QCOM Vs. AAPL settlement. How I lost the opportunity to make $50,000 on a very stupid decision
Hello Everyone,
I just needed a place to vent, because I just made the most stupid decision in my life, and I can't really justify it to myself or anyone that I know.
Back in February, I decided that QCOMs case vs AAPL was putting a lot of pressure on the QCOMs stock price and realized that the options are very cheap considering the opportunity for a favorable outcome.
I bought 75 April 18 call options with a strike price of 65 for $0.10 each, and till yesterday night I was still holding them.
I live in Australia, so I am mostly sleeping during US trading hours. Yesterday, however, I woke up at 4 am and decided to put a limit sell order of $0.06 on my options to salvage my losses given that only 2 days are remaining till expiry, and went back to sleep.
I wake up at 7 am to go to work, and see the news and realize that my options would have been worth a small fortune and the contract is being traded at $6 each which would have realized a 6000% return for me in 2 months.
Long story short, I lost the opportunity to make $50,000 just because I made a very stupid decision when I woke up at 4 AM! I feel so disgusted with myself and I dont know what to do to feel better. I got everything right but screwed up at the last minute. I feel so angry with myself and having a mental breakdown, and I needed to let someone know what happened.
How do I live myself and go on with my life after that?
Edit: Thanks for all of those who offered support and understanding of the situation. I truly understand my mistake, and I know I failed because I never really had a risk and an action plan. It was never about trading for me.
I started following QCOM back in 2016 and I knew almost everything about the lawsuits and the risks facing the company. In January and February, when the stock fell to the 50s, I started building my thesis and realized the following:
Telecom Companies started tolling 5G networks.
Phone manufacturers are introducing 5G phones in 2019.
Huwaei and Qualcomm are the global leaders in 5G modems.
Intel is far behind in 5G technology and the sole supplier for AAPL modems.
AAPL cannot really introduce a 5G phone in 2019 if they don't settle with Qualcomm early in the year.
Given the above, I was almost certain that the settlement will happen, and when I looked into options I knew the risk/return were exceptional so I decided to take a small position. Unfortunately for me, I got the timing just wrong because I haven't planned on rerolling my options and I took action at a time when I wasn't really aware of the complete consequences of selling my position. When I think about it now, I know how stupid that was, just because the option was trading at 0.03 when I put my limit order, and the only reason my order will be executed at 0.06 will be favorable news. If I analyzed that more at the time, I would have realized that putting the order is the worst possible decision.
A hard lesson for sure..