Chris Camillo joins The Iced Coffee Hour to describe a volatile stretch in his trading, including a steep drawdown and a rapid rebound tied to short-dated options around Amazon earnings. He says his account fell about 40% over a couple of weeks, which he links largely to Bloom Energy and to broader forced selling he associates with leveraged positions, including liquidations he claims were occurring in South Korea.
Camillo also makes a series of market-structure allegations. He says he suspects “one or more” well-capitalised actors may be trying to disrupt his trades, and later claims that Citadel likely exploited a liquidation cascade around an investor he refers to as “Leopold”, describing it as a deliberate “big boy” trade. These assertions are not evidenced in the episode beyond Camillo’s account.
On AI, he argues investor sentiment is being driven by narratives that most market participants do not fully understand and predicts another “FUD cycle” aimed at crashing AI equities within 30 to 90 days. He also speculates that, in an extreme scenario, the US government would probably backstop major AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic, citing “too big to fail” logic and strategic competition.
Camillo offers a blunt reassessment of his own capital allocation, saying investing in roughly 160 private companies was his “biggest mistake” financially and that he would be worth far more had he remained in public markets. He closes with broader risks he associates with fast-moving AI, including lower barriers to large-scale drone use and increased systemic volatility.
Camillo says he has grown reluctant to discuss positions in detail because he believes “one or more people” with substantially more capital may be attempting to disrupt his trading. He links the concern to his long-running anti-Wall Street commentary and says the risk is higher in mid-cap and small-cap names.
Read this moment →Discussing the concentration of AI compute demand, Camillo argues that if major AI labs such as OpenAI or Anthropic were to fail, the US government would likely intervene because of knock-on effects and strategic competition. He casts this as a modern “too big to fail” dynamic tied to AI sovereignty.
Read this moment →Chris Camillo alleges forced liquidations by leveraged funds in South Korea amplified sharp moves in Bloom Energy and other AI-linked names. He argues this forced selling drove sector-wide volatility and that prices would eventually revert, though he says he could not time it.
Read this moment →Camillo recounts losing a seven-figure sum on short-dated options that expired worthless, describing it as a risk he knowingly took in pursuit of a much larger payoff. He frames the episode as part of running what he calls an “ultra high risk, ultra high reward” account.
Read this moment →Retail investor and commentator Chris Camillo describes a roughly 40% drawdown in his brokerage account over “a couple weeks”, after he says he had to withdraw a large sum for other commitments. He attributes much of the move to Bloom Energy, which he says was one of his largest positions and fell sharply over a short period.
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