This comment made me aware of the whole options market and leverage. I didn’t know a thing before reading it.
I made €500k by betting that the Corona virus will have more impact than the market anticipated in February 2020 and got it right. Which of course, was kinda naive and quite lucky. I totally cannot recommend to play around with options at all.
I learned my lesson already and pulled the plug. At some point I realized that I know nothing and should get back to buy and hold.
I'm not sure what you're saying about the US. If you have a capital loss, you can and must offset capital gains in the same year when computing your gross income. The nuance is this:
* Capital losses can offset an unlimited amount of capital gains, but only a total of $3,000 of other income per year.
* Unused capital losses can only be carried forward into future years. You cannot apply them to income in past years.
So if you realize a large gain in year N, then a large loss in year N+1, you still owe the full tax bill from year N. The solution is to set aside cash to pay the IRS instead of risking it all.