From Windfall to Wipeout: My Costly Lesson in Investment
Even in the age of AI, naïve knowledge and dependence on any system or tool will not give you success.
Proactive and purposeful preparation with a grasp and expertise of your enterprise is what is likely to do the trick. Learn from my mistake and run away from presumption:
My Story
Some years ago, I decided to go into online Foreign Exchange Trading. I had a quick spree of training from a guy who just stumbled back from the financial crash of 2008.
I thought I was ready and my initial investment of £2000 generated a return of over £10,000 while I was sleeping.
This was soon after I started trading, so my assumption of online trading was ‘Life is a bed of roses for traders’. After years of toils and hardships of trying to make ends meet, I thought, I had hit my ‘golden enterprise’ at last! I was about to find out - life is indeed fragile.
Within a month of my trading, my investment rose to £10,000. I kept looking, doing nothing, watching the ‘free’ money rise and rise. I did not know the art of risk management, I had no plans for ‘stop-loss’, no limits, no hedging or diversification. I did not realise trading in the Foreign Exchange is like life - it is a Yo-Yo!
Dream
One day, asleep, I dreamt of the rise and rise of my investment to over £200,000. On waking up and full of expectations, I got up and went straight to my computer, I saw red. The entire money was gone and I was in deficit!
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From a massive green of over £10,000, within a night, I spiralled down from a prince to a pauper. My email was filled with warnings from the online trading provider about the risk of going bankrupt on the platform if I did not top up my funds.
Panic
I panicked. I immediately went to my bank, withdrew £1,000 and deposited this on the platform, hoping, at least to recoup my initial investment, but instead, the fall continued down and down and down.
I remember how during those days I was scrambling all over for assistance on how I would be rescued from my loss. I was in conversation with my financial consultant on the trading platform and he said, “Can’t you see the money is lost?” and advised me to sell off.
But I held on because I was too horrified to let go, but this not letting go led me deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of loss.
Rather than admitting my fate, I continued to pump the little savings I had into the platform, I went into my bank overdraft, then I used my credit card. I did not come to my senses until I was bankrupt, both on the online platform and my bank.
Morals
The wisdom from my story:
1. Don’t confuse luck for skill, or growth for guarantee — only knowledge, discipline, and humility compound safely.
2. Quick wins without wisdom are traps in disguise.
3. If you don’t manage risk, risk will manage you.
4. Success without strategy is just gambling dressed up as opportunity.
5. The market rewards preparation, not presumption.
6. What you don’t know can bankrupt you in real life.