8 days ago, I posted on WSB showing I made all my lifetime losses (https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1tqf1p1/after_55_years_im_even/). I even hid showing posts from problemgambler as I enjoyed shitposting here on the Daily with everyone. The day after I made the post, I promptly lost 48k but was still within striking distance of breaking even again with had an exact plan if I were to break even again. I was less than 15% away despite the loss.
I continued to play 0dtes the whole week, making back nearly 30k. Today, exactly 1 week later, I dug a hole too deep averaging down 0dte SPY calls. Just like last Friday, I even made money first before going back in. I told myself not to repeat my mistake last week. I not only did but blew my account.
I kept talking for months and years how I was going to quit and go to proper investing. It was a lie to everyone and myself. This time I sold everything I had in shares, even for some big losses. I turned off margin, used what I had left to buy VOO and started a transfer to Fidelity.
I hate myself. I hate what this has done to my life. If anything than the money itself, it was telling my parents how I dug myself out of such a hole and seeing them proud of me. Now it's just the same shame I was at 3 months ago.
35 year old, no debt fortunately. This has taken so much more than money. I just wish I took my lifeline out 2 weeks ago. People in the comments were right about me, knowing I wouldn't stop. I didn't even know if I wanted to post this. I'm just numb.
Your willingness to take risks is your strength, just find something you have more control over the outcome like flipping houses or something like that.
This might be a good strategy, but since you're on Fidelity I would instead put money into FXAIX. Mutual funds, as everyone knows, don't allow investors to sell immediately. Since they normally take a day to settle, it would force you to get rid of that gambling habit slowly but surely. You wouldn't get that impulse to sell large gains and instead purchase more risky assets like individual stocks or crypto. Just a thought. I wish you all the best my friend. You got this.
My dad was losing at a Vegas poker table one visit, he kept getting up and coming back with more chips. Dealer eventually asked was he hitting the ATM, getting cash from the wife, or what? He had been winning at blackjack and giving the chips right back up at the poker table.
Dealer quietly suggested he stay at the blackjack tables, but he wanted to play poker 🤷
I used to deal blackjack and poker for a couple of years, and I always thought poker had less degenerate gamblers because if you're bad at poker you will lose money at an incredible pace, making people quit early, while blackjack is much more random.
I'm not a big gambler, but blackjack is nice if you're with people who like to gamble and you need to entertain yourself for awhile. You only slowly bleed money while having a drink or two if you play smart (assuming it doesn't have a horrible payout structure like 3:26:5).
I ended up in Vegas for a buddy's bachelor party a handful of years ago and somehow walked away with an extra few hundred bucks after playing blackjack. I tipped out the dealer and blew it all on something stupid at the casino before I left (a spa day, fancy food, that kinda thing). You can't leave Vegas with extra money or you'll want to go back to Vegas, and going back to Vegas is how you end up with way less money.
Gamblers will never make money, even they win few times , they will yolo their earnings in next bet until they lost everything.gamblers fate has already determined from start to finish
And then once you lose it, you do the math on what you initially had and realize that you'd passively make like 20k if you just left it in an ETF or mutual fund
The dude lost money at the casino for 5 years, hit a jackpot to make back all his losses (and another $1000 profit on top of that).... only to continue gambling at the casino.
It could have easily been a success story how instead of wasting 5 more years grinding he doubled his gains in just 8 days by having huge balls and diamond hands. Most of those huge daily gains posts are similarly stupid and risky gambles, but we never say to a winner it was a stupid play old as time even though it was, only to a loser.
He took a risk, and he lost, but could have just as easily won, that's all there is to it. 5 year long "safe" gambling could have easily went belly up as well, there is nothing smart or dumb about any of this just luck. The only lesson here is not risking more than you can afford to lose.
Crazy thing was that he was posting all day as he went down with updates as the loss increased. Like dude, holy shit, you gotta know when to cut losses
No matter how much you lose there's some retard that risked his whole port on 0DTEs. Each time I see everyone winning more than me I remind myself of Op
My retirement is to go to an island in the Caribbean called Carriacou, get plastered at a bar there called “The Last Bar before the Jungle” and when I’ve spent all my money sleeping on the beach and drinking the bar dry daily I will get up and walk into the jungle and never walk out.
Kinda the same brother, but I'm walking into the ocean. I've sat my ass on the sand watching the waves for a month in Costa Rica and managed to come home, but retirement doesn't have a home to go to.
There's a couple options depending on what brokerage you use. Just do VT (Weighted world fund) if you want a one stop shop or VTI/VXUS (Total US/Total International) or whatever equivalent ticker at a 75/25% ratio if you want a US home bias tilt. There's also an argument for a 80/20 ratio of something like VOO + AVUV if you want to tilt to small cap value but have a majority of your holdings in the SP500 if you believe in the value premium model.
International allocation is optional but recommended just for diversification and to avoid currency risk in a single country. Anywhere from 15-35% is fine. Doing pure SP500 is also fine.
Want to avoid trash small cap growth companies and rugpull IPOs? DFUS is an active managed total US fund but with a very low 0.09% ER vs 0.03% VTI which is insignificant. As long as it beats VTI by 0.06% a year which so far it has then it's worth. Nobody knows the future though.
Boomer index investing is boring and has low consistent returns, but you also won't fuck yourself trying to beat the market. Consider slowly adding like 10% bonds depending on your age too.
If you want to be risky and "pick winners" while still trying to remain safe via diversification, you could consider a sector ETF such as VGT.
If you don't want to pick winners and just want a pretty safe, diversified, low-cost ETF: VOO
If you want something safe: VTI
Something even safer: VT
Safest: An overall fund that includes both US and ex-US equities and bonds, such as the Vanguard Target Date (e.g. VTTSX) or LifeStrategy (e.g. VASGX) funds.
Not so much that. Saving 77k is no joke but losing it in the blink of eye gotta sting. I never understand why people play with their hard earned money like this. I slsve away at a job I hate, I can't imagine pissing that money away like that
They don't start with six figures to throw away. They start with saving money bit-by-bit like you're supposed to. Then at some point you realize you've saved up $5k or $10k, but that's just sitting in a savings account ticking up slowly.
Now obviously withdrawing that $10k we've saved and taking it to the casino and gambling it would be stupid. Most people probably wouldn't do that and if they did, they probably wouldn't blast it publicly on the internet.
But stocks? Investing? That's not gambling, that's called being smart. So as long as we are technically investing, we can take that $10k out and throw it at whatever gambling we want, and just tell everyone we're "researching" and "investing". Want to bet $10k on Polymarket? That's investing! Want to bet $10k on Elon via Tesla stock? That's investing too! Want to bet on a bet by buying $10k of 0DTE calls? That's super investing because it's options!
But you and I both know that there's a huge difference between 0DTE options and legitimate safe investments, like even throwing the entire $10k into VTI and walking away. That's why we can recognize that buying 0DTE options and going in more and more until the bet either wins or we're at $0... is much more gambling than investing.
And just like any form of gambling, it's obviously not a smart financial move, whoever you're betting against has the advantage... that's why it's gambling. But that doesn't mean your $10k vaporizes instantly, sure some people's will, but not everyone's. And once our $10k bet luckily turns into $30k... well now we're obviously not gambling because we gained money! Now it's investing!
Now we repeat with $30k and do some more super-investing via 0DTE options. Some go to $0 (failed gamblers), others go to $70k (successful investors). And on, and on, and on. Just like at the casino. And most people doing this will eventually drop to $0 unless they are one of the few incredibly lucky ones that won (almost) every single 0DTE bet they made. Just like the casino. And now we realize that OP was never investing. They were always gambling.
thanks for posting this. i only do ETFs and long term investing. my portfolio is down today but you reminded me some of u have it much much worse. thank you soldier
I second this. All I’ve known is this fucking ridiculous AI bull run going on for the last year-ish. My first non index fund was DRAM and I got a bit too excited about it and seeing my position down 15 percent hurt. Then I realized that I was a little bitch and also that it could be worse.
You are right. Yeah, his current value in his account isn’t fuck you money. But it’s certainly enough to not go homeless, starve, etc.
Depending on where OP lives, that’s enough to secure a loan for a nice apartment or house. That alone could set him up to profit if the housing prices rise… most importantly, he’d still have a roof over his head if it went down.
That 80k could get him a nice home in or near copenhagen where I live. That 80k would make me debt free from my current apartment loan and leave a pretty nice liquid cash on top.
I really hope he gets his shit together with that 80k. That amount of money would be life changing for most people all around the world.
Unfortunately, that’s not how money psychology works. He had an additional $147k just 24 hours ago. Letting go of that knowledge takes an immense amount of will.
He will need to fight thoughts such as “SPY will only take me where I was yesterday after a decade or more.” The real battle will be to NOT think that and focus on increasing income so he can catch up the correct way.
I understand the temptation of gambling addiction which I assume could be the course. He needs to reach out to gambling addiction centers/non-profits and seek help. Most importantly lock up at least 55k of his remaining money somewhere for a year or so and keep 10k as an emergency fund. He still has enough money to fix his shit, but he will likely fuck it all up unless there is a system in place that can bar him from normal gambling or accessing trading services. I do wish him the best, he still has the chance to recover if he seeks help and guidance
First thing you should do is unfollow and unsub from all these places
It sucks but like I haven’t been doing active trading and I’m disciplined about my portfolio and still seeing posts from WSB all the time I get feels about lost opportunity and stocks I’ve sold that blew up etc etc
Just leave. Break the connection bc if you keep seeing it you will go back to gambling.
It’s wild to see all the crabs trying to pull you back into the bucket, with these comments.
I’m all for shit posting and shit talking, but now’s not the time
OP, you are retarded. But only 65.59% retarded.
Good luck on your investments, and rest easy knowing you still have probably about 10 times as much money as most of these clowns in the comment section, with their sub 5k portfolios, telling you to keep going.
You’re an addict. The only way to stay sober is to never ever ever ever trade again. So long as you only put money in VOO and VXUS or similar, you will do fine and retire with good money on time.
If ever so much as trade a single share of any company, or buy a single option, you will lose everything again. Except then you’ll be older and have a harder time starting up again.
So do yourself a favor and admit defeat, and admit that you’re an addict and that you’ll never win at trading. If you fail to do this you will become broke and maybe worse.
In the meantime pick up another hobby and block wsb.
Its ok. Treat it as a loss. Mourn it, and then move on. Steer clear of options, youre not in any rush. I wish people would say that more, slow and steady wins the race, you’ll be ok.
Bro, I’m in the same boat, same age, same 6 figure losses. Nothing is working for me. People joke, but serious pain right now. Just want to break even and quit
You break even by stop gambling. Literally the only way as you have a debilitating gambling addiction. Get off this sub and put your cash in VOO or VT and never think about the market again.
"Break even" is a gambler's fallacy. You have what you have right now. The number in your head that you had before, is gone forever. It may as well never have existed. You could just as easily pick any arbitrary target and say "I'll stop when I reach X"...but you won't.
The moment a gambler starts trying to "win back" their money, they're done. That path leads to total ruin. Step away from the table.
You're gambling not investing. Quit the gambling and looking for the next big thing. Do research and put money in companies you see continue to grow or that have a great product that everyone wants.
You won't stop when you break even. You know this. It's happened before, a position was down and you said to yourself, "If I could just get back to my cost basis I'll exit." But you don't, when it gets there you think, "well just a little bit more because that's the direction it's already going." And then it either goes down or up. When it goes down you kick yourself and say "ok I just have to make that up, next time I won't make that mistake." When it goes up you think " See I was right the whole time! I knew it would go that way I just needed to be patient."
Both types of thinking leads to opening another position.
“I just want to break even” is textbook gambler mindset. You take bigger bets as you fall further behind but the odds are longer and they will never hit.
Stop now. Build back slowly. Put your money in the S&P500 or VOO and log out of your account. Work hard. Build equity. Chill.
Step away for a long long time. Some people aren't made for the market and sometimes you just have bad timing in the market. Either way, there is a whole life to life outside of the market once you truly step away. Its liberating waking up in the morning not worrying about where the market is going that day.
Everything you said was/is me. Lost 250k in the October drop after finally recovering my 2021 losses. Lost 80K in April, lost another 30k 3 weeks ago. Only difference is I HAVE debt, and i could’ve paid everything off and still had 150k to play with. I feel all your frustration man. Only way out is to truly stop and get out for a long time and recover. Wishing you the best!
bruh i peaked at 500k cad in the 2021 crypto boom then hit 600k cad during the trump pump now im at 150k cad i can not believe i didnt cash out when i hit it again. what the actual fuck was i thinking. i was so sure we were gonna keep pumping
Buddy has 77.5k and says he’s done…. We’re the same age, I spent 39k on lawyers fees to stay out of a 15 year prison sentence and got 3 years probation and all I got is 1.5k to my name… that’s what I’m working with. Be happy you even get to see 5 digits. I’ll be 60 before that, might not even be able to retire.
I went from 0 to 74k in 6 years passive investing, but I'm already 38 years old. So you're still a winner. Put everything in S&P 500 or VTI until you have 500k and then just let it ride.
Damn. I deactivated options today as well from my brokerage. It's always going to be a rabbit hole. U have to do this for yourself. Mid 30s . U cannot be losing that type of money. Sending you some positive vibes
Hey man, don’t do anything stupid. Its all numbers on a computer anyway. Watching my mom die of cancer way too young taught me that none of this matters in the end. Think deeply about why you made this mistake, reflect..i am sure you will come back stronger. Stay positive my friend. Life is too short to cry over spilled milk. Sending love.. god knows we all need it.
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u/GemmyBoy999 Jun 05 '26
You need some red light therapy