Trader Loses $200K, Quits For 3 Years, Then Returns To Win It Back And Loses Another $100K. Says, ‘The FOMO Was Unbearable’ Stressed business man crypto trader broker investor analyzing stock exchange market crypto trading decreasing chart data fall down loss, desperate about losing money of crisis, recession, inflation. (Credit: Image via Shutterstock) Casey B. Renner Fri, November 13, 2026 at 1:30 PM EST 6 min read TSLA -1.85% GME +0.62% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
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A trader walked away after losing more than $200,000 on options. They spent three years watching tech stocks climb before they started trading again, hoping to win back what they lost. Instead, they ended up down another $100,000.
The poster opened a trading account because of the hype around GameStop (NYSE:GME). One of their early bets was on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). They bought call options and were up $80,000 at one point. "Thought I was a god at trading," they wrote.
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That gain disappeared when Tesla's stock fell. The poster held on because they thought it would go back up. They eventually sold the options for half of what they paid.
They kept trading, betting on how stocks would move after earnings reports, Fed meetings, and inflation updates.
Some of the options they bought expired that same day. Within months of discovering options, they said, they'd lost more than $200,000 and wiped out their savings. They couldn't bring themselves to look at the account and stopped trading for three years.
The poster read about SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) on Reddit and bought put options, betting the stock would fall once early investors could sell their shares. Instead, it went from $130 to $150, and they kept buying puts as the price rose.
The bets cost them another $100,000. When SpaceX hit $170, they used the last of their savings to buy more put options. They made some money back, then lost part of it on a separate trade in Nasdaq-100 options. They used what was left in the account to buy SpaceX puts again. That trade paid off.
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"I'm out," they wrote. Then they asked what to buy that night.
Traders weighing their next move in the futures market can use NinjaTrader's simulator to try a trade with virtual money before putting real money on the line.
Someone asked whether the trader was in debt and where the money came from. "No debt. My own income," the original poster said. They made about $100,000 a year working 80-hour weeks, but it felt like they were just earning back what they lost.
The OP said they were usually careful with money. It took them a year to decide to buy speakers for their room. On a trade, though, the chance of a big win made it easier to spend $1,000 on options that expired that same day.
Their wife was due home from a work trip to the U.S., and they surprised her with a business-class upgrade for the flight. "Finally feel ready to come clean with my wife so here's hoping I don't get divorced with the good news," they wrote
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