My account wiped out. Any recourse?

B

bthale51

On Friday, I had some short put and call options on CL (oil). My acct stood at $112K cash balance, $60K net liquidity and $19K cushion over margin requirements. After what the Saudis did over the weekend, I log into account Monday and all positions closed and I'm -$58K. So a $170K loss. BUT.....
I received an email at 3:15 PM Sunday stating my account might go into margin call and positions could be closed. My wife and I flew into Cancun on Sunday morning and at the time I received the email I was on a bus traveling thru the country side to our final vacation destination. We arrived at our island hotel around 7:00PM after traveling for more than 12 hours, so I wasn't going to turn on my computer. I don't receive email on my phone because I don't want all the interuptions.
The positions were closed at 7:40 PM. I had no way of knowing this until the following day so couldn't notify the trading company of my willingness to wire more money to my acct. Of course I wouldn't have been able to do so on Sunday anyway.
Do I have any recourse? Is there anyway to get out from this mess?
I talked to the broker and they said they were so busy that they would have to discuss this with me at the end of the week or maybe next week
 
You have zero recourse. None. Send your clearing firm the $58K bc they will go after you.

Now, let's address your utter BS that you intended on throwing a quarter mil at the problem. You would not have recovered as they liquidated your shit with futures at $33 and we're now trading $31.

So they're obligated to underwrite your ass bc you haven't called them?

Fuck straight off.
 
Sorry for your loss. You will bounce back from this.

Not much of a "mess" to clean up... the market moved against you, and you got margin called. What would you argue?

Don't lose the lesson: To open these positions, over the weekend, and then go off the grid is a recipe for disaster.

tommcginnis said:
Your fate was sealed the moment you closed up your computer leaving naked puts to be unwatched.
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^^^ This.
 
bthale51 said:
On Friday, I had some short put and call options on CL (oil). My acct stood at $112K cash balance, $60K net liquidity and $19K cushion over margin requirements. After what the Saudis did over the weekend, I log into account Monday and all positions closed and I'm -$58K. So a $170K loss. BUT.....
I received an email at 3:15 PM Sunday stating my account might go into margin call and positions could be closed. My wife and I flew into Cancun on Sunday morning and at the time I received the email I was on a bus traveling thru the country side to our final vacation destination. We arrived at our island hotel around 7:00PM after traveling for more than 12 hours, so I wasn't going to turn on my computer. I don't receive email on my phone because I don't want all the interuptions.
The positions were closed at 7:40 PM. I had no way of knowing this until the following day so couldn't notify the trading company of my willingness to wire more money to my acct. Of course I wouldn't have been able to do so on Sunday anyway.
Do I have any recourse? Is there anyway to get out from this mess?
I talked to the broker and they said they were so busy that they would have to discuss this with me at the end of the week or maybe next week
More...

Sorry to hear this, but you went into debit, and they will go after your assets if you do not pay. I can not believe you left naked short puts unattended. Unfortunately, you have no recourse.
 
bthale51 said:
On Friday, I had some short put and call options on CL (oil). My acct stood at $112K cash balance, $60K net liquidity and $19K cushion over margin requirements. After what the Saudis did over the weekend, I log into account Monday and all positions closed and I'm -$58K. So a $170K loss. BUT.....
I received an email at 3:15 PM Sunday stating my account might go into margin call and positions could be closed. My wife and I flew into Cancun on Sunday morning and at the time I received the email I was on a bus traveling thru the country side to our final vacation destination. We arrived at our island hotel around 7:00PM after traveling for more than 12 hours, so I wasn't going to turn on my computer. I don't receive email on my phone because I don't want all the interuptions.
The positions were closed at 7:40 PM. I had no way of knowing this until the following day so couldn't notify the trading company of my willingness to wire more money to my acct. Of course I wouldn't have been able to do so on Sunday anyway.
Do I have any recourse? Is there anyway to get out from this mess?
I talked to the broker and they said they were so busy that they would have to discuss this with me at the end of the week or maybe next week
More...
Lessons learned but look at it from the bright side: Your broker might have done you a favor by closing your position. It could get even worse if it stayed open.

Reevaluate your situation and if you think the trades are still correct, you can always initiate a set of new short put and call on CL.
 
I do not think leaving naked puts unattend is the major problem, here. You just had positions with a kind of blackswan event in oil future. And it was gap over a weekend.

What you may due is contact your broker and try to bust the trades of this event, but I think your positions are to low to do this.
 
danielc1 said:
I do not think leaving naked puts unattend is the major problem, here. You just had positions with a kind of blackswan event in oil future. And it was gap over a weekend.

What you may due is contact your broker and try to bust the trades of this event, but I think your positions are to low to do this.
More...


They aren't going to bust shit. He had the entire day on Monday to liq and he wasn't available?! They will litigate to recover the $58K debit.

OWN IT.
 
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