• frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    I’m super happy and excited that someone on Lemmy asked me! It’s buying a “call option” on SPY (which is an ETF of the S&P index - otherwise, it’s basically a way to invest in the “stock market” blindly). So when you break it down… it’s like saying "I can buy a lotto ticket that says “SPY will be > x as of y date” - If you’re not familiar with how the market works *(and I sure as hell wasn’t 2 years ago), if you buy an option, it’s a contract to buy 100 shares of a stock. If you buy 10 options, you’re basically on the hook to pay for 10x 100 shares of a stock; but here’s the kicker… when you buy options, as long as you sell your options contract before the expiration date, you don’t have to actually pay for the stock - so while your random ass gamble is becoming more and more likely; you can just sell off the profits you made to cash in before you’re shelling out $44k on stock.