Loser

Have to admit to everyone that i have lost $40,000 in options.
I am a complete beginner in investing i am currently in debt and i feel like the worlds greatest loser. :goodnight

It all started here in Australia where i bought some investment software for $10,000
Then i bought some shares, they went alright nothing spectacular, but i just went with whatever the brokers said, i thought they had my best interests at heart...yeah right

Then i begun getting calls from overseas, for investing in shares overseas and in currency options and resources etc...once again i actually believed that they had my best interests at heart :banghead

Now i realise that im responsible for my accounts and i was just too dumb to realise that, so now i come to the conclusion that i just wasnt meant to be an investor in this area, but i hate the fact that i want to be wealthy and i would love to use the markets around the world to do build my wealth...but im just too stupid :banghead its all too complicated for me to understand :banghead ive been cursed by god with stupidity and nieveness and trustingnuss and an incredible ability to be lord of the losers

Thank you,

For letting me get that off my chest,

Im gonna go cry now

Wow, sounds like you have been through hell. I have heard of similar stories too. People spending thousands on software and course, then following advice from brokers and being done. Ouch!

I have spoken to many people who have really no experince at all, spent no money on courses, software or broker advice and have been able to trade in the black.

I am one of those lucky ones who has been able to trade all year, in profit with no experience. Must be just luck and good timing.

Sure I have lost money of some of my trades, well who hasn't! But still in profit and have been trading for only 9 months now.

Hope things improve

Your not alone.
I dropped $20k in the first year of trading.
Ive heard horror stories from real people I know to $160000.

If you give up on at least learning this industry then yep youll be a loser.

Stop beating yourself up-------- moving forward will place you in an elite group of winners who may recognise defeat but never give into it.

Youll get it back----with interest!!

krisbarry said:

Wow, sounds like you have been through hell. I have heard of similar stories too. People spending thousands on software and course, then following advice from brokers and being done. Ouch!

I have spoken to many people who have really no experince at all, spent no money on courses, software or broker advice and have been able to trade in the black.

I am one of those lucky ones who has been able to trade all year, in profit with no experience. Must be just luck and good timing.

Sure I have lost money of some of my trades, well who hasn't! But still in profit and have been trading for only 9 months now.

Hope things improve

Click to expand...

Yes hope, what is hope? Hope, is that a word? Does it mean something? Or at least did it mean something...well spose its all thats left right now.

tech/a said:

Your not alone.
I dropped $20k in the first year of trading.
Ive heard horror stories from real people I know to $160000.

If you give up on at least learning this industry then yep youll be a loser.

Stop beating yourself up-------- moving forward will place you in an elite group of winners who may recognise defeat but never give into it.

Youll get it back----with interest!!

Click to expand...

Yeepee im not alone, should i be proud to be in loserville?
Learning this industry? I have learnt a lesson like the one where if you play with fire you get burnt type of lesson.
Stop beating myself up? I have lost all i had in finances and can consider myself lucky to at least still have a partner and umm...yeah over 10k in debt.

Moving foward as in get a new job because i got fired from my career job?
And save up money to invest it again and lose it all again and go through this all over again? Yes I can get it back, but will i ever be able to invest again?

Can you imagine losing all youve worked for, for your entire working life? Losing it all, nothing, nada, zero, and beyond zero into minus territory. Yes lots of people can imagine it, but have you ever experienced it?

Get it back with interest haha, yeah if i was a bank hahahaha
Im just too stupid to understand the markets, all the stuff the brokers said to me over the phone all sounded very sensible but i understood none of it, it just sounded good. Sound like another lesson?

Even now as i read some of these forums and can only grasp simple things, its clear that i dont have what it takes to make money from investing in the markets im too much a simpleton with a wealthy attitude. Thus why im a loser.

So to all those people out there that feel like they can just make money off the markets with no knowledge and you feel like you can buy that knowledge. I say to you "be careful and cautious" you are playing with your life. And you have to live with the decisions you make, remember you can only trust your own judgement, for only you know whether you can afford to lose.

rowdy said:

Can you imagine losing all youve worked for, for your entire working life? Losing it all, nothing, nada, zero, and beyond zero into minus territory. Yes lots of people can imagine it, but have you ever experienced it?

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Yeh 2wice and lost the wife!
Try owing the NAB $446,000 and a guy standing at your door with a summons.
Pay in 21 days or we take the lot.

The lot was $161,000 that was in 1986

Guess you have a choice.
The easy road----just join the 1000s of losers out there youll fit in just fine.
The harder road-----do something about it.

Mate of mine died at 32 from bowl cancer.
Nother one broke his neck at 40.(hospital error after a road crash).

$10,000 debt---get a grip on true hardship!!!!!!

Remember Johnny Famecheon.
Christopher Reeves or all the losses that families affected by 9/11 had to endure----particularly those that were there to rescue/help the injured.

Bahhhh your hardship is a mear minow in the scheme of things
stop wagging your tongue and do something about it.

LOSER

This'll sound strange but don't do anything rash.

I think everyone looses the lot sometime in their life. I did off some picks from mum (I was 13) I lost $2k which was alot for me. I blamed everyone but myself. That's when I woke up and learned not buy from the advice of other people and educated myself.

It sucks how you lost so much money later in life but think of it as an expensive lession. The guy in Rich dad, poor dad lost everything too and look at him now.

My accounting teacher said 9 out of 10 people don't make money on the stock market. I'm only in the stock market because I don't have the money to buy property. That and praying for a ression

Yep I've lost the lot, and it wasn't as bad as losing the partner. Wallow in misery for a while if you must, but sooner or later you'll get up and start over again. After all, getting burnt when they touched fire didn't stop your ancestors learning to cook. Not such remote ancestors either - I bet your mum got burnt a few times boiling your beans. She learnt. You can too!!

Best wishes

Ghoti

Rowdy, I feel for you. There's nothing wrong with having big dreams. You've learnt that relying on others to get them for you is a mistake. The only way is for you is to learn slowly about investing. Go at your own pace. Investing is a constant learning curve, a life's journey. As Tech said, it took him a few years to get it right.

And your greates asset is your wife, not some figures in a bank account.

DTM said:

And your greatest asset is your wife, not some figures in a bank account.

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Yeh thought I got a pretty good amount for the first one!!

(Sorry my humour).

tech/a said:

If you give up on at least learning this industry then yep youll be a loser.

Stop beating yourself up-------- moving forward will place you in an elite group of winners who may recognise defeat but never give into it.

Youll get it back----with interest!!

Click to expand...

Dissagree. I know quite a few people who lost $40k in 2000, then again in 2001, 2002, and so on....they live on HC

they would have been better off walking away in 2000 minus 40k

walk away rowdy

40k is nothing.

encouraging you to battle on is like handing out 6-packs at an A.A meeting. 95% of traders fail. therefore, you have only a 5% chance of making your money back.

Actually Money I can see your point.
Im only looking at it from my own veiw point.
Rowdy and others like him may well know their
limits and not be up to lifes challenges.

However from what Ive seen Rowdys problems
have been more trust in others and being fleeced.
Than applying his knowledge un successfully.

Either way no point in wallowing in your own
self pity---get on with it whatever that maybe.

Re: Loser ... rowdy

Hi Rowdy ... " ... i bought some investment software for $10,000."

Could you please tell me the name of the investment software you purchased?

Cheers ...

Dear Rowdy,

I'm really sorry to hear about your predicament. But as Tech and Money and others have said it could be worse. What is important now is that you cherish what you have and keep yourself together. You have lived to fight another day. Try to pick up the pieces bit by bit, you have your wife/partner and that is not something you can quantify, she has stuck with you so she has faith in you and you should too. You clearly have the capacity to confront your demons or you wouldn't have acknowledged your misfortune here on a public forum. Work slowly but surely at getting back to where you were financially and beyond what you were emotionally. Perhaps it's a lesson for others who invest more than they can afford to lose.

First of all, you don't have to get back into investing. Give it time. There are clearly more important issues to deal with in your life now. Family and your wellbeing would be first, fortunately unemployment is low, so go out there and get a job, don't sell yourself short or mope to a prospective employer about your losses, get involved in life ASAP. Start by ditching the 'loser' tag. BE POSITIVE! YOU CAN DO IT!

I am interested in the person who sold you that software and anyone else who may fleece others (if they did fleece you), perhaps an email to ASIC and Fair Trading or the ACCC would help you get it off your chest. Perhaps write it in narrative form. You may cry over it as you do it but it'll help you reflect on your actions and thoughts and will be cathartic. It will also help others who visit these forums from falling in the same trap so thanks for being so frank too. There are also laws against various business practices so you may need to think of legal action later on- don't play the blame game yet but if you were a novice then you should never have been allowed to trade options, your broker may have something to answer for. Alternatively you could be responsible for it all. Just get that letter done first, you may be able to turn it into a biography once you become successful again- you can recover, $10k isn't much to save up if you're disciplined and work full time, every bit saved will eat into that figure.

Hang in there and remember what matters is not the money but the fact that you have so many things to value and go forward with.

This is probably a cautionary tale for all those who get too emotionally involved in the market.

Hope to hear from you as you get better Rowdy, hang in there!

I heard an interesting expression only today that may be apt:

"Take investing seriously but don't take it personally"

You made decisions and they stuffed up. You can walk away from the whole experience or you can take what you learned and get back in the game. From my impression you may have been trying a little to hard to hit a home run straight away which led you to questionable people.

At the end of the day if you are only attracted to trading because of the money then you are going to have a really hard time understanding the methods and systems that go into making a good trader/investor. I like messing around with my charts and trialing systems. If you find it confusing why risk your capital with something you don't understand? My partner doesn't understand the first thing about shares or options and quite frankly is not interested. She understands property far better than I ever will. She likes thinking about demographics/design/views/aspect/renovation. I don't understand it and I'm not going to pretend that I do. I don't really like it either which is why I think I don't understand it.

Its different strokes for different folks. Find something that you love and I'm sure you'll understand it and do very well with it. Just do something and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Cheers

MICK

Thanks for all your replies, it really helps to know that im not alone as a failure and that you guys have your ups and downs also, and for the honest, upfront and kind words.

tech/a said:

However from what Ive seen Rowdys problems
have been more trust in others and being fleeced.
Than applying his knowledge un successfully.

Click to expand...

Yes it is a problem i have, trusting others too much.
I took responsibility for my failures because i dont like to blame others when it was clearly my decision that was final, whether that was under influence or not, it does not matter.
I had no knowledge, thus why i didnt succeed.
Perhaps i have all the qualifications of a broker ?
I have no idea about the markets, im selfish, and money hungry, hey anyone want to employ a top quality broker?
Im probably over qualified though!

Seriously though, anyone seriously need someone to do some work, need to get some cashflow going. Im qualified as a toolmaker, but looking to work in a different area, send me a message if you have something,

thanks,

Rod