The Earnings Gamble
"When I was starting out, I was desperate to grow my account fast. I had $5,000 saved up, which at the time was more than I made in a week. Amazon was reporting earnings that week, and I convinced myself it was a sure thing. The setup looked great, and I thought if I could just double my money overnight, it would change everything.
I loaded up on Amazon earnings lotto calls, put my whole $5,000 into it, and watched the earnings report come out. Amazon actually beat expectations, and I thought I was about to cash in. But when the market opened the next day, my contracts were down 90%. I had no idea about IV crush or how options were priced after earnings β I just knew I had lost almost everything.
That moment hit hard. I sat there staring at the screen, wondering how I could have been so reckless. From that day forward, I swore I would never gamble on earnings again unless it was with a small percentage of my profits.. never my core capital. It was a painful lesson, but it forced me to stop treating trading like a lottery ticket and start approaching it like a business."