Optionsellers.com goes bust and the apology video is painful to watch

How about you share your compassion with the investors who lost big time. I am sure they deeply appreciate your concerns. Remember the Madoff case? That smirking schmuck ruined people's lives forever, several of his investors committed suicide. Even his brother I think committed suicide if I remember correctly. I think your compassion is misplaced and should be given to the investors this guy fucked so badly.

ET180 said:
That's just evil. The guy took too big of a risk. He certainly regrets his decision and I feel sorry for the investors who lost money with him. Sounds like he was a successful trader for 20 years and had good relationships with his clients. I think having him stripped naked and then killed is extreme and a sign of an eagerly malicious evil person.
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ET180 said:
Then if it's so safe (meaning that the options have a very slim chance of ending up in the money), then why would anyone pay any money to buy them?
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Similar to insurance, most of the time it's not used. OptionSellers was paid to manage the risk otherwise.
 
Saltynuts said:
So, is the apology video anywhere out there still? Seems to have been pulled - wise move no doubt given the lawsuits coming. But I'd sure like to see it!
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The apology video is embedded within this one. The first few minutes are spent discussing what happened then it shows the video from James.

 
PJB1994 said:
Not true. He traded money from current IRA accounts. They were set up through Midland IRA (self-directed IRA). He wiped out that balance plus we owe another $35,000. I'm not even sure how this will work out in terms of taxes since we will be paying the balance to FC Stone with after-tax dollars.

He sold this to us as a VERY SAFE investment because he went SO FAR out of the money and so far out in time. In fact, he convinced us it would lessen our risk because it offered further diversification as it was uncorrelated to the market. We were not looking to make "big money" rather seeking greater safety. His book also talks extensively about vertical spreads for risk mitigation. I was also under the impression that the IRA account could not trade naked positions, but it seems he handled both the non-IRA and IRA accounts in the same manner.

We only had our accounts with him since May/June - now they are all gone, plus a significant debit balance in each.
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PJB1994 said:
We were assured that the risks were controlled - that was the entire sales pitch. Vertical spreads, ration credit spreads, very far OTM options at very distant dates, as well as other risk control measures. Said we were actually reducing our risk because this strategy allowed us to further diversify (diversify within the commodities markets which were uncorrelated and offer diversification from the stock market). People who trusted him were not looking for huge payoffs - the exact opposite.

We did extensive research on the guy and really couldn't find anything negative. There was a complaint filed several years ago, but they handled it very well and pretty much made the guy whole. We also read about the issue they had with Peregrine exchange that impacted him years ago but he assured us that we would never have that problem with FC Stone, etc.

How do you suggest I go about finding other victims of this debacle? I'd like to form a group so we can discuss how to proceed.
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I googled FCStone, INTL FCStone? They are a reputable Fortune 500 corporation, how can they so misrepresented their offering and created such a mess? It is difficult for me to understand, like Schwab screwing up my IRA account?
 
PJB1994 said:
No, this dude does not work for the attorney. Forgive me for providing relevant information.
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Relevant? You left that out. What does your account, custodial agreement and poa state? I have talked to a couple of hnw individuals in the last couple of hours and neither are allowed to short naked calls in an ira. I mean they have fuck you money, 9 figure types.
 
ironchef said:
I googled FCStone, INTL FCStone? They are a reputable Fortune 500 corporation, how can they so misrepresented their offering and created such a mess? It is difficult for me to understand, like Schwab screwing up my IRA account?
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It's bad enough to lose all the money (plus some) from a taxable account, but to lose it from and IRA is inconceivable. The IRA accounts actually have debit balances that need to be paid. I read that naked calls are not allowed in retirement accounts.
 
manonfire said:
Relevant? You left that out. What does your account, custodial agreement and poa state? I have talked to a couple of hnw individuals in the last couple of hours and neither are allowed to short naked calls in an ira. I mean they have fuck you money, 9 figure types.
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The fact that they aren't allowed to short naked calls in an IRA is probably why the lawyer is going after FC Stone. None of the documents talked about naked options. The IRA was set up through Midland as a self-directed IRA.
 
PJB1994 said:
It's bad enough to lose all the money (plus some) from a taxable account, but to lose it from and IRA is inconceivable. The IRA accounts actually have debit balances that need to be paid. I read that naked calls are not allowed in retirement accounts.
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Thank you for explaining. There must be some law against your broker allowing a naked short fund for your IRA, even if it is self directed.

I am sorry for you.

Good luck and take care.
 
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