuck it." Either way, you can ignore people shouting that. Safe to say, they don't have your interest in their mind at all.

Shodan14 said:
Legally? Yes.

That's not true. There are tons of examples of the SEC successfully pursuing people for such things.

SEC.gov | “Stock Trading Whiz Kid” to Pay $1.5 Million to Settle Stock Newsletter Fraud Charges

www.sec.gov

SEC.gov | SEC Charges: False Tweets Sent Two Stocks Reeling in Market Manipulation

www.sec.gov

Euphoria · May 23, 2021

Here I am down $600 and thinking it's bad. Sorry to hear OP, but good on you to recognize the issue before you lost everything.

All this has done for me is make me realize I should just move away from individual stocks and move into index funds similar to my 401k which is doing fantastic.

Only thing I feel fortunate about is that crypto only makes up around 20% of my total investment in RH and I have never invested money I couldn't afford to lose.

Shodan14 · May 23, 2021

Sheepinator said:
That's not true. There are tons of examples of the SEC successfully pursuing people for such things.

SEC.gov | “Stock Trading Whiz Kid” to Pay $1.5 Million to Settle Stock Newsletter Fraud Charges

www.sec.gov

SEC.gov | SEC Charges: False Tweets Sent Two Stocks Reeling in Market Manipulation

www.sec.gov

And who exactly was being fraudulent here?

There was an excellent opportunity to make a few quick bucks on GME, not sure anyone got defrauded there,

AIan · May 23, 2021

This past week must be devastating for everyone.

Sorry for what you're going through, OP. I can't imagine how bad that must feel.

Sheepinator · May 23, 2021

Shodan14 said:
And who exactly was being fraudulent here?

There was an excellent opportunity to make a few quick bucks on GME, not sure anyone got defrauded there,

Read the links you quoted. There are plenty more I'm sure.

The people who bought into GME over $300 based on reading bullshit "DD" and it then went down to $40 might disagree. I wonder how many of the people posting "diamond hands" sold into their pump and moved on. Quite a lot, I bet.

Euphoria · May 23, 2021

For me the worst part of all of this was SNL. It didn't cause this major crash but it absolutely started the panic selling.

Nothing like Musk hyping something for weeks and then to go on TV and agree on calling it a hustle.

I remembered going into work and seeing a lot of people very upset about it.

J.T · May 23, 2021

Damn, so sorry for you man, I'm stressed out over 6% loss. but I just started invested last month. I don't know much, practically nothing so made a few mistakes. Investing 100% of my cash and hopping on a few hype trains for big L's. But most of my money is "safe" Big tech so not too worried yet, idk. Luckily I don't have any debt and still able save money from my paychecks. SO I'm gonna still hold for now.

Stencil · May 23, 2021

Damn. 70k. You're doing the right thing pulling out, nothing's worth that much. Except a really nice car or a small home in the country.

subpar spatula said:
This is what a lot of "diamond hands" and "to the moon" people wanted. They wanted people to lose a lot so they could make money. I am still amazed to this day people just allowed this type or manipulation to occur. Like, it sucks you lost, and I hope you realize why that happened: people convinced you that you're going to win.

In all my years of gambling and stocks. My only advice is never take advice from anyone who cannot verify their gains. Almost all of them are wannabe scam artists.

I think you're chasing the wrong villain. Wall Street, Robinhood, hedge funds etc. are bigger market manipulators than any daytraders could ever be.

Shodan14 · May 23, 2021

Sheepinator said:
Read the links you quoted. There are plenty more I'm sure.

The people who bought into GME over $300 based on reading bullshit "DD" and it then went down to $40 might disagree. I wonder how many of the people posting "diamond hands" sold into their pump and moved on. Quite a lot, I bet.

I did, it wasn't particularly helpful. There's no one person or organization defrauding anyone here (unless you can point at one). Obviously the people losing money due to bad decisions are probably unhappy.

big_z · May 23, 2021

Sucks when you pick the wrong stocks. Should have put your life savings into doge, shib and safemoon. Everyone loves meme dogs and safemoon is a guaranteed win. it says safe right in the name!

Pet · May 23, 2021

WickedCobra03 said:
Also, if it isn't a trigger, watch those "young stock trading genius' " on YouTube that take 20 minutes on a video to say 30 seconds worth of actual content to recommend a stock. They are typically swindlers or con artists that know nothing, got lucky, and repeat the same thing for 20 minutes straight talking really fast to sound confident and successful. Sadly, I get how it would be easy to get caught up in their hype because they do it really well at times and when they can show a graph "only going up" on their account, it seems like it works.

I have a graph that only goes up. It's called mutual funds.

But in all seriousness OP, respect to to you for seeing that you had a problem and taking steps to rectify the situation. That's not easy and kudos to you.

Sheepinator · May 23, 2021

Shodan14 said:
I did, it wasn't particularly helpful. There's no one person or organization defrauding anyone here (unless you can point at one). Obviously the people losing money due to bad decisions are probably unhappy.

It's not my job to point to one. The important thing is, posting fraudulent comments to pump and dump stocks is illegal and it has resulted in punishments, so your claim that those people have no legal responsibility for their pumping is false.

Are you saying you bought GME over $300 and lost money, one post after saying GME was easy money to make?

Zombine · May 23, 2021

I have been begging people to just gamble with crypto using pocket change. Buy low during massive dips to pile some coins, and then let it sit and wait and hope for a meme rally down the line in Doge's case. Put a toe in the water and leave it tf alone.

Shodan14 · May 23, 2021

Sheepinator said:
It's not my job to point to one. The important thing is, posting fraudulent comments to pump and dump stocks is illegal and it has resulted in punishments, so your claim that those people have no legal responsibility for their pumping is false.

Are you saying you bought GME over $300 and lost money, one post after saying GME was easy money to make?

I look forward to the charges that are surely coming for all those redditors. I'm saying that GME was easy money when the hedge funds that had shorted it had to purchase it at any cost to cover their short, after that point the party was over.

Also, I wasn't personally involved in the purchasing or hyping, but the post-hoc moralizing here is a bit sad.

ViperVisor · May 23, 2021

Wow. I don't gamble but there is a reason they make them read a PSA disclaimer about getting help on the commercials.
I was lucky to see safer advice and I'm cautious by nature.

Cipherr · May 23, 2021

Yea ICLN, QCLN and AMC and GME all got hammered if you bought towards the top and have now watched them retreat. Especially ICLN which was on a huge run leading up with the election and Bidens chances soaring, that stock was skyrocketing, and now people are jumping off board as fast as possible.

Ablacious · May 23, 2021

Since it's 24/7, crypto is worse for stress.

Don't beat yourself up, OP.

Rran · May 23, 2021

I lost ~$100 at a casino about 10 years ago and haven't gambled since (never dabbled in the stock market) lol

But regarding OP, I appreciate your candidness about your addiction. It isn't easy to openly talk about personal flaws (let alone admitting them to yourself)... Also, fwiw coming from some random schmuck on a message board, I just wanna say that I respect and admire your willingness to recognize the addiction and just straight-up cut your losses in hopes of more successfully moving on from a potentially worse situation.

Good on you, Loomies <3

pizoxuat · May 23, 2021

I think it is in extremely bad taste to give advice on how to do stock or crypto better in a thread about one person losing 70k due to their gambling addiction.

HylianMaster2020 · May 23, 2021

Stocks are interesting and fun to keep track of and than you gotta submit taxes.

Antrax · May 23, 2021

subpar spatula said:
This is what a lot of "diamond hands" and "to the moon" people wanted. They wanted people to lose a lot so they could make money. I am still amazed to this day people just allowed this type or manipulation to occur. Like, it sucks you lost, and I hope you realize why that happened: people convinced you that you're going to win.

Yeah, that whole To the Moon thing was scary. It was always, by definition, going to crash but people who were financially literate used people who weren't to make bank

Avitus · May 23, 2021

It's great to see people sharing their losses instead of just being super fucking obnoxious about unrealized gains.

x3sphere · May 23, 2021

I've done well in crypto, but mostly just from buying and holding. Trading it is difficult. I sometimes trade for fun but I keep a stack I never touch basically. I'm down more than OP over the last week from ETH alone, but it's only on paper. I'm comfortable with losing it all & I haven't neglected traditional investments at all. I think that's the mindset you have to have in crypto, that it can go to zero.

it's an extremely unforgiving market for those that want to day trade and don't have patience. Stay far away from crypto if you are hoping to get rich quick. And you need to know what you are buying. A lot of people that get in don't take the time to understand the tech.

lint2015 · May 23, 2021

What was your total amount you actually invested? Hard to see from the graph but if you're down $70k from your portfolio's all time high, you haven't really lost $70k, only the difference between your the amount invested and the amount you cashed out.

I'm a bit astounded that you could lose that much if you got into stocks early on during COVID since you should've made a handy sum from the market recovery. Personally, I would hold but it's not a terrible idea to stem your losses and bail out, I suppose.

mattiewheels · May 23, 2021

Yeah, I'm still sitting on a lot of NAKD stock from the GME craziness. Pretty sure I lost $100 there but I still hold in case something happens.

BloodHound · May 23, 2021

Buy and hold. Don't day trade terrible stocks and alt coins expecting to get rich quick. If you have prior addictions to gambling....just stay away from day trading anything.

With that said, certain blockchains are great investments to have your portfolio. Despite the recent bear market, I'm still up a couple hundred thousand in gains.

Cantaim · May 23, 2021

pizoxuat said:
I think it is in extremely bad taste to give advice on how to do stock or crypto better in a thread about one person losing 70k due to their gambling addiction.

This requires empathy which a chunk of era is incapable of giving when stocks/crypto are involved.

Cat Party · May 23, 2021

Lmao at OP explaining he got out now because he realized he was addicted and needed to stop and a bunch of people are posting about how OP should have stuck with it for the $$$.

Adam_Roman · May 23, 2021

I definitely get it, and I'm happy you were able to pull out before anything worse happened. I had about $700 in GameStop that crashed down and I got scared and sold it. Over the following months I'd move it back and forth between stocks and crypto and got my losses to only $200. I'm done with the quick trades, I don't have the stomach for it. I'm back to putting a little bit into Bitcoin each paycheck. Especially with this dip I feel comfortable putting some money I'd otherwise spend on junk food or booze into it and next time a spike happens I'll sell.

BLEEN · May 23, 2021

Just wanna say, if you were day trading in crypto, horrible idea. Set it and let it while it's low.

I put in $9.85 and I'm proud.

I guess, if you're hovering over your shit all the time, yeah – that's an addiction.

Appreciate the tale. Smart to pull out. Not sure how I would handle that hole. Probably just leave it and hope for the best lol

DiscoPizza · May 23, 2021

Cat Party said:
Lmao at OP explaining he got out now because he realized he was addicted and needed to stop and a bunch of people are posting about how OP should have stuck with it for the $$$.

Or boasting about how much they made. Gotta make sure everyone knows how much more successful they are than the OP. Way to show some empathy.

Deleted member 24907 · May 23, 2021

DiscoPizza said:
Or boasting about how much they made. Gotta make sure everyone knows how much more successful they are than the OP. Way to show some empathy.

I notice quite a few users just go into threads to sound off talking about themselves loosely based on what they read from the thread title, not really caring if it has much to do with the thread or god forbid if it might be insensitive to what the OP is saying.

BLEEN · May 23, 2021

Cat Party said:
Lmao at OP explaining he got out now because he realized he was addicted and needed to stop and a bunch of people are posting about how OP should have stuck with it for the $$$.

If it was solely crypto, yeah good idea. His situation seems more complicated. Don't have much advice for stocks.

Hokey · May 23, 2021

Yikes, day trading.

reKon · May 24, 2021

Sorry that you went through that experience OP. Wish that there was no selling involved for you and that it was only buying involved for the long term.

lint2015 · May 24, 2021

BLEEN said:
If it was solely crypto, yeah good idea. His situation seems more complicated. Don't have much advice for stocks.

The way I read the OP, they'd invested in stocks at first and was doing well. Then he got sucked into meme stocks, which started the downfall. (Did they sell all their existing shares and put them into meme stocks??)

From there, they transitioned into crypto (again did they bail out of meme stocks at a loss and then put it all into crypto??) and watched their portfolio shrink in value as the crypto market crashed.

Sounds like a combination of poor choices and poor timing. Probably for the best that they bailed out.

BLEEN · May 24, 2021

lint2015 said:
The way I read the OP, they'd invested in stocks at first and was doing well. Then he got sucked into meme stocks, which started the downfall. (Did they sell all their existing shares and put them into meme stocks??)

From there, they transitioned into crypto (again did they bail out of meme stocks at a loss and then put it all into crypto??) and watched their portfolio shrink in value as the crypto market crashed.

Sounds like a combination of poor choices and poor timing. Probably for the best that they bailed out.

Yeah, I'm not gonna bother assuming. Your thoughts on what may have transpired in his scenario may be right. Who knows.

I guess I'll just add this for anyone reading, crypto never truly crashes (that I've seen anyway). If you're buying some random "penny stock"-like bullshit hoping for the best, you're probably gonna have a bad time.

Weeks, months, years even are needed to understand this shit. I've been following on and off for years now and I still only dip my toes but at least I know I do it confidently.

I missed hundreds of boats but I'm still early.

That's my mindset anywho.

I may have bailed, too. May have been more than I could swallow in terms of complexity of where my money is and what it's doing.

EggmaniMN · May 24, 2021

I'm pretty sure my life would just be over if I lost that much. I'd never recover. Stuff like this is why I'd never put in more than $50 as a fun spin of the wheel.

Wubby · May 24, 2021

Thank you for being brave enough to post this OP.
Personally I got scared off of the stock market back in High School. In an Econ class we had a class project where we were given a set amount of imaginary money and told to choose a number of stocks to put it in and follow for the duration of the class. I chose companies I knew and liked such as Disney, Lockheed, Boeing and other such companies. At the end of the class term out of everyone in the class (40+ people) I was the one that lost the most amount of money. The person that made the most just randomly chose companies on the stock list in the paper. Then a few years after that I was dating a girl who's mom just stayed home and day traded and lost a ton in the .com crash of the early 2000's.

Fantastical · May 24, 2021

Sorry to hear that OP. I'm sure a lot of people have had a very bad couple of weeks.

Jintor · May 24, 2021

good job OP at realising your own tendencies and adjusting strats accordingly

i'm saving for a house deposit so lol@investing anything in anything at all right now (besides superannuation). even 'safe' index funds are too long term right now... sucks...

lint2015 · May 24, 2021

Jintor said:
good job OP at realising your own tendencies and adjusting strats accordingly

i'm saving for a house deposit so lol@investing anything in anything at all right now (besides superannuation). even 'safe' index funds are too long term right now... sucks...

That was me during the COVID stock market crash last year. No liquidity since I needed it to buy property, so I missed the buying op :|

iamsgod · May 24, 2021

BLEEN said:
If it was solely crypto, yeah good idea

How is it a good idea?

Oticon · May 24, 2021

Crypto seems to go on a bull run like every 3/4 years.

War95 · May 24, 2021

Stencil said:
Damn. 70k. You're doing the right thing pulling out, nothing's worth that much. Except a really nice car or a small home in the country.

I think you're chasing the wrong villain. Wall Street, Robinhood, hedge funds etc. are bigger market manipulators than any daytraders could ever be.

Its all part of the same machine

Bigjig · May 24, 2021

Wubby said:
Thank you for being brave enough to post this OP.
Personally I got scared off of the stock market back in High School. In an Econ class we had a class project where we were given a set amount of imaginary money and told to choose a number of stocks to put it in and follow for the duration of the class. I chose companies I knew and liked such as Disney, Lockheed, Boeing and other such companies. At the end of the class term out of everyone in the class (40+ people) I was the one that lost the most amount of money. The person that made the most just randomly chose companies on the stock list in the paper. Then a few years after that I was dating a girl who's mom just stayed home and day traded and lost a ton in the .com crash of the early 2000's.

It's a shame that that class scared you off stocks. The problem with that econ class is that it only tracks the stock price in the short term, which is anyone's guess. Sometimes the market just overvalues or undervalues a stock regardless to how the company is performing, but eventually the stock price will adjust in line with earnings. I don't know when the class was held, but if the companies you picked back then continued to grow I guarantee their stock price today would be higher today than it was back then (adjusted for stock splits if any of course). You just need to go in with a long term mindset. I'd recommend reading a book like One Up on Wall St by Peter Lynch before giving up on stocks completely.

ItchyTasty · May 24, 2021

Wubby said:
Thank you for being brave enough to post this OP.
Personally I got scared off of the stock market back in High School. In an Econ class we had a class project where we were given a set amount of imaginary money and told to choose a number of stocks to put it in and follow for the duration of the class. I chose companies I knew and liked such as Disney, Lockheed, Boeing and other such companies. At the end of the class term out of everyone in the class (40+ people) I was the one that lost the most amount of money. The person that made the most just randomly chose companies on the stock list in the paper. Then a few years after that I was dating a girl who's mom just stayed home and day traded and lost a ton in the .com crash of the early 2000's.

This story reminds me of the cat that beat professional stock pickers lol. There is a reason why most people recommend sticking to index long term.

m_shortpants · May 24, 2021

Yeah I always tell people that you should be comfortable losing any and all money you put into crypto at any time. Most people fool themselves into thinking that they agree, when they really don't.

I've been HODLing various cryptos since 2014 and it's a rollercoaster. There's money to be made for sure, but it can also vaporize in an instant, and youve got to be okay with that.

Soda · May 24, 2021

Wubby said:
Thank you for being brave enough to post this OP.
Personally I got scared off of the stock market back in High School. In an Econ class we had a class project where we were given a set amount of imaginary money and told to choose a number of stocks to put it in and follow for the duration of the class. I chose companies I knew and liked such as Disney, Lockheed, Boeing and other such companies. At the end of the class term out of everyone in the class (40+ people) I was the one that lost the most amount of money. The person that made the most just randomly chose companies on the stock list in the paper. Then a few years after that I was dating a girl who's mom just stayed home and day traded and lost a ton in the .com crash of the early 2000's.

Honestly, sounds like you had a bad econ teacher. Investing in the stock market is more than playing with imaginery money over a short term period of a few months. Frankly, most people that want to invest should just do so in index-based mutual funds as hardly anyone can pick individual stocks and beat the market average.

Maledict · May 24, 2021

Randomly Generated said:
I'm sorry OP, and I suspect you're not the only one here that's gone through this, as the forum seems disinterested in curbing the crypto FOMO threads.

I've reported the threads but haven't had a single response. I really do feel like the forum isn't taking this problem seriously at all. It's openly encouraging gambling and risk taking on effective Ponzi schemes. I'm not sure what to do because it seems like we need a proper conversation about this as a community.

Pulled out of my addiction of gambling stocks/crypto. Total loss is 70k(69%, poetic)

More helpful than the IRS

One Winged Slayer

alt account

Saw the truth behind the copied door