Winning lotto ticket. Not.

I consider myself to be spatially aware. I have always been able to understand complex concepts, or at least un-afraid to take on a challenge of learning something new. “Think outside of the box” puzzles have been a favorite of mine since I discovered them as a kid.

This has made me an adept problem solver, and been instrumental in progressing my career as a sales trainer and finance director for car dealerships.

I have always had a fascination with the stock market. I have spent many days romancing the idea of becoming a day trader. It’s the image of Wall Street and the stock traders lifestyle of luxury; with their fancy suits, nice watches, fast cars, and mansions.

After years of dreaming, in 2015 I decided to finally initiate my dream of making money trading stocks. At this same time, my wife and I decided to have a child through a process called IVF. In 2016 we had a baby girl, who was born at 23 weeks.

It was at this same time I quit my job in spectacular fashion. As you can imagine this was quite a stressful and financially difficult turn of events. We ended up filing chapter 7 in order to preserve our home. The stock market dream had ended just as fast as it had started.

Once I had re-established my career under a new brand, I also began trading again. Because we were rebuilding our finances and credit, I was only able dedicate a very small amount of discretionary funds towards this “hobby”.

Fast-forward to 2020, while on our yearly family vacation to a cabin in Montana, another life changing financial event occurred. We won the lottery. It was only by a scratch ticket, but enough to drastically change our circumstances.

I now had the capital to enter the market in a substantial way. Let’s just say I was no longer restricted by the “pattern day trader” rules.

At this time, I did not know about the culture of day trading on social media such as Super Stonk and Wall Street bets. Coincidentally I had been purchasing options and shares in AMC, GameStop, and Blackberry, among others. I sold ALL of these positions just days before the “event” that shook the retail trading community.

I missed a MASSIVE windfall.

I immediately began watching social media. I opened accounts with Reddit, Twitter, and stock twits.

This brings us to Feb. 2021.

I have always been told to invest in companies or products you use. My wife being a diabetic, I always keep my eye open for advancements in the diabetes technology and medical treatment. When I heard about a Canadian company Meta Materials inc.(MMAX) that was looking to change the way diabetics test their blood sugars, I was in. I ultimately chose to enter 75% through Torchlight energy and 25% through MMAX. This decision was in part due to restrictions on purchasing Canadian stocks in the US and in part because I saw an opportunity with the potential of the series a preferred share being paid out to legacy Torch holders.

I was so excited about this amazing opportunity, I couldn’t help but talk about this to my friends, family, and coworkers.  Anybody that would listen, I was telling them about the chance to invest in a company that would change the future, and as a bonus, receive Series A preferred shares as placeholder for a future dividend or ownership in an oil and gas company.

Oil was basically free at this time, but I knew the land and oil reserves held value. I held through the merger in June 2021, not wanting to give up the Series A preferred shares I felt entitled to.

This is where I was force-educated in “short-n-distort” tactics. Little did I know, just a few months later that this placeholder would become tradable. I dumped thousands of dollars into failed options for Meta (MMAT) not knowing the gross amounts of manipulations occurring in the background.

Seeing that something wasn’t right, I began learning about naked short selling, dark pools, and failed to delivers (FTDs). Luckily, some of those failed options happened to be MMAT1 options that entitled the owner to not only shares in MMAT but also the series a(MMTLP).

At this time, MMTLP was not intended to be traded, so I saw this as an amazing chance to pick up a few more of these potentially valuable placeholders. When I just happened to be exercising my way “out of the money” options, MMTLP suddenly began trading.

Knowing this chance may not last, I liquidated my remaining MMAT and purchase more MMTLP. All the while, I am becoming more and more bullish on the company Meta Materials.

At this point my coworkers and family are sick of hearing about all of the companies technologies. Over the next year, I went through many ups and downs and an emotional rollercoaster of watching the company I am invested in be beat down. After cheerleading this company and investment opportunity to my friends, family, and coworkers, my name and reputation as a trader became intertwined with the success of this one trade.

Not wanting to let my own household down, I decided to learn everything I could about what was happening and why.

It was in November of 2022, as the spin out to next bridge hydrocarbons became inevitable, I finally began anticipating a “short squeeze”. My plan was to watch what happens, and sell a majority of my position at the right moment, while taking around 10% of my shares into the new company as I knew that as a non-publicly traded company, it may be years before I could realize any benefit of those shares.

It is important to note, that at this point, our (my wife and my) financial method was to put most of our household expenses on credit and every 90 days or so, cash out investments and payoff the credit. I read every filing, every comment, every correspondence twice over just to make sure I understood what to expect.

Once again I told everybody in my life to watch the fireworks to come. At this point I had procrastinated Christmas shopping so as not to remove ANY money from the investment that I had 98% of our liquid fund, savings, and cash wrapped in to.  So our cards are maxed, money is all tied up in MMTLP and I am simultaneously about to receive a 60% pay cut at work.

But it’s ok, because I will exit the trade at the right moment (Dec 9th or 12th) and everything will be okay.

As we know now, this is not what happened.

My plans were effectively U3’d. As I have only mentioned one child so far, we in fact have four kids.  Two young adult “bonus” children that just recently graduated high school, a 13-year-old future engineer, and an amazing medical miracle that is now 6.

I am now in the position of trying to figure out how to tell my wife that Christmas, our bills, our mortgage, are all in jeopardy.

I quickly liquidated the last 2% of investment not tied to MMTLP just to cover Christmas.

Santa can’t get U3’d.

Once through Christmas I took out a high interest loan to cover the credit cards and repair my credit score. What I have likely not conveyed is the emotional beating that I have endured through this. The fact that my wife has stood by my side and supported me as fiercely and un-wavering as she has, is a testimony of her strength and commitment to our marriage.

I will always look to solve problems and find solutions, and this is no exception. I am grateful to have discovered a community dedicated to fighting this perversion of our financial markets and putting a stop to these manipulations.

I certainly did not go into this thinking I would take a stance against mega powerful and rich criminals. I never thought I would be on the forefront of exposing a massive stock counterfeiting scam that has been defrauding retail investors across 100’s of securities for decades.

However, to face a crime and turn a blind eye, is to let somebody else suffer needlessly in the future. I am not going to sleep at night, or look my incredibly resilient and supportive wife in the eyes, and know I could have instigated a real and significant change and chose not to.