There are a few things more tragic than a young life taken too soon…
It’s the kind of thing that often makes even the most hardened heart take a moment to reflect on their life and those that they may or may not care about.
It’s always a shame…
However, it’s even worse when a young life is snuffed out by their own hands – as they had yet to experience what life had to offer them.
Today I’m going to reveal a tragic and true tale of how inexperience and fear in the market led to this horrible incident and see if this terrible tragedy could have been avoided.
This is every investor’s worst nightmare…
And hopefully this story will stop it from ever happening again.
Inexperience and fear have plagued almost EVERY new investor – the fact that we don’t have the knowledge, skills or experience to help us guide us through the markets – has led to many rash decisions.
Think about when you first started trading stocks and you saw one starting to tank….
What did you do?
If you’re like most people who are just getting their feet wet – you probably sold at a lost – believing it was better to save some of your money than lose it all…
Only to watch it jump the next day and see how much money you would have made?
We all made similar mistakes…
But losing a couple hundred or a couple thousand here or there is nothing compared to what happened to the subject of our story.
For the sake of protecting the family – we’re going to call him Jack.
Imagine being 20 years old – your whole life ahead of you – and you discover just how much money you can make by playing the markets…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Man… if only I got into this earlier,” so when you see a 20 year old kid (or younger, in some cases) interested in this stuff – it’s kind of invigorating.
However, being young does have it’s drawbacks as well, as those rash decisions that can afflict every new investor, are compounded by the brashness of youth.
Jack became interested in trading – probably with a little encouragement from a family member who is in the business as an analyst – and seemed to be getting off on the right foot.
Now…
As Jack seemed to have more and more success – trading stocks just wasn’t lucrative enough for him – so he switched to trading options.
I’m not going to get into the whole options thing – because although we recommend “non-margin” options trades, it’s not our specialty at GorillaTrades – but I can say that if you think it’s stressful trading stocks…
Then you shouldn’t touch options with a 10-foot pole.
But Jack had big dreams – so he decided to go all in – and it would be the decision that cost him his life.
He did ok at first – making more money that had trading stocks – but the way options work, he woke up one morning and his Robinhood account showed him owing a whopping $730,000.
And he freaked out – as almost every single one of us would if we opened out trading platform and saw $700,000 plus balance.
Unfortunately, not understanding the way that options work, Jack couldn’t see a way out and took his life.
Like I said…
Tragic.
The note that Jack left on his phone simply said, “How was a 20 year old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars worth of leverage?”
The twist to the story?
He didn’t really own $730K…
In a piece on the story, Forbes explained that number may not have represented uncollateralized indebtedness at all – but instead it was simply a temporary balance until his option trades settled.
That makes this death even MORE tragic – as he made the decision on misinformation.
The take away is that trading stocks can have some very real consequences…
And inexperienced traders that find themselves overreaching on what they think they know – could wind up in BIG trouble.
It’s why everybody needs help once in a while…
Even the most experienced trader can use a helping hand every now and again – and that’s exactly why I started GorillaTrades – as I know that there are people out there that could really use the help sometimes.
Whether they’re just starting out – or whether they’re working through a slump – GorillaTrades can help them when things seem to be at their bleakest.
If you’re finding yourself in a downward trend – or are simply tired of trying to figure it out – hopefully you’ll consider letting us help carry some of the load.
Either way, this is an important story for investors to keep in mind…
What we do ISN’T easy – there are very real consequences to what we do – so please, be careful.
“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’” – Brian Tracy
