转一个因为投机取巧而见外婆的帖子。

Yahoo finance uvxy 版的一个id写的，60w$ short uvxy见外婆了

sosa_k_king • Sep 16, 2015 12:17 PM 

UVXY short- my tale of misery

I've been getting some counseling sessions about this and it was suggested I
might feel better airing this out, and maybe stopping someone else from 
being as dumb as I was (sort of like drunk drivers are made to do sometimes).
So. Several years ago I was laid off. I had a decent severance package as 
well as some savings. Couldn't find a job, so I took 50K and began trading 
with it. Mostly shorting the VXX/UVXY pair, but sometimes buying puts. Fast 
forward several years, and it's up to 600K account. Obviously not huge, but 
pretty important for me as I still was struggling to find work.

Well. I was all in cash the week before the lock limit down. I decided I 
would short 5K UVXY at 25. So far so good, right? Only 20% of account. Then 
the big move happens on Friday and I short 10K at 40. Clearly insane in 
retrospect, but the VIX futures were low 20s at that point which is where 
they had always collapsed recently.

So I am short 15K at that point, cost basis is 35 or so. Thought about 
covering in 41 area after hours on that Friday, had kind of a bad feeling 
but I chose to ignore it.

Monday it goes to 73 at the open. My account value shows $30K. I panic, but 
decide I will hold on for the retreat. And... guess what? Forced liquidation
. They do have the legal right to do this but I didn't expect it would 
happen, I thought they would wait for the end of the day.

Had I been able to hold on to now, account value instead of 30K would be 
500K. And I figure a year out, UVXY will be maybe $2 or $3 or possibly less,
and I would be up over 1 million. So... 30K instead of a likely $1 million.
I know it's not that unusual of a story as people get killed in the markets
all the time but still... how about them apples? I have receded somewhat 
from a state of shock and have been reading some amazing stories about 
people who have built up million dollar accounts and lost the entire thing 
not once but in some cases several times. Can you even imagine?