[jbjohns]

Often? What conceivable (legal) system could consistently generate such returns and not manage to capture all capital on earth eventually? The best financial vehicle ever conceived has about 9% per year over the last 50 years or so.

[rchaud]

We live in a world of wildcat brokerages and self-styled Warren Buffets on Tiktok. People who are in it largely all think they can time their exit before the Ponzi collapses.

[sgt101]

It's both sad and just that they are (almost always) wrong.

[sgt101]

There are ways to get that sort of return legally, but you need a lot of collateral and a strong stomach for risk. Basically leverage hard and invest in something risky - you multiply the return (which should be good already) but also multiply the risk.

If you know what you are doing and have luck you can make very high returns.

Mostly people don't know what they are doing though and get into big trouble.

[FabHK]

> and a strong stomach for risk.

Well, obviously. You can gamble on red in the casino and get 100% return (with a 50%+ risk of losing everything).

The point is that these scammers presented the 18% APY gambles as virtually risk free "investments".