On a side note, if you don’t have the money to make margin, should you really be gambling with these options? I mean, you already got stopped out. Maybe it is time to earn money the old fashioned way.
Ha. Maybe it will be a sign to change careers when I lose money for being wrong. I certainly don’t see a mistake like this happening ever more than once.
You also didn’t see this mistake happening once at all, yet it happened…
Anyway, I’m not saying people shouldn’t take risk. I’m saying you shouldn’t take outsized risks if you have little capital to support your decisions.
Good that you have a positive attitude. I’d say there is an additional lesson that has not been mentioned yet. You did get the trade (on paper) correct, which is why this is so egregious. But in the real world…
Finance is a “legal thievery” profession, I’m a realist and seem to be the only one who will say it. I follow a philosophy of “functional paranoia”. Flat out, everyone IS trying to take your money, and when things go wrong (2008, 2018 ETN vol shock, USG default, etc) the survivors are those who positioned themselves in ‘trust tranches’ (low-trust being safer) such that the dups get taken out first. It’s like the guy in The Big Short who looks at the contract with Goldman, and asks “what if I am right, BUT the bank defaults on the trade?”.
I don’t trust the broker, the company I’m investing in, the government, or any entity. When it goes bad (by design) they are already positioned to screw the masses, I want to position to screw them and the masses.
We finance people are a bunch of animals! 
OP, you lost 20k when you should have made money? you were long call? but since you didn’t have the money to buy 1000 tesla shares, e trade bought them with their money and pocketed the profit? Where is the 20k that you lost come from? don’t they lend you at short term and allocate you the portion?
That’s robbery man. You should defo write to CEO.
Tell him if he doesn’t make you whole, you’re gonna stick it all on twitter, write to newspapers, journals and put bad reviews everywhere online.
In my experience if you threaten to do something like that, it gives them an insentive to get their act together.
Don’t give up!
file a case with the BBB
file a complaint with state regulators/attorney general
pray
Thanks everyone for your encouraging words. I have written to the CEO. It was a short bullet point letter that outlines my issue and how he can begin implementing procedures to better serve their clients.
And to purealpha’s point - I could not agree more with you. The key to this industry is “screw them before they screw you”.
i’ve had a bad experience with one of the airlines couple years ago where my seat was given to someone else and I was moved 2 hours back all because I checked in late…The person at the desk, United rep, was very rude and disrespectful. After I got back from the trip i got a permission from our COO to email the airline’s ceo, board, their head of customer service and head of investor relations and marketing and CC our investor relations team…I sent a quick run down from my work email and sent out the email. next day i got a call from the senior vp of customer service with a $3000 offer with no limits.
Of course this is very different but if you can, email them from work email and if your title and/or your company is convincing enough they might do something drastic.
My title is "Investment Manager Support specialist" (though it will soon be changing to something very more attractive) - it translates to me having no pull lol.
BUT on another note - TSLA is breaking out again, which means it’s time to follow suit.
I sold the April $385.00 strike and bought the April $355.00 Strike (both calls). Here we go again baby. Position is only 3 contracts of each. But max profit is $2k per spread.
I don’t understand how they took 20k from your account, they should assigned you 1k shares of TSLA which would have been purchased at the strike of your options. If you could not fund the purchase, they would have margin called you and sold your shares at market value. Did TSLA tank after you were assigned?
Also, FYI for your benefit in case you weren’t aware, if you are short a call ITM you can be assigned at any time before the option expiration date.
ahhh that’s why i love options. just when they think they can stop your leverage with margin requirements, options are here to wreck their brilliant ideas! Go for broke! baby!!
E*TRADE called me back! It wasn’t the CEO though. It was some guy who sounds super high up there. Said he handles all the investor relations or corporate something something… I can’t remember.
Basically said he’s sorry and offered me free trades if I stay at E*TRADE. He assured me that E*TRADE did not exercise the options on my behalf and pocket the proceeds.
Time to move on. I’m still not one bit turned off from options trading though.
A guy who handles all the investor relations…hmmmm wrong title and wrong guy for this but anyways…so what is the verdict? They are giving you back 20k and allocate profits or just screw you but we’ll give you some free trades chump
You should really post your story to Dealbreaker, Business Insider, and all sorts of tabloid-ish finance publications, as this example really paints ETrade in a bad light. If I lost $20k like this, I would pursue vengeance on the broker with the dedication of a retiree or someone else who is grumpy and has a lot of free time.
^ Agree.
Also, you are quitting right? Please don’t say you are cucking out and staying ETrade cause some IR goon offered you free trades. Go IB if you have enough left to start an account.
This
Also “portfolio margin” has not been mentioned yet, I think?
With IBKR you need just over $100K to open a portfolio margin account (but need to make sure you don’t dip under the floor, so probably like $130K would be better). This is a more sophisticated way of calcing margin, so you don’t get screwed when you have offsetting trades and such, and it gives you a heck of a lot of leverage (like 6X vs 2X). It’s not like sane people want to go 6X, but that needs to be available for brief events (like this). I wouldn’t even consider these sorts of option trades with a “regulation T” account.
whoa whoa whoa. do not tarish the rep of dealbreaker and business insider. they have great headline threads!
https://dealbreaker.com/2018/02/last-week-in-moving-on-from-bill-gross/
more listiclessss babbbbyyyyy
http://www.businessinsider.com/money-hacksl-make-savings-robust-finances-easy-2018-2
Lost it at “cucking out”… Of all the things in life that I am, a cuck, I am not.
E*TRADE gave me a $500.00 credit if I stay. They said “If I stay”. idk if they’re going to come after me if I take it and run, but $500.00 could buy a pretty decent bottle of scotch. It’s already hit my account.