The time is March 2022 and Ozbargain is blessed with the presence of a prestigious finance academic, with a bold prediction:
I have a first class honours degree in finance and I was a finance academic at a Sydney University, so all of the people negging me for pointing out that this is risky are financially illiterate. Possibly worse, some of you may be in denial if you are doing this sort of risky stuff in the middle of a pandemic and with global geopolitical risks at an all time high. If you don't want to listen to me - look at the VIX - if you don't understand what the VIX is telling you then you should not be considering a margin loan.
So you are probably ok to do what you like in financial markets - although tell that to the finance professors in charge of the collapsed Long Term Capital Management: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management
The 7:30 report story will write itself: "lost my house after finding a cheap margin loan on a website best known for desperados looking to save $10 on a 4 pack of Eneloops'.
2.5 years later, has the geopolitical risk and VIX led to a great crash?
If you had $100 of IVV on this day of this post, you would now have $153.
If you had had $100 and bought a total of $150 of IVV (with margin), your $100 would now be worth $179.50 (minus tax-deductible margin interest).
Well, actually this excludes dividends so you would have even more than these numbers.
2.5yr grudge about a random forum commenter?