TLDR, a bunch of people lost their money placing a bet on a number that comes out of a complicated formula involving stock prices. The article's handwringing b

TLDR, a bunch of people lost their money placing a bet on a number that comes out of a complicated formula involving stock prices. The article's handwringing because their number might have included "novice retail investors" who didn't understand what they were buying, and only bought it because it's been a winning bet for a while. If you don't fully understand a financial or investment product, you shouldn't buy it. Financial products involving words like "leveraged" or "options" or "cash-settled futures" are quite often more like bets than investments, and you should only trade them if you fully understand the product you're trading and are willing to accept that losing the bet may mean losing all the money you put in.