August 2020…
The Nasdaq was on fire.
Tech stocks were exploding higher every single day.
Amazon… Tesla… Microsoft… you name it.
Everyone thought it was just the natural result of the pandemic accelerating digital transformation.
They were wrong.
Because behind the scenes... one of the world’s largest investment firms was quietly executing the most audacious options trade in market history.
A trade so massive it would earn them the nickname The Nasdaq Whale
Here’s what happened…
Japanese tech giant SoftBank had a theory.
They believed the market was massively undervaluing just how much COVID had accelerated tech adoption.
But instead of buying stocks directly (which would have required tens of billions and triggered disclosure requirements)... they did something far more clever.
They bought call options... lots of them.
Over $4 billion worth of long dated call options on Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia.
But here’s where it gets interesting…
Those $4 billion in options gave them exposure to between $30-50 billion worth of underlying stock.
That’s 7-12x leverage without using margin or borrowing money.
Just pure capital efficiency.
And it worked.
As SoftBank’s massive options positions moved into the money... market makers had to buy the underlying stocks to hedge their risk.
This created a feedback loop which then pushed prices higher...
Which then... made SoftBank's options even more profitable.
The Nasdaq went absolutely parabolic... shooting up more than 30% in 6 months.
The financial press called it market manipulation.
Regulators launched investigations.
But what SoftBank did was completely legal.
They simply used options the way they were designed to be used.
For capital efficiency... leverage without margin... and most importantly asymmetric risk/reward.
Now I’m not suggesting you try to move the entire Nasdaq.
But the principle behind SoftBank’s strategy is exactly what I teach with LEAPS.
Use a small amount of capital to control large positions in quality companies…
And position yourself for outsized gains while keeping your downside limited.
The difference is you’re doing it with $10,000 instead of $4 billion.
But the mechanics are identical.
The webinar is completely free…
But spots are limited because I want to keep it interactive.
And we've had unprecedented demand for this one... so there is a legitimate chance we hit the Zoom limit.
Oliver