No Crying In The Casino

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Browsing social media last night and this morning, I was greeted with dozens of examples of people posting their “loss porn,” as the Reddit traders would call it, with one P/L after another showing huge losses.

Some traders posted ominous things about blowing up their crypto accounts, forced liquidations, and massive losses. Some even also posted, insinuating they were considering self-harm. I posted some examples on my blog here.

First is the fact that things can change any day in the market without notice—as I have been saying for years and explained in my comprehensive wrap-up yesterday after the market closed: The Columbus Day Massacre: My Thoughts

If you’ve spent the last decade shit-posting seasoned investors like Jim Chanos or Peter Schiff on Twitter and just can’t figure out why they can’t see things your way because you’ve always been right, now would be a good place to see if any of their skepticism or warnings about markets can make their way through your blood-brain barrier.

If you got smacked around on Friday but didn’t take a total loss, turn a shitty day into an asset by starting to tell yourself the honest truth—you don’t know everything, and none of us do—instead of whatever lie you’ve been telling yourself about how you’re going to be able to outperform forever because you happen to have caught the tail end of a nominal hyperinflationary boom that could very well end in the United States dollar dying while your ego portion of your brain was still mushy and developing, like an infant’s skull.

It’s a great weekend to ask yourself, “Am I quickly disregarding fraud warnings about a company issued by a man who teaches a class on fraud at Yale and who called Enron’s collapse ahead of time?”

Or, “Am I quick to ridicule someone’s stance on Bitcoin or gold, despite the fact they’ve been in the game for decades and have amassed enormous personal wealth and one of the best grasps of free-market economics out of anybody in finance today?”

If the answer is yes to either of these, maybe it’s time to act a little less like a hyena and a little more like an adult. Buck up. Act like you’ve been here before. Take the pain. Learn from the pain. Come back better.

After all, the stock market is an adult game with real wins and real losses.

Third, assuming that half of posts like these are real it’s stunning to see, after simply one 3% drawdown in the market—after we have done nothing but rage to all-time highs nonstop since the market plunge in April.

It is proof positive that investors have been seduced with insanely unrealistic expectations about risk and how markets work — as I wrote in February: This Next Market Crash Will Break Our Fragile Brains

This, as I have been saying for years, is a product of batshit insane monetary policy—which is set based on keeping the stock market at all-time highs, regardless of the two supposed mandates that the Fed has.

Everybody who has been in markets for a couple of decades has learned these lessons the hard way. Nobody knows more about being an arrogant, hubris-filled dickhead and getting a comeuppance multiple times more than I do. At some point, the market humbles you; you throw your hands in the air and surrender to the idea that there are people who know more than you, and that the market and its external driving factors are things that are going to be impossible to always predict.

When I was clearing out my old podcast episodes at the beginning of the year, when I decided I wasn’t going to do the podcast anymore, I left a few up for good measure—a few of my select favorites. One of them was a podcast I did with my friend Sang Lucci about blowing up your trading account, how often we’ve done it, and how it is a rite of passage along the way. Skip to about 25 minutes in when we get to it. I left it up in hopes that anybody going through the same thing we had gone through could take some comfort in listening to it.

Finally, to the extent posts about self-harm online are serious, I want to speak directly to anybody who’s having such feelings and reassure them we’ve all been there and they are not alone. They can always DM me on Twitter, shoot me a message on Substack, or contact me through other means, and I’ll try to do my best to remind them that, as Joey Knish says in Rounders, it’s not the end of the world. “From time to time, everybody goes bust.”

And to my longtime followers—what does it say that I’m writing posts urging people thinking about doing the unthinkable not to do so over one 3% drawdown?

This is exactly the type of situation I’ve been talking about for years: an unexpected move lower in markets at a time when investors are the least mentally prepared to ever handle it. Hope everybody keeps their head on a swivel and ducks and weaves their way through any continuing volatility this coming week.

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.