[True Story] The Complete Record of How I Survived Being on the Verge of a Margin Call with 4.5 Million Yen in Margin Positions and 1 Million Yen in Unrealized Losses, and Why I Quit Swing Trading

[To all my followers who have read my swing trading records so far]

“I hope I can make about 50,000 yen in side income through swing trading.”

I started margin trading with such a light heart, but the reality was not sweet at all.

To write the conclusion first, during the market crash in the first and second weeks of April 2025 (the Trump tariff shock), I held unrealized losses exceeding 1 million yen at their peak and was driven to the point of being on the verge of a margin call (additional collateral) and forced liquidation.

Fortunately, I was saved by the subsequent market rebound, and I was able to close out all my remaining margin positions (Sanrio), which I had continued to hold out of inertia, at a profit by the end of July 2026. However, what remained at the end was not the joy of “I’m glad I won,” but a strong sense of fatigue, thinking, “I never want to do margin buying beyond my means or unplanned averaging down ever again.”

In this article, I will honestly record, along with the numbers from that time, why I ended up holding 4.5 million yen in margin positions, what happens to a person’s mental and physical state when facing 1 million yen in unrealized losses and the verge of a margin call, and why I ultimately withdrew from reckless short-term trading and shifted to long-term investing centered on “index + high-dividend stocks.”

1. It started with “50,000 yen in pocket money” and a small success experience

At that time, I had shifted my direction from value stock investing and was managing my assets with index accumulation (mainly All Country) through the new NISA and iDeCo, and physical high-dividend stock investing as the core.

What I added to that was the plan to “earn 50,000 yen a month through swing trading and reinvest those profits to accelerate asset formation.”

At first, I only lost, but as I read over 10 books on swing trading and short-term investing and studied charts and supply and demand in my own way, I started to make a profit little by little.

To be honest, this period was a lot of fun.

However, this small success experience of “doing somewhat well” was the biggest pitfall. Overconfidence and arrogance were born, thinking, “Maybe I can keep doing this,” and I believed in my own market view rather than calmly measuring risks. Before I knew it, my positions had ballooned beyond my tolerance range.

2. The crash that hit my 4.5 million yen margin positions in the first week of April 2025

The market collapsed all at once during the Nikkei Stock Average sharp decline in the first week of April 2025.
At that time, the positions I held in margin trading were as follows.

Holding/Target | Margin Position Scale (Approx.) | Transaction Classification | Nikkei 225 Related | Approx. 2.35 million yen | Margin Buy | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | Approx. 1 million yen | Margin Buy | SBI Holdings | Approx. 800,000 yen | Margin Buy | Financial Stocks (Kyoto FG, Mitsubishi UFJ, etc.) | Approx. 400,000 yen | Margin Buy | Total approx. 4.5 million yen, all margin trading

Looking back now, it was clearly too much. Moreover, because I was using leverage, the damage when the market started to reverse expanded at a tremendous speed.

Due to the sharp decline, my valuation profit and loss fell into the negative in an instant, and unrealized losses exceeded 1 million yen at one point. Furthermore, the collateral maintenance ratio at the securities company dropped sharply, and I was driven to a situation where I was one step away from a “margin call (additional collateral)”.

3. The real fear of a “margin call” is not that your money decreases

“Isn’t a margin call just something you can deal with by depositing additional money?” you might think.
Until I actually faced it, I only perceived it as a simple rule of the system.

Generally, the process from a margin call to forced liquidation in margin trading proceeds in the following 6 steps.

1. A sharp drop in stock prices (gap downs or consecutive days of decline)

2. Rapid expansion of unrealized losses (assets are eroded faster than with cash trading due to leverage)

3. Decline in the margin maintenance ratio (generally approaching the 20%-30% line)

4. Occurrence of a margin call

5. Depositing additional funds or cutting losses on positions within the deadline (1-2 business days)

6. If no action is taken, forced liquidation (full settlement) by the brokerage firm

It sounds simple when looking at the numbers, but what I painfully realized when I actually became the person involved was the speed of steps ④ through ⑥ and the terror of being forced to terminate regardless of my own will, and above all, the fact that human judgment becomes completely paralyzed.

4. The screams of my body and the trap of prospect theory

With unrealized losses exceeding 1 million yen and in an extreme state where I thought, ‘If it drops any further tomorrow, I might face a margin call and forced liquidation,’ clear abnormalities were occurring in my body and mental state.

• Chronic stomach pain and loss of appetite

• Unexplained symptoms like hearing loss

• Being unable to concentrate on my main job at all because I was worried about stock prices and quotes even while working

• Sympathetic nervous system remaining overactive at night, making it impossible to sleep soundly

Humans are creatures who feel the pain of realizing a loss more than twice as strongly as the joy of gaining a profit (prospect theory).

Under normal circumstances, this was a situation where I should have cut my losses and lightened my positions according to the rules I had set in advance. However, once I was faced with 1 million yen in unrealized losses,

• ‘If I sell here, the loss will be finalized’

• ‘If I wait just a little longer, it should rebound’

• “If I average down, I might be able to save myself.”

Dominated by such emotions, and unable to take my eyes off the screen even though looking at the charts was terrifying, I became incapable of making a single rational decision.

“Without rules, you are swayed by emotions. However, even if you set rules, humans are such that when the market moves significantly, they become unable to follow them.”

This was the reality I was forced to face firsthand, despite having read over ten books and thinking I understood it in my head.

5. I didn’t ‘endure it,’ I just ‘happened to avoid being forced out’

To put it simply, thanks to the market rebounding afterward, I was ultimately able to close my positions at a profit.

However, I can be honest about this now: I was only able to get through this situation because my trading judgment was superior. I was only saved because the market happened to recover, and if the market had dropped even further at that time, I would have undoubtedly been forced to liquidate, realized a loss of over 1 million yen, and been kicked out of the market.

“I didn’t endure it; I just luckily survived.”

When I calmly acknowledged this fact, I realized from the bottom of my heart that trading in a way that puts my health, my main job, and my peaceful daily life with my family on the line just to make a short-term profit of several hundred thousand to a million yen is completely not worth it.

And the only thing that supported my mental state during that extreme stress was “Index Investing (All Country)” and “Physical High-Dividend Stocks” that I was steadily building in a separate account from my short-term trading.

6. My ‘Current Investment Policy’ reached after the experience of 1 million yen in unrealized losses and the final payoff of my ‘bag-holding’ (Sanrio)

In fact, because the market crash in April 2025 rebounded and I managed to escape with a profit, I couldn’t quit swing trading immediately, and in the latter half of 2025, I ended up experiencing long-term unrealized losses and bag-holding for over half a year again with margin trading in Recruit Holdings and Sanrio (8136) (*The full record until that Sanrio payoff is scheduled to be released at a later date).

After these two painful experiences, taking the opportunity of paying off all my final margin positions on July 31, 2026, I stepped away from the following types of trading.

• Completely eliminate margin buying beyond my means and unplanned averaging down

• Do not make swing trading, which wears down my nerves by sticking to daily price movements, the mainstay of my asset formation

• Do not take risks of a size that negatively impacts my life, work, or sleep

Currently, I have placed the foundation of my asset formation on two very simple pillars.

1. Foundation for increasing assets: Index accumulation (centered on All Country) via New NISA and iDeCo

2. Pillar to enrich my current life: High-dividend stocks centered on large, excellent companies (physical holdings)

Since quitting short-term trading and returning to long-term, physical-asset-centered investing, my daily life has changed dramatically.

• I can now sleep soundly at night without worrying about the market.

• Even when stock prices crash, I can remain calm, thinking, ‘This is a chance to buy more at a lower price’ or ‘I can just wait while collecting dividends.’

• I have been able to pour the energy that was being drained by investing into my main job, time with my family, and my hobbies.

Conclusion: Rather than winning big, focus on not being forced out of the market

I do not intend to deny swing trading or margin trading itself. I believe they can be powerful weapons for those who can practice strict money management, execute mechanical stop-losses, and have the right aptitude.

However, if you are like I was in the past and:

• You are having trouble with work or daily life because you are worried about unrealized losses

• You find yourself unable to stop procrastinating on cutting losses when it really matters

• You feel intense stress every day, even though you are investing to grow your money

If you are one of these people, I want to tell you that ‘you can still build wealth sufficiently without forcing yourself to continue short-term trading.’

The true purpose of investing is not to experience thrills or to double your money in the short term; I now believe it is ‘to stay in the market without being forced out, and to make your life rich and stable.’ That is what I think now.