The Reddit geek who raked in $100,000 with 2 trades is 'taking a small break'

Just $766 but with roku being a $150+ stock at the time he would be lucky to only buy a few put options placed at around $2-3 a put, that's why I cant understand the return he made.

Check model above, he'd of have to of paid @30cents about $10 OTM a few days become expiry so already decayed like hell for this to of worked. Best case 50cents and bought the strike higher but doubt that would make the return.
 
Winning a big bit once in a while is bound to happen if you place enough big bets, the vast majority end up going bust just as fast as they made it.

Surprised this even made the news, junk food for the impulsive casino mentality types that are all about instant gratification. Growing your equity curve year over year take's a great deal of skill - a whole different world.


I question how certain
His Roku 297-strike puts were expiring the next day (or the day he cashed out):
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/yolo-day-trader-transforms-760-107000-2-high-risk-trades


But even so. With $766 he can only purchase a handful of puts.

I went to roku options just now for a hypothetical situation
Roku is trading at $129.25
Let's say I buy the $103 October 25th put , trading at .18 that would give me approximately 43 contracts. Those would have to skyrocket from .18 to over $12.00 ! Contract. I dont see how that was possible with roku falling about 20% that one particular day.
 
Check model above, he'd of have to of paid @30cents about $10 OTM a few days become expiry so already decayed like hell for this to of worked. Best case 50cents and bought the strike higher but doubt that would make the return.


That's exactly what I was thinking as the decay would have already knocked those puts down a good 1/3 or even 1/2 before they popped.
 
I question how certain



But even so. With $766 he can only purchase a handful of puts.

I went to roku options just now for a hypothetical situation
Roku is trading at $129.25
Let's say I buy the $103 October 25th put , trading at .18 that would give me approximately 43 contracts. Those would have to skyrocket from .18 to over $12.00 ! Contract. I dont see how that was possible with roku falling about 20% that one particular day.

That's expensive with only 6 days to go and $26 to drop just to get to Zero.

No way he'd of gotten $10 away for 30cents about as far away maybe tad nearer.
 
The hardest part is holding on the way up. But it's also the most profitable. .30 to $10. Not easy to not get out early.

$20+ wasn't it, maybe he only checked it once or twice got lucky, didn'tt watch and get scared out early.
 
Common, $800 to $100k is poor risk management!?

Yes, return percentage and risk management are orthogonal. High returns imply lower risk management, higher risk management implies lower (but more consistent) returns. I'm notoriously risk adverse compared to many of my options trader friends. Except for last month, I've been able to pull away 1-2% profit on my account per month on the same money I started with. They, on the other hand, have blown out many accounts and made some incredible wins. I'm not the one buying everyone at the bar drinks at the end of the night, but I am the one that keeps the bar staff employed while the major risk takers are trying to get their money back from the market :).

Many top traders mention that they made their initial stake by being super aggressive but then tone it down. I'm not saying this guy is a genius(not even talking about anyone specific), but being able to go big at the right moment is a character trait which is commonly mentioned by top traders.

You might have seen me posting about Sang Lucci. I find his journey very interesting. He made most of his initial fortune on a single long options play(1.2M). Got thrown out of (or left) prop firm because they didn't like his trading style (I assume). Got turned down by hedge funds because they didn't want Cowboy trading(I assume his DD were horrendous). He opened his own fund and doing well. Few people can trade like him, but it doesn't mean he's a lucky bafoon. And of course he started to smooth out his equity curve by selling premium and hedging.

Yes, and this story is reflected in many accounts in Market Wizards. Many hedge fund guys caught a lucky break (most of them admitting they had no idea what they were doing at the time) and crushed it in a very soft market. There's nothing wrong with idolizing these people but their success must be taken with a grain of salt and seeking to achieve the same level is like trying to hit the 00 in roulette because some guy just drove off in a new maserati on his winnings. Its futile.

My point is simply this - if you don't incorporate possibly of hitting occasional home runs in your trading, you will most likely not survive the grind.

I'd like to rephrase this into a way that is more risk management friendly. "When you're up you can't long/short enough". I always get more when I'm winning, and I can't close my positions fast enough when I'm nearing my risk limit (~10% drawdown in 1 month). I made a recent post on risk management with gamma in this regard. I'm trying to learn how to manage stacking up on a large position and protecting myself from my risk to the other side. I'm no pro. Just a guy with too many opinions.
 
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That's expensive with only 6 days to go and $26 to drop just to get to Zero.

No way he'd of gotten $10 away for 30cents about as far away maybe tad nearer.


Exactly. That's why the story doesn't seem plausible.
 
Agree to have to have a mentality of letting winners run. But that dude clearly just got lucky. Will he from now on also continue to buy his lottery tickets? Because that was precisely what he had done. It's just we won't hear from him most likely again. He will just grind down his portfolio with his weekly 800 dollar lucky draw tickets.

By the way, yes it was incredibly poor risk management, risking 100% lost with a very high probability on each trade would get you fired right away at every hedge fund or sell side bank trading desk.

Common, $800 to $100k is poor risk management!?

Many top traders mention that they made their initial stake by being super aggressive but then tone it down. I'm not saying this guy is a genius(not even talking about anyone specific), but being able to go big at the right moment is a character trait which is commonly mentioned by top traders.

You might have seen me posting about Sang Lucci. I find his journey very interesting. He made most of his initial fortune on a single long options play(1.2M). Got thrown out of (or left) prop firm because they didn't like his trading style (I assume). Got turned down by hedge funds because they didn't want Cowboy trading(I assume his DD were horrendous). He opened his own fund and doing well. Few people can trade like him, but it doesn't mean he's a lucky bafoon. And of course he started to smooth out his equity curve by selling premium and hedging.

My point is simply this - if you don't incorporate possibly of hitting occasional home runs in your trading, you will most likely not survive the grind. All about fat tails. Just my opinion, fwiw.
 
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I question how certain

But even so. With $766 he can only purchase a handful of puts.

I went to roku options just now for a hypothetical situation
Roku is trading at $129.25
Let's say I buy the $103 October 25th put , trading at .18 that would give me approximately 43 contracts. Those would have to skyrocket from .18 to over $12.00 ! Contract. I dont see how that was possible with roku falling about 20% that one particular day.

I just opened ThinkOrSwim (that I don't use except when looking at historical scenarios which you can do as well), and here is a screenshot showing that if you've spent $750 on 75x 127-strike $0.10 puts on Sept 16 2019 then on Sept 20 2019 you'd end up with $140K by end of the week.
This may be different than what he has done, and I'm not sure of his exact strike and entry/exit points.

upload_2019-10-19_16-37-15.png


Here is another scenario showing how someone could've turn $750 into $46K by buying 25x 127-strike puts for $.30 each the day before expiration:
upload_2019-10-19_16-38-5.png
 
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