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‘And then 2022 happened’: I borrowed $500,000 from friends and family to invest in the stock market, foolishly promising a 10% return. Can I avoid legal action?
Market Watch ^ | Quentin Fottrell

Posted on 02/13/2023 2:23:36 PM PST by Fido969

I am a budding options/futures trader with my own sole proprietor investment business. Heading into 2022, I took on a large cash infusion of $500,000 from friends and family under the guise of a promise I made to issue a 10% return on their money. This promise was made via a signed promissory note, and the return was less than the annual return I had been experiencing years before.

And then 2022 happened. It was an extremely bad year for the markets, and the worst I’d seen since I had been actively trading. Needless to say, I was not able to make due on my promise

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: 1moron; financialdarwinaward; idiot; moron; stupid
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Here's the answer he SHOULD have given:

I don't know who are the greater fools, you or the idiots who gave you money. Personally, you are both a fool and a jackass. Options and futures are a suckers game, designed to fleece those idiots who think they have magical brilliant powers to beat the billionaires who are flash trading in milliseconds, who are able to eke out pennies on millions of trades.

Promising a 10% returns, when even the best long-term historical returns for the market are in the 7-8% range shows hubris of an astonishing level. It was based soley on your imagined bloated self-esteem, and I feel bad for anyone who bought into your stupid fanatsy.

The fact that you hold yourself out as an options/futures trader suggests to me that you didn't lose 10% of the money, or even 50%. You sound exactly stupid enough to have lost ALL of it. Your promise to pay it back eventually based on your stupid, hopeful ability to make that much in the future is a fantasic way of trying to avoid responsibility for losing ALL the money with no realistic prospect for paying it back.

I hope you get sued, big time. I hope you are left with debt you will caryy for the rest of your life, However, based on your demonstrated ability to take full ownership of youe stupid mistake, my guess is you will just file for bankruptcy, and screw your friends and family again.

Even then, I hope you learn from this, and gain a large dose of humilty, and having face-planted yourself in reality, are red-pilled as to how the real world works. There is no magic formula for getting rich, and your not going to outsmart the billionaire you are up against, brilliant and ruthless pychopaths that consider you hopes and dreams (and you friends and family money) a mere tasty morsal for a day.

That said, I can only wish you the best. But for God's sake, get real here.

1 posted on 02/13/2023 2:23:36 PM PST by Fido969
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To: Fido969

I might be inclined to borrow some money for long-term investments, but there is no way I would expect the interest from the investment to pay for the interest on that I borrow.


2 posted on 02/13/2023 2:27:37 PM PST by Jonty30 (THE URGE TO SAVE THE WORLD IS ALMOST ALWAYS AN URGE TO RULE IT)
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To: Fido969

“Never let your risk exceed your ability to cover it out of your own pocket.”. Eccl10:2


3 posted on 02/13/2023 2:27:49 PM PST by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: Fido969
Really I feel bad for this guy and his family and friends. I hope when he realized the hopelessness of his situation (if he is capable of that) he doesn't get so desperate he kills himself. As long as he breathes, he will have the capability of redemption - if not full financial redemption, (which may be unrealistic at this point,) then some kind of acceptance and forgiveness from his family and friends.

Failing that, I pray for personal redemption for himself. Nothing is more final that a personal final solution. Barring that, there is always hope.

4 posted on 02/13/2023 2:27:52 PM PST by Fido969 (45 is Superman! )
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To: Fido969
This promise was made via a signed promissory note...

Sorry, you lose, as do the suck..., er, people who unwisely invested in you. That you are now attempting to welch out of your signed promissory note shows your true character.

5 posted on 02/13/2023 2:28:20 PM PST by Obadiah
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Something always happens. Gambling is not a shortcut to success.


6 posted on 02/13/2023 2:28:20 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Fido969

Please don’t sugar coat your opinions.


7 posted on 02/13/2023 2:29:08 PM PST by Raycpa
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To: Fido969

C’mon Fido. Who among us hasn’t done this? You get lucky in the stock market once or twice, watch Jim Cramer (when he’s right) and think you’ve got a pretty good handle on stuff. That’s when it hits. You borrow and borrow trying to hit it big. And you lose it all. You double down and it double hammers you right back.


8 posted on 02/13/2023 2:29:58 PM PST by BipolarBob (The rumor has not been confirmed until the FBI officially denies it.)
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To: Fido969

This is indeed a sad story... glad I’m not that guy...whew!

I have been dealing with tax matters here today, I hate tax
paperwork...


9 posted on 02/13/2023 2:32:05 PM PST by Bobalu (Unrepentant communists, NAZI’s and totalitarians of all stripe are bowing toward Davos)
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To: Fido969

Yep. Another amateur who thought he was a pro. Ego has to learn the hard way.


10 posted on 02/13/2023 2:32:32 PM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: Fido969
I took on a large cash infusion of $500,000 from friends and family under the guise of a promise

Guise? Really? If that’s what you think a promise is all about, then you belong in prison for fraud.

11 posted on 02/13/2023 2:33:00 PM PST by ConservativeInPA (Stupidly is a moral problem, not an intellectual problem. )
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To: Fido969

Pay up!


12 posted on 02/13/2023 2:33:11 PM PST by Reno89519 (DeSantis or Sanders, Anyone But Trump in 2024. Time for Trump to Stand Aside and Retire.)
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To: Fido969
I am afraid my response would be shorter and less kind.
13 posted on 02/13/2023 2:33:52 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (The nation of france was named after a hedgehog... The hedgehog's name was Kevin... Don't ask)
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To: Jonty30

Alternatively he could use what is left over (probably not much) and get a one way ticket to a country without an extradition treaty. File bankruptcy on the way to the airport. That does mean that he’ll probably never see the friends and family again.


14 posted on 02/13/2023 2:35:43 PM PST by glorgau
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To: Fido969

“...brilliant and ruthless psychopaths”

Oligarchs George Soros and Bill Gates. If only there were a way to give these billionaires pain. What would it be?


15 posted on 02/13/2023 2:36:21 PM PST by Flavious_Maximus (Tony Fauci will be put on death row and die of COVID!)
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To: Raycpa
Please don't sugar coat your opinions.

The danger in this case is that he is living in a fantasy world, at many different levels. A therapist told me: "Never take something away without being able to replace it with something that includes hope".

Having a fantasy dissolve, even a mild one, can make it seem like the entire world has disappeared. When these fantasies are tied to ego, (we are smart, we are attractive, we are lovable, we have the capacity to earn money) the effect is magnified many times. We hear about people committing suicide over what seem to us to be small things, but to the subject those things made up the whole world.

On the other hand, there are sociopaths that aren't phased by anything, they just construct the next lie. I don't think a sociopath would be moved by having his current fantasy dashed.

16 posted on 02/13/2023 2:36:49 PM PST by Fido969 (45 is Superman! )
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To: Fido969

Investing friend’s and family’s borrowed money in a Biden economy? He should be publicly flogged, placed in stocks on the public square, with a sign hung around his neck “dumbest human on the planet”!


17 posted on 02/13/2023 2:38:16 PM PST by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
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To: Fido969

Wait for Trump to get back in.


18 posted on 02/13/2023 2:38:21 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Fido969

Perhaps he could receive a stake and advice from Hillary; she was quite successful in the futures market. Or if that is not available, a similar stake/advice partnership with Nancy P.


19 posted on 02/13/2023 2:38:36 PM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Fido969

To seek a profit through trading is speculation. It may or may not make a profit (with beginners it almost never does), but one thing is certain: it is NEVER “investing”. Investing is committing to a long-term position, relying on a well-reasoned analysis of fundamental factors. Investing takes little-to-no notice of what “the market” is doing, because your business strategy looks past those elements, and has a multi-year horizon that accepts the reality of unfavorable market fluctuation. I have made some decent money in speculation, mostly with the support of professional-grade tools and information. The cost included some sickening losses in bad calls. I would have made a lot more, with a lot less emotional wear, simply staying fully-invested over multiple decades, in broad market indices with no expensive active management. Allocate your retirement funds over SPY, MDY, QQQ (if you can take the volatility), and similar. You’ll make more money and your friends and family won’t hate you.


20 posted on 02/13/2023 2:41:33 PM PST by Romulus
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