GM. This is Dumb Money, rounding up the internet's biggest Ls so you don't make them yourself.
Today we watched one man average down into Adobe three times on margin. His broker decided when he was done. He disagreed. His broker did not care.
Three stories. $204K in combined losses. One of them involves a person who spent six weeks making 2,100 transactions to qualify for free tokens. He did not qualify.
Here's what we've got today:
🏆 Loss of the Day - Adobe stock. Averaged down 3 times on margin. Broker pulled the plug.: $111,600
📉 Casualty #1 - SPX put credit spreads. 14 weeks of premium. Week 15 ended it.: $48,000
⚡ Casualty #2 - $59,800 farming an airdrop. Flagged as a bot. Received nothing.: $44,712
🍪 Copium for the Road - The best cope from today's comment sections.
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| TODAY'S DAMAGE REPORT 📊 | |||||||||
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Jeff Brown believes by the end of this month, this Elon Musk new AI breakthrough will collide…
With a powerful market prophecy that has correctly predicted some of the biggest market booms going back to 1950…
Giving Americans a rare and perhaps last chance to turn a small stake into an entire six-figure nest egg in the next 12-18 months.
The last time something like this happened, investors had a chance to turn a small stake of $10,000 into as much as $366,000 in just 14 months.
LOSS OF THE DAY 🏆
Every day we crown one person who made the worst financial decision on the internet.
Today's winner didn't make one bad decision. He made the same bad decision three times, each time with more conviction.
Here's the setup. u/firefly_believer found Adobe in February. The thesis was clean: Firefly AI tools were about to transform the creative software market. Eighteen out of 37 analysts rated it a buy.
He bought 400 shares at $391. Then the stock dropped. He bought 400 more at $342. "The AI thesis hasn't changed."
Then the stock fell 6.25% on June 11. The CFO quit days later. He bought 400 more at $293. Same thesis. Third time.
Total position: 1,200 shares. Average cost: $342. That's $410,400 in one stock. Half of it was margin.
He put $410,400 into Adobe on margin, averaged down three times, and watched it drop to $249.
On September 10, Adobe's Q4 revenue guidance missed expectations. Stock gapped down 3.4% after hours. Two days later, his broker force-liquidated the entire position at $249.
Total loss: $111,600. He started the year with $205,000 in equity. He now has $93,400.
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| Quick math on margin for the non-traders: When you buy stocks on margin, you borrow money from your broker. They set a maintenance threshold. If your stock drops enough that your equity falls below it, they sell your shares. They don't ask. They don't care about your thesis. They care about their money. |
Eighteen analysts. Three averaging-down buys. One margin call. The thesis was never the problem. The leverage was.
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TODAY'S CASUALTIES 💀
Not everybody can be Loss of the Day. But these two gave it a real shot.
Let's run through the tape.
Casualty #1: The Premium Seller
There's a corner of the internet called r/thetagang where people sell options premium and call it "passive income."
u/theta_income_2024 was a proud member. His strategy: sell SPX put credit spreads every Friday, collect premium, repeat. He'd done it 14 weeks in a row without a loss. $31,000 in total premium.
Week 15 was different.
He sold 10 SPX 7660/7600 put spreads on Friday, September 11. Collected $12,000 in premium. The S&P was at 7,657. His short strike was just 3 points away.
Over the weekend, four AI company CEOs called for a development slowdown. The S&P crashed through both of his strikes before 10:30 AM Monday.
Fourteen weeks of premium: $31,000. Week 15 loss: $48,000. Net P&L after 15 weeks: negative $17,000.
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| For the non-options people: A put credit spread means you sell a put at one strike and buy one lower. You collect premium upfront. If the market stays above your short strike, you keep it. If it crashes through both strikes, you owe the difference minus what you collected. The risk is defined. Defined does not mean small. |
Casualty #2: The Airdrop Farmer
This one takes a minute to explain. Stay with us. It's worth it.
u/zk_grinder_99 heard that a Layer 2 protocol called ZkPulse was about to drop free tokens to its most active users. The more activity on your wallet, the bigger the airdrop.
He bought 9,200 ZKPL tokens at $6.08 each. $55,936. Then he spent six weeks making 2,100 transactions on the network to boost his activity score. Gas fees: $3,864.
Total investment: $59,800. All to qualify for free money.
The protocol's anti-sybil filter flagged his wallet as a bot. Airdrop received: zero tokens.
One problem: everyone who did get the airdrop immediately sold their ZKPL tokens. The price dropped 73% in two days. From $6.08 to $1.64.
His 9,200 tokens are now worth $15,088. Total loss: $44,712.
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Here's the part that really stings. The anti-sybil filter flagged any wallet that made more than 500 transactions in under eight weeks. He made 2,100. He disqualified himself by trying too hard.
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BITE-SIZED COPIUM FOR THE ROAD 🍪
We track the data because the data is funnier than anything we could make up.
| The best part of any loss thread isn't the screenshot. It's the comments section. | ||||||||
| Here are today's greatest hits. | ||||||||
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Translation: the copium supply remains at all-time highs. The self-awareness supply is still on backorder.
See you tomorrow. New losses, fresh copium, same dosage.
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