Akshay Sapra lost more than $350,000 Canadian dollars — roughly $250,000 — in about a week of day trading SpaceX. But he's planning to keep trading. "The highs are too good," he said (1).
The way he sees it, his errors are emotional, impulsive trades and his fix is to post every trade he makes on a stream or YouTube channel, so an audience can stop him.
Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one
A record 45% of central banks plan to grow gold reserves — and many investors are following suit. Get your free gold IRA guide from Priority Gold
A single line on your car insurance policy could be inflating your premium by up to 30% — here's what to change
Sapra was sure the stock would jump on July 7, its first day in the Nasdaq-100 (2). Index funds would have no choice but to buy the stock — billions of dollars' worth, he figured (1). So he loaded up ahead of the day — thousands of shares, plus thousands of call options.
But SpaceX fell instead, from $158.92 at the open to $149.47. The drop cost him more than CA$200,000.
Sapra, 31, went back to a software engineering job this year and lives in the Greater Toronto Area. He told his story to Business Insider in a piece published Aug. 31 and the outlet checked his brokerage statements. He's also been through a three-week gambling addiction program for his trading (1).
The money came from driving for Uber, plus whatever he could borrow from lines of credit and loans. Between 2024 and 2025, Sapra ran his earnings up to more than CA$1.7 million, mostly on Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. At his peak he traded 16 hours a day, usually lying in bed with his iPhone and he said a good day could bring in CA$15,000 while he barely lifted a finger.
Money was tight when Sapra was growing up and he said trading in his university years gave him, for the first time, the feeling that his life was in his own hands.
He used to tell himself he'd stop at CA$500,000 — enough to settle into a job and buy a house. But as the account closed in on CA$2 million, he kept finding reasons why it wasn't enough yet (1) — taxes, for one, and the cost of a house in Canada.
Read More: Vanguard reveals what's coming for U.S. stocks — and it could be bad news for this group of investors
Late in 2025, a Beyond Meat position fell apart and cost him nearly CA$200,000. Sapra said his perfectionist streak couldn't live with that — the way he did the math, he'd now have to earn an extra CA$400,000 for the loss to feel worth it. So he chased it with riskier trades and within about two weeks the entire CA$1.7 million was gone.
The SpaceX trades went the same way. He had rebuilt a stake by then — nearly CA$400,000, from betting against the bitcoin treasury firm Strategy with a mix of shorts, calls and leveraged ETFs. Days after the July 7 loss, Sapra reversed course and bought 2,200 put options and bet the stock would keep falling. But as fate would have it, those trades wiped out much of what he had left. A second round of puts later in July brought in more than CA$300,000 as SpaceX kept sliding — then he switched back to calls and within a week that money was gone too.
During his three weeks in the addiction program — no phone allowed — a crypto trading bot he'd built kept placing trades without him. Other patients warned him he'd be back in the market once he got out.
After the SpaceX losses, Sapra deleted his trading apps and for a few weeks he thought he was done for good. The stream-every-trade plan is what he came back with — though he doubts he'll ever draw enough viewers to make money from it.
He compares trading to drinking: Some people can keep it at a reasonable level and some people can't. "There's a skill involved with what I do," he said, "but it veers into gambling territory far too often."
One Reddit comment under his posts stuck with him: Drop from $300,000 to $200,000 and the $200,000 left over stops feeling like real money. That's what happened to him, Sapra said and he wants people to know how widespread the feeling is.
Though you may not be betting fortunes the way Sapra did, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the market can be a devastating financial setback — especially, the closer you are to retirement. While Supra may have had the risk tolerance — and the financial circumstances — to weather those losses, stories like his can understandably make everyday investors wonder whether trading is worth the gamble at all. The numbers suggest it isn't: Roughly 70% to 95% of active day traders lose money, according to Investopedia (3).
That's partly because trading successfully is practically a full-time job. Investors need to monitor earnings reports, economic data, interest rates, industry developments and market sentiment — all while making decisions quickly when conditions change.
For someone looking to trade on the side, keeping up with all of that can be difficult. And even if you have the time, you're still competing with professionals whose careers revolve around analyzing markets. Professional analysts have years of experience interpreting markets, managing risk and keeping emotions in check when prices swing wildly.
And finding a good investment isn't necessarily about identifying the next stock that could skyrocket. Sometimes, the better opportunity is a quality company trading below what its fundamentals suggest it's worth. The tricky part is distinguishing a temporarily undervalued business from one that's struggling for a reason.
For investors who don't have hours to spend combing through economic reports and company filings, a little professional guidance can go a long way.
Platforms like Moby offer expert research and recommendations to help you identify strong, long-term investments backed by advice from former hedge fund analysts.
Moby's team spends hundreds of hours sifting through financial news and data to provide you with stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you. Their research keeps you up-to-the-minute on market shifts and can help you reduce the guesswork behind choosing stocks and ETFs.
In four years and across almost 400 stock picks, their recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average.
Even better, Moby offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can see if the service is right for you. And if you sign up for Moby Premium you get one free top stock to get you off to a good start.
Sapra said it's difficult to imagine "saving part of my paycheck every month and investing it in the S&P 500" — not after he once ran a negative account, where he owed his broker thousands, up to CA$350,000 of borrowed money (1).
But for investors who don't have the knowledge or the stomach for aggressive trading, "boring" can be a good thing — and the difference between losing over $1 million and earning it over the long haul.
Rather than trying to identify the next big winner, sticking with a diversified index such as the S&P 500 can offer exposure to a broad collection of major U.S. companies. It's not immune to market downturns, but it avoids putting your financial future on the performance of a handful of individual stocks.
Even legendary investors like Warren Buffett advise everyday investors to put their money in an S&P 500 ETF consistently rather than picking out individual stocks.
"You do not want to ever get the impression that you can pick stocks [and that] can enable you to have an edge. It just doesn't work that way," Buffett claimed in an interview with CNBC (4).
Platforms like Acorns allow users to invest spare change from everyday purchases automatically, helping them steadily build wealth without having to think about every market move.
It works like this: All you have to do is link your cards and Acorns will round up each purchase to the nearest dollar, investing the difference — your spare change — into a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.
With Acorns, you can invest in an index ETF with as little as $5 — and, if you sign up today and set up a recurring investment, Acorns will add a $20 bonus to help you begin your investment journey.
Consistency is easier when you don't have to think about it every month. Automating your investments can help turn saving and investing from something you intend to do into something that happens in the background.
If you prefer a hands-off, tech-forward approach to building wealth, Vanguard's Digital Advisor puts the investing expertise of one of the world's largest asset managers right at your fingertips.
It takes the guesswork out of investing by building a personalized portfolio for you using Vanguard's well-known low-cost ETFs and mutual funds — then keeps things running smoothly with automatic rebalancing.
The platform also offers guidance on saving for retirement and lets you set additional goals as your life evolves.
It can even help you think through debt repayment strategies, potentially freeing up more cash to invest toward your long-term plans.
With a minimum investment of just $100, it's an easy way to get started with professionally guided investing.
For every $10,000 in an all-index portfolio, you'll pay approximately $15 to $16 per year.*
You can even test-drive the Vanguard experience with no advisory fees for the first 90 days.
*All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
Invest in assets with a strong track record
Stocks may be one of the most effective long-term wealth-building tools, but putting your entire portfolio in equities can leave you particularly exposed when markets turn south.
And with the stock market delivering strong gains despite an ongoing war, a looming inflation crisis and overspending on AI — many experts are already pointing out the disjointed market gains lately.
That's why it's essential to hedge your portfolio against these risks.
Gold has long been considered a safe-haven asset, particularly during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Unlike a stock, it isn't tied to a particular company's earnings and its value isn't directly dependent on the performance of a single economy.
The precious metal has also had a remarkable run. Gold prices have more than doubled over the past five years, outpacing the S&P 500 over the same period. Over the past year alone, gold prices have surged by nearly 27%, beating the S&P 500 index's 20% returns.
One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.
Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainty.
To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases.
If the goal is to build a portfolio that can weather different market conditions, real estate is another asset class worth considering. Unlike stocks, property values and rental income aren't always driven by the same forces moving the stock market.
But becoming a landlord comes with its own set of hurdles. A property comes with a mortgage, maintenance bills, taxes, insurance and tenants — and none of those expenses disappear just because the stock market is having a bad day.
That's where crowdfunding platforms like Arrived come in.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived lets you purchase shares of vacation and rental properties across the country. And you can get started with as little as $100.
Arrived distributes any rental income generated by properties to investors monthly, allowing you to potentially set up a passive income stream without the extra work that comes with being a landlord of your own rental property.
The best part? For a limited time, when you open an account and add $1,000 or more, Arrived will credit your account with a 1% match.
- With files from Godwin Oluponmile.
The tax breaks in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' expire after 2028. Here are 4 moves to make before the window closes
Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake. Here's what it is and 3 simple steps to fix it ASAP
Millionaires under 43 hold only 32% of their wealth in stocks. Here's where their money is actually going
Dave Ramsey says this 1 indulgent purchase stops Americans from becoming wealthy. Here's what he recommends instead
Get Warren Buffett's best investing lessons, free. Join 250,000 readers getting Moneywise's sharpest money reporting every week. Subscribe and we'll send you our guide to the ideas that built Buffett's fortune as a welcome gift.
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Business Insider (1); Stock Titan (2); Investopedia (3); CNBC (4)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.