small windfall

[Meister]

It sounds to me that it is 20k that he can afford to loose. If so, you may want to look at leveraging your 20k. Get a futures contract, the easiest ones are 3 month foreign exchange contracts. For example a 100k contract CDN-US or US-Euro is quite powerful. Due to the volatility you don't need to hold it very long. Lets say the Canadian dollar drops from 92 back down to 90 cents you made 2k (10%) in a matter of hours or days, then you sell. Repeat.
There is nothing as powerful as that, but it can also break you in a very short time.
Obviously, your loss is limited by the 20k.

It is not quite like Roulette, because you can try to predict the currency movement. For example I think the CDN dollar is overpriced at 92, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Dewalt]

Stop trying to burst the guy's bubble. It is 20 000 he never had before and wants to do something with it.

If it were me I would take 30% of it, take some time off work, head down to Central America to someplace like Costa Rica or Panama and take 4 or 5 months off to just relax and chill out. Recharge yourself, how often do we get a chance to do that in life?

Then put the rest in the ING account so you have something to come home to. Who knows, you might find an investment opp. in Costa Rica?

 

[JohnLarue]

It sounds to me that it is 20k that he can afford to loose. If so, you may want to look at leveraging your 20k. Get a futures contract, the easiest ones are 3 month foreign exchange contracts. For example a 100k contract CDN-US or US-Euro is quite powerful. Due to the volatility you don't need to hold it very long. Lets say the Canadian dollar drops from 92 back down to 90 cents you made 2k (10%) in a matter of hours or days, then you sell. Repeat.
There is nothing as powerful as that, but it can also break you in a very short time.
Obviously, your loss is limited by the 20k.

It is not quite like Roulette, because you can try to predict the currency movement. For example I think the CDN dollar is overpriced at 92, but that's just my opinion.

While your trading strategy may be sound, however encouraging someone to enter into the futures market is kinda an irresponsible thing to do.

Futures trading can be very risky & its best to understand how risk tolerant he is before even mentioning the word futures.

Bye the way, while it is unlikely, the loss can easily exceed $20K unless the position was unleavered.
I do not think you can buy a $20K currency contract, so it would have to be geared up.

This is probably not the right sand box for the original poster to play in

 

[nottyboi]

20K is a pretty sweet windfall. If you already have a rainy day fund, then either pay down debt or invest it next time the market implodes. Ignore those that denigrate you good fortune, they are just jealous.