Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Lose Money

getrevue.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 300 posts

Re: How to Lose Money

#81

Post by nemo44x »

ssharp wrote: post #64
xondono wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tbh, the problem with options is that you can loose a lot of money that you don't have . People start to play with strategies without fully grasping how they work, and especially how exposed you are if you sell naked options. It's very easy to fall into the trap of creating an option strategy that even if it has good odds, will require a massive amount of margin. If this happens to you on a regular retail account, yo…

This is easily avoided by not writing option contracts. If you're new to options and are ready to start exploring with real money, you should only be buying them and then selling them, not writing new ones. The exact same thing can be said for shorting stocks and, to a lesser extent, buying stocks on margin. I'm happy to say after getting margin-called in 2008, I haven't been since! Writing options and shorting makes…

You can write spreads and not have infinite downside risk. Iron condors are designed to collect premium and you’re covered (at a loss, but a fixed loss) if the stock goes one way or another too far. Of course at that point we are already more advanced than a YOLO casino roller.

But yes, in general it’s wise to avoid bets with infinite downside and limited upside. You tend to win these bets frequently (and make small gains) but when you do lose it’s catastrophic.

Re: How to Lose Money

#82

Post by finiteseries »

rozab wrote: post #60
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is composed of a heap of immigrants that migrated to the US and to a point intermingled culturally to come up with a new country / culture. The Anglo-Saxons were a people made out of immigrants from Germanic Europe that migrated to what is now England and mingled with indigenous British groups, tracing back to the 5th century. It's often used to refer to the language spoken in England and eastern Scotland unti…

The term has a more complex meaning in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Anglo-Saxon_Protestants#...

Every American cited in this section, Anglo-Saxon in modern usage, is dead.

The only remaining usage of Anglo Saxon in the contemporary USA is as part of the already antiquated “WASP” term.

Anglo Saxon in reference to the US is in my very-online anecdotal experience roughly ~70% French speakers, 15% continental Europeans, and 15% race based nationalists.

Americans usually just say “white”, even when specifically referring to classic WASP cases, especially after the Germans, Italians, and other ethnic groups were absorbed over the last century.

Re: How to Lose Money

#83

Post by CoffeePython »

Building an online course[1] has been one of the easiest ways to make money in my personal experience. Other things I've tried building: SaaS, Trades business, Freelancing business.

I've made over $8k since I launched last month and it's been a great stepping stone into other ideas. The main problem I see going forward is getting consistent traffic. Building the course was the "easy" part and now I'm focusing hard on SEO to keep consistent traffic going to my page. Long term I think I can make $100-$300 a day with it.

I floundered trying to build SaaS and other types of business for years before making some money online. Selling a one time purchase can be a game changer for those looking to go independent. Look at the stairstep approach[2] for reasons why this works so well.

Overall, if you invest a few days and put something out there, I think an online course can be a great way to build some income.

[1] https://www.vim.so [2] https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-to-...

Re: How to Lose Money

#84

Post by johaugum »

throw0101a wrote: post #76
newcrobuzon wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Options should be used as intended: as a hedge. E.g. If I am net long in my portfolio and I fear some headwinds I can buy a put or two for the peace of mind. Now those puts should be always considered as worthless, and it is just the price to pay for the peace of mind. Similarly you sell options. Trading options on the other hand is just pure gambling. Even if you get the direction right you likely won't get the timi…

> E.g. If I am net long in my portfolio and I fear some headwinds I can buy a put or two for the peace of mind. Now those puts should be always considered as worthless, and it is just the price to pay for the peace of mind. Why don't you just change your allocation? If you can't sleep at night because of your current portfolio, and gyrations that are occurring, or that you are worried could occur, I would say it's ob…

> Why don't you just change your allocation?

For one, altering allocations earlier may trigger short-term capital gains tax as opposed to long-term CGT. Hedging through options alleviates this.

Re: How to Lose Money

#85

Post by ClumsyPilot »

nanis wrote: post #39
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might also be true that neither the buyer not the seller, in any transaction, are happy about it as such . It could, or even probably should be, argued that one should remain dispassionate about the outcome of any specific transaction in particular. If you can't do that, then you probably are gambling, and that's probably a bad thing.

> It might also be true that neither the buyer not the seller, in any transaction, are happy about it as such. "Happy" here is used in a very specific sense: If two parties engage in a transaction without coercion, it must be because they are both made better off by the transaction or they would both be less happy without the transaction. This is where "gains from trade" come from. The ability to make this statement…

"If two parties engage in a transaction without coercion, it must be because they are both made better off by the transaction or they would both be less happy without the transaction."

That's is about as accurate as physics homework you do in school, two objects collide without friction and air resistance, no energy is lost to sound, heat or deformation of the objects, calculate their resulting velocity.

As soon as you enter the real world and those objects are cars, equations aren't remotely accurate.

Any layman can come up with examples where this statement doesn't hold, drugs, etc.

We should focus on discussing real-life effects of options trading rather than spouting free-market theory clishes, everyone knows them, there are at least 3 such statements in every HN thread and I don't feel they contribute much to the coversation

Re: How to Lose Money

#86

Post by kungito »

Kathula wrote: post #77
Pyramus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a very US American (anglosaxon?) viewpoint to take. Education is paid for by society in most Western parts of the world.

Sure, the education is paid(via taxes), but you still need to pay rent, food, bills etc. All people I know that studied took student loans.

0 people I know that studied took loans

Re: How to Lose Money

#87

Post by sokoloff »

yreg wrote: post #80
throw0101a wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> E.g. If I am net long in my portfolio and I fear some headwinds I can buy a put or two for the peace of mind. Now those puts should be always considered as worthless, and it is just the price to pay for the peace of mind. Why don't you just change your allocation? If you can't sleep at night because of your current portfolio, and gyrations that are occurring, or that you are worried could occur, I would say it's ob…

Year ago when we were reading the news about what is happening in Wuhan, some of my friends bought SPY puts as an insurance against the potential crisis. The best outcome for them would be if those puts expired worthless. When you insure your house, you don't usually wish for it to burn down. I haven't acted and my portfolio took a -30% hit right after. Your suggestion (to change the portfolio allocation) would mean…

I had SPY puts expiring in April at the same time, but as a hedge against Bernie Sanders doing unexpectedly well on Super Tuesday. He didn’t, but my timing was still good against a factor that I had been entirely ignoring.

Re: How to Lose Money

#88

Post by _wldu »

tim333 wrote: post #58
dna_polymerase wrote: post #54

Method 10: Write an absolute piece of shit article on revue. I often wonder what motivates people to write certain posts. This piece is filled with opinion and subjective and obviously wrong information, followed by nonsensical motivational fluff. I have no idea what makes the author think that this is a good use of anyone's time.

I found it entertaining. Also see HN guidelines "Be kind. Don't be snarky"

I agree. I think he is joking, but, I could not tell for certain.

The idea that a university degree is one of the best ways to lose money is not at all true.

Re: How to Lose Money

#89

Post by _wldu »

zuhayeer wrote: post #9

School is such a guaranteed one now during Covid – you don't even get social serendipity. You're literally sitting there on Zoom burning through cash. What common folk don't realize is that college is just a luxury consumption good of the rich.

The author is joking. The article is tongue in cheek.

You can get a MS in CS from Georgia Tech for roughly $7,000 US dollars total cost... if you can get accepted and complete the work. GT's CS program is consistently ranked in the top 10 CS programs world wide.

https://omscs.gatech.edu/

Today, you can easily earn a six figure salary anywhere in the US with this degree (provided you have good work ethic and are reasonable to get along with).

Re: How to Lose Money

#90

Post by [deleted] »

anupamchugh wrote: post #40
kgwgk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a 50/50 bet if you pick sides at random. You may have a loss in expectation but it will be because of spreads, transaction costs, taxes, etc. (Only half-joking.)

Well, it can’t be 50-50 bet ever since there’s the time decay. 33 percent is the best bet to win!

[deleted]
Post reply on HN