[rcar]

> “We’re too old to play those games,” Mr. Zhu said. “It’s too difficult for us. We were just looking for basic income.”

While I feel bad for the outcome these people have found themselves in, who looks at any sort of derivative as a source of "basic income"? There are very well established investment vehicles for generating safe returns, so why would someone expect that something returning some huge multiple on top of that to be a safe bet? I don't think that the ideal solution to this is to restrict access to certain investments behind something like the "accredited investor" designation, but that situations like this occur and the fact that Mr. Zhu is suing his broker over it make me understand why that designation exists.

[perl4ever]

'who looks at any sort of derivative as a source of "basic income"'

Covered calls?