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No, it's still easy for any asshole to get a margin or options account and lose a ton of money. Here's a recent news story: "20-Year-Old Robinhood Customer Die
by nickpinkston 6y ago
No, it's still easy for any asshole to get a margin or options account and lose a ton of money.
Here's a recent news story: "20-Year-Old Robinhood Customer Dies By Suicide After Seeing A $730,000 Negative Balance"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/17/20-year-old-robinhood-customer-dies-by-suicide-after-seeing-a-730000-negative-balance/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/17/20-y...
- georgeecollins 6y agoI didn't say it is impossible. It's just relatively rare. The point of the SEC is not prevent anyone from doing something stupid and losing a lot of money. The point is to keep lots of people from doing something stupid. And in particular, to keep lots of people from doing the same stupid thing at the same time! (1929, 2008.. )
- nickpinkston 6y agoI'm unsure how rare it is, but even if it is rare, it may be because anyone motivated enough to know what a margin/options account is and to get one may be sophisticated enough to not lose all of their money doing it.
- bjt 6y agoWorth noting that he didn't actually lose a ton of money. Bad UI just made it appear so.
- mbesto 6y agoCorrect. And there is technically an audit for options trading that says you need to understand how they work before a broker lets you use it. Honestly, options trading is not exactly easy to understand to the lay person and there are generally limits on how much you can lever in them.