I blew up a portfolio... Can I carry some of this forward?
TL;DR - Took my portfolio from 30k to 145k by being long cryptocurrency, long futures Q4 2017 and in the options market. Paid taxes on all of the gains last year. Proceeded to give most of my gains back with reckless trading this year, earned a lot of lessons along the way and now seeing if I can offset some of my losses this tax season.
Using a throwaway account due to sheer shame. My life is a literal finmeme. 2017 was a wild time, people were getting rich left and right and I was one of them. I was fresh off of a trading internship over my Sophomore year summer, confidence was through the roof and used my savings to trade with as much risk as I could ("I'm young, take risks" YOLO attitude etc. etc.) and made over 100k in about 5 months (Oct 2017 - Feb 2018). For the most part, I was just slightly early to the bitcoin trade, long anywhere from 4-12 contracts on the major indices at a time the market was melting up and buying naked calls on tech companies a week or two before earnings. In hindsight I give myself credit for realizing the time was ripe to lever up but (won't say regret, but I did learn) that I could've realized a lot of what I was doing was luck and taken my chips off the table earlier.
I felt like I could never lose, I wasted money on all kinds of things, $2,000 standing desk, $4,000 watch, designer clothes, bottles, etc. etc. - then volatility spiked, posted a $40k loss in a day, traded recklessly to try and make it up, almost did, lost more... Cycle repeated and Mr. Market ultimately taught me an invaluable lesson. Rather get it out of the way now than later on, I'm now in my Senior year of college and savings are looking OK again after working in IB this summer. I've been reading value investing books and kicking myself for not sitting on dry powder, or pulling some of my 100k~ gains and downpaying on a house, using a tenant to meet monthly payments, etc. etc. - I don't think I'll be touching futures or options for a few years to say the very least. Klarmam, Graham, Schloss, etc. are names and philosophies I plan on living by from here on out....
Now that this is all said, anyone know how I can write some of this off on m tax returns this year? I keep seeing the capital losses limit for tax deductions is $3,000 but wondering if there's any way I can up this... I literally lost over $100k. I'm not asking for official tax / legal advice or anything, just looking to share my story and see if anyone can point me in a general direction. Happy to keep telling my story/laugh some more, I have a main account on here that I didn't want to post on just because this is so embarrassing but hey, you live and you learn.
You trade recklessly and lost. Lesson learned that's it.
This is awesome post your account on /r/wallstreetbets you’ll be a legend
lol, I love that subreddit
short answer - yes you can carry it forward, but losses can only be used to offset gains aside from the $3k against income you mention. no way around it
glad you learned your lesson, I know a guy personally who lost 4.5x what you did (and couldn't afford to do so). misery loves company?
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