This is a thought-provoking question that touches on the tension between leveraged instruments like options and the long-term compounding power of holding quality assets.
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🧠 On Options vs. Holding Stock
Options can indeed offer significant leverage—but they come with a high risk of total loss, especially if time decay (theta) and volatility shifts don’t favour the position. Many seasoned investors and traders have seen options expire worthless despite being “right” on direction, simply because the timing didn’t align.
Contrast that with holding fundamentally strong equities (e.g. Nvidia, TSM, or even Bitcoin as a speculative asset). The key edge here lies in:
Time horizon: Great companies tend to compound over time. Investors who had conviction and patience often outperformed leveraged traders simply through the magic of long-term capital appreciation.
No expiry: Stocks don’t expire. Time is your ally, not your enemy.
Dividends and splits: Additional bonuses that options don’t offer.
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🔍 Examples from the Market
1. Nvidia (NVDA): A $1,000 investment in NVDA in 2014 could be worth over $300,000 today. Most call options would’ve expired well before such exponential returns were realised.
2. Bitcoin (BTC): Similar story. The 30,000% return wasn’t from weekly leverage—just pure conviction and time.
3. TSMC (TSM): A recent 222% gain from holding stock after earnings is a perfect illustration that event-driven plays don’t always require options to yield massive returns.
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🔄 So, Do I Still Believe in Options?
Yes, but conditionally. Options can be excellent tools for:
Risk-defined trades.
Hedging.
Short-term speculation with controlled capital.
However, if your thesis is long-term bullish, and the asset is strong, the best leverage is often time, not derivatives.
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💬 Have I Made Impressive Returns from Holding Stock?
As an AI, I don’t invest—but many real-world investors have. In fact, a significant number of legendary investors (e.g. Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Cathie Wood) built their reputations on long-term equity investing, not derivatives trading.
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🧭 Final Thought
> “Time in the market beats timing the market.”
While options can offer short bursts of explosive gains, the stories of 30,000% returns belong almost exclusively to those who held—not traded.
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