Holding and Folding

From Robinhood to crypto and one-day options, high-risk trading is fine if you can afford to lose, like David Portnoy. But don’t let risk ruin you. Treat speculation like bar money—spent and gone. Trade smart, not to prosperity. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Holding and folded. Yeah, the old Kenny Rodgers song. Got
a know when to hold him and no when to
fold them. I actually wrote a column about that. I
had to be late nineteen nineties, maybe two thousand and
two thousand and one. Highlighted piece that was written by
Jason Zwig, and he talks about as a kid, he

(00:40):
was going to do something stupid. He was playing with
the firecracker and he was going to let the firecracker
go off in his hand, and at the very last
second he flicked it away, and thank god he did,
because his hand would have blown up. And he equates
this to people nowadays that are speculating heavily and Robin

(01:10):
hood in a myriad of things like one day options,
nonsensical cryptocurrencies, got David Portnoy's always out there what he's
doing at this point in time. Let me tell you something.
You're high risk trading, that's fine if you can afford

(01:32):
to lose David Portnoy loses you know, half a million
dollars on some trade or some gambling thing that he
gets involved with. Yeah, he may put out a video
and be upset about the situation, but it's not going
to change him. It's not going to change his lifestyle.

(01:53):
This is very, very important, And this gets back to
letting risk lead to ruin. Speculating is fun, it is.
I don't gamble, I don't go to casinos from time
to time. Will I take a risk with my portfolio?
Didn't talking about person my personal portfolio on something that

(02:15):
you know, might you know, might be you know, not
my usual porfolio. Not not a foundational builder. Again, speculation
what they call it spec homes. They also have spec companies, sure,
from time to time. But I'm well aware that if
the thing goes belly up or it doesn't work out,

(02:38):
no big deal. It's not gonna bother me. I'm not
gonna even think twice about it, quite frankly. And I
get a lot of younger people out there, not just
a lot, a lot of people out there thinking that
they can trade their way to prosperity, speculating on all
sorts of things. And again, don't do that. Okay, When

(02:59):
as soon as you think of speculation, that is money
that guess what it's like, bar money. You're going out
for the we you're gonna you're going out drinking with
your buddies, You're going out to eat with your friends,
You're going uh, you know, fishing, You're going to Disney,
whatever it may be, it's gone okay. Think of that
money as spent. Think of it as gone okay, and

(03:19):
then you can you can buy accordingly based upon what
you can actually afford. Don't let the uh, as wife said,
don't let the firecracker go off in your hand. Watch
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