http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=31449&seenIt=1
so sad… rip
I feel for his family. I am not heartless, but this was pathetic. If I was his son, brother, father, relative, I would despise him for doing that over money, no matter how large the amount was. “Mr. Luizzi’s death came hours after a plunge in the stock market. The S&P 500 posted its biggest gain since the 1930s on Monday before plunging the most since the crash of 1987 on Wednesday. It lost 9% to close at 907.84. The same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7.9%.” The market was up today, I think if this guy could somehow see this (from the grave), he would probably regret taking his own life.
But could he have held his position until today? Don’t these guys use insane leverage? It’s not like he can just brush it off as a long term investment (like I do when my trades go south!).
virginCFAhooker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But could he have held his position until today? > Don’t these guys use insane leverage? It’s not > like he can just brush it off as a long term > investment (like I do when my trades go south!). Still doesn’t change the moronic nature of his decision. Not to bash, I’m just saying anyoneone that ever finds themselves in a position like this needs to take a long walk outside and rethink their priorities. It’s easy to lose sight of the grander scheme of life when you’re bogged down in the stress of the markets, but when you actually step outside and look at the things you take for granted in the universe each day it puts things into perspective. Not trying to be a hippy here, just saying.
Mez and Black Swan, You guys act as if trading millions of dollars (or even tens of thousands of dollars) is like studying for the CFA exams. I bet you guys never actively traded nor suffered a huge financial loss in your life - with all the repercussions including a family and a large amount of your net worth. You guys are working under the HUGE assumption that people act rationally under extreme stress - your quick judgement of his “moronic” decision is totally irrelevant in that situation since most of trading isn’t about intelligence, or else all PhDs in the world would be billionaires. In reality, when a LOT of money is involved, it is much easier to stray than simply follow the obvious line of “risk management” and “diversification.” Knowing the theory is one thing, battling with extremely powerful emotions is another thing and is different from reading and taking notes on study session 13. It’s also easy to talk about looking at the bigger perspective when you aren’t fighting tooth and nail in the pits. This trader’s death had nothing to do with his being “moronic” as you say, Swan, IQ is probably 99th on the list in situations like this.
Anyone who kills themselves is a pu$$y in my opinion, regardless of the circumstances.
USFbulls, would you kill yourself if doing so means your family and/or friends could live? How about if someone cut off your balls? LOL
i dont think anyone on this board knows what its like to lose millions (or at least lose as much as this guy did), and this is indeed a terrible occurence. bottom line though is that this guy had a family and money should not mean more than family. especially with small kids. i would like to think that when i have kids, i would not expose myself to market risk to the point to where if i lost, i lose everything. the dow indeed had a terrible day and maybe he bet the farm on that day…and lost. this is not something to debate about too much in my mind, but i am glad i read the story. money doesnt ALWAYS buy happiness and anyone who knows a lot of wealthy people prolly know this.
Money can’t buy happiness, but the lack of money can bring severe sadness.
^ so can the lack of a father and husband…which one is worse???
Depends, LOL. What if your husband were OJ Simpson? What if your father molested you?
^ lol. now your reaching… your first point was that we dont understand what its like to lose money and maybe we would kill ourselves “in the heat of the moment”. which is actually a good point. we DONT know what its like. now you are claiming that perhaps he had it coming to him. maybe he did. in fact if he was a molester or a killer, i might feel different and less defensive about your comments. BUT, we cant assume that he was a bad guy. we shouldnt comment on his character IMHO. all we know is that this guy lost money and killed himself. a tragedy that should never occur in my opinion.
No, i didn’t imply he had it coming - I just said that as a joke.
virginCFAhooker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But could he have held his position until today? > Don’t these guys use insane leverage? It’s not > like he can just brush it off as a long term > investment (like I do when my trades go south!). you’re life is pretty much the only thing you actually own. to waste it like this is short sighted and selfish.
sublimity Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > No, i didn’t imply he had it coming - I just said > that as a joke. no prob bob! ok guys im out for the night. gonna go watch locked up abroad. best natgeo show EVER.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/18/banking-useconomy The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged “idiots” and thanking “stupid” traders for making him rich. Andrew Lahde’s $80m Los Angeles-based firm Lahde Capital Management in Los Angeles made a huge return last year by betting against subprime mortgages. Yesterday the 37-year-old told his clients that he had hated the business and had only been in it for the money. And after declaring he would no longer manage money for other people, because he had enough of his own, Lahde said that instead he intended to repair his stress-damaged health; he made it clear he would not miss the financial world. “The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking,” he wrote. “These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government,” he said. “All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.” Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse. In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money. “I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck,” he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still “glued to their Blackberries”. Lahde’s retirement came amid an implosion among the hedge fund industry - some 350 of the funds have liquidated this year, according to Hedge Fund Research. His final words of advice? “Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.”
pacmandefense, welcome to last week. 
damn. lol
But when this happens to this guy doesn’t he lose the house and everything that he has worked for will be gone? He has to sell the 2 houses, cars and declare bankruptcy. He also loses his reputation and respect in life. After this guy dies, the house still goes into bankruptcy? That means the wife and children will be bankrupt? The wife will have to take a job somewhere? All this and they lost a husand and a father 