19-year-old brother tells 22-year-old sister to invest in gold, sister demands he pay her back after she loses $1000: 'She sold everything and locked in a $1,000 loss. After she sold, the price went back up.'

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Feb 9, 2026 11:00 AM EST

He didn't tell her not to sell at a loss. 

One of the first things you learn about investing is that you shouldn't sell your investments the second they drop a little bit. You're supposed to hang onto them for long enough to be able to see them grow, and if you're someone who is not thinking in the long-term, you might not be ready to invest. Before investing, you need to get into a financial position where a $1000 emergency does not put you in the hole. If you have three to six months of cash savings, you have enough wiggle room to start investing without being forced to sell your investments when the going gets tough. 

If you're a regular Joe, you're probably just going to invest in things you think are a safe bet. If you are a self-identified trader, you're probably more willing to take on riskier investments that you believe will grow a lot in a short amount of time. I probably wouldn't take financial advice from a day trader, just because I don't have the time or energy to constantly monitor my investments. I'd rather just stick my money in a retirement account or the stock market and be done with it, because I know that I'll be in a good place if I can max out those accounts eventually. Still, some people really need financial advice because they don't even know the first steps of investing.

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  • 3D rendering close-up of a lot of shiny gold bars stacked in storage
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The older sister in this story asked her younger brother, a trader, for investment advice, and he gladly gave it. He told her something many people have been saying recently: gold is a stable investment. When she discovered that gold wasn't as stable as she'd been led to believe, she blamed her brother when she sold her gold at a loss.

  • Am I the bad guy for calling gold stable and my sister losing $1,000 because of it?

    I'm 19M and I've been trading for a few months. I'm up about 15%. My sister (22F) saw this and asked what she should do with her savings.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • I told her to look into gold because it's generally stable and safer than most investments.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • A person writing on a piece of paper next to a computer monitor
    via Jakub Żerdzicki

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • She bought some gold on Jan 22. The price went up a little, so she felt good about it and bought more on Jan 27.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • Altogether, she invested $10k. Right after that, the price dropped. She got really scared because that's a lot of money for her.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • A woman appears distressed under extreme pressure
    via Evelyn Verdín (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • On Feb 1, she sold everything and locked in a $1,000 loss. After she sold, the price went back up and is now higher than when she first bought.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • Now she wants me to pay her back the $1,000. She says I tricked her by calling gold stable when it dropped about 10% in a week.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • She says she wouldn't have invested that much if I hadn't made it sound low-risk. I told her she chose to sell when it was down, and that stable doesn't mean the price never drops.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • My mom says I'm the AH because I gave financial advice I wasn't qualified to give, and it ended up costing my sister money.
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • WasITA for calling gold stable?
    via u/throwawaytraderboy
  • Mellifluous-Squirrel ESH - Everybody's Stupid Here You, because you pointed your sister in the direction of the markets and it doesn't sound like you gave her any cautionary advice (e.g. "don't do this if you're not sure what you're doing") Your sister, because... where do we start? Your mum, because she's coddling a 22 yr old woman who should probably know better.
    via u/Mellifluous-Squirrel
  • Kitchen-Arm-3288 ESH. You suck for advising your sister to invest when clearly she doesn't understand investment enough. She sucks for making a dumb choice to buy high, sell low (the opposite of what you should do in investment) and not riding it out... then blaming you when she did her illogical/emotional reaction. You do not owe her the $1,000. It is a lesson for her. An expensive lesson - but a lesson.
    via u/Kitchen-Arm-3288
  • ludicristi NTA. She wouldn't have given you her winnings, she shouldn't expect you to pay her for her losses.
    via u/ludicristi
  • angelaelle ESH. Stop playing financial advisor. You have no idea what you're doing.
    via u/angelaelle
  • dugdanger Your sister is the AH for taking financial advice from a teenager and then doing the dumbest thing possible and selling at a loss.
    via u/dugdanger
  • insulsus37 ESH. Gold is stable except when it isn't, and you can't predict when that is. You have only been trading a short time, have no meaningful experience, and you're advising others based on what are really just your guesses. That's an AH thing to do. Your sister should not be listening to you about investing, and she is wrong to blame you for her decisions to invest and then sell at the wrong time. I guess she spent $1000 to learn that her brother has no idea what he's talking about, whic
    via u/insulsus37
  • imperatrix3000 NTA, your sister shouldn't bet money she can't afford to lose on the tip of a 19yo.
    via u/imperatrix3000
  • ManLikeMeee Your sister is an idiot. Nta.
    via u/ManLikeMeee
  • adubs117 NTA. A very popular and widespread belief. You can hardly be held accountable for that. Hopefully this will be a valuable lesson for her. A), don't panic sell, B) do your own DD.
    via u/adubs117

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brother siblings finance investment gold pay back loss sister bad advice money
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