The day before yesterday, I met an old colleague from over ten years ago. We talked about recent US stocks and market trends, and he finally told me that in 2022, he had already wiped out stocks worth dozens of millions of RMB.

These stocks were part of the incentives he received during his five years at his previous company. He initially received a batch of options (4 years ), and only a portion of the second batch vested.

The cause was using the stocks as collateral on a platform, borrowing USD to buy more stock options. During extreme market conditions, both the original stocks and the newly purchased stocks plummeted, resulting in no margin to repay and leading to liquidation.

In fact, we’ve met a few times in 2022 and 2024, but he never mentioned it until three years later when he shared this experience with me. I feel deeply unsettled for him—what if he had invested in Bitcoin? What if he had just held stablecoins to earn interest...

He’s doing okay, though. He told me that the most important thing was that during that period, his wife never complained once. And he managed to get through it. Over these years, thanks to US stocks, although he missed some opportunities to take profits, his overall portfolio has recovered a lot. The projects he persisted in starting have also gained a turnaround with the help of a benefactor, and he’s not far from overall profitability.