diff --git "a/reddit_finance_43_250k_262.txt" "b/reddit_finance_43_250k_262.txt"
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+* Landscape mode on watchlists
+
+[I've created an article of known issues](https://help.selfwealth.com.au/hc/en-au/articles/360057846251), we'll update this when they're fixed. Should be overnight, pending Apple approval.
+
+# FAQ
+
+**Are we working on faster payments into the platform?** Yes, we are. It’s not an overnight job due to our legacy systems and partnerships.
+
+**Are we going to add more US order types?** Yes, no time frames yet though.
+
+**Are we working on live pricing?** Yes, we’re planning on a beta for certain customers.
+
+**Will you implement a dark mode?** That's up to Josh. Hound him in the comments.
+
+**Will you offer options trading?** Yes, no, maybe.
+EDIT: MY ARGUMENT IS NOT THAT SWING TRADING IS NOT AS PROFITABLE/'GOOD', I'M SAYING THAT SWING TRADING HAS MORE VARIABLES YOU CANNOT CONTROL, AND MORE ROOM FOR ERROR, AND HENCE IT MAKES DAY TRADING EASIER IN COMPARISON.
+
+I choose to day trade because I have a job and I go to school, so I don't have the time to look at charts during the day. On the mornings where I have time, I'll probably be in and out in under 10-15 minutes after the market opens. My strategy is basically to trade high volume, high % change stocks in the morning, and ride the 'hype' purely using technical indicators. I don't even know what the tickers stand for- it doesn't matter. All that matters are the technicals. This strategy has profited me around 50k in 2021, and I've profited about 3k since the beginning of September (I took a long break bc of school and my internship) So obviously to me I feel like my daytrading strategy works.
+
+Here's why I don't think swing trading works in my favor:
+
+1. If you don't know what you're trading. Riding trends based on technical indicators only leaves too much room for factors changing the price overnight/over the weekend. 
+
+2. Without stop losses, you are much more prone to losing more, because you can't get out when you want to unless you're constantly checking your chart. 
+
+3. If you do know what you're trading, and you've done your research- Then you are more likely to get 'stuck' into holding and hoping. You might as well be a long term investor. The top investment companies with their analysts and computer algorithms will know more than  you probably do, if everyone thought a stock would go up, then it would've gone up already. 
+
+Obviously there are exceptions, but swing trading requires extensive research and time availability to monitor your positions. If you don't do the above, there are too many factors that could manipulate the price that you had no way of accounting for- bad things can happen overnight. Even if you do your research right, the market doesnt always listen. Isn't it easier to play purely off of the market's own decisions by daytrading?
+
+What are your thoughts? If swing trading really was easier I'd love to do that instead as I'd have more time to trade. Maybe I just don't understand the concept. Why is swing trading easier for other people?
+
+Edit: The common argument is that you actually don't need to be monitoring the market as much since you are not as concerned about small movements, but you're trying to capture larger movements throughout multiple days when you're swing trading. The only way you protect yourself with this strategy is with a stop loss, which may not even trigger all the time. Then to find stocks that will 1. not only go up, but 2. keep it's momentum strong for multiple days, you can't just rely on technicals like you can with day trading- if you do, how? Because things happen in the premarket, the aftermarket, overnight, etc. and you can't anticipate those things. There is a much much higher chance of things going wrong and a stock falling past ur stop loss when ur swing trading vs day trading. And also, your stop loss doesn't change depending on how a ticker is moving unless you manually check and do it yourself.
+I was interested to know some stats about how much people hold in their PB accounts to be in with a real chance of winning a high value prize (anything £1k - £1m).
+
+So I downloaded the high value winners info from [https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker/winners](https://www.nsandi.com/prize-checker/winners) for the past 6 months (Feb - July) which gave about 15,000 records of prize winners. I put this into Excel and added some simple functions and these are the results:
+
+​
+
+**Averages**
+
+|Min|£2|
+|:-|:-|
+|Max|£50,000|
+|Median|£48,963|
+|Mean|£38,465|
+|Mode|£50,000|
+
+​
+
+**% of high value prize winners who held up to the specified £**
+
+|£1,000|1%|
+|:-|:-|
+|£10,000|7%|
+|£20,000|16%|
+|£30,000|29%|
+|£40,000|39%|
+|£45,000|45%|
+|£49,000|50%|
+|£49,500|52%|
+|£49,999|54%|
+|£50,000|100%|
+
+​
+
+It was interesting to see that 46% of high value prize winners in this sample hold the max £50k
+
+If you own just £1 less than the limit (£49,999) then you go from being represented by 100% of prizes to  just 54%.
+
+I personally hold £30k in premium bonds, so 71% of high value prized are awarded to those that hold more than me (not interesting to you, but was for me). I felt like £30k was a lot to hold and expected this number to be higher than 29%, so this exercise has been a reality check.
+
+The person who holds just £2 won £1000 in February, after buying their PBs in April 1958 - they played the long game!
+
+Hopefully of some interest to others on here.
+Whats up cucks..
+
+​
+
+On this national day of mourning, I thought we might get a discussion going on one of the topics that comes up again and again in the daily threads. We are living through a period of fast paced interest rate hikes and that *(amongst many other things*) is playing funny buggers with our beloved pennies.
+
+​
+
+Here is some little pics I made recently, charting the interest rate decisions onto a few charts. (*Apologies if the images are shit on mobile*.)
+
+​
+
+**XJO -**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/f1cpxw11oap91.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=551f85fc70cc9e44663dd321b363a6b804afd4c2
+
+**XEC**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/k1ii5od4oap91.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=c6d41457759b8435468b59ea94546cf5a64bdbe7
+
+**XSO**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/na0jikh6oap91.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee70c125c5b766472e20a2d1bf429e526efcc413
+
+The discussion here is what impact are these rate hikes having on the stonks we love?
+
+​
+
+Enjoy your day off if you have one fucko's...
+**EDIT: I posted my first trade as a new comment below.**
+
+Hello you degenerate gamblers
+
+Welcome to week 0 of the Inaugural Rivkin Cup. Hopefully you have all saved up your jobseeker payments from the last fortnight. Thanks for all the feedback on the initial post - I think we're ready to go. /u/Crow91, I have incorporated most of your suggestions, including dropping the $1k limit. Everyone else, I don't want to hear you bitching about how it's easier to make money with money. Although larger amounts gambled will bring down proportional brokerage costs, it will also hurt the losers more and that warms my cockles. Go nuts.
+
+The final official rules are:
+
+1. The competition begins Monday 18 May. It will run for 3 months until Saturday 15 August. There will be 3 mini rounds ending on 13 June, 11 July and culminating in a 6 week final round ending on 15 August.
+2. All money must stay in the game - once it's out for a week, it's gone. Just fuckin' YOLO.
+3. All trades must be readily available to everybody. Nothing which requires margin is allowed, no US options (ASX options are ok). I was actually going to do US options, so this is tragic for me too. No one is stopping you from still using other products and you can post them in the weekly thread, but they won't be counted towards the cup.
+
+That's it.
+
+There were some comments in the last thread which showed some confusion about what is expected, so to clear some of that up:
+
+* You don't have to trade every week. You can buy BBOZ and hold until August (but don't).
+* You don't have to trade Monday 10:01am. You can buy on Friday for all I care. From next week I will do a post every Saturday arvo so people can post the previous weeks' trades and updates.
+
+For what it's worth, I'll likely be playing bank options.
+
+NB. **This post is only to clarify the rules, and let everyone know we're going ahead. Make your trades, but post them NEXT WEEK (I will post mine below, but just as an FYI). Next week is the first official reporting date.**
+
+**BONUS STORY - WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OPTIONS EXPIRE ITM?**
+
+I thought this story would amuse some of you sadistic assholes. I was holding 12 contracts of WBC $15p 14/5s as a hedge coming into last week. On Tursday, I checked the share price at about 1.30pm and it was OTM by 2%, so I figured I was fine. I checked again at 4:05pm and it was still OTM so I considered that the end of it.
+
+At 7.30am the next morning I got the following email:
+
+https://preview.redd.it/l8rhvwe1r9z41.png?width=558&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e6554326670c9571ae96797f8db9768760ccbd0
+
+So I checked the share price, and sure enough, after-hours WBC had moved down to $14.95, and my puts were now in the money. I had always wondered how this would work, as I always sell them before expiry or let them expire worthless, so I was interested to see how it would play out. I actually thought that Commsec would buy the shares at $14.95, exercise the put at $15 and give me the difference. Of course, this is not what happened at all.
+
+At 9.01am I get a call from the Commsec options desk. "Hello Mr Ratty-fish, this is some asshole from Commsec. You are short 1,200 WBC shares. You need to buy them by 2pm today."
+
+I check futures and the ASX is up. WBC opens at $15.15. The price fluctuates between $15.2 and $15.35 for a few hours, and I finally bite the bullet at $15.22.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/2m6drqdcv9z41.png?width=526&format=png&auto=webp&s=6652ec6a66d153664cdebeb3b6dfe961707f8095
+
+And that is the story of how I lost $356.86 on a $200 hedge, thanks to a fucking after-hours drop. Luckily I was only holding 12 contracts, or this could have been rough.
+Your markets are run by bots. Now your /r/Asx_bets daily threads are too.
+
+Read the [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/asx_bets/wiki/index/) people[.](https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_2hqqj5/styles/communityIcon_41pmnaqp4zn41.png?width=256&s=59bf38425fb316fdcba30365b272a5f19352f370)
+
+[Posts relating to the "Is /r/ASX\_bets about finance or effect your mental health?" etc will lead to a ban of the mods chosing. You have been warned.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ASX_Bets/comments/l0l9et/the_does_asx_bets_effect_your_finances_emotions/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) 
+
+Automoderator may provide "Guidance" for Lazy and zero effort posting.
+
+[We have an active official/unofficial discord. It's open to all discussions, stonks related and non-stonks related.](https://discord.gg/wsNDGTf5QH)
+https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/vaneck-social-sentiment-etf-target-social-media-reddit-meme-stocks-2021-2-1030056054
+
+Vaneck is creating an ETF which tracks social media buzz... So I guess this is where we come in obviously we're picking up the staples
+NvA 
+DW8
+TNT
+Brn
+Z1p
+Vul
+Lke
+
+
+What else we picking up and are you buying in?
+So after getting like 15mill (post split) shares drsed every quarter, one quarter it drops to 500k!?
+
+It doesn't make sense. What's the point? Oh retail is weak? But we drsed over 3 billion? So that can't be it. Retail just ran out of steam? Ok but like, thats too dramatic no? Retail would do it slowly. Make it look coordinated?
+
+Idk it all just smells of non-retail manipulation given how DRAMATIC the change is.
+
+Which leaves all of us with one question. Why BOTHER?????????? Ok great, you proved retail is no threat with this right? Except for one big fcking question: Why bother with us at all? Why bother creating such a narrative? To rug us? Except why even bother? Idk, it just doesn't make sense.
+
+You know what does make sense? 1 billion cash on hand and improving financials baby. Lets gooo!
+I got into an accident with Zipcar, and there was another car involved. The damage is above $1000 and I'm in CA, so I reported it to the DMV. However, DMV said I did not have a liability insurance coverage and my driving license will be suspended. Zipcar said the case will be handled by Sedgwick Claims Management Services. I reached out to them, and they said they have already paid to the other party. I also called DMV, and they said they need a "traditional" insurance company and Sedgwick didn't count. Have anyone met this issue before? How can I deal with it and cancel my suspension?
+The Kanye love, the Elon lust, the worship of billionaires and huge corporations that treat their employees like shit. This sub constantly has content to which I am diametrically opposed. 
+
+That is while we will win. This movement has people from all over the political and social spectrum. 
+
+I don't know any other movement with this kind of coverage across lines that would otherwise be staunchly drawn in the sand. 
+
+This is because the ground work has been laid by the brilliant. The foundation set by the determined and the rocket has been in production by the masses for the last two years. When it soars it'll roar across the sky. 
+
+When you make it don't become one of them, remember where you came from. Until then Hold.
+
+Edit:
+Real classy using the suicide report bot to "troll" me.
+https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/23/trump-will-raise-tariff-rates-on-chinese-goods-in-response-to-trade-war-retaliation.html
+
+Edit:
+
+>The U.S. will raise duties on $250 billion in Chinese goods to 30% from 25%, and increase tariffs on another $300 billion in products to 15% from 10%.
+Just wondering why someone would choose to trade currencies instead of stocks.  It seems to me like trading indexes you’d have a much better chance of winning because the probability skews highly towards indexes going up.  With forex it can go randomly in any direction, each pair has different correlations with commodities, you have to pay attention to random government meetings and speeches which can blow up your trade in seconds.  Unless everyone here is deeply interested by the economic conditions and policies of foreign countries, why do you choose to trade this instead of equities?
+I'm still pretty new, but I've learned the hard way to stick to my strategy. That being said, I only trade two pairs now and want to master those.
+
+To my point, I usually only need to analyze each chart for 10 mins or so each day to prepare for my next trade.
+
+  
+is that too low, too high, or just right?
+Hello,
+
+I have been claiming tax relief as a PAYE employee for years and I've found out recently that none of my colleagues have been doing it. I work in an industry where I work at temporary sites for maybe a year at a time. I claim tax relief for uniform, mileage, professional fees, etc. Every year this usually increases my personal allowance by 3k - 5k
+
+I've decided to compile a post on how to as it seems some people do not know they are entitled to this or on how to do it. I have also seen a lot of adverts online for companies doing this for you but they take a fee. I think it is a fairly straight forward process, so paying this fee is silly.
+
+[What is tax relief?](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/job-expenses-for-uniforms-work-clothing-and-tools) \-  "Tax relief reduces the amount of tax you have to pay. The amount of tax relief you get will not be the same as the amount of expenses you have claimed for. You’ll get tax relief based on the rate at which you pay tax. For example, if you can claim £60 and paid tax at a rate of 20% in that year, you’ll get tax relief of £12."
+
+**How to -**
+
+**You'll need a government gateway account, which you can sign up for** [**here**](https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account)**.**
+
+**Calculate what you can claim. The HMRC guide is** [**here**](https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees)**. I have listed a few below for examples -**
+
+* You can claim tax relief on using your vehicle for work. This excludes travelling to your permanent place of work. See more [here](https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/vehicles-you-use-for-work). Most employers will pay mileage but not that the full rate of 45p a mile (some do but not all), especially if you have been given a car allowance. Car allowance does not come into the equation when claiming tax relief. Two examples below
+
+1. You have travelled 5000 miles in one tax year for work. Your company has given you 12p per mile. You can claim tax relief up to 45p a mile.
+
+|Total Miles|Total Paid by Employer|Total Tax Relief|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|**5000 miles**|5000 miles x 12p per mile = **£600**|5000 miles x 45p per mile =£2250 - £600 = **£1650**|
+
+2) You have travelled 15,000 miles in one tax year. Your company has given you 12p per mile. You can claim tax relief of 45p per mile up to 10,000 miles and 25p mile over 10,000 miles.
+
+|Total Miles|Total Paid by Employer|Total Tax Relief|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|**15000 miles**|15000 miles x 12p per mile = **£1800**|10,000 miles x 45p per mile =£4500|
+|||5000 miles x 25p per mile = £1250|
+|||£4500 + £1250 = £5750 - £1800 =**£3950**|
+
+* Tax relief on Uniforms, work clothing and tools. The easiest way is to claim the flat rate expense decided by HMRC. This can be seen [here](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/job-expenses-for-uniforms-work-clothing-and-tools).
+* Tax relief on working from home. More information [here](https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home).
+
+**How do I claim?**
+
+Once you've worked out how much tax relief you are entitled too by using the guide above, you can claim for your tax relief.
+
+* If the total tax relief is £2500 or under, you can claim [here](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-income-tax-relief-for-your-employment-expenses-p87). Claim using the online service. You’ll need to set up a government gateway account (As mentioned above). Repeat the form for each tax year.
+* If the total tax relief is £2501 or over, you need to register for Self-Assessment. You can register [here](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-register-for-self-assessment-and-get-a-tax-return-sa1). This [link](https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return/register-if-youre-not-self-employed) explains the process of claiming via self-assessment. You will need to have more information at hand when filing self-assessment and you'll need to continue doing every year.
+
+I hope this helps at least one person. My colleagues are going to claim for the last 5 years, and going by what I've got back, they'll be due a good few thousand.
+
+If you have any questions, please ask. I'm also sure there are more experienced people on this sub that know more on the process of claiming tax relief, if you have noticed a mistake or an easier way to claim, please contribute!
+
+Thanks!
+I get it: you want Moons. It’s basically free money for shitposting. I know that even back in 2015 this sub had its fair share of memes and shitposts, but now even the daily is full of wannabe e-comedians. I know, 69 is a funny number. And yes, this is a Wendy’s. And even I choose that guy’s dead wife, but it really, *really* gets old fast.
+
+So why don’t we start by just chuckling at funny posts or even replying with ‘haha’ without upvoting them. We have the power to upvote and reward interesting discussions, well written DD and real crypto news instead of memes, monologues and more memes.
+
+Let’s welcome new investors with knowledge, information and discussions that actually improve the cryptosphere. Because in the end, we all want to moon together. 🚀🌖
+
+**Edit: will donate moons and awards to people who actually contribute to this post by engaging in the discussion.**
+
+**Edit 2: for the people giving me awards: you're missing the point. But I guess you're doing that on purpose. Please don't do that. Buy crypto instead.**
+
+**Edit 3: /u/Nikeou, I have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. You and everyone else will now stop giving me awards and that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kiss you.**
+After two emergency room visits with terrible insurance I had two bills totalling $10400. I called their billing department and explained that my insurance was covering nothing. They changed me over to "self pay" which reduced the bills by 55%. I then asked if there was a discount for paying in full instead of going on a payment plan. They both knocked off about another 25%. Both people were friendly and easy to deal with, I just had to ask the right questions. It really took me about 5 minutes. Hope this helps someone!
+Hi everyone,
+
+A few weeks ago, I posted that Chase decided to [terminate my account](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1pzd1a/chase_just_killed_my_bitcoinrelated_business/), and they never notified me as to why they would do this. However, I believed it to be Bitcoin-related.
+
+Prior to the termination, my business (BuyAHash.com) had signed a deal with Chase PaymenTech for credit card processing, as PayPal was showing some signs of being anti-Bitcoin. Through that process, I asked my contact at Chase if PaymenTech would follow suit and become problematic with us. He advised us that they wouldn't, and that the two companies were separate.
+
+Turns out, that is a lie. We just began processing credit cards on our site a few days ago. Over the weekend, we were "Flagged" because of some large purchases (ASICMiner cubes for fiat). We went through their fraud resolution process, and today, I got a notice from them stating that our account would be terminated on 12/30.
+
+Furious, I called up both the analyst at Chase that was doing the investigation, as well as the contact that brokered the agreement (because part of this "Termination process" involves Chase holding $20,000 of sales back in case of chargebacks, as part of their reserve process). 
+
+A few minutes ago, I had the analyst call me back, and (for the first time ever), gave me a very clear statement, which is as follows:
+
+**Chase has deemed any activity involving Bitcoin as high-risk, and therefore is banned from our company. This includes both selling Bitcoins, and Bitcoin related hardware.*
+
+This was the direct statement from the analyst. Anything that you may have that is involved with Chase that has ever involved Bitcoins is *not* safe. PaymenTech processes 60% of all US credit card transactions (or so they say), so if you sell anything related to BTC/BTC products, you will need to move your accounts immediately or face termination. The analyst stated that this decision was very, very recent, but is official. He said he's never dealt with this kind of termination. People may be able to fly under the radar if they haven't got flagged for anything, but I am certain that as soon as they review your account, they will terminate it as soon as its convenient for them.
+
+**TL;DR: Chase looks like its officially adopted an anti-bitcoin stance for merchant/businesses, and deemed them in a high risk category that they will refuse to do business with in the future**
+
+**Update 1:** Please note that this pertains to *business accounts/merchant processors only*. There are many people that have commented that their personal accounts are fine, despite using CoinBase. If you're a personal customer, you may not be in jeopardy, but as a business, you really should look elsewhere, as I am not the first business to have drawn the ire of Chase. 
+#Edit:
+
+Hi everyone,
+
+**The AMA has now closed** as we have to get back to helping clients getting in touch with us on the phone and online. Thank you all so very much for posting your questions. If you'd like to know more about us and how we help, please visit our website.
+
+Debt can be hard, and talking about it can be even harder. but please know that you're not alone and we're here to support you however we can. In the meantime, we wish you all the very best. In the immortal words of Bill and Ted, please continue to be 'Excellent To Eachother'. :)
+
+Best wishes,
+
+Allen and Rachel at StepChange Debt Charity
+
+ -------
+**Do you find it difficult to talk about your debt problems?**
+
+ StepChange want you to know that they have a free, online debt advice service that you can access 24 hours a day:
+
+ www.stepchange.org/start
+
+ You can put a budget together at your pace, and you can also talk it over with an advisor through online chat.
+
+ **About StepChange Debt Charity**
+
+StepChange is the largest debt charity in the UK, and over the last 26 years they’ve helped well over 5 million people with debt.
+
+They offer free debt advice that’s based on a comprehensive assessment of your situation. They also provide practical help and support for however long it’s needed.
+
+**Get your debt questions answered here!**
+
+ For the next few hours, trained advisors from StepChange Debt Charity are here and waiting to answer your debt questions. They're a friendly bunch so please don't be shy!
+
+ Unsure whether or not you need debt advice? Try the [60-second debt test](https://www.stepchange.org/debt-test.aspx) on the StepChange website. By answering a few simple questions, you’ll quickly find out if you’d benefit from free and confidential debt advice.
+
+Important: The advice provided to an individual poster is based only on the information provided by that poster. Advice on this thread is also particular to the individual who has asked for it and is likely to be specific to that person’s situation. A poster may have provided further relevant information by private message which will not appear on this thread.
+
+Important: FCA regulations mean that StepChange is unable to give full debt advice or recommend any debt solutions through this AMA. If they feel you’d help from getting a full debt advice session, they’ll mention that in the reply.
+
+*If you need free and confidential debt advice that’s specific to your situation, please use the online debt advice service listed above, or contact StepChange by telephone. [More details on the Contact Us page](https://www.stepchange.org/contact-us)* 
+
+Additionally, StepChange can’t give advice on self-employed or business debts. For more help with these, you can talk to fellow charity [Business Debtline](https://www.businessdebtline.org/)
+
+ -------
+The role of the mod initially was to tend the garden. Now, it seems to attract people who ... lack self confidence. 
+
+I created a post asking why we are unable to debate the value of linking to another post, and my own prompt for a discussion was locked, after which the mod posted a comment (a dumb one at that). i can't reply to that comment.
+
+so, bye. 
+
+I have a question for you experienced investors. Im learning about investing into real estate and this seems to be exactly where I want my money to go instead of stocks or other things. How do I get my foot in the door? Im a Dave Ramsey believer so I don't have credit cards or any credit. Im 23 and make 45k in the insurance industry. I start a promotion in July and my pay will increase to 63,500 a year. I don't have any desire for credit honestly... BUT I also believe in Grant Cardone too. He says multifamily homes is where you want to invest because of the cash flow and variety of incomes. How do I get there to owning an apartment complex for example..
+why doesn’t anyone on here ever talk about partnering? or looking for partners? 
+
+seems like i am always seeing “i have $xx,000 cash is this enough?” or “what can i do with $xx,000 cash?” etc. 
+
+i’m wondering why more people aren’t trying to connect on this thread to become partners or work on deals together. in my mind and experience 1/2 a deal is better then 0 deals…
+**Is this our 4/20 Smoking Gun?**
+
+And where are the **19,285,389 missing bananas** from the 4/13 - 4/20?
+
+​
+
+I emailed **FINRA Webmaster** today and said
+
+"I wanted to know more about your FINRA ADF data, but it appears as though ADF trading volume is not reported on either:
+
+[https://www.finra.org/finra-data/short-sale-volume-daily](https://www.finra.org/finra-data/short-sale-volume-daily)
+
+or
+
+[http://regsho.finra.org/regsho-April.html](http://regsho.finra.org/regsho-April.html)
+
+It seems strange that ADF data is not reported for any securities.  I see some of the data listed on a Bloomberg terminal, but with so much volume routed through ADF, it seems like customers and investors and regulators should be able to access that data.
+
+Please let me know how else I might be able to access the daily ADF data. Thanks,"
+
+​
+
+He replied:
+
+**"Hello, there are no broker-dealers currently using ADF as their primary means of reporting trades. Therefore, no trading volume would be expected since no one is currently using that facility to report trades. Thank you."**
+
+​
+
+[That really is strange...](https://preview.redd.it/9d6nxvaq0fu61.png?width=1179&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5367355a9b6b50bda2a1b3692f3afe28d2c8f7a)
+
+This seems to completely contradict the already questionable Bloomberg Terminal Data
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mu9a2d/190421\_gme\_bloomberg\_terminal\_information/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mu9a2d/190421_gme_bloomberg_terminal_information/)
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/muzaqy/20042021\_gme\_bloomberg\_terminal\_information/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/muzaqy/20042021_gme_bloomberg_terminal_information/)
+
+which is missing **>30%** of the total trading volume every day for the past week
+
+The Bloomberg Terminal also shows **4-5x** **more volume** is going through the **FINRA ADF** than the next highest exchange every single day for the past week (**and likely much longer**).
+
+You tell me?
+
+​
+
+**Edit**:  Thank you to u/Ravada for your daily Bloomberg Terminal Posts.  All Bloomberg data and images were taken from his daily posts.  Thanks Ravada!
+
+​
+
+**Edit 1:**  **Bloomberg Terminal Data**
+
+**4/19 Data** is missing approximately **36.8%** of 4/19 total trading volume (10,476,401).  FINRA ADF 4.4x more than EDGX.
+
+**Where are the 3,856,721 missing bananas?**
+
+[4\/19 - Where are the 3,856,721 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/dbuls04oweu61.png?width=1917&format=png&auto=webp&s=100e0f4a5977d65fa4da40a2050ad98b8992d96a)
+
+​
+
+**4/20 Data** is missing **37.5%** of 4/20 total trading volume (4,576,419).  FINRA ADF 3.4x more than EDGX.
+
+**Where are the 1,719,938 missing bananas?**
+
+[4\/20 - Where are the 1,719,938 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/m6t3n9btweu61.png?width=1914&format=png&auto=webp&s=811e18b2e71c9d43ced261a604591ad88c2ef499)
+
+​
+
+**4/16** \- FINRA ADF - 1,783,408 - missing **38.9%** (2,031,239) of total trading volume (5,214,710).  FINRA **4.4x** more than New York.
+
+[4\/16 - Where are the 2,031,239 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/63l9mvb9weu61.png?width=1916&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc2f11ed89cf5a1c3038e670ba17c43740773942)
+
+**4/15** \- FINRA ADF - 2.935,255 - missing **33.6%** (2,640,551) of total trading volume (7,856,780).  FINRA **5.3x** more than EDGX.
+
+[4\/15 - Where are the 2,640,551 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/2oaek0adweu61.png?width=1917&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1cf9d3125e6deeadd90621508897f102128b98a)
+
+**4/14** \- FINRA ADF - 8,792,903 - missing **31.4%** (6,641,200) of total trading volume (21,138,138).  FINRA **5.7x** more than EDGX.
+
+[4\/14 - Where are the 6,641,200 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/he1c78igweu61.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=4dd5c1642ae4180a37bb21f798740ca75be886c1)
+
+**4/13** \- FINRA ADF - 2,346,871 - missing **35.1%** (2,395,740) of total trading volume (6,806,868).  FINRA **4.8x** more than EDGX.
+
+[4\/13 - Where are the 2,395,740 missing bananas?](https://preview.redd.it/wm5d9igjweu61.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=e551ef184cbf1bdd4efe46a16e15edd0184edf81)
+
+**Edit 2**:  Weekly GME Data
+
+[GME Weekly Trading Data \(4\/13 - 4\/20\)](https://preview.redd.it/ae3td80tyeu61.png?width=1027&format=png&auto=webp&s=44fca1cf9a1b5222f19333f4221660ac3728975d)
+
+**Edit 3**:  Formatting
+
+**Edit 4**:  Nasdaq April GME Trading Data (for total volume discrepancies vs. Bloomberg)
+
+[https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/market-activity\/stocks\/gme\/historical](https://preview.redd.it/o9rosengifu61.png?width=684&format=png&auto=webp&s=833150a275c1a63f73b057e6860bd880742aaf79)
+
+**TLDR**:  Where are the **19,285,389 missing bananas** from 4/13 - 4/20?  What is going on with FINRA ADF?  🦍 🦧 💎 🙌 💎 🚀
+
+[https://www.finra.org/filing-reporting/alternative-display-facililty-adf](https://www.finra.org/filing-reporting/alternative-display-facililty-adf)
+
+[https://www.finra.org/contact-finra](https://www.finra.org/contact-finra)
+https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/03/investing/stocks-week-ahead-bull-market/index.html
+
+New York (CNN Business)1. Ten years gone: In March 2009, the US economy was in the midst of the Great Recession.
+
+The government had just reported that more than 650,000 jobs were lost in the prior month. The Dow and S&P 500 were each down more than 50% from their October 2007 peaks.
+
+And there seemed to be no end in sight to the doom and gloom on Wall Street and Main Street.
+My husband’s busy working and making money for me to trade with 🤪and doesn’t really understand options so I have to tell someone! I’ve been doing my DD- lots of reading and watching and flash cards( I know- dorky but it works on my ADHD Brain). Found a stock that I’m not sure why there’s no hype on because long term it’s gonna be amazing. WTI... anyway, I decided to play around with some small money just to get some good practice in. Bought a 3/19 call option with a strike of $3 for $60 last week. Sold today for $165 and put my gains back into shares. Probably could have waited longer, but I bought a few more last week, so I just wanted to see if I knew what I was doing. Just small gains but still felt good. I’m not ready for puts yet. Someone here made this YouTube playlist for options that was really helpful for me [Options ](https://youtu.be/4HMm6mBvGKE)
+
+EDIT: thank you for all the amazing advice and obviously I worded this wrong I closed a long option. I’m an idiot[pic of ticker](https://imgur.com/a/DNUySzT)
+Are they obsolete: Heavily integrated, prosperous and high paying and abstract labor jobs?  [i.e. Jobs whose output cannot be used directly by the employee in any small number of steps]  Those jobs are the ones that keep a large and populous economy working.
+
+Before industrial-revolution city jobs, everyone had inherited, ownership-based and apprenticeship-derived work.  Complex jobs were few and could be easily limited/controlled by guilds.  Everything else was doable with a few nearly-unspecialized skills everyone had.
+
+As the huge revolution's thirst for workers is slacking, the only areas apparently expanding in labor are low-low-wages for some and moderate-to-high technocrat wages spread over the earth.  Some are jobs that are highly simplified to support mechanized or derived forms of work (farms, cleaning, transportation, construction).  On the other side are a dwindling number (only one designer needed per million copies) of high-education jobs that are continuously being spread to all countries that can teach.  
+
+[ Luxury/service work makes up the rest but those jobs only exist when lower wage people help a reasonably large number of higher wage people.  If the number in luxury dwindles.. they mostly disappear. ]
+
+Given "Baumol's Cost Disease" driving up non-automated costs and the endless emphasis on supply-side economics, what is left of first world demand if their workers are, in majority of numbers, useless?
+
+So, in essence, is most of the 'industrial/informatoin revolution' productivity going to go unused until it becomes nearly free or fed with free energy?   Will wages exist somewhere to benefit from the factory's outputs?
+
+http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease
+I've been holding for a while now at $367, I don't remember the last time I saw green. I use to shout for help, but I have lost my voice.  Have you all forgotten me?  I'm holding and holding, but it's getting colder every day. The news is saying its a losing battle, its been nothing but dips.  Why do the lil guys always lose in the end? Please don't let them win this time. I said I would hold until the end, and I will, I'm just afraid I might die here alone :(
+
+Edit: I'm 21, and work part time in a shop. I'm on a minus in my bank account, I've sold all my other positions and have put everything I managed to scrape together the last 2 years, into GME. I wish I could buy more, but I don't have anything else.
+**TL;DR:**
+
+* **SHOS, or Sears Hometown & Outdoors Stores, spun off from Sears in 2012. It had done strong, consistent numbers in 2016 and 2017, making nearly 72+% of all its revenue from its appliances' line including Sears-brand Kenmore.**
+* **Despite strong sales for Kenmore appliances, parent company/Sears CEO Eddie Lampert did barely anything to help out SHOS or Kenmore's appliance line. On the other hand, in 2017, Lampert decided to allow Jeff Bezos' Amazon to be the ONLY non-Sears company to sell Kenmore. Those appliances were then allowed to be Alexa-compliant. (This all may perhaps very well be one of the first direct/indirect links to the infamous "Busting out the Competition" DD).**
+* **In 2018, SHOS encountered a crazy amount of short interest, even more so than Sears. At one point, it would have taken 146 days to cover all the shorted shares, and had 1.5 million FTDs shortly before delisting.**
+* **This may tie into a famous "Taken" scene where the parent (company) watches the bad guys "kidnap the child". SHOS' story is very very similar to GameStop's Cool Holdings/Simply Mac business, a related GME company that was potentially shorted even more than** **GME. BedBath's BuyBuyBaby may have encountered a similar "kidnap the child" scenario, where BedBath's liquidation meant grabbing Baby's offerings at a steal.**
+
+For the culture: [https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/taken-speech-liam-neeson-movie-anniversary](https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/taken-speech-liam-neeson-movie-anniversary)
+
+EDIT 1: Note that this is a partial repost of another recent DD I dropped, with some added info given the BBBY info that's been coming out about RC**MODS: lmk if want me to delete the old post, and sorry to any commenters for your comments on that post!**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/i5pzkbwnx8m81.png?width=807&format=png&auto=webp&s=794da8617d2a11be7148dca0597f8c9754cde885
+
+**Sections**
+
+**0. Preface: Taken**
+
+1. **“What’s an Exit Strategy?” Ask Eddie Lampert…**
+2. **The Story of SHOS**
+3. **Burn the Furniture**
+4. **I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing**
+5. **Alexa, say “Go Fuck Yourself SHOS”**
+6. **146 Days**
+7. **Down for the Count**
+8. **Collateral Damage: Revisiting the Story of GME's Cool Holdings**
+9. **Kidnap the Child**
+
+# 0. Preface
+
+In 2009, the film industry and movie fans worldwide jizzed their collective pants over a new film that had come out. One which, in its wake, led to several sequels and billions of memes echoing every word and pregnant pause (slightly edited for the purposes of our story):
+
+​
+
+>*I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want.*  
+>  
+>*If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills.*  
+>  
+>*Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.*  
+>  
+>*If you let my \[child\] go now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will \[end\] you."*
+
+​
+
+Apes can be a very varied bunch, delving into everything from oil construction to retail to body language. And given all our own talents, we may, of course, be fans of film.
+
+But we're not here as much as to talk about movies, as we are to talk about something that may be relevant to the past week: the story of a parent company and its "child".
+
+# 1. “What’s an Exit Strategy?” Ask Eddie Lampert…
+
+Back in 2014, former Goldman Sachs VP Robin Lewis pushed a particular idea on their blog: why shouldn’t Amazon acquire Sears?
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/3xhjdloox8m81.png?width=1151&format=png&auto=webp&s=0124b304494eff8a2e3b29572075c7da56cf073d
+
+**According to him, Jeff “Get Big Fast” Bezos would have acquired 2400 retail stores (or rather the buildings themselves) in an acquisition of those 1300 Sears & 1100 Kmart storefronts.** These might have allowed for convenience for pickups & returns, as well as match how Walmart’s 2400 stores often doubled as distribution stores.
+
+The commercial real estate gimme would have been huge for Amazon. And the sale would have been music to Eddie Lampert, whom had been drilling Sears straight into the fucking ground over the past few years and watched the market cap of the company diminish.
+
+​
+
+[not at fucking all](https://preview.redd.it/ybwc1rzpx8m81.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d4b5c94879dec8c0fec67bed73a494aad61987f)
+
+**Bezos would have gotten cheap buildings without having to set up and construct new ones or sign expensive leases:**
+
+​
+
+>“**What Eddie gets in such a sale is a potentially profitable exit strategy that many analysts, myself included, believe he is pursuing.**  
+>  
+>In fact, in several of my past articles I have opined that Lampert was, indeed, managing the business into liquidation. And regarding the real estate assets, Lampert has been methodically selling, leasing (partial or in total), and/or closing Sears and Kmart locations. Indeed, he indicated not too long ago that Sears Holdings was considering shuttering its entire fleet of Kmart stores. **So if he is seeking an exit, a far less painful and certainly more profitable option would be a sale to Amazon.”**
+
+​
+
+In the wake of that carrot-and-stick for Sears’ shameful captain, the meat and potatoes might have been a particular means to an end as well for that potential exit strategy in the form of one offshoot of Sears Holdings\*\*. That offshoot was known as SHOS.\*\*
+
+# 2. The Story of SHOS
+
+SHOS, or Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, spun off from Sears back in 2012.
+
+Now Sears was an absolutely huge retailer back in the day in the American landscape; **if you recall, one that was once worth nearly 1% of the entire American economy.**
+
+​
+
+[\\"locally owned and operated\\"...sigh.](https://preview.redd.it/1wbk4ihsx8m81.png?width=350&format=png&auto=webp&s=a06a287a196fc2dee092081384990fb2bf640ea8)
+
+For its specificity, SHOS focused on home appliances, as well as outdoor equipment like hardware, lawn & gardening tools. Unlike Sears, SHOS stores were much smaller and split into 2 parts: (1) Sears Hometown Stores & (2) Sears Outlet Stores.
+
+​
+
+1. Sears Hometown franchises sat at about 8500 square feet vs. 140,000 square feet for larger stores. **They accounted for 70% of SHOS revenue, and usually serviced smaller markets that couldn’t fit a giant Sears.**
+2. Sears Outlet franchises accounted for 30% of SHOS revenue, and apparently had a nice handle-hold on the market according to one Seeking Alpha blogger:“...the Outlet Stores have become the de facto clearinghouse for the entire U.S. appliance industry's bruised, damaged, returned, reconditioned, overstocked, and "nearly new" appliances, and are estimated to possess over 2/3 market share, domestically, of that business!
+
+​
+
+Eighty percent of the Outlet Stores overall sales consist of appliances, 75% of appliance sales represent "as is" appliances, and only 30% of total sales are sourced from Sears Holdings.”
+
+​
+
+​
+
+# 3. Burn the Furniture
+
+Remember Goldman’s Lewis? He floated one appeal to Bezos above all else in the appeal of Sears’ inventory: appliances.
+
+​
+
+>“**While Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools, and DieHard batteries have been placed into another entity and charge Sears royalties as a licensee, I’m sure Amazon would insist they come with the deal. And, those are iconic brands that can be re-energized.**  
+>  
+>The e-commerce business, which Lampert invested most heavily in and strategically focused on for future growth, while only accounting for about 3% of the total business, **could certainly be leveraged when plugged into Amazon’s model.”**
+
+​
+
+**And Lewis was right. Even in our story of SHOS, one thing above anything else anchored its tale: its appliances inventory.**
+
+​
+
+[ A report on SHOS by a YT channel called Real Deep Value Investing. 41 views. Made me think of someone we all know obv ](https://preview.redd.it/wfo62v4vx8m81.png?width=953&format=png&auto=webp&s=608074ba41a06f9fbadac677c7294675d6b72adf)
+
+**In 2016 AND 2017, nearly 72-73% of its revenue distribution was JUST appliances! In fact, its improving outlook through that time let it ink direct deals with appliance bigs like Whirlpool, GE, Samsung, and Husqvarna.** It was also known for carrying its Sears name-brand Kenmore appliances (half of Sears’ total appliance sales in 2016).
+
+​
+
+**SHOS had big balls to swing around: by 2017, SHOS was the ONLY retailer to contain ALL of the top 10 major appliance brands under one roof.** Despite its store square footage, SHOS wasn’t no small fry.
+
+​
+
+All of this news tons of–yes–”deep value” investors into a frenzy. At one point, the stock was trading at $2. **Investors flipped shit wondering why, when “book value” based on its appliances alone should have put the stock much higher: $9 was a common number offered, nearly 4x as much.**
+
+​
+
+[\\"burn the furniture...heat the house...\\"](https://preview.redd.it/hs5d9euxx8m81.png?width=965&format=png&auto=webp&s=ce198b1668629da8a6818511452de17db3403a85)
+
+Another thing that made it a little bit different than the big Sears stores which anchored malls was its square footage\*\*: 80% of its stores were franchised or owner-owned (no different than a McDonald’s for example).\*\*
+
+​
+
+SHOS supplies the goods to each franchisee, SHOS gets paid commission by the owner after a sale, and–on the other hand–the owner is on the hook for most of the real estate and operating risk. Not the parent company.
+
+​
+
+And while store closings were beginning to show up around 2016 & 2017, many knew that its stock price should have been truly buoyed above all else by the absolute weight of its inventory:
+
+​
+
+>“...2/3 of net current assets or less being a measure of extraordinary "deep value"). In the case of SHOS, with roughly $160 million in net current assets, **the company is selling at just over 25% of net current assets, an unheard of valuation that provides a truly astonishing margin of safety.**  
+>  
+>What is even more incredible is that the vast majority of those current assets ($355 million) are represented in inventories, and over 70% of those inventories are high dollar value appliances. Since the appliances are carried on the company's books at cost,  
+>  
+>**it would be likely, in any potential liquidation of the company, that SHOS would be able to realize proceeds of upwards of 90% of the carrying value of its inventory, as suggested by recent store closures…”**
+
+​
+
+[IYKYK](https://preview.redd.it/yjtyde7zx8m81.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&s=87da092c4f9c5996efe8689e61db300086f2a3ea)
+
+**Yes, you heard that right. If it literally “burned the furniture” and its stock down overnight, a liquidation would earn it essentially 90% of its worth.**
+
+It was info like that which made deep value investors cream their corn.
+
+Investors were more than willing to not just like, but support the stock. However, the parent company, did not share investors’ enthusiasm. At least in the ways that mattered.
+
+# 4. I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing
+
+SHOS found itself hamstrung by Eddie Lampert’s Sears more than once through its dying days.
+
+Most notably, despite Kenmore’s high sales in 2016, it wasn’t getting much support from the parent company. **For one, Sears Holdings was NOT promoting its own brand of Kenmore appliances and NOT giving it any subsidy.**
+
+​
+
+[Is SHOS gonna have to choke a bitch?](https://preview.redd.it/9vwy86a0y8m81.png?width=485&format=png&auto=webp&s=3736d729c1073a842e8a3a9175b5aa7d9ec64493)
+
+**As a result, this meant that SHOS stores had to LOWER prices for Sears-Kenmore brand shit across the board to compete.** This meant someone walking into a Sears Outlet store might see a new Samsung washer vs. a used Kenmore brand one. Usually, you might have even had people more willing to dig into a used/out-of-box or floor model appliance since Kenmore was roundly considered by many analysts to be “the shit”  (my words, not theirs).
+
+​
+
+**But despite Kenmore having BETTER sales and arguably better brand recognition at the time, it had to lower its prices sharply to compete without parent company help. This would all slowly eat into sales for the entire firm.**
+
+​
+
+In this case, it’s easy to argue that Eddie Lampert shot Kenmore sales in the dick by failing to push one of its biggest movers. **We also notice how little Lampert helped SHOS with what happened with Whirlpool, one of the biggest appliance suppliers to SHOS.**
+
+​
+
+[like fucking clockwork Eddie](https://preview.redd.it/k0zyl6j1y8m81.png?width=376&format=png&auto=webp&s=3551ba89dafd3f8f68dce5b8961c2e423f92dfd0)
+
+**Whirlpool had actually had deals ongoing with Sears Holdings (think Sears’ parent company and the giant anchor stores). However, since it felt that just like Kenmore, Eddie Lampert was effectively shooting it in the dick, SHOS inked an INDEPENDENT supply arrangement with Whirlpool:**
+
+​
+
+>“**This is a testament to the financial strength of the SHOS balance sheet, and another reminder to skeptics that Sears Hometown and Sears Holdings may have similar sounding names, but they are NOT the same company.”**
+
+​
+
+**Now this is frankly fucking insane, that Whirlpool told the parent company to fuck off and asked instead to deal with the smaller but baller pal instead.**
+
+​
+
+[from the article \\"Who Dumped Who? Sears or Whirlpool?\\"](https://preview.redd.it/hzjm65w2y8m81.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=17f82102913a8f33c90d7a97264dea2c36e1ca38)
+
+**But these deals might have meant gold to their bottom line: SHOS’ 2016 10-K said that operating independently of SHLD might have meant lower costs as they now sourced those products independently. (Remember, this is what helped make it the only retailer to own the top 10 of all appliances under its own roof, even more than its own parent company**!) It even received a $40 million loan (facility) from Gordon Brothers to help support this move for these independent deals with Whirlpool and others.
+
+​
+
+And this was apart from its continued pushes to innovate itself, like lease-to-own moves for appliances (think Rent-A-Center), leveraging a direct purchase agreement with Ashley Furniture and noticing a sizeable increase in sales once it started rebranding certain stores as “America’s Appliance Experts”. **It wasn’t just pissing in the wind, SHOS noticed its appliances, brand name and quality MATTERED.**
+
+​
+
+​
+
+# 5. Alexa, say “Go Fuck Yourself SHOS”
+
+Sears’ Kenmore brand–despite its being hamstrung under the SHOS umbrella–had exclusivity in who could just sell its appliances.
+
+​
+
+That list included the following tickers/companies:
+
+1. Sears Holdings (SHLD)
+2. Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores (SHOS)
+3. **Amazon (AMZN)**
+
+Wait WHAT? What did you just say?
+
+​
+
+Yes. Amazon. **Jeff Bezos’ pet project of Amazon–after his pet projects of fucking Americans through hedge fund D.E. Shaw but before the pet project of sending steel dildos into space–was allowed to start selling Kenmore appliances back on Amazon .com in a year when SHOS was knocking it out of the park with 73% of all sales being appliance sales, and Kenmore alone being HALF of that.**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/3dt2pzn4y8m81.png?width=1319&format=png&auto=webp&s=3996adbd3701c9065a47049b5a4696a043d18253
+
+**So Lampert, who WASN’T helping his own offshoot SHOS with their Kenmore brand, decided to suck the dick of Wish-brand Lex Luthor?**
+
+​
+
+**Its appeal wasn’t just dedicated to bolstering Amazon’s digital presence either. It was looking for some sYnErGy in the shape of an object that Amazon was pushing into households more than any other: Alexa.**
+
+​
+
+>**The latest deal also allows owners of Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant to control digitally connected Kenmore appliances. That aspect was particularly appealing to Amazon, Amobi said.**  
+>  
+>"This is another way for them to advance the penetration of that technology," he said. "This allows you to be able to activate your washing machine with voice control. It sounds quite appealing in some respects."
+
+​
+
+![img](l5qabvv5y8m81 "Got it! Deep fucking integration help for Bezos, but go fuck yourself to your own company. Thanks Eddie!
+")
+
+**If we revisit our "Taken" monologue, we come to a stirring crossroads. Yes, there may very well be parent companies (Just like grizzled Liam Neesen-esque parents) willing to do everything to get their child back from the claws of bad actors.**
+
+​
+
+**But what happens, when the parent company simply doesn't care? Or even worse, tells the bad actors where their child is hiding?**
+
+Despite these changes in the Kenmore brand and the lack of help from Lampert, investors in SHOS waved worries about these developments away. They felt SHOS as a company truly mattered and its appliance’ inventory truly mattered. It could stand on its own 2 feet.
+
+But as SHOS investors diamond-handed their shares, they saw something else that far too many GME investors were familiar with.
+
+# 6. 146 Days
+
+While Sears’ SHLD stock was tanking faster and faster into 2017 after a stellar year, investors saw some weird shit happen.
+
+​
+
+**Eddie Lampert started buying SHOS stock in the open market. On Dec. 2017, in that single month he bought up 220K shares himself on the open stock market alongside retail investors like you. This was 1/30th of the float!**
+
+​
+
+[ Comment on Lampert from apparent Sears intern back in the day ](https://preview.redd.it/0ezv31k6y8m81.png?width=1087&format=png&auto=webp&s=a41e5c1cb40ec570d214743efe8f8844fd212402)
+
+Other funds, including Nantahala Capital Management (\~10% ownership, largest institutional shareholder), Chou Management, Royce & Associates, & Renaissance Technologies bought more or held during this time. Which all lead to a crazyyyy runaway effect.
+
+​
+
+Let’s compare some fuckery shall we? On June 4th, 2013, Sears’ Hometown & Outlet Stores (SHOS) nearly hit an all-time high price of \~$55. It had been riding high alongside Sears as a whole. Around that day, SHOS had \~2600 fails to delivers, or shares that had not been delivered.
+
+​
+
+During March 2018, it hit a small short squeeze while trading a $2 per share, which many SHOS investors who saw some deep ahem, value in the stock were ecstatic over. **And why was that?**
+
+​
+
+>**“According to Nasdaq, short interest in SHOS soared over 50%,** from 2.05 million shares at October 13, 2017, to 3.27 million shares at November 30. (It remained at 3.2 million shares at 2/28/18.)  
+>  
+>**Apparently, the "hard to borrow" status of Sears Holdings has carried over to SHOS, causing some to mistakenly liken SHOS to SHLD, and blindly shorting it as a proxy for SHLD.**  
+>  
+>**Indeed, SHOS may be setting itself up for the mother of all short squeezes. At 2/28/18, SHOS had a short ratio of 23%, and an astonishing days-to-cover ratio of 146...one of the highest days-to-cover ratios on the entire Nasdaq stock market! This compares to the SHLD figure of 18.5%, and a mere 9 days-to-cover.**  
+>  
+>If you factor in the fact that Eddie Lampert owns nearly 60% of the stock, and that 15% of the rest of the company is "locked up" in the hands of deep value investors that will likely not sell, without a significant price rise\*\*, the "truly available float" for shorting is probably only 25% of the outstanding shares, or 5.7 million shares. (This makes the short interest, as a percent of the adjusted float, sky high, and subject to a squeeze at any time!)”\*\*
+
+​
+
+**Yes, here too motherfuckers. SHOS at one point was so damn shorted, it would have taken fucking 146 days to cover!**
+
+And the fun literally did not stop there. Up until the stock’s very last moments.
+
+# 7. Down for the Count
+
+In Oct. 2018, Sears’ own SHLD stock suffered a fate known to many heavily shorted stocks: it got delisted. I talked about this in another post:
+
+​
+
+>**The timing was insane too. Remember how Q4 is always big for GME? Many were left going wtf at Sears filing for bankruptcy protection and closing \~150 stores a week before delisting, when there was a chance they could have held on longer.**  
+>  
+>Why? **Like ALL retailers, they usually make their most profits during Q4 and the Christmas season, big for all retailers whether GameStop or Sears.**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/7ur5rks9y8m81.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=f08473ca21e686c8445c52e1706ae8970ad1d408
+
+SHOS, unfortunately, eventually joined it.
+
+Nearly 6 years later after SHOS’ all-time high in 2013…on August 28th, 2019, SHOS hit a price of \~$3.50. **On that day it hit 1.53 MILLION fails to deliver.** Two months later, the company was delisted at a similar price of $3.40.
+
+​
+
+[ Couldn't squeeze the whole chart well enough but you se the spike right before delisting ](https://preview.redd.it/hy3163oay8m81.png?width=1265&format=png&auto=webp&s=f76e75d897ce8a248d41f6fdc5d40a297cd4afe1)
+
+To give you an idea of how insane this number of FTDs, remember: GME hit 3.2 million FTDs in Oct. 2020 at a float of about \~65 million shares (equivalent proportion to 5% of all shares available to be purchased as FTDs).
+
+​
+
+**SHOS had issued shares of \~23 million (nearly 1/3rd of GME's) and had anywhere from 5 to 10 million shares in the float depending on who you asked! An utterly insane number and this may very well be the highest days to cover number I've seen, surpassing Tuesday Morning's 92 days to cover I found out about as well here:**
+
+​
+
+[Tuesday Morning at one point was shorted to the point woulda taken 92 days to cover](https://preview.redd.it/afyhbgvby8m81.png?width=663&format=png&auto=webp&s=e35e938847e1ce56d44f8fad3bc92c7757011d33)
+
+Despite all this fuckery, we saw how the story of Sears had petered out. Just like Sears had gone bankrupt, only a few months after Memento S.A. had called out the heavy naked shorting on the stock back in 2017, SHOS joined its parent company.
+
+​
+
+In the wake of its falling stock prices and just a few months before it got delisted, law firm Wolf Popper decided to step in as they saw that maybe Sears CEO Eddie Lampert was trying to fuck the smaller company arm:
+
+​
+
+>“Wolf Popper LLP is investigating potential claims on behalf of investors in Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHOS), concerning the proposed going private transaction of Sears Hometown by Edward Lampert, Sears Hometown's majority shareholder, through his hedge fund ESL Investments, Inc.  According to Carl Stine, a partner at Wolf Popper LLP, "Edward Lampert currently owns almost 60% of Sears Hometown's outstanding shares and his $2.25 per share offer looks like an attempt to steal the company with a low-ball bid."
+
+​
+
+As far as I have been able to find, nothing has yet come out of Wolf Popper's look into SHOS and Lampert's potential attempt to get the company at a steal.
+
+**It all comes to bear, like a game of "Clue" (or pick your "whodunit" movie): regardless of the hedge funds or market makers that may have also been involved, whom might have had a bigger hand in their fallout? Eddie Lampert, looking to get it for a steal? Or Jeff Bezos, looking to take out the biggest competition for one of the best selling appliance lines in the country?**
+
+**Or, frankly, why not both?**
+
+# 8. Collateral Damage: Revisiting the Story of Cool Holdings
+
+While looking up the story of SHOS, I noticed that it echoed a lot of what I saw in another company I studied in my “Spectator Mode” DD on how stocks are delisted.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/3hb4iupey8m81.png?width=660&format=png&auto=webp&s=355df0c268b2839b20a69db67b64a187d64754d8
+
+I talked about how in Feb. 2020, GME had gone through some weird turbulence through its smaller associated stock to GME: Cool Holdings, which operated as a popular Apple goods reseller and bought out GME's Simply Mac business:
+
+​
+
+>In Feb. 2020, Moody’s had downgraded GME’s debt, and Cool Holdings, which was buying GameStop’s Simply Mac business, had missed its first installment payment to GameStop. GME, on its own ropes and in need of help, demanded that Cool Holdings pay back the total of $8 million it owed to it immediately.  
+>  
+>We haven’t seen much of Cool Holdings in recent posts on Superstonk surprisingly. Despite being one of the largest Apple Premium partners back in the day, it also had a run of unfortunateness.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/kf3tifefy8m81.png?width=1142&format=png&auto=webp&s=a51bcf7e946b4d3f1e3c51b1860f45503052d7a0
+
+>Cool Holdings got delisted itself just a few mere months prior, in Nov. 2019 by NASDAQ. This helped lead to that Motley Fool article only a few months later worrying for GME. Later on, Cool Holdings changed its name to Simply, Inc. and now–no lie–trades under the ticker SIMP. Its new gamer tag/CUSIP is 82901A105.) And in the case of CUSIP, which had a float of about 56 million or so shares around the time of delisting, it had a single FTD spike of nearly 1.3 million just WEEKS before its first payment to GME was due\*\*. (For comparison, GME had a \~1.7 million FTD spike around the same time, with its biggest spike being 3.5 million but during the sneeze. 1.3 million FTDs for a float of 56 million is BIG.)
+
+Cool Holdings made me think of SHOS and vice versa. Both were not–to some degree–the parent companies. But were smaller offshoots (or related offshoots) that were shorted with even more FTDs relative to their floats.
+
+It made me think that not only is a game plan for bad actors like big banks, prime brokers, hedge funds, market makers like Citadel & Virtu, shitty CEO & board like Eddie Lampert and Jim Bell, to drive down and naked short the stock of a company like Sears AND GME. But its also worth it to probably short down these offshoots EVEN MORE in companies like SHOS for Sears, or Cool Holdings for GME.
+
+# 9. Kidnap the Child
+
+When I first heard about RC's acquisition of 10% of BBBY (shoutout to u/ammoprofit on that!), I like many of you, lost my collective shit. **In fact, I found out about the buy-in WHILE I was finishing wrapping up this post;** I decided not to add anything about BBBY then but know that mighta been a mistake now.
+
+For just like the Sears & SHOS, or GME & Cool Holdings, the story of BBBY and one of its very own offshoots might be central to our storyline today.
+
+buybuyBaby was founded by brothers Richard & Jeffrey Feinstein back in 1996. It was eventually acquired in 2007 by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2007. **And for years, it only had 1 real big retail competitor: Babies 'R Us, owned by Toys' R Us who eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2018 around the same year that Sears went under (is this all starting to sound familiar?)**
+
+\*\*\*\*
+
+​
+
+​
+
+Now Bed Bath hadn't just acquired buybuyBaby during its run. From 2002-2017, it had also acquired Harmon Face Values, The Christmas Tree Shops, Cost Plus World Market, One Kings Lane, and [Personalizationmall.com](https://Personalizationmall.com).
+
+​
+
+>The previous leaders of Bed Bath never adequately articulated why these acquisitions  were good for Bed Bath, and never provided information about the financial performance of the individual brands after they were acquired. **That may make it easy for the new leaders to sell the acquired chains off quickly, without needing to offer an explanation. And potential buyers are already making offers...**
+
+**In Oct. 2019,** **Placer. ai** **found that 4 of those acquisitions, including Bed Bath "could be strong performers, either as sold-off assets, or as part of a re-imagined Bed Bath." A group of activist investors known as "Restore BedBath" argued selling off non-core assets and inventory rationalization could net a $2 billion windfall if the company nutted the fuck up.**
+
+**But guess which company of the 4 acquisitions had done the best in terms of longest shopper visits? That's right, BuyBuyBaby, with average visits lasting 52 min.** (The next closest was Christmas Tree Shops at 46.) **This is all as CNBC's Maggie Fitzgerald wrote that BuyBuy Baby ALONE may have been worth more than ALL OF BBBY the very next year, in the midst of the pandemic and months before the meme stock sneeze.**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/kls1u8g969m81.png?width=885&format=png&auto=webp&s=057e916bc5937f706a883cac05370774e338f46a
+
+>**"\[Bank of America\] estimates Buybuy Baby's enterprise value is equal to nearly all the current enterprise value of Bed Bath & Beyond."**
+
+​
+
+And this isn't counting the deals that it had done during the pandemic, including with Shipt and Uber to race and get more baby goods to parents staying at home, while still offering an often highly rated baby registry competing with another big: Amazon.
+
+​
+
+So even buybuyBaby's (and BBBY's story) may not be in a vacuum, dear apes. And it is context like these that reminds us of our monologue.
+
+We were always worried, and oftentimes laughed and meme'd about Ken Griffin, Doug Cifu, Stevie Cohen and all the other financial terrorists worried about marge calling. And at this point, we know the fuckery is beyond all bounds. We even see in the spike in nickel commodities earlier that these fuckers won't even get fucking margin called, and have no one to answer to.
+
+​
+
+But maybe now they do. **What happens when you have a Chairman with BDE oozing out his pores, who probably knows about how parent companies and their children in Sears & SHOS, early GME & Cool Holdings, and BBBY & BuyBuyBaby turned out? Maybe Ken doesn't need to fear Marge anymore. Maybe the next time he picks up the phone, he will hear a very different voice, and a very different tune...**
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/0dsk9ovn79m81.png?width=484&format=png&auto=webp&s=8eec8f016cd7be5af0a4f790aa8c775b072332cd
+
+>*Just kidding. I do know who you are...If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I have money, but what I also have are a very particular set of skills.*  
+>  
+>*Skills I have acquired over a very long career of building companies into the sky. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.*  
+>  
+>*If you let this \[child\] go now that'll be the end of it.*  
+>  
+>*Just kidding. I will look for you, I will pursue you, I will find you and I will end you."*
+
+​
+
+**TL;DR:**
+
+* **SHOS, or Sears Hometown & Outdoors Stores, spun off from Sears in 2012. It had done strong, consistent numbers in 2016 and 2017, making nearly 72+% of all its revenue from its appliances' line including Sears-brand Kenmore, as well as others.**
+* **Despite strong sales for Kenmore appliances, parent company/Sears CEO Eddie Lampert did barely anything to help out SHOS or Kenmore's appliance line. On the other hand, in 2017, Lampert decided to allow Jeff Bezos' Amazon to be the ONLY non-Sears company to sell Kenmore. Those appliances were then allowed to be Alexa-compliant. (This all may perhaps very well be one of the first direct/indirect links to the infamous "Busting out the Competition" DD).**
+* **In 2018, SHOS encountered a crazy amount of short interest, even more so than Sears. At one point, it would have taken 146 days to cover all the shorted shares, and had 1.5 million FTDs shortly before delisting.**
+* **SHOS' story is very very similar to GameStop's Cool Holdings/Simply Mac business,  a related GME company that was potentially shorted even more than** **GME.  BedBath's BuyBuyBaby may have encountered a similar "kidnap the child" scenario, where BedBath's liquidation meant grabbing Baby's offerings at a steal.**
+
+​
+
+EDI T 2: changed "direct" to "indirect" Not like I have 100% verifiable proof its proof of the "Busting out the competition" DD
+I’ve been a long term holding of T and have slowly dollar cost averaged as it went down. It broke 28$ today and seems like it may keep going down. What is everyone’s thoughts?
+I’ve been a long term holding of T and have slowly dollar cost averaged as it went down. It broke 28$ today and seems like it may keep going down. What is everyone’s thoughts?
+Wow, this never got the attention it deserved. Bullish AF. They’ve known all along that we own the float and the SEC probably think the same as him which is why the 002 didn’t get passed!!!!!!!! HODL everybody were blasting off very soon!!!!!! And remember, ****NO DATES!!!!!!****
+
+
+https://youtu.be/WQPquBVtwMM
+Hey,
+
+in the current times of turmoil I sometimes look back at ten year charts and think to myself: Goddamn I'd be so fucking rich if I had started investing 10 years ago. Given the current state of the world, I'd not be sure we see those gains ever again. 
+
+Some of todays industry trends were visible back then, like E-Commerce, electric payments, clean energy or semiconductors. Many companies out of those sectors that were around back then and are around today, multiplied it's value by at least 10x. Even broad investing into indexes would have made you 3 to 6 times richer.
+
+So if you were invested during this golden decade, what made you rich? Or even more interesting: Why didn't you get rich? Which opportunities did you miss? Which bets turned out for the worse?
+[Announcement](https://help.stockpile.com/en/articles/6311446-stockpile-transitioning-to-paid-membership?utm_source=vero&utm_medium=email&utm_content=control&utm_campaign=Membership%20Announcement%20-%20Individuals%20&utm_term=Newsletter&vero_id=pavan.nyama%40gmail.com&vero_conv=_I83reVo7MVoQXXFSjoSMawVVJU-ZRZ9Gj9cXK9D7nOh0XcgZfU7xODP7tUyEpKD4ngB2UMnLIR5MR290S5yWSFdNxC-oMRBwoc%3D)
+
+A bit scummy in that Stockpile is auto-opting people into the subscription and you have no way of preventing it aside from talking to customer service who are slammed right now.
+Whats the two things apes wanted to know?
+
+Whats the way? Computershare
+
+How many shares voted? 741%
+
+Tell me ive cracked it. I await my place in history. Also, someone should probably tell lawsuit guy 😂
+
+I could be wrong, but this seems dead easy and exactly what the sub was trying to figure out. RC is answering the questions.
+
+Edit: The 7:41 tweets started May 30... this would be just before the vote deadline June 8 and probably where they would have stopped and accepted results. This concept of looking at the votes a week before the deadline is commonplace, it allows you to withdraw items you prerty much know wont pass, popcorn did this when withdrawal of share increase.
+Has anyone used a brokerage account as a college savings fund for their child? I don’t like the idea of a 529 college savings plan in case my children decide not to go to a traditional university. Nor do I like the fine print and penalties regarding how and when you withdraw the money. I’m instead leaning towards two brokerage accounts of ETFs that I can contribute to over the next 14 years and 17 years. I know this is not the most tax advantageous route to take, but seems to offer the most freedom as to what to do with the money down the road. I will just plan for and take into account capital gains tax when I make withdrawals. I’m just wondering if anyone else has chosen this method for college savings?
+Growth recovered stronger than ever from Covid,  value partially did. In the last decade growth also outperformed but historically value wins. Now that the vaccine is rolling out and growth stocks are very expensive, do you think value comes back in the next year and/or the next decade?
+
+Do you think ETFs that use the standard book/earnings per share screening like VTV are adequate to capture the value factor? What do you prefer? 
+
+Cheers
+Just put 10k on 2 3X Bull ETFs. 
+
+Planning on putting another 10 -15kk if the market drops 8 % or so and there by reducing these ETFs by 25% or so.
+
+​
+
+And then planning on putting 10-15k if the market repeats that scenario,
+
+I see a huge upside on the market and these ETFs will gain 20-30 times. Putting it lightly. 
+
+TNA
+
+ERX 
+
+GUSH
+
+TQQQ
+
+​
+
+WHat am I doing wrong?
+I know this isnt etf related but, if you purchase a 6 month CD at 4.75% do you actually earn 4.75% or only half that amount since it's a 6 month CD not a full year?
+I want to dca into some ETFs over a span of 30 years but which brokerage would be a good choice? TD Ameritrade and Vanguard dont offer fractional shares, which I would like, and Fidelity only does recurring investments on mutual funds. Robinhood seems like a good fit as they offer fractional shares and recurring investments on ETFs. My only problem with Robinhood is that it is still relatively new and not as reputable as the others. 
+Are there any other brokerages that offer fractional shares or is it okay to hold long term investments on Robinhood?
+I’m 19 years old and I’m trying to get ahead of my peers in investing longterm 5-10-20 years down the road so by the time I graduate college I can be financially stable. I so far have bought some shares in FSCSX and after reading this Reddit, I bought two shares of VTI, but what are your thoughts. I’d love to hear some input :)
+I am new to investing. So if this sounds stupid, please tell me. I want to buy 20k of jepi, but I want my entire portfolio to be 50% Voo and 50% Schd. I will contribute 200$ weekly into these two and use all the dividends from jepi to add to voo and schd. Is that a stupid ? Taxable account and I max out Roth IRA annually
+Is this the correct time to invest in Tech ETFs owing to the fall of tech stocks in Nasdaq or should we stay away from it? I have  SCHD and XME in my portfolio, looking to add tech ETFs.
+Recently i started doing art commissions and I've been thinking of saving like 20%/30% of every income. Like if i get 20 euro I'll put 4 into  savings etc and spend the other 16 in stuff. Is it worth it at this age? idk if it's useful but i live in italy
+
+Edit: wtf i didn't expect this to get so many upvotes. btw thank you all for the advice!
+
+Edit 2: I'm trying to reply and read every comment but there are so many! thank you all again :D
+I know both are bearish positions and the main difference is probably buying the Put has limited loss and unlimited profit while selling the call has limited profit and theoretical unlimited loss.  And time decay can help sellers and hurt buyers. If you only had the choice of buying puts or selling calls, which would you do?
+I know both are bearish positions and the main difference is probably buying the Put has limited loss and unlimited profit while selling the call has limited profit and theoretical unlimited loss.  And time decay can help sellers and hurt buyers. If you only had the choice of buying puts or selling calls, which would you do?
+Because of some unfortunate circumstances, I'm in big financial trouble. I struggled with long Covid and was unable to work for one month which left me with a sick pay wage of £350. I have various credit card debts due to an ex partner who took and maxed them out in my name so my credit is terrible. Due to this, I had to take out some loans in order to make rent, bills and be able to afford to eat. Now, because I'm some kind of a jinx, I got a new job in a pub (0 hours contract) on minimum wage for £8.91 p/h, and had a very bad fall down the stairs resulting in surgery on my hand. Lawyer says I have no claim and I had to be off sick again. I'm now looking at a £375 wage due to hours worked and can't get further loans due to my credit. I missed a payment on one today because I have £1.59 in my bank to last me until the 28th so that's more damage. I'm going to go back to work before my doctor recommends to try and scrape as much money into this coming wage as possible but other than that, I don't know what to do. Altogether, my debt is around £8,000 and rising with interest. Any advice on how to get out of this hole? Please be kind, I know a lot of this is my fault. If you have anything to share, thank you so much!
+I live in a different time zone so I woke up to -11% on my AMD position.
+
+[https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/amd-stock-price-reflets-an-impossible-scenario-2018-10-1027634438](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/amd-stock-price-reflets-an-impossible-scenario-2018-10-1027634438)
+
+Thoughts on this?  Anyone planning on getting out now before it drops more, potentially to get in again later?
+
+Highlights:
+
+* **AMD shares will drop more than 30% to $18 due to comparative disadvantages in its competition with Intel, New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu says.**
+* **Last month analysts expected** [**Intel** ](https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/intc-stock?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest)**to undersupply its 10-nanometer chip, but later a report said Intel may cure its production problem sooner than expected.**
+* [**AMD**](https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/amd-stock?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest) **is expected to launch a 7 nm datacenter GPU later in 2018, which in theory should provide better performance than 10 nm ones, according to Moody's.**
+* **The 7 nm chip won't help AMD win over Intel, Ferragu says.**
+I had an online meeting with an mortgage broker last week going though all our in and outgoings, savings, payslips etc. A couple of days later he comes back with an offer from Accord mortgages at 1.80% for 5 years. He's charging a £399 fee if we choose this mortgage
+
+When I stick my details into moneysupermarket or comparethemarket, I can get the exact same deal directly with no upfront fee. Also on both sites there are 9 other lenders available offering better rates. 
+
+So my question is - Why would I pay the broker £399 when I can get it directly for no fee, or even choose a different lender with a better rate?
+The month to month pager code clue is complete. I made a speculative post midway through last month that Ryan Cohen would post twice more before the new year to complete the message;
+
+July - 7 tweets (one of which is a compooter chair)
+
+August - 4 tweets
+
+September - 1 tweet
+
+Giving the pager message, “I need a favor…”
+
+Time drew onwards
+
+October - 3 tweets
+
+November - 4 tweets
+
+December - 5 tweets 
+
+Spelling “Thank you.” 
+
+RC’s final tweet of 2021, the taking a poo while in the metaverse (a digital world for sharing). Could it be another code for “compooter share?” 
+
+Could Ryan Cohen be a mastermind genius? First, yes. Second, because we began the tweet chain in a month with a compooter chair, and ended the tweet chain with a compooter share.
+
+I won’t say what a “thank you” means, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough…
+
+Epilogue: 
+
+Ryan Cohen’s tweet in the first few days of January 2022 could be further confirmation. RC must have doubted himself and his own plan the whole way, but now that it’s time to give thanks and reap our rewards, it’d be a little head nod to the *very* underestimated retail apes, as well as a well deserved pat on the back for himself.
+
+Ryan Cohen, if you browse this subreddit (which I am now certain that you do), I would like to say thank you on behalf of all of us apes. 
+
+We needed a favor. *I* needed a favor. Something to help pull me from behind, out of a dying world where the interests of the few are put above the lives of the many. I cannot wait to bring so much needed good to the world once MOASS comes. Thank you Ryan Cohen. 
+
+741 345
+
+Diamond hands you brilliant apestronauts.
+If the posts complaining about Gherkin ban were GENIUINE and Organic, then the complaints would be a variety of things and some of those things would actually make sense
+
+Examples of what Legitimate complaints could be --->
+
+
+- yeah, his TA sucked but he had a nice cap (power to the VWAP)
+
+- his dates were all wrong but Hype Skills were good
+
+- he sucked at predictions, but he explained things well
+
+- yes, he monetized but he was so bad at it, it really should not count
+
+- TA is sketchy as heck, but it's all we got
+
+etc
+
+etc
+
+etc
+
+*************************************************************
+
+Additionally, the Amount of Emotions in the post would be measured. They would not be OVER THE TOP posts aiming at driving up EMOTIONS
+
+
+**************************************************************
+
+If you look at the complaint posts, it is almost as if all of them got the EXACT SAME MEMO with the EXACT SAME TALKING POINTS
+
+A) Talk about how all the good dd writers have been driven out of Superstonk
+
+Note: This is a joke as none of the options gangs were good dd writers. TA is not DD
+
+At the same time: It is good FUD because Superstonk values good DD so the best thing to do to create an emotional response in people is to claim ' we are losing all the great DD writers'
+
+**********************
+
+B) Talk about how Mods are compromised
+
+Note: Mods waited SIX @#$@#$ MONTHS before finally deciding options gang brigading is too much
+
+That's being PATIENT to a fault and it's not being compromised
+
+Imagine someone brigading a sub for 6 months and then getting banned and then that person is playing the victim
+
+*********************
+
+C) Talk about how Gherkin getting banned is some big loss
+
+- someone compared gherkin to DFV
+
+- some people are saying 'it will hinder MOASS'
+
+etc
+
+etc
+
+Are we serious? 
+
+There are 5 million shareholders, spread across 100+ countries
+
+there are billions of fake shares
+
+one youtuber getting banned for breaking sub rules does not hinder MOASS in any way, shape, or form
+
+
+*********************************************
+
+D) Superstonk is broken. This ban is going to cause sub to fragment
+
+This is so inaccurate it is a joke
+
+At the same time - it is EXACTLY what SHF would send as a talking point. To create Fear about Superstonk getting broken up
+
+***************************************************************
+
+All the 'banning Gherkin is wrong' posts seem COORDINATED, cover the exact same talking points (almost as if someone told them exactly what to write), and they aim at creating EMOTIONAL RESPONSES  and are not measured or rational
+
+*********************************************************************
+Not financial advice, this is barely even maths.
+
+It’s been 102 days since the Jan 29 spike. If they calculated 100 days to shake off retail investors, we’re barely over that.
+
+No new info, I just wanted to bring some attention to the 100-day period since they probably used that metric for risk management.
+
+Buy if you can. Hodlin costs nothing. Voting is your right.
+Hi,
+
+I am extremely embarrassed to write this. I am in a very very tough financial spot right now. I have about $34,381.67 in credit card debt spread across 9 cards, 2 of them have been closed by the creditors. I have listed all cards with balances + monthly payments below. I have considered consolidations, bankruptcy, a debt management plan (which if I enrolled my payment to ACCC would be around $700/mo). All of this debt was caused by a reckless spending habit and mental illness that I have now gotten under control. I haven't used any of these cards within the last month. 
+
+I work 40 hours a week, making $15.46/hourly. After taxes/insurance/etc. my take home is approximately $430-$440ish. I pay $1040 a month in rent which I pay to my landlord weekly so I give him $260 a week. No, I cannot find anything cheaper, I have tried, and it's the best I can get. I went through all of my subscriptions (which are cancelled effective January, so as of January none of them will be deducted) but I was paying $160/mo in streaming services and random subscriptions. They are now cancelled. 
+
+Card 1: $8,520.49 - closed by discover / currently enrolled in payment plan @ 9.99 APR with $128/mo payments
+
+Card 2: $3,924.04 - closed by discover / currently enrolled in payment plan @ 9.99 APR with $60/mo payment plan
+
+Card 3: 1,969.59 / $61.00 monthly payment
+
+Card 4: 6,897.55 / this card is enrolled with Tally so they make the monthly payments - I pay tally $60/mo
+
+Card 5: 5,660.52 - I missed a payment, my monthly payment is now at $929.52 - will be using my christmas bonus to make that payment this week
+
+Card 6: $2,054.16 / minimum is $20
+
+Card 7: $1,567 / minimum is $115 
+
+Card 8: $750.25 / $28 minimum
+
+Card 9: $3,037.55 / $102 due monthly 
+
+​
+
+As you can tell, the monthly payments greatly exceed what I have left over in a month. My credit is around 540 which is the lowest it's ever been - I used to have zero debt and a 760 credit score but 4 years later this is everything I have racked up. I have looked into loans and clearly cannot get approved for anything. I have $150 in a savings account. I am trying to get a new, better paying job or considering getting a second job. In the meantime, can someone please explain what the best option I have right now - other than increasing my income (which I am doing my best to try to do). Realistically, I would like this to be paid off in 2-3 years but it feels and sounds impossible.
+I would like to preface this post by stating two indisputable facts: I am an xxx ape and I will be moving at least half of my funds out of BoA. 
+
+However, I believe a lot of the FUD surrounding BoA is exaggerated, although well deserved. Also, please note that I was an employee of BAML (Bank of America Merrill Lynch) for a number of years so I do have some unique insight. 
+
+**Potential Myth #1**
+
+*BoA is closing consumer branches due to MOASS*
+
+Just because they are closing branches in droves does not mean it has to do with MOASS nor does it have to be because of something sinister at all. It could actually be a well calculated business move on their behalf aimed at driving profitability. I mean look at our beloved Gamestop...what are they doing? Closing physical locations. And what do we do? Applaud them for it (and rightfully so). But look at Square's Cash App, do they have physical locations?  
+
+**Potential Myth #2**
+
+*Since BoA is selling a few commercial properties they must be liquidating for an incoming black swan.*
+
+BoA regularly sells their properties just to rent them back from the new landlords. This generates cash flow & liquidity. Liquidity?!?!? They must be needing cash because of MOASS! Well since when has it been bad to generate cash flow? And what better time to sell then during booming times in real estate. 
+
+**Potential Myth #3**
+
+*Because BoA is Citadel's prime shorting broker, that $57B will blow up in their faces.*
+
+As of 6/30, BoA reported $3.03 trillion of assets on their balance sheet. That 57 billion is 0.2% of their entire balance sheet. That's like having one stock in your portfolio going to zero, bringing your account down from $10,000 to $9,979. OMG. Now, I get that there could be a contagion like event that ripples through the markets, but to what extent? That is such a small percentage of their assets. 
+
+All in all, I don't believe BoA will be going under, but as an account holder there I am preparing for it. 
+
+Please limit the hate just because I am trying to think of this from all angles. 
+
+I love all you retarded fucks regardless.
+While Jim Cramer is in San Francisco this week, he has heard about all of the snazzy start-up companies with disruptive technologies that could possibly take over the world one day. But what about a company that is already conquering the globe?
+
+Netflix is the video streaming colossus that not only allows for TV shows and movies to be streamed, but also creates its own original programming. It reported a fantastic quarter in July, with confirmation that it added 3.3 million new subscribers. It is also expanding its international footprint substantially, and Cramer thinks it could even take over the whole world by the end of the year next year if it wanted to.
+
+The rest of the article can be read here: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/18/netflix-ceo-all-tv-will-be-internet-in-10-20-yrs.html
+Since the introduction of the recent Tenant Fee Act my letting agency is pushing back on renegotiating their margin when the existing contract is renewed (currently 7%). The letting agents claim the new Act requires them to absorb more costs for finding new tenants. What are other landlords experiencing?
+In my time, I've found that in the private sector, everything is so... secretive and not transparent. 
+
+When you apply in private sector, firstly a recruiter gives you a call and you have a general 15 min non-technical discussion just about yourself and the basics of the role advertised. No talks about salary/remuneration, about the details of the job, etc. Then if successful, you are scheduled an interview with a technical manager (who's probably going to be your manager), usually one other professional in that team, and maybe a HR officer again. After that interview, you'll know more about the job but still no talks about salary and packages and benefits. Then if they really like you, you'll be sent an offer with all of the details FINALLY.
+
+Sometimes in private sector, there are also recruiters that advertise jobs where they can't even reveal the company that they are hiring for, just which industry the job is in. I find that quite ridiculous. Then the same process follows as above, this time with an external hiring manager in play too.
+
+In the public sector (from what I've seen from others), there's simply a gazette of job advertisements. They all clearly have the level, the pay, the exact descriptions, and it seems like a very streamlined process. Much easier to be honest. I kind of wish the private sector had something like this, but I guess the nature of private causes it to be more of a random process.
+
+I still find that you can earn much much more in the private sector though, and jump in salary fairly quick, as opposed to the public sector where there are very clear hierarchies everywhere. Not that private sector doesn't have hierarchy, but it's a bit more flexible/non-rigid.
+
+Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? Do you know why the private sector is like this?
+Hi guys. I really want to get into investing. I'm currently bankrupt so I've been told i cannot acquire assets for atleast another 2 years. In the mean time I've been reading heavily (rich dad poor dad, the intelligent investor, the Warren Buffett way, the barefoot investor). I've most of the books i read go through the mental aspect of investing and the basics, which is great and definitely important, but now i think i need to start building on the nitty gritty.
+
+I've never invested before so the HOW is still a mystery to me. I've seen a lot of property investment and stock investment workshops on facebook but they seem pretty scammy to me and I've been trying to find some seminars but i live pretty rural so there's nothing near me, and i work full time so i really wouldn't want to travel to a seminar to get nothing out of it. 
+
+Basically what I'm asking is, what is the best way to get started and gain experience in investing?
+
+Thanks.
+~~This will probably be a great example of what I mean.~~ (Goodjob guys) If you really scan this subreddit, any post by either a company, a real project, or a self post is always downvoted. 
+
+But only news articles maintain high upvotes. Half of the users here think every fucking post is a scam... It's bullshit.
+
+Literally one of the worst subreddits for user discussion or user feedback. 
+
+Go look around at the most downvoted comments, half of them are actual people with actual responses like
+
+"Looks really nice" -19 downvotes when a user is complimenting some new app. 
+
+Yet you find posts like
+
+"Your obviously too young for this and possibly retarded" +55 upvotes. 
+
+This place is utter trash at this point. 
+
+We get it, you lost money, but no need to shit on every single person.
+Long story short, I’m 28 years old, NW $700k, aiming to fat FIRE. Company I work at is going public very soon, I have 13000 stock options (ISO) at an average exercise price of $1.80. I have not exercised my options yet. I looked through some old posts, general consensus seems to be to talk with a CPA. Anything specific I should be looking/watching out for?
+
+This event alone is not going to set me up to Fat FIRE, but hopefully will speed things up. I’ve never been through an IPO so any and all advice would be appreciated.
+
+Edit: Wow, this received way more responses than I expected! Thank you everyone, I have a lot to read through.
+
+One more question based on some of the responses. If I have not exercised yet, and IPO is only a few weeks away, and I don’t plan to leave the company soon, would it be best to just hold off on exercising for now?
+"bUt HoW iS tHiS GmE ReLaTeD?" - be^(fucking)cause the GameStop NFT platform needs LRC to have it's protocol locked in and functional before it can drop the hammer. Bear with me.
+
+"BuT tHe PaRtNeRsHiP IsN'T OfFiCiaL" - ya well it pretty much is so **bear with me.**
+
+\---
+
+There was a post last night on the Loopring sub by u\\greatgoogelymoogely explaining some unusual transactions from Daniel Wang's (LRC founder) and Steve Guo's (LRC CTO) ethereum wallets. It basically outlined and tracked some multi-million dollar LRC transactions. Some saw it as FUD, some were just confused.
+
+There was a great comment from u\\boristheblade223 explaining what this might mean;
+
+​
+
+>My belief is these were transactions required by Loopring’s partners / clients to establish better transparency around Loopring’s treasury tokens (ie tokens that belong to Loopring) and balance sheet.  
+>  
+>Any legitimate partner / client would require solvency of the counterparty they’re dealing with. Imagine if Jeff Bezos held a bunch of AMZN in his personal account and basically said “trust me this belongs to Amazon”. That would be ridiculous. The big boys would never do business with Loopring unless these were secured.  
+>  
+>With these transactions I believe all the treasury tokens of Loopring’s has been consolidated and contractually (in the sense of both the partnerships as well as blockchain) deposited into an official ledger account address.  
+>  
+>Edit: ledger in the accounting sense, not the hard wallet (but wouldn’t necessarily rule that out).
+
+​
+
+Yet the FUD remained. There was a follow up post shortly after made by u\\shark\_merman because the shills were out in force in the LRC community saying it was a rug pull/the owners were selling out/etc. Another great comment by u\\LinusThiccTips went further into detail.
+
+​
+
+>Clearing up some wrong speculation I see people commenting here. By wrong I mean on a technical standpoint.  
+>  
+>My take for this is simple:  
+>  
+>\- Binance will soon enable LRC direct to L2 withdrawals. Btw, this has nothing to do with Layerswap, that's a 3rd party that has nothing to do with Loopring.  
+>  
+>\- Dan sent Binance 35M, and Binance moved that to an L2 wallet they control. They're essentially setting 35M LRC aside to support L2 withdraws. It's a large amount so whenever people withdraw from Binance to L2, there's no bridging necessary, the LRC is already on L2.  
+>  
+>\- When you withdraw from Binance directly to L2, Binance will send LRC from this 35M LRC wallet to your L2 wallet  
+>  
+>That's it.  
+>  
+>What this is not:  
+>  
+>\- A stress test. Stress testing means a large amount of transactions, not a large amount of tokens in a single transfer.  
+>  
+>\- Using Binance to bridge it over because they have "connections with the Chinese" and maybe Binance has a better bridge available  
+>  
+>\- Dan dumping his LRC
+
+\---
+
+Now, all that LRC drama happened **yesterday**. I made 2 50% serious posts **today** about GameStop's Tweets; the first showing a finger on a bomb trigger that said '*armed*' and the second directly referencing '*Tuesday*' in the description with the text '*good night good luck*'. My seriousness level just unironically jumped to 69%.
+
+There was also a post today here on the stonk outlining the Loopring GitHub 'Web V2 milestone *Main Feature Release* \- completed' update. That happened about 1030am EST today, Jan 18.
+
+So, how is this all related? Well, let's put all of the recent events into one thought; some **large** sums of money (\~35M LRC \*edit - coins not $, as per u/[**Terrible-Sugar-5582**](https://www.reddit.com/user/Terrible-Sugar-5582/)) have been moved that seem to align with what many have speculated to be the rollout/preparation plan. LRC protocol has been updated. GameStop tweeted some titillating tweets. SLD concerns in the markets. FTD concerns in the markets. Markets relatively red across the board. Bonds teetering on collapse.
+
+\*edit thanks to u/civil1 \- Also Daniel Wang's checkmark tweet this morning.
+
+My point? I'm pretty confident things are wrapping up, meaning an announcement is imminent. (see flair)
+Good afternoon r/dividends,
+
+Effective immediately, any post is subject to a 1 month repost ban.
+
+What does this mean in English?  It means that you cannot post something already asked by another user within the past month.  Posts that violate this policy will be removed with no warning. I won't ban anyone for this as I have given no advanced warning that I would be doing this.
+
+I am making this change due to the rise in posts that seem to be carbon copies of previous user posts. These don't really facilitate new productive discussions.  Therefore, if you are going to post, please use the search button to check and make sure you aren't reposting something this community already discussed last week. 
+
+As always, be sure to report any content that violates the rules. 
+
+Thank you to everyone for your continued participation in r/dividends.
+
+Signed,
+
+Firstclass30
+This would be for retirement, but looking for a dividend portfolio that has both growth and income in the dividend yield range I am seeking.
+
+The reason for this dividend yield range is I believe a 3.5-4.0+% dividend yield range (open to higher yield if it has good growth) would offer the best “sweet spot” for income and growth. (some people prefer lower yields or much higher yields). What do you think of this portfolio… 
+
+50% SCHD-3.34% dividend yield
+
+30% PEY- 4.05% dividend yield 
+
+20% SDOG- 4.03% dividend yield 
+
+So far, I like this portfolio, I would say this portfolio would produce an overall 3.6% dividend yield. 
+
+I like the 10 year track records of PEY and SDOG. some of the highest I have seen with that kind of yield. (PEY- 12.89% ten year return and SDOG- 11.16% ten year return). And we all know how good SCHD is.
+
+The only thing I don’t like about PEY and SDOG is their expense ratios. (PEY- .53% and SDOG- .40%). But I figured if they have the growth, then I may settle for that kind of expense.
+
+I have crunched in this portfolio using Portfolio Visualizer. The results from 2013-2022 (current date) with reinvested dividends and not adding anything to it with a 1,000 dollar initial investment- comparing that with the performance of the market. 
+
+My portfolio 2013-2022: 12.82% return.
+
+VOO 2013-2022: 13.26% return 
+
+Keep in mind, yes, my portfolio underperforms the market (VOO) in that time period (and will in general, cause it’s a dividend portfolio), But with the dividend yield I am looking for, and with that kind of growth… that is pretty good I think. 
+
+I tried to aim for the highest 10 yr. return that is closest to the returns of the market within that dividend yield range. (From 2013-2022, I could only go back that far using Portfolio Visualizer, so nine+ years)
+
+Fill free to let me know your thoughts.
+Hello all, I thought I would write a brief post, first post ever on reddit.  I've been perusing the FI forum for a while now, I'm kind of a numbers/finance nerd, love keeping spreadsheets of my monthly bills and I also have a Net Worth sheet I've been keeping for roughly 10yrs now.  I've been a FF for close to 10yrs,  Anyway, I've searched in the past for FF posts and haven't found many.  Retirement/money seems to be a popular topic around the station, so I figured I would post this for anyone who searches in the future like me.  Just updated my spreadsheet today and NW topped $400K for the first time.  In 2009, our net worth was $-9000, so I'm pretty happy with this.  Also, to clarify, this doesn't include my pension, which is a defined contribution plan.  My eventual benefit will be directly tied to what I've put in, and the system I'm a part of is well-regarded for being very financially stable, so I have little worry of any future issues with it.  For those unfamiliar, general expectation is to work 30-35yrs and the pension will be equal to or greater than your salary when you retire.  In the last 2.5yrs our net worth has doubled, and the average monthly increase is slowly ticking upwards from a $2-3K/month increase, when I started keeping track, to a current level of roughly $6K/month increase in net worth.  Obviously the good market has helped the last couple years.  I max out my 457 and max out a Roth for my wife.  I had to stop contributing to my Roth, it was just too much, things were getting too tight with us and two kids.  Anyway, like I said, I just wanted to post this for any future like persons searching for a firefighter's side of things.  Thanks for reading.
+Not financial advice. Not legal advice. For educational purposes only. 
+
+This is my first post on computer. Apologies if the formatting is Fubar'd.
+
+**TA;DR:**
+
+1. In order for the French Revolution of the Stock Market to be beyond rebuke, there can be no shortcuts or cutting corners. As such, Gamestop will, in all likelihood, transform its business *first* by integrating blockchain technology into the fabric of its being. Any crypto dividend will come *after* such implementation of blockchain and NFT's into its business structure.
+
+2. The Overstock litigation indicates that the purpose of a crypto dividend cannot be to force the shorts to cover. **There must be a legitimate business purpose.** Where the line is drawn between the two and how they are weighted is anyone's guess, and why I believe Gamestop will ensure that any crypto dividend merely rides on the coattails of the blockchain/NFT transformation it will have already substantially completed. Luckily for Gamestop, the building blocks are already there -- digital character skins, trading cards, any number of collectibles, second-hand gaming market, etc. etc. etc. -- they just need to develop the infrastructure and implement the technology.
+
+3. In the case of Overstock, the company had been involved in the crypto/blockchain for 5 years before issuing its crypto dividend AND it had subsidiary companies that were wholly devoted to the development of blockchain technology and a platform for trading digital securities. *The issuance of the crypto dividend was directly tied and perfectly synergized with its stated business transformation and the tZero digital trading platform.*
+
+4. As much as I'd love to see MOASS sooner rather than later, I do not foresee a crypto dividend coming on July 14. I believe we should "Buckle Up" for the long haul.
+
+5. RC is playing chess, not checkers. He isn't just saving a sinking ship (that's already been accomplished here); he is, with hand-selected team, inventing the steam engine, while all the other companies are still using sails or horseback riding. For all my fellow Civ or history nerds out there, you know how revolutionary the steam engine was for the Industrial Revolution. And in a world that is increasingly becoming more virtual/digital, Gamestop is, in my humble opinion, leading the charge on the next revolution in the digital and pixelated world -- giving Power to the Players, Power to the Collectors, and Power to the Creators.
+
+**Introduction:**
+Gamestop is not the new Blockbuster; it is more the new Overstock (kind of). However, unlike Overstock, Gamestop's business is focused on a sector that seems to perfectly dovetail with the blockchain/nft/crypto universe -- Gaming, Collectibles, Memes, Nerdgasm stuff. The gaming industry is already estimated to be a $150B+ industry. And we haven't even reached widespread virtual reality or whatever else the pixel magicians may create.
+
+Gamestop is poised to learn the lessons from the Overstock pivot and the lawsuit that followed. Unlike Overstock, Gamestop has a never before seen diehard following of shareholders and customers. It is best summed up by Larry Cheng's tweet:
+"Every company is a company. However, on rare occasion, some companies become movements. The company ends up standing for something much larger and more significant than itself. These companies break the traditional paradigm - they can play chess when everyone else plays checkers."
+
+However, with becoming a movement and having such a loyal following comes a downside: the increased potential for any crypto dividend to look like it is to appease the shareholders (which it *per se* does) but also in a sense of quenching any vindictive thirst by the shareholders or the company itself against short sellers. As such, Gamestop must play Chess, not checkers.
+
+The Wild West of law and Technology collide in the blockchain/NFT/crypto space. Simply put, there isn't enough legal precedent out there to indicate what is and is not permissible. If you're playing chess, you're using what precedent is available (which isn't much) to plan. And you're ensuring that your business transformation and approach to bringing in shareholders (such as a dividend) is beyond reproach.
+
+The Overstock lawsuit -- Mangrove Partners Master Fund, Ltd. v. Overstock.com, Inc. (In re Overstock Sec. Litig), Case No. -- is the only direct legal precedent we have in the matter of a public company issuing a crypto dividend.
+
+A review of the case can help us learn what *one* federal district court thought on the matter, whether in the law and analysis that applied or the dicta (non-legally binding reflections of the court) that the court wrote on the matter. Such a review reflects that the law is nebulous (surprise...) and the Court's underlying reasoning focused on the *reason* for Overstock issuing the crypto dividend. The short of it is: to the extent that the purpose of Overstock's crypto dividend would appear to be to cause a short-squeeze, it would be improper.
+
+**Background of Overstock's business and pivot into the Blockchain and Crypto world:**
+As we know, Overstock was and is a home goods and furnishings retailer, particularly in the e-commerce sector. With falling profits and in a field that proved to be dwindling, Patrick Byrne (founder and then-CEO of Overstock) sought to pivot the business into something new. As a big proponent of blockchain and crypto, Byrne sought to get Overstock into this burgeoning and quickly developing new technology -- a technology that some have characterized as revolutionary as the internet itself.
+
+**Overstock Case Background:**
+[Court Order on Overstock's Motion to Dismiss] (https://securities.stanford.edu/filings-documents/1071/O00_01/2020928_r01x_19CV00709.pdf)
+
+The Order addresses multiple claims asserted by the Plaintiffs, but this background will focus merely on that of the Crypto Dividend. However, do be aware that the narrative crafted by the Plaintiffs seeks to link the Crypto Dividend into the broader claims, particularly against Patrick Byrne. Plaintiffs claims would have been significantly weaker had they not tied into each other.
+
+The main Parties:
+* Defendant -- Overstock
+
+*"Lead Plaintiff The Mangrove Partners is an institutional investor that purchased Overstock common stock during the class period. Plaintiff is a well-known short seller, and Dr. Byrne [Overstock's then CEO] publicly denounced short sellers for artificially depressing Overstock’s share price." 
+
+**Background on Overstock's crypto dividend and the observed effects of same:**
+(direct language from the Order):
+In 2014, Overstock began working on initiatives to develop blockchain technologies, which it now pursues through its wholly-owned subsidiary Medici Ventures, Inc. Medici conducts the majority of its business through a subsidiary, tZERO Group, Inc., which is focused on developing and supporting the issuance of digital
+securities. Through tZERO, Overstock sought to create an alternative trading platform where the investing public could purchase and trade digital securities.
+
+on July 30, 2019, Overstock announced that it would issue a dividend of one share of Digital Voting Series A-1 Preferred Stock for every 10 shares of common or preferred stock outstanding.
+
+Once eligible for resale, the shares would be traded through a brokerage account established with Dinosaur Financial Group LLC (“Dino”) on PRO Securities ATS, a SEC-registered alternative trading system operated by PRO Securities, a tZERO subsidiary. 
+
+Within hours of its announcement, several market-focused publications recognized the practical effect of the Dividend on short sellers.
+
+**--Recap--**
+
+1. Overstock had been involved in the blockchain tech for 5 years prior to announcing the issuance of a crypto dividend.
+
+2. It was readily apparent to everyone in the industry as to what the effect of a crypto dividend would be.
+
+3. Overstocks crypto dividend was to be traded on the tZero platform, which is owned by a company that is a subsidiary of tZero, which is a subsidiary of Medici, which is in turn a subsidiary of Overstock. **So, the crypto dividend was intended to facilitate the use and growth of an alternative trading platform that Overstock, in effect, owned.** (*THIS IS IMPORTANT*).
+
+Allegation by Plaintiff (direct language from Order):
+
+1. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants made false statements about
+Overstock’s financial projections for 2019 and engineered a scheme to issue a digital dividend that purportedly caused an artificial short-squeeze.
+
+2. Essentially, Plaintiff contends that Defendants engaged in a scheme to issue a locked-up dividend they knew would cause a short squeeze, artificially spike Overstock’s stock price, and force short sellers of Overstock stock to cover their positions at inflated prices.
+
+3. In Count 2, Plaintiff alleges a market manipulation claim with respect to Defendants’ issuance of the digital dividend that would be paid to Overstock shareholders in tZERO shares. According to Plaintiff, because short sellers with borrowed shares would have to purchase Overstock common stock to repay the lender the digital dividend in advance of the dividend date, Defendants caused an artificial short squeeze “manipulating” an increase in share price.
+
+4. Although Overstock stated that the Dividend was important for adoption of the tZERO platform and to bring broker-dealers into the broader tZERO ecosystem, Plaintiff claims thatOverstock’s stated goal was pretextual. Plaintiff contends that the dividend was announced shortly after Dr. Byrne learned that his relationship with a Russian spy was about to be come public and he might need to leave the company. Plaintiff believes that the dividend’s short squeeze was intended to increase the price of Overstock shares at the time of Dr. Byrne’s departure.
+ 
+**Court's observations (language from the Order):**
+Byrne’s very public disdain for short sellers is beside the point because there was a **legitimate business purpose** for issuing the dividend. While Byrne, like any CEO of a public company that is heavily shorted, would want to reduce the downward pressure those shorts exerted on his company’s stock price, there is no evidence that targeting short sellers was the purpose of the dividend. ***Defendants state that Overstock was trying to transition from being a traditional online retailer to a blockchain technology business. The dividend was a creative way to strengthen that transition. Plaintiff has no evidence to overcome this legitimate business for issuing the dividend.**
+
+
+**Conclusion and Opinion**
+Gamestop is playing chess. They want to transform their business with blockchain technology. While a retailer (right now), the goods and services they deal in (gaming/collectibles) are a perfect fit with blockchain technology. In the case of Overstock, that company was starting from scratch with blockchain/crypto. No one wants a digital NFT couch. But NFT gaming character skins, NFT second-hand gaming market, NFT trading cards (the Pokemon card trading microcosm is valued at half a Billion alone), among tons of other possibilities? Ya, the building blocks are already there for Gamestop. All they need to do is put them together -- Brick by Brick.
+
+Ryan Cohen is a creator. He's not here to save a sinking ship and then bail; he's here to invent the steam engine and revolutionize the world -- the world of Players, Collectors, and Creators. While it's purely speculation on my part as are most things in this post, I assume Chewy will always be his baby, but Gamestop will be his legacy. Buckle Up.
+
+If you're going to beat the corruption, you cannot cut corners. You cannot leave room for error. You cannot in anyway be impugned. Otherwise, you leave threads for others to pull on in legal battles and in the public eye.
+
+As such, I think this could be a long(ish) haul. Gamestop is likely going to fully implement blockchain/NFT into the essence of its being before any digital dividend is issued. Recall that Overstock had been involved in Crypto/blockchain for 5 years before issuing its crypto dividend. *Further,* the issuance of its crypto dividend was directly linked to facilitating the use and growth of an alternative trading platform that it, in effect, owned. *"Legitimate Business Purpose."*
+
+Gamestop will ride the tide of speculation, hype, and FUD over its transformation. It will ride the tide of the market crash everyone but the mainstream media sees coming. And only then, once Gamestop has caused a paradigm shift as to the possibilities of how gaming and blockchain/nft's can be symbiotic, then maybe it will issue crypto dividends. It likely will want to have the framework -- both from a technological  (servers, development, etc.) and business perspective -- before issuing a crypto dividend. Further, the crypto dividend will likely line up with its very own blockchain transformation -- such that the crypto dividend directly ties in with its business model. Just like Overstock had its crypto dividend tie in with its alternative trading platform.
+
+If such came to pass, it would be my humble opinion that a crypto dividend would withstand legal challenges. At this time, Gamestop does not (openly) have the involvement and investment into blockchain/crypto that Overstock had for 5 years. With the mainstream media putting targets on the back of Gamestop and Apes, it'd be wise to have the business transformation *first,* before issuing such a dividend.
+
+Again, I'd like the MOASS ASAP as much as the next Ape. But I'd also want Gamestop to be unassailable in what it does. Negative Beta? Market Crash? Genuine delight by the investing public over Gamestop revolutionizing the virtual/pixel world? There are any number of things that could set off MOASS. The Ace in the Hole is the crypto dividend.
+
+My hopes for 7/14 and the month-long Moonjam? That Gamestop announces something big about NFT/blockchain/crypto that provides the first peak into the transformation of the business, AND that its use is displayed for all to see during Moonjam. And all while having some pixelated blocks go to the moon (as some have speculated)? Ya, Bullish.
+
+Power to the Players; Power to the Collectors; Power to the Creators.
+**Edit: Hey. So I’ve amended the image to more accurately say annual SAVINGS instead of annual salary, but the thumbnail on reddit isn’t updating. I’ve also included interest cost for a more realistic excess spending. You can see the [charts for recurring expenses and one-off expenses here.](https://imgur.com/a/tf2ySOD)**
+
+Something on [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/ntvfwk/any_one_here_have_a_net_worthlinked_wish_list/) got me thinking about what framework would be able to determine whether we could afford something. The post is meant to be light-hearted, but OP mentioned that at a net worth of $1 million, he would consider getting a Tesla. I got to wondering and created this [2-way table.](https://imgur.com/a/tf2ySOD)
+
+In short, it tells you what the effect of a one-off purchase would be on your net worth in 20 years. It's a little interesting for me to see how inelastic your long-term net worth is if the purchase is either a very small portion of your annual savings, or if it's a very small portion of your invested assets. If something is 2% of your net invested assets, it doesn't really matter that it's 100x your annual savings. That's probably not that surprising, but for intersections in the middle, like an expense that's 50% of your current net worth and 50% of your current annual savings, the effect on future net worth is probably not as intuitive.
+
+Personally, I'm thinking that if a one-off purchase decreases your long-term net worth by less than 3% and is something you do very infrequently, then you can afford it. Any thoughts on that? I suppose if your investable assets are scheduled to be well above what you need for a livable 4% in 20 years, you can make a purchase that haircuts you a bit more.  
+
+
+**Edit: Got some good feedback and I'll edit to make it more realistic and take into account interest cost as one cannot simply buy something for 50x income and annual savings.**
+
+**Additionally, I added a second chart to the 2-way table link which instead of a one-off purchase, shows the effect of a recurring annual expense through a 20 year period.**
+
+**Interestingly enough, we can sort of see the 4% rule appearing here. If you go to the bottom row, a ratio of spending being 100x income is effectively no income at all, kind of like retirement. And we can see that as long as this spending is less than 6% of the individual's investable assets, they still have money left over (the difference in net worth is not worse than -100% which is presumably a wipeout).** 
+
+**Granted, 6% is higher than the famed 4% SWR, but the period I looked at was for only 20 years and doesn't take into account the sequence of return risk.**
+Full ATO Dataset containing all 1,189 professions across 14,228,292 tax returns https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/taxation-statistics-2017-18/resource/c1274cbb-aaed-49e0-84c8-3ed5d91fa16e?inner_span=True
+
+Top 100 summarized here
+
+Rank|Profession|# Individuals|Avg taxable income|Median taxable income
+---|---|---|---|---|
+1| Medical specialist - neurosurgeon|179| $576,605 | $396,317 
+2| Medical specialist - ophthalmologist|618| $514,770 | $355,811 
+3| Medical specialist - plastic and reconstructive surgeon|337| $482,522 | $345,600 
+4| Cardiologist|910| $463,781 | $385,720 
+5| Medical specialist - urologist|315| $447,848 | $381,159 
+6| Medical specialist - otorhinolaryngologist|129| $443,055 | $310,505 
+7| Medical specialist - orthopaedic specialist|940| $437,620 | $346,329 
+8| Medical specialist - vascular surgeon|121| $424,568 | $379,168 
+9| Gastroenterologist|472| $423,706 | $382,048 
+10| Judge - law|820| $401,585 | $407,490 
+11| Diagnostic and interventional radiologist|2,099| $397,811 | $327,755 
+12| Anaesthetist|3,334| $382,674 | $366,387 
+13| Cardiothoracic surgeon|157| $370,598 | $277,809 
+14| Financial investment manager|3,107| $359,663 | $172,255 
+15| Medical specialist - surgeon (general)|1,766| $349,414 | $260,823 
+16| Gynaecologist|1,343| $347,432 | $265,305 
+17| Medical specialist - thoracic medicine specialist|124| $340,035 | $327,922 
+18| Broker - futures trader|314| $315,405 | $158,202 
+19| Doctor - specialist - specialist physician - other|1,665| $310,765 | $257,274 
+20| Doctor - specialist - medical oncologist|466| $302,488 | $297,950 
+21| Intensive care specialist|624| $302,029 | $243,983 
+22| Doctor - specialist - radiation oncologist|550| $293,178 | $168,208 
+23| Medical specialist - neurologist|400| $286,866 | $254,429 
+24| Medical specialist - paediatric surgeon|120| $283,835 | $214,510 
+25| Medical specialist - renal medicine specialist|180| $282,435 | $275,638 
+26| Dermatologist|421| $280,543 | $206,917 
+27| Securities and finance dealer|925| $280,428 | $141,082 
+28| Medical specialist - specialist physician (general medicine)|1,919| $275,491 | $239,826 
+29| Broker - stocks|2,131| $274,821 | $156,130 
+30| Magistrate|551| $274,147 | $302,155 
+31| Broker - investment|721| $265,324 | $126,007 
+32| Clinical haematologist|324| $261,332 | $237,961 
+33| Emergency medicine specialist|1,697| $257,955 | $242,051 
+34| Medical specialist - rheumatologist|168| $255,577 | $232,445 
+35| Analyst - equities|1,403| $255,489 | $133,847 
+36| State governor|21| $252,650 | $112,422 
+37| Endocrinologist|351| $243,744 | $199,892 
+38| Cricketer|356| $242,051 | $100,940 
+39| Executive - type not specified|9| $237,230 | $171,081 
+40| Medical specialist - psychiatrist|2,950| $225,206 | $201,177 
+41| Dental specialist|924| $223,390 | $133,813 
+42| Medical specialist - paediatrician|1,588| $219,914 | $188,238 
+43| Member of parliament|833| $205,188 | $196,823 
+44| Engineer - petroleum|2,122| $190,726 | $156,190 
+45| Actuary|2,178| $185,849 | $145,999 
+46| Manager - mining production|4,221| $183,221 | $153,194 
+47| Doctor - medical practitioner - other|19,135| $177,466 | $127,404 
+48| Engineer - mining|6,477| $175,541 | $150,788 
+49| Chief executive officer|183,474| $170,332 | $75,142 
+50| Medical practitioner - general practice|22,289| $166,873 | $137,389 
+51| Engineer - engineering manager|25,546| $156,015 | $130,298 
+52| Medical specialist - pathologist|2,540| $155,607 | $67,173 
+53| Registrar - legal - type not specified|3| $155,456 | $138,740 
+54| Aeroplane pilot|9,072| $155,087 | $132,396 
+55| Mine deputy|8,567| $154,045 | $149,397 
+56| Intellectual property lawyer|392| $149,762 | $112,756 
+57| Dredge operator|611| $149,020 | $158,300 
+58| Company secretary - corporate governance|2,407| $147,541 | $82,795 
+59| Chief information officer|6,738| $147,278 | $113,591 
+60| Defence force personnel - type not specified|3| $147,121 | $157,702 
+61| Plant operator - power generation plant|2,496| $146,106 | $139,052 
+62| Air traffic controller|1,964| $145,146 | $147,739 
+63| Footballer|2,933| $144,184 | $75,722 
+64| Geophysicist|1,258| $144,056 | $104,125 
+65| Analyst - financial risk|5,487| $143,830 | $110,697 
+66| Turner - porcelain|2| $143,496 | $143,496 
+67| Metallurgist|1,629| $143,463 | $125,773 
+68| Tribunal member|299| $140,383 | $111,686 
+69| Plant operator - gas plant|3,686| $140,255 | $123,580 
+70| Economist|3,575| $140,190 | $111,695 
+71| Bank manager|20,135| $137,782 | $108,777 
+72| Consultant - mining engineer|481| $136,236 | $124,039 
+73| Consultant - financial investment|3,399| $135,384 | $82,132 
+74| Broker - commodities|936| $135,301 | $91,201 
+75| Geologist|8,000| $133,513 | $109,901 
+76| Computing professional - business development manager|5,674| $133,416 | $111,669 
+77| Computing professional - other manager|32,831| $132,953 | $118,016 
+78| Dentist|8,175| $132,475 | $111,703 
+79| Consultant - management|23,636| $130,399 | $96,710 
+80| Announcer - television|678| $129,392 | $89,123 
+81| Computing professional - account manager|3,601| $129,021 | $110,140 
+82| Engineer - other professional|16,809| $128,326 | $108,145 
+83| Faculty head|721| $127,622 | $106,459 
+84| Design engineer - type not specified|2| $127,609 | $127,609 
+85| Lawyer|56,495| $127,321 | $97,367 
+86| Chemical engineer|6,503| $125,411 | $108,353 
+87| Administrator - funds|2,564| $124,993 | $64,684 
+88| Barrister|1,718| $124,812 | $43,489 
+89| Train controller|1,424| $123,214 | $128,494 
+90| Engineer - type not specified|260| $122,881 | $106,636 
+91| Computing professional - project manager|26,369| $121,976 | $111,481 
+92| Ship's captain or master|2,744| $121,762 | $96,800 
+93| School principal|12,454| $121,685 | $118,515 
+94| Industrial relations manager|26,661| $121,472 | $99,316 
+95| Finance manager|53,648| $120,800 | $86,467 
+96| Engineer - marine|4,644| $119,935 | $105,585 
+97| Director - wholesaling company|2,897| $119,627 | $66,658 
+98| Coal miner|33,563| $118,932 | $118,571 
+99| Helicopter pilot|1,631| $118,866 | $107,100 
+100| Corporate services manager|10,811| $118,531 | $97,010
+My story:  About 3 years ago I had been learning about markets independently and after studying charts for a while I decided that price movements are methodical ergo (al-go) that method can be mapped out to something like a decision tree and then assigned probabilities. (a markov model..it's already established science so..easy right? ) Well, after thousands of hours of research, data finessing (etl), charting, analysis, coding, testing, tearing down and building up, I'm even more convinced that price movements are indeed VERY methodical - even more than what I originally hypothesized.  BUT - disappointingly - I'm less convinced that a single person with average means can both map it, *AND* milk it. There are just too many jobs associated with getting it right.  (︶︹︶)   I'm so invested in it now that I want to see it through, I need to figure out what the next phase is.
+
+To figure that out I've finally been posting some of my work here to get feedback from more established and decidedly profitable quants/algo-traders. The most common feedback I've been getting is "*price behavior analysis is a dead end - just don't do that.  At least when performed in a vacuum (without conferring other sources of data) Instead, find some unique data and a niche that works and you can find some alpha...when that stops working find another one"*  Ok I get that point, and I've worked in predictive marketing analytics for more than a decade where the more datapoints you have the better you can predict human behavior.  It's true to a scary degree. (there's some truly frightening Westworld shit out there already, partly why I don't want to contribute to that world anymore) I understand the "big data" approach but unfortunately, it's just not what I set out to do...I really believe that the key to consistent and significant alpha is understanding/modeling what the market is doing, not why it's doing it.
+
+...So what's the consensus, and why? I've been researching this debate online, and most of the stuff I've found just doesn't measure up to what I consider to be evidence-based. There are a million random-walk simulations in python, (seems to be standard coursework in data science these days, maybe just as a hands on introduction to stochastic principles?) but none of them seem to discuss why the market is similar or not. If you compare a random walk to market data there is no similarity whatsoever, but maybe i'm missing the point that they're attempting to make?? Can anyone shed some light?
+I’m having trouble getting my credit card bills under control. I have $3,600 on one credit card with 19% interest and $1,300 on a second with 22% interest. I make about $2,500 a month in income and contribute $1,000 to a joint checking account with my girlfriend that handles rent, condo fees, utilities and groceries. 
+
+My question is how to pay off these debts while still being able to have date days/nights and less anxiety over spending money outside of essentials.
+OP:
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p3x6lq/my\_buddy\_worked\_at\_archegos\_when\_it\_went\_down/?sort=new](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p3x6lq/my_buddy_worked_at_archegos_when_it_went_down/?sort=new)
+
+Comment is here:
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p3x6lq/my\_buddy\_worked\_at\_archegos\_when\_it\_went\_down/h9yqega/?utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_source=share&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p3x6lq/my_buddy_worked_at_archegos_when_it_went_down/h9yqega/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
+
+*Update!! I just talked to my buddy.*
+
+*It was swaps that forced them to go under. As far as which ones, he doesn’t know, as it was played super close to the chest.*
+
+*He is allowed to buy/sell GME, however sold all his shares for another company that I won’t mention here. Has nothing to do with any of the “meme” stocks either.*
+
+*He said IF they were short GME, the open positions MIGHT still 100% open and someone MIGHT own them.*
+
+Posting for visibility. OP doesn't like attention and I love attention. Shrug. We got all kinds in here...
+Hi, I am 26 years old, live in Italy and will soon get a master's degree in Economics and finance. I was thinking about moving abroad to work in 2022 and was considering two countries, Ireland and Germany.
+Keep in mind that I don't speak German very well (A2/B1)
+If you have any other suggestions I'll be glad to hear them.
+Hi,
+
+So basically I want to ask for some advice about what to do with my life right now because I´m quite confused and lost. I used to work in hospitality for a long time and suddenly made a move to become a web developer and somehow made it. Now I have a remote job with a flexible schedule in a company where they treat me really well. I´m making 2300€ a month (before taxes) as a JR dev however I feel that´s gonna get a bump soon as I´ve been doing really well since I joined.
+
+Here´s the meat of the whole situation, I live in Barcelona, Spain, and the city has become unbearable to me. It used to be good but now it has become filled with crime, filth, and lots of noise constantly. People are just extremely noisy and annoying everywhere. It used to be that this happened in certain areas of the city only but now it´s everywhere and there´s nothing you can do, fighting with people about it is futile and it´s just too much for any one person to go against.
+
+Currently I´m working as a freelancer so I have to pay a legal advisor and some annoying fees so I´m barely cashing 1800€ a month after all of it, which is really kind of shit. I spend all my money in rent, expenses and taxes. I really don´t do anything, I can´t have a gym subscription, go eat out, do any traveling. My life is basically just working to live in a shitty apartment and go the park to do some sport a few times a week. That´s all I do. Literally. If I spend anything beyond that then I can´t even save any emergency money for any eventualities that may ocurr, which is not something I´d be comfortable with. 
+
+My company are opening business in Spain now and they´ve offered me to give me a permanent contract which would be nice just to avoid all the freelancer and legal advisor fees I´m paying right now. Maybe I´d be bagging 2k a month that way. However I´m wondering if I should ever tell them to go ahead with it because I´m pretty convinced about leaving this place. I´ve been really eyeing southeast Asia lately. I hear you can live really well there with a bit less than 1k a month. I´m thinking if I get a salary bump closer to 3k soon, I´d be able to save around 2k a month living somewhere in SE Asia, that would be really nice. Also I feel my quality of life would improve there. I´d be able to go out more, eat out, go to the gym, and maybe live in a nicer place (my apartment and neighborhood here suck badly).
+
+One thing I´m really wondering because I have no idea about it, is what´s the best way for me to deal with my employer. If I go to SE Asia for example, should I try to get a work visa there and then become a freelancer in whatever country I´m living in so I can avoid paying taxes to the Spanish gov? is that even possible? I hear Cambodia is about to launch a 5-year working visa option for people such as myself, that would be sweet.
+
+Anyway, these are only some ideas I´m having but nothing is set in stone. I really want to leave this place ASAP but I can´t just yet, I need to solve a few issues first. So in the meantime, I would really like to hear some advice for people who may have been in my situation and maybe have a different scope of knowledge where they can guide me towards the best course of action. Honestly, I just want a place where I can live well, do sport, eat out and be able to focus on growing in my profession without being annoyed by a bunch of disrespectful, crazed people. I´ve seen they have these condos in SE Asian countries where digital nomads live and it´s all included. Maybe that´d be a good option for me? Anyway if you got this far reading thank you and I appreciate any advice you may give me about possible locations and work arrangements for my current situation which still is a bit alien to me.
+My post has been deemed as FUD. So rather than leave the post up, I've decided the right thing to do is to delete the post outright. I've learned the hard way that having opinions that challenge the herd mentality is unwelcome. I believed that the experience I had trading derivatives for an investment bank would provide some valuable counterparty insight, but clearly, I was wrong.
+
+I'll also be leaving the sub and clearing my account of all GME/AMC related content. I've always welcomed thoughtful debate and the warmth of this community, but after receiving multiple insults, death threats, and being told to kill myself, I now see that this community has changed into something reckless and dangerous that I no longer wish to be a part of. 
+
+Best of luck to you all. I sincerely hope you all receive the life-changing money that you're hoping for.
+Basically I was underpaid (something was not on the system correct when the system changed).
+
+After 2 weeks of chasing I got most of the money, I was forwarded the email asking accounts to pay me. The email said ‘XXXX is owed about £90’ so I received £90 when it should have been £94.50. 
+
+Just seems very lazy on their behalf not to see how much I actually am owed. After all the effort I went through to get the money owed just seems like they will think I am being petty.
+
+Thoughts?
+
+**UPDATE**
+
+It’s being added to my next pay. Freddos on me boys, they are still 10p right?
+If you want to open long margin position, look first at lending rates.  
+ATM they are as huge as 3.5% daily(!) for BTC  
+And I think the rate will remain as high at least for August 1st, including.
+I don’t get it. I have bought thousands worth of crypto already but haven’t sold a single cent.
+
+Who else is like me? I always think that if I sell now, it’s going to pump back up and I’ll have to rebuy at a higher price.
+We have seen glitches before and we have seen brokers' data not adding up - so when TDA changes their SI for popcorn, to show 40%+, I shrug. Meh. 
+
+BUT then it's not that it happened, again 'glitches', but the timing of it! GME making absolutte value moves, becomes THE MOST mentionned ticker on Reddit, and then this happens? 
+
+If it is this easy to have all attention focused on something else, then we realise how perfect a distraction tool popcorn can be.
+
+Buy. Hold. DRS. Buckle up. 🚀🚀
+Just about everything about it screams scam.
+
+When you look up info about how to spot a scam coin, one of the things it tells you to look out for is...
+
+###Signs of a scam coin
+
+1. **"Unknown Group of Entrepreneurs are Running it"**
+
+The Federal Reserve is run by a group of "Unknown Private Investors"
+
+2. **Whois lookup on one of their websites comes back anonymous or unavailable.**
+
+WHOIS look up for UsMint .gov  tells me
+"Information not available or no support for .gov"
+
+3. **Shilling you to believe it's real by offering multiple periodic Airdrops**.
+
+We're on our 3rd Stimulus now?
+
+4. **Confusing whitepaper thats overwritten, and difficult to understand**
+
+Anyone ever try to read, and understand Federal Reserve banking laws, or policies?
+Some things can be understood but usually it's written almost entirely in Dog Latin, and you're going to need a lawyer to interpret that just like you'll need a fraud lawyer with crypto experience to go over that whitepaper when you're going after that scam coin to get your money back.  It's also INSANELY OVERWRITTEN.  The USD white paper will literally take you months to go over and understand. 
+
+5. **GitHub Source has no supply limit set**(Devs can Mint coins)
+
+Ahhh.... Nah, those private investors I don't know wouldn't want to do that. Besides, that would devalue the dollar, and severely hurt their credibility.
+
+Stop spreading conspiracies , and stop doing that weird Crypto thing! You're killing the environment! - non crypto users
+Given the property price in Sydney, how can you buy a house or an apartment in Sydney and save money to invest reasonable amount in shares ect at the same time. The mortgages rate is also pretty low atm. What if it goes up
+I'm decently on the way to fire/fatfire. As John goodman said...coming on for 2m in the bank a house paid off with a 25 year roof and a cheapish Japanese car.  I am struggling at the minute to stick with it all. Have a couple of hundred k uninvested and it seems much more than ever to be burning a hole. I haven't spent any... But boy I am more than normally tempted. I keep pricing out the new f-type jaguar for some 70k, or a getaway home in the city (SF) I'm happy justifying through maybe renting but know it's really for me and a small mortgage payment, or a beach house or just about anything rather than adding and investing more. I guess the boring middle. How to stay focused?! Almost need to get it invested and out of sight and mind. But have funded a bunch of stuff and am finding it hard to keep a hold of the chunk that's in cash without wasting or indulging, or funding another venture. Any tips?
+1. No more than 20% of your savings/investments in crypto. Volatility is real. This is speculation. 
+2. Every 10 days there is a dip. Sometimes it is mild, sometimes it hurts if you bought near the ATH. Till now, after the second and before the third deep, the value of the coin/token under scrutiny was higher than before the first dip. This means that, if you hold your position, your money will grow despite the dips. 
+3. Invest the 80% of your crypto money in Eth and Btc. These are among the least risky high risk cryptos. 
+4. Invest the 20% of your crypto money in low cap, low cost tokens, trying to get more than 50.000 tokens for each penny-crypto you buy. Volatility here is very high, but you can earn some money even in 20/40 days. In this range, I choose the projects that I think can have a positive impact in the broader, potential, community. 
+5. During a dip, do not leave your positions unless the impact of your potential loss (coin dipping to zero) is gonna ruin your life (but it shouldn’t if we stick to number 1), or unless the dipping isn’t transforming your wallet from life changing/enhancing to just meh. 
+6. Do not fomo. There will always be a crypto having a great, once-in-a-lifetime possible, performance. Buy that crypto if you can afford the right amount, but buy it in addiction to your cryptos and only during the next dip (there will be one) or, if you really cannot wait, at least after the token/coin correction.
+7. Be light with yourself: even in 2 months I saw alts that I wanted to buy, but that I left behind, going 400x. This is a game made of choices. Don’t blame yourself and try to be patient. 
+8. This is crypto: nobody knows shit. 
+9. During a bull run, redditors and twitters are euphoric. They want to go to the Lambo riding the moon. During a dip, despair rises. People question everything, even the very meaning of their lives, when red is the color. 
+10. This is crypto: nobody knows shit. 
+
+Cheers
+
+EDIT
+I���m now following some self-proclaimed crypto-analysts. They sketch obvious geometries over a chart, quotes a very basic Fibonacci’s rule and say “it could go up or it could go down”. This reinforces my findings number 8 and number 10.
+
+EDIT 2
+I can obviously change pov making more experience. I’m not saying that these are some kind of rules. This is just what I can say to myself today, after 2 months into the game. Two months ago, I would have been glad to read this list. 
+
+EDIT 3
+I chose Eth as my main crypto bid not only for its potential growth and stability, but because it can be the engine of the biggest revolution after Internet: the decentralization of the micro-credit and the democratization of the remuneration of the copyright of an idea. And because the engine of this engine is a guy who has the ability to avoid banality: https://www.google.com/amp/s/cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-buterin-nfts-are-a-social-good-not-just-a-casino-for-rich-celebrities/amp
+
+EDIT 4
+I just cried looking at the eth chart
+Hi /r/personalfinance, I posted in April about my family's dire financial situation brought on by my father's Alzheimer's diagnosis and the other hardships we have undergone since his layoff in 2013.  A lot has happened since then, and I thought the community deserved an update.  Before I begin, I would like to thank all of those who commented and upvoted my post.  Thanks to your input it reached the front page of PF and received a great deal of visibility, and I was able to receive some great suggestions.  My family was humbled by your outpouring of support.
+
+First, I'll address the primary issues that brought me to this subreddit seeking advice: our loss of health insurance and our pending loss of food stamps.  We understood that when my Dad's disability case was approved, he would lose his food stamp money.
+
+1.  The relationship between the Health Care Marketplace and individual insurance companies in Alabama is strained at best, and as /u/nuovo_donna pointed out, many of our problems stem from Alabama's refusal to take the Medicare expansion plan, which I educated myself on after making this post.  Nonetheless, I participated in several three-way calls with my mother and Health Care Marketplace reps, and we were able to join a $500/month plan partially subsidized by the federal government.  It's not great, but it's better than nothing at all.
+
+2.  Regarding the disability/food stamps debacle, I took /u/nuovo_donna 's advice once again and wrote to all Alabama state representatives, senators, and President Obama about my father's plight.  Most representatives sent me back form letters, but REPRESENTATIVE MO BROOKS (shouting out to him even though I disagree with his political views) pushed Dad's case through the system and we received our first disability payment in June.  It included back payments through October, allowing my parents to start a small emergency fund.  The food stamps office reduced our monthly amount but has not cut us off entirely.
+
+It took several months of arguing and debate, but in June my parents also finally allowed the house to go into foreclosure and moved into a two-bedroom apartment.  I am especially pleased with this development, because it puts my parents' finances in the black for each month.  Instead of losing money monthly as they were in my previous post, they can now save a little each month toward my dad's future long term care needs.  I now have full transparency into my parents' finances, so thank you to /u/lets-go-bravos for helping me put a plan in place towards this end.
+
+My dad is still taking Aricept (the generic version -- thanks /u/dutch_ninja ) and his doctors have also added Prozac and are experimenting with Namenda at the moment.  He has good days and bad days, but on his good days we are able to converse fluidly and enjoy our time together.
+
+I've been very busy with all of these life changes, but I unexpectedly landed a paid internship this summer in the insurance field at a Fortune 100 company.  While insurance is not related to my field of study in college, I find it interesting, and more importantly it should allow me to support my parents as my dad develops long-term care needs.  I also began dating a wonderful young man in the spring -- he's been nothing but sympathetic to my family's plight, and he lives in the city where my internship is located.  The internship will lead to a full-time job in January if I perform well this summer.  My future is looking brighter for the first time in a very long while.
+
+Thank you again, /r/personalfinance .
+
+Edit:  Wow, thank you so much for the gold!  I'm honored.
+JPM's Dimon rips DC:"It's almost embarrassing being an American...listening to the stupid s*** we have to deal with"
+http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/14/jpms-jamie-dimon-blows-up-at-washington-on-earnings-call.html
+For the purposes of this discussion, let's assume the American progressive movement continues to gain traction and dominates the American political landscape for the next couple of decades. 
+
+What are the likely risks to wealthier families? What are the likely benefits?
+
+I am mostly looking to the redditors on this sub for insight, but I'll get the ball rolling with my very rudimentary understanding of progressive policy.
+
+Potential Risks:
+
+* lower market returns over the long run, given higher taxation, higher minimum wages, anti-corporate policies
+
+* higher income taxes and potentially wealth taxes (unlikely but possible). More impactful for those that have not yet reached FIRE as it will slow their progress, but also impactful for those that have already FIREd
+
+* devaluation of certain asset classes due to regulation (e.g., real estate depreciation as certain property-related tax cuts are removed and pro-tenant rent controls are more widely established) 
+
+
+Potential benefits:
+
+* subsidized health care, which is one of the biggest and most unpredictable expenses for non-working people (without access to employer sponsored health plans)
+
+* lower cost of private education
+
+* Universal Basic Income
+
+* General increase in social safety net, leading to various (small-dollar) benefits
+
+
+I'd like to keep this discussion completely focused on economic impacts on FIRE, and not discuss any other political aspects of  American liberal or conservative policy. Thanks! 
+So yesterday we are celebrated a family members birthday, I couldn't afford much, I got some cool candles for the dessert we're having, & a card (I wrote a nice little message for them as well :)) & gift card to their fav coffee shop ($10) and was told by my other family I should've went all out and bought big or got them a physical item and not a stupid 'gift card' that's inside the card. I thought it would be a good gift since they go to that coffee shop often and is what I could afford, not everyone has tons of money to spend :( thought I did nice thing but some of my family made me feel kind ashamed I didn't get a better 'item' or 'gift'
+
+Just little rant/vent, people think family should be spent more on, what do you think if you had similar situation before or not.
+We could help them. We can tell them which bills to skip, and who to negotiate with about what. How to lower one's pride to go to the food banks. How to suck it up and beg for loans from relatives. 
+
+One of the best books I've ever read explained how poverty living is a set of SKILLS, just like middle class living is, and rich living is.
+
+They are facing a crisis and need new money skills to cope with it.
+
+We could teach them. 
+**TLDR**:
+
+There are currently a number of driving factors that are pointing to a likely increase in Treasury rates.  This is to say that Treasury debt sales (notes, bills, and bonds) are resulting in the government paying more to institutions to borrow money.  One driving factor that can show an increase in Treasury rates is an index that measures liquidity.  Additionally, the bid-ask spread of the Treasury market is a very effective way to determine Treasury market liquidity.  
+
+
+"**Why is this important to the overall market?**" 
+
+The Treasury market becomes more and more susceptible to the volatility and big shifts as liquidity dries up.    
+\--------------------------------------------------
+
+Tonight's journey down the rabbit hole begins here.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/plenty-of-catalysts-to-help-push-treasury-rates-above-2018-highs-1.1762479 ](https://preview.redd.it/kyxvjz3h27y81.png?width=664&format=png&auto=webp&s=df8839bb54e70f134b9071178e9646d06d17f62c)
+
+​
+
+Browsing the terminal again for something interesting and noteworthy, I stumbled across this article, and as always, I started to dig.  So, without further ado....
+
+​
+
+https://i.redd.it/lmlc89lg37y81.gif
+
+​
+
+# Briefly, about the article...
+
+In short, the article discusses the many "catalysts" (or drivers) that will push Treasury rates above previous highs of 2018 as a result of the current bear market in U.S. Treasury debt.
+
+​
+
+# Before we continue, I think it prudent to clarify a minor detail, or two.  
+
+​
+
+**1**.  While the article uses the term "rates" (as in Treasury), what it *means* is yield.
+
+You may find yourself asking **"What Is the Treasury Yield"?**  
+
+As defined by [Investopedia](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/treasury-yield.asp), "*treasury yield is the return on investment, expressed as a percentage, on the U.S. government's debt obligations. Looked at another way, the Treasury yield is the effective interest rate that the U.S. government pays to borrow money for different lengths of time*".
+
+*Why* the term is used somewhat interchangeably is because the Treasury yield is the interest **rate** that the government pays to borrow money.  It is also important to note that Treasury yield is also used as an indicator of investor sentiment towards the economy; higher yields on long-term debt instruments translates to positive sentiment or an "optimistic outlook".
+
+​
+
+**2**.  Treasury debt, or debt instruments, are government issued securities used to raise capital.  Highly sought after, treasury debt can either be   
+
+
+* Treasury Bills (or "T-Bills"), which are short term bonds that mature within a year
+* Treasury Notes (or "T-Notes"), which are bonds with a maturity date of 10 years or less, and 
+* Treasury Bonds (or "T-Bonds"), which are long-term bonds that mature between 20-30 years
+
+​
+
+# Now, onto those catalysts you were talking about...
+
+​
+
+Now before you get excited, I am not referring to "catalyst" in the sense of MOASS or a short squeeze.  In our context, we are simply referring to something that will raise the yield/rate of treasury debt.
+
+1.  Consumer Price Index (CPI) , which will be released this coming Wednesday.  
+2.  Fed Commentary including the recent 50 basis point rate hike, the June 1st target date to begin offloading Treasuries, as well as the ongoing plan of attack for inflation; which *may* or mat not include as much as a 75 basis point hike, which according to at least one Fed President "is not off the table".  
+3.  [Treasury Security Auctions](https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/221/Tentative-Auction-Schedule.pdf), which are run by the Department of Treasury, allow dealers and other market participants to to trade "a specified quantity of a particular security".  
+
+(For more details and information on the Treasury Security Auction process, click [here](https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/current_issues/ci11-2.html#:~:text=Treasury%20auctions%20are%20designed%20to,these%20objectives%20have%20been%20met)).
+
+​
+
+The article *does* go on to list another catalyst, however, should the others fail to produce higher yields; **the US Government Securities Liquidity Index**\--which is where our proverbial "meat and potatoes" of the DD begins.  As government security liquidity dries up, the treasury market as a whole becomes more and more susceptible to volatility, or big shifts.
+
+This index, which reached its highest point of the year this past Friday--as seen below--measures the average yield error for notes and bonds maturing in at least a year.
+
+​
+
+[US Government Securities Liquidity Index; Macro View. ](https://preview.redd.it/6fpdcsvyg7y81.png?width=1435&format=png&auto=webp&s=bdfac6278ba622825c8ba0ebfff593fab37037b5)
+
+​
+
+[US Government Securities Liquidity Index; Micro View. ](https://preview.redd.it/mun6era4h7y81.png?width=1434&format=png&auto=webp&s=3226d58b1024e7f59f39fd1c1945b31af52701b3)
+
+​
+
+# "The past is solid, the future is LIQUID"
+
+\- Jean-Louis Aubert
+
+​
+
+# The Establishment....
+
+​
+
+Alright, let's quickly recap.  So far we have established the following:
+
+* Currently multiple catalysts/drivers that will likely cause Treasury rates/yield to rise
+* Treasury yield is the ROI the government pays to borrow money
+* Treasury yield is made be selling debt, specifically bills, notes, and bonds
+* The US Government Securities Liquidity Index measures the average yield error for notes and bonds maturing in at least a year
+
+​
+
+# But "How do we measure liquidity of the treasury market?"
+
+​
+
+Great Question.  For the answer we turn to Michael J. Fleming; Financial Research Advisor and Department Head Capital Markets Studies at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  In his report [Measuring Treasury Market Liquidity](https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/epr/03v09n3/0309flempdf.pdf)\--which is summarized [here](https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/epr/03v09n3/0309flem/0309flem.html#charts)\--Fleming comprehensively analyzes a number of measures which can be used to determine liquidity in the treasury market.
+
+The measures Fleming identifies are: trading volume, trading frequency, bid-ask spread, quote size, trade size, price impact coefficient, and on-the-run/off-the-run yield spread.  While varying in their degrees of success, it is Fleming's opinion that one reigns supreme.
+
+​
+
+But "**Why?**"
+
+​
+
+As pointed out in the above report on Treasury Market Liquidity, 
+
+"*Commonality in liquidity across securities is likely to be strong in the Treasury market given the securities’ common features. Moreover, the high volume of trading in the Treasury market and the absence of rules that limit price changes or bid-ask spreads to specified minimums or maximums make it relatively easy to estimate measures of liquidity precisely*".
+
+# 
+
+# (The Meat...)
+
+# Time to SPREAD the news...
+
+​
+
+Let's start be defining what the bid-ask spread.  As defined by Investopedia, "*a* ***bid-ask spread*** *is the amount by which the ask price exceeds the bid price for an asset in the market.* ***The bid-ask spread is essentially the difference between the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay for an asset and the lowest price that a seller is willing to accep*****t**".
+
+​
+
+Looking at the Department of Treasury's Office of Debt Management's [Fiscal Year 2022 Q2 Report](https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/221/CombinedChargesforArchivesQ22022.pdf), we learn some interesting information regarding the bid-ask spread.
+
+1.  "*Bid-ask spreads have widened across tenors \[See below\], but especially in 7s and 20s*", and  
+2.  "*Wider bid-ask spreads may, in turn, be contributing to the volatility of rates*"  
+3.  "*Bid-ask spreads have risen but are largely in line with the rise in policy uncertainty*"
+
+**(Note**: [Tenor](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tenor.asp) refers to the length of time remaining before a financial contract expires. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term maturity, although the terms have distinct meanings. Tenor is used in relation to bank loans, insurance contracts, and derivative products (Investopedia))
+
+​
+
+Okay, so '**How do we may sense of this bid-ask spread?**".  The below table and excerpt from the aforementioned [report](https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/epr/03v09n3/0309flempdf.pdf) provide us with valuable insight.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/medialibrary\/media\/research\/epr\/03v09n3\/0309flempdf.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/g3tbih2hr7y81.png?width=535&format=png&auto=webp&s=3105e5be8cc692ad3aaca0ddc86a4970548b9b95)
+
+The above table "*reports descriptive statistics for average daily bid-ask spreads for the on-the-run bills and notes. Consistent with market quoting conventions, bill bid-ask spreads are reported in basis points, based on the discount rate, and note bid-ask spreads are reported in 32nds of a point, where one point equals 1 percent of par.*
+
+*The longer maturity securities, which tend to be more volatile (in price terms), also have wider bid-ask spreads (in price terms). The ten year note thus has an average spread of 0.78 32nds, whereas the two-year note has an average spread of 0.21 32nds. The one-year bill has the narrowest spread among the bills in terms of yield, at 0.52 basis point, but the widest spread among the bills in terms of price*"
+
+​
+
+​
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/medialibrary\/media\/research\/epr\/03v09n3\/0309flempdf.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/19xgyn3jo7y81.png?width=763&format=png&auto=webp&s=69c2b3a37d73e7aba9a5cb0bb42ea63522fe6ce0)
+
+[https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/medialibrary\/media\/research\/epr\/03v09n3\/0309flempdf.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/7q7frp3jo7y81.png?width=765&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb3cb5c58b892f6c7b539bef097e9b80e9ef8f32)
+
+​
+
+So, "**What do these charts mean?**"
+
+Recall from earlier that bid-ask spreads have been widening, which in turn can contribute to volatility in rates (yield), likely as a result of uncertainty regarding policy.
+
+Since the bid-ask spread is indicative of liquidity, and the bid-ask spread is on the rise... and the Fed is reducing it's balance sheet, which further lowers liquidity of bonds, the Treasury market is in store for some big volatile shifts.
+
+​
+
+# (The Potatoes...)
+
+# The Tightening....
+
+Now that we have set the groundwork, covering treasury securities, the yield (or interest rate) the government pays to borrow money, securities market liquidity, and how this liquidity can be measured, let's talk numbers; specifically the Fed's balance sheet which shows nearly $9T as of May 4, 2022.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/releases\/h41\/current\/ ](https://preview.redd.it/pilpq345aay81.png?width=918&format=png&auto=webp&s=abda0a243b5d23ee74535ea4e266fe5ed6abed4e)
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/releases\/h41\/current\/ ](https://preview.redd.it/l6etl845aay81.png?width=1186&format=png&auto=webp&s=90750fa120f5b645873cb76088134a044e1a110b)
+
+​
+
+Pursuant with the Principles for Reducing the Size of the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet that were issued in January 2022, the Federal Reserve recently released their [Plans for Reducing the Size of the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20220504b.htm).  
+
+According to this,
+
+"
+
+* The Committee intends to reduce the Federal Reserve's securities holdings over time in a predictable manner primarily by adjusting the amounts reinvested of principal payments received from securities held in the System Open Market Account (SOMA). Beginning on June 1, principal payments from securities held in the SOMA will be reinvested to the extent that they exceed monthly caps.
+   * **For Treasury securities, the cap will initially be set at $30 billion per month** and **after three months will increase to $60 billion per month**. The decline in holdings of Treasury securities under this monthly cap will include Treasury coupon securities and, to the extent that coupon maturities are less than the monthly cap, Treasury bills.
+   * **For agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, the cap will initially be set at $17.5 billion per month** and **after three months will increase to $35 billion per month.**
+* Over time, the Committee intends to maintain securities holdings in amounts needed to implement monetary policy efficiently and effectively in its ample reserves regime.
+   * To ensure a smooth transition, the Committee intends to slow and then stop the decline in the size of the balance sheet when reserve balances are somewhat above the level it judges to be consistent with ample reserves.
+   * Once balance sheet runoff has ceased, reserve balances will likely continue to decline for a time, reflecting growth in other Federal Reserve liabilities, until the Committee judges that reserve balances are at an ample level.
+   * Thereafter, the Committee will manage securities holdings as needed to maintain ample reserves over time.
+* The Committee is prepared to adjust any of the details of its approach to reducing the size of the balance sheet in light of economic and financial developments.
+
+"
+
+**Side Note**: Now, what I find interesting about the above plan for "balance sheet normalization", is that there is a specifically defined initial monthly cap on both treasury securities, agency debt and mortgage-backed securities (MBS).   
+
+*Then*, at an unspecified time,  with no predetermined monthly cap, the FOMC can shift the size of their securities holdings "to implement monetary policy.  In doing this, however, the committee intends to slow and stop the decline in the size of the balance sheet when reserves are at a level--which is also not predetermined--that the committee deems fit.
+
+After this "*the Committee will manage securities holdings as needed to maintain ample reserves over time*".
+
+​
+
+**Speculation**: So, this leaves me wondering, is this another attempt at a grand gesture to give the appearance of cracking down, and doing so long enough as to lull the public and onlookers into believing the FED and FOMC are actively addressing the severe problem with inflation.. only to one day.. randomly, quietly, and covertly just resuming the status quo of excessive money printing like always, once the onlookers are then distracted by something else?!?!?
+
+​
+
+https://i.redd.it/qje0ozc19ay81.gif
+
+.
+
+.
+
+.
+
+Time will tell...
+
+​
+
+# "It's Tricky, Tricky, Tricky.."
+
+​
+
+Similar to Quantitative Easing (QE), its antithesis, Quantitative Tightening (QT)--or balance sheet normalization--is not without its dangers.  A few in particular is highlighted in [US Federal Reserve: Quantitative tightening and its implications](https://institutional.rbcgam.com/documents/en/common/article/us-federal-reserve-quantitative-tightening-and-its-implications.PDF?language_id=1), a report written by David Riley Chief Investment Strategist BlueBay Fixed Income Team at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in January 2022.
+
+(For convenience and context, here is a summary of the report)
+
+[https:\/\/institutional.rbcgam.com\/documents\/en\/common\/article\/us-federal-reserve-quantitative-tightening-and-its-implications.PDF?language\_id=1 ](https://preview.redd.it/7xnu2hjfbay81.png?width=630&format=png&auto=webp&s=39a85fc0397845c04163cabf4fa7e7708368d5d1)
+
+​
+
+In this report, Riley makes many good points related to the quantitative measures that will be taken by the Fed, but points out some lessons learned that I think are apropos to at least mention, and possibly take into consideration.
+
+​
+
+* "*In the first 12 months of the previous episode of QT, the yield curve bear flattened as the Fed hiked rates, though in 2019 the curve bull flattened as investors became concerned about the economic outlook and a potential ‘policy mistake’ by the Fed*"
+* "*Inasmuch as record Fed purchases of Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) has contributed to deeply negative real yields, a run-off in Fed TIPS holdings could result in a sharper rise in real yields that is typically associated with a stronger US dollar and challenge the valuation of riskier and long duration growth assets*"
+
+Wait... "**What are TIPS??**"
+
+As defined by [TreasuryDirect.gov](https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_tips_glance.htm#:~:text=Treasury%20Inflation%2DProtected%20Securities%2C%20or,original%20principal%2C%20whichever%20is%20greater), Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) **provide protection against inflation**. The principal of a TIPS increases with inflation and decreases with deflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. When a TIPS matures, you are paid the adjusted principal or original principal, whichever is greater
+
+According to [BNNBloomberg.ca](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/plenty-of-catalysts-to-help-push-treasury-rates-above-2018-highs-1.1762479), the five-year TIPS yields rose more than 150 basis points in 40 trading days through May 3, the fastest pace since 2008.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/plenty-of-catalysts-to-help-push-treasury-rates-above-2018-highs-1.1762479 ](https://preview.redd.it/0qbe53zoday81.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=10576e7b6f84ce7921ee84a3eb9b29550eec7390)
+
+​
+
+* "*The Fed is unlikely to formally specify a terminal or ‘normalized’ size of the balance sheet – it will depend on the level of bank reserves with the Fed consistent with effective monetary operation (****when bank reserves fell below USD1.5 trillion in 2019, there was a spike in money market rates, prompting Fed purchases of Treasury bills****)*"
+
+# The Repos....
+
+Going back to the report from David Riley Chief Investment Strategist BlueBay Fixed Income Team at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), we see the following passage:
+
+"*Fed asset purchases and sales effectively determine the size of bank reserve balances with the Fed that currently stand at USD4.1 trillion compared to USD1.6 trillion prior to the pandemic.* ***The projected run-off in Fed securities holdings would imply that bank reserves would fall to around USD1.5 trillion by the end of 2024, but it is likely that banks would reduce its use of the Fed’s overnight reverse repo facility****, which exploded in 2021 from just USD1 billion to more than USD1.6 trillion (see Fig. 2), and the reduction in banks’ reserve balances would be less*".
+
+​
+
+As stated by the [DTCC](https://www.dtcc.com/clearing-services/ficc-gov/repo), "*Reverse repurchase agreements are used by institutions to earn income on their excess cash reserves. When the securities are sold, the sellers simultaneously agree to repurchase the securities on a specified day at a given price, including interest calculated using a rate agreed upon at the time the sale takes place. The portion of the repo transaction when the security is sold is referred to as the 'start' leg, while the subsequent repurchase is called the 'close leg. The borrower, and therefore the person providing the collateral, is called the 'repo dealer'; the cash provider is called the 'reverse dealer' or 'lender.' Except for a forward start repo, the 'start leg' of the typical repo will settle as a normal transaction. The 'close leg' will be part of the netting process on the respective settlement date*".
+
+​
+
+**FUN FACT**: For anyone who may not know, the [DTCC](https://www.dtcc.com/-/media/Files/Downloads/Clearing-Services/FICC/MBSD/full-service-contact-list.pdf) is just a consortium of individuals from financial institutions who came together form a financial services company that provides clearing and settlement services to financial markets.  As you would have guessed, of course, this consortium includes our old friends Citadel.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.dtcc.com\/-\/media\/Files\/Downloads\/Clearing-Services\/FICC\/MBSD\/full-service-contact-list.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/e3c4j50chay81.png?width=916&format=png&auto=webp&s=39856c8dd7a76a4627ba6fbb42f4fd0cce5c7308)
+
+At this point of this extensive DD, it  is actually a good point to segway into what is really where I ultimately wanted to get with all of this... Hedge Funds.
+
+For the purposes of this DD, we will focus on Citadel, as they are an institution just about all are familiar with in some form or another.
+
+​
+
+# But before we do that, let's do another quick recap, since you're still here and have read this far..
+
+There are a number of factors which are threatening the government securities market.  These threats to government securities, specifically bonds, play a major role in our financial systems.  These bonds are traded daily in the repo (or "repurchase") market, be it a traditional repurchase agreement or reverse repurchase agreement.
+
+Okay, so, because there are threats to government securities, and factors like the bid-ask spread and TIPS are on the rise, this will ultimately effect the repo market, which is very important to hedge funds.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/markets\/desk-operations\/reverse-repo ](https://preview.redd.it/se6uajaxfay81.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=83f8242e0656fdafc597f9c485dd2c2db571a63f)
+
+​
+
+"**Why does this matter to hedge funds??**"
+
+As stated in Citadel's financial statement, they utilize repos and reverse repos to cover short positions. 
+
+It is likely a fair assessment and theory that if one of the largest and most notable hedge funds is engaging in a financial practice, there are likely many others following suit.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1146184\/000128417022000004\/CDRG\_BS\_Only\_FS\_2021.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/nf5391vfpay81.png?width=979&format=png&auto=webp&s=f24a827a3ec5e91fed3f9175c9e79562fe0a13ac)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+So, **What is a Master Netting Agreement?**
+
+A master netting agreement is an arrangement wherein two counterparties enter into a transaction that offsets each other, in essence, hedging each other. These transactions are said to be "offset" because a gain for one of the counterparties is a loss for the other. Master netting agreements utilize the practice of **net settlement**, which is the routine of resolving a day's transactions at the close of business, done by banks.
+
+Staying on the topic of repos and reverse repos, we see in Figure VII below that Citadel collaterizes these agreements by receiving or pledging securities obtained through rehypothecation.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1146184\/000128417022000004\/CDRG\_BS\_Only\_FS\_2021.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/07zwuhc4qay81.png?width=565&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc1a3cddf3dfc5c34dc38b89844acdcb6a016d16)
+
+​
+
+Speaking of clearing., BAML provides the large majority of Citadel's  clearing and financing activities.
+
+"*The Company has concentration risk with respect to its derivative financial instruments. At December 31, 2021, BAML serves as clearing and prime broker for 95.65% of the Company’s net derivative assets. See Note 8 for a discussion of credit risk and risk management*"
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1146184\/000128417022000004\/CDRG\_BS\_Only\_FS\_2021.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/hzchxsmmtay81.png?width=816&format=png&auto=webp&s=41d5458b03fda62f9078e861648a23be5415959d)
+
+​
+
+[ https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1146184\/000128417022000004\/CDRG\_BS\_Only\_FS\_2021.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/l3qz8oljpay81.png?width=647&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdd88b6696300e5627a67bc0d605b1f9a46cce20)
+
+$1.74B in securities borrowed and securites loaned, which we mentioned earlier, "The Company" (Citadel) uses to cover short positions.
+
+​
+
+[https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1146184\/000128417022000004\/CDRG\_BS\_Only\_FS\_2021.pdf ](https://preview.redd.it/modhmkhipay81.png?width=654&format=png&auto=webp&s=14ad9943544fb47743c859e073c87b6de9d84746)
+
+$15.77B in securities collateral received for reverse repurchase agreements, and $18.75B in securities collateral pledged for repurchase agreements.
+
+​
+
+​
+
+.
+
+.
+
+# Okay, so what does all of this mean?
+
+In short, the measures being taken by the FOMC to curb inflation--quantitative tightening, or balance sheet normalization--*will* affect the reverse repo market.  Because institutions like Citadel use the repo market to trade government securities (or bonds), their ability to cover short positions *may* be (severely) impacted, as this *can* greatly reduce their collateral and increase risk to their positions.
+
+​
+
+..And yes, I understand this is all an "*if*", and predicated on the Fed following through, and rules and regulations being followed to the letter, and cans not being kicked.  Should we **finally** be at a point where skirting the law, and cherry-picking which rules and regulations to enforce and cherry-picking who is held accountable, we could be sitting at the cusp of something big.
+
+​
+
+So, I am sure that some will be like "tHis Has NotHiNg To Do WiTh Us".  This thinking is wrong.
+
+Should bonds be impacted to the full extent that they can--taking into account all current market conditions--those institutions and bad actors currently betting against the stock market, bond market, housing market, and literally any other market possible... they're ability to continue doing so will be greatly reduced and/or hindered, if not snuffed out completly.  
+
+
+All of this, of course, on top of recent rule/regulation changes, the conflict in Europe, China, etc.. etc..  
+
+
+# We are sitting on a powder keg!
+
+.
+
+.
+
+​
+
+With all that said, I wanted to provide this handy list provided by Bloomberg of upcoming events that may have further impact to our market.
+
+# Key Dates to Look Out For
+
+([https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/plenty-of-catalysts-to-help-push-treasury-rates-above-2018-highs-1.1762479](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/plenty-of-catalysts-to-help-push-treasury-rates-above-2018-highs-1.1762479))
+
+​
+
+* **Economic Calendar**:
+   * May 9: Wholesale inventories
+   * May 10: NFIB small business optimism
+   * May 11: CPI, MBA mortgage applications
+   * May 12: PPI, Weekly jobless claims
+   * May 13: Import and export price index, U. of Mich sentiment  
+
+* **Fed Calendar**:
+   * May 10: New York Fed President John Williams, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic
+   * May 11: Bostic
+   * May 12: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly
+   * May 13: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, Mester  
+
+* **Auction Calendar**:
+   * May 9: 13- and 26-week bills
+   * May 10: 3-year notes
+   * May 11: 10-year notes
+   * May 10: 4-and 8-week bills, 30-year bonds
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/xj9tqpmbxay81.png?width=446&format=png&auto=webp&s=b96ead4d6b2fc1f88f19eb3bc8ea62e9b8a832f6
+I've noticed recently that the atmosphere here has changed drastically and while I normally lurk and enjoy reading what others have to say and post it's kind of becoming insufferable. I am by no means an early adopter like some vets here. I bought my first fraction of a coin in August. But with an influx of new subscribers and new crypto fans, the quality of content has been diminishing and so has the overall respect. I see a lot of sentiment posts based on absolutely nothing and a lot of people are being dicks about other people's investments. A couple times today I've seen comments like "wow, you only invested x amount?". C'mon. Leave that shit at the door. Not everyone can drop a smooth 100k. And definitely not everyone should. Vets- understand that people are excited about this and forgive the ignorance and sometimes starry-eyedness (?) of the noobs. Noobs- stop doing everything that we hate (strong word) the bitcoiners for. Respect the fact that there are users on here that have a much better understanding of what's going on tech-wise (I would not classify myself as that) and maybe don't type that asinine comment. I'm not trying to gate keep or bitch about the users here, we all got in for different reasons. Let's just keep the community as forward thinking and advanced as the tech we all know and love is. Anyways, just some thoughts I've had recently. Keep the memes spicy.
+Edit:: **RESOLVED** Thank you all for your help and advice. It ended up being an easy task in their portal that the phone operators weren't able to guide me to. They have all these different options in their calculators in the portal and when I clicked on all of them it said they would reach out to me. However, I found that if I used the "schedule payment" option instead of the other "lump sum" options the payment is going through and reflecting the balance on the calculators on the portal. I did a test run to make sure it's working properly so we'll see. I'll also confirm with them that the PMI will be removed if I pay the balance on their "PMI Removal" calculator. I feel like an idiot for not seeing this before, but I'll transfer some of the blame to the call operators as well.... it was such an easy thing I feel like they should have known. Also if they just emailed me in the 5 business days like they said they would it would also be resolved a lot faster 
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+My wife and I initially put 10% down on our home and we have now saved enough to pay off the rest of the 20% to remove PMI. On my payment portal for my mortgage I don't have an option to pay anything else other than my standard mortgage payment. I can make extra "payments" , but to pay a "lump sum" I need to file a request on the portal. 
+
+That's all fine, but when I file the request I get a notification that the company will contact me in 5 business days regarding the request. I've made this request probably 20 times since mid May and have not received any kind of communication. 
+
+When I call their 800 number I get a customer service person who seems to not understand what I am requesting and it takes an hour of explaining and talking for them to "get it." I've called twice and each time they've just told me to wait for a response on the request from the portal. They confirmed my email was correct and I have nothing in my spam folder. I also confirmed on each phone call (latest one was last week) that they had not sent me the authorization to make the lump sum payment.
+
+
+Edit: Clarification: The loan is about a year and 1/4 old 
+
+Is there anywhere I can make a complaint about this? I feel like they don't want me to make this payment on my mortgage. Is there another course of action I should take?
+Hi all, 
+
+I'm the guy who posted about how investors traditionally have 45 days before year end to give notice to hedge funds which was around 11/15. 
+
+I just want to speculate on this topic since in a very weird fashion, Ken did an interview a week prior to this deadline and now Shitadel tweeted for the first time since their Twitter meltdown and they're acting like nothing happened. 
+
+Btw proud of you apes liting up their comment section lmao. 
+
+My speculation is, investors decided to pull funds. And Ken told them "no, reddit people left, we'll prove it by tweeting". 
+
+Ken has no proof that we left. Just look at the price and volume. No one is selling. And he knows it 
+
+So why did he tweet knowing we'll fuck him up in the comments? 2 pieces of speculation:
+
+1. Either this was a last desperate attempt to keep their clients. Hail Mary play
+2. Or Ken paid Twitter to cleanse their comment section and Twitter dropped the ball. 
+
+Honestly, makes no sense to do his interviews and claiming we left and trying to prove it on Twitter. Either this was his last and only option (which failed spectacularly) or he thought no one would comment because he paid off Twitter. 
+
+Whatever it was, it backfired. If this was his last attempt at convincing investors to stay, it failed. I expect their investors will pull out their funds and they gave or will give their notice.
+
+If this is true, Ken has until 12/31 to give their investors their money back.
+
+Edit: 
+
+Let me give you an analogy. Imagine two guys about to fight. First they start talking shit. Now imagine one of these guys knows he won't win but keeps on talking shit. This is appearing strong when you are weak. 
+
+Now imagine that guy saying "let's go outside and settle this". This isn't trying to appear strong. This now crosses to "let me show you i am strong". This is what citadel did when they tweeted with comment section turned on. 
+
+They are truly outnumbered by us. So on Twitter, we would be louder voice. So why would he try to prove he is strong when he knows he'll lose? Honestly, makes zero sense. 
+
+It's basically choosing to do something when you're very likely to lose. Basically a suicide mission. My position is, they had to do it because this was best option. And if this was their best option, they're massively fucked
+To what degree are they successful? FI/ER?
+
+I am curious because the majority of my customers that actively trade, are complete morons who rack up commissions and would be better off holding long.
+After years of grind, testing multiple strategies, and even paying other experts to receive trading signals, I proved to myself that the best way to become successful in the trading industry is by **backtesting** your trading strategy. I spend 2H a day **backtesting** my trading strategy in different commodities, stocks, and Forex. I am still not rich, but I am slowly building my empire. I'll tell you a quick story about my own experience:
+
+**#1 Your Average Trade Execution Time (ATET)**
+
+Backtesting will help you discover your **ATET** in whatever timeframe you currently trade. My biggest decision in trading was to stick to one timeframe. I chose the 1H chart, **backtested** multiple trading strategies, and developed my own trading system based on my personality. I mixed and matched a series of aggressive and safe strategies that I felt most comfortable working with. After backtesting over 250 trades, I discovered that my **ATET** was **1-3 days (in the 1H chart)** and my average **weekly** net profit was 1-2% of my total capital. This helped me quit closing positions due to **FOMO** and **FUD**.
+
+**#2 Same Decision-Making Process**
+
+After testing your trading strategy hundreds of times, you will realize a hidden decision-making process behind every successful trade you have. For example; My decision-making process consists of 3 simple steps: **a)** Identify if either the bulls or the bears are controlling the market, **b)** wait for 2 candle pattern confirmations, **c)** open a position in the second confirmation with a 3:1 risk-reward ratio.
+
+**#3 YOU WILL SUCCEED**
+
+I understand that sometimes we get sidetracked by FOMO or FUD, but the only way to defeat it is with confidence. In the trading world, confidence comes through backtesting. Some traders get motivated after losing because they take it as part of the learning process. Still, unfortunately, most traders lose all their confidence by having a series of small losses. So before going to the market and throw your capital into a burning machine, please take your time to backtest a trading strategy enough times to **#1** know your **ATET** and **#2** apply the same decision process on every trade.
+
+Thank you.
+A month ago, I made a post about Breakouts. A few people asked me to write a similar one for **Pullbacks.** Although this is a very simple setup, there are a lot of nuances which I will try to explain without writing an entire article. Here goes...
+
+Much like the Breakout, the Pullback is also **one of the most popular and oldest setups around.** Jesse Livermore—who I love to quote—traded this pattern **over 100 years ago**. In his words:
+
+>*I become a buyer as soon as a stock makes a new high on its movement after having had a normal reaction.*
+
+Let’s translate that to 2022 English, Fam.
+
+[Livermore is probably rolling over in his grave right now](https://i.redd.it/74jg5qodcdy91.gif)
+
+# A Framework to View the Markets: The Market Cycle
+
+Before we look at pullbacks in detail, we first must understand **a fundamental concept called the Market Cycle.** In laymen’s terms, there are four stages that an instrument goes through in some shape or form. 
+
+[Four Stages of the Market Cycle - Applies to all tradable assets](https://preview.redd.it/sqneq47gcdy91.png?width=646&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d194a399725b803fc8c930b82de8e981efc4f66)
+
+I won’t bore you with the human psychology and emotions behind this theory; please look into **Richard Wyckoff's** body of work for more information. Just know that many institutional traders view the market through this lens. When *'they'* initiate buy/sell programs, that moves prices. And **when big money acts in unison, that creates trends.**
+
+Price can do one of three things: it can go up (Stage 2), down (Stage 4), or sideways (Stages 1 & 3). Pullbacks are trend-following patterns and therefore can only occur in stage 2 and 4. **Here are two simple rules that should keep most traders out of trouble:**
+
+1. During Stage 2 Uptrends: **Buy the Pullbacks and Breakouts**
+2. During Stage 4 Downtrends: **Sell the Rallies and Breakdowns**
+
+# The Fundamental Pattern
+
+On a micro scale, the Market Cycle presents itself as buying and selling waves. Price rarely goes up/down in a straight line. **It ebbs and flows** as Bulls/Bears rotate between buying, adding, taking profit, shorting, and covering. This is the beautiful symphony also known as **Price Action.**
+
+When buying waves are stronger than selling waves, there is more demand pressure (market buy orders hitting the Ask). This causes price to go up. **Bulls are in control.** When the opposite occurs, there is more supply pressure (market sell orders hitting the Bid). This causes price to go down. **Bears are in control.**
+
+[The Fundamental Pattern - The Art and Science of Technical Analysis, by Adam Grimes](https://preview.redd.it/kwmz71atcdy91.png?width=986&format=png&auto=webp&s=739a8d4cb6ffeeebbee4a4761d1e658323272f88)
+
+**A lot of money is required to keep price moving in one direction.** That usually means institutional involvement—they don’t like to lose. So, guess who buys the next pullback to keep the trend going? That’s right: those who are already holding positions from earlier (and those who missed out and are now FOMO’ing). Not to mention all the traders caught on the wrong side of the move. When they are forced to stop out, **it adds fuel to the fire.** The side which is currently in control is now better able to sustain control; **there's a snowball effect.**
+
+# Fractal and Multiple Timeframe Analysis
+
+The fundamental price action pattern of **impulse, retracement, impulse** exists on all timeframes. Each leg is composed of smaller iterations of the same pattern. This is called **a fractal.** I’ve zoomed down to the 10-second—and even 1-second chart—to observe this magical dance occurring in real-time.
+
+[The fractal nature of markets—there's levels to this](https://preview.redd.it/a5z37abxcdy91.png?width=990&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b205ccab9bce16923083dd11fd45583df291855)
+
+**Price action in the wild is never as clean as described in literature.** But once you start viewing the market in cycles which ebb and flow, the day-to-day movement rarely surprises you. Here’s the post-FOMC chart from November 2. It shows a failed continuation move up (oops), followed by multiple legs down. **Impulse, retracement, impulse.**
+
+[November 2, 2022 - The fundamental pattern still visible during post-FOMC chaos](https://preview.redd.it/2tvoxspkldy91.png?width=850&format=png&auto=webp&s=3558ea2e640205d703fa6d16cef4ad84a8fb28f8)
+
+# Pivots and Building Blocks
+
+Below are two very basic shapes. They are little arrowheads—**or pivots**—each with a green line to indicate strong buying, and a red line to indicate strong selling. The apex is the point where control was lost to the opposing side.
+
+[Two simple pivots where price reversed](https://preview.redd.it/xzuohf66ddy91.png?width=362&format=png&auto=webp&s=58af849c5bc109679a29fe84994c0a099c8de33b)
+
+You may remember this shape from such charts as: '***I Bought the Absolute Top’*** or ***‘I Sold at the Very Bottom.’*** And who can forget, ***‘Every Time I Enter a Trade the Market Immediately Goes Against me!’***
+
+Jokes aside—pivots are typically not a cause for concern. They are **normal market behavior** as new entrants join the trade, existing positions take profit, add, trim, etc. **Not every turn in price is a reversal.** By definition, a trend must pullback before going on to make a new high/low.
+
+Look at what happens when I start stacking or combining these basic pivots to build a trend.
+
+[The development of a classical uptrend, with price respecting prior resistance as new support](https://i.redd.it/wwh9yquvddy91.gif)
+
+Let’s use these exact same building blocks to construct my favorite pattern, the **Base Breakdown.**
+
+[Rectangle base breakdown - Impulse, sideways, impulse](https://i.redd.it/je2l6oaxddy91.gif)
+
+The best breakouts/breakdowns rarely offer a second entry on the re-test. Once they go, they are gone.
+
+# Trading the Pullback
+
+That was fun. Let's snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity! Here are illustrations using **candlesticks** rather than MS Paint (still my favorite software since Windows 95 was launched).
+
+[Uptrend: Higher-highs and higher-lows. Buy the pullbacks](https://preview.redd.it/n06xwq2zddy91.png?width=609&format=png&auto=webp&s=126f846d9e49c8e8685c16a19b9daa6722ece1a5)
+
+[Downtrend: Lower-highs and lower-lows. Sell the rallies](https://preview.redd.it/36j63p00edy91.png?width=609&format=png&auto=webp&s=42d11185da14daa05c047854c1660217892ac754)
+
+The textbook entry is *after the pullback* is complete once **the pivot has formed.** That means when the current candle has taken out the prior bar’s range by making a new high (uptrend), or new low (downtrend). Some traders draw a trendline during the pullback and enter on the break of that diagonal line. Both methods are valid since they are relative to price action. **Note that the stop loss is below the pivot low for long, and above the pivot high for short.**
+
+Some traders enter *during the pullback,* before confirmation that a pivot has formed. But how do you know the retracement is complete if a new high/low hasn’t printed? **You don’t.**
+
+[Entry off the rising 20 MA and $60 whole dollar](https://i.redd.it/gc6lbk5yedy91.gif)
+
+This style of pullback trading requires timing and experience. The main reason behind entering *during the reversal* is to **tighten the stop and have a better reward-to-risk.** You must be willing to re-enter if you are initially wrong. Personally, I do this at key levels as seen above. You can fine-tune the entry by going down to a smaller timeframe for better resolution. **Often there is a pullback pattern on the 1 or 2-minute chart not visible on the 5-minute.**
+
+# Two-Legged
+
+Sometimes when price gets too extended, one pullback isn’t enough. Despite an initial attempt to rally, buyers fail to push price higher and there is a **second corrective leg.** If you zoom into a lower timeframe, these are often miniature downtrends in their own right.
+
+[Two-legged pullback, aka the Bi-pedal Pullback](https://preview.redd.it/9q0bjsocfdy91.png?width=852&format=png&auto=webp&s=600445c9b5e4765b48c83bd6739131fe33044ba1)
+
+When you start seeing more than 2 legs of retracements, it’s probably time to start questioning the integrity of the trend (change of character). Are there enough lower-highs and lower-lows to signal the beginning of downtrend? Break in pivot structure **often leads to trend termination**—and sometimes reversals—but this is the topic for another day.
+
+# Moving Averages
+
+You may have noticed most of the above charts contain moving averages (MA). These squiggly lines are useful to gauge the trend at a glance. **I use them as visual shortcuts.** If price is **surfing above a 45-degree sloping MA**, it means we are most likely in an uptrend. This is when we look for pullbacks to go long. If price is **bobbing below a 45-degree sloping line**, we are probably in a downtrend. This is when we look for rallies to go short.
+
+I use two MA’s to monitor the quality of a trend. When both lines are parallel, the trend is moving at a healthy pace relative to time (not extended). These directional moves are considered sustainable until there is evidence to believe otherwise; **the trend is your friend till the end.**
+
+[November 3, 2022 - $FIS 5-minute chart downtrend with multiple pullbacks](https://preview.redd.it/n9sglg9mfdy91.png?width=857&format=png&auto=webp&s=94f52a45f408d39c71c707df049d446187901e62)
+
+There’s very little difference between using the 8, 9, or 10 as your small MA. The same goes for using the 20 or 21 as your big MA. Also, EMA vs. SMA is a matter of preference. Any combination of common MA’s should provide the same picture. **The slope simply measures the velocity at which buying or selling is occurring.**
+
+Note: Some trend traders use moving averages as their trailing stop. **They wait for a candle to close below the MA during an uptrend.** Using trade management criteria such as this allows them to capture the **bulk of a move.** Traders who don’t have clear exit rules often lament about *leaving money on the table.* **How can you know if a move is over if you have no objective way of measuring?!**
+
+[October 28, 2022 - $SPY all-day trend. Can you spot the pullback entries and stops?](https://preview.redd.it/knsdm3ptfdy91.png?width=856&format=png&auto=webp&s=724dca71c736035e6125199a291163034027ff99)
+
+# Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls
+
+I’ve stated before that **trading patterns without context is like trading in a vacuum.** These shapes and setups appear countless times throughout the day. However, there are **additional criteria that make some pullbacks better than others.** They include:
+
+* Fresh catalyst or good daily chart with room to run
+* Position relative to key areas (intraday levels, pre-market, VWAP, etc.)
+* Number of candles during the retracement (2, 3, 4, etc.)
+* Cleanliness of the pullback (fluid with minimal wicks)
+* Depth of retracement (Fibonacci anyone?)
+* Low volume during pullback and increasing volume upon triggering
+* Bottoming/topping tail on the reversal candle that forms the pivot
+* Doji/indecision/narrow candle before a new high/low is made
+* Change in color bar before the turn (aka the pivot)
+* Respecting prior support/resistance areas in pivot structure
+* Trend maturity (the probability of continuation decreases on each subsequent impulse leg)
+* Distance from MA’s (extended or not)
+* At major support/resistance areas on the higher timeframes
+
+Regarding that last point: One crucial skill every trader should learn is the **ability to draw relevant levels.** Below is the 60-min chart of SPY from Friday. I use this example because somebody asked me why the uptrend stalled where it did.
+
+[November 4, 2022 - $SPY hourly chart showing relevant levels for the day](https://preview.redd.it/y4lowch6gdy91.png?width=846&format=png&auto=webp&s=87021eb760700e63ba6ef5a05ccc72d7e41023f9)
+
+Here’s the 2-minute chart showing HOD hit that level at 378.50-ish. LOD also turned out to be the 371 area from above. **Those two zones became the spots where the Stage 2 uptrend and Stage 4 downtrend terminated, respectively.**
+
+[November 4, 2022 - Levels respected on $SPY during the Market Cycle Phases](https://preview.redd.it/hd6yyce7gdy91.png?width=858&format=png&auto=webp&s=7da2fb2eb768df67b4e8b1381657c6d2227cfccc)
+
+**Significant levels are like magnets**—price is attracted to them due to the market's natural tendency to chase liquidity. The trend's final leg pushed into those areas and rejected them. And that formed the **apexes for the day.** It would have been useful to be aware of these zones beforehand if you are a pullback trader, no?
+
+# I See Dead People...They’re Everywhere
+
+If the entire market is composed of the fundamental pattern on all timeframes, then shouldn’t day trading be an ATM for anyone who can catch every single pivot? The first part of that statement is true—**the market consists of the same patterns over and over.** Only a small portion are worth trading, however.
+
+Not every chart looks as clean as the examples I presented above. **Knowing when NOT to get involved is half the battle in trading.** Additionally, the lower the timeframe, the more noise is observed in price action. This is why I believe that **beginners should first learn to read price action on at least a 5 or 15-minute chart** before attempting to scalp off the 1-minute.
+
+Lastly, the market spends more time ranging than trending. Trying to trade pullbacks in these types of conditions will lead to you **getting chopped up—in both directions.**
+
+[A ranged, or trendless, market - Equal highs and equal lows](https://preview.redd.it/rfpmw1segdy91.png?width=505&format=png&auto=webp&s=c88c4fb06269269ce5721f1d354b8ed1c9eb814d)
+
+There are many traders who actually prefer to trade ranges. The peaks and troughs are well-defined and offer great reward-to-risk from end-to-end. Personally, that isn't my cup of tea. **I scan for individual stocks** which are trending and **have the potential to keep moving in one direction.**
+
+Even while day trading, my analysis always starts from the top-down: Daily, Hourly, 15-min, 5-min, and finally the 2-min for entry. It's much easier to catch intraday moves when **institutional, position, and swing traders are on the same side as you.**
+
+And there you have it: my second favorite day/swing trading setup of all-time. Yikes—looks like I just wrote another article! Please feel free to share your own charts since we can now add images to comments :)
+Hi guys, I am currently a student and had saved up quite a bit from taking up part time jobs. I have a dad who is a workaholic, would literally work a day job and do trading at night everyday. He has been in the trading scene for more than 7 years and still going. When i asked him to teach me however, he handed me a couple of books and asked me to read them myself as he does not have the time to teach me. He said he’ll mentor me but i have to know the basics of trading. Do you guys have any suggestions on how i should get started? I’m already in my twenties and i do not want to waste any more time.
+Also, I have never been able to absorb much from books. My father is different, he can read many books like crazy. Is there any other alternatives from learning all the basics without reading books? Im not looking at this as a full-time job yet. I just want to pickup this skill as it is a very valuable and unique skill in my opinion
+Are there really no successful traders who use any indicators in their chart. 
+Something like a momentum indicator will be helpful. But some price action traders say Price is all there is needed. Anyone using indicator is just misguided. 
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+🔥 LP Burned & Ownership renounced
+
+🐳 Anti RUG & WHALES. 100% Safe
+
+💪🏻 Early, Easy Pumping | Community Launched
+
+💵 4% fee auto add to the liquidity pool to locked forever when selling
+
+2% fee auto distribute to all holders
+
+50% Supply is burned at start.
+
+🌀 Slippage > 10%
+
+💸 Contract:
+
+[https://bscscan.com/address/0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae#code](https://bscscan.com/address/0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae#code)
+
+🚀 Buy on PancakeSwap:
+
+[https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?outputCurrency=0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae](https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?outputCurrency=0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae)
+
+🔥 BURN LP:
+
+[https://bscscan.com/tx/0xcc62962a0d9c7287a34f82e90eb23c687155b5e2356a3a1c4edf65a241a5b681](https://bscscan.com/tx/0xcc62962a0d9c7287a34f82e90eb23c687155b5e2356a3a1c4edf65a241a5b681)
+
+🎼 Charts:
+
+[https://poocoin.app/tokens/0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae](https://poocoin.app/tokens/0xeee64ec09f07c8dbb31e36df86ea095b140505ae)
+
+💘 Telegram:
+
+[https://t.me/NFTdoge](https://t.me/NFTdoge)
+So we fed 106 homeless people bag lunches today. All paid for with Bitcoin donations. Bitcoin still seems to be working just fine over here. Still making lives better, at any valuation. 
+
+
+Thanks for everything guys. Bitcoin for the long haul.
+
+
+Jason
+
+Sean's Outpost(www.SeansOutpost.com)
+
+<BITHOC>(www.bithoc.com)
+
+EDIT*** By request...
+
+1JkKn478ivR6iux2pUCjsvqhguPywP3dFH
+I’ve been slowly trying to put a little aside in savings by subtracting my paycheck from my balance the day I get paid, then putting the amount that gives me into savings. Money is tight so I only had about 46 dollars in there. Payday is later than expected this time around a pending charge for contact lenses threatened to put me in overdraft which comes with a 25 dollar fee. Because of my small saving effort I was able to beat the pending charge with a transfer and avoid an overdraft fee while I wait for my paycheck to go in!
+
+Small victories. 
+I know that many of you will probably say S&P 500 without thinking, but the reality is that if you had to choose to use only passive investing that automatically rebalanced (at little to no costs) many of us would choose some form of diversified fund (ie 80/20 stocks/bonds).
+
+When I first started investing 10 yrs ago I chose VBIAX. I did this because Graham suggests a 50/50 for "defensive investors" (his term for someone who isn't going to be an active investor) in Chapter 4 of "The Intelligent Investor", with the allowance to go up to 75% in either category based on market conditions. I felt that if I ever chose a passive investment strategy it would probably be similar to what Graham is describing, namely making broad market allocations, using ETFs, based on macro-economic and market data. 
+
+Since then, my portfolio lagged at first, but within the last year or so has really pulled ahead. I'm starting to think that I would rather use VASGX which has an 80/20 balance, but wanted some thoughts from the group before going forward. I know that Buffett has suggested something closer to 90/10, but that's also with a much longer time and having enough cash being generated that no principal has to be used. I don't know how realistic that is for me in the future.
+​
+
+# 1. Summary
+
+* With great product reviews and a growing obtainable market Johnson Outdoors (ticker: JOUT) seems poised to continue its steady growth.
+* Because of a strong balance sheet and a solid business model, shareholders of Johnson Outdoors only face a medium-low risk.
+* Our monte carlo simulation yields the fair value of Johnson Outdoors shares to be 115.17 USD.
+* For the current share price of 76.48 USD we calculate a 96% chance for the stock to be undervalued.
+
+# 2. Company Overview
+
+Johnson Outdoors is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of branded seasonal, outdoor recreation products used primarily for fishing from a boat, diving, paddling, hiking and camping. 
+
+## 2.1 Segments
+
+The Company’s **Fishing segment** (73.6% of the company's revenues) key brands are: 
+
+**Minn Kota**: electric motors for quiet trolling or primary propulsion, marine battery chargers and shallow water anchors; 
+
+**Humminbird**: sonar and GPS equipment for fishfinding, navigation and marine cartography; 
+
+and **Cannon**: downriggers for controlled-depth fishing. 
+
+The Company’s **Camping segment** (8.4% of the company's revenues) key brands are:  
+
+**Eureka!**: commercial and military tents and accessories, camping furniture and stoves and other recreational camping products; 
+
+and **Jetboil**: portable outdoor cooking systems.
+
+The Company’s **Watercraft Recreation** **segment** (8.8% of the company's revenues) designs and markets canoes and kayaks under the **Ocean Kayaks** and **Old Town** brand names for family recreation, touring, angling and tripping.
+
+The Company’s **Diving segment** (9.2% of the company's revenues) manufactures and markets underwater diving products for recreational divers, which it sells and distributes under the **SCUBAPRO** brand name.
+
+The company’s products generally aim at the premium segment, they are well known in the respective communities and online user reviews are very positive over all segments.
+
+As a manufacturer of luxury goods in a competitive market, the company relies on high quality products and building customer loyalty to have a competitive advantage.
+
+87.7% of revenues are generated in the US, 6.5% in Canada , 4.1% in Europe and 1.7% in other countries.
+
+## 2.2 Management & Culture
+
+Johnson Outdoors is a family business (currently 75% of the voting rights are within the family). Its CEO is Helen Johnson-Leipold, the great-granddaughter of the founder of SC Johnson, the company Johnson Outdoors grew out of. After graduating with a BA in psychology from Cornell University she started her career 1979 in marketing at Foote, Cone & Belding. 1985 she joined the family business SC Johnsen and later in 1992 Johnson Outdoors, where she became CEO in 1999.
+
+Since 2001 the CFO of Johnson Outdoors has been David W. Johnson. He has a MBA from the University of Chicago, was an accountant at Northern Trust and worked for 10 years at Procter & Gamble. 
+
+Employees rate the work environment as a little rigid but efficient and fast paced. On rating apps such as glassdoor, the company is valued at 4.1 out of 5.
+
+# 3. Risk
+
+In the following we divide the risk into three categories.
+
+**Robustness**: How well the company’s business model works in adverse environments.
+
+**Default**: The company’s risk of defaulting on its debt.
+
+**Efficiency**: The ability of the company to maintain and expand its market share with the resources available.
+
+## 3.1 Robustness
+
+The company mainly operates in the premium segment, shielding it from cheap foreign competition, but the market is still very competitive, because of the relatively low switching costs for customers. 
+
+In an economic downturn, luxury goods are the first expense, customers usually cut, this risk is offset to some extent by the company’s strong balance sheet allowing it to weather temporary drops in sales.
+
+As a manufacturer, the company is reliant on fluctuating commodity prices.
+
+We conclude that external factors provide a **medium-high** risk for the company
+
+## 3.2 Default
+
+The company has almost no debt. It has a current ratio of 3.8, a debt to ebit ratio of 2.02 and a debt to equity ratio of 0.44.
+
+We conclude that the possibility of default provides a **very low** risk for the company.
+
+## 3.3 Efficiency
+
+The company operates in a competitive sector, but has a long history and an experienced management that has shown that it can handle the competition. Their operating margin has steadily increased over the last 7 years and is currently at 13.75% (The sector median is at 8.29%).
+
+We conclude that efficiency provides a **medium** risk for the company.
+
+## 3.4 Summary
+
+**Robustness**: medium-high
+
+**Default**: very low 
+
+**Efficiency**: medium 
+
+We conclude that shareholders of Johnson Outdoors face **medium-low** risk.
+
+# 4. Monte Carlo Analysis
+
+To estimate a fair value for Johnson Outdoors we perform a monte carlo simulation of discounted cash flow calculations. This method is adopted from Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at NYU (explained in the book ‘The Dark Side of Valuation’ or here: https://youtu.be/rFd\_qEpYFBc).
+
+We simulate 10 years of cash flows discounted back to today and apply a terminal multiple to our last simulated cash flows.
+
+In the following we discuss our used input variables.
+
+## 4.1 Growth
+
+Over the last 5 years Johnson Outdoors grew its revenues at an average annual growth rate of 10.84% with a standard deviation of around 10%. Over the last 9 years revenues grew by 6.5% annually.
+
+Analysts consensus for Johnson Outdoors’ forecasted revenue is 760.57M USD in 2022 and  804.6M USD in 2023 implying a growth rate of 5.8% per year. 
+
+To estimate the growth of the market, Johnson Outdoors operates in, we look at its largest segment, recreational fishing equipment. The US market for sports fishing equipment is estimated to grow at 3.4% annually in the next 6 years (Source: [https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7r3iu4](https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7r3iu4)). 
+
+For the simulation we assume an annual revenue growth that is **normally distributed** with a **mean of 5% that linearly drops to 3%** over 10 years and with a **standard deviation of 10%**.
+
+## 4.2 Margin
+
+For Johnson Outdoors's operating margin we assume a **triangular distribution** with a **peak at its 5 year average 12%** and **ranging from 7% to 17%**.
+
+## 4.3 Terminal Multiple
+
+The historical average of Johnson Outdoors’ **price to ebit ratio is 11**. In the leisure sector the current median price to ebit ratio is also 11, so we use this as our terminal multiple applied to the discounted cash flows of the last (10th) period.
+
+## 4.4 Discount Rate
+
+One method of determining an appropriate discount rate is to use the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The WACC uses the capital asset pricing model, which in turn uses the stocks beta, a measure for its volatility in relation to the market. We don’t think that volatility is a great measure for risk, which is why we don’t use WACC.
+
+We want our discount rate to be higher than the average market return, since we expect our investments to outperform and we want to be able to easily compare different investments. We are using a **discount rate of 10%** for all our investments.
+
+## 4.5 Results
+
+The monte carlo simulation yields the **fair value of Johnson Outdoors shares to be 115.17 USD**. For the current share price of 76.48 USD we calculate a **96% chance for the stock to be undervalued**.
+
+# On our own behalf
+
+All quantitative analysis is done via our website [https://www.stocksonview.com](https://www.stocksonview.com/), which we created to make the tools we use accessible to everyone. Many tools are free of charge, for some you will need a subscription. If you are interested and / or want to support us, we would be very happy to see you there. We are currently in open beta and all our premium features are available for free.
+
+# Disclaimer
+
+Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. No guarantee is given for the correctness of the information contained in this article. 
+
+Some authors of this article currently hold Johnson Outdoors shares and as such profit from rising share prices.
+We as value investors need to keep a strong head throughout these tough times when there are so many meme coins and meme stock getting the centre of attention while the boring and simple way of investing is being overlooked at because everyone wants to get rich quick. Us value investors are constantly getting told we are out of touch and we are missing out but guess what?? I’m glad I can sleep peacefully at night knowing I’m slowly building wealth in fundamentally good companies and potentially retiring early while others are gambling money away which is the equivalent of rolling a dice at Vegas. I can see this getting real “bloody” soon and it is such a shame it will take a lot of people losing money for people to realise this isn’t the way and they don’t need these coins. You can happily collect your 7-10% a year in an etf and be happy for the rest of your life without stressing.
+I’m talking DCF analyses, look at all metrics and comparing them by industry to other companies, Etc. Willing to pay for a subscription of course. 
+
+I’d also like of course for growth to be a factor too. Just because a company like AEI has twice the cash on hand than market cap doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a great company to invest in (although up 75% since my post on it).
+I’ve been tracking Kimball International ($KBAL) for a little over a year. 
+
+The angle is margin of safety, i really like the present value and valuation. I could see the stock dipping to $7, but realistically $10. Upside could be +$20.
+
+
+They make furniture for commercial clients, and consolidated the their manufacturing plant last year to reduce freight and overhead costs from fractured distribution. The current balance sheet reflects those initial savings realized this year, so it's not as good as it looks - increasing operating income, but im still comfortable with the current debt to current asset ratio being well under the 50% threshold. They had close to $100M cash on hand and an ROIC of 14% - which anything over 5% is great for this type of business. Recent acquisition of Poppin was made in cash - which gives me a huge boner. Poppin is an online platform for furniture - mainly in home office - which is a trend i dont really care about. But I'm hoping they will build out the platform for their growing healthcare customer base and vertical.  I also really like how their balance sheet is almost fully depreciated - which means they are cheap fucks, which I also love. When I asked if they plan to invest in new manufacturing equipment they responded with - if its working why would we replace it? - loved that too.There is obvious execution risk and failed acquisition risk, but it will be a while until that pans out.
+
+EDIT: I own the stock. Initiated a position in January 2021 and have been accumulating since. Not financial advice, not an advisor.
+Does anyone have an actual guide on how to find and invest into cigar butts? I’d love to know how investors like Li Lu, Mohnish Pabrai, and Warren Buffett found, managed, and sold securities using this method to initially build up capital quickly.
+
+All I seem to be able to find online is: buy a handful of net-nets trading below 2/3 their liquidation value and hope they go up. This can’t be the actual approach. For example, I know Buffett really focussed his capital into a few key cigar butts, which means he’d need to look at more than just the liquidation value (I’m assuming).
+Is poor Charlie's Almanac worth getting? It's definitely on the higher end and is pre-owned on nearly every website.
+
+I believe there were only limited books printed.
+
+Do anyone have a link to buy it? I'm based in UK.
+I use DCF using earnings, free cashflows, and dividends.
+
+Discount rate used is based on what the precived risk of the investment. If i think a particuler business is riskier then I use 10 to 12%. Otherwise if I think the company is stable and doesnt have any serious issues, I discount at 6 to 7%
+
+How about everyone else? Anyone use the modern grahm valuation or other methods?
+
+And do you value a company net of debts?
+
+Edit note: For those that think 6 to 7% is too low. Warren buffet was quoted to choose 10% discount rate beacause long term bonds were at 7%. 
+
+Thats 43% markup on long term bonds, whereas, at current levels of 3.8% 6% is a 58% markup. However,  very few equities i would discount at 6 %
+Hi all,
+
+I'd like to get a firm action plan in place to get a family home within the next 5 years. From looking at the flowchart I'm in step 7 on the short term goal.
+
+**Situation:** I'm 29 working for a science company, I'm working in the Cambridgeshire area currently earning £37,000 (technically £40,500 with the way the additional benefits /pension contribution works but I'm contributing 18% directly into my pension). Take home (Net) after all of that is £2329 or roughly  £28,000.
+
+My salary growth is not likely to go up by much in the next 5 years I may be taking on some management responsibilities in the near future but I'm ambivalent about being able to turn that into a raise in a meaningful way.
+
+Currently renting for £600 a month I typically aim to save £1000 pound a month but with increasing expenses that has fallen to about £800 a month, I'd ideally like to buy a family home as soon as possible to get out of the rental nightmare but realistically I'm resigned to it taking at least 5 years. 
+
+**Current savings:** 
+
+(I'm incredibly risk adverse and the fear of losing what little money I have has basically paralyzed me every time I even think of investing which is why my current savings are so poorly optimized, but I recognize that inflation is destroying my savings and house prices are rising faster than I can earn so need to change this)
+
+\- £47,000 in a Natwest current account.
+
+\-£28,000 in a credit union account.
+
+\-£3000 in sell-able collectable assets.
+
+As I'd need at least £12,000 in my emergency fund that leaves me currently with £65,000 or so for a deposit.
+
+**Target:**
+
+To purchase the cheapest acceptable family home (Freehold,3 bedrooms, no buying restrictions, not one of those buy a share schemes, house not apartment) currently within my commuting distance costs about £400,000 (I've heard houses are going for at least £30,000 over asking at the moment from several people so that's optimistic). We'll say that includes all fees involved and the above asking.
+
+With my saving and maximium 4.5 times salary mortgage that gives me a buying power of £250,000 so I currently have a shortfall of £150,000
+
+**Planning:**
+
+So I understand that at a minimum I need to do the following:
+
+\-Cash LISA.
+
+\-Move most of the money out of a current account to a "high" interest saving account.
+
+\-Maybe S and S ISA??
+
+Even doing all these steps I don't see a way to meaningfully close the gap on that shortfall. Even saving 10k a year I'm losing at least 4-8k of its effective value due to house price increases, not to mention inflation outpacing my current account.
+
+What meaningful steps can I take to achieve this goal? Every time I see bitcoins current price I die internally that I missed the boat on it and that even having had one or two would have allowed me to at least be able to afford a house and its frustrating that a full time job isn't sufficient. 
+
+Any help in coming up with a plan would be greatly appreciated!
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+**Q: Why a 3 bedroom house?** 
+
+A: Two reasons 1, houses here are very very small and if you have a hobby or two/like to collect books/models/games/music or anything you'll quickly run out of space in pretty much anything smaller, since the rooms are much more cramped than you'd expect.
+
+Secondly some forward planning for potentially starting a family.
+
+**Q:Why the other restrictions?**
+
+A: Freehold (I'm not playing longterm rental I want to fully own my house), No buying restrictions (I'm not of the age to be able to buy retirement properties), Buy a share (again this is rental with extra steps it wouldn't feel like owning a house and I'd need to consult on any big changes), House (apartments have fees, other tennents to deal with, are harder to sell if needed and other restrictions/annoyances/risks).
+
+**Q: Are all your savings really in current accounts?**
+
+A: I can't overstate how paralyzing the thought of investing 20,000 into something then losing even £500 of it has been to me. I recognize its not a healthy way to approach long-term but I do seem to get stuck in a survival mode/ need for each month to start with more money than the last regardless of circumstances. I'm actively trying to change this and this post is part of that process.
+I just want to share since I was doing some hard digging before I made this decision and it might be helpful to anyone in the same boat.
+
+I know there's a lot of debate around whether the extended warranty is worth it. We paid $3300 for a 10 year/100k one for a 2019 (28k mileage) Subaru Forester. No idea if that's a fair price today, but it *seems* a bit overpriced, even in today's market... Anyway, we were totally un-informed about warranties before we were in the finance manager's office, and they of course sell it to you as a no-brainer decision, so unfortunately we opted in w/out really know anything about. I had a gut feeling we got ripped off and just didn't feel good about it. 
+
+When we got home, I read and re-read our contract, looked at the pamphlet and weighed all the pros/cons. BTW, we already had a manufacturer's powertrain warranty, free of charge. And I trust the reliability of Subaru. We ended up deciding we'd rather cancel and save the 3k for a future repair rather than pre-pay for one that might not happen.
+
+So this meant, according to the contract, we could cancel within the first 90 days for a total refund, but we would have take our vehicle back to the dealership for an odometer reading and they would have to sign a form to send the refund check to our lender. 
+
+Now, we are both very anti-conflict people, we had had a great experience buying the car (outside of being pressured into a huge purchase they knew we knew nothing about...), and we knew they would be losing the commission on this so they'd probably be upset we were returning. Basically, we REALLY didn't want to go face them again. But I decided to view it as a few more hours of our time + mental stress for $3300. Plus we would literally never see this people again. And they don't care if you waste money so why should we care if they lose money?
+
+So we drove to the dealership rather than calling or emailing. This would have been more pleasant for us but I figured they'd have to do what we asked if we were in person. (I actually sat in the car and made my husband go in and talk to the finance manager, haha. I'm pregnant and don't need to deal with that stress!)
+
+Yes they were pissed. They asked a few questions about why we were doing this, saying we'd regret it, saying this never happens... whatever. The finance manager didn't look my husband in the eye the whole time or say anything while he signed the form- totally different experience than when we were signing the original paperwork haha. But it took us **30 minutes**. They had poor attitudes. If that's the worst that happened, I'd say it was worth 3k.
+
+They signed the form and we are officially refunded. It really wasn't that bad at all and I'm SO glad we pushed ourselves to critically think about it and face the dealership again.
+
+My advice: if you don't feel good about, don't waste time justifying an impulsive, expensive decision you weren't even informed about beforehand. It's no different than ordering something online and changing your mind about it and making a return, it's totally YOUR choice and if you can cancel, then do it!
+We just moved into a new place and I couldn't even hold my hands outside the covers at night, I was so cold. It didn't matter what temperature we had the thermostat at either, there was always a cold draft.
+
+So I bought a 10 window box and figured I'd just do a few rooms. My boyfriend was skeptical because.... Well, it's like saran wrap. And looks tacky. Fair. 
+
+But holy crap, the place is downright balmy now. We did every room. Turned the thermostat down to 65 for the night and I actually got TOO WARM.
+
+When I'm cold at home I have a hard time doing other stuff, work, hobbies, whatever. I hope this helps someone cozy up their house this winter and lower their heating bills.
+
+Edit: this is what I bought, I think they're all probably pretty similar. Covered 5 standard double hung windows with a little left over, I assume they're counting each pane as 1.
+
+ https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09JM8DCYL
+**I Don't give a fuck if people think this is fud or something, downvote if you must but please fucking explain yourself**
+
+Warning: contains many swear words but this just has to be said.
+_____________
+
+
+None, absolutely NOBODY cares about you and what do they all want?: **MONEY**
+
+**They try every trick in their fucking book to keep you as a customer and as a product for short sellers**
+
+**YOU are the only one who cares about a Short Squeeze, you want one?** 
+
+Go Ahead and DRS Your shit if you haven't already, **YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO OWN THE COMPANY YOU BELIEVE IN; NOT THEM YOU'R MONEY** 
+
+_______________
+
+You want a big pile of fucking cash and a big thank you as a reward?, 
+
+**Get off your fucking ass and do something already, nobody has earned shit before out nothing, unless you were born rich your chance to become a millionaire alone is already slim as fuck**
+
+Using shady shit like instant deposits/withdraws, beneficiary ownership, internalizing CFD trading which breaks laws, aswell as lending out "your shares",while just printing you a fucking PDF and stating that you "own" something, **Creating Fake Voting poles to keep you on their shitty platform**, stealing money by decaying options
+
+_________________
+
+**Fuck me man, if you seriously still think staying with these Etoro fuckers and Trading212 and all these other ripoff bullshitters, then man you might be seriously retarded and need something checked out**
+
+Edit by lickybum: etoro is able to close your position without your consent while rapid price movement based on their tos
+
+**If you got the chance to leave this fuckers while not paying any taxes or minimal losses, why the fuck don't you do it already?**
+
+BUT thEiR FAilURe To DeLiVERS WIll REsET!!!!1!
+
+We are at the part of the story where it honestly doesn't fucking matter anymore if their FTDs reset, DRSing your shares outweight the drawbacks of leaving these shitfucks
+
+**They will Do whatever the fuck it takes to just short it down more to the ground to just give Ken "another fucking day to live"**
+________
+Personal note: Long time hodler since the whole january fiasco, originally bought in 360 range, and was still a noob and didnt know shit about investing.
+
+Thinking i was safe with my shares at Trading212 but at one point having to read about DRS and experiencing over 11 months of this bullshit what they are doing every day really makes you think if you are still right with your decision or might need a change of mind, later i already left Trading212 with my 80+ shares which i had there,i got 2k+ in realised gains but idgafuck, i think my choice was right and DRS'd all my 131 Shares.
+
+Edit: I am tired as you guys are, and just want to let this shit end already, but the **good ending**
+
+I got my tickets to the moon already, whatever the fuck you think is the best for you is up to you, just a heads up and maybe a change of mind to this whole disaster of a fucked market we are in.
+______
+***Wake the fuck up sheeple***
+
+***This is a fucking financial war we are in and no kindergarten***
+
+Edit: finally got my first sneak Award, thank y'all
+I see this fund praised/made fun of/overjoyed/worshipped/mocked on this sub all the time... What makes this one so infamous? I have been trending towards the Target Retirement funds but curious if I should add some of this to my portfolio. Can anyone give me a summary and maybe its pros/cons in a non 'memey' way? Thanks!
+27, 70k a year.
+
+Yearly Contributions
+
+401k - 19000
+
+401k Match (5%) - 3500
+
+Roth IRA - 6000
+
+If I start with $30k, add $28.5 a year for 30 years with 7% compounding interest. I would have 3 Mil in the bank. Hell, if I did it for 20 years I would still have 1.3Mil.
+
+I could definitely get away living on 40k a year in retirement. Does this mean I can spend my extra money without guilt?
+What's going on fellow diamond-handed, tendie-hungry apes? I'm here to give you all some confirmation bias about where I think GME is headed based on some technical analysis. I'd like to remind you also that we just had a very good week and things are starting to get juicy as we're approaching levels we haven't seen since January and March. 
+
+In this post, we'll be highlighting two main things: **the FTD cycle** visualized and **common behaviors/patterns** stock like to follow 
+
+If you don't know much about the [FTD cycle](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/myxei0/hank_returns_with_some_ftd_cycle_dd/) somehow at this point, read up on it from u/HomeDepotHank69 and come back here. 
+
+So let's begin!
+
+**I. The Bigger Picture** 
+
+[Here's a look at the daily GME chart since the beginning of 2021](https://preview.redd.it/8e31gzp7ig371.png?width=1777&format=png&auto=webp&s=52d03ce4f6fa8d44edb6f39536048330175d911b)
+
+As you can see here, where GME is currently at now, we are about at 50% of the intraday all-time high (ATH) of 483 back in January. The last two weeks including a back-to-back T+35 day and T+21 day have given us enough momentum to hover around the 250s with some pretty solid support around 245 although we went as high as 294 on 6/2. 
+
+[This is the same time frame, just with premarket \(PM\) and after-hours \(AH\) trading included in the graph. Each candle is 4 hours of trading as opposed to 1 day of trading in the previous chart](https://preview.redd.it/llizn0zwkg371.png?width=1776&format=png&auto=webp&s=1be4d06f1fb1c419e035794415c6e360b95af142)
+
+Here we can see that GME's real ATH was at 513.12 in the premarket during the end of January. This chart is included so you get an idea of how our favorite stock has been trading during the year.
+
+Now that you're familiar with GME and the chart, we can move on to the next part.
+
+**II. The FTD Cycle** 
+
+This is a theory we have developed a while ago that seems to have been proven true many times. So far the accuracy is 100% and there's plenty of data to back this up. When it comes to investing/trading for me, I make decisions based on cold, hard facts and data and I fully believe in this concept of a FTD cycle as it makes perfect sense. 
+
+Like I stated before, there are endless posts on this, much more in depth than this explanation, but basically we see a spike in share price every 21 trading days. This is known as T+21 as it includes the settlement period for a day (T) and the 21 days that follow before the next failure to deliver day (+21). Basically (some) of the shares that were borrowed and failed to be delivered in a certain period of time causes a price increase as MM/brokers have to buy shares on the open market, and therefor we see an increase in the stock price. 
+
+[Daily chart with highlighted FTD days in white](https://preview.redd.it/zdwoqyu1xj371.png?width=1789&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a0ad83663864f058700398866d87d9a17960d1f)
+
+Many apes have pointed out that this week has been different than the others. As you can see, after the first two T+21 FTD cycles, we saw a big run-up in the stock price both times. On January 25th GME gapped up in the premarket and went as high as 160 before closing back around 75. The next few days a massive gamma squeeze began and the stock went as high as 483 during regular trading hours. Keep in mind that a week prior to that FTD day, GME was trading in a range between 30-45.
+
+The next FTD day was 21 trading days after on February 24th, where the price doubled from 45 at open to 91 at close and tested 200 in the after hours. The next day GME sold off quite a bit, but it trended up for the next few weeks and then went as high as 348.5 in the next few trading sessions.
+
+These two dates (January 25 & February 24) were big moves up and really solidified that the game was not stopped and that the hedgies were really in this thing and fighting to keep it down. It showed them that they had to be prepared for the next FTD days because this wouldn't be as easy as they first thought. 
+
+Because of this, they did their best to keep the next FTD cycles under control. Let's take a look at the next two FTD days, March 25th, and April 26th and see how the stock traded after the run-ups. 
+
+[The white circles highlight the price action of the FTD days](https://preview.redd.it/5uvpibsmsp371.png?width=1762&format=png&auto=webp&s=2a460765da502765d89467de9bda5cddf5dd8a2d)
+
+Observe **Figure 1** with the white arrow on the left. This was the day GameStop released Q4 earnings for 2020 along with the wrap-up for the fiscal 2020 year. It was a completely normal call and nothing was incredibly noteworthy on the negative side. However, they did mention a huge increase in ecommerce sales and a shifted company focus to the transition to a mainly ecommerce brand. At this point, they had eliminated most of the debt on the balance sheets by paying off a note and things were looking very bullish for GameStop.
+
+But what do you think the hedgies did?
+
+That's right, they shorted it hard and GME closed down 33% the next day. At the time we just assumed that they wanted to make shareholders think the earning call was overwhelmingly negative and that people were actually selling as opposed to more short positions being opened. But looking back at it, I don't think that was quite the case. 
+
+*The shorts knew that the next day was a failure to deliver day and had no choice but to drop the stock as low as they could before a huge day of buying pressure.* This makes so much more sense looking back at it because the next day, **GME closed up 52%**, a miraculous comeback from the previous day's dip. 
+
+The shorts couldn't let this momentum continue, so for the next few weeks and until the next FTD day, we see a sustained selloff and downtrend in **Figure 2.** 
+
+By the next FTD day 21 days later, GME steadily increases and closes the day up around 12%, not bad. However, the hedgies once again kill the upwards move and momentum by shorting our beloved stock more and more. **Figure 3** shows the familiar sustained selloff to keep the HFs further away from margin call territory. Things keep trending down and sideways as volume decreases significantly, but then the next FTD day comes, and boy is it a beauty. 
+
+[The circle highlights the most recent FTD day and the white lines \(I know, rare white crayon\) show that we're in an ascending channel](https://preview.redd.it/93dmbpshuk371.png?width=1783&format=png&auto=webp&s=9b77377dad23a7fcfe0731bb0348592d8dc8143d)
+
+This breakout is different than the others. We didn't see a big dip the day before like we saw before earnings on 3/23, or a steady selloff prior to the previous FTD day on 4/26. Instead, this time GME was steadily trending up since around 5/10. This is huge since the last few FTD days with double digit percent gains (52% and 12% respectively) have been followed by downtrends and dips to keep the price down and the odds of a sudden upwards reversal low. 
+
+The last 7 trading days have been a solid uptrend, which is very different than the following 7 days of the last few FTD days. If this trend continues the way the first two big FTD cycles did back in January and February, we may see a big move upward soon in the next 3-5 trading days. 
+
+Now that you're all caught up with the FTD cycles and the current trend of our favorite stock, let's move on to the juicy part. 
+
+**III. Common Stock Behaviors & Patterns** 
+
+After watching a stock or multiple stocks for a while, you get familiar with certain patterns and tendencies that just keep happening. Although GME is heavily manipulated with all of the aggressive and illegal naked shorting going on, it still conforms to many patterns that stocks tend to follow. One thing to keep in mind with a stock and looking at its chart is that the chart is essentially telling a story of where the stock has traded in the past. 
+
+People buy and sell stocks and there are always people who think it is going up and there are always people who think it is going down. This creates a market and this is how prices move, using the most smooth-brained explanation. There are individual investors (retail traders) and institutional investors (hedge funds, money managers, market makers, etc.) who have either gone long or short at any point in time and at any price. This means people have seen the stock and been involved with it at all different price points, whether high or low. So when someone says something like "the stock wants to go up," or "it looks like it wants to drop," it really means that the people behind it want to make it move a certain way in their favorable direction. 
+
+Keeping this in mind, GME wants to go up for a few reasons. Stocks like to make highs, have healthy pullbacks/dips and recover to test those highs and potentially break through and create new highs, which we call a "breakout." When you think about it, it just makes sense. Some retailers and institutional investors have seen the price at $XXX before and want to see it get there again or possibly further. 
+
+For long-term price action, there are two common scenarios: 
+
+**Scenario 1 -** The price tests the a certain level (most likely a previous all-time high), and either gets rejected and drops, only to test it another day, or it breaks through and creates a new high and the process repeats itself. This tends to happen with healthier companies with potential and attention of retailers and institutions. 
+
+**Scenario 2 -** The same situation but flipped occurs as well for stocks that make new lows. Investors who see a stock is worth less than the market values it help drive down the price and bring it lower to where they'd like to see it. This tends to happen to weaker, older companies that are forgotten about or nearly obscure and have flawed business models/markets. 
+
+However, if you're a publicly traded company and have any possibility of future growth in your industry, odds are that the first scenario mentioned happens with new highs being established and tested. Unless your company is at risk of going out of business, being delisted from an exchange where it is publicly traded, or part of a failing industry, would it make sense for scenario 2 to be a possibility for new lows to be established and tested. 
+
+GME was in scenario 2, not too long ago, *or at least it was thought to be*, by the hedge funds who shorted the hell out of it for years. As we all know now, they were very wrong as GameStop belongs in scenario 1 as it is an essential part in the very explosively growing gaming industry with lots of potential to corner the market. 
+
+So now that we know GME is in scenario 1, what does that mean for the stock? Glad you asked. People invested in companies that have future potential want to see it succeed and if there's not many reasons it could fail, it only makes sense to trend upwards (in the bigger picture). All of this is considered very bullish, even without accounting for a MOASS, massive unclosed naked short positions, and heavy market manipulation. This stock wants to go up and test its highs as it is obvious now to the entire world that GameStop is not on its last leg. 
+
+There is evidence of this in the charts as well. As I stated before, stocks like to make highs and test them. The higher the price and greater the pull-back, the longer it may take to test those highs. Short-term highs are created and tested constantly in many stocks, but we're zooming out a bit this time to get a better look. Long term highs like to be tested and we have seen this a few times throughout the last six months on GME. 
+
+**Take a look at this chart and get familiar with these important levels** 
+
+[I included notes on this chart, but will be doing a breakdown for all of these levels](https://preview.redd.it/q8svsestyp371.png?width=1776&format=png&auto=webp&s=66ca0a69bc2e81fdd3c4b037a003ad941d076642)
+
+**Let's break it down for you from left to right**
+
+We see that January's highs around 480-520 are the highest levels we could be testing soon. It doesn't seem likely that we get rejected at these levels, so once we breakout from there, who knows where the price could end up. This is the almighty long-term resistance GME faces. As stated earler, this is the highest price, so it is expected to take the most time to test. 
+
+Next up we have the second battle of 200. In February, GME spiked in the last hour of trading (power hour) and went as high as 200 in the after hours before coming back down the 160s at the end of after-hours trading. This was a very important day because it showed us that the game wasn't over yet. For the next few days, GME stayed below 200, but that level was kept in mind. It wanted to be tested since it was GME's newest short-term high. Sure enough, only several days later, GME broke through 200 and closed above it. 
+
+The uptrend continued in March to the point where it started testing levels not seen since January. It broke past 250 and 300 and went as high as 348.50, just before coming crashing down as hedgies dropped the price 50% in half an hour to 172. We now have a resistance level at 348.50 that is likely to be tested again sometime soon. 
+
+After that big drop, GME continued to "sell-off" for a few weeks and established a new low between 116-120 after GME's Q4 earnings report. This level is yet to be tested, but isn't likely to any time soon. This gave us apes a pretty good idea where a strong support was and where we could expect heavy buying pressure in case of another dip. 
+
+The next several weeks have heavy consolidation while GME trades in a range between 135 and 200. However, we are currently in an uptrend as we broke out to the upside of the range and passed the 200 level (remember the 200 resistance from February?). A new short-term high of 294 was established on 6/2 and is likely to be tested soon given the current momentum of GME. 
+
+**Now that we know all the data, FTD cycle information, and key areas, what is the take away?**
+
+This is my equivalent of a TL:DR as I try to summarize everything you learned today. GameStop stock is on a current uptrend and takes a similar trajectory to January and February run-ups, which is very promising. The FTD cycles have helped ignite the spark and give GME the momentum it needs to break and hold key levels like 200 and 250, which were just tested recently. The next key areas/short term highs we are looking to test next include 294-300 and 348.5-350. If we can successfully break through those shorter-term highs, then the real all time highs are on the menu. It is very possible that we can test areas between 480-520 in the next few trading days or weeks, depending on what happens at the annual shareholder meeting and the price action we see this week. Things are starting to line up for us, and I'm personally jacked to the tits for this week. Stay strong and hold the line, fellow apes, we're so close, I can feel it.
+I am not a seasoned Reddit Vet... Nor do I have much karma... Or even experience in Stonks!!!!!  But... I can easily see what is going on here and in the entire world
+
+In my opinion... Burry was the "Needle"... Cohen is the "Thread"... Gill was the "Knot"... A perfect fucking "Combo" honestly!!!!!
+
+If you can say "this is not financial advice" with a straight fucking face... And then have enough "common sense" that individuals such as stated do not do what they do... I order to FAIL!!!!!  IT IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!
+
+Add that shit to the FOREVER growing GME community... Sprinkle in some of this extremely enlightening DD... On top of just simple facts as to where GME stands currently and their future plans... You can EASLIY see what is to come in the future of GME in the E-commerce world!!!!!
+
+Just a couple small/HUGE things to ponder... We all know what is coming... Just about everyone knows what is coming... Follow the "common sense" of all this and have patience during this ride!!!!!
+
+Quoting Tommy Armour the Legendary Golf Pro...
+
+"You have to enjoy the struggle."  Meaning... It is within those moments we "truly" find what is needed to grow
+
+EDIT: 🦍Voted ☑
+
+EDIT 2: A valid point on Burry selling his positions on GME... What I am referring to is more... The ability to see what others cannot... Amazingly coincidental and no pun intended... What he has predicted etc... He is about the "Fundamental Principles" of how it works... I do not personally think he was in it for the fame of fortune
+
+EDIT 3:  THIS IS JUST MY OPINION APE'S... NOT TELLING "ANYONE" WHAT TO DO FOR ALL YOU THAT KEEP COMMENTING THAT.  CARRY ON!!!!!  AS THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM!!!!!
+
+EDIT 4: THANK YOU FOR THE AWARDS!!!!!
+So the market is expecting a 20-30% contraction in EPS for 2020 for the companies of the S&P 500. At the current index price, that gives a P/E ratio in the 23-25x range, similar to the dot-com bubble era. 
+
+Given we are in one of the worst global economic slowdown we experienced in the past century, do you think it is sustainable?
+My dad is at least $80,000 in debt and has finally accepted my offer to help, including making me his POA.  I don't know the exact total, since I don't have access to online banking/statements for one of the accounts yet. 
+
+His debts are as follows:
+
+* Credit card 1: $4,900 (21.24% APY)
+* Credit card 2: $22,500 (23.24%)
+* Credit card 3: $1,100 (0%)
+* Credit card 4: $9,500 (16.24%)
+* Credit card 5: $3,100 (20.24%)
+* Credit card 6: $22,600 (23.25%)
+* Credit card 7: \~$5,000 (20.24%)
+* Personal loan: $12,000 (11.99%)
+
+He does make $84,000 per year, but because of the amount of debt he can only make the minimum payments most months and thus he barely gets ahead. For example, his payment for card #2 had $420 go to interest and $220 go to principal. His statement estimates he will pay it off in 32 years.
+
+Is bankruptcy the best option here? His credit score is already godawful (high 480s) and he already has a mortgage, so I don't see what more he has to lose.
+
+Edit: Added interest rates
+
+Edit 2: Obligatory "I wasn't expecting this amount of feedback". I'm combing through the responses now, but thanks everybody!
+I've been living in a pleasant Midwestern college town for just under $15,000/year in total expenses for about 5 years now. I keep meticulous records of my spending. I'm middle aged, share a modest one bedroom apartment in a terrific neighborhood with my girlfriend, go out for drinks with friends on the weekends, carry health insurance through my state's implementation of Obama care, travel domestically to visit family and generally find my standard of living very agreeable.
+
+Am I missing something? Because I basically never see people discuss living at (or working toward) this level of income. Even the people at /r/leanfire are talking in terms of $40k/year. It often gives me pause because I feel like I'm overlooking some looming financial responsibility that I haven't accounted for.
+
+Edit: It seems like the biggest takeaway is that people are either a) speaking in terms of household spending or b) speaking in terms of individual spending but not factoring in the cost savings of cohabitation if they happen to be doing so. I find this odd, given how often I see 'my spouse got started later than I did and hasn't reached FI yet' kind of comments, but it seems like it's why my numbers don't jibe with a lot of what I see posted on this sub. Thanks everybody!
+This is a video that shows exactly how NOT to trade. A few days ago I got caught in a squeeze on NVTA, and for some reason that day I broke every single one of my rules:
+
+- Don’t trade earnings stocks
+- don’t walk away during a trade (went to go take a poop)
+- Don’t add to losers
+- Cut small losses
+
+This was an expensive lesson, and it really taught me that you can never let your guard down in the markets.
+
+https://youtu.be/qBBQE8-QPy4
+This is one of the first years I’ve been doing extremely well financially. My daughters 3 and I’ve always wanted to have a big Christmas for her, and it looks like this year I can actually afford it. Is it stupid to spend a ton on a 3 year old? What’s an accept amount? I also don’t want her growing up and thinking she’s “better” than other kids for having more, because I grew in absolute poverty and it didn’t feel good at all. I guess I’m trying to keep her humble while also giving her a good childhood.
+Hi all
+
+I'm faced with a financial dilemma and need your help.
+
+I recently left a role at a startup. I have a 3 percent stake in the company, equivalent to 48,000 shares. The company is currently rasing a seed round and the shares have been valued at £8 each.
+
+The investors are offering to buy my shares back at £2.80, which is 35 percent of their market price.
+
+This means I'll earn around £135, . This would be taxed at 20 percent.
+
+The shares are likely to go up in value in the future. However getting someone to actually buy startup shares for unlisted companies is difficult and it is possible the company will fail and the shares will be worth nothing.
+
+Would you sell the shares now or hold on to them and sell in the future.
+
+A little about me and my finances 
+
+1. M32, no kids with long term partner, qualified accountant
+2. Household income £110,000 (my salary £75,000, partners £35,000)
+3. Pension £20,000
+4. Savings £50,000
+5. Equity in home, £430,000,  mortgage £70,000
+
+
+Financial Goals
+
+Would like to buy a house in my area for around £750,000 - £800,000.  I could do this without selling the shares now, however it would obviously be easier with an extra £135,000 in equity
+
+UPDATE
+
+Thanks so much for all your advice so far.  
+
+As always with this sub the quality of discussions are excellent and people have made some very good points. 
+
+I'm not sure if I can sell some of the shares only. I should know more tomorrow. Will keep you up to date.
+I come from a very risk-averse background - any money we had was kept in a current account/savings account. I've just opened my first S&S ISA (with Vanguard) and have set up a £200 DD every month. I can afford to save double that (and invest £5k lump sum in it) but don't feel confident yet.
+
+What helped you feel confident in your investments? Time, reading, etc? I don't want to regret not investing more early on when I can afford to do so.
+And you know it, this sub has turned into a theory-fueled loophole where every news is posted by the same people 36000 times.
+
+RC or GS launching the MOASS would result in years of legal battle, that will most likely result in nothing but "sorry we cannot allow this to happen, no MOASS".
+
+I mean, LME literally erased 12 hours of trading last week, turning off the buy button was like opening the Pandora's box, they are capable of anything and everything now.
+
+And don't tell me about trust in the markets : THEY DON'T CARE.
+
+There will always be mountains of people willing to gamble their money in this shit system, wanna know why?
+
+Because most people firmly believe that the system is sane, and that the stock prices are driven by supply and demand, which is simply FALSE.
+
+Even the OG sub, which is exposed to this corruption everyday, continued to gamble their money, knowing or not that the system is ROTTEN.
+
+The ONE and ONLY way to launch the rocket is to lock the float. There. Is. No. Other. Way.
+
+Citadel can literally sell fake shares and stay alive forever.
+
+They will NEVER run out of money, N E V E R.
+
+Unless an army of pissed off individuals investors start registering the float of their favorite stock.
+
+The choice is up to us : keep believing that an angel will magically start the MOASS, or taking the matter on our own hands, and start locking the shit out of the float, this is how YOU will become rich.
+Guten Morgen to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+Apes, the energy this week is infectious. Every time I check the sub, I see a continued wave of ComputerShare posts, Apes sharing indicators that borrowed shares are becoming more scarce, and pushback against false friends such as Blackrock and FINRA. Seeing the price fluctuate so wildly on relatively low volume certainly helps, especially with wild after-hours anomalies such as the 30% spike at 4:20pm. While all of these things are *nothing* compared to what will happen when the first SHF moves to get out before everyone else, it's no doubt a welcome change for many among us.
+
+FINRA's failure to hold Citadel accountable for their misdeeds, and to outright deny that Citadel has *ever* done any wrong is despicable, but not unexpected. As with most people, the people at FINRA who make such decisions are motivated by greed or fear, and in this case it is likely both. The power and influence that Steve Cohen and Ken Griffin wield is enough to ruin anyone they turn against. While it's not *right*, it is not surprising that FINRA wouldn't stand up to them with any real strength. Especially now, when Citadel is taking outside investment and is desperate for any positive spin on their reputation, I can see how this kind of situation happens.
+
+However, it doesn't change the fact that Citadel has an unsurvivably large short position against GameStop, which is poised for explosive growth. Citadel created this short position through the crime of naked shorting; something that they abused their position as a market maker to achieve. Whether or not FINRA slaps them with fines or rebukes, they will still need to close their short positions at some point. When Citadel goes down, their prime broker will need to close the short positions. When their prime broker goes down, the DTCC will need to close their short positions. When the DTCC falls... well, then we get to see what real capital market reform looks like.
+
+Today is Wednesday, February 2nd, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- ⬜ 120 minutes in: **$114.19 / 101,41 €**  *(volume: 2349)*
+- 🟥 115 minutes in: $114.19 / 101,41 €  *(volume: 2310)*
+- 🟩 110 minutes in: $114.23 / 101,45 €  *(volume: 2306)*
+- 🟥 105 minutes in: $114.16 / 101,39 €  *(volume: 2285)*
+- ⬜ 100 minutes in: $114.23 / 101,45 €  *(volume: 2263)*
+- 🟩 95 minutes in: $114.23 / 101,45 €  *(volume: 2231)*
+- 🟩 90 minutes in: $114.01 / 101,25 €  *(volume: 2224)*
+- 🟩 85 minutes in: $113.95 / 101,20 €  *(volume: 2164)*
+- 🟥 80 minutes in: $113.94 / 101,19 €  *(volume: 2126)*
+- ⬜ 75 minutes in: $114.01 / 101,25 €  *(volume: 2114)*
+- ⬜ 70 minutes in: $114.01 / 101,25 €  *(volume: 2113)*
+- ⬜ 65 minutes in: $114.01 / 101,25 €  *(volume: 2091)*
+- 🟥 60 minutes in: $114.01 / 101,25 €  *(volume: 2035)*
+- 🟩 55 minutes in: $114.20 / 101,43 €  *(volume: 1928)*
+- 🟩 50 minutes in: $113.84 / 101,10 €  *(volume: 1822)*
+- 🟩 45 minutes in: $112.61 / 100,01 €  *(volume: 813)*
+- 🟥 40 minutes in: $112.56 / 99,97 €  *(volume: 813)*
+- 🟩 35 minutes in: $112.62 / 100,02 €  *(volume: 798)*
+- 🟩 30 minutes in: $112.60 / 100,00 €  *(volume: 775)*
+- ⬜ 25 minutes in: $112.57 / 99,97 €  *(volume: 700)*
+- 🟩 20 minutes in: $112.57 / 99,97 €  *(volume: 670)*
+- 🟥 15 minutes in: $112.54 / 99,94 €  *(volume: 638)*
+- 🟥 10 minutes in: $112.61 / 100,01 €  *(volume: 447)*
+- 🟥 5 minutes in: $112.62 / 100,02 €  *(volume: 439)*
+- 🟩 0 minutes in: $112.67 / 100,06 €  *(volume: 11)*
+- 🟩 US close price: $112.60 / 100,00 €   *($112.55 / 99,96 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.126. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+Ive watched the stock market, crypto market, and precious metal market for a the past 5ish years. One thing I always found fascinating is the way the markets move together, most common example, one going up while another goes down and the third not doing anything noteworthy.
+
+Since this whole GME thing last year, I’ve watch the crypto and stock markets move almost in tandem with each other, but metals markets still did their independent thing…until lately. 
+
+All three markets are down and look like they are starting to Synchronize and start moving in tandem. And I will tell you I don’t know what it means but it scares the hell out of me.
+Hilariously dumb move by Redbox, which of course is no longer a public co. http://www.slashfilm.com/disney-suing-redbox/
+
+"Redbox and Disney haven’t had a distribution deal together since 2012, so Redbox has been buying Disney DVD and Blu-ray combo packs themselves and renting them out to customers. Those combo packs come with a digital download code, which Redbox has been separately packaging and selling to customers since October, when they launched a service offering those codes for sale in their kiosks."
+Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.
+I haven't actually tried this yet, I've just been trying out credit spreads and this idea just occurred to me, I think it might just be strictly better than the wheel in a lot of ways...let me know how I am horribly wrong :)
+
+Instead of just selling a PUT, lets also sell a CALL Credit Spread with a width equal to the credit from the PUT
+For the sake of an example I am going to use the current prices I see on thinkorswim for SPY 5/15 contracts
+
+So we sell the $257 PUT for $516 and sell the $300/$305 CALL Credit Spread for $95, this behaves very similarly to the Iron Condor, but with one very important difference, instead of taking a max loss if the price goes below the bottom wing of the Iron Condor, we profit $611 and take assignment of the stock, which we were already happy to do.
+
+
+So there are 3 possible outcomes:
+
+1. Price > $305: we experience our max loss of a $111 gain
+
+2. Price between $300 and $257: we experience our max gain of $611
+
+3. Price below $257: we experience our max gain of $611 and are assigned 100 shares of SPY
+
+All of those sound pretty good to me.
+
+So now we have 100 shares of SPY, can we do this on the other side of the wheel?
+So step 1 is to sell a Covered CALL on our SPY shares, again using the prices today for the 5/15 we can sell the $291 CALL for $505 and sell the $260/$255 PUT Credit Spread for $100
+
+
+Once again, 3 possible outcomes:
+
+1. Price < $255: we experience our max loss of a $105 gain
+
+2. Price between $260 and $291: we experience our max (premium) gain of $605
+
+3. Price > $291: We experience our max gain of $605 and make $1200 on the increase between current price of $279 (assuming thats where we were assigned for simplicity) and the $291 strike of our CALL.
+
+
+Does this make sense? did I miss anything? Is there already a name for this so I can look up strategies related to this approach?
+Tesla is sharing its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America.
+
+Tesla said in a blog post Friday that its design and specification files are available for download. The company said it is “actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard.”
+
+The charging connector in all Tesla vehicles offers AC charging and up to 1 MW DC charging. Its compact design and performance is considered superior to the Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors used by most EVs in North America.
+
+Tesla claims that its charging connector and charge port — which it now calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) — is the most common charging standard in North America. It’s a stat based on Tesla vehicle sales in North America and the number of chargers at its branded Supercharging stations. Tesla has nearly 1,500 Supercharger stations in the United States. Each station has an average of nine chargers.
+
+Tesla didn’t name any automakers or charging infrastructure companies as converts. In this highly competitive environment, in which virtually every automaker is now using the CCS, it’s hard to see GM, Ford and Stellantis switching to Tesla’s technology.
+
+However, at least one company — EV startup Aptera — supports the move. Earlier this year, Aptera called for the U.S. government to adopt Tesla’s Supercharger technology as the standard for all EV charging in the country. And EVGo has added Tesla connectors to some of its charging stations in the United States.
+
+The company said in the blog post that network operators “already have plans in motion” to incorporate NACS at their chargers. If network providers like ChargePoint, EVConnect or Electrify America add NACS, it would allow Tesla owners to charge at these stations without a need for an adapter.
+
+If automakers switch to NACS on its EVs, it would give owners of those vehicles access to Tesla’s North American Supercharging and destination charging networks. 
+
+Source:  https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/tesla-opens-its-ev-connector-design-to-other-automakers/
+Hey guys, my wife and I are starting to save for a house here in Adelaide and we are looking around the price of a $600,000 home, we would like to be able to put 20% down to avoid paying LMI. I'm earning 64k a year including super and my wife is earning 55k a year which includes super. We currently have $20k saved. 
+
+Our strategy is to live off my wife's income and save everything I earn. We are currently living at my parents paying $150 a week board. My parents fully own their home and have suggested about them going guarantor for us to get a home but I don't really know much about how guarantor works and I don't think my parents really do either. 
+
+Do you think our strategy is a good way to save for a home? Should we go the guarantor option? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated :)
+Why? $1,000 is what the OG Apes (me) from the original Bets sub would have sold for and been happy. Before we learned what the real floor was, we held for $420.69 and would have been fucking stoked about it. Then they turned off the Buy button.  
+  
+Kenny knows this. IMO, he will stall at $1,000 and flood the financial MSM with "The squeeze has squoze. The Apes won, don't you feel great? You beat Wall Street. David beat Goliath. Yay for you!" After 5 days of $1,000 the newbies will get nervous. The X,XXX and the XX,XXX holders will start thinking about what's "good enough."  
+  
+Fuck that. No cell, no sell. We are close and anything you've felt so far is meaningless compared to the shit-barrage on the horizon. Together we hodl and together we change the financial structure of the world.  
+  
+BUY. HODL. DRS.
+The community sentiment on Raiden went south since we announced our token launch.
+
+It looks like a larger fraction of the community, than we had anticipated, has had the misconception that Raiden is ran by the Foundation. Instead we are a for-profit company that bets on the success of Ethereum. Although we tried to make this clear on our website from the beginning, the misconceptions are still to some extent our fault. We have not been good at providing frequent updates and clarifications to the community in the past.  
+
+We are sorry for this and the disappointment and anger this might have caused when we announced a token launch. 
+
+Let’s try to look at Raiden from **a fresh and neutral perspective:** Assume a company would announce today, that they are planning to bootstrap a global scalable, low latency and cheap micropayment infrastructure. And that they are building this as an extension to Ethereum that allows it to scale by a factor of 1000+ for token transfers and reducing cost by a similar factor while providing sub second latency. Thereby, they’re aiming to solve major issues for many existing Dapps while enabling even more new use cases. They have delivered a working PoC based on 100K+ lines of code and would then announce a token launch. Please stop reading if this would already turn you off. 
+
+Still with me? Then let’s first take a look at the good aspects and then at the more controversial issues. 
+
+**The Good:**
+
+* Their system is really needed and potentially adds tremendous value to Ethereum.
+
+* They are developing the software and make it available for free, open source and it can be used and forked free of charge by everyone.
+
+* They understood that a world wide payment network cannot be bootstrapped and maintained based on donations and without being able to set incentives for a multitude of players in the underlying ecosystem.
+
+* They also understood, that a rent seeking or otherwise monopolizing token might hinder adoption of the system and therefore don’t enforce a token at the core of the protocol.
+
+* They are instead willing to compete and bet on being able to bootstrap an off-chain ecosystem of services aligned around “their” token while not crippling interoperability.
+
+* They did not hype the project, they actually spent zero on marketing or on shills.
+
+* They didn’t do a pre-sale.
+
+* Their token sale allows everyone to participate on the same terms, providing certainty of participation (i.e. it will run for a few days at least) and valuation at the same time.
+
+* They didn’t grant the developers any free tokens, but instead let them only participate in the overall success of the company and have set a 4 year(!) cliff.
+
+Now on to the more controversial issues:
+
+**“No Token Needed!”**
+
+Assuming this refers to the question if a medium of exchange is needed at all in such a system, then the answer is: Yes, it is. Light clients need to access services provided by full nodes in a Raiden Network and pay for this (unless one is convinced that the backbone of a reliable global payment infrastructure can be provided by altruists who bear the cost). 
+
+**“Why not ETH?”**
+
+This is an interesting question. We acknowledge that from an ETH holder perspective, getting the Raiden vision delivered for free as part of the Ethereum deal would be desirable. 
+At the same time Ethereum gets value from all innovations built on top that further the adoption of the platform. And these innovations would not exist, if Ethereum didn’t come as a system which enables to capture the value of a project in a dedicated token. 
+	
+**“Dutch Auction failed before!”**
+
+The Gnosis auction left many unhappy as the funding target was matched after only a few blocks. The Raiden auction will be different, since a fixed amount of tokens will be offered during the auction. This guarantees the auction will run at least for a few days and should allow everyone interested to participate and get the same final price, irrespective of the time of their bid. Consider to [take a look](https://medium.com/@raiden_network/the-raiden-token-auction-explained-1cc0c7946b26) before you judge. 
+
+**“You are not able to bootstrap a global payment channel network!”**
+
+This issue was actually not raised. But I think this is the question that one should think about. What does it take to execute on the idea of building a global payment network on top of Ethereum? What would the impact of this be? Is a dedicated token or an auction really the deal breaker here? 
+ 
+You don’t have to agree with the above or like what we are doing. 
+We’ll continue our work to scale Ethereum towards wider adoption - benefiting all of us.
+
+The kid was very gracious. (I'm older so to me you recent college grads are kids.) He said "No, she's right." And he described his attempts to get a job at local convenience markets, etc. I was thinking: Listen, you just got the most practical degree ever in the history of degrees: Civil Engineering! And you are searching and searching for work. How are you going to find a job (he is cold-calling by dropping by and leaving his resume) while working at Walmart? Don't listen to this woman! What makes it even more absurd is if she runs into someone who has the right background for Walmart and he is unemployed because all the college kids went and got jobs at Walmart, is she going to be sympathetic? I doubt it.  (Walmart will not hire this guy, most likely.) 
+
+Listen people: When you have high unemployment figures, this means that places are NOT HIRING. People are unemployed. Do you really think when employment is 10% (and 'real' unemployment is probably higher) then NO ONE will be unemployed? 
+The technology in the Cryptocurrency space will continually evolve and there will always be a next "Bitcoin killer" or a "Better Bitcoin". Then there will be a killer of the "Bitcoin Killer". This can go on forever and we'll be lost on the way.
+
+The true value of the first Bitcoin lies in the legacy and it has intrinsic factors that can not be recreated again. What Satoshi invented would be impossible today. There is no CEO. There is no founder. There is no single attack point. Same cannot be said for the rest of the next generation cryptos. 
+
+The value of this cannot be understated.
+Feels like we're heading for a classic example of Bogle's "don't just do something, sit there" mantra. 
+
+With the S&P down about 17% this year, I can see why short-term investors or those nearing retirement would be looking to rebalance their portfolios to have more cash on hand and have less reliance on equities.
+
+But for folks with an investment horizon of 20-30+ years, is there any use in this? Inflation is still high, so keeping cash even in a HYSA feels too risk-averse compared to keeping it in the market, even with potentially more losses to come.
+
+I know, this is one of those "let me consult my Magic 8 ball" questions. I'm not looking for definitive answers, because truthfully there are none, but more so some opinions around what the community here largely thinks.
+( feel free to message me after reading if you believe you have good advice for my situation, and if you want to know why our landlord is kicking us out check my recent post history) For context, me and my girlfriend are both 19, I moved her out here from 3 hours away to move out. We stayed in my parents house a few months but  finally found a 1 bedroom apt and got 3 months of free rent from a program called ubag. Well.... We both have no jobs, we live in a city of 15k people. Jobs are super competitive out here, we are 500 dollars in credit card debt, my girlfriend decided to get a dog and we have to pay 50 dollars a month for her, I have 5 dollars in my checking account and I've been using doordash to barley stay afloat. Luckily we were given plenty of food by my parents but even that's running low, we have so many bills, 50 for pet fee, 55 for mattress loan, 25 a month for speeding ticket..I keep scrambling to find money somewhere, selling shit on Facebook, doordashing. And I'm scared, I'll be lucky!! to get an apartment in 2 months. Please someone fucking help me!!!!
+**Quadruple witching day is just ahead, what will happen in the stock market? Does Apple have room to grow again? DASH & ABNB are fading after crazy IPOs. Let’s talk about this and the latest stock market news**
+
+**\~Very Long Post\~**
+
+Hello everyone and Good morning! So, let’s start with the recap of Monday, as we saw a great start in the early morning with the Dow hitting an intra-day record, but the rally faded for the broader stock market and especially the industrial heavy [DOW JONES](https://ibb.co/yVcZV95) which lost .61%, with the broad market [SP500](https://ibb.co/xGBkgyF) also losing .44% while the tech heavy [NASDAQ](https://ibb.co/dWNjyCY) lived up to the recent reputation as a go-to defensive play yesterday and finished up .50%. Meanwhile the [VIX](https://ibb.co/mH5Pmsw) also spiked more than 6% and is nearing the 25 levels, which could mean significantly more volatility for the stock market.
+
+We also saw more companies declining [yesterday](https://ibb.co/jwVnsXt) on normal volume of about 10.5B shares, as we finally went below 80% of the companies trading above the 50-day simple moving average, as small-cap growth companies outperformed [yesterday](https://ibb.co/NNWkSQt) with large-cap value companies lagging, especially from the energy and industrial sectors. With energy losing more 3.5% for the day, while the only 2 gaining [sectors](https://ibb.co/0ymGMHL) were Technology and Consumer Discretionary, which seems to indicate what I was expecting, that investors are dropping losers from this year for tax purposes and betting again on the companies that sparked the rally since the bottom in March. And keep in mind that funds & money managers use this tactic for window dressing also, so that they can have a nice advertising brochure for next year.
+
+Here is the [HEAT MAP](https://ibb.co/kMTNKY7) from yesterday, you can see here the big wall of red in the energy sector, with Disney which saw a healthy correction after a huge run and Pfizer being some of the biggest losers. While Netflix, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and PayPal were some of the biggest gainers alongside the biotech sector.
+
+[HERE](https://ibb.co/tPnzGmN) is the economic data that will be received today, there isn’t anything big on the calendar, as we get ready for a lot of big numbers coming on Wednesday and Thursday. Just a reminder, there was no big economic data that came in yesterday.
+
+So, Quadruple witching day is just a couple of days away, and this time it will probably bring even more heavy trading volume than usual.
+
+For anyone that doesn’t know, quadruple witching [refers](https://ibb.co/p063Sgw) to the day when stock options, stock index futures & options and single stock futures expire on the same day. 
+
+This happens 4 times every single year, and usually brings increased [volume](https://ibb.co/Gxr4pnc) to the stock markets, and guess what guys, this will coincide with the last day of trading before Tesla enters the SP index.
+
+So I believe this next week and especially the 17th-22nd will be very volatile for Tesla. 
+
+At the [moment](https://ibb.co/SRTyzcN) there is more open interest in tesla stock options, with over 8 million contracts, which multiplied by 100 shares for each contract represent 800M shares, that is more than the actual free float for the stock at the moment at 760M shares.
+
+And, right now, there are a lot more put options contract on Tesla, with a put to call ratio of 1.5
+
+My personal opinion is that we can see the stock continue to rise in the following days before going for a dip or correction following this huge moment of volatility for the stock. We can see the avg [volume](https://ibb.co/qYNg2dL) for Tesla has been near 60M shares in the last 10days, so there have been a lot of shares that have already exchanged hands. I believe most of the money managers, who are not obliged to perfectly track the SP indexes, have already finished up buying the stock, so I expect there will be a lot more sellers than buyers when most retail investors expect the stock to go even higher. But don’t take my advice, do your own research and analysis. Full disclosure, I am a bull long-term on Tesla, but just think there is a downside risk approaching.
+
+So let go through a couple of stock market news, [Apple](https://ibb.co/NVQsB0b) is planning on manufacturing almost 100M new iPhone in the first half of 2021, that would be an increase of almost 30%, as they are planning make more than 230M iPhones in 2021 (including new & old models). This is great news for the stock as Apple has been pretty much flat after the September pullback, and might finally get some momentum back when they announce sales for the iPhone in the next quarters.
+
+This might also be helped by the fact that US [consumers](https://ibb.co/f2Tfhpj) are expecting to spend more next year, even if they expect to have a pretty much flat income and earnings growth. This is an improving view of the consumers as they were expecting to spend less in the last survey from October.
+
+Meanwhile, as I expected [AirBnB](https://ibb.co/xSdVJrG) and [Doordash](https://ibb.co/wLfyvFG) have started to fade after that crazy IPO frenzy. [Doordash](https://ibb.co/tmyyWnW) fell more than 8% yesterday and is down again pre-market while [AirBnB](https://ibb.co/GnRxn3b) is also down almost 10% since last week. And with downgrades from analysts already starting to appear, this companies have small to no room for error at this valuation. Especially with Doordash which has received a significant boost in the last year, growth will be more difficult in the future and won’t justify this price point.
+
+We have also seen [Snowflake](https://ibb.co/J5j6DsP) come back to earth, dropping more than 15% in the last 5 trading days, as the first share lockup period expiration is today. This will allow current and former employees to sell 25% of their stock options, currently representing 1,3M shares. With Non-employee shareholders also able to sell up to 25% of shares, those shares stand at 38M right now, with the rest of the shares being unlocked after they release their second quarterly earnings report in March, 
+
+We also got [numbers](https://ibb.co/8srNcwj) from New Jersey, as gambling keeps expanding even if sports are not back to normal. This is great news for companies like DraftKings. While others like Wynn will [benefit](https://ibb.co/zHL4Gvw) a lot from more tourism both in the US and in Macau.
+
+And just keep an eye on [Shopify](https://ibb.co/nMHptKW), as the company seems to be in the eye of the tiger, with Amazon looking into ways of entering that market also.
+
+So, guys, I still think there are a lot of positive catalysts for the markets, especially with a stimulus apparently very close, the European Central Bank [agreed](https://ibb.co/xqWDmZs) last week on a new stimulus for the Eurozone, as they keep printing money. And with interest rates probably remaining incredibly low after this week FED meeting, money will remain very cheap at the moment. So yeah, with the Pfizer vaccine yesterday, Moderna probably next week, and JNJ to follow in early 2021, I think we are poised for a good 2021 in the stock market. Especially with little political volatility after the Georgia run-off in early January as the US electoral College also formally [confirmed](https://ibb.co/pvjc9nf) Biden as the next President of the US yesterday.
+
+Let’s hope for a great day in the market as the [FUTURES](https://ibb.co/vjT9ghr) seem to be pointing at a good open, hopefully some green action continues after that.
+
+Thank you everyone for reading! Hope you enjoyed the content! Be sure to leave a comment down below with your opinion on the stock market!
+
+Have a great day and see you next time!
+https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/
+
+After creating an account / logging in, click on Earnings, then add the columns. If you have been working for many years, try copying/pasting the column in excel and using the sum function. 
+
+The numbers don't list money not reported to the government, obviously. 
+~~I don't know if the numbers are before or after taxes.~~
+
+e: Numbers are pretax. Thanks guys!
+
+e^2 : From the comments it looks like people don't know the answers to their security questions or are just discovering their identity is stolen...most likely the former.
+
+e^3 : My second post to make it to the front page!
+
+e^4 : [Canada look here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4iwo4v/us_find_out_how_much_you_have_earned_in_your/d32shp0) Austrailia and UK: Sorry mates, haven't seen anything posted here for you. 
+Coinbase were planning to go live with their lend feature in a few weeks and has reached out to the SEC to give them a friendly heads up and briefing.
+
+SEC responded by telling Coinbase that the lend feature they were to supposed to go live with is a “security”. 
+
+“Ok - seems strange, how can lending be a security?” Brian Armstrong remarked. 
+
+Coinbase asked the SEC to help them understand and share their view. SEC instead refused to tell the reason why they think that lending is a security and instead subpoena a bunch of records from Coinbase, demanded testimony from Coinbase employees, and told Coinbase that they will be suing the company if they proceed to launch the lending feature, with zero explanation as to why.
+
+For those who wants to check Brian Armstrong’s full statements, you can check them [here](https://mobile.twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1435439291715358721)
+
+Now what do you guys think?
+
+Edit: First was Ripple, then Uniswap, and now Coinbase. Considering how long the Ripple case is taking, just imagine how long it would take to finish if the SEC were to come after each Exchanges and Companies that deals with crypto, one by one, just imagine.
+It's easy to look at your portfolio and panic because it's dropped in value so much in the past few days.  In 3 month, 6 months, a year this will all come back.  This downturn just means that it's cheaper to invest. The only way you lose out is if you withdraw while the market is down. Just keep swimming.
+Hey,
+
+Happy Easter everybody. 
+
+I have to apologize for making a post about BCG💩 but I am shocked to the pile of non sense that they tweet from the official account. 
+
+I mean, it is so bad that I don't want even to comment to argue about how stupid is what they post because this will give them more credibility. If I was working for this company I would go straight to CEO to say that these make the company look like 🤡. I was feeling like that for  a while but the below tweet made me burst.
+
+
+https://twitter.com/BCG/status/1515670666577649671?t=lOOyG51T6Khvd6wbS7IDBg&s=09
+
+Seriously? This is your advice? Remember to raise prices to maintain your margins? 
+
+IMO they are bragging... If they were afraid that their clients will go away they wouldn't publish BS like that. However when your own people hire you its another story.
+In my middle class upbringing, a beach house was always one of the signs that a family had "made it".   Growing up in the mid Atlantic and about three hours inland, we went to the beach for the requisite week per year and that was that. If we were lucky, the trips would overlap with other cousins and such. I look back on those trips very fondly.
+
+I'm at the point now where I can afford a beach house (or at least a nice beach condo) for my family, and I feel this pressure reaching back from my childhood that this is something I should have now that I've "made it".  
+
+My question is, what do you do at a beach house?  I know this is a stupid question on the surface, but I have a hard time believing that building sandcastles and jumping the waves keeps its novelty throughout an entire summer?  My kids are 11 and 9.  How often are you going out for ice cream?  Playing putt-putt?  If you're not doing those things, does it really matter if you're in a house at the beach?  
+
+Just curious to know what value others find with their beach houses beyond the typical "sandcastles/putt putt/ice cream" stuff.
+My wife and I have a household income of $130k. We have no debt except house cars. And we’re almost at our $10k emergency fund goal. We have more or less $1500 a month to do whatever we want with. Save, invest, etc. We don’t know what the smartest thing is to do with it. Would it be smarter to pay our cars off and then invest? We want to grow our wealth. If there’s a better thing to do with that money that I didn’t mention, all advice is welcome. Also, instead of Dave Ramsey answers, I’d prefer advice from real life, successful experiences. But if the Dave Ramsey methods worked out for you, shoot.
+I am currently a 20 year old dude living with my parents and earning 14.50/hr part-time while taking college classes. Am about to finish my associates degree which means in about 6 month I’ll be moving out. My tuition per semester would be something around 5-6k plus housing which is about 700-800/month + insurance and gas for my car(paid off) and my daily living expense. I live and school in the state of Va. Currently I have more than 11k in saving but am still very overwhelmed. I need a job that pays at least 20/hr but it’s hard finding part time roles that compensate that much. Any advice given will be very appreciated.
+I've tried wrapping my head around ethereum and ether since I heard about it last week and I understand only vague what it is.
+
+All I know is it seemed to be a really good investment opportunity similar to what bitcoin has become. Basically, I'm an idiot with this stuff while you guys are knee deep in ether and memes.
+
+But I have some money to invest, at least 1k...it isn't my last 1k or anything, so I'm willing to invest, but did I miss the boat? And as someone that barely understands this, SHOULD I invest? I really just want to make money and learn about this stuff as much as I can. But I also don't want to wait months to make a decision.
+
+#EDIT: 
+
+Guys, I just wanted to thank you all for being so welcoming, positive, and informative. I'm going to spend the next week or so trying to learn as much as I can about all of this and then invest ASAP. I understand the basic risks (as with any investment) and the fact that this platform has a lot of potential. But I still want to understand the technology better too.
+
+Anyway, thanks again!
+I have almost 50% of my investments in bbd.pr.c, which is a cumulative preffered share paying about 20% annual dividends. The dividend for this quarter was also just announced so no troubles there. The company for some stupid reason sold off almost all profitable assets this year but the preferred shares dividend is only $20M a year which it seems like a drop in the bucket in front of all the other stuff they have going on, so I don't think they will be suspending it since it will cause more panic than good.
+
+I'm an idiot to keep investing or is there is something I don't see?
+I’ve been trying to grow my account and it has been a fairly successful steady growth with occasional down days.
+
+But I’m struggling with “paying myself”. I’m part of a discord chat where they constantly remind you to do that. Especially on a Friday where they said if you’ve made money this week, pay yourself for your hard work.
+
+Now I have a steady income from a full time job so I’m not hurting for money. But it is def hard for me mentally because I want to sometimes take out money to do something fun but my mindset is like “hey what if you had used that money to grow your account. Doing that repeatedly will add up.” I have a goal of where I’d like my account to be eventually and potentially to a point where I can quit my day job so I feel like every cent I take out is setting me backwards or slowing down my progress. 
+
+It’s kind of long term investing. If you don’t spend $6 buying that Starbucks 5 days a week for a month or $120 a month and invested it, in 10 years at 10% annual return that’s $23k.
+My wife and I work in tech, no kids, and get paid high salaries, RSUs and NQSOs that vest over 4 years. Between us we're in the top tax bracket.
+
+It seems that business owners and folks like Trump pay extremely little in taxes, whereas I'll be paying at least my fair share. I pay a CPA to do my taxes, but I feel like he finds more places where I owe extra tax than he does finding tax deductions for me.
+
+I get the feeling that there is very little secret stuff I can do to maximize the income I get to keep aside from the basics like using retirement accounts, using the HSA purely for investments, doing tax loss harvesting for equities, etc. I already live in a state without state income tax and own a house with a good mortgage.
+
+Maybe I can open a small sole proprietorship and deduct a few more things if I run a simple side business selling e-books or some such nonsense, but other than that am I missing any good creative ideas? I'm planning to retire abroad, but I don't think that helps with taxes on all these RSUs and NSQOs. 
+
+I'm looking for some sort of advisor who can help, but from my reading I think there's nothing else significant to do; the big tax breaks seem to be for folks like Trump and other large business owners. Giving away extra money to charity obviously doesn't help the bottom line.
+
+Am I missing anything?
+Guten Tag to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+The markets continue to be volatile, purportedly because of the Evergrande situation but I am convinced that we were in for some volatility this month even without that. Reverse Repos hit another all-time-high, nowhere close to the end of the month even. At this rate, I'd expect it to hit $1.5tn on September 30th. Apes continue to DRS their shares to ComputerShare, but also buy shares directly through ComputerShare. As more and more pressure builds on the SHFs, we can expect to see even extreme attempts to manipulate the stock and apes. I don't know how it is possible, but they must not know who they are dealing with. Our Diamantenhände are forged by their fuckery, and we are ready to buy the dips and HODL what we buy indefinitely.
+
+Today is Wednesday, September 22nd, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- 🟩 120 minutes in: **$187.78 / 160,36 €**  *(volume: 1296)*
+- 🟩 115 minutes in: $186.93 / 159,64 €  *(volume: 1288)*
+- 🟥 110 minutes in: $186.63 / 159,38 €  *(volume: 1237)*
+- 🟥 105 minutes in: $186.89 / 159,60 €  *(volume: 1109)*
+- 🟩 100 minutes in: $186.92 / 159,62 €  *(volume: 1046)*
+- 🟩 95 minutes in: $186.77 / 159,50 €  *(volume: 1046)*
+- 🟩 90 minutes in: $186.74 / 159,47 €  *(volume: 1036)*
+- 🟥 85 minutes in: $186.16 / 158,98 €  *(volume: 1010)*
+- 🟩 80 minutes in: $187.99 / 160,54 €  *(volume: 875)*
+- 🟥 75 minutes in: $187.62 / 160,23 €  *(volume: 597)*
+- 🟥 70 minutes in: $187.89 / 160,45 €  *(volume: 577)*
+- 🟥 65 minutes in: $189.45 / 161,79 €  *(volume: 442)*
+- 🟩 60 minutes in: $189.72 / 162,01 €  *(volume: 441)*
+- 🟥 55 minutes in: $189.66 / 161,96 €  *(volume: 439)*
+- 🟩 50 minutes in: $189.86 / 162,14 €  *(volume: 423)*
+- 🟩 45 minutes in: $189.75 / 162,04 €  *(volume: 372)*
+- 🟩 40 minutes in: $189.10 / 161,49 €  *(volume: 319)*
+- 🟩 35 minutes in: $189.09 / 161,47 €  *(volume: 190)*
+- 🟥 30 minutes in: $188.91 / 161,32 €  *(volume: 176)*
+- 🟩 25 minutes in: $188.93 / 161,34 €  *(volume: 166)*
+- 🟩 20 minutes in: $188.87 / 161,29 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 15 minutes in: $188.79 / 161,22 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 10 minutes in: $188.71 / 161,15 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 5 minutes in: $188.63 / 161,09 €  *(volume: 120)*
+- 🟥 0 minutes in: $188.59 / 161,05 €  *(volume: 110)*
+- 🟥 US close price: $189.95 / 162,21 €   *($188.80 / 161,23 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.17099447. I wrote and maintain a C# application that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't just a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+ 
+
+Residential property  priced at Rs 45 lakh or below will be considered ‘affordable’ and taxed  at 1 percent, from 8 percent earlier. Under-construction properties  priced over Rs 45 lakh will invite 5 percent GST, versus the previous  rate of 12 percent.  
+
+
+Read more at: [bq](https://www.bloombergquint.com/gst/gst-council-finance-minister-arun-jaitley-real-estate-sector-cement-proposals-tax-rate)  
+
+If they had just shared an email or SMS, or simply taken the option out of the PayTM app - I won't be making any post about this.
+
+I tried to pay my local grocery guy by PayTM - he's a small local merchant with a PayTM bar code in his stall.
+
+The transaction went through smoothly, money got deducted against my credit card; but got added to my PayTM account under gift voucher.
+
+You cannot use gift voucher to transfer money to someone else, in PayTM.
+
+This is not just me - this guy got 10k locked like this, [in his gift voucher hell](https://twitter.com/Paytmcare/status/964106937913638912).
+
+This is **not** an investment post, but a lot of people might be affected by this in their personal finance, hence saving them from this unwelcome surprise.
+ 
+
+Residential property  priced at Rs 45 lakh or below will be considered ‘affordable’ and taxed  at 1 percent, from 8 percent earlier. Under-construction properties  priced over Rs 45 lakh will invite 5 percent GST, versus the previous  rate of 12 percent.  
+
+
+Read more at: [bq](https://www.bloombergquint.com/gst/gst-council-finance-minister-arun-jaitley-real-estate-sector-cement-proposals-tax-rate)  
+
+If they had just shared an email or SMS, or simply taken the option out of the PayTM app - I won't be making any post about this.
+
+I tried to pay my local grocery guy by PayTM - he's a small local merchant with a PayTM bar code in his stall.
+
+The transaction went through smoothly, money got deducted against my credit card; but got added to my PayTM account under gift voucher.
+
+You cannot use gift voucher to transfer money to someone else, in PayTM.
+
+This is not just me - this guy got 10k locked like this, [in his gift voucher hell](https://twitter.com/Paytmcare/status/964106937913638912).
+
+This is **not** an investment post, but a lot of people might be affected by this in their personal finance, hence saving them from this unwelcome surprise.
+Hi,
+
+I recently came into about $300K through work and would like to invest it into real estate. The problem is that I have never bought real estate and have no idea where to start!
+
+My initial thought was to use the money as a down payment on a loan to purchase a local apartment complex. However, I don't even know how to start the process; nor do I know what good terms, properties, or deals look like; nor do I know what my options are in terms of terms and deals; nor do I know what to watch out for; nor do I know how to ideally structure my affairs so that I can keep going in real estate investing if my first purchase turns out to be profitable.
+
+I'd love to take college-style courses that would teach me the basics of real estate investing and help me with the particular issues I identified above. I've always been good in school, and a more structured education program (like a series of courses that ultimately grant a certificate of some sort) seems good to me at first glance, albeit slow. However, I wouldn't have a problem with reading a series of books, or doing a number of seminars, or something else, in lieu of courses.
+
+Can anyone here please steer me in the right direction? I just want to learn enough to get started without the feeling that I could be easily ripped off or make the obviously wrong decision due to knowing nothing. Do you know of any courses that are well-recommended and would teach me about real estate investing starting from scratch? Do you think banks might like to see a certain type of course or real estate certificate when making a lending decision (I noticed that Harvard has a real estate investing certificate program, but it's expensive, and I'm not sure it would impress anyone who matters to me)? Or are courses a waste of time and you recommend I do something else (like read particular books)?
+
+Thanks in advance!!!
+Hi, I live in Central Texas and I've been thinking about buying my first rental property. As many of you might know, the housing market in Austin is pretty crazy right now and buyers are having to offer up to 20% more for houses to compete with other buyers. So, I don't want to pay more than the already overpriced condos/houses' worth in Austin. Does anyone have any other Texas city/neighborhood recommendations where the cash flow for a rental property is semi-decent? (I just don't want to lose money, which will certainly be the case in Austin)
+
+I'm looking at San Antonio and Dallas where home prices aren't as nuts and I found some 3 bed places for around $200k here and there. What should I consider or avoid before purchasing a place in these two cities? Or any other place in Texas. Appreciate all input.
+Just had to share because I'm so fucking ecstatic, Christmas is always an INSANELY stressful time financially and it's really helped me out so much and I'm sure it will help out many others in this time, such a great thing to do. They also give out three days of additional "gifted leave" over the Christmas period too so that employees don't have to dip into their leave balances in order to spend Christmas with their families. Such a great company.
+I live a very frugal lifestyle where my net income to bills is a 3.5:1 ratio. I feel like in 2021 I can push that to 4:1. I have a lot of cash just collecting dust in a checking account though. I need to put it to work. I don't have kids or a spouse, I just work, exercise, eat, then play video games. I love Tesla and future technology like Neuralink, SpaceX, and AI.  
+  
+So what would you do with my large amount of cash wasting away in my checking account today?
+So thanks to you guys "and me and my brother", we got my mom away from that west coast money manager to a more local and personal company. We looked over her statements and saw they were slowly bleeding her on bad investment fees. This new guy is good but how/should i convince my mom to ditch bonds and go heavy div? ETF. Is that smart? Based on what I've looked at, return is better and at our wealth level liquidity isn't an issue.
+Guten Morgen to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+We have begun another Summer, and I smell MOASS in the air. 
+It has been *far* too long since the wild price action, but for some reason it feels like the next is just around the corner. 
+With the imminent launch of the NFT marketplace, the continued high borrow rates, nearing 100 days at 100% utilization, and RC tweeting several times a day... this feels like the time. 
+Of course, I tend to maintain an optimistic outlook. Call me inspired by my love for HODLing GME.
+
+Despite incredibly bearish sentiment about the world economy, the markets were generally up yesterday. 
+Something makes me suspicious that we're likely to see another series of down days and up days. 
+Whatever the market action, DRSing shares continues to be the key action that Apes can take to ratchet up the pressure on the SHFs. 
+They cannot withstand the power of our Diamantenhände.
+
+Today is Wednesday, June 22nd, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- 🟩 120 minutes in: **$137.86 / 130,68 €**  *(volume: 1635)*
+- 🟩 115 minutes in: $137.60 / 130,43 €  *(volume: 1633)*
+- 🟩 110 minutes in: $137.55 / 130,38 €  *(volume: 1632)*
+- 🟥 105 minutes in: $136.89 / 129,75 €  *(volume: 1589)*
+- 🟩 100 minutes in: $137.42 / 130,25 €  *(volume: 1467)*
+- 🟩 95 minutes in: $137.41 / 130,25 €  *(volume: 1467)*
+- 🟩 90 minutes in: $136.96 / 129,82 €  *(volume: 1464)*
+- 🟥 85 minutes in: $136.89 / 129,75 €  *(volume: 1434)*
+- 🟥 80 minutes in: $138.02 / 130,82 €  *(volume: 1434)*
+- 🟩 75 minutes in: $138.09 / 130,89 €  *(volume: 1434)*
+- 🟩 70 minutes in: $137.36 / 130,19 €  *(volume: 816)*
+- 🟥 65 minutes in: $137.22 / 130,07 €  *(volume: 806)*
+- 🟥 60 minutes in: $137.32 / 130,16 €  *(volume: 798)*
+- 🟥 55 minutes in: $137.44 / 130,27 €  *(volume: 798)*
+- 🟩 50 minutes in: $137.46 / 130,30 €  *(volume: 676)*
+- 🟩 45 minutes in: $137.27 / 130,12 €  *(volume: 667)*
+- 🟩 40 minutes in: $137.18 / 130,03 €  *(volume: 667)*
+- 🟩 35 minutes in: $137.08 / 129,93 €  *(volume: 666)*
+- 🟥 30 minutes in: $137.05 / 129,91 €  *(volume: 656)*
+- 🟥 25 minutes in: $137.78 / 130,60 €  *(volume: 633)*
+- 🟥 20 minutes in: $137.80 / 130,62 €  *(volume: 633)*
+- 🟥 15 minutes in: $137.89 / 130,71 €  *(volume: 633)*
+- 🟥 10 minutes in: $137.94 / 130,75 €  *(volume: 633)*
+- 🟥 5 minutes in: $138.07 / 130,87 €  *(volume: 604)*
+- 🟥 0 minutes in: $139.50 / 132,23 €  *(volume: 323)*
+- 🟩 US close price: $140.28 / 132,97 €   *($139.50 / 132,23 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.055. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+I am a fairly young investor (25), with a decent portfolio of fairly risky stuff. Over the last 8 trading days I've seen my portfolio shoot up by over 18%. It has been led mostly by my holdings in Canopy Growth (TSE:CGC) and Nemaska Lithium (TSE:NMX), and a to a lesser extent by Nevsun Resources (TSE:NSU). 
+
+All three are looking like they will open higher again today, Is this sustainable? I am in the green right now on all three companies, which make up about 60% of my portfolio. So should I sell some of my holdings and take the profit and wait for prices to settle down again or is it best just to hold? I know if I sell there becomes issue with tax, but I still am unfamiliar with that as I'm still in my first year of trading and have not dealt with capital gains taxes before. 
+
+I know this isn't a bad situation to be in but any insight is appreciated!
+ 
+
+[This is the official $GME Megathread for r\/Superstonk.](https://preview.redd.it/gzy9yfftoov71.png?width=778&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ce125aa2d7455f994d74a4192f1a04b7d14448c)
+
+**Please keep ALL conversations contained to Gamestop and directly related topics.**
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+# Brand new to the sub? Start here!
+
+***You must read the*** [***Superstonk Rules***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) ***before commenting or posting on*** [***r/Superstonk***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/)*.*
+
+https://preview.redd.it/u7nzd0m0pov71.png?width=1651&format=png&auto=webp&s=df5232178c4035ba1c069f9306b30453b42946cd
+
+The extremely talented and dedicated [u/zedinstead](https://www.reddit.com/u/zedinstead/) has created this beautiful collection of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence in PDF format that can be easily accessed and shared. If your looking to familiarize yourself with the GME bull thesis or the underhanded tactics of the short sellers involved in this trade-- then this is for you:
+
+# [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg)
+
+[r/Superstonk](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/) employs strict posting requirements to ensure our community stays moderately free from trolls and other such bad actors. As such you may find you have trouble posting if you haven't fully read and understood our rules.
+
+**Posts keep getting removed?** [Find out why.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules)
+
+**Not enough** [**karma**](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204511829-What-is-karma-)**?** Here's a [quick guide](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-get-karma-on-reddit/) on how to get it.
+
+**Want to learn more?** [Check out our extensive Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) and [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq)
+
+**Eager for more even more GameStop info?** [gmedd.com](https://gmedd.com/) is a spectacular resource.
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+# Flair Links
+
+Check out our [**flair system**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mrwirc/updated_about_and_menu_flair_directory/), which is easily accessible via the sidebar button widget on desktop or the About menu on mobile.
+
+[📚 Due Diligence](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A%20Due%20Diligence%22) | [📚 Possible DD](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A%20Possible%20DD%22) | [📈 Technical Analysis](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%93%88%20Technical%20Analysis%22) | [🤔 Speculation / Opinion](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%94%20Speculation%20%2F%20Opinion%22) | [💻 Computershare](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22) | [💡 Education](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%92%A1%20Education%22) | [📰 News](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B0%20News%22) | [🤡 Meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%A1%20Meme%22) | [👽 Shitpost](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%91%BD%20Shitpost%22) |[📳Social Media](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B3Social%20Media%22) | [☁ Hype fluff](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/?f=flair_name%3A%22%E2%98%81%20Hype%2F%20Fluff%22)
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+***What's This Post All About?***
+
+The first thing you'll notice is a stickied comment right at the top. We call this the "Front Desk". Every day a moderator will create a new sticky comment that includes links to community announcements, fantastic posts that deserve more attention, and generally the simplest and easiest way to interact with the moderators of this community. The rest of the post is designed for general discussion and content/questions that might not need their own post.
+
+If you are new please mention that when you comment. There are no stupid questions but "shills" (paid accounts with the intent to disrupt the sub) are real. This community sees a lot of trolls. If you do not distinguish yourself as someone with genuine questions it is likely that members of our community will assume you are just spreading "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). I hate that I have to give you this warning but it is just the nature of the beast at this point.
+
+Please have fun, play nice and be civil. Many of our rules are heavily enforced. Debate is welcome but if it devolves into personal insults please report the comment. *Ape no fight ape!*
+Day 1 – Wednesday 5 February
+
+After repeated and failed attempts to withdraw my BTC from MtGox, I decided to jump on a plane and pay them a visit in Tokyo.
+
+After a 16 hr. flight from Australia I went straight to their offices, arriving at around 4pm.  The receptionist in the lobby told me there was no one available to meet me and I should arrange an appointment.
+
+I refused to leave and after about 15 mins or so, the receptionist handed me the telephone to speak with a member of  MtGox support. The support person referred me to their website. After a ‘lively’ conversation I told him I wasn’t gong anywhere, I didn’t travel 16 hrs to read a website I could have read at home. I would wait for Mark Karpeles to come down.
+
+Same thing happened 15 mins later, another call, more non-sense about technical issues, and a suggestion the authorities might have to be called. I told him great, I could lodge an official complaint against MtGox while they were here. 
+
+After some hours had passed, the building cleared out and the receptionists left for the night. I was alone in the lobby. Then at approximately 8 pm, I was  suddenly greeted by Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, Manager Business Development, and Mark Karpeles right hand man.
+
+I recognized him from some news articles. I thought great, and straight away put some burning questions to him: 
+
+Q1. What is causing the withdrawal delays?
+
+•	Well, because Gox is the best known of all the exchanges, we have been under the regulatory spotlight.
+
+•	This has created problems with government agencies, and also with our banking partners.
+
+•	There are also some ongoing investigations, which we cannot talk about.
+
+Q.2 Sure, and this would explain the FIAT delays, but what about the BTC delays; you can’t blame that on anyone else.
+
+•	The BTC withdrawal issue is a technical one, and one that has previously affected the MtGox system, our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem.
+
+•	As of now, some BTC withdrawals were going through
+
+•	For those transactions that remain broken for a week, the balance of BTC will be returned to a customers MtGox account. 
+
+Q3. A great way to buy time for a liquidity problem?
+
+•	No, it’s a technical issue. 
+
+Q4. So why are so many of the input addresses feeding into transactions in the queue coming up empty?
+
+•	This is a complex technical issue to which neither of us know the answer
+
+Q5. Try to explain it to me.
+
+•	Its technical
+
+Q6. There are over 40,000 BTC in the withdrawal queue, isn’t that the electronic equivalent of a bank run?
+
+•	The 40,000 figure is not correct, and the goxreport isn’t accurate.
+
+Q.7 But I actually obtained this data from Delerium’s website who is a gox employee / contractor / associate.
+
+•	I will have to look into that.
+
+Q8. Why doesn’t Gox prove they are solvent by transferring a large quantity of BTC between two internal wallets like Mark previously did.  Then we can all check it out on the blockchain and be reassured?
+
+•	The overwhelming majority of BTC are held in cold storage. Logistically and legally in would be difficult to replicate the transfer “trick” Mark previously employed at Gox to prove their solvency.
+
+Q9. Try me, how hard is it, what exactly is involved?
+
+•	Obviously I can’t go into too much detail for security reasons, but it would involve physically obtaining them from 6 or more locations.
+
+Q10. Well, why don’t u do it, isn’t this a critical situation?
+
+•	It’s not that straight foreword.
+
+Q11. You do realize no-one believes the technical excuses for the delay in BTC?
+
+•	Mt Gox has the coins, it is a technical issue and we need people to be patient.
+
+Q12. What is you view on the poll recently published by Coindesk on Mt Gox?
+
+•	Coindesk have a vendetta against MtGox.
+
+Q13. But they one of the most trusted sources of news in the Bitcoin community.
+
+•	Some people have it out for Mt Gox.
+
+Q14. How do you explain the vastly different prices that appear on Gox compared with other exchanges? It recently went to 25%.
+
+•	Some traders were responsible for the manufacturing  the differential in an attempt to financially benefit from arbitrage.
+
+Q15. But people exploiting the arbitrage opportunity would actually reduce the price differential, not widen it.
+
+[I can’t recall receiving a response to this particular point]
+
+Q16.  Is MtGox manipulating  the price by directly purchasing Bitcoins on their own exchange?
+
+•	No, MtGox is not permitted to do this.
+
+[coincidently, almost immediately after this meeting the price on MtGox tanked]
+
+Q17. People have a lot of money tied up in your exchange, and they don’t believe your excuses. All the evidence suggests something more serious going on at gox. You are playing with people’s lives here.
+
+•	All the coins are safe; this is merely a technical issue.
+
+When I left the office that night, I wanted to believe that everything was indeed fine, and these were indeed some temporary technical glitches, but this view was somewhat influenced by the fact I still have BTC on their exchange. All the evidence appears to suggest something more serious.
+
+For the record, I gave Gonzague an advance copy of this transcript and offered him the opportunity to have any of his answers amended if he felt I misrepresented him in any way.  A member of his support team replied by stating he did not have any comment on my version of the conversation.
+
+
+Day 2 –  Thursday 6 February 2014
+
+I arrived at MtGox early, approximately 8am, and stood outside with a sign reading “MtGox, where has my money gone”. I got some curious looks, and a lot of questions from passersby about my protest.
+
+Then at approximately 9.20 am, Mark Karpeles himself came along carrying a large, and very fancy coffee in his hand that could have passed as a dessert. I immediately confronted him and told him we needed a chat. So he stopped to hear me out.
+
+I told him he was playing with people’s lives, and some people stood to lose their entire savings. Like Gonzague  told me the night before, he mentioned technical issues, and that he would look into my case.
+
+Then 20mins later at around 9.40am Gonzague arrived. “Good news” he said, we have sorted out your account, go and check it online. After I got Wi-Fi connection back the hotel I discovered my failed BTC withdrawal transactions had been cancelled and all my BTC were put back in the one place in the world I didn’t want them: The MtGox website. Back to joining the queue of 40,000 other BTCs. 
+
+I think this was some sort of ironic joke. I quickly tried to withdraw them again; but surprise, surprise, stuck again.
+
+By late evening, the majority of the other workers in the MtGox building had heard of my protest and were bringing me out sandwiches and beer, and inviting me to lunch. As it turns out, Japan is probably one of the better countries in the world to protest. Everyone is so friendly; I can see why the Goxies choose to set up shop here.
+
+As the evening drew on, it looked like I would have do a late one to catch Mark again on the way out. However, at around 7.30pm, I was approached by a law professor from a local university who has written widely on bitcoin legal issues. He was on his way to a bitcoin “meet-up” and asked me to come along to tell my story to the other bitcoin enthusiasts. I was reluctant to leave the protest but was interested in what other Tokyo resident’s thought of MtGox.
+
+When I arrived, everyone was very interested in hearing my story. There was a general consensus amongst the participants that MtGox was finished as an exchange. They acknowledged that MtGox had played an important role in propelling Bitcoin to what it is today, but its decline and ultimate closure was inevitable.
+
+However, there was some divergent views on the reason for this, most people, including myself are of the view that bad business decisions and incompetence were primarily to blame, while others held the view that government restriction, and secret investigations were hampering MtGox’s ability to function efficiently. Who knows what the truth is, maybe it is a bit of both.
+
+At the end of the day 2, there was a very worrying development, the data feed for the goxreport, and delerium’s MtGox transaction failure website were cut. Perhaps a final act of MtGox’s desperation to hide the truth.
+
+Day 3 – Friday 7 February
+
+I started my protest a little later today in the knowledge that most of the Goxies don’t start work until after 9am. Then there was an unexpected twist; another person showed up looking for Mark. He was an emissary of an early adopter and well known member of the bitcoin community, and was there to collect an eye watering amount of money. 
+
+My emotions were mixed on seeing this person; on one hand I was glad to see another protester to fight the good cause. On the other hand, my heart sank in the knowledge that if Mark isn’t paying off his old friends in the bitcoin community then what chance do small fry like me have?
+
+As the emissary and I chatted, Mark Karpeles arrived, and we both confronted him, the conversation went on for some time and most of it conducted in French which I had trouble understanding. However I did mange to record the whole thing on video.
+
+The episode only came to a halt when Gonzague appeared in the lobby and rescued Mark. Very soon after this point, MtGox released a statement announcing that all BTC withdrawals were suspended.
+
+In conclusion, I think i just witnessed MtGox die today. I didn’t get my bitcoin, but glad I came and tried.
+ **Welcome  to $MoonPirate!  With over 89,000 strong holders and a market cap of  only $8.2M.  First and second exchange have been signed and paid for.  Rum is being distilled. IPA being released next month. Governance voting  currently ongoing to pick flavour of first energy drink!**
+
+LISTED ON CMC AND CG
+
+WHITEPAPER RELEASED
+
+Some of their deliverables so far have included:
+
+* PirateSwap launched (investors can purchase MoonPirate directly on their website)
+* Pirate Wallet Tracker launched (view how much your holdings are worth and how much you have gained by simply holding)
+* Get  Nok Distillery (California, US) Service Agreement Signed, Sealed and  Delivered and MoonPirate Dark Rum (with a hint of coconut – as voted by  investors) is 3 to 5 months away
+* Catchment  Brewing Co (Brisbane, Australia) – MoonPirate Tropical IPA 4 weeks  away. Launch Party will be held at venue for those who can make it
+* Updated  Roadmap incoming including the expansion of the MoonPirate ecosystem  (including $RUM native token which is going to be pretty crazy)
+* Governance Platform LAUNCHED! (your MoonPirate holdings will dictate your voting potential)
+* Now on CoinGecko and CMC, Add this to Blockfolio, Stocktwits & Delta
+* Weekly Live Video AMA’s (including founder, community manager and communications manager)
+
+*On  top of that, we have NFT’s, charity donations (Pirate Party kids cancer  charity), billboards including Times Square New York, weekly Pirate  Chronicles (medium articles) and more.*
+
+**Be sure to check out EVERYTHING on the website, which is being updated on a daily basis.**  
+www.MoonPirate. finance  
+
+
+TOKEN ADDRESS: 0xf09b7b6ba6dab7cccc3ae477a174b164c39f4c66
+
+MoonPirate is SAFU and sailing to the MOON, 100% LP tokens burned.  60% of all supply burned.  2% fee AUTOMATICALLY GOES BACK INTO  LIQUIDITY, 1.2% fee AUTOMATICALLY GETS DISTRIBUTED BACK TO HOLDERS  0.8% GETS BURNED FOREVER
+
+Telegram: [https://t.me/MoonPirate](https://t.me/MoonPirate)
+📢CALLING ALL ANIMAL LOVERS📢
+
+💖Paws token provides charity for animals.💖
+
+We all love animals and so does the Paws community.
+
+**PAWS’ Primary goal is to help streamline the donations towards animal shelters, conservation, and charities through a centralized platform that guarantees the authenticity of the organizations.**
+
+**Making the whole donate process more transparent, easier, and present you with credible choices.**
+
+🐶4% Redistribution
+
+🐶 4% Liquidity Pool
+
+🐶 Website: [https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com](https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com) ([https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/](https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/))
+
+🐶Audit: [https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Audit\_04\_12\_SWILSON-FF.pdf](https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Audit_04_12_SWILSON-FF.pdf)
+
+🐶 Whitepaper: [https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Whitepaper\_content\_SWILSON-FF.pdf](https://animaladoptionadvocacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Whitepaper_content_SWILSON-FF.pdf)
+
+🐶 Instagram: [www.Instagram.com/pawsteamofficial](https://www.Instagram.com/pawsteamofficial)
+
+🐶 Twitter: [https://mobile.twitter.com/pawsofficial1](https://mobile.twitter.com/pawsofficial1)
+
+🐶Telegram:[https://t.me/PawsOfficial](https://t.me/PawsOfficial)
+
+🐶DxSale:[https://dxsale.app/app/pages/defipresale?saleID=1401&chain=BSC](https://dxsale.app/app/pages/defipresale?saleID=1401&chain=BSC)
+
+PROJECT IS A LEGAL ENTITY, IS ON THE TENNESSE GOV SITE:
+
+Check here: [https://tnbear.tn.gov/Ecommerce/FilingDetail.aspx?CN=178110195244216159112163215215012228160206107168](https://tnbear.tn.gov/Ecommerce/FilingDetail.aspx?CN=178110195244216159112163215215012228160206107168)
+
+Join the telegram for much more info which is pinned.
+
+Good news everyone. We decided to do our very first, one of many, donations. The longer we stay in the game, the more charities we will be donating to, and hopefully, having a direct partnership with. To learn more about our friends, the mango troops, please open the PDF in telegram pinned.
+ **Welcome  to $MoonPirate!  With over 89,000 strong holders and a market cap of  only $8.2M.  First and second exchange have been signed and paid for.  Rum is being distilled. IPA being released next month. Governance voting  currently ongoing to pick flavour of first energy drink!**
+
+LISTED ON CMC AND CG
+
+WHITEPAPER RELEASED
+
+Some of their deliverables so far have included:
+
+* PirateSwap launched (investors can purchase MoonPirate directly on their website)
+* Pirate Wallet Tracker launched (view how much your holdings are worth and how much you have gained by simply holding)
+* Get  Nok Distillery (California, US) Service Agreement Signed, Sealed and  Delivered and MoonPirate Dark Rum (with a hint of coconut – as voted by  investors) is 3 to 5 months away
+* Catchment  Brewing Co (Brisbane, Australia) – MoonPirate Tropical IPA 4 weeks  away. Launch Party will be held at venue for those who can make it
+* Updated  Roadmap incoming including the expansion of the MoonPirate ecosystem  (including $RUM native token which is going to be pretty crazy)
+* Governance Platform LAUNCHED! (your MoonPirate holdings will dictate your voting potential)
+* Now on CoinGecko and CMC, Add this to Blockfolio, Stocktwits & Delta
+* Weekly Live Video AMA’s (including founder, community manager and communications manager)
+
+*On  top of that, we have NFT’s, charity donations (Pirate Party kids cancer  charity), billboards including Times Square New York, weekly Pirate  Chronicles (medium articles) and more.*
+
+**Be sure to check out EVERYTHING on the website, which is being updated on a daily basis.**  
+www.MoonPirate. finance  
+
+
+TOKEN ADDRESS: 0xf09b7b6ba6dab7cccc3ae477a174b164c39f4c66
+
+MoonPirate is SAFU and sailing to the MOON, 100% LP tokens burned.  60% of all supply burned.  2% fee AUTOMATICALLY GOES BACK INTO  LIQUIDITY, 1.2% fee AUTOMATICALLY GETS DISTRIBUTED BACK TO HOLDERS  0.8% GETS BURNED FOREVER
+
+Telegram: [https://t.me/MoonPirate](https://t.me/MoonPirate)
+You $SPY and SPX 0DTE Option Traders are some of the most savage traders on earth and I absolutely adore your courage to trade such a wild instrument and I really really look up to you guys! 
+
+Ever since I started trading options I always loved trading 0DTE but never really had a real strategy. About 3 weeks ago I finally made the decision to specialize in trading 0DTE options on $SPY , $QQQ or even $IWM and am starting to build a strategy using VWAP and the volume profile.
+
+ Anyways the question I had is, What would be your best advice you would give to someone who wants to specialize in trading 0DTE? It’s really hard to find good advice online about this topic and I would very much appreciate it.
+**Q1 Earnings Call - June 1st, 5pm EDT**
+
+**Shareholders Meeting - June 2nd, 11am EDT**
+
+*For more info go to* [https://news.gamestop.com/](https://news.gamestop.com/)
+
+[GameStop Wallet Support](https://support.blockchain.gamestop.com/hc/en-us/sections/4412111751955-Getting-Started)
+
+# 🗳 [Voting/Shareholder Meeting Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uddedr)
+
+>How to vote, how to attend (if you've registered to), and general discussion
+
+# 🟣 [Computershare Megathread ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ugnqsg/drscomputershare_megathread_052022/)
+
+>Wondering what DRS is? Want to know how and why people are Direct Registering their shares? Here you'll find our guide and additional resources, as well as a welcoming community answering questions in the comments!
+
+**Read** [**Superstonk's Rules & Wiki**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) **||** **Join our** [**Discord**](https://discord.gg/Superstonk)
+
+**​**[**What's GME & should I consider investing?**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qig65g/welcome_rall_looking_to_catch_up_on_the_gme_saga/) **||** [**FAQ**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq) **||** [**GME.fyi**](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg)
+
+Low karma? Want to feed DRSbot? [Post on r/GMEOrphans](https://www.reddit.com/r/GMEOrphans/comments/qlvour/welcome_to_gmeorphans_read_this_post/)
+
+How to [Filter by Flair & Search](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/v0oxp2/how_to_filter_by_flair_search_for_posts_on/) on Superstonk
+
+Tag u/Superstonk-Flairy for help with user flairs
+If you're in the same boat I am - received unemployment and filed taxes before the bill was passed making those funds non-taxable - this is great news!
+
+​
+
+>The automatic refund will mean that many recipients of unemployment benefits who have already filed their returns for 2020 won’t have to take extra steps to reclaim the taxes they paid but no longer owe -- on as much as $10,200 of jobless benefits. Taxpayers who have yet to submit their returns also have an additional month, until May 17, to file this year.  
+>  
+>“Do not file an amended return at this time,” Rettig told a congressional panel on Thursday. **“We believe that we will be able to handle this on our own. We believe that we will be able to automatically issue refunds associated with the $10,200.”**
+
+​
+
+[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-18/irs-to-automatically-process-refunds-on-jobless-benefit-payments](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-18/irs-to-automatically-process-refunds-on-jobless-benefit-payments)
+
+EDIT: Lots of questions and confusion. The stimulus package that Biden signed into law on March 11 included the provision that the first $10,200 you received in unemployment income in 2020 is no longer taxable income. That is not in question and has already happened, though tax prep software has not been updated to reflect that yet, so if you have not filed yet, and use Turbo Tax or the like, hold off until they update. What IS in question is how this affects people who ALREADY filed. What this article is quoting is the IRS telling the House yesterday that they intend to handle those people automatically and not force them to file amended returns in order to take advantage of that tax break: **“We believe that we will be able to handle this on our own. We believe that we will be able to automatically issue refunds associated with the $10,200.”**
+
+Note that this NOT set in stone because they have not made an official announcement, but that is the current intention/plan, and I have to believe it is likely or he would not have made that statement to the House.
+
+NONE OF THIS APPLIES TO STATE TAXES. How your state handles taxes on unemployment is going to vary by state. If your state usually taxes unemployment income and they have now decided not to, but you have already filed, you will still likely have to file an amended state return. If you haven't filed yet, you may have to wait until they have updated their systems to account for a new tax break. All of that is going to vary state by state.
+
+How much, if anything, you get back because of this is going to vary based on how much you withheld this year - both from unemployment income and other income since it is all one big pot of income - how much you made total, your tax brackets, and other factors. The only simple answer to that question is that the amount of income you had to pay taxes on will go down by up to $10,200 (as long as your total income is under $150K). So you now owe less taxes to the government. If you over withheld and were owed a refund, you will get a bigger refund. If you under withheld and had taxes due you will owe less, or maybe get a refund instead. Those exact numbers are going to vary depending on your particular income situation.
+
+UPDATE: Additional refunds will begin being processed in May - [https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/mhezuz/the\_irs\_release\_further\_guidance\_regarding\_10200/](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/mhezuz/the_irs_release_further_guidance_regarding_10200/)
+[So there's news that Oracle has bought TikTok.](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tiktok-reaches-deal-oracle-n1238454) The covered calls might be amazing tomorrow as it rockets up. [Currently it's merely a $57 stock.](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ORCL/) If you don't know Oracle is the company that currently owns Java so that's a interesting diversification of products.
+**Overview:**
+
+Hello all! I am back again for an update on this week’s relative rotation graphs (RRG). You can find the post from last week [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/thetagang/comments/m5hyxn/anticipating_the_rotation_march_15_2021/). I have incorporated your great feedback, so please continue to let me know if you have any suggestions and comments!
+
+**Intro on RRG:**
+
+As a quick intro, RRG is a way to visualize stocks’ relative performance over time, displayed as a scatter plot. The x-axis shows the strength of the stock relative to a common benchmark, and the y-axis shows the rate of change of the relative strength. Top right quadrant indicates that stocks are leading, bottom right indicates they are weakening, bottom left indicates they are lagging, and the top left indicates they are improving.
+
+**Industry Trends:**
+
+The plot below shows each industry’s performance relative to SPY. Each point indicates a trading day and the last arrow indicates the most recent trading day (March 19, 2021). We see that finance and industry have entered the weakening quadrant. Healthcare finally has entered the improving quadrant and technology will soon get there. Utilities continues to improve. Consumer Cyclical did a nice u-turn going from the Weakening to the Leading quadrant. I also plot ETFs that I regularly track.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/llws7boewko61.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=24107042d621d322d800076c1c9a33e9078fc7e2
+
+I like the daily plots because it is helpful for me in deciding when to open/close my 30 DTE – 45 DTE positions.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/pbdy3tbhwko61.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf431649b61cbfb126f5d6f11c4bde8193666a48
+
+Weekly plots are now available and you can find them [here](https://imgur.com/a/E2VbBuh).
+
+**Stocks in each Industry:**
+
+Given each industry trend we saw above, I also made RRG of the most popular stocks for each industry. I select the top ten stocks based on volume traded in 2021. This helps us see how each stock is performing within each industry. There are some interest trends. For example, with the exception of PBR, the top stocks in Energy sector move together. In contrast, there is some heterogeneity within the Industry sector. For more info, you can find the plots [here](https://imgur.com/a/jVkMkDg).
+
+There are a lot of graphs, so please feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions!
+I hung up immediately and called back Apple support (which freaked me out even more because the caller ID was also “Apple inc.” and displayed the Apple logo). I was already pretty sure it was a spoofed call but the logo was a nice touch. Keep an eye out and never give information to numbers that call YOU.
+The media are speculating property prices to go up, every average punter here and some very well informed punters here (At least they sound well informed) are expecting things to slide or 'plummet' further.  
+
+
+Objectively speaking, is the media misinformed or intentionally misinforming?   
+
+
+OR  
+
+
+Is it that no one has any clue?
+Momma Cathie Woods has been pruchasing. (DKNG) DraftKings all week in anticipation for earnings week.. Feb 26 2021 
+
+After the Superbowl DKNG sold off a bit but quickly recovered on low volume mind you this... 
+
+Major resistance at $63-64.  If we can break that before earnings then we have a potential for a $70 pre earnings run up.. 
+
+The chart has already bottomed out from the last Dip and it's the perfect time to load up on some weeklies calls slightly out of the money..
+
+Position: Feb 26 $62 Call
+
+Edit: I just got my very first award! Thank you kind sir.. I don't think this post was worth it though
+Welcome to the live megathread for the Lucy Komisar AMA! Today's focus will be on the SEC. Gonna be a great one-- don't miss it!
+
+**Catch the live stream here:** [**Lucy Komisar - AMA**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuPizlDY0Ys) **(4:30pm Eastern)** 
+
+ Just a heads-up we have decided that it would be best to have a single live chat. This means we will be refraining from having a youtube chat so all the action can be here. Also, having the automod to help us moderate this chat helps keep it from getting too shilly.
+
+Enjoy! 
+
+^(\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_)
+
+^(Please note: this chat will be locked half an hour after the stream)
+Hey guys, I’m a new investor, what are some MUST HAVE, software programs, websites, courses,videos I should look at?!
+What do you utilize when you are trading?
+
+
+I’m basically trying to get as much infomation and study the hell out of of it, I downloaded a trading simulator on my phone, I have financial news apps as well, I have investopedia bookmarked and binance app installed as well, anyone know where to find information reguarding beginner investing and trading? 
+Like the basics of TA, how to research stocks etc.
+
+I’m debating on buying a shitty course on udemy to try and learn
+I’m also reading the intelligent investor 
+
+I feel very overwhelmed as of now, too many places to start.. I want to know what resource has helped you grow and learn and where might a beginner start their journey on learning all their is about finance and the stock markets
+
+
+Thanks.
+I'll start with what's to come for 2022 and then move to Africa. A series of fortunate events leading to vision 2025. All info is widely available and verifiable. Sources and links given below.
+
+Ecosystem growth in 2022:
+
+1. [10+ DEXes](https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1465907181086130179)**, built from ground up**, that will specifically use the advantage of the extended UTxO model. Note the emphasizes on "built from ground up" meaning that [they will be different from what you're used from the Dapps on the account-based model blockchains.](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/11/16/architecting-dapps-on-the-eutxo-ledger/)  Benchmarking shows that with the eUTXO model, [around 25 to 30 orders can be easily handled within one single transaction.](https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1475523126343741448)
+2. **Borrow and lending protocols + robust DeFI ecosystem dropping in Q1/Q2 '22** after auditing and testing on testnet. Remember that it took Ethereum 2.5 years to have cryptokitties and Solana over more than a year to have some decent DApps. Cardano entered the smart contract era on 9 September 2021 so Q1/Q2 is pretty damn fast and it's gonna give a shockwave to the entire ecosystem not to mention **biggest ADA supply crunch once DExes are running at full speed**. As the DeFi ecosystem starts to take off, an alliance was announced to help speed it on its way through  standardisation and best practice -> [Cardano DeFi Alliance](https://cardanodefialliance.org/).
+3. [DJED](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/08/18/djed-implementing-algorithmic-stablecoins-for-proven-price-stability/):  **a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin contract that acts as an autonomous bank**. I can't stress the importance of this enough. **Djed is the** ***first*** **coin to use formal verification to eliminate price volatility.**  The first implementation of a Djed stablecoin contract was [SigmaUSD](https://sigmausd.io/#/) on Ergo.
+4. [**Hydra**](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/09/17/hydra-cardano-s-solution-for-ultimate-scalability/) **is Cardano's solution to ultimate layer 2 scalability** that aims to maximize throughput, minimize latency,  incurring low to no costs, and greatly reducing storage requirements.  Hydra introduces the concept of [isomorphic state channels](https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/299.pdf):  that is, to reuse **the same ledger representation to yield uniform,  off-chain ledger siblings, which we call Heads** (hence the Hydra name,  which references the [mythological, multi-headed creature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra)).  Specifically for Cardano, this means that native assets, non-fungible  tokens (NFTs), and Plutus scripting are available inside *each* Hydra Head.  **Many  of the transactions currently handled by the main-chain or application  running on the main chain can benefit directly from Hydra, because it  understands just the same transaction formats and signatures.**  In a layer 2 system like Hydra, it is possible to achieve **confirmation times of** ***less than one second***. Throughput measured in TPS per Hydra head is mostly limited by the available hardware. In principle, **by adding increasing  numbers of Hydra heads to the system, arbitrarily high throughput can be  achieved by the system as a whole**. ( e.g. each stake pool on Cardano could achieve about 1000 TPS there are over 3000+ stake pools on Cardano right now so when implemented you could in theory achieve 3M+ TPS = 1000 TPS/stake pool \* 3000+ stake pools)
+5. [Babel fees](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/02/25/babel-fees/) =  **being able to pay transaction fees in custom currencies! Potential to bring all ERC-20 tokens to Cardano** for obvious reasons ([see converter in action here](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/12/07/the-agix-erc20-converter-testnet-is-now-live/))... First, let us recall how **native assets** work in Cardano: Tokens can be created according to a minting policy and they **are treated natively in the ledger along with ada**. **Cardano's ledger adopts the  Extended UTXO (EUTXO) model**, and issuing a valid transaction requires consuming one or more UTXOs. A **UTXO  in Cardano may carry not just ada but in fact a token bundle that can  contain multiple different tokens,  both fungible and non-fungible**. In this way **it is possible to write  transactions that transfer multiple different tokens with a single  UTXO.** **Transaction fees in the ledger are denominated in ada according to a function fixed as a ledger parameter**. A powerful feature of Cardano's EUTXO model is that the **fees** required for a valid  transaction **can  be predicted precisely prior to posting it. This is a  unique feature  that is not enjoyed by other ledger arrangements (such as  the  account-based model used in Ethereum)**. Indeed, in this latter  case  the fees needed for a transaction may change during the time it  takes  for the transaction to settle, since other transactions may  affect the  ledger's state in between and influence the required cost  for processing  the transaction."
+6. [**NFTs are booming**](https://opencnft.io/marketplace) and yet you only hear about ETH/SOL NFT stuff. **106M ADA traded over 9 NFT marketplaces in just 6 months!!** I expect 2022 to be a game changer when it comes to **GamiFi, DeFi and RealFi which will lead (did I mention this already :)?) to the the biggest supply crunch of ADA** since Cardano's inception.  **This means that anyone can mint their own tokens, including  non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without needing a smart contract.**
+7. The first stage of the **Voltaire** era aka **Project Catalyst:** which is the **biggest decentralized fund (any chain)** right now! It has over **700 million ADA and it's used to fund all kind of projects** including some of the DEXes, NFT marketplaces, and other lending protocols mentioned above. **That's approx. 1 billion $** in our war chest to fund the devs on Cardano and create their DApps and other products. It's been successfully active for almost a year now.
+8. [**Mithril**](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/10/29/mithril-a-stronger-and-lighter-blockchain-for-better-efficiency/) boosts the efficiency of *full node clients* or applications.  It ensures **fast and secure synchronization of the full node data,  significantly improving time and required resources including  computation, network exchange, and local storage while keeping  high-level security guarantees.** Mithril is also applicable to *light clients and mobile applications*, ensuring a trustless approach. **Another significant advantage is using Mithril signatures for running** ***sidechains***\*\*.  The main blockchain can connect to **different sidechains that can even  have different consensus protocols**. Mithril has benefits in lightweight  blockchain state verification, and thus, certificates can validate the  current state of the specific blockchain as well as the correctness of  forward and backward transfers in a secure way. Finally,  stake-based voting applications and governance solutions can use Mithril  regardless of the voting protocol’s complexity. Mithril signatures can  be utilized for secure and lightweight tally verification. This is also  useful in governance when stakeholders go through a decentralized  decision-making process and provide the final result in an easy and  verifiable way.
+9. So, **sidechains and different consensus protocols you say**? Yessir, that's called **Basho** phase on Cardano. There's another cool thing from dcSpark called [Milkomeda](https://dcspark.gitbook.io/milkomeda/):  **Milkomeda will launch in both of these ecosystems (Solana & Cardano) and deploy EVM-based sidechains for each. This will aid them in acquiring existing Solidity developers out there who are interested in building dApps for whole new user bases.** With a first mover advantage for sidechains on both chains, expect to ride the initial wave of excitement and build a protocol that makes a difference and lasts.
+
+**Now AFRICA!**
+
+[Try to watch this short video](https://np.reddit.com/r/cardano/comments/rekl92/africa_and_the_world_has_crypto_the_answer/) to understand why they are the key and why Cardano team has been over there for almost 5 years now.
+
+[2022 is the year to put all the pieces together to get an end-to-end microfinance transaction on Cardano](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/12/27/cardano-founder-charles-hoskinson-lays-out-2022-plans/)
+
+Putting it all together: the "mastermind's" tweets (John 'o Connor) announcing African deals.
+
+1. [Yearly remittance in sub-saharan Africa is a $48bn market, and 50% of that goes to a single country.... Nigeria. With stable coins (see 3) ) and hydra (see 4))  is looking to disrupt this. Nigeria is one of our 5 focus countries for this year.](https://twitter.com/jjtoconnor/status/1399290043802521600)
+2. [Grow Africa, Grow Cardano (need funds to teach the devs, no problem, see 6))](https://twitter.com/jjtoconnor/status/1425726574951862275) \+ [this](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/11/05/empowering-a-new-generation-of-innovators-in-ghana/)
+3. [Connect the unconnected, bank the unbanked.](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/08/11/connecting-the-unconnected-banking-the-unbanked/)  "[Africa is home to >50% of the world's mobile financial services users" WEF 2019](https://twitter.com/jjtoconnor/status/1397839077186080773) " -> make deal with world mobile team
+4. Ethiopian deal done, Zanizbar and Tanzania telcom deals (see above), [5 countries in 2021 and TWENTY (yep that's right) more cometh in 2022 + 100M loanbook](https://twitter.com/jjtoconnor/status/1387919060197855234)
+5. The global buzz around Cardano: announcement of an education program with [3,500 schools and five million pupils](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/04/27/blockchain-finally-comes-of-age-with-worlds-biggest-blockchain-deployment/).
+6. [Source](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/10/26/africa-is-where-the-tough-get-going/): Why Africa?
+
+If the whole world is globalizing and changing, you want to be  where all the systems are going to change first, because if you get it  right, **more wealth will be created here over the next three decades than  in Europe, the United States and China combined.** That’s just how it is.  It’s why the US got on top in the 20th century. It just simply had a  better system than the competitors. And everything resets when you have  technological change. **We now live in a global economy. People from  Africa are going to be on equal footing with people in Europe and  America if we do things the right way. And then it’s a meritocratic  race, and I’m going to bet on the people who are tougher, more resilient  and more entrepreneurial 10 out of 10 times. They’re going to win –  it’s just that simple.** 
+
+So IOG has a pan-African view as a company. We started in a pretty  difficult country to do business in, Ethiopia, and you know what?  **Everywhere we looked, we saw well-educated, well-intentioned people who  really did want change. And they worked with us. Sometimes the system  worked against us; sometimes it worked with us. But everybody remembered  why they were there. And it was the privilege of my career to announce a  deal of five million people that could grow to 20 million, that could  grow to a national ID system of 110 million in just a few years, and  that could grow into a voting system, a payment settlement system.** It  can grow to anything. It’s kind of like the stem cell: once you’re in,  you’re in, and you can keep navigating and growing. And then how do we  take that to Kenya, to Nigeria? That’s 400 million people – more than  the population of the entire United States – within grasp in five to 10  years.
+
+**What’s most extraordinary is that this will transform the lives of  people. Now, boring work has to be done, dry presentations given about  credential this and verification that. And they’re very necessary. But  at the core of all of that are people.**
+
+6) [Crypto + identity solutions for Africa = RealFi:](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/11/25/welcome-to-the-age-of-realfi/)  By **integrating digital identity with Cardano, we can create real value and opportunity for people across the globe.**
+
+Among nations with developed economic systems, **DeFi has  highlighted the potential for blockchain to disrupt financial ‘legacy’  systems and open up access to new users hunting for better yields and  moving liquidity** around. It has established an entirely new financial  paradigm and the **$100bn DeFi market is expected to grow significantly  over the next few years as models continue to evolve.**
+
+However, as  much as the age of DeFi is creating fresh markets and driving  compelling new use cases, **it has also further highlighted the economic divide between people who can easily access financial products, and  those who cannot.**
+
+**The reason why banks refuse credit or loans in emerging markets is  often that they don’t have enough data about the person or organization  intending to borrow.**
+
+All the **necessary financial information can be stored and relayed  in a verifiable manner through an** [**Atala PRISM ID**](https://atalaprism.io/app)**.** The monetary building  bricks of DeFi can be used to structure these loans and hedge the  currency risk, while scalable payment rails provided by Cardano and  various layer 2 solutions will make it possible to transfer capital  across the world without friction.
+
+[Atala Prism](https://www.atalaprism.io/)  is a **decentralized identity system that enables people to own their personal data and interact with organizations seamlessly, privately, and  securely. The Atala Prism team is integrating metadata to certify and  store DIDs and DID documents on Cardano.** Also, it will be possible not  only to create but also to revoke credentials such as university  certificates.
+
+**Atala Trace and Atala Scan are being developed to  enable brand owners to improve the visibility over supply chain  processes and establish product provenance and auditability.** In these  cases, metadata integration will be used to record tamper-proof  supply-chain records.
+
+**Cardano adds the final piece of the financial puzzle by unlocking real economic value at the end of the transaction chain:** ***personal identity...***
+
+**Identity  is central to everything. Once someone has an economic identity, a  world of opportunity and inclusivity opens up. Real opportunity comes  with access to essential services that were hitherto out of reach. And  real finance, such as loans to open a business or maintain an existing  one. RealFi.**
+
+**Identity can become an asset in so far as it can be a  substitute for collateral.** A lender's overriding concern is to ensure  that loans (plus any interest accrued) are paid back. One way of  enforcing this is by collateralizing the loan, but if the lender has  enough and clear information about a borrower (if they know the borrower  is a high-earner, or a long-standing customer), the lender might be  more inclined to forgo the collateral.
+
+7) [connect the unconnected and bank the unbanked](https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/08/11/connecting-the-unconnected-banking-the-unbanked/)
+
+TL;DR: Cardano ecosystem to the moon in 2022! ;)
+
+EDIT: I tried to post this yesterday on this sub but it was removed cause other 2 Cardano posts were in top 50...
+
+EDIT 2: I'd like to see post like this with links+sources about other top 50 blockchains just to learn new things. I know that 2022 should be big for Ethereum in terms of their ETH2...So, consider this invitation to write something educational! ;)
+Happy Sunday Evening Apes!
+
+EDIT 3: 10:50 AM EST
+
+Some apes have discovered things! Which was the purpose and intent of the post. Thank you all for reading and giving some insight into WUT DOING version 69.3.  It appears that these filings are in relation to capital being raised by Citadel through investors. 🤷‍♂️ Who the hell would invest in Citadel at this point? 🤮 I dunno...but they definitely have more cash on hand now to do whatever they wanna do with it.
+
+So, the biggest takeaway: this is NOT liquidation...but it IS a Girl Scout cookie sale amongst their investors to raise capital for whatever they need 💴 for. 
+
+I've taken a break from exploring afterlife options (in Assassins Creed Valhalla) to my phone blowing up from Twitter posts. The Twitter posts look like they could contain some juicy stuff...so I'm looking to crowd pool some hive minded Apes that understand SEC filings.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/te4ysysm1d271.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=3c4122558f45b187c005e78db614e74ebb8eb5d0
+
+According to the following link from the SEC below, Citadel (under 11 different names) posted sale forms for hefty amounts of securities totaling **28 billion** on Friday.  There haven't been any filings of this type since approximately 1 year ago, spaced amount among the funds.  I'm not sure if this is an annual type filing, since there are years skipped on these filings.  (I would guess not).
+
+CITADEL TACTICAL TRADING LLCCitadel Equities Fund LLCCitadel Wellington LLCCitadel Global Fixed Income Fund LLCCitadel Candlestick EIF LLCCITADEL TACTICAL TRADING LTDCitadel Equities Fund Ltd.Citadel Kensington Global Strategies Fund Ltd.CEIF LLCCitadel Global Fixed Income Fund Ltd.CEIF Partners LLC
+
+[https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=%2522CITADEL%2522&dateRange=30d&category=custom&forms=D](https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=%2522CITADEL%2522&dateRange=30d&category=custom&forms=D)
+
+Example:
+
+Bottom right corner shows some of the dates for the Recent SEC Filings on [https://whalewisdom.com/filer/ceif-partners-llc](https://whalewisdom.com/filer/ceif-partners-llc)
+
+https://preview.redd.it/h13s1xvyzc271.png?width=3759&format=png&auto=webp&s=721eb438fe403f716e174f30773a56ae40e7a098
+
+Citadel Tactical Trading for example, looks thus far to be on track to exceed all previous years in security sales already (As of May).
+
+Source: [https://docoh.com/company/1456739/citadel-tactical-trading-llc](https://docoh.com/company/1456739/citadel-tactical-trading-llc)
+
+https://preview.redd.it/tb8pl4gd0d271.png?width=1709&format=png&auto=webp&s=b18bd6fe7331cd4a839cad7c45b0ccbe7057f749
+
+The filings themselves are checked as "amendments" in some cases to securities dating back as far as last decade.  The "amendments" may actually contain the source of the security name if the date corresponds to the original purchase date?  Just a thought, since it appears they do not have to disclose the names of securities sold.
+
+[https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=%2522CITADEL%2522&dateRange=30d&category=custom&forms=D](https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=%2522CITADEL%2522&dateRange=30d&category=custom&forms=D)
+
+[The security above appears to have been first entered in April of 2008.  All of these appear to be long positions that have been closed.  ](https://preview.redd.it/9qqu4gex0d271.png?width=2518&format=png&auto=webp&s=8488e9470ac90cdd37e0de883b8b8b720af7c186)
+
+I'm not an attorney, expert at legal shit, or even an internet sleuth.  I'm just a regular Ape that likes the stonk.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/z4pg3vne1d271.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=db611c6538cccd1bdac9e3e50c6be90b9c2f19ad
+
+I couldn't pass up this opportunity to at least bring these sales to light.  They deserve to be investigated since an Ape dig some digging and spent his time for us.Thanks to the Ape that flagged me down on Twitter.  Won't post his info here since there's people advising against that these days.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/yei8rkp02d271.png?width=547&format=png&auto=webp&s=e3c256d443873a8eb113b3d6d4c7e31833b9f152
+
+Open to any/all theories on this one.
+
+Tag anybody you think would know what's up here.
+
+Do your think SuperStonk. What is Shitadel up to this time?
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/vi4cyf672d271.png?width=980&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c46d4c25853934135564b2eadd351f83db3e472
+
+Edit 1:  I found a comment on another post which only had one of the filings.  Everyone piled on thinking Citadel was liquidating, etc.  It appears that this may just be an annual filing and normal business.  Below is a screenshot from an SEC Filing Ape that knows his shit.  I've asked him to look at my post to see if there is anything else to this...since the dates are not lining up and 2021's sales far exceed all previous years to this point in each of the funds.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/uqo9s28n6d271.png?width=1703&format=png&auto=webp&s=be754dc6c43e8f878f9bbd0832879532f0d57b38
+
+Edit 2: 12:04 AM EST 5/31/21 
+
+There are lots of Apes assuming that this is a yearly filing.  I also have wondered if this was an annual liquidation/selloff of assets.  However, that doesn't appear to be the case.    
+When I scroll through each of the 11 different funds, I see different dates (and multiple sales) in some years.  Image below is one example from Citadel Equities Fund II [https://docoh.com/company/1727632/citadel-equities-fund-ltd](https://docoh.com/company/1727632/citadel-equities-fund-ltd)
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/b1gq5f6lrd271.png?width=1701&format=png&auto=webp&s=fca695ad8cdf02224db23bb5e91a720cda285290
+Recent BTC correction therefore everything is down?
+It was already priced-in?
+Overshadowed by other announcements?
+Overshadowed by big conventions?
+VEN is less appealing due to relatively high market cap?
+Not surprising due to overall market sentiment following crash?
+Other?
+
+Given the size of this deal I expected at least *some* movement despite all of the above.
+
+I read about these economists and their contributions to the study of their discipline, but some are relatively new (< 25-50 years). How do we know they really work and won't "hurt us" 25 years down the road to the point where the damage cannot be reversed at all and our economy will fail completely?
+
+I don't know. It's just something I cannot get out of my head when reading certain material or articles. Am I the only one?
+
+
+edit: i meant < 25-50 years. not < 25-25 years.
+I’m 21 and have recently been lucky enough to be gifted £15,000. 
+
+I am still living with my parents and would like to move within 2-3 years. 
+
+I currently have a LISA which only has £200 in and was debating putting £3.8k of my £15k into it in order to get the 25% government bonus and do the same next year and maybe the year after.
+
+Could anybody suggest any other and maybe better ideas please? I would like to use the £15,000 solely for the purpose of using it for a house deposit.
+
+Thanks All :)
+My situation:
+
+I am 33, living in Toronto. It took my until 27ish to finish my undergrad. There were a lot of years were my income was zero, because I was either in school or unemployed.
+
+After graduating from undergrad, I worked for one year, making a couple of dollars above minimum wage, before going back to do an MBA to hopefully improve my wages. 
+
+It worked, sort of. I graduated in 2020, and after six months of unemployment I got a job primarily because of a connection I'd made during my MBA. The job title is business analyst, and pays 80K gross, around 60K net. I believe I'm underpaid, but I haven't troubled to find a new one because it's a pretty easy job, I don't do a lot day to day.  The job is also fully remote, which is a huge plus. 
+
+I started the job in June 2021, so it's going to be a year in June. I started with 0 net worth after graduating, and I've saved up 30K so far, so almost exactly half of my 60K net. 
+
+It's mostly just frugality. I live alone, and the rent is about $1400, which is below the market rate. I don't go out much, and my groceries are about $400. I don't have a car because I live pretty close to local transit, and it's pretty reliable. 
+
+I've put about half in VEQT, about half is in a savings account waiting for a good time to buy in (I know, I know, time in the market beats timing the market, but I think the market conditions are ripe for a reset.)
+
+I hope my wages grow a bit this year. A colleague who also did the same MBA as me recently jumped ship and got a product manager job that paid $40K more than we were being paid at our current role. 
+
+I'm hoping I can do the same, maybe by moving to a fully remote position at a US firm. I think the next couple of years will be dedicated to making that connection somewhere, possibly by working at a company that does both canadian and US operations, working for the Canadian arm and then making the transfer.
+
+Also thinking of getting on the property ladder and getting a condo... Though not sure how wise an investment that is without the 20% down payment ready. if I keep to my savings rate at 50%, I'll be able to afford a 20% downpayment in 4 years... depressing thought for a 500 sq foot condo, which is what I'm targeting
+
+But chances are I won't be able to maintain that savings rate. I HAVE to move from my current location because of poor air quality, and rates all across the city have crossed the 1700 mark for a 1 BR apartment...
+
+So there's some good and some bad, but at least I'm holding my head above water, which I wasn't able to do previously. Here's to all you struggling out there, keep on struggling!
+Crypto exists in a space that is largely a completely unregulated free market. If your crypto project can be made worthless due to some economic actors performing a free market action, then that coin never had any worth to begin with. Complaining about "attacks" post hoc is a useless activity that tries to absolve the individual of making a bad trade.
+
+If your algorithmic stablecoin project was so flawed to the point where a bunch of people selling its stablecoin could send the entire LUNA/UST ecosystem to 0, then that coin was so flawed to be worthless from the word go.
+
+Take responsibility for bad trades and stop trying to absolve yourself of all responsibility by inventing charades and conspiracies about how the man made you broke.
+What's the best platform for noobs, and what are the key pros & cons on each? Please state your reasons.
+
+I found Paytm to have a very robust and stable app (dark mode is a big plus). But the amount of information is quite overwhelming for any newcomer.
+
+I've heard good things about Kuvera here on reddit but I'm curious over it's advantages. Goalwise got me pretty interested as I heard it is a very noob friendly platform.
+Bought an Aegon term insurance policy on the 20th Dec via the website. Later on 22nd, I receive a call slyly informing about cancellation and having to buy the new version again, 10-12 days from now. In the same call, after some back and forth, now get asked explicitly 'consent for cancellation' as product version 8 was stopped on Dec 18th. All this while, there was no pop-up on the website of any sort regarding this info and it would STILL let you buy and even complete filling the proposal form.
+
+IDK doesn't make sense, I still believe that if the IT infra cannot support or if they feel the efforts to enforce/inform about the blackout period on the website, outweigh the once in X years product revamp, then they shouldn't resort to underhanded techniques of unethically cancelling and instead just honour the application as the onus is on them right? On pressing for this exchange via email, all my doubts proved to be right. Later in the evening of 22nd, I get a call stating some strings were pulled, please ignore previous interaction and my proposal will be fast-tracked to underwriting and I have to send in the supporting documents (payslip), which of course I did and the same sales guy was promptly in contact too ...well after his shift. 
+
+The sceptic in me goes - they could still reject while underwriting, citing some vague Company Policy. And no guesses there, that's exactly what happened on the 24th. And apparently this cancellation reason cannot be elaborated further as the sales team just pass on what they receive from the underwriting team.
+
+Just wanted to put this whole ordeal out here to see what you good folks have to say.
+1. Is not disclosing the reason for policy denial, a standard practice? Or even if it left to their discretion, the whole encounter leading up to this has raised some serious doubts in me. Also something to note that this was for an early 20s, no history of illness.... heck .. even before physical medicals was scheduled.
+2. Despite all the '3 years post policy inception, IRDAI mandates all insurers to honour all claims, so cheap out on the premiums' which of course sounds logical and I truly agreed with, is not viable coz of such shady encounters and the 30-50% extra premium you pay for a PSU or a larger insurer over an Aegon :'// is actually the way to go.
+3. Also since this was big in the news that insurers will hike the premium post dec 1st 2021. Just wanted to know if this is how the product revamp is being carried out across all insurers and not just this one. If yes, then there are even bigger issues honestly. 
+
+All in all, Raises serious concerns on the lengths..regulations/audits can be unethically flouted to conceal IT incompetency in such a supposedly highly regulated space.
+
+Tldr - bought term insurance on the website, get asked for consent to cancel because product discontinued, so buy after 10-14 days (ofcourse they can claim plausible deniability unless all the sales phone calls are recorded and can be specifically looked into by the regulatory). Just make you go Arrghhh... Wtffff
+This past weekend there were a couple rival posts in r/badeconomics (by u/gorbachev and u/haalidoodi) discussing the effectiveness of elementary economics education (focusing on microeconomics). I think most of us would agree that instructors have a responsibility to impress upon their students the level of agreement of economists on hot political issues (price controls, tragedy of the commons), but the two users above disagree on the effectiveness of professors in creating an appropriate impression.
+
+Both posts provided little information to support their view on the current state of economics education, so I would like to ask: is there any research in how successful intro Econ courses are at informing students on basic policy?
+
+A follow-up question would be: are there teaching techniques you find helpful for ensuring your students have a good grasp on the subtleties in the field and don’t leave with an incorrect impression?
+
+And lastly, I’m curious what your personal positions are about intro economics’ role on informing students on policy and whether this should be prioritized more or less than introducing them to the field.
+I learned about Game Theory and found it beyond fascinating. The major “game” I learned was of course the prisoners dilemma, but I was wondering if there are real world/current events that game theory can be/is  applied to. Thanks!
+I hear differing numbers but there seem to be more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the US. What will happen to the Mexican economy if they are all sent back?
+I read in “The origin of wealth” that there is little empirical evidence for the core theories of microeconomic theory. 
+
+I’m not looking for views on that book but am interested in whether this statement is true. And if not, what such evidence exists?
+I've been trying to find this out, and it's surprisingly hard. I've been using this website of polls sent to economists (http://www.igmchicago.org) but it's hard to dig through all that information. I was hoping you guys could give me some recommendations of economists who you think are non-partisan and genuinely curious about the economy.
+
+Also maybe some podcasts that fall into that category? :) 
+I've noticed that every currently existing currency, be it the Pound, the Dollar, the Rouble or any pre-Euro currency had been steadily losing it's value since the 1900s. Not a single one is in a better state than it was previously. Why is that?
+Thanks!
+So I know rent control lowers the supply of rental units, raising prices for non-rent controlled units and make it harder to find apartments available for newcomers or people relocating in the city, but are there any variations of it that are able to have to social effect of increased housing stability and decreased displacement, while mitigating some of the negative effects on rental supply? 
+
+If there aren’t any, then are there any alternative solutions to promoting rental stability/reducing displacement while also promoting increases in the rental supply?
+In a recent posts alot of people here said economists no longer think in terms of "chicago school", "austrian school", etc.
+
+When did this shift away from schools happen?
+I am interest in learning more about money I couldn't find any courses on theory of money(not simple definitions but innerworkings more like information theory of money)online
+Or is there no such thing
+This Economist article ( [https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/how-a-housing-downturn-could-wreck-chinas-growth-model/21805115](https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/how-a-housing-downturn-could-wreck-chinas-growth-model/21805115) ) states that: "The property market is probably the single largest driver of the country’s economy"
+
+**How does that actually work?**
+
+Like if people are buying property from each other within China.......then how does new wealth/money/GDP/growth actually get created from those property transactions?
+Hi all thetagang members, I don't want to discuss politics at all, just was wondering what your thoughts are on this approaching election for potential plays? If Trump wins, I believe it will be business as usual. If Biden ends up winning, I believe there will be a big sell off as Trump was so pro-business that anything different from this will create some unrest in the market. Pairing this with the uncertainty regarding the 'rona, I was wondering if any of you have any advice or guidance? I was 19 during the last election and hadn't traded at all so not sure how to approach this. I know it's early but would like to hop into trades come late Aug/early Sept. Thanks for the help!
+
+Thoughts thus far if Biden wins: Selling CSP of large tech leading into election week. Creating Put Debit Spreads on speculative plays that have run up a little too much during this stretch given all stays relatively the same by the time November hits. 
+
+TIA!!
+Our modern day financial system is essentially a giant ponzi scheme and pyramid scheme with extra steps, it's the extra steps that make it be too confusing for the laymen to understand what's happening, allowing the system to continue instead of having it get overturned and reinvented: [https://medium.com/coinmonks/the-modern-financial-system-is-a-debt-based-pyramid-scheme-and-an-investment-based-ponzi-scheme-e37c4154b9](https://medium.com/coinmonks/the-modern-financial-system-is-a-debt-based-pyramid-scheme-and-an-investment-based-ponzi-scheme-e37c4154b9)
+
+A more academic version of the article on the Nasdaq with links to sources, instead of like the previous link that more so tries to use imagery to better relay the message: [https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/bitcoin-fixes-the-modern-fiat-ponzi-scheme-2021-09-14](https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/bitcoin-fixes-the-modern-fiat-ponzi-scheme-2021-09-14)
+
+It's sad that people don't see this yet, but Bitcoin has started a fascinating trend that leads people down a rabbit whole of financial education that allows them to see this fiat Ponzi and Securities Pyramid scheme for the scans they are.
+
+We only have a few hundred million people today in this space, and I'd say only a few tens of millions have been in it long enough learning about it, to better comprehend the giant scam with extra steps that is the traditional financial system.
+
+What happens in 4 years when we're projecting over a billion users, and likely by then a few hundred million users who've learned enough about the financial system to understand the scam that it is? Will we get the revolution over night that Henry Ford prophesized?
+
+If not then, then what happens in 10 years when we project 5+ billion users with a few billions having learned enough to better understand the Fiat Ponzi and Securities Pyramid scams with extra steps?
+
+If you're a long time hodler then you already know what happens. Eventually your banks fails you as they do everyone all the time, and Bitcoin offers you a work around. After that, things become much clearer seeing how Bitcoin can do for you everything your bank does for you without all the inefficiency's.
+
+Even getting loans against your Bitcoin is an easier process with better rates than a banking loan, and anyone who's been in long enough to start doing that has learned enough to only ever do it with the smallest portion of their holdings to not be at risk of not having more Bitcoin in reserves to cover a margin call.
+
+**F.A. Hayek** once said:  ["I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take them violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-uo-KfnkhI)
+
+So tell me, what happens in 20 years when 7+ billions of people are projected to be using Bitcoin like people have grown to use email today, and even more billions having learned enough from their curiosity in it to see the old financial system for the giant convoluted scam that it is?
+
+Bitcoin's adoption rate has held strong for 13 years, and for those thirteen years it has grown at twice the speed of the first internet.
+
+If you study what happens to adoptees after they start studying Bitcoin and the financial system, to better understand why Bitcoin goes up in value over time like it does,  then you know the usual result is we Hodlers start denominating everything in Bitcoin, saving in Bitcoin. And dollars and other fiat currencies? Well we keep as few those as we need. Hell the oldest of us in this space don't keep any dollars anymore. We have credit and debit cards that we can pay with our Bitcoin so we never have to touch that fiat shit again.
+
+​
+
+**PS: Ford helped create the modern central banking system we have today. It’s described in a book called “*****The creature from Jekyll Island”*****. The book describes Henry Ford, JP Morgan, and a bunch of other billionaires(When adjusted for inflation) meeting at a private island to reinvent our banking system, which resulted in the creation of the private Federal Reserve banking system we have today, who is owned by all of Americas Chartered banks, as they're the only ones allowed to own a stake of its shares. So if he’s saying people would revolt over night if they understood it, then you know it’s got to be bad because the guy and his friends created it.**
+I've had a burning question in my mind planted a few days ago when I stumbled upon [a comment I made](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o0mn0y/in_death_by_1000_cuts_shf_just_received_their_999/h1vxwji/) that was [screen-shotted, submitted, and earned more karma](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o0qbuq/this_comment_needs_more_exposure_may_be_why_005/h1wpar5/) and awards than my account had accumulated over the last 7 years of casual Redditing.
+
+A bunch of 🦍s found the original comment and chatted with me about the topic. It felt like people really wanted to understand (for lack of better terms) "what sound it makes in the market when a hedge fund or other financial institution dies." Do some stocks skyrocket, and others crash? Does it take a few days? Weeks? It seemed like a topic that was under-researched with a lot of pent-up demand. I thought it'd make for really good investment vs required effort -- sort of a deep value topic for Superstonk. So, I figured I'd put my wrinkles on it and investigate. There's not a lot of data to go on, though, so I started by investigating Archegos. It's one of the only financial institutions (if you can call it that) that I know of that collapsed recently, and I was interested in trying to determine why bagholders would still be reporting losses "2 months after it collapsed." The MOASS was supposed to be slow because it's huge, right? So it seemed like a small collapse should be fast. Peculiar, no?
+
+Anyway, I'm prefacing with all this because what I'm about to say is a lot.
+
+I think Archegos was actually effectively short $GME, died on January 27th (possibly the margin call was on the 27th & failed on the 29th), due to being squeezed not just by the stocks they admitted in the news, but also meme stocks. I think those who were left holding bags exited their meme stock short positions VERY SLOWLY over ~45 days, because a congressional investigation was underway, and that the announcement of Archegos's death was delayed until March 26th, 2021 (made possible by the fact it was a 'small family office')... and finally, I think that date of announcement was *because that was the date the bag holders had finished exiting their effectively-short positions that Archegos had left them.*
+
+I'll cut to the chase because it's late. I have two pieces of primary evidence in support of this:
+
+1) All the news reports list two stocks Archegos had exposure to ('exposure' as a description could go either way, short or long) via total return swaps. Pull up the YTD charts for these stocks and check out what they've done since January: [VIAC](https://www.google.com/search?q=%24viac), [DISCA](https://www.google.com/search?q=DISCA+price). Also, looking at March against the YTD graphs look a hell of a lot more like a short squeeze that *ended* on March 26th than anything else... and with those blips on January 27th-29th for both? Sure, lots of stocks had blips back then as the Superstonk Quants will tell you... but *these blips were price increases, like GME and AMC saw, not decreases like SPY and most of the market saw.*
+
+Other stocks Archegos reportedly had exposure to include mostly ones I think they were actually long on, like [Farfetch](https://www.google.com/search?q=farfetch+stock) and [Vishop](https://www.google.com/search?&q=Vipshop+stock). Those charts look much more like what I'd naively expect from a bagholder dumping long positions around or up to the date of March 26th.
+
+That alone got me interested enough to dig more into it... but then I stumbled almost immediately across this second piece of evidence: 
+
+2) [The DOJ opened up an investigation into Archegos on May 26th, 2021](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-26/justice-department-is-said-to-open-probe-into-archegos-blowup). The moment I saw the date I realized our favorite company, GameStop also had something to say about that date. **Not back in May, but weeks later after the Shareholder AGM**:
+
+> “May 26th, 2021 GameStop received request from SEC for voluntary documents and information regarding SEC investigation..into trading activity in securities and securities in other companies..GameStop intends to cooperate fully with SEC staff.”
+
+Links for [Superstonk Thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nwklbg/looks_like_gamestop_is_cooperating_with_an_sec/) & [GameStop primary source](https://news.gamestop.com/node/18951/html)
+
+So, reporting mentions Archegos was under investigation, opened May 26th... Supertstonk [notices and some discussion happens, but we didn't care much because it's not directly GME related.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nlu4jn/justice_department_opens_probe_into_archegos/). Either those are two ends of the same investigation, or it's a pretty fucking big coincidence, especially when you factor in the January 27th bump. I feel like the Superstonk Quants should probably take a look at some of this? To extend the speculation, it's also possible a portion of the late Feb / early March $GME run-up was thus due to Archegos closing positions, and at this point I'm actually starting to think history books will actually cite January 27th as the start of the MOASS, and that we're still currently feeling the reverberations throughout the market in $GME's price (and beyond). If I'm right on that, allow me to be the first to say: "Welcome to the MOASS and I'm sorry it's a lot slower moving than we'd all hoped...", but I'm pretty sure it's still unstoppable.
+
+Anyway, I've got to go get some sleep... I just wanted to dump off some of my preliminary DD results here and report back to everyone: I still don't know what it sounds like when a hedge fund or other financial institution dies in this market, [but I have a hunch that I know what it sounds like when it lies.](https://i.imgur.com/rUUDVM6.png)
+
+**Edit 1:**
+
+Someone has brought up the ‘birthday problem’, which I agree with: If we assume a lot of family funds, hedgies, etc., get investigated (Thanks SEC! Keep up the good work!) A DOJ investigation into Archegos and an SEC investigation into $GME advancing on the same day isn’t noteworthy (if we can call leaking/hitting the news ‘advancing’). We can’t read too much into it without any supporting evidence, because there’s probably lots of investigations into all kinds of things both corrupt and squeaky clean… right?
+
+Also, I found out the SEC and DOJ are [totally different organizations](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sec.asp) and it’s not the SEC under the DOJ, so it’s actually even an implicit leap there… [though they do work together when there’s overlap](https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-140), and I guess Citadel/Virtu seem to have a duopoly...
+
+So, don’t jack your tits yet: We know GME was connected to a SEC investigation as of May 26th. Archegos was connected with a DOJ investigation as of May 26th. Nobody’s connected GME to any DOJ investigations, right?
+
+Someone hold my crayons… and buckle up.
+
+**Edit 2:** BTW, I make memes and stuff, too. [For your enjoyment while I dig up broviet’s new account.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzyw4j/hedge_hedgie_svu_a_peak_inside_superstonk/) (or check my profile pinned ones if you’re still waiting, 🤷‍♂️)
+
+**Edit 3:** here’s former financial industry insider Broviet saying he was going out to get drinks with a DOJ (not SEC) employee and Bloomberg reporter earlier this week to talk about the GME thing off the record:
+
+https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzekok/ooooooooops_back_from_the_dead/
+
+I remember thinking it was odd that he said DOJ but I figured (wrongly) that the SEC must just be under them. So, possible it’s all coincidental… but with pretty clear paths forward to discover more.
+
+**EDIT 4:** d2blues has pointed out that Nomura Holdings,  ([reportedly an Archegos bagholder](https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/04/27/nomura-reports-29-billion-hit-as-total-losses-from-archegos-collapse-climb-past-10-billion/?sh=22bb5c9f6bef)) is [showing $GME options on the books](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o2i69k/is_archegos_the_missing_puzzle_piece/h276s61/) since the collapse:
+
+> Also worthwhile noting that Nomura Holdings popped up with 200,000 Puts and 300,000 Calls in GME as reported in their 13F filings on 17th May, for the period ending 31st March (Source: Fintel)
+
+I'm pretty convinced even without seeing statistical correlations at this point.
+
+**EDIT 5:** I also wanted to encourage 🦍s to consider buying and holding $GME directly instead of risking anything with dates and CALL options. I've heard reports of 🦍s being paid to *hype GME dates*, and have gotten messages trying to encourage me to look into specific *future* dates. I won't be looking into them, as I'm only interested in past dates and holding real $GME shares. I'm an 🦍 investor, not a speculator. Also, selling 🦍s calls is one way [Options Market Makers can generate phantom shares to keep the game going.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o1sggl/the_hidden_shorts_the_correlation_of_ftds_and/h23ktb8/)
+
+**EDIT 6:** My estimation of them dumping some short positions over ~45 days before the announcement is just casual speculation regarding why announce when they did. The fact that [VIAC](https://www.google.com/search?q=%24viac) and [DISCA](https://www.google.com/search?q=DISCA+price) prices spiked up and returned to normal right before they pronounced Archegos dead makes me think those were the last positions they exited. I don't think their bag-holders have shed their $GME exposure... but it's all just wild speculation. The only thing I'm pretty sure of is that Archegos died long before March 26th, and I strongly suspect the investigations are related. 
+
+The Quants will hopefully be able to answer the kinds of questions people have about how it relates (or doesn't) to specific stocks.
+
+**TADR:** there are a number of coincidences between the collapse of Archegos and GME-related events. Enough I think the Superstonk Quants should take a look (or anyone with ideas on how to research farther) to see if they can find evidence for/against a connection. 🦍 think we overlooked it because it collapsed long ago, and didn’t connect new info back to it. Quants help please, because apes 🦍 together strong.
+Came across couple threads on here about people discussing SL hunting Market Makers and quite a few said that all this is baloney... Since its Friday and I just finished analyzing the screws ups of the week, I decided to write a short post about the matter from my experience as my PERSONAL opinion.
+
+To begin with, Stock Trading and Options communities have a general consensus that some kind of 'shady activities' occur. It's actually almost a mainstream idea, thanks to movies like Wolf of Wallstreet and people like Musky with his 'funding secured'. Along with countless other charged and non charged insider trading individuals and entities.
+
+I imagine I don’t have to explain the ‘crypto’ market a place where they actually run ads to join a group and then pump and dump some shitty coin.
+
+Anyway enough of other folks, lets move on to Forex. To cut it simply, Banks have  already been caught red handed collaborating in chat rooms on how to manipulate the price to their advantage.
+(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-forex-settlement-idUSKBN0O50CQ20150520)
+
+So this should answer your question if there WAS Market Maker who moved markets.... Yes there was and its not some conspiracy theory, they've been found, charged, fined. Its up to you to decide if this is still going on or just stopped overnight.
+
+Do these people SL hunt your individual positions? No, but what they do is seek liquidity... Chances are, you have placed SL after your usual textbook analysis at a major support/resistance as many other retailers... Experienced Whale traders at CITI, JP etc know where you have these SL. They also know where you most likely placed your pending buy/sell with tight SL. All they have to do is drive the price enough to take out all of the above and stopped out positions will fuel their direction... Combine that with creation of some 'other pattern' and you have bunch of other people jumping on the train going same directions as the institutional trader. Job done.
+
+Now onto the Brokers.
+
+From my experience, there is no such thing as a good Market Maker Broker... Yes there are absolute awful unregulated ones with dealing desk where you will most likely never withdraw any profits and some not so bad ones like Oanda, Forex without a dealing desk.
+
+Ask how Oanda, Forex.com make their money... They will tell you its by spreads... Open up Oanda and check out average spreads and go to 'maximum' ... You will see some rather crazy spreads during news that if you ever traded on ECN would seem alien to you... Same goes to Rollover... Its up to you to decide if these things are just because Oanda and Gain have liquidity providers that are extremely in-flexible or.....
+
+Lets not go far for a recent example, just open up EUR/USD 1Minute chart of todays closing. ECN broker closed today at 1.6220 vs 1.6225 aka 0.5 pip spread and thats as high as the price went in last closing minutes... Spread did not jump anywhere much really - I was there to watch it.
+
+Now lets open up Oanda chart on Tradingview... What do we see here? A spike to 1.16262 on last minute - now lets go and check Oandas maximum spread at this exact time, we find that it is exactly 6 pips.
+
+Lets look at the chart again and think where a small time 'retail trader' that trades on small TF's would put their SL.  Probably at 1.16254, 1.16282, 1.16293 area and lastly (same as me) 1.16323 area... Neither one of these would have been hit if you traded with ECN Broker... All of these with exception of last one (would be a really close call) would have been hit by Oanda or Forex.com today. Again its up to you to decide if this is just because Gain and Oanda have such 'interesting' liquidity providers or a broker that makes money on spreads is... you know... making money on spreads...
+
+So here is my 2 cents... This again is my personal opinion.
+
+
+So I want to use a strategy but I get confused with all of the different ones and I don’t know what is a strategy either at this point. I was thinking support and resistance could be my strategy but if it is, would a part of my strategy be also looking at trend lines, supply and demand, candle structure, price action, etc. along with it or should I only be looking at support and resistance? Just trying to figure out what would work best because it gets complicated when I’m looking at 10 different things at once which are usually:
+
+Top down analysis
+Plot the zones
+Watch price action
+Candlestick structure
+Trade the right times
+Trend lines
+Supply and demand
+Support and resistance
+Whole numbers 
+News
+RSI
+Stochastic
+
+
+I use all of these together at the moment and even when focusing on one pair, it gets really confusing. Any help or ideas? 
+Now granted, I'm not in poverty, not at all - but my family's not that well off either, growing up, as I still am, I always believed a university degree was my way to early retirement, flash cars and beautiful homes.
+
+But as I've got older, and though I still wish to attain a degree, I've seen that this is almost certainly not true; I'll still be working until I'm 65, degree or not. I refuse to accept this.
+
+Over the past 6 months I've been testing my strategy, which has so far yielded over 100% returns, month on month via a demo account. After reading a tonne of books, consuming as much as I can knowledge wise regarding FOREX, constant, consistent practise and hundreds of hours learning, I'm looking forward to opening my first live account in June.
+
+I'm well aware that this first live account may fail; of course, nothing goes to plan - but it's a start, and I'll still learn from it, whatever the outcome.
+# My Thoughts
+
+**Overview**
+
+I have been watching MoonPaw ([moonpaw.cc](https://moonpaw.cc/)) slowly succeed and now they're really picking up some traction, it has been really refreshing to be a part of a community like this and see something grow from so low. Please invest with caution, but I think this one has a lot of potential!
+
+Yesterday Moonpaw donated more than $5,000 worth in cryptocurrency to a charity on a livestream and their developers were on video doing everything they could to engage with us viewers. They took questions and gave us well thought out answers!
+
+Moonpaw has a charity concept, very cute and adorable aesthetic that has been successful for other coins, and serious and communicative devs.
+
+They say their plan is to grow into an NFT Market Place, merch store, and to make comics with their characters to build the MoonPaw brand. Eventually they can see there being a Moonpaw video game.
+
+**Pros**
+
+* I think their telegram is well moderated and has a good community
+* They seem to be putting a lot of effort into marketing and social media channels
+* The mascot is very cute, as with their other characters
+* The devs are not anonymous and seem intelligent
+
+**Cons**
+
+* Still very early, no NFTs available and their website doesn't support it yet
+* Community is still small, only 500 people
+
+# Recent Developments 
+
+[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcC6vd-I8aE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcC6vd-I8aE)
+
+[https://twitter.com/moonpaw\_cc/status/1390869882280026112](https://twitter.com/moonpaw_cc/status/1390869882280026112)
+
+[https://twitter.com/billym2k/status/1390760092098863118?s=21](https://twitter.com/billym2k/status/1390760092098863118?s=21)
+
+After all this hype, the devs decided they HAD to donate to the tweeted charity and they will be organising a second stream with another 5,000+ donation to Rocket Dog Rescue. The time and date of this one will be released at a later date.
+
+We will soon see their second donation during a livestream and in 3-4 weeks we will see a comic book made from all of the MoonPal Characters from CatalystVibes' artwork! They are in the process of being listed on CoinGecko and audited too!
+
+# Token Info
+
+>MoonPaw was designed to bridge the gap between content, community and crypto!  
+Immerse yourself in our unique, digital universe (The Mooniverse) powered by the MoonPaw token. Holders get the opportunity to receive early access to comics, games, merch, NFTs, giveaways and can vote on our monthly donations for wildlife conservation and animal welfare efforts.  
+Token Information:  
+Max Supply: 1 Billion  
+Burned: 500 million  
+Transaction Fee: 6%  
+❗️Set Slippage between 7-10%  
+✅A portion donated to wildlife conservation and animal welfare efforts  
+✅Liquidity Locked for 1 year  
+✅Ownership Renounced  
+✅Website already live  
+👀Comics, Books and associated NFTs currently in production
+
+# Key Links:
+
+🌖🐾 MoonPaw website - [https://moonpaw.cc/](https://moonpaw.cc/)
+
+📣 Socials: [Telegram](https://t.me/MoonPawChat), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/moonpaw_cc), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/moonpaw.cc/), [Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/moonpaw)
+
+# From the Developer
+
+*"So the goal of MoonPaw is to generate multiple streams of content creation for a variety of ages. We have designers working on comics and amazon books as we speak that will hopefully be ready for launch in a month or so. We have also made inroads into our plans to release a mobile game. All of our content and the associated NFTs can be accessed early by holders of MoonPaw for purchase as well. We’re bringing crypto into every day life and forms of entertainment so that there’s seamless integration between the two!*
+
+*And if we can also give back to wildlife conservation efforts in the process well that’s a bonus! 😊"*
+I got an eye checkup and a new prescription 2 years ago. Insurance covered the cost of the appointment and I used my FSA to pay for the copay. The copay was $10. 
+
+
+3 months later I got a bill for the copay. I learn from the receptionist that their computers were “offline” the month of my appointment and the payment never went through. Well now I’ve switched jobs at this point and no longer have access to the FSA account I used to pay the bill. On principle I don’t want to pay them again so I try to contact the billing department to discuss the situation. Fast forward 2 years later, I still get a bill every 3 months and the billing department will not return my emails or calls. 
+
+
+Is a copay something that could be sent to collections and screw up my credit? If not, then I don’t have to stress when mail forwarding stops (I’ve moved) and never see the bill again. How does one dispute a bill if you can’t contact the billing department anyways?
+
+
+EDIT: typical, “I didn’t expect this to blow up”. Big picture, life has been throwing punch after punch to most of us the last 4 years (and some much much longer). It’s tougher and tougher to get ahead and any win feels like progress against the uphill battle. Hopefully this relates and resonates with people in the comments. Is this worth getting another win?
+My wife agrees with the majority here: I should just pay the $10 and drop this negativity from my life for good. If it ever does come back, I’ll have kept the payment documentation this time. Interesting information in this thread regarding healthcare bills and credit reports (and the reality of things not always obeying the law) as well as stories of what thresholds make it beneficial for businesses and agencies to go after debt.
+She knows nothing about the stock market and day trading but knew that for the past couple months I was up about 8 grand in profit. The most I’d get in affirmation was “That’s nice, honey.”
+
+The last week and a half has been brutal and I’ve lost about 95% of it. All of a sudden she’s interested in where I’ve gone wrong and this morning she hit me with “How come you keep buying stocks that only go down?”
+
+Even with her limited knowledge on the stock market, even she knows that stonks only go up. 
+
+🚀s for better luck are appreciated.
+I never missed out FYI, it’s just a common thing I hear on most stocks.
+Apple, amazon, Microsoft.... weren’t unknown companies five years ago. The skill isn’t finding a company to buy. The skill is researching what you buy and holding it for years if no reason to sell. 
+
+Buying and finding isn’t the skill, holding and patience is.
+
+If you weren’t confident on buying Tesla 2 years ago, you wouldn’t have been confident on holding the position that long.
+After dealing with some plumbing issues that repeated within the 1 year we had her and her children as tenants we decided that we were not going to renew the lease as we have had to file insurance claims twice due to water leaking into the units below and that landlord having complaints and such. I was cooperative and understanding so that went ok. However, the tenant did not pay the utility bill for this month and has already moved out of the unit without telling us. Her new landlord contacted me a few weeks ago and I answered his questions as needed. Since she is out she doesn't owe us anymore rent from what I remember. Should I contact the landlord and explain to him the situation? If so how should I do it without causing any issues or anything as I don't want to cause anymore issues or anything.
+
+If there is any important information that needs to considered that I left out please let me know so that I can see about adding it to help narrow down to the best approach.
+
+​
+
+Edit: Please understand that I have limited experience as a landlord and will have only been 1 for a year in the fall so my experience/understanding of everything is limited at the moment. I have not contacted the new landlord or anything and my tenant just got back to me so we should be finalizing everything very soon. 
+So long story short I'm in England too if that helps but basically stopped going to school around 13/14 didn't go because of my mum is disabled or whatever was ill so never went because of her pretty much just us and now I'm turning 22 my mother is abusive and not really nice I'm tired of all the things she says and does. I have no ID no education no bank account I don't have a thing like that at all I'm wondering how do I start like how do I go about getting all this stuff and leaving my mother getting a job and finding a place to live? I'm sorry I just have no one else to ask no family or friends. Thanks also sorry if I'm not asking in the right place
+Three months ago, I gladly pulled the trigger and RE’d from a career in public service and environmental conservation at age 50. Not as early as some in this sub but much earlier than I anticipated thanks to the FI I created through spending less than I made/living without extravagence, paying myself first, a fortunate “make your own luck” situation, some dumb luck, and avoiding major financial mistakes (although I would make a few different financial choices if I could do things over - see below).
+
+**EDIT:** I should have mentioned that the pension's COLA provisions are very weak, currently around 1% and mine won't begin for another three years. So, the value of the pension will decrease over time due to the eroding effect of inflation.
+
+**Stats at retirement:**
+
+Personal: Age 50, SINK, white male, Colorado (USA) resident
+
+Career: My work has always been environmental conservation through science, policy, and land management, almost entirely in Colorado since college
+
+Highest annual salary at retirement: About $138K
+
+Annual pension benefit: About $104K
+
+Investments: Mix of traditional 401k/457, Roth 401k/457, Roth IRA, brokerage account, HSA. Total value is approximately $350k invested roughly in total stock market offerings (equities, no bonds).
+
+Assets: House in MCOL-HCOL area worth about $600K with about $172K owed on a recently refinanced 30 year loan at 2.75%.
+
+**Career path:** Started as a field biologist in college (bachelors in biology) and pursued it for the first couple of years post-college at a tiny non-profit. Decided to leave the hard sciences and move into the social sciences so I could better influence how wildlife habitat was managed. Went to grad school and got a masters in natural resources policy in order to make this career change. While I hadn’t envisioned a career in public service (was thinking I’d work for an organization like The Nature Conservancy or perhaps an environmental consulting firm), I lucked into a dream job in state government as a program manager for an environmental issue I was really passionate about. After 6-7 years in this role, I took on some management responsibility for another, larger and related program. At year 10, I moved up into management full-time to oversee all the conservation programs in the department. At year 19, I left state government due to politics (mixed blessing). Within six months, I found a more attractive position in local government at a department head level, up from more of a division manager role at the state. While the work was rewarding and a “Dream Job” on paper, the lack of anything approaching a positive work-life balance and ineffective/unsupportive management from elected officials quickly drove me to reconsider how long I wanted to stay in the position. After assessing my financial situation, I decided that RE was the best option for my health (physical and mental) and the right path to achieve a happier life. So, despite the infrequent question I get from some family and friends, “Yes, I am actually retired and don’t plan to look for paid employment in the future.” However, I won’t rule it out if something comes along that really lights my fire. My “career” moving forward is focused on living life fully, growing as a person, and making up for the last 4.5 years when I worked but didn’t live.
+
+**Financial path:** Graduated from college (1992) with about $12K debt in low interest student loans and began to pay them back at the minimum for two years while working as a field biologist and just scraping by. Put loans in deferment when I went back to grad school (1994). Paid for grad school with student loans and working part-time. Graduated (1996) with a total of about $40K debt in low interest student loans. Quickly landed a job with state gov’t starting at $42K and began aggressively paying the loans back at $1K/month while sharing housing and flipping a home with friends from grad school. Flipping wasn’t very profitable ($17K for 18 months of work - evenings, weekends, and holidays) and, in retrospect, not worth the time deferred from living life (good lesson!).
+
+Purchased my own house in 2000 ($234K) in a Denver neighborhood that has only become more desirable over time. Paid PMI until equity exceeded 20%. Started with a 30 year fixed mortgage at 7% but at some point reduced interest rate and term of loan because I was debt averse. Started investing in 401k in 2000 at age 30. After a few years, I was maxing out the 401k (no employer match) by not increasing my lifestyle with each raise but investing instead. Work didn’t offer a Roth 401k option and I neglected to start my own Roth IRA until sometime in my 40s. Early on, I built a very comfortable emergency fund and cash reserve that gave me peace of mind when unexpected expenses came up. In 2012, completed whole house renovation for $140K which I paid for with cash saved as well as rolling some debt into refinanced mortgage loan.
+
+After 19 years in state service and paying into the state pension (not into SS which means I’ll be lucky to get anything from SS), I could see the writing on the wall with the current political appointee department head. Because you can only buy service credit (time served) in the pension system while you are still employed in that system, and rationally expecting that I’d never be employed in the pension system again, I opted to purchase about 7 years of credit (the maximum allowed with my specific circumstances) by liquidating virtually the entire balance of my 401k (approximately $310K). While it was expensive, it turned out to be one of my best financial decisions because it greatly improved my pension value. Over-simplification: the way my pension is constructed, the value increased incrementally from years 0-20 but after year 20, the value of the pension grew more exponentially. Considering that I was almost 46 at the time that I left state service and the pension system, now had acquired about 27 years of service, and could begin drawing a benefit at age 50 (a benefit that would **not** improve the longer I delayed activating it at age 50), I created a big nest-egg that I would be able to benefit from in only four years time.
+
+In a stroke of incredible good luck, within six months I was hired by a local government that had joined the same pension system (a rarity) and at a 16% pay increase. So, I was not only taking on a role with greater decision-making authority and influence, greater opportunity to grow as a leader, etc., but I was earning a larger paycheck within the same pension system which was improving my pension metrics by adding service credit and increasing my highest average salary. However, after a couple of years, I could see a lot of signs that the working conditions weren’t healthy for me. At 4.5 years, I retired from this job and my career in public service.
+
+**Financial optimization:** If I could do it all over again with the benefit of hind-sight and a more refined understanding of financial management, here are some financial moves I’d make differently in my life:
+
+1. Don’t pay off the low interest student loans at more than the minimum agreed amount. Instead, open retirement accounts and start funding at age 26 with approximately $900/month.
+2. Open a Roth IRA immediately and fund first to create more balanced pre/post tax accounts for retirement.
+3. Rather than flipping a house to earn extra income, find other ways to earn extra income that don’t require investment of as much life energy and will build your professional skill set.
+4. Understand all my investment options at my employer. In my situation, I had both 401k and 457 options that could be utilized simultaneously. Understand the nuances of each (including the generous catch-up provisions of the 457) to maximize investments. I would have invested more and more wisely if I’d taken the time to really understand these options.
+5. Don’t sit on such a large cash reserve - put it in the market.
+6. Don’t chase lower interest rates by refinancing into shorter-term (10-15 year) fixed mortgage rates, at least at today’s rates. Don’t pay more than agreed; instead invest in the market.
+
+Granted, I don’t think I made any serious financial errors but I think these changes would have improved my current and future financial position more than marginally.
+
+**Long-term financial outlook:** My pension is currently paying me more than I need to live comfortably and enjoy life. However, over time, inflation will severely erode its purchasing power since I aim to live another 40-50 years. Consequently, I will need robust market investments that grow to yield distributions that offset the future effects of inflation. Because the pension delivers a predictable paycheck and underlying base of monthly financial security, my market investments are currently aggressively allocated.
+
+While the long-term security of any public pension is not certain, I generally feel that Colorado has done an OK job of shoring up the pension system and preserving its ability to meet obligations. However, one of the changes recently made reduced the annual inflation adjustment. Consequently, under present rules, present value will not be maintained against inflation. This reinforces the need for investments that supplement pension payouts over time. Pensions may once have been designed to provide entirely for a retiree’s needs (and I certainly am benefiting from older, more generous terms than people currently joining the system as new employees). However, this is not practical to expect, particularly as someone retiring at age 50.
+
+As an American, it goes without saying that the uncertain cost of annual health insurance coverage remains the largest variable for me for the next 15 years. Sigh… However, I’ve generally been blessed with good health and have made my health a top priority now that I’m free from the stress of my last job. Fingers crossed. Note: Unlike many here who can manage their reported income from 401k, brokerage accounts, etc., to take advantage of ACA subsidies, I can’t do that with my pension. It pays a fixed amount that ensures my annual income will far exceed ACA thresholds and I’ll be unable to take advantage of free or low-cost healthcare. I’m not complaining - I’m fortunate to have the income I have. But my monthly healthcare premiums went from a net of \~$10/month for a high deductible, HSA-compatible plan through my last employer to $382/month for a plan through the marketplace.
+
+Lastly, I have a great house in a great neighborhood so I will have a meaningful asset to utilize in the future as I age and my situation changes.
+
+**Philosophical:** A persistent theme that runs throughout many posts in the FIRE community is a resignation to a short-ish life of misery working one’s ass off at an intolerable job in order to amass as large a portfolio in as short a period of time in order to achieve FI and/or RE. Many OPs bemoan the grind and the sense of worthlessness in what they do for a living. At least, that’s how a lot of it comes across to me.
+
+My experience has been a distinct contrast to this paradigm/attitude. I’ve been able to pursue my environmental conservation values through my career for about 30 years. And, I’ve been able to FIRE at a reasonable age (sure, it’s not 35 or 40). At the risk of offending some redditors, I assert that you don’t have to take a job or pursue a career in which you find little/no meaning, be a slave to earning as large an income as possible, or sacrifice your life in the short term in order to FIRE. It’s possible to pursue your passions, make a difference in the world, and find meaning and value in your day job. I’m proud of my work trying to make the world a better place and was able to FIRE at 50. If not for the poor management and lack of real support from my elected officials at my last job, I’d still be there for another 5 years or so before retiring. It wouldn’t have been financially necessary but it certainly would have sweetened my financial situation. However, I’m grateful that my life path and choices (and some luck) led to being FI by 50 (or earlier if needed) so I could leave what was becoming an increasingly toxic work situation. And, it was certainly nice to know I had my FU money when things started to get really frustrating at work.
+
+**Appreciation and giving back:** I’ve been a lurker on r/financialindendence and related FIRE subreddits. On occasion, I’ve posted a couple of questions in the last couple of years to help refine my understanding of the mathematics of my situation. More importantly, it’s really helped me prepare mentally for a successful retirement by reading the non-mathmatical/mechanical FIRE posts - the ones about how to answer questions from friends/family, develop a healthy structure once the work day structure disappears, etc. I want to express my appreciation to those who’ve provided helpful information and advice both to posts and on DMs. I’m looking forward to providing what support I can in return and am also working in my own community of friends to support and advise friends who are interested in FIRE or just good personal finance. I also encourage some of the young people in my life to learn the basics (like the power of compounding interest) so they understand what they have to get right (the big rocks) in order to do well. In the future, I’m interested in volunteering through a structured program to provide financial counseling and I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who’s doing this in their community.
+
+**WayTLDR:** Fire’d at 50 from a career in public service at local and state government levels. Although I didn’t anticipate RE at age 50, attaining FI allowed me to leave my last position which was growing intolerable due to no work-life balance and poor management from elected officials. Now focused on me: regaining my health and fitness, decompressing, reconnecting with friends and family, pursuing my own life. The best I can describe my current situation is that it feels natural!
+
+I’m happy to answer questions and have been looking forward to hearing GFY aimed squarely at me!
+[*^(https://i.redd.it/ijst0frm5ns81.png)*](https://i.redd.it/ijst0frm5ns81.png)
+
+*EDIT: NOTE: Just to be clear- my post was only to show that the page had been edited to include a blurb and link from a post here earlier today.*
+
+= = = = = = = = = =
+
+**Archived it but pretty sure it's already gone:** [**https://archive.ph/mUGaR**](https://archive.ph/mUGaR)
+
+*Link to* u/GangGangBet\*'s post \[[*HERE*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/tztgfp/meet_judge_colm_connolly_who_presides_over_bcg/)\] was to an archived version \[[*HERE*](https://archive.ph/KFJWd)\], FYI.\*
+
+https://preview.redd.it/xoc0mw8jols81.png?width=1766&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a4dacd004eb34bdd67bf07251f9ddd74a1777be
+Calling it now...(*adjusts tinfoil hat*)
+
+The GME stock dividend split is actually phase 1 of 2 dividend phases.
+
+How it will work:
+
+**PHASE 1:**
+GME will do a 7 for 1 stock split. If you owned 100 shares before, you now own 700 shares. 
+
+**PHASE 2:** Now this is where things actually get spicy. Now even though the 7 for 1 stock split didn't hypothetically change the value of the shares, it DID change the QUANTITY of your shares, seven-fold.
+
+Once the NFT marketplace is up and running, RC&CO will now be able to issue/pair a crypto dividend, such as LRC to your GME Shares.
+
+**Example:** You now own 700 shares of GME (after the split)... now next quarter RC&CO decide to give out  1 LRC dividend for every 1 GME share you own. Boom, you now get 700 LRC as a dividend and anyone shorting the stock now has to pay out 700 LRC as well. This will also cause LRC to squeeze due to supply shock.
+
+
+Ps. I believe GME has acquired Loopring, so LRC increase will also pad there bottom line.
+
+pss. I'm a smoooooth brained ape, so feel free to poke a hole in my theory.
+So I’m a single guy renting a room. I’ve been saving for a house deposit and just generally saving for years.
+
+Right now I save:
+
+£700 in a deposit (currently at £41,746 in a 2.72% monthly account.)
+
+£160-200 in what I call fun money (currently at £10,070 in a 2.72% monthly account, seem to be bad at having fun with this money 😅)
+
+£90 into an emergency account (currently at £1500)
+
+I make £2160 after tax and pay £545 in rent.
+
+I realise I’m very lucky to be able to save when many can’t but I wonder am I over saving and not enjoying life. I don’t really know when to call it a day on home saving. Especially as rates and bills have hit such a height.
+
+I’m in my early thirties fyi.
+
+***Thanks for all the messages and going out of your way to give free advice :)***
+So as the title says, my bank just rolled out an offer for a 4% interest rate on any new deposits. 
+
+I’ve got a low hanging fruit emergency fund of $41,000 that I’ll be moving over to this offer by end of January when it’s eligible. 
+
+Generally, all my investments have gone (in the order of priority) towards 401k (wife and I both max), taxable investment account managed by financial advisors, a Vanguard ETF, my own personal brokerage that I mainly gamble with, then crypto. 
+
+Heavily debating if I dramatically up the amount I would drop in the savings account while it’s at a guaranteed 4% with how up and down the market has been. 
+
+Happy to provide more details but would love thoughts if anyone has them.
+
+EDIT: Bank is Morgan Stanley
+https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/04/under-armour-uaa-earnings-q3-2019.html
+
+Earnings per share: 23 cents vs. 18 cents expected
+
+*Revenue: $1.43 billion vs. $1.41 billion expected
+Its looking like my wife and I are going to be getting a cordial divorce. I recently complete a stint in rehab after a nasty addiction, and lets just say things are not going well. I racked up signifcant debt over the course of my addiction. I relapsed and things are getting bad again. 
+
+After some discussion, we have decided that divorce is probably a good idea, all things considered, for the sake of our son, and she is pregnant and due soon. 
+
+I am worried about my debt. I do not want her to have to deal with it or be liable for it. I lost my job and there is a good chance I will not be able to make the payments, even with a job. If I default on my debt (credit card debt), will she be liable for my debt? Even though we are getting divorced, I hope she is safe from my creditors and able to be financially secure to provide for our children.
+I have a 30 year fixed mortgage at 4% that is about 4 years old. I know rates are lower now, so we have considered refinancing. However, the eagerness of companies that want us to refinance (particularly our own mortgage company) makes me suspicious. We get refi offers in the mail pretty much daily. Lots of them are just bulk rate, fake "official" looking nonsense, but not all of it. Our own company sends us a few things a week. They email, they call and leave messages. Nobody tries this hard to lose money. If our rate is bad, but we pay on time, wouldn't they want us to just keep paying it? I'm assuming they slightly lower our monthly payment but stick us in a new 30 year, but I don't really know.
+
+Here are some details that might make a difference. This is on the east coast. Similar houses in our area are selling for about 20% to 25% more than we paid. I know COVID has made prices crazy, but according to Zillow/Redfin/etc the house has been appreciating since we bought it. The house was built in the 60's.
+
+​
+
+EDIT:  Thanks everyone! The consensus is that we should know our rate is high and look to refinance, the bank is assuming we're logical and will do that, so they're trying to get in front of it to keep making some money rather than no money. I'll look more seriously into refinancing. 
+Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/business/harley-davidson-us-eu-tariffs.html
+
+> Last week, the European Union imposed penalties on $3.2 billion worth of American products, many of which are produced in areas that form the heart of President Trump’s political base, in response to steel and aluminum tariffs added by the White House...
+>
+> Harley-Davidson said on Monday that European Union tariffs on its motorcycles had increased to 31 percent, from 6 percent. It estimated that the higher tariffs would add about $2,200 on average to every motorcycle exported from the United States to the bloc, so it said it would move the production of bikes bound for Europe outside the United States.
+​
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/o2yywestqao71.png?width=1697&format=png&auto=webp&s=2eaa8c65d3434616c1ef0eb0e11ac66222334c85)
+
+**Summary:** Imagine you are playing chess and are one move away from being checkmated. You decide to amend a rule to move your king magically out of danger, would you not use that rule? That is what may have happened with futures contracts. This post investigates in-depth the CFTC, Goldman Sachs, and the CME's possible collusion to avoid significant damage to the financial system from bad futures positions.
+
+**Contents:**
+
+* **HYPOTHESIS**
+* **CME'S RISK MANAGEMENT**
+* **REFRESH ON FUTURES CYCLE**
+* **TIMELINE OF CFTC MEETINGS**
+* **TRANSFER OF TRADES AMENDMENT**
+* **HOW WE CAN VERIFY**
+* **CONCLUSION**
+
+The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of anticipation of the fall futures rollover window. (We now know futures trading is allowed to be rolled over until the expiry date). I'm a firm believer that the previous spikes/price movements that occurred earlier in the year have been a function of settling the rollover window of quarterly futures contracts.
+
+Now I think I have solved why there wasn't the same price action during this window, and my hypothesis will go into depth on that. As usual, nothing here is financial advice, and my hypothesis could be wrong. The great thing about the scientific method is that it should eventually reach the truth. I am not asking anyone to debunk me, but rather if I am wrong, help me get this right. I want to get as many eyes on this theory as possible and hopefully, help uncover the mechanics of what is going on. I also want to shout out to [u/toxsic99](https://www.reddit.com/u/toxsic99/) for helping me dig. This is a long post for please try and get through it.
+
+​
+
+* **HYPOTHESIS:**
+
+The CME group is a counterparty to Goldman Sachs/other SHFs, and has moved a giant bag of Memestock short positions. Additionally, the CFTC let them transfer those positions as realized losses would have significantly hurt the systematically important derivative clearinghouse and the global systematically important bank.
+
+​
+
+* **CME'S RISK MANAGEMENT**
+
+A few weeks ago I stumbled upon some information regarding the Chicago Merchant Exchange Group (CME) that points to manipulation with Commodities Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) stamp of approval. We will get to that.
+
+First, we need to investigate who the CME group is....
+
+CME Group Inc. is an American global markets company. It is the world's largest financial derivatives exchange, and trades in asset classes that include agricultural products, currencies, energy, interest rates, metals, stock indexes, and cryptocurrencies futures. It has been designated as a Systemically Important Derivatives Clearing Organization (SIDCO).
+
+CME Clearing serves as the counterparty to every cleared transaction, becoming the buyer to each seller and the seller to each buyer, maintaining a matched book, and limiting the credit risk by guaranteeing the financial performance of both parties. In a bilateral system, each participant faces the concentrated, individual credit risk of the other party to the transaction. Satisfactory fulfillment of the transacted contract or agreement depends primarily on the creditworthiness and proper behavior of each individual party to each transaction. CME Clearing mitigates counterparty risk through becoming the counterparty to both sides of the transaction, while utilizing risk tools such as: the collection of a performance bond (also referred to as initial margin), daily mark-to-market cycles, and the collection of Guaranty Fund contributions, among other tools. By this mechanism, the concentrated credit risk of each transaction is transformed into a well-diversified and regulated risk supported by the financial safeguards system [Link on risk](https://www.cmegroup.com/clearing/files/financialsafeguards.pdf)
+
+Let's look at their performance bonds and Guaranty Funds for the past few years... [Link to quarterly reports](http://investor.cmegroup.com/sec-filings/sec-filing/10-k/0001156375-21-000020)
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/5gmudgv3rao71.png?width=1029&format=png&auto=webp&s=a57a92b598176edb86e88a9fbb9a26bbec5da11b)
+
+In the last few months, the Performance bonds and Guaranteed Funds have ballooned to $141 Billion Dollars. That is roughly a $104 Billion increase in 18 months.
+
+**What are performance bonds?**
+
+Performance bond requirements are good-faith deposits to mitigate non-financial performance on open positions, acting as an ex-ante risk-based tool to cover potential future exposures. Through CME CORE, a web-based tool, CME Clearing offers full transparency to market participants by giving them the ability to calculate and evaluate performance bond requirements for all products cleared by CME Clearing. CME Clearing permits Clearing Members to deposit performance bonds sufficient to cover their net exposures for their proprietary positions. CME Clearing calculates performance bond requirements for each customer, collecting gross performance bond for the aggregate cleared swap customer account and customer segregated account, for exchange-traded derivatives.
+
+**What happens if a defaulting member's position is worse than the balance of performance bonds & guarantee funds?** [Link](https://www.cmegroup.com/content/dam/cmegroup/rulebook/NYMEX/1/8.pdf)
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/pdymvy77rao71.png?width=899&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0275e3b2b78a30e8d7fb97249d4aadcbd849b9a
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/h1oxh8z7rao71.png?width=299&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3c8e8e672b5c301db3bfecd7a92cdb045a0ec66)
+
+**TD/DR In the last 18 months, the value of the CME group's Performance Bonds/Gaurarentee Funds grew 381%. As these are used to mitigate risk in futures/swap contracts, it looks as 1 of 2 things may have happened in the last couple of months**
+
+1. Their current customers may have some increasingly risky positions, and the vast increase in these bonds/funds reflects that.
+2. They may have had a significant increase in new customers and the increased bonds/funds are due to that
+
+* **REFRESH ON THE FUTURES CYCLE**
+
+These are graphs that were previously posted that show a significant uptick in the price during rollover windows. It was predicted that we were to see another spike from August 27th until Sept 17th. I am assuming those who are reading this are familiar with Criand's Cycles DD.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/ti51oek9rao71.png?width=2206&format=png&auto=webp&s=bdd8e3220b615cbaea4ea9d05863ead41c234883
+
+[ It was found that the last day to roll for the September period is the expiration date \(September 17th\) ](https://preview.redd.it/bwmdnm9arao71.png?width=981&format=png&auto=webp&s=1300f42a32bd41c1a108a30870a2eb3750505ee7)
+
+* **TIMELINE OF CME MEETINGS**
+
+On January 27th (**during the baby squeeze**), the CME reached out to the CFTC regarding a participant/participants who had exceeded a position limit and wanted an exception and an amendment to the rule, under these provisions the position needed to be concurrent with a limit set for March 15th, 2021. [Link](https://www.cmegroup.com/content/dam/cmegroup/market-regulation/rule-filings/2021/2/21-069S_1.pdf)
+
+https://preview.redd.it/kcoghrbcrao71.png?width=978&format=png&auto=webp&s=2fbc57f937d65b9f134c3358f319cdfd05a187e1
+
+Let's see if having a giant swap position would technically qualify for such an exception with these amended rules....
+
+​
+
+[ Based on the new amendment it looks like they could hold the position ](https://preview.redd.it/mafn1dxdrao71.png?width=1015&format=png&auto=webp&s=df9b4da9d8ecea375bc0e2f9a70ccac0256030a5)
+
+As the giant position was not settled by March 15th, the CFTC and CME group connected on April 11th to discuss the current situation at hand. It looked as if a participant/participants of their clearing house are in a lot of trouble and the credit risk was not settled. [Link](https://www.cftc.gov/LawRegulation/DoddFrankAct/ExternalMeetings/dfmeeting_091620_1724)
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/o03lultfrao71.png?width=912&format=png&auto=webp&s=73d9d40bacb3d230c0483b3f8283acb499f7ec22)
+
+Now, why would the CME group want to discuss segregation and bankruptcy with the commodities futures trading commission? That's an interesting question. Let's see if anything happened regarding the CME after this regulatory meeting...
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/0m6cfsehrao71.png?width=914&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f7277ae47f167f2a160b718397a21af026221b6)
+
+A week after the April 9th meeting new documentation was released between CFTC and the CME group. It looks like an exception was granted regarding a person/s who was already in excess of a position limit, who needed an exception. Now it's possible that this could be an independent event, but I suspect it could also be the same position that needed an exception in late January. Now, this is speculative but let's say this position that needed an exception twice already is a ticking timebomb. Given the mechanics of futures trading, those same participants are required to settle the change in the underlying position.
+
+**If only we had a clue who might need that position exception. (Thank you Lobbying Disclosure Act!)**
+
+[ https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/LawRegulation\/DoddFrankAct\/ExternalMeetings\/dfmeeting\_100220\_1720 ](https://preview.redd.it/xeug6roirao71.png?width=883&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e8f6e78197c41c29741f0016975c3b08a68fdb6)
+
+​
+
+[ https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/LawRegulation\/DoddFrankAct\/ExternalMeetings\/dfmeeting\_070220\_1703 ](https://preview.redd.it/5vojye9krao71.png?width=414&format=png&auto=webp&s=181c73ecc7beb53d0a4c0a9c936b484ac1212e1b)
+
+​
+
+[ https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/LawRegulation\/DoddFrankAct\/ExternalMeetings\/dfmeeting\_071020\_1706 ](https://preview.redd.it/0dn7iawlrao71.png?width=447&format=png&auto=webp&s=7a83383c7c2c35dcdd4d3dba403a7a4419783466)
+
+Now I'm not convinced that all 3 meetings were on the same day and may be more likely that it is a reporting error, but I find it extremely suspect that Goldman Sachs is the only bank to visit the CFTC within the first half of 2021 (minus the time MS joined the ISDA meeting). I propose that Goldman Sachs may be a counterparty on some of these Memestock positions.
+
+(Side note the last meeting must have been super important as way more executives attended that than a usual meeting. Vice President Marta Poleszczuk who led most meetings just left Goldman Sachs after 16 years in June, that doesn't give me a vote of confidence. Theo Lubke another managing director has also left Goldman after 11 years.)
+
+Just for kicks and giggles how does Goldman's derivatives position currently sit?
+
+[ Goldman Sachs has 136 X the Derivatives to their Assets as of Sept \(Thanks Boss Blunts for your help getting this report!\)](https://preview.redd.it/6rb2d25orao71.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=196b34b29eddb82bdf994c6fbdfd783753fc4790)
+
+* **TRANSFER OF TRADES AMENDMENT**
+
+On August 11th the CFTC sent a letter to Mr Chris Kirkpartrick of the CME regarding the implementation of a proposed amendment on the **Transfer of Trades and Customer Accounts rules**.
+
+This amendment discusses a new provision for a clearing member who wishes to manage the liquation and hedging of a defaulting customer. This clearing member has the contractual right to transfer the position. These amendments were effective at the beginning of the last rollover window (August 26th 2021) [LINK](https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/filings/orgrules/21/08/rule081121cmedcm001.pdf)
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/eq32y4lqrao71.png?width=1013&format=png&auto=webp&s=2661b5ccc72b8d1e8220fe274dfb71e11426882b)
+
+What are the core principles of this amendment....
+
+​
+
+[ The CME is allowed to transfer the trade if the situation requires if it remedies a market disruption. Such a trade does not relieve the responsibility of the clearing member. ](https://preview.redd.it/uvxhpgtsrao71.png?width=1009&format=png&auto=webp&s=f81825d1706de90dd2517a5897cb32abfa253351)
+
+​
+
+[ This is the new rule\/rules added to the amended CME rulebook effective Aug 26th.](https://preview.redd.it/pqzsmf6urao71.png?width=906&format=png&auto=webp&s=d8a27b748aab7920e907de7924cc0f62d290cf38)
+
+**More evidence to support trade transfers**
+
+The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It will send questionnaires to different financial organizations regarding risk, and other information. Please see below the answers to some questions regarding default and risk that were asked of the CME group. [Link](https://www.cmegroup.com/clearing/files/cme-group-response-fsb-questionnaire-continuity-of-access-20210301.pdf)
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/xyf97y2wrao71.png?width=1467&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f81bb7454584124e2f44326a8b311d9ba1d8e81
+
+[ ](https://preview.redd.it/9ikzhtjwrao71.png?width=984&format=png&auto=webp&s=335f96aa5288b8745597ed2fbaac40b02ef3d671)
+
+* **HOW WILL WE VERIFY THIS THEORY?** [Link](https://www.cmegroup.com/content/dam/cmegroup/rulebook/CME/I/8/8.pdf)
+
+Well, so far we haven't seen remotely the same volume that we expected during the last 2 rollover spikes. There has been some price movement that has been in Gamestop's favor, but nowhere near what we saw previously. Therefore this thesis is indeed plausible. I was wondering if there would be any way to verify my hypothesis. Well, I have come up with 2 ideas.
+
+**1)** We should see some declaration probably within a few short weeks on CME's notices as per their house rules.
+
+[ I would expect to see some participants listed within a week or 2.  ](https://preview.redd.it/qhidet4yrao71.png?width=807&format=png&auto=webp&s=cbca96ca01843f9732c1b3f6db3a9c28c121fa05)
+
+**2**) I would expect to see some changes or something out of place regarding their next quarterly report due Oct 27th.
+
+​
+
+* **CONCLUSION**
+
+Now if the price movement in the previous cycles was from settling the change of a futures position to the CME, then in theory either the CME is now holding the positions/or has moved the position due to the default of the counterparty. This theory is still plausible as we did not see our projected settling/price movement during this rollover window. I also propose that Goldman Sachs is indeed one of the counterparties in the meme stock futures trade. I am not saying they are a defaulting party, but I suspect they are in a world of hurt. **Please note these** **positions still need to be closed, but what will be the catalyst for this will not be from futures**.
+
+We should in theory see at least 1 declaration notice of default in the upcoming weeks as per CME's own rules and regulations.
+
+​
+
+**Alternative possibilities**
+
+It is possible that those futures positions could have been rolled prior to the rollover window.
+
+I have been told that it is also possible the position has been covered in a cash account in exchange for synthetics on the secondary market.
+
+SHFs have let the expiry window run through and will settle the position (very unlikely)
+
+​
+
+**Discussion**
+
+I want the readers to think about what the alternative to this is. I speculate the MOASS would not occur prior to having the regulatory pieces in place. I believe a controlled MOASS is preferred by those in charge rather than everything crash all at once without a plan. I wouldn't expect the MOASS to occur until at the least [NSCC 2021-010](https://www.dtcc.com/-/media/Files/Downloads/legal/rule-filings/2021/NSCC/SR-NSCC-2021-010.pdf) is active.
+
+If this is correct next week we should start to see some sell-offs as liquidations start. You should be wary of a narrative that these sell-offs are due to Evergrande. If there's a correction is likely due to both.
+As title says I bought like 300 dollars in one of those two companies when I was a teenager. Since then I've forgotten about it and was reminded of it recently. How do I go about finding it? Again I'm hazy on how I acquired it, but it was through one of those consumer friendly etrading sites, maybe even etrade. There's no way I'll be able to remember my username/password. Is it possible to check directly with either entity? Thanks for any help.
+http://www.bloomberg.com/
+
+It's new color scheme is now causing me to contract cancer. That's all. Please return orange and black. :|
+
+Note - This obviously does not follow the submission rules but I doubt I'm the only guy feeling the pain. 
+ 
+
+Director of AT & T just bought 2,5 mil worth of shares. Mostly there are many reason for insider to sell but only one reason to buy.
+
+If we look at T performance history it mainly go sideways with periods of underperforming and outperforming which looks to me almost like cyclical stock. Can management changes lead to T outperforming time ?
+
+Personally i would not hold T stock forever but rather consider it as ,, longer term trade,,. By valuation metrics and analyst price target of 30.5 dollars it can look interesting. Also there is nice dividend which will be cut in 2022 i think it is already priced in as this is no news.
+
+I have something like 2 percent of my portfolio in AT & T and i would like to hear your opinion.
+I'm planning to move to the Boston area in about a year and I would like to purchase a house when I get there. 
+
+The job I have lined up, if the world doesn't crash and burn again, would pay about $55k. I have about $20k in saving and I suspect I could probably save another $10k by the time I leave. I do have school loans totaling about $70k and I have zero credit card or other type of debt. My credit score was around 720 last time I checked. 
+
+From looking at current listing, the houses I prefer are around $500k and some have some special program I'm just learning about that allows only people that are in the medium income of the area to buy them. I know very little of this program though and don't know if it will affect me in anyway. My long term girlfriend will most likely be moving with me and she would be looking for a job but I'm not depending on that just in case. I'm open to renting rooms and I have friends in the area that would be interested if I go this route. 
+
+Is this a realistic goal for me or should I re-adjust? Is there something I could be doing during this year I have left to make this easier? 
+
+Any information would be appreciated.
+
+EDIT: thank you all for your response. I think I should offer more details for a better picture. 
+
+I understand $55k is low but unfortunately that is the national standard for my position (NIH postdoctoral fellow). I'm definitely not moving for the pay but more for the opportunities that working in Boston will give me. I'm currently living in Texas and while $55k goes further here, it still not much. 
+
+I was definitely thinking of renting rooms out to help with the monthly payments and expenses, but like many of you mentioned, the problem would be the bank not giving me the loan. 
+
+I own two cars and would be ok selling them but that would probably get me about $15-18k as most.
+
+I would prefer to not use my savings to pay my school loans as I could work that off another way.
+
+I just started looking into this and that's why I'm so naive. I figured posting my best case scenario here and letting people take it apart would show me where the weakness are and work from there.
+Energy is the only sector I'm completely bullish on. Our entire society, lifestyles, needs and more require fossil energy. I'm not saying it will be that way FOREVER, but at the moment, yes. How is it possible that the sector is selling off despite the obvious demand, with lack of supply?
+My parents are both 57 years old and dire financial straits. 
+
+They have over $200,000 in debt, of which about $100,000 is credit card debt. My dad is currently making about $3000 per month and it is not at all clear that his salary will go up significantly in the next few years (although he claims it will). My mother does not work due to treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and various other mental health and physical diagnoses. 
+
+I estimate their net worth to be about $50,000 - $150,000 dollars (my father isn’t entirely transparent about his finances, hence the wide range). They rent.
+
+My mom has about $230,000 in her brokerage accounts, a sum which she recently acquired from selling their home in the midwest, and has about $44,000 in her 401K. My dad has about $7K in his 401K. 
+
+They do not currently own a home and are currently nomadically moving from apartment to apartment (using companies like Sonder, AirBnb, etc.) on an almost monthly basis, as they recently moved out of NYC. For years, they lived outside of their means, and now they are figuring out their next steps as they figure out where to live and how to survive.
+
+My father says he cannot declare bankruptcy because he would never be able to secure another job with that in his credit score (he works in finance).
+
+This is perhaps that saddest part of all this. Over the course of his professional life, my dad made a lot of money, in some cases making over $400K several years in a row, of course in NYC, where cost of living is much higher. Where that money has gone, I do not know and cannot account for.  Yes, I've asked him.
+
+What should I tell them to do? I’m desperate. I know SS will hit at 62 or 65, but what do they do in the meantime?
+
+For context, I am their 27 year old son, am completely financial independent, rent on my own, and I have my own financial obligations to take care of. I would, however, like to suggest an action plan for my parents.
+
+Edit: I should also mention: this is about helping them to the extent that I can, but also insulating myself from their own train wreck. Of course, I know not to co-sign on anything.
+
+Edit 2: Appreciate all of the feedback. It seems like they should immediately service high-interest debt, to start, and then budget and move to a lower cost of living area. Ultimately, it's up to them to make these decisions, but I can at least show them a path forward.
+In Southern California looking for housing and my income is variable because I’m self-employed. Landlords want three month’s pay stubs & won’t accept full payment up front for a six-month lease. Is there some reason for that which I’m not seeing?
+
+Edit: “yes” was the answer. Sorry i missed how much traction this got before it got locked. /u/chiree and /u/youreingoodhands - thanks for your comments! And thanks to everyone else who had thoughtful replies
+JK its 422.532 miles or 680 KM
+
+This would be better than the current 400KM they have essentially. 
+
+https://electrek.co/2020/08/12/tesla-researchers-show-path-next-gen-battery-cell-breakthrough-energy-density/
+
+For the WSB's who don't understand this, HLD TSLA
+[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-12/doj-short-selling-probe-eyes-bets-on-amazon-microsoft-jpmorgan?leadSource=uverify%20wall](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-12/doj-short-selling-probe-eyes-bets-on-amazon-microsoft-jpmorgan?leadSource=uverify%20wall)
+
+​
+
+From article:
+
+# DOJ Short-Selling Probe Eyes Bets on Amazon, Microsoft and JPMorgan
+
+* US has been looking at how bearish firm attack smaller stocks
+* Prosecutors recently sent subpoenas on trading in blue chips
+
+ By
+
+[Matt Robinson](https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AQTzbC4aiCY/matt-robinson) and 
+
+[Tom Schoenberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AQNBzfFdsT0/tom-schoenberg)
+
+September 12, 2022 at 7:36 AM MST
+
+Federal investigators searching for collusion among short sellers have posed a surprising question in recent months: Tell us about your trading in companies like [Amazon.com Inc.](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/0855443D:US), [Microsoft Corp.](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MSFT:US) and [JPMorgan Chase & Co.](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/JPM:US)
+
+US prosecutors have sent subpoenas that ask about transactions in a variety of blue-chip stocks to some of the same short sellers who previously responded to inquiries about a long list of lesser-known companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Those prior demands were part of a look at how bearish investors gather and publish research about companies with the aim of profiting when stocks drop. 
+
+ The demands make clear that authorities are continuing to amass vast tracts of data. In earlier requests that [emerged publicly](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/hedge-funds-ensnared-in-expansive-doj-probe-into-short-selling) in December, investigators gathered information on dozens of investment firms and researchers, as well as transactions involving more than 50 stocks. People with knowledge of those inquiries have said authorities are looking for evidence activist firms sought to exacerbate stock drops or otherwise manipulate markets, potentially through a variety of strategies. 
+
+But activist short sellers don’t typically target the world’s most valuable companies -- which makes the latest requests all the more puzzling.
+
+Giants like retailer Amazon, software powerhouse Microsoft and JPMorgan, the largest US bank, are closely scrutinized. Their share prices are anchored by legions of index-tracking funds that have to own them, as well as institutional buyers such as pensions with long investment horizons. This leaves little room for short sellers proffering bearish forecasts to move stock prices more than, say, the underlying economy does.
+
+Smaller companies, on the other hand, don’t attract as much attention from market professionals or index funds and are thinly traded, leaving them vulnerable when short sellers present evidence of malfeasance that scares off individual investors.
+
+The look at megacap securities suggests investigators found something among the reams of data culled from the first round of subpoenas issued to individuals and firms last year, said James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law.
+
+“It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve come back with another round of subpoenas,” Cox said. “There’s a learning curve for the government when it comes to market-manipulation cases.”
+
+Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission, which is running a parallel investigation, declined to comment. Representatives for Amazon, Microsoft and JPMorgan also had no comment.
+
+Since subpoenas went out a few months ago, word has percolated through the gossipy world of short sellers, and so too has conjecture about what theories the feds might be exploring on the hunt for illegal collusion. Of note, the latest subpoenas were issued under prosecutors who took over after colleagues left the department for private practice.
+
+While it’s unclear what kind of trading patterns investigators may be zeroing in on, potentially abusive short-selling practices can include spoofing, in which traders rapidly submit and cancel orders to mislead the market, and matched trading, which usually involves a few parties working together, arranging trades designed to set prices or inflate volume and create the appearance of interest in a stock.
+
+“It certainly suggests that they’re still working and that they’re following the path that the documents and the information from witness statements may be providing to them,” said Ken Joseph, a former SEC enforcement official who’s now a managing director at Kroll LLC.
+
+The subpoenas aren’t the only movement in the case. The SEC is on the hunt for possible cooperators. The regulator recently sought assistance from a researcher regarding several short-selling and research firms under scrutiny, according to two people who asked not to be named in order to protect the confidentiality of that query. The SEC didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
+
+As Bloomberg previously reported, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized computers from the home of prominent short seller Andrew Left, the founder of Citron Research, in early 2021. In October, Carson Block of Muddy Waters and two of his associates had their phones taken while also receiving a subpoena and search warrant. Around that time, the Justice Department subpoenaed other market participants seeking communications, calendars and other records relating to almost 30 investment and research firms, as well as three dozen individuals associated with them. 
+
+No one has been accused of wrongdoing. The opening of an investigation doesn’t necessarily mean that any claims will be brought.
+
+​
+
+TLDR:
+
+Hedgies r fukd. Buy, HODL, DRS.
+I've always rented, but I plan to purchase my first home once my current lease is up (about 7-8 months from now). I want to buy a duplex and rent the other home, as well as possibly additional rooms in my house in order to bring in some extra income. I don't know much about real estate or purchasing a house so I was hoping I could get some insight from everyone here. I live in a city with a very expensive real estate market (San Diego), but I of course want to get the best deal possible.
+
+**How do I get the whole process started?** A friend mentioned that when he bought his house, he used the seller's real estate agent so that he didn't have to pay for the agent, but I've also heard that it isn't a great idea because the seller's agent is obviously looking for the most profit for the seller and not a deal for the buyer. Do I just look on Zillow or other websites and find a house I like? Is there a way to get access to the MLS for free? I've been looking at mlslistings.com--is that a good alternative if I can't access MLS? 
+
+**When do I get financing?** I plan on using a VA loan to finance the house. Do I decide my price point and get a loan before I even start looking? Do I need financing before I make an offer on something or can I get it after? Can I include extra costs to renovate/fix up the house in the loan? What is considered a good interest rate? How does PMI work?
+
+**Is there a checklist of things I need to do before buying?** I'm pretty sure I need to get it appraised--at what point would I do that? What other inspections do I need to get? How do I get the property zoned? What kinds of things do I need to know the "age" (I've heard you should know when the last time the roof was replaced, etc.--maybe the fireplace/chimney as well)? 
+
+**What about location?** Should I check whether or not it's in a flood zone? What other "zones" should I look out for?
+
+**How do I know where the "path of growth" is?** I've heard a while ago that there's a county/city entity with which businesses have to apply/register in order to open. Is that the department of city planning? The recommendation was that you can contact this entity and find out what area businesses are starting to apply for so that you can look in that area and get ahead of the game. Are there other ways to determine the path of growth?
+
+**What can I use to negotiate the price?** Are there things to look for that I can bargain with in order to bring down the asking price? Bad smell, messed up lawn, mold, broken equipment like A/C, etc?
+
+**What else do most people overlook?** What kind of things--big or small--have you seen pop up that most people wouldn't think about? I've heard stories like:
+
+- The buyer found out after purchasing that regulations required the home to be 20+ ft from the road (which it wasn't), so they had to pay thousands of dollars to resolve it.
+
+- The buyer found out that the fire hydrant on the property would actually be owned by them, not the city, and they would be responsible for replacing the system if something went wrong.
+
+Bottom line is, I want to go into this with a list of things to look for or make sure of so I don't miss out on anything or don't end up screwing myself over. Thanks for any help!
+My investing/trading experience has been relegated to my spare cash (thin due to my conservative business cashflow approach. Now I can be more aggressive/exposed).
+
+I aim to have 65% in low-risk, 22.5% in medium, and 12.5% in high risk holdings.
+
+*thoughts so far⬇️*
+
+Low risk:
+- decent compounding bond/bank account with AAA status, maybe even bonds or treasury bills, is where I have my sights.
+
+Medium:
+- a well diversified ETF, broad market S&P/TSX, or a more specific fund like YDV, with blue chip names exposed to secure markets.
+
+High risk is already accounted for.
+
+(I'm in my late 20s, Western Canadian, wife, no kids, no liquid assets [aside from this new cash], and have grinded my ass off for a few years to get here. I love this sub and know there are some legit minds that I hope can contribute here 🙏)
+I've met investment bankers, BigLaw lawyers, doctors, and small business owners that are easily in the 10M+ range, but I realized I've never met a family a magnitude of order richer, for example in the 100M+ range (or maybe I just didn't know). I imagine there is a class of people that are not just fatfire for this generation but have been fatfire for several generations. Do they live very different lifestyles? Are they different in characteristics and outlooks? Anything we can learn from them? 
+I very recently decided to cut my mother off completely. She had made plans to move into a new apartment, assuming that I would be paying for it. A little less than a year ago I decided to move to a bigger place after my lease ended. This was right around the time my mother was moving to SF. She really liked my old place and suggested that she should just move in. 
+
+My landlord wanted to increase the rent after my lease was up, but she agreed to keep it the same if I prepaid for a year. The plan was for my mom to pay me rent monthly. Well that never ended up happening and now my mom just assumes that I will be paying her rent. She made plans to move into a nicer place and sent me an email saying that she needed a check for $8500 to cover the move in cost. 
+Some things came up with week involving my sister and my mother and I've decided to completely cut her off. No rent money, and no money for anything else. She is furious of course and has really gone off the deep end. I'm worried that once she realizes that I'm not going to give in that she might try using my personal info in order to get a loan out or get money somehow.
+
+I have also been told that California has some sort of laws that might mean she can take me to court and force me to continue paying her rent. I was wondering if this is true and what would qualify her for this. 
+
+
+
+TLDR:
+Need advice on how to protect my credit/personal info from my mom.
+Ended up paying for my moms rent and am wondering if she can somehow force me to keep paying it.
+
+Thanks in advance for the help! 
+
+Our finances are separate because I am frugal and want FIRE. He wants to live in the moment and have treats, luxuries, help family etc. I know it sucks to marry someone with such differing financial values but this is where I'm at.
+
+We pay in a percentage of our salary to a joint account for the mortgage, bills, child related stuff and some small savings for holidays etc. We each keep the remainder of our individual salaries.
+
+I am saving like no tomorrow, holding back on things I would like to buy and being frugal etc with the aim of FIRE. I can see that my husband is buying whatever he likes and probably has very little savings. I envision me retiring early and bearing the fruits of my labor, whilst he will have to continue working until who knows what age.
+
+Obviously it would be crazy for me to live a life of luxury whilst he struggles at that point, but I don't know how to avoid this when we just can't seem to get aligned financially?
+Might be a great time to get into a Semiconductor ETF?
+
+​
+
+|\#|Ticker|ETF Name|TER (bps)|June '22 Assets ($MM)|
+|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
+|1|SOXS|Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X|1.01|$258|
+|2|SOXL|Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X |0.90|$3,320|
+|3|FTXL|FirstTr NASDAQ Semiconductor ETF|0.6|$75|
+|4|PSI|Invesco Dynamic Semiconductors ETF|0.56|$518|
+|5|SOXX|iShares Semiconductor ETF|0.42|$6,230|
+|6|KFVG|KraneShares CICC China 5G & Smcdtr ETF|0.64|$18|
+|7|USD|ProShares Ultra Semiconductors|0.95|$168|
+|8|SSG|ProShares UltraShort Semiconductors|0.95|$7|
+|9|XSD|SPDR S&P Semiconductors ETF|0.35|$940|
+|10|SMH|VanEck Semiconductor ETF|0.35|$6,280|
+
+​
+Hey all, this is my (Europoor Ape) first post here. I'm also not very familiar with Reddit formatting so I'm sorry if this reads awkwardly.
+
+I only recently bought my first few shares in late April after stumbling onto this subreddit and reading the wonderful DDs. What a wild ride this has been for me already! My respect to you all that have been hodling since January. 
+
+I wanted to share this message with you: I'm pretty sure there are MANY apes just like me that haven't ever posted and have just been lurking here. An example from my own circle: around 10 friends of mine are all invested in GME and none of those have ever posted on this subreddit. Collectively we hold in the high XX amount of shares. I remember reading a mod's post that this subreddit gets millions of unique views weekly, and you have to imagine that there are bound to be people that don't even check this subreddit but just follow the advice of friends/family.
+
+This is a movement that is connecting people from all over the world, and that is a genuine rarity in modern times. No crazy DD from me but I just wanted you all to realise this movement is likely much bigger than we all think. Buy, hodl, and vote if you can! Hope to see you all on the moon :)
+
+Edit: I've received multiple comments saying this isn't a movement and you guys are right. I wasn't quite sure what else to call it (English isn't my native language) but I guess situation is a good alternative.
+In a scenario where promoters hold around 20-25%, A retail investor emerges and accumulates 50%+ of a company. Now has he acquired that company? does he become board member? can he make key decisions?
+
+If the answer to the title question is YES, please share a real-world example too.
+  
+
+This entire downward trajectory and war on crypto started with Bill Gates, February 28th saying "cryptocurrency kills in a fairly directly way" in a reddit AMA. Previously Bill has been very positive on bitcoin. Microsoft has accepted it for years. It wasn't priced in psychologically as it lingered until **March 7th**. The day in which there was fake news about a Binance hack which never existed.
+
+**CHECK THE PRICES** 
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/1EvzfeR](https://imgur.com/a/1EvzfeR) March we had Google banning ads **MARCH 14TH**. Then you had Facebook ban ads one week. YouTube the next, Twitter the next. Taking their time to suppress further and further. 
+
+**CHECK THE PRICES** 
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/wCCgfph](https://imgur.com/a/wCCgfph)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/wlwGBuF](https://imgur.com/a/wlwGBuF)
+
+Then in May we had Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Charles Munger interviewed on CNBC. Attacking relentlessly. It was one of the 1st questions in the interview with 3 very important people in finance as they asked them collectively. If you don't think this was planned, please reevaluate. Interviews with people of this magnitude have pre-written questions that are approved ahead of time. The Federal Reserve openly attacking it publicly in May. Authorities looking into "price manipulation". When the only price manipulation was the actual news about price manipulation. 
+
+[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-24/bitcoin-manipulation-is-said-to-be-focus-of-u-s-criminal-probe](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-24/bitcoin-manipulation-is-said-to-be-focus-of-u-s-criminal-probe)
+
+May charts - The interview was **May 7th.**
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/WxIHfnX](https://imgur.com/a/WxIHfnX) 
+
+After that it was probe "cracking down" on crypto. When they have had tools to track crypto for chain analysis for years. There's been a major piece of FUD news at least once a month for the past 7 months. Look at the charts for correlation. If you see a big dip, you will see there was FUD that day. 
+
+South Korea ban **MARCH 6TH**, South Korea unban, South Korea exchange raids **MARCH 11TH**. China reiterating their ban. India ban **JULY 3RD**, India unban, India ban. SEC same cycle (has been + lately). CFTC same cycle. Russia same cycle. 
+
+South Korea - 
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-government-bans-officials-from-crypto-holding-and-trading](https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-government-bans-officials-from-crypto-holding-and-trading)
+
+[https://www.coindesk.com/south-korea-may-lift-ico-ban/](https://www.coindesk.com/south-korea-may-lift-ico-ban/)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/PzrROKg](https://imgur.com/a/PzrROKg)
+
+[https://www.coindesk.com/indias-supreme-court-continues-ban-on-cryptocurrency-exchanges/](https://www.coindesk.com/indias-supreme-court-continues-ban-on-cryptocurrency-exchanges/)
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/is-india-about-to-reverse-its-crypto-trade-ban](https://cointelegraph.com/news/is-india-about-to-reverse-its-crypto-trade-ban)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/WmsTfFg](https://imgur.com/a/WmsTfFg)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/oldr1gr](https://imgur.com/a/oldr1gr) 
+
+Now recently the FUD play is coming from banks. JP Morgan (has crypto patents DYOR) is bullish and might offer custodian services. The next month Dimon calls it all a scam. Same from Goldman. Same from Mastercard (has crypto patents DYOR). Same from PayPal (has crypto patents DYOR) and American Express (has crypto patents DYOR).
+
+Mastercard CEO - July 26th.
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-ceo-calls-anonymous-cryptocurrencies-junk-again](https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-ceo-calls-anonymous-cryptocurrencies-junk-again)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/W3VsvHA](https://imgur.com/a/W3VsvHA) 
+
+[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-18/regulated-crypto-custody-is-almost-here-it-s-a-game-changer](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-18/regulated-crypto-custody-is-almost-here-it-s-a-game-changer)
+
+**AUGUST 4TH -**
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-returns-to-bitcoin-bashing-calls-cryptocurrency-a-scam](https://cointelegraph.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-returns-to-bitcoin-bashing-calls-cryptocurrency-a-scam)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/gbuYloF](https://imgur.com/a/gbuYloF)
+
+Goldman Sachs FUD - confirmed as fake news. 
+
+September 5th - 
+
+[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/bitcoin-falls-after-goldman-reportedly-drops-crypto-trading-plans.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/bitcoin-falls-after-goldman-reportedly-drops-crypto-trading-plans.html)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/gGtN16h](https://imgur.com/a/gGtN16h)
+
+Corrective report, it didn't matter considering it was already priced in and everyone was panicked 
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/goldman-sachs-cfo-recent-reports-about-crypto-trading-desk-are-fake-news](https://cointelegraph.com/news/goldman-sachs-cfo-recent-reports-about-crypto-trading-desk-are-fake-news) 
+
+In addition, how many times will we be played by FUDdesk or coin-sell-graph with unnamed sources and unconfirmed reports? Or using "A NYSE trader" as a legitimate source. 
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/nyse-trader-following-bakkt-launch-bitcoin-is-very-iffy/](https://cointelegraph.com/news/nyse-trader-following-bakkt-launch-bitcoin-is-very-iffy/) 
+
+Or "An IT worker" today. 
+
+[https://cointelegraph.com/news/it-analyst-jason-bloomberg-what-im-really-saying-is-shut-down-permissionless-blockchains](https://cointelegraph.com/news/it-analyst-jason-bloomberg-what-im-really-saying-is-shut-down-permissionless-blockchains) 
+
+How many times are we going to be this stupid? Will this ever end? Go ahead and down vote me into nothing you astro turfing, hired bots. See the bigger picture. All tactical analysis stems from news. News has been controlling the price down to get retail to sell as illustrated. As you can see, centralized institutions have seized power in this space, not surprisingly. Convince me otherwise. Thank you for reading. 
+As titled, 6 months ago people were saying how they could finally get into the housing market once the price comes down. Now the house price has come down but so as everyone's serviceability. So my question is can you now afford the houses that you couldn't afford ealier? I don't care if you are buying or waiting for the price to come further down, I wanna know has this downturn make it easier for you to get in.
+
+Thank you.
+Hi guys, so I'm 22M who has saved 35k in the past two years living with my partner who is 21 and her dad. She's saved 20k and we're hoping to save 100k together by the end of the year for a 20% deposit on a 500k home. (Obviously a bit more for fees, furniture, emergency fund etc)
+
+There's a few things I believe i want to rectify before we purchase to alleviate stress of repayments etc, but i'm not sure if i'm just overthinking it and being hypercritical of my financial situation. I guess this is a mindset I'm stuck with since I've come from a poor family lol.
+
+-Our income is still relatively low despite being very frugal. I earn $56k before tax in IT (3rd year in a Lv.1/2 helpdesk role) and she earns $42k in retail. Would it be worth to continue maximising our deposit while we aim to upskill and increase our income until we're comfortable?
+
+-I drive a 17 year old Honda Accord Euro which is running FINE but I'm worried it'll shit the bed when I buy a house. Is it worth buying a relatively newer second hand vehicle at this point, or aggressively save for the home deposit?
+
+I guess I just need some guidance/reassurance. I'm still relatively young so I don't want to make arguably the biggest decision in my life and not be 120% prepared for it. Thank you so much!
+I, my toddler and my infant are approved for SNAP, TANF and free daycare for at least until I finish divorcing my financially abusive stbx! Should I get any job right away or should I look at a data bootcamp so I can get into a higher paying tech job??
+***Edit- Thank you everyone for the advice and the personal stories, you all have also been through a lot it’s nice to know I’m not alone here. I still have to sort out my plan of action but it’s really helping me to read through all of your replies. I’m truly touched by how many of you have reached out specifically to offer an ear, thank you. 
+
+So, obligatory “writing from my mobile” and “sorry for the long post in advance...”
+
+Backstory: 
+My moms a single mom and has been having financial issues since the recession. She lost her job at a spa (massage therapist) in 2008 when I was still in high school, we couldn’t afford rent so I moved in with one aunt and my mom moved in with another. 
+
+The aunt my mom moved in with was going through cancer treatment at the time so she helped her with appointments and cooking etc. since it was such a hard job market. That’s when, in March 2011, my aunt passed away. My moms an emotional woman and she took it very hard... she struggles with alcoholism (though she’d never admit it) and it started to show. 
+
+I graduated high school in 2011, took out some loans and moved to college in the same state but a 9 hour drive away. My mom began bouncing between friends and families houses, staying until they were tired of her not contributing or being drunk or just generally overstaying her welcome. Since we lost our place she hasn’t had a stable home, which has always stressed me out but there wasn’t much I could do to help while already living on financial aid and my shitty coffee shop job. 
+
+Nowstory:
+Fast forward to now, four years since I graduated college, I have a decent job in my field and I’ve started paying off my loans. I’m by no means swimming in a pool of money but I’m able to pay my car payment and my rent in the HCOL area I live so like I said, decent. 
+
+Six months ago my mom started having issues with the family she was renting a room from. We agreed she should start finding a place before she had to leave so I start sending her weekly emails of apartment listings as well as application sites to low income housing in the area (and in another state where we have a lot of family that is drastically cheaper to live in). 
+She never responds to my emails. When I call her and ask her about them she gets either defensive and mean or sad and crying telling me “there’s so much you don’t understand” or “if you even knew” then hanging up on me. As I’m now an adult who has moved a dozen times all finding the housing for myself I do, in fact, know. 
+
+While I’m trying to convince her to follow up on these apartments I start getting text messages from family members telling me it’s my job to figure it out and “fix the problem,” one aunt even mentioning that her four sons send her some money a month and pay for her phone bill to help make ends meet. 
+
+Now look, I’m not neglecting my mom over here despite what my family seems to think. Over the last four years I’ve bought my mom a new (to her)car (I knew someone selling a 2010 Prius for a good price), I’ve bought her new work clothes and new everyday outfits, I’ve paid for her to come and visit many times and most recently I’ve given her my iphone7 and put her on my phone plan. I then spent hours putting together comprehensive lists and step by step application directions for her to fill out. I just. I can’t afford to support both of us financially while paying off my student loans and digging myself out of poverty at the same time.
+
+She now has till Tuesday to figure a place out and is obviously struggling to do this last minute but I’m like... we could have figured it out months ago if you would have helped me with the paperwork side of things!
+
+I told her a few months ago I’d help with some moving costs and so far I’ve been able to squirrel away $1300 for her... I just don’t know what else to do. I still live 9 hours away, I tried to prevent this exact situation for months and quite frankly I don’t have more to spare than the $1300 right now. I’m tired of the guilt texts from my family and I just. I’m at a loss. Literally any advice would help at this point because I’m overwhelmed, feeling like a bad daughter and just. I want her to thrive. I’m harboring a lot of resentment right now for the situation we’re in and the fact that I feel like our roles have reversed completely. 
+
+Tl;dr- moms been having financial issues since I was in high school, I now have a middle class salary but can’t afford to support us both and also get out of poverty, I’ve tried to help but she’s not helping herself and my family is trying to guilt me into taking more on than I can.
+New username for this one..
+Well, I'm doing it. For better or worse. I'm all in.
+
+I just refi-ed my house, and putting my equity in BTC. I'm sure many of you will tell me that I'm nuts. Maybe you are right, but I think the math is pretty solid.
+
+I don't day trade. I buy and hold. Don't need a lambo and I don't expect to get rich overnight. Yes, I did my research. Yes, I diversified my investments. If this fails, it'll hurt but I won't be homeless. I'll just retire a little later.
+
+If it succeeds? Let's define success. I have lived in the same house for 20+ years. I bought a repo in a nice neighborhood for cheap and put a lot of sweat into it over the years, repairing and remodeling. I built of equity and worked hard to pay down the loan. In planning for retirement in a few years, I was reviewing my finances, and figured that the biggest investment in my life (my house) had a large amount of money just sitting there, as equity, not helping me get any closer to retirement. With mortgage interest rates near record lows and being one of the few tax deductions that I have, I thought, why not take advantage of this.
+
+A couple of years ago, I started dabbling in BTC and ETH. Through it's ups and downs, BTC has been the best performing investment that I have ever had. I'm not high on hopium. I just understand how Bitcoin solves the problem of low friction, cross-border financial transactions, big and small. I think there's some "there" there.
+
+So, I'm literally putting my money where my mouth is. If, BTC teaches $33k, my house is paid off. Success! If it reaches $115k, I'm retired. Success! But, if it only has a 4% annual return, it is still more than than it was earning before. Success.
+
+My horizon is 12 years. Will I reach my goal before then? I absolutely think so. With a halving in 2020 and 2024, I suspect I'll hit those numbers way sooner. If not, I'll have lots of stories to tell.
+
+I'm not suggesting that anyone follow my lead. You do you. But, this is the path I've chosen. 
+
+I'm grateful for my wife, who has patiently listened to me ramble about hashing, halving and hodling. She finally, graciously, agreed to this plan. I hope that her trust is well placed.
+
+Not much more to say. My adventure begins now. I'll keep you all updated as we progress. I'm grateful for this current dip.
+
+Happy hodling!
+Hi all, been lurking here for a while but this is my first post.
+
+I'm 26, no debt, rather low but steady income (£26k), and a little bit of savings (£2k and growing each month by a minimum of £400, with the aim to eventually grow it to £12k emergency fund).
+
+I'm so happy I've been lurking this subreddit for a while before this entire recent hype. Reading about it made me very tempted to jump on the bandwagon and invest some small amount into these memestocks in hope of it blowing up to a dreamy proportion.
+
+But the more I was thinking about it, the more I remembered all the sensible advice I've read here beforehand. So instead of throwing this little bit of my hard-earned money into these, I've opened my first S&S ISA with Vanguard, with a monthly £100 contribution into FTSE Japan UCITS ETF!
+
+Now, I'm of course open to having a chat about how stupid/smart you think choosing this particular fund is, but I just wanted to share with you how happy I am making this first step and investing my money for the first time, considering I'm coming from a very underprivileged background. And this wouldn't happen without all you lot, sharing your advice and experience here, just like that, for free.
+
+So yeah, thank you all very much, especially for your incredible Wiki!
+Greetings to my fellow FIRE enthusiasts, and welcome to my wall of text.
+
+I am a long-time (11 years) redditor and have been very lightly engaged in this subreddit for much of that time. I’ve created this alternate account specifically for personal Accountability, as well as a way to Interact with the reddit FIRE community. Here’s what I mean by that:
+
+**Accountability**
+
+* One key enabler of my ability to RE is a very early start to index fund investing, and a set-it-and-forget-it approach.
+* Perhaps not surprisingly, I haven’t been very active in actually **planning** to FIRE, and I’ve developed certain lazy behaviors in the intervening years. I could have been more aggressive with my current career. I should have been more thoughtful about real estate decisions. I could have done a better job communicating my specific FIRE goals to my wife (she’s now on board). Etc.
+* So, I’m looking to drive more Accountability for myself in actually taking concrete steps to RE. And, there are some specific milestones that I’m setting for myself.
+* Obviously, an anonymous account doesn’t drive Accountability terribly well, being anonymous and all. But I’m giving a go nonetheless. As many in this community know, communicating FIRE goals with your friends and family as a means to Accountability is fraught AF. I don’t care to blog. So I’m putting it all on you.
+
+**Interaction**
+
+* I personally find the Personal Journey content in this community to be the most engaging, though the technical and financial discussions are helpful as well.
+* I suspect that most of my contributions will be of the “how it’s going/what it’s like/what I’ve learned” sort, versus robust financial advice. But I’ll share what advice I can. Think of the updates you see from[ u/FIRE\_and\_forget\_it](https://www.reddit.com/u/FIRE_and_forget_it)  and[ u/jasonlong1212](https://www.reddit.com/u/jasonlong1212) … that is what I envision.
+* This also obviously runs the risk of being solipsistic and indulgent. So I apologize in advance and graciously accept your downvote.
+
+With that Purpose out of the way, here’s some deets around yours truly:
+
+**Quick Demographic info**
+
+* I am a Gen-X American white male. Married with no children. All of our close relatives are self-sufficient. We are generally healthy (though with pre-existing conditions) and very in-shape for our age. We have a social network in the Goldilocks zone. Our community reflects our values.
+* Right away, you can see the privilege. More on that below.
+* I currently live in a large city in the Northern half of the US. I have lived in several different cities in my life, but spent the vast majority of my career in a single region of the US.
+
+**My Educational Background and Career (the over-long section … tl;dr at the end)**
+
+* **Public Schools.** The most consequential test I ever took was in 5th grade. I grew up in a public school system with several tracks of study at the Middle and High school level, the most advanced of which was called Gifted & Talented. The test I took alongside all of my peers in 5th grade happened to put me in the G&T track starting my first year of Middle school. I didn’t even know what the test was for at the time. It was easy sailing from there on out, literally through college, kicking off a virtuous cycle of achievement and positive reinforcement. This is surely an indictment of the US public school system.
+* **State University.** I moved around a bit as a kid, which did not advantage me in terms of developing a record of extra-curricular achievement, reputation and rapport within any given school. Consequently, many of my friends I grew up with “back home” ended up going to some really prestigious schools (the Ivies and the ilk), whereas I went to a large public University system in-state with a fair amount of scholarship support. This was a huge blessing in retrospect. It was an incredible bargain, and I graduated with zero debt.
+* **First Job.** A year after graduation, and after a … light academic adventure, let’s say … I started applying for jobs. I had probably applied to 10 or so companies when I was asked to come in to interview at a local software company. The interview process was very rigorous, and I think describing it in detail may give away too much. Not FAANG though, (in fact, there was no FNG at the time, and barely a second A), and nowhere near FAANG-level compensation, at least initially. I was offered a job over the phone one Friday afternoon, and started work the following Monday AM. My starting salary was $31K. The job search lasted probably two months. I realize this sounds crazy nowadays.
+* **Career Path.** My career trajectory from that point has been: software > MBA > consulting > corporate gig. That “gig” term is carrying a lot of weight. On paper, each of these moves looks like a step-up in salary, but in reality each represents an unintentional down-shifting of earning growth. I can elaborate on that if there’s interest. I’ve been working full time non-stop (except for the full-time MBA) for over 20 years now. I can elaborate on the value of a full time MBA if there’s interest.
+* **Lucking Out.** As I look back on this education and career trajectory, I feel like I was getting through some really critical gates just before they got tougher to pass through. That G&T exam in 5th grade was barely a blip on anyone’s radar (I think), but now I suspect parents view it as a make-or-break moment for their child (if it exists anymore). AP courses were just becoming prevalent after I left high school, so that wasn’t a big stressor for me. My University was still easy-ish to get into (a two-page application without an essay, if I recall correctly). College tuition really didn’t explode until after I was out. The software company I joined was very particular in who we hired, but didn’t really didn’t draw large numbers of applicants until after I joined. I was oblivious to any career guidance and interviewing/application support at my university. It probably existed, but I view that as a reflection on how unserious we were about competing for jobs in the 90’s. Maybe it’s a Gen-X thing.
+* **Modest Spending the past 20 years.** All along the way, my appetite for material things, and consequently large expenses, has remained relatively modest. There are vices here and there (eating out at nice restaurants, international travel, organic groceries, craft beer), but on balance, I have deliberately not cared much at all about the Joneses. Maybe it’s a Gen-X thing. Obviously, not having kids is probably the single-biggest variable here. So, I’ve been able to sock away a fair bit, and invested it primarily in broad-based mutual funds. My grandpa opened an S&P500 index fund for me with probably about $500 when I was very young and barely able to understand the concept (maybe when I was 13). At age 23, without really thinking, I just started adding to that. Again, privileged. I would estimate my lifetime savings rate at over 50%, but I haven’t seriously calculated it.
+
+I tell you all of this to emphasize that I didn’t blaze my own way to FI, not really. But there are still lessons to be had (more below).
+
+**TL;DR**: heads-down student, unstrategic and overall lucky career trajectory, modest spending levels, DINK, all generating what you might call “passive-aggressive” saving.
+
+**The Numbers**
+
+* Our net worth is currently $2.4M, setting aside the value in RSUs that I would forfeit if I RE’d right now.
+* The vast majority of this is in index funds, split between Taxable and Retirement accounts. I have about an equal split between Taxable and Retirement, though not due to any deliberate strategy, and is something I probably haven’t given enough thought to. I have about $100K in home equity and a bit in cash that makes up the balance of the net worth.
+* My relatively small proportion of net worth in home equity reflects my own belief that I would be better off investing in the broader equities market versus local real estate market (i.e., my home). I may or may not have been correct in that belief, I truly don’t know.
+* Very little of this originated as equity compensation until recently, even from my software days (which is a sad tale for another time).
+* Our 10-year trend in non-healthcare spending is about $65K/year. A fair chunk of this year-in and year-out is Home Improvement, which is shocking and sad to me.
+* Based on certain assumptions around income next year, tax rates in retirement, stock market valuations, RSU vesting, and healthcare premiums and other costs, if I were to RE at the beginning of 2022 (a year and a half from now), our WR would be 3.2%. This WR is about what we’re comfortable with. For context, a WR of 3.5% would allow for $75K in non-health spending, which we’ve never exceeded in the past 10 years.
+
+**How I Got Here/Advice if you’re interested**
+
+(Thanks to[ u/CripzyChiken](https://www.reddit.com/u/CripzyChiken)  for ideas to make this post more helpful than it was about to be.)
+
+Moving beyond my own biography, here are some things that I think enabled our ability to FIRE:
+
+* **Appreciate the power of compounding interest**. As a former student of economics, I refuse to call it “magic.” But **saving early** has non-intuitive benefits. Debating between saving $15/month vs spending it on HBO? You won’t remember what you watched on HBO ten years from now, but you’ll certainly enjoy knowing that extra $3K gets you much closer to retirement.
+* **Think in terms of Opportunity Cost, constantly.** This is a concept I think most of us know, but which seems so overlooked when I see my friends’ and family’s spending behaviors. The incremental expense you take on now isn’t just a trade-off at the moment of purchase, it’s something that has long-term consequences of what that cash could have provided you. Similar to the HBO example, I like[ MMM’s swimming pool example](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2018/07/25/the-twenty-dollar-swim/) even more. This has the unfortunate consequence of being debilitating (is anything truly worth it?), but is a good baseline attitude to have.
+* **Understand your values with respect to material things.** As a household, we spend $65K/year. That’s not nothing. But we definitely under-index in spending relative to our peer group here. And we’re more than OK with that. In fact, we are looking to downsize and economize with our next home. Life is to be lived, sure, but it doesn’t hurt to think about what things deliver happiness to you versus what social pressure would have you spend. I currently drive a Honda Civic that I bought in 2011. My previous car was a Honda Civic that I drove for 14 years.
+* **The ROI on a graduate degree may be iffy**. I can elaborate in future posts, but my decision to get an MBA likely had a profoundly negative ROI. A graduate degree is by no means a ticket to a better financial outcome, and the opportunity cost you pay in taking time off of work should be measured not only in terms of the year or two you take off work, but also all of the foregone goodwill you would have otherwise created in your field. Happy to elaborate if there’s interest.
+* **Deliberate career decisions with those you trust,** ideally with more experience than you. A story for another time, but my leaving the software company when I did was arguably the most consequential financial decision I ever made (and not in a good way). If I were to do it over, I would have consulted my dad and others 20+ years my elder for their view. (Correct, I did not run the idea past my dad - I have an independent streak.) I’m sure I would have been advised to wait it out a year or two. And, in my case, if I had followed that advice, I would definitely be retired by now, no question.
+* **Understand that you have tax and healthcare burdens when you think about a SWR.** Too often I see people in this subreddit compare annual expenses to net worth, and believe that they’re golden when that ratio dips below 4%. You need to account for capital gains taxes (potentially at the state level too), as well as healthcare insurance premiums that you’d incrementally incur when estimating future expenses. In my case, I will need to draw down my investments by $95K/year to fund my non-healthcare spending of $65K/year, though I do live in a high tax State.
+
+**Acknowledgements**
+
+* The biggest contributor to my ability to FIRE is the profound privilege I experience as a white American male. It’s probably obvious from the above, but I have encountered very few material hurdles in my life.
+* One one hand, I haven’t actually received an obscene amount of financial support from others after graduating high school. My parents helped to pay for some living expenses early on in college, through perhaps my Sophomore year, but tuition and later expenses were covered by my scholarships and through my part-time jobs. I stayed at their home for the two months-long job search, but moved out shortly after that. I covered the down payment on my first house (I think many Americans get support from their parents on this, though it doesn’t seem to be discussed much in polite company).
+* On the other hand, I am by no means self-made. In fact, I feel the opposite. The non-financial investments my parents made in me were significant. And, I’ve been on the receiving end of this country’s firehose of white privilege since birth. Since before birth, if you think about it. In a sense I have a different kind of debt that I believe I need to pay. More on that in post-FIRE posts, I hope.
+
+**Why FIRE sooner versus later**
+
+* **I do not draw meaning from my work**. I undoubtedly have an impact on the company, create shareholder value, etc. But my company’s mission is not something that fulfills me at a personal level.
+* **I am a tired imposter.** While I fully acknowledge how easy I’ve had it in the grand scheme of things, I have been working pretty damn hard for 20+ years. Early on, in software and consulting, the hours and effort and travel were insane. Insane! Nowadays, thankfully, it’s just a low-level burning grind, but it’s still taxing. I do somehow feel a cumulative mental wear-and-tear from work over the past 20+ years. I don't handle stress as well as I used to. I should be supremely in-control of the work and team by now, but I don’t feel I am. And I feel like an imposter oftentimes: my Millennial and Gen-Z colleagues (how’d THAT happen so fast?) are twice as bright and three times as productive as I ever remember being. Maybe I’m just getting old. Maybe it’s a Gen-X thing.
+* **I owe.** Even though this is an anonymous account, I realize this will sound self-aggrandizing -- but this fucked-up year has really opened my mind to my privilege and I need to do something more. It’s time for me to get off the pot and create a domino of openings for others at the company who have had to work a lot harder than me to get where they are. This is a concrete and specific thing, and my company would almost certainly take it as an opportunity to increase diverse representation (my company is serious AF about this issue now). So, I intend to quit within two years, ideally at the beginning of 2022, depending on certain constraints.
+
+The above are the immediate drivers, and may seem to violate the “create the life you want and then save for it” credo of FIRE, but to me it does not. I have a very happy life outside of work, which I intend to maximize post-FIRE. My retirement will be overfilled with a backlog of interests groaning to expand. The above are just pushing me to an earlier vs later RE date.
+
+**Next Steps for Me**
+
+Why am I setting my RE date at the beginning of 2022 instead of right now? There are a few constraints I need to work through:
+
+* Constraint 1: Healthcare coverage. While we are generally healthy, we have pre-existing conditions that I worry will impact our ability to secure coverage upon RE. The ACA is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court on severability grounds, and I believe it will be heard in October 2020.  A decision will likely come by June 2021, so that is an important milestone for me.
+* Constraint 2: COVID and Mortgages. We would really like to move out of our current home to a smaller home in a different location in the metro area for the first many years of FIRE. I know that asset-based mortgages are a thing. But I would much prefer getting into a traditional mortgage, and then RE after that. We are choosing to wait until after the pandemic is resolved (however that happens) before we get out into the market, and show our home for sale. So, I don’t expect to put our current house on the market until late 2021 at the earliest.
+* Constraint 3: RSUs. Some of my RSUs vest in early 2022, so would be worth waiting out even if RE were possible earlier than the above two constraints seem to allow. This is of course the goal of RSUs.
+
+Immediate next steps I’m taking:
+
+* Constraint 2: Make a plan around moving to a new home. This still involves a build-buy decision we need to make. I have a lot of research to do.
+* Also: Build a relationship with community organizations in the coming months, so I have a plan for post-FIRE engagement in my community. I have plenty of interests that will divide my time, but none of them really contribute to the community meaningfully.
+* Also: Stay employed until then. No small thing -- I know how close I am to RE, and my energy and motivation to exceed expectations at work is flagging. Stated differently: the senioritis is real. Granted, I will be fine if I were laid off tomorrow, and perhaps needn’t work full time again. But I’d much prefer to keep to my plan.
+
+This post may not be particularly intriguing now, and may not generate much interaction. But consider this the first entry that I’m hoping you all can come back to as I journal my FIRE journey in the coming years.
+
+In the meantime, what would you like to see in updates going forward? I will share what I can.
+
+Finally, to the Millennial and Gen-Z redditors who aspire to FIRE: I am sorry for the fucked up world you are in. You will face many more challenges to save for retirement than I (and especially the Boomers) ever have, and you do not deserve that. I am in awe of your resilience (I see it all the time at work), and I am trying to do my part to make it better. Keep at it!
+
+**TL;DR:** American guy wants you to read about his FIRE journey in the coming years as a means to his achieving personal accountability. This is a “kick-off post” of little immediate interest, and likely worthy of your downvote, but may be something to read again later on in the journey to see how well he stuck to his goal. He also wants to know what you want to hear from him about.
+
+**Edit:** I appreciate all of the early responses, I can feel the accountability growing -- yikes!  A quick note as a number of you have told me not to apologize for being white.  I think I understand where you are coming from, but I didn't intend this to seem like an apology per se.  I mean only to emphasize the reality in my own life that so much opportunity has come from this.  I understand the point some of you make that there are examples of privileged individuals from all races.  I would offer this way to think about it: Let's take the one example of the critical G&T test I took in 5th grade.  I was able to take that test because my parents moved into a plum public school district, which they were able to do because they were able to get a nice(ish) home, which they were able to do through rolling over the home equity from another city, where they were unencumbered by redlining because our family was white.  Now, multiply that by everyone I went to school with in that district (not every family had the same path, sure, but the systemic privilege exists).  It wasn't just me in that boat at school, and I can count on one hand how many Black friends I had at that school.  At any rate, I will likely not change any minds here, and while this is a deeply held belief of mine, I will probably delve little to not-at-all into this in future posts.
+
+**Edit:**  I have updated the post to fix a violation of a posting rule.
+
+**Edit:** Just to set expectations on the Interaction note, I will probably not post again on this topic until Spring 2021.  I've been advised that every 6 months to 1 year is about the sweet spot for update frequency.  Thanks for the engagement on this post.
+GME 1/21/21 $11c at $0.01 right now. Went from 2 bucks to having no buyers. GME is experiencing a short squeeze. bulls are waiting for a burst of good news to kill the short sentiment to skyrocket it up. What the hell happened? The mark was at around 2 dollars. Now there are no bids, and the ask is at 5 dollars. Also, my orders aren’t showing up as bids. I tried placing them. What happened?!!
+
+https://imgur.com/gallery/pOhQ24I
+I am a long term investor, looking to write some Puts on broad based ETFs generally out of the money as a way of collecting premium while being bearish and DCA in if I get assigned.
+
+I am looking for alternatives to SPY etc that cost $402 usd as if I get assigned I want to actually own the physical etf and buy it at the strike.
+
+The problem is I want to lock up less capital and not have to pay $38k if assigned … something like $5k is what I would be targeting.  So a $50 usd priced broad based etf.
+
+Ex.
+Sell a $380 strike put, get assigned, pay $380 x 100 = $38k 
+
+Instead I want the this S&P500 exposure on a < $50 etf.
+
+Thanks
+It has been almost two years since the initial sneeze, and it has been proven time and time again that the short sellers never actually closed their positions. I've lurked in the various GME subs since January 2021 (I eventually ended up here in r/Superstonk), and I kept thinking that there was *some* example what the SHFs' game plan is - today I realized what it is. I present to you the game theory of The Prisoner's Dilemma, and how it relates to GME.
+
+# To Begin - what is Game Theory?
+
+According to [this wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory) on the matter, game theory is "the study of [mathematical models](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_model) of strategic interactions among [rational agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_agent)." Put more simply, **game theory is the examination of what a rational person would do in certain situations based on what the best choice is for them logically**. It's important to remember that a key component is that "[one player's payoff is contingent on the strategy implemented by the other player](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gametheory.asp)." Game Theory is actually frequently used in economic models, such as [mergers and acquisitions](https://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2011/D6/agarwal.pdf) and [experimental economics](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767022324?via%3Dihub). 
+
+# The Prisoner's Dilemma
+
+[The prisoner's dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma) is a game theory scenario which involves two members of a criminal gang, A and B. Both of them have been arrested and both are kept separate from each other, unable to communicate. The gang members (known henceforth as "prisoners") also act purely in their own self interest and do not care for the result of the other party. There are also two police officers - one speaks with A and one with B. Each of the officers state that there isn't enough evidence to convict the other on the principal charge, but they plan to sentence the prisoners to a much shorter amount of time with a lesser charge. These prisoners are then offered a choice to snitch on the other or to not, with the following results:
+
+\- If neither snitch, they will both serve 2 years on the lesser charge
+
+\- If prisoner A snitches but B does not, A will be set free and B will serve 10 years. The same applies vice versa
+
+\- If both snitch, they will each serve five years in prison.
+
+Here's a chart which portrays the results for each party:
+
+|A/B|B stays silent|B betrays|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|A stays silent|\-2/-2|\-10/0|
+|A betrays|0/-10|\-5/-5|
+
+​
+
+If A stays silent, they either get two years in prison or ten. If B then decided to stay silent, the cumulative amount of prison time would be the least of all scenarios - yet we also must remember that neither prisoner cares for the result of the other, so A would fear that B would decide to betray A, which would result in B getting let off without time and A getting an entire decade in prison. **Thus, A would betray B, as the options are mathematically optimal for them - they get either 0 or 5 years in prison rather than 2 or 10.**
+
+**However, these exact same thoughts are also running through the head of prisoner B** \- leading B to also choose to betray A, resulting in each getting locked up for five years. Ironically enough, **choosing the mathematically optimal route ultimately did not lead to the option which provided the least prison time.**
+
+# The Assumption
+
+Before we continue, I believe it's important to make clear an assumption I'll be working upon.
+
+\- **Closing out of a large short position will increase the price of the stock by a large amount.** In an ideal market this would always be true, but we're not in an ideal market ¯\\\\\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
+
+\- **This price increase will lead to margin calls for other hedge funds.**
+
+\- **Hedge funds having their short positions closed due to margin calls, combined with FOMO due to price increases, will lead to MOASS.**
+
+\- **MOASS will lead to the destruction of all short hedge funds** 
+
+# How the Prisoner's Dilemma applies to GME naked short sellers
+
+While theoretical situations are useful for understanding concepts, there are nearly always discrepancies. That being said, I still find the Prisoner's Dilemma a good tool for abstracting the philosophy behind a hedge fund's decisions - this logic that a hedge fund utilizes will henceforth be known as "The Hedgie's Dilemma" to keep things simpler. First, let's assess how the Hedgie's Dilemma and Prisoner's Dilemma relate:
+
+\- **The prisoners are analogous with hedge funds**
+
+\- **The prisoners/hedge funds only care about their own survival**, and are perfectly fine with the others going bankrupt as long as it doesn't affect them negatively
+
+\- **A prisoner betraying the other party is analogous with a hedge fund closing their short position**
+
+\- **A prisoner staying silent is analogous with a hedge fund refusing to close their short position**
+
+\- **The "lesser charge" the prisoners receive when all parties stay silent is equivalent to hedge funds slowly losing money** due to doubling down on short positions to suppress the price, as well as interest on the shorted stock
+
+\- **If one party betrays and the other does not, the one that did not betray ends up in the worst situation possible**. If one hedge fund closes their shorts, the other will be destroyed due to the assumption (stated above)
+
+# How the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Hedgie's Dilemma are different
+
+There are some discrepancies which put the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Hedgie's Dilemma in contrast with each other. These include the following:
+
+\- **There are more than two parties short GME**, which increases the probability of at least one party deciding to close their large short position.
+
+\- **All parties are able to communicate with the others in the Hedgie's Dilemma**. While this is not technically supposed to occur and should be classified as market manipulation, it almost certainly happens anyway ¯\\\\\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
+
+\- **The collapse of other hedge funds may be detrimental to a hedge fund**. [According to the Finkle is Einhorn DD](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/), almost all hedge funds have stakes in each other - meaning that an annihilation of one will almost certainly spread to others, which can spread to others, etc.
+
+\- **Only one hedge fund can close their short position first**. Operating under the assumption that only the first big player or two to close will make it out alive, there is essentially **NO FOURTH OPTION** in which all the hedge funds simultaneously betray each other.
+
+# The Chart for the Hedgie's Dilemma
+
+We'll look at the logic from Citadel's perspective here, although the same logic could be applied for other short hedge funds. OLGMESHF stands for "other large GME short hedge funds" and represents what/how these shorts are doing in this scenario.
+
+|Citadel/OLGMESHFs|All OLGMESHFs keep their GME short positions open|One of the OLGMESHFs closes their GME short position|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|Citadel keeps their GME short positions open|All parties slowly get eaten alive by paying interest on their shorts|Citadel gets obliterated during MOASS, causing a chain reaction which destroys the OLGMESHF (see [Finkle is Einhorn](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/))|
+|Citadel closes their GME short positions|OLGMESHFs get obliterated during MOASS, causing a chain reaction which destroys Citadel (see [Finkle is Einhorn](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/))|N/A - only a few can close their positions before MOASS (due to the assumption listed above) |
+
+​
+
+Yikes. Things aren't looking too great for the hedge funds - their only option is to keep their positions open, lest they are destroyed. It looks like we'll just have to wait centuries for one of these hedge funds to run out of money to short the stock. ¯\\\\\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
+
+Unless...
+
+# Direct Registration
+
+How could we forget? If Direct Registration were to lead to MOASS (excellent explanation provided by u/sirron811 in [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/rdnbsr/drs_is_causing_the_moass_differently_than_apes/)) then we end up with a chart which looks like this:
+
+|Citadel/OLGMESHFs|All OLGMESHFs keep their GME short positions open|One of the OLGMESHFs closes their GME short position|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|Citadel keeps their GME short positions open|All parties slowly get eaten alive by paying interest on their shorts and **DIRECT REGISTRATION CAUSES SHORTS TO CLOSE**|Citadel and other OLGMES gets obliterated during MOASS, causing a chain reaction which destroys the initiating OLGMESHF (see [Finkle is Einhorn](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/))|
+|Citadel closes their GME short positions|OLGMESHFs get obliterated during MOASS, causing a chain reaction which destroys Citadel (see [Finkle is Einhorn](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/))|N/A - only a few can close their positions before MOASS (due to the assumption listed above) |
+
+​
+
+And just like that, SHFs are completely fucked. Of course, no hedge fund would want to close their positions early, as that would lead to MOASS sooner; the most they can do is try to convince us to stop buying, HODLing, and DRSing - I don't know about you all, but I don't plan stopping ;). In fact, simplified to this form it doesn't look like a dilemma at all; for a short hedge fund, all it looks like is [imminent doom](https://twitter.com/ryancohen/status/1398454505314959361).
+
+​
+
+# And before you go, have a little tinfoil... [everything in this next section is pure speculation]
+
+There are a few players in the market who are not involved in the Finkle is Einhorn maze - these are some of the only parties that would ever consider closing their short positions. Someone who isn't a hedge fund, and thus cannot be invested in by a hedge fund - and thus is not part of the Finkle is Einhorn maze. Maybe someone who would find it worth it to close their short position, as they shorted near the peak... to them, a Prisoner's Dilemma chart would look like this:
+
+​
+
+|short non-hedge funds (SNHF)/OLGMESHFs|All OLGMESHFs keep their GME short positions open|One of the OLGMESHFs closes their GME short position|
+|:-|:-|:-|
+|All SNHF keeps their GME short positions open|All parties slowly get eaten alive by paying interest on their shorts and **DIRECT REGISTRATION CAUSES SHORTS TO CLOSE**|SNHF and other OLGMESHFs gets obliterated during MOASS, causing a chain reaction which destroys the initiating OLGMESHF (see [Finkle is Einhorn](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/))|
+|One SNHF closes their GME short positions|OLGMESHFs get obliterated during MOASS but SNHF lives to short another stock|N/A - only a few can close their positions before MOASS (due to the assumption listed above) |
+
+​
+
+To these few, powerful, non-hedge fund shorts, the best course of action is actually... **closing their short positions in GME.**
+
+Which begs the question... [**who could this SNHF be?**](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/carl-icahn-said-to-hold-large-gamestop-short-position)
+
+# Sources
+
+[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game\_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory)
+
+[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational\_agent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_agent)
+
+[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical\_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_model)
+
+[https://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2011/D6/agarwal.pdf](https://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2011/D6/agarwal.pdf)
+
+[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gametheory.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gametheory.asp)
+
+[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767022324?via%3Dihub](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767022324?via%3Dihub)
+
+[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s\_dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma)
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will\_the\_real\_gme\_bbemg\_please\_stand\_up\_part\_1/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/owpfc3/will_the_real_gme_bbemg_please_stand_up_part_1/)
+
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/rdnbsr/drs\_is\_causing\_the\_moass\_differently\_than\_apes/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/rdnbsr/drs_is_causing_the_moass_differently_than_apes/)
+
+[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/carl-icahn-said-to-hold-large-gamestop-short-position](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/carl-icahn-said-to-hold-large-gamestop-short-position)
+
+Edit: some people have brought up that the prisoner’s dilemma is not a new concept for GME. I realize now that this is true, but regardless I think an updated version which includes the effects of DRS is useful for putting a hedge fund’s logic in a more understandable way.
+It’s in a savings account that I’m pretending doesn’t even exist. However, I have some debt. But I’m doing well paying more than the minimum. I also have a car that could use some work. So, am I doing the right thing by leaving it alone? Or, should I pay off the debt and/or fix the car? (The car is safe to drive, but could use some new tires and general maintenance.)
+**My background:** I graduated from a top 20 school this May  majoring in finance and math and began work as an investment banking analyst at a boutique investment bank.  I have interned in the past at a well-known asset manager (active investing) and one of the country's largest private equity firms.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+**Investment Banking:** This is by far the most popular entry point out of undergrad.  It preserves a high degree of flexibility towards future careers and shows that you can work long hours under tight deadlines. Investment bankers, at an analyst role, are typically in excel and powerpoint producing various analyses.
+
+Investment banking mostly deals with mergers & acquisitions (M&A), debt issuance (bonds), and equity issuance (IPO).  My boutique deals primarily with M&A, so I can explain this in the most detail.  We are paid a fee to either sell a company or buy a company for the best price possible for our client.  Like a real estate agent, we are there to maximize value.  In either case, the analyses are similar.  
+
+*Accretion/Dilution Analysis:* This looks at earnings per share (EPS) of the bidder (the buying company). This is simply net income (revenue less expenses) divided by the share count of a company.  This will change when a company acquires another company.  Revenue and expenses will increase by the revenue and expenses of the seller.  In addition, the company will be acquired using either (1) the bidder's cash balance, (2) a debt issuance, (3) stock issuance, or (4) some combination of the prior ways.
+
+(1) The only additional expense is the opportunity cost of the foregone interest (this is typically very small).  This is why analysts are clamoring for Apple to make acquisitions.  Apple has a large cash balance that is earning little-to-nothing, and they could be buying companies with it.
+
+(2) There will be interest expense due to the new debt raised.
+
+(3) The company will have to issue shares to acquire the company, so its share count will increase, increasing the denominator in earnings per share.  Obviously, hopefully earnings will increase as well.
+
+An acquisition is generally thought of as "good" if it is accretive (increases the buyer's EPS) within the next few years, and "bad" if it is dilutive (decreases the buyer's EPS).  This is too simple, however, because the buyer should consider long-term planning.  For example, in Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, the deal was dilutive for a long-time.  They paid $1 billion, but Instagram was making no money.  However, over the long-term, it was a great strategic fit and Facebook was able to maximize the value of the company.
+
+*Discounted Cash Flow Analysis:*  Under this analysis, one projects a company's future cash flows, including a terminal value.  Then, these future cash flows are discounted back to the present and summed to determine the overall value of a company.
+
+With financial independence, my spreadsheet is a "snowball" calculation in which I save a given amount per year, and these savings grow at market returns to reach a given amount near my retirement goal. 
+
+A discounted cash flow is basically the opposite of that. A company will make (based on estimates, obviously not reliable for most cases) a certain amount each year -- this determines the value of a company.  However, as always, I prefer the company to make this value sooner rather than later.  Say if Tesla, for example, will not actually produce cash flow for 20 years.  At an 8% discount rate, a cash flow 20 years from now is worth 1 / (1.08^20) = 1 / 4  -- one quarter what it would be if it were produced today.  Wow!  Anyway, this analysis is another way of determining the value of a company that is being bought, sold, or raising money in an IPO (initial public offering).
+
+In investment banking, pay is somewhere is the area of 130-160k (including bonus) for a first-year analyst.  First-year associates (after 3 years of analyst or out of an MBA program), will make 250-325k.  This is at bulge bracket firms (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays) and elite boutique firms.  **Hours are 65-100 hours per week.** Most firms, however, and now instituting weekend policies.  I am guaranteed off from 8pm on Friday to 9am Sunday, so if I wanted to have a girlfriend, I could.  It's extremely nice to know that you can make plans for a given day of the week, and it wasn't this way in the past. On a typical day, I get up at 8, am in the office by 9:30, and leave around 11. Dinner and taxi home are paid for. The pay and intellectual stimulation are great, but the main advantage is the career path flexibility.  With the ability to work hard and work smart proven, I can move to many different related fields with some of the following: more pay, better hours, and better type of work.
+
+**Equity Research:** Equity researchers model company financials and rate various stocks.  For example, a consumer/retail analyst might cover Nike, Under Armor, Lulu Lemon, and 5-6 other names.  They attend industry events, get a feel for the companies and meet their management teams, and become all-around experts on the industry.  Hours are likely 50-80 a week, depending on the firm, with additional hours during earnings season, when the analysts will almost always publish updates on the companies they follow. The main analysis for this type of job is a simple 3-statement model, which covers the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.  If you can do a personal income statement and balance sheet / net worth, you can do this with some training.  A 3-statement model helps put a value on a company.
+
+There are two types of equity research jobs, sell-side and buy-side.  Sell-side sells their research to buy-side firms who then use it to decide whether or not to BUY securities, such as hedge funds and large asset managers.  Buy-side researchers give their research & opinion directly to the portfolio managers that make final decisions.
+
+Hedge funds hire these equity research analysts to help them make decisions on which securities to buy.  A hedge fund typically raises funds from pensions, endowments, and the wealthy, and uses them to actively invest in public securities.  They are often paid a 2% fee on the total capital they invest, and take 20% of their returns. The employees are highly compensated and will also make huge bonuses if the fund has a high return.
+
+**Active asset managers and hedge funds have a huge amount of resources at their disposal, including meetings with the company's management and expensive calls with industry experts.  They bring efficiency to the markets. They are why you should not try to actively invest as an individual investor.**
+
+**Private Equity / Venture Capital:**  Private equity firms buy companies (either public companies or private companies) and take them private. They often put on high amounts of leverage, which will increase returns (in upside cases) and shield the companies from taxes via an increased interest expense.  They attempt to back strong management teams and companies with stable cash flows. They will often make operating improvements, such as reducing administrative expenses, better sourcing of materials, or expanding into a new product line.  
+
+Growth capital firms invest to help a company grow.  They help firms roll-out nationwide, such as restaurants or retail chains.
+
+Venture capital firms invest in a large number of early-stage companies, knowing that many will fail but hoping that one or two might become the next Facebook.
+
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+**How to Get In:**
+
+*Out of Undergrad:* The following are hugely important, and they are generally given in order of importance:
+
+1) Attend a top school, such as an ivy
+2) GPA above 3.6, preferably above 3.8
+3) Internships in similar roles: do whatever needed to do these, including loans or taking a second job during an unpaid internship
+4) Examples of leadership (club president, etc)
+
+After this, there are numerous technical and 'fit' interviews to prepare for.
+
+*NOT out of undergrad:* Usually one goes through an MBA and off to investment banking.  It's often not possible to get an investing role post-MBA without having an investing role pre-MBA.
+
+*Backdoor:*  I think one aspect that is really overlooked is the ability to specialize.  While I am (happily) a generalist in my current position, we have a lot of senior bankers with detailed experience in the sectors they cover.  If you are an engineer, you will be able to talk with and will have a stronger background for an "industrials" group. If you have experience at a tech firm, you will have a stronger background for a "technology" group.  I am on a lot of deals in the healthcare space, and its quite tough for me to understand, because a lot of it is description of molecules and the like.
+
+This is getting really long, so I'll stop here for now and add anything I missed in the comments.
+
+---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Originally posted in financial independence subreddit but figured this may have some use here - most of it is pretty basic.  Feel free to ask me any questions.
+It's not a crazy high loan nor a crazy amount I'll be paying by any means. But I don't want her to know. She took it out for a good reason, I promise
+
+I know her life insurance provider and obviously her full name, but not much else. I don't think I can just go on her laptop and hope she has her password saved for State Farm or else I'd do it online.
+
+Any tips?
+
+Thanks
+
+Edit: Thanks for the help everyone
+I took a job at an offer of $23/hr back in October. I get paid biweekly, and my rate since I started has been $27/hr. I haven’t told anyone about this, but is it possible that they would reduce my wage from $23 to $19/hr if they find out about this?
+ORIGINAL POST. Start here if you're new: [https://www.reddit.com/r/realestateinvesting/comments/sjmz08/how_to_confirm_vacancy_what_if_i_drill_lock_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/realestateinvesting/comments/sjmz08/how_to_confirm_vacancy_what_if_i_drill_lock_and/)
+
+Oh man... you know that feeling of anxious anticipation you get when you were a kid and tomorrow was Christmas?  Can't sleep, listening for the sound of reindeer hooves and Santa’s sleigh on the roof, your mind is constantly racing thinking of all the stuff you will get?   I felt kind of like that, only in the complete opposite way.  What if this guy was still there and now knew I was coming?  Would there be a blow torch attached to the door and swinging paint cans in the kitchen to smash my face in?  Am I going to die? I've lived a decent life.. But fear can never reign supreme.
+
+Sunday.  It's show time.  I treat it like any other property.  Wake up in the morning and make my to-do list before I go.  
+
+- Confirm quote appointment with hoarder cleaning service.
+- Pack up all the basic tools, toilet paper, water, paper towels, trash bags, and an extra pair of pants and underwear just in case.
+- Make sure my Will is up to date
+
+Upon Arrival
+
+- Burst in the door quick to catch anyone off guard.
+
+- If occupied -- Fight to the death and call ambulance if victorious
+
+- Check A/C and Water Heater
+
+- Make sure plumbing is working correctly
+
+- Clean up a space in the kitchen for all my stuff.
+
+- Search for valuables throughout.
+
+
+I go during the day this time so I have some extra light.  On the drive over I’m listening to a mix of pump up music and motivational movie speeches.  They can take our lives, but they will never take our FREEDOM!!!  Has absolutely nothing to do with my situation but I feel amped up regardless.  Pull up outside the unit and hurry out of my car so my nerves don’t have any time to mess with my head.
+
+
+Walk up the stairs, eyeing my door as I take the last flight.  It doesn’t look like the door handle has been tampered with.  I only need the key, no drill, so the element of surprise is on my side.  As I go to insert the key, I say under my breath, “It’s go time baby.” Push open the door at lightning speed and hear a loud THUD!......
+
+
+What was that?  Am I dead? Does the afterlife look exactly like this trashed apartment? Smells the same too, gross.
+
+
+I don’t see any movement on the inside, no holes in my shirt or blood on my clothes.  I walk down the first hallway really slowly announcing my presence again.  “Hey buddy, it’s me, your friendly friend coming to check in on you”, “I’m just hear to come and talk, it’s okay”.  No response.  On second thought, I don’t know what I expected. Who even says friendly friend?  If I were him, I would know something was up if they spoke like that. 
+
+
+When I get into the living room, I find a big stack of papers that had fallen over.  Maybe I opened the door so quickly it created an air vacuum and the papers fell?  That would explain the loud thud.  That’s probably it, right? 
+
+
+I try to put my mind at ease by thinking that it is impossible to run through a room of papers and trash and get in a closet without making a noise, in the time that was available.  There’s no way that someone could be in there.  That doesn’t mean I’m not going check every inch of the place again, though.  Don’t be silly.
+
+
+With the extra light from the sun, I can more quickly scan the whole apartment.  Everything is how I left it, or at least I think it is because it was a disaster then and nobody showed up to clean the place while I was gone.  Bathroom still a disaster, back room still cluttered, none of the paintings or knick knacks have been moved.  Let’s get this over with.
+
+
+I go to the second bedroom and go right in, no hesitation.  If this is in fact the afterlife, maybe the other side is full of a big filet mignon buffet.  No buffet, just trash.  Bummer.  Still no person but one last place to check……
+
+
+I climb the mountains of papers and plastic bags and head right to the closet.  All that motivational stuff has worn off and I’m tired.  Tired of wondering what is behind the door and tired of being afraid.   My nerves are shot, I can’t feel anymore nervousness, fear, excitement.  I slide open the door and breath an enormous sigh of relief.  Just boxes.  I just leave the door open and feel an extreme sense of calmness.  The apartment is empty. All of this for nothing… that’s a heck of a lot better than it being for something… 
+
+
+As I head out of the apartment to go to my car, there is an elderly gentleman walking up the stairs.  Although the apartment is empty, every time I see somebody my body reacts as though it’s the guy coming back.  Just went out for a long walk and got lost.. He looks at me with a confused face and says “new neighbor?”.  I’ve gotten this a few times because it is a 55+ community and I am not 55+.  Some of the residents literally have nothing else to do with their time but concern themselves with what you are doing.  He tells me all about how he heard that the place was trashed and that the guy who lived there had some health problems.  He thinks the state came and removed him.  As sad as it sounds, I hope that’s the case.  The guy is in a place where he is being taken care of and I don’t have to worry about him showing up again.  You never know with some people.  Maybe he skipped town hoping the foreclosure would blow over and then show back up 9 months later like nothing happened.  Some people honestly believe that they can outwait their bills. 
+
+
+No time to worry about that.  Now it’s time to get to work.  
+
+
+I get to my car and grab my stuff.  Get outside the apartment, pull my to-do list out of my pocket and cross off the first two things:
+
+
+~~- Burst in the door quick to catch anyone off guard.~~
+
+~~- If occupied -- Fight to the death and call ambulance if victorious~~
+
+
+Feels good to be making progress.
+
+
+Put on gloves, get the trash bags, and start throwing everything away.  I must have thrown away an entire ER worth of gauze, spray antiseptic, those big square bandages, soaps.  With the kitchen clean, I set all my stuff on the table and get to clearing the rest of my to-do list.  
+
+
+To no one’s surprise, the AC unit does not work but hopefully I just need to put new batteries in the thermostat. I go in the bathroom and flush the toilet.  Water starts spraying everywhere.  I reach under the toilet to turn the water off at the source but it stops spraying when the tank empties out.  It’s way too much water for paper towels but thankfully I find some towels in the bedroom closet. Apparently the seal between the tank and the bowl is faulty.  I am still new to RE investing and this was a first for me.  Now I know that it’s actually a thing. I go to the second bathroom and flush that one to make sure I at least have one to work with.  Nope, same issue.  It’s a good thing the lady that lived there had 12 towels in her closet.  Never know when you’re going to need them.  
+
+
+No A/C, No toilets.  Maybe I will need those extra pants after all.
+
+
+I turn the faucets on in all the bathroom to see if water comes through but I’m too worried about leaks to leave them running and check the hot water.  They work, they didn’t leak everywhere the moment I turned them on, that’s good enough for me.  
+
+
+Now it’s time for the fun part.  Looking for treasure.  I will post pictures of the highlights.  Still sorting through everything.  I will put the link as an update at the bottom of this post when their ready.
+
+
+A piece of advice to anyone who encounters this type of situation in the future.  Stuff that you think is cool is not always valuable, and vice versa.  It takes forever to sift through everything if you are pulling up every item on eBay to see if you hit the jackpot.  It’s disheartening and incredibly time consuming to find that a 1960s mint condition original electronic calculator still in the case with manuals, is actually only worth $8.  Focus on the stuff that you know will have value and go from there.  Jewelry, gold, and silver is the best place to start.
+
+
+I start out in the back bedroom closet to try and find any jewelry or cash.  Find a bunch of old coins, some watches, necklaces, pins.  Gaudy costume jewelry that you envision when you think of your grandma going out with her friends to holiday brunch.   I have no idea how to tell real gold from fake so I just put it all in bags.  Not knowing anything about currency, I do the same thing. I find dollar bills from the 1920s, 30s, and 60s, a 1881 Morgan Silver Dollar, and a bunch of 1964 Kennedy Half Dollars. 1881?  That has to be worth some serious money, right?  
+
+
+Digging through all of the trash, this condo is a 1940s – 1960s time capsule.  Coins, photo cameras, pair of binocular glasses (sport glasses), statues, 1960s art work, World War 2 military items, occupied Japan porcelain dolls, newspapers, magazines, old vinyl record players, stereo equipment, TVs with VHS players and stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes.  Apparently the guy would print off the Turner Classic Movie schedule and record everything.  I found all of the print outs of the schedule for 2 years! I even found the Clinton Inauguration tapes.  The majority of bags that I go through are just bags full of more bags.  I don’t have all year to do this so after a while I start looking for anything that looks different/out of place.  Anything that might be an indication that this box was somehow special.  
+
+
+On a serious note, you really do learn a lot about someone’s life when you sift through all of their stuff.  I found pictures of grandparents when they first came to America, baby pictures, kindergarten pictures, weddings and funeral pictures, diplomas, and found out that the son who was a hoarder was also a Certified Fraud Examiner and received a 100% on his Fraud Examiner exam.  He kept IMMACULATE records of everything.  I have delivery receipts of checks that were mailed to utility companies dating all the way back to 1998.  Absolutely incredible.  I wonder if that was part of what lead to his hoarding.  He kept everything from his job, maybe it led into his personal life too.
+
+
+In the front bedroom I find some atypical boxes full of antique toy cars, the guy’s CFE 100% award, a radio stockticker (Quotrek Dataspeed, if you’re curious), and a few odd boxes labeled H1 and H2.  Instead of the white file boxes, these are brown boxes, packed up very nicely.  Nicer packaging hopefully means nicer contents.   Maybe H stands for “Happy I own this stuff”. Let’s give it a shot.
+
+
+Inside the boxes are filled with FedEx shipping envelopes, which are full of manilla envelopes.  Everything is very neatly organized.    I open one of the manilla envelopes and it’s full of magazines. I start to pull one out and immediately realize what I have stumbled across.  I don’t even have to finish the title to know that I am about uncover what, for a kid at this time, could be the find of a lifetime.  
+
+
+“PLAYB…” YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! We found the stash!!!!!! 
+
+
+H definitely stands for something a little more than Happy.  For the younger readers who have grown up with the internet and don’t understand the significance, this collection would have been something that you only dreamed about.  The two boxes contained 74 mint condition magazines, 5 calendars, 8 VHS tapes, and 5 newspapers.  Some of the well known brands like Playboy and Penthouse but a whole bunch of other stuff.  I’m not sure of the rules of this subreddit but I can post a NSFW link with pictures.  The way that these items were packaged and taken care of, it was obviously a prized possession.  I quickly pull it up on eBay thinking that this could be the motherload, pun intended, of the things I have found.  Turns out it is the epitome of cool but not inherently valuable.  
+
+
+The day is winding to a close and I decide to load up what I can to take it to a collector shop to see what money I can get.  Enough things at $5 a piece adds up and hopefully I can at least pay for the cleanup of the unit.  As I walk towards the door, I feel an odd sense of connection to the place. A strangely personal relationship with the previous owners.  I have learned so much about them, their family, their habits.  Standing in the door frame, I turn around to look into the now darkness.  
+
+Until next time my friendly friend… Until next time.
+
+TLDR: Nobody was found in the closet.  Started looking for valuables throughout and found a porn collection.  More updates to come.
+I’m a recent adult. 24. Just trying to figure out when I’m allowed to indulge myself instead of just saving money for when I’m too old to use it.
+
+I have $24,000 to my name saved. I pay $800 in rent a month. I work in film production, so I clear anywhere from $7k a month down to only $1k a month. I also have a car. 
+
+I don’t have a 401k, probably never will. My GF and I don’t want kids. We don’t spend money much. We put the money we earn into our work. 
+
+I just bought a crazy home theater system for like $950 and it’s been a “discussion” between my GF and I about how much money I should be saving for our future… which is still just working film sets until I die. I’m Pretty anxious about spending so much.
+
+When is it okay to indulge? Thanks.
+I'm a first time homeowner. Let's assume that my home needs work. New roof. Pipe leak. AC gone. The list goes on. Now we need to hire a contractor or skilled labor to fix the issue(s) of the home. 
+
+Based on your experience with contractors what are some things I should and shouldn't do when working with contractors? 
+
+What are things that contractors might say, which upon hearing the first time, should make me run for the hills?
+
+Any advice is immensely appreciated.
+
+Edit: I'm reading each reply carefully. Every advice you've given is absolutely invaluable. I hope that other people can use this post for assistance with future contracting jobs. The reason I asked this question is because I do see constant news segments on the news about unfinished work, contractor scams, contractors that don't show up, etc. I don't want to end up on the news. Thank you for taking time out of your day to share your experiences and advice!
+Looks like student loan interest will be limited to 7.3% than 12% this year [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-61765891](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-61765891)
+Okay so I’ll just say my thanks for your replies here as I don’t want to go through all the comments and thank them individually, sorry if that seems rude. 
+
+I am 19 years and right now I am contracted to 18hrs at £9.75 per hour. Overtime is always available as I am one of the better members of staff at what I do. I am anticipating to be working 34.5 to 35.5 hours a week which works out at around £305.36 per week (I live in Scotland so tax is a little higher). I am not looking for anything fancy or a fancy lifestyle. Looking at rent in my local area it’s around 425-440 per month for a 2 bedroom house. I do not currently drive but I am taking lessons and expecting to pass by January/ February time. Due to my age I have a free bus pass so transport is not an issue. Let me know if you need anymore info.
+
+Edit: Thanks to all who responded I’ll take your advice on board, I was just curious if you thought it was a good idea as my mum who I live with, would make less money than me
+I am not a seasoned Reddit Vet... Nor do I have much karma... Or even experience in Stonks!!!!!  But... I can easily see what is going on here and in the entire world
+
+In my opinion... Burry was the "Needle"... Cohen is the "Thread"... Gill was the "Knot"... A perfect fucking "Combo" honestly!!!!!
+
+If you can say "this is not financial advice" with a straight fucking face... And then have enough "common sense" that individuals such as stated do not do what they do... I order to FAIL!!!!!  IT IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!
+
+Add that shit to the FOREVER growing GME community... Sprinkle in some of this extremely enlightening DD... On top of just simple facts as to where GME stands currently and their future plans... You can EASLIY see what is to come in the future of GME in the E-commerce world!!!!!
+
+Just a couple small/HUGE things to ponder... We all know what is coming... Just about everyone knows what is coming... Follow the "common sense" of all this and have patience during this ride!!!!!
+
+Quoting Tommy Armour the Legendary Golf Pro...
+
+"You have to enjoy the struggle."  Meaning... It is within those moments we "truly" find what is needed to grow
+
+EDIT: 🦍Voted ☑
+
+EDIT 2: A valid point on Burry selling his positions on GME... What I am referring to is more... The ability to see what others cannot... Amazingly coincidental and no pun intended... What he has predicted etc... He is about the "Fundamental Principles" of how it works... I do not personally think he was in it for the fame of fortune
+
+EDIT 3:  THIS IS JUST MY OPINION APE'S... NOT TELLING "ANYONE" WHAT TO DO FOR ALL YOU THAT KEEP COMMENTING THAT.  CARRY ON!!!!!  AS THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM!!!!!
+
+EDIT 4: THANK YOU FOR THE AWARDS!!!!!
+Markets up 10% today and the whole financial world is acting as if the crisis has been solved. 24 hour news cycles will really do that to you. Don’t forget what is happening. Our President is going out telling everyone that we’ll be up and running in 2 weeks, no doubt propping the market up (ahead of a relief bill - that surely will be disappointing). The drag this crisis has had on the economy and consumer and will have going forward is substantial. Governors are speaking out telling Trump to shut up and help. Cases are still growing exponentially. We have not flattened the curve. Our public health system is not set up for this type of disaster. Trump is trying to choose economy over lives and will soon realize it’s not his choice to make.
+
+SPY 200 / 210 / 220 / 230 Puts starting 4/3 bi-weekly through end of May. Might keep going after any other pump from the passing of this bill
+Hi all!
+
+Many countries in the EU have some sort of pension system which offers a very effective way of saving because of employers contribution and income tax exemption.
+
+But if I'm is planning on moving around a lot for a while, how can I take advantage of this without having my pension fund in small quantities scattered around different EU countries?
+
+Is there  some sort of a centralized EU pension scheme for situations like this?
+Hi all!
+
+Many countries in the EU have some sort of pension system which offers a very effective way of saving because of employers contribution and income tax exemption.
+
+But if I'm is planning on moving around a lot for a while, how can I take advantage of this without having my pension fund in small quantities scattered around different EU countries?
+
+Is there  some sort of a centralized EU pension scheme for situations like this?
+I have an IRA tax advantaged retirement account in the US, and now that I live in Spain, I am unsure if I will have to pay taxes on the gains I have in that account? In the US taxes are paid at withdrawal, in retirement, so if I have to be paying taxes on it now it kind of burdens the whole thing. Any advice? Thank you!
+I suppose we should've all received the email which states that Degiro will only apply lowered tax treaty rates on income on a selected list of US products.
+
+How is that going to affect stocks that are not on the mentioned list? Does it mean that the W-8BEN form won't apply to them, therefore the dividend tax will increase from 15% to 30%?
+
+Also, if anybody has any information - is that a decision made solely by Degiro or is there a bigger picture here? Would love to see some discussion on the topic.
+I just opened an account on Degiro and plan on depositing some money every month to invest in different ETFs. I plan on keeping my money in investments for years and years. 
+I'm not particularly interested in dividends, but I would then pick ETFs that reinvest my dividends.
+I've done some reading online, but it's still not clear to me... Do I need to declare it in my taxes if my investments grow, even if I never take cash out? Do I need to declare my dividend payments if they are automatically reinvested?
+Is it true that I should only invest in UCTIS funds? 
+For context, I pay my taxes in the Netherlands.
+New to investing, any help is appreciated
+Hey all I'm looking to buy some property in Europe. it interests me because it is cheeper than England and I would like to have a home, I work remotely so location doesn't effect me, and ideally it would ether be in a developing city, or be somewhere that has fertile ground so that I can plant a forest in it. Language barrier is a problem though I have been learning, French, Spanish, and Italian, and I already know Russian. I don't know much about the process of buying a home somewhere in Europe do you have to become a resident first? I have a European passport so Brexit will not be a problem. One thing I am wondering about is taxes, I am a traveler of sorts, I like living In different environments, and if I am not staying in this property I would rent it out will this mean I will have issues with double taxation? What if I eventually decide to buy another property in a different country how will that work? I am pretty clueless about property and taxes, all the things personal finance, so I don't really know what questions to ask, you could comment some of the problems you think I could encounter, or you could simply tell me to go get educated (or both!) if you do the latter please recommend a few books I don't know where to start.
+Hello, 
+
+I am living in Portugal and work as a Software Engineer remotely for a tech company on Utrecht. My wife is a new QA Tester on a tech company in Portugal (only eight months of experience) 
+
+I make enough money to live in Portugal (3.6k Gross and 1.9K net), however my wife doesn't (only the minimum salary for Portugal 600 euros), she doesn't have an IT degree background, so we are accepting that for now. 
+
+We are planning to move from Portugal for this and other reasons, and our choice is between Edinburgh, Scotland or Utrecht, Netherlands.
+
+I would like to hear the experience from you guys about being financially independent in these countries. What should I expect?
+
+My big goal is to have 1 million euros and my small one is first to get 250k euros. 
+
+We don't spend a lot of money, and we invest every month and probably our emergency fund will be spent on this moving planning.
+ Hi all,
+
+I am Portuguese and have worked abroad in the Telecomunications industry for the last 4 years where I have been fiscally resident elsewhere in Europe. My wife is British and we have lived together abroad (from UK and PT) during that time, she works for an employer where she is able to work remotely only needing seldom trips around EU and a good enough internet connection.
+
+I would like to ask for your help as I may be offered soon a job circa 100 k EUR brute a year, with the option to work remotely anywhere I would like in Europe as long as in CET time. We are thoroughly considering moving to Portugal as the quality of life, cost-quality relationship and conditions to raise a family are outstanding, furthermore I’m a native speaker which may help.
+
+We are considering where it makes more sense to be fiscally resident and how. Perhaps one of us may be fiscally resident in Portugal while the other is not, I apologize in advance if my question may be fiscally ignorant, but we are considering what the options are and would appreciate your help a great deal:
+
+1. Both move and fiscally resident in Portugal, pay local taxes on capital gains and salary (high taxes).
+2. One of us fiscally resident in Portugal for all family and legal purposes (kids schools, insurance, etc.) while the other could be fiscally resident in an EU country where taxes are lower and pension contributions are way better than the offered by the Portuguese government to nationals.
+3. Both of us fiscally resident in another EU country (or UK), though de facto spending most of our time between Portugal and other countries (NL, FR, BE and UK).
+
+We should add that due to our work and spreaded family, we “enjoy” a very mobile lifestyle hardly ever spending 180 days a year in the same country and look at this opportunity now to settle down and work on both our FIRE and Family projects.
+
+Thank you so much for any help!
+# 2nd attempt to post: Apparently automod thinks I've referenced sticky floor in here somewhere (hint: I haven't)
+
+# Koch Industries**
+
+(I'll leave the easy phallic humor to the comment section)
+
+First investigative DD attempt, so take it easy if you will.
+
+***Who are they?***
+
+***"With annual revenues of $110 billion by 2014, the company is the largest*** ***privately held company*** ***in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked as the largest privately held company. If Koch Industries had been a public company in 2013, it would have ranked 17th in the*** ***Fortune 500***\*\*\*."\*\*\*
+
+Okay, so I've got waaay too many browser windows open now with way, way too many tabs overflowing from each, so I'm taking a break for a few hours and passing the baton. That and I'm actually getting physically sick the further I look into this and I don't know exactly why. The shit is deep, and I'm not sure why I haven't read more about them on here before now.
+
+Remember Hester Peirce? The lovely lady publicly voting 'Nah' to all the proposals that would be beneficial to our plight? Shout-out to [u/FartinLutherKing](https://www.reddit.com/user/FartinLutherKing/) for the lead to **The** **Mercatus Center.** They're the think-tank that pays her and selected her for her SEC job.
+
+​
+
+[Plant](https://preview.redd.it/64n5s190drq81.jpg?width=3300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e5bcdb93c81ff955ae6d0a7d118f39f1a541aa4)
+
+"The **Mercatus Center** at George Mason University is a libertarian non-profit free-market-oriented research, education, and outreach think tank founded by [Koch Industries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries) executives and directed by [Tyler Cowen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Cowen). It works with policy experts, lobbyists, and government officials to connect academic learning and real-world practice. **During the** **George W. Bush** **administration's campaign to reduce government regulation, the** ***Wall Street Journal*** **reported, "14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its 'hit list' to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries".**
+
+Koch Industries is frightening in its reach and proliferation, guys.
+
+Frightening.
+
+**Charles Koch** serves on the board of directors for Mercatus, and basically runs Koch Industries today with a majority stake. His brother David, whom also possessed a majority stake, passed in 2019. Leaving Charles with the reins for the most part while David's stake is shared amongst his heirs.  
+Whew the political donations these two got up to (especially around 2008.. hmmm) are so numerous in number it borders silliness.
+
+​
+
+[Charles on left, late David on right](https://preview.redd.it/ulmaeu22drq81.jpg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60e60b09e943569497b482efc44bd82a6f2ade16)
+
+\------
+
+Little history here, and by golly there is quite a lot:
+
+Charles' father, **Fred Koch**, got his start with a crude oil into gas refinement process that he used to help the USSR and Germany in wartime early 20th century.
+
+Check out this pearl = He co-built refineries in Germany in 1930 that were integral for fueling German aircraft, and his projects literally were **personally approved** for construction by Adolf Hitler himself. (*Sources at end*)
+
+Fred must have realized it was a bad look and later denounced the USSR, and communism in general, in true lock-step McCarthyist fashion, but the money was made and history had already taken down the footnotes. I could do a whole piece just on the father, Fred, but I'm now going to shift back to Charles, the living son in charge.
+
+Not sure how many beliefs Fred passed on to his sons but here's food for thought:
+
+>After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Koch Industries did not curb or stop its business in Russia and actively supported groups opposing sanctions, unlike many other major companies.[\[44\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries#cite_note-44)
+
+\--------
+
+# The link to Boston Consulting Group:
+
+Charles Koch **started** his career at the management consulting firm [Arthur D. Little](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Little). So he had ties to this firm, and potential connections to lean on over the years. *Significant because this is my tie to BCG.*
+
+Consulting firm eh? The founder of Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted professional services, and it was founded in 1886.
+
+They also designed the NASDAQ stock exchange systems for London and Tokyo in the 60s.
+
+Guess who else worked there? Some dude the business world of the internet seems to fawn over (*like really fawning too, nearly going down on his ghost in everything I found*) named :
+
+# Bruce Henderson (1915-1992)
+
+Bruce was a salesman, then went to Harvard, then somehow ended up VP at Westinghouse, before finally working at **Arthur D. Little**. Where after several years he got into a disagreement over senior management's vision of the future, and LEFT TO FORM GUESS FUCKING WHAT?
+
+# Boston Consulting Group
+
+The group we're digging into. The founder, Bruce, has been noted to be fond of certain quotes like:
+
+>Archimedes: "*Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world*".—Carl W. Stern, 2006[\[15\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Henderson#cite_note-BCGOnStrategy-15)  
+He was fond of quoting Jay Forrester: "*While most people understand first-order effects, few deal well with second-and third-order effects. Unfortunately, virtually everything interesting in business lies in fourth-order effects and beyond*"—Carl W. Stern, 2006[\[15\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Henderson#cite_note-BCGOnStrategy-15)  
+If that tells you anything about how the formation of the ideologies of the group ended up over time......
+
+Arthur D. Little, funnily/ironically enough, seems to have undergone a very familiar sort of demise we may be able to shed light-on. Check this out:
+
+>"By 2001, Arthur D. Little reached its peak as a global consulting firm with very significant growth in the technology sector. However, a new management team mismanaged the company's core business and engaged in manipulation of the Memorial Drive Trust. The ADL Board of Trustees replaced this management team. But the damage had been done, and combined with the impact of the dot.com bubble on technology sector activity this led Arthur D. Little to file [Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code) in 2002.[\[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Little#cite_note-13)"
+
+The overlap between Koch Industries and BCG becomes more apparent when you start looking at all the folks who've worked at both, some even doing stints with **Citadel Securities** too. It makes you start to wonder if the 'fInANcE iS A reVOlVinG dOOr' argument is brought up so often to help obfuscate all these connections.
+
+I hope someone (maybe [u/thabat](https://www.reddit.com/u/thabat/)) can use this as a jump-off point to find some real smoking guns, especially looking at investments that may be similarly aligned to show collusion more clearly.
+
+Especially if this doesn't break out of new/rising.
+
+Other related research avenues
+
+* Richard Koch worked at BCG, but I'm having difficulty discovering his lineage to see if the last name is a coincidence
+* Alan Zakon (took over BCG after Bruce)
+* John Birch Society (founded by the Kochs), and other political ties in general
+* Koch Equity Development LLC
+* KochPAC
+* Heritage Foundation
+* In September 2014, along with the private equity arm of **Goldman Sachs**, the company acquired [Flint Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Group), a printing ink producer, for $3 billion.[\[35\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries#cite_note-35)[\[36\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries#cite_note-36)
+* Dark Money
+I suspect most folks here have a very heavy home-country bias in their investments.  For those that don't, what ratio do you assign to other countries/currencies?  When investing in other countries, do you hedge against currency fluctuations?
+
+Do you weight based on country market cap, on country GDP, or other?
+
+Does anyone know of any published data that has backtested different strategies?
+
+**UPDATE**: Please note that this question is only for those who have already fatFired.  fatFire vs non-fatFire international allocation decisions will be markedly different.   Please don't pollute this thread citing your out of country/currency exposure if you are not dealing with millions of dollars of assets.  I added this paragraph to prevent having the mods delete this entire thread.
+It just feels bizarre to keep reading in the news how horrible things are/will be for mid-large cap businesses (aside from FANG and select others), but to then see this rally. 
+
+Are there any other points in history with similar sentiment... and what happened?
+Hey everyone, 
+
+I know this has been debated in the past however, due to world circumstances (Covid), I would like some feedback on what everyone thinks about these two ETFs. 
+
+Has anyone decided to switch to VFV or continue to trust VUN for the long term? 
+
+Thank you in advance,
+
+Matt
+Hello FIRE community. I've been lurking here for a while and finally have a question I think is worth asking. My (24) fiancé (24) has spent most of her life with the desire to be a doctor. She pursued a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering and is finishing an MS in Global Health. She has reached the point at which she needs to make a decision on when and where to apply to medical school. This exercise has caused her to question whether she really wants to commit another 7-10 years in school and training to become a physician or if there is something else she can spend her time doing that would launch an equally fulfilling and meaningful (to her) career.
+
+​
+
+I'm posting here because part of our discussion has revolved around what our home finances would look like over the next 10-15 years in the case that she pursues medicine or something else. We ran some quick numbers on what the opportunity cost between three options was:
+
+A) Begin career now as an engineer
+
+B) Start medical school in one year
+
+C) Start medical school in five years
+
+​
+
+Our assumptions were:
+
+\- Starting engineering salary (Bay Area): $130,000
+
+\- Starting physician salary (taken from average in her desired specialty in CA): $315,000
+
+\- Medical school cost: $50,000 / year
+
+\- Residency salary: $50,000
+
+\- Wage growth rate: 3%
+
+\- Investment rate of return: 7%
+
+\- Average effective tax rate: 33%
+
+​
+
+What surprised us is how similar her expected lifetime income between the three career options is. If she starts school in a year, being a doctor doesn't return more than a career in engineering until she is 49 years old. If she starts school in 5 years, that threshold moves to 60 years old.
+
+​
+
+Her decision depends on much more than money - she is deciding what she wants to do with her life. But, the financial side is important and needs to be considered, which is why I'm posting here. Has anyone here had to make a similar decision? How did the financial aspect influence your decision making, particularly on your journey to financial independence?
+
+​
+
+Screenshot of spreadsheet calcs:
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/jBb7wEj](https://imgur.com/a/jBb7wEj)
+
+​
+
+Edit:
+
+Thank you all for your considerate responses! We really appreciate your perspectives. I've included some more information below to answer the questions that have been asked a few times.
+
+​
+
+\- Financial compensation is not the only factor in her decision to be a doctor, but it certainly needs to be part of it, which is why we've consulted this community to find shared experiences.
+
+\- Given our experience thus far in the Bay Area, I see the $130k engineering figure as very conservative. I understand these absurd salaries are a point of contention on this sub and frustrate people. It is a very strange bubble to be in, but we are trying to capitalize on it. I'm working in FAANG and she would be trying to join one of these companies. For reference, Google L3 or Apple ICT3 (new grad hire) ranges from $110-200k depending on overtime (many positions are hourly first 1-2 years). Google L4 or Apple ICT4 (next level up) ranges from $130-170k. Annual RSU refreshes vary a LOT, usually between $30-150k. This is my perspective which I'm sure is a jaded from mostly interacting with people in the same boat as me. Others can confirm or refute this assumption. Either way, there is definitely a chance she doesn't land a salary like that! So, I've re-done the spreadsheet to assume a total starting compensation of $110k. The break even points move to 46 and 50 years old. 
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/Ll3PqiI](https://imgur.com/a/Ll3PqiI)
+
+\- Someone asked a great question - are kids in our future? They definitely are! We'd like to start having kids around 30 years old. This is one of the other motivators that I wasn't going to touch on in this post, but might as well with all the feedback we're getting. If we want to have a few kids in our early 30s, the added financial stability of front loading her income will make living in the Bay Area trying to start a family more achievable. We're hoping her parents will eventually move in with us to help care for little kids, but that isn't a certainty. Child care is remarkably expensive here. As an anecdote, my co-worker who has 3 young kids pays $7k / month in child care. Needless to say, if she wasn't producing income during this time and her parents aren't able to move in, we'd either have to relocate and recalibrate with new incomes and expenses or reduce our savings rate to near zero (yikes). There is also the important consideration that having kids while being a resident will be very challenging and if her parent's arn't available to help, I would likely need to reduce my work time input to allow more time for the kids while she pursues her career as a doctor.
+
+\- There have been several comments about the engineering salaries later in her career being really high. I understand the numbers look big, but they need to be taken in perspective with the timeframe we're talking about. A $300,000 income for an engineer seems insane! But 30 year from now it will not. A $100,000 salary would have also looked insane 30 years ago. The assumed wage growth rate of 3% is just outpacing inflation and I hope she would be getting some promotions on top of that! This is the compounding math we use in FIRE predictions working in reverse, come on guys!
+
+\- I've seen comments going both ways on the assumed medical salary. We don't have great insight into this and there doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in future medical salary projections. This assumption is for an OBGYN in California. We could be wildly off in either direction!
+
+​
+
+Again, thank you all for taking the time to respond and give us your feedback. We really appreciate it!
+
+​
+
+​
+The title says most of it. My rent check for March was stolen from the "secure" box we drop our rent checks in monthly and cashed. How it was done is literally laughable. My check was made out to the landlord/ rental company, and whoever got away with this simply wrote "and (insert name here)" after the rental company, took it to a "bank" (I'm guessing it was one of those skeezy check cashing places), and it was cashed. Wells Fargo's fraud dept had initially reached out to ME, because it was so obvious. Completely different handwriting, different color... I mean when I say its laughable, it truly is. I have been in constant contact with Wells Fargo since, and still don't have my money back. At this point they're saying the only way I can get my money back is if whatever "bank" cashed it reimburses them. To me this seems like an EXTREMELY far fetch... Wells Fargo is saying they have reached out to this place multiple times and have not been able to get ahold of anyone. So all they have to do is ignore Wells Fargo and they stay out of trouble? It really seems like Wells Fargo is not doing as much as they could for me, as a loyal customer for 20+ years.  
+
+
+At this point I'm frustrated, to say the least. I don't live paycheck to paycheck, but a month of rent is a lot of money to me. Is there anything else I can do?? Besides waiting patiently for Wells Fargo to passively procure my money from some back-alley "bank" who very likely knew they were doing something illegal, of course.  
+
+Thank you for any advice.
+It’s Friday, spring is popping up in the northern world, and I’m starting to plan my fall trips! 
+
+Would love to hear everybody’s favorite places to eat and drink so maybe I can stop by on my next trip. 
+
+Where do you like to indulge?
+
+I’ll go first: 
+
+Odette - Singapore
+
+Fort Ruger Market - Honolulu (IMO, the best poke on the island)
+
+Nihinryori Ryugin - Tokyo
+
+Oiji - NYC
+
+Shabu shabu zen and sake bar - Palm Springs
+
+El Fogon - Playa Del Carmen
+
+Single Thread - Healdsburg
+
+Crocker & Starr winery - St Helena
+
+Small Vines winery - Sonoma
+
+
+
+**TLDR:** Brokers refuse to DRS IRA shares stating it's against internal policy. They will do a distribution to ComputerShare but that is likely a taxable event. Capital Gains + 10% early withdrawal + state tax can be upward of 30%+ taxes. A lot of people message me directly to say that those taxes are peanuts. They are not. And if I don't have the money come April 2023 to pay them, I might have to sell. To me this sounds like what the SHF would want. So I present to you the steps I took to DRS **X,XXX** Traditional and Roth IRA shares with a NON-BROKER CUSTODIAN. This is not financial advise, just my experience, and I'm zen af now.
+
+"If your shares are registered with the broker, the fate of your shares lay with the broker (DTC). If your shares are registered with the company, the fate of your shares lay with the company (ComputerShare)" - Dr Trimbath from DRS Origin Story
+
+**Visual Guide followed by FAQ**
+
+[IRA AND DTC STOCK WITHDRAWAL](https://preview.redd.it/59dwd40pju491.png?width=771&format=png&auto=webp&s=622160a82d023ebdb8b09f5e1f0bbcc5488c1902)
+
+The overall steps are:
+
+1. Choose a non-broker custodian willing to direct register (DRS) your IRA shares, while remaining the financial custodian, and adding you as the registered owner - in the form of: Custodian Trust For Benefit Of your name IRA
+2. I chose to work with Mainstar Trust ([https://mainstartrust.com/Contact](https://mainstartrust.com/Contact)) based on post and recommendations I've found. So far they have been extremely knowledgeable, responsive and helpful throughout this learning process.
+3. Once you've made your selection, based on your DD, **setup a like-in-kind IRA account** with your non-broker custodian. These will be standard new IRA Account forms. like-in-kind means Traditional account for Traditional IRA and Roth account for Roth IRA.
+4. Once the accounts are created, you will **fund them via a standard Transfer request**. The non-broker custodian will supply these and you can fill them out with your broker account information that you are transferring from. You don't need to contact your broker, unless you want to inform them to expect the request from your non-broker custodian.
+5. Once the shares are in your non-broker custodian account, **request via email that they direct register them, for benefit of you, with the transfer agent** \- for Gamestop, that is ComputerShare. They should be familiar with this process.
+6. Request they also scan and **email you the DRS Advise letter** when they have confirmation.
+7. The DRS Advise letter will contain two pieces of information you need to create your ComputerShare account for your IRA shares:
+   1. **Zip Code** on file (this will be your non-broker custodians zip code on the letter)
+   2. **Holder Account Number** (starts with C00 on the letter)
+
+[Use the Zip Code and Holder Account Number from the DRS Advise Letter](https://preview.redd.it/57prvxirju491.png?width=772&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae2844035564c3dd37ac5b03f1e0d0177451fc1a)
+
+8. To initiate the ComputerShare account creation process, go to: [https://www-us.computershare.com/Investor/#Home](https://www-us.computershare.com/Investor/#Home)
+
+9. Click the **Register Now** link under Login
+
+https://preview.redd.it/i6k9iessju491.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9ef62740eee59603c44fd34a70bb141f1aba2d8
+
+10. Under Confirm your details choose **Holder Account Number**
+
+11. Enter your Holder Account Number and Zip Code on file from the DRS Advise letter.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/ihd9l07zju491.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=c20945f2b5eff27251bbbb8852ea7a14692b0326
+
+12. Fill in the rest of the details, stock name, email (**use a different email** if you already have an existing ComputerShare account for non IRA shares), password, and click Register. You will receive a confirmation and a notice that your **Account Verification Code** will me mailed to the address on file.
+
+13. Contact your non-broker custodian and **ask them to forward you your Account Verification Code** from ComputerShare. Mainstar did this for me in less than a week.
+
+[Note your Verification Code - and that Mainstar's PO BOX number is 420 - nice](https://preview.redd.it/kc018so0ku491.png?width=638&format=png&auto=webp&s=7a2658178b58cc1583c737df5638116395016ac7)
+
+14. When you receive the Account Verification Code go back to [https://www-us.computershare.com/Investor/#Home](https://www-us.computershare.com/Investor/#Home) \- this time choose **Login**
+
+https://preview.redd.it/ez8n9712ku491.png?width=609&format=png&auto=webp&s=955e3ca876db384e82d4ad23cafb61569a94a95c
+
+15. Use the Username and Password you created earlier.
+
+16. When prompted enter the **5 digit verification code** that was forwarded to you.
+
+17. Welcome to your IRA ComputerShare Account! **Congrats**, you made it! Now things to do:
+
+1. Update your email preference in your Profile
+2. Manage your investment plan
+3. **VOTE!** \- You can vote directly from ComputerShare!
+
+https://preview.redd.it/tmeqb873ku491.png?width=1166&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf10a975b56bda9f5569e9523ef20201c63e2582
+
+**IRA DRS FAQ:**
+
+**Q:** How long does the overall process take?
+
+**A:** 10-20 business days. Things will go much faster if you contact Mainstar in advance and ask them to DRS the shares as soon as they get them, and to scan and email you the DRS Advice letter plus the ComputerShare verification code you will need to activate your account. Follow up with them, they are very helpful.
+
+**Q:** How much does it cost?
+
+**A:** Mainstar is $110/per account/per year. So if you had a Roth and Traditional loaded with GME it would be a total of $220 per year. Complete info on fees ([https://mainstartrust.com/Portals/0/adam/DocusignForms/VK1rKbuoYEOqpIOY\_EdUkg/File/20220307095230-Fee%20Disclosure.pdf](https://mainstartrust.com/Portals/0/adam/DocusignForms/VK1rKbuoYEOqpIOY_EdUkg/File/20220307095230-Fee%20Disclosure.pdf))
+
+**Q:** Why do I need to use a separate email if I already have a ComputerShare Account?
+
+**A:** You do not want IRA shares mixing with non retirement shares. That could be a distribution, I'm also not sure ComputerShare would even let you and that could delay your whole process.
+
+**Q:** Can I sell directly from ComputerShare?
+
+**A:** No you need to use Mainstars online system or call or email. They are still the financial custodian and need process the sale.
+
+**Q:** How long does it take to sell?
+
+**A:** It takes 3-5 days to transfer back to Mainstar. You could do this tax free in advance when ready to sell. From there you can make immediate market orders or limit orders.
+
+**Q:** What happens to my funds after I sell, do they go back into my IRA?
+
+**A:** Yes, money goes back into your IRA at Mainstar, maintaining its tax free or tax differed status.
+
+**Q:** Can I vote directly from ComputerShare?
+
+**A:** Yes you can vote directly in ComputerShare, Mainstar also forwards you any documents they receive.
+
+**Q:** Why Mainstar Trust?
+
+**A:** [u/winebutch](https://www.reddit.com/u/winebutch/) posted about their successful experience months ago. I decided to pull the trigger myself. Since then I've heard nothing but good experience from other apes that have followed this guide. Mainstar reps are extremely helpful and familiar with the IRA DRS process, especially for GME! They do not use Apex and when I asked Dr Trimbath on Twitter about IRA DRS she recommended to try a NON BROKER custodian.
+
+Feel free to ask more questions and I'll research/update the FAQ as I go. The best way to get questions answered is to email/call Mainstar directly.
+
+Hope you enjoyed, SHOP, DRS, HODL, LFG!
+I noticed that yesterday, early, the markets crashed. Which seemed reasonable. Later that day losses reduced and some assets turned even positive (crypto, NASDAQ shares, …)
+
+Apparently there is a correlation with sanctions that were brought upon Russia. However that is not gonna change much. Is it a case of correlation is not causation?
+
+Cause to me it seems more that people bought the dip and already adapted to the new reality of a seemingly local war.
+
+Honestly I expected a few more days of price dropping.
+
+Curious about your thoughts….
+I'll try to keep this short. 
+
+My aunt somehow convinced my grandma to go to the bank and open a credit line of $11K. She cosigned because my grandma makes barely anything ($300/mo). The aunt used it for a couple years and took her name off recently.
+
+We just looked at the statements because we found out it was maxed with a $400/mo minimum payment. Grandma can only pay $300, mind you. The statements were all made on the aunt's card, with some obvious proof (based on amounts and shopping locations) that she was the purchaser. 
+
+I just found out about this unfortunately. The aunt has refused to pay a dime because she's not on the credit line anymore.
+
+Is there anything that can be done? I'll appreciate any advice I can get.
+
+Edit: New stuff I've learned. There may be other documents signed by papa, who does have dementia. We don't know what he signed, because he doesn't know what he signed, or won't tell us. This is now the bigger red flag IMO, I'm thinking life insurance or something else monetary. He gets very angry about everything, and hasn't told the family what he signed, but I really just want to see this through and make sure that rights are made right.
+
+These are my spouse's grandparents, who are both elderly, and have worked all their life to make very little at the end, with their daughter taking full advantage and riding off into the sunset thinking all of this is okay. I don't want to see them go through this.
+
+This is all occurring in the state of Washington. I have plans to contact the WA DSHS (Social and Health Services). If it goes to the authorities stage, it will be initiated by them.
+
+Edit 2: Reading the comments, it's obvious now that "cosigned" is the wrong verbiage. The banks would not allow this. Which means that the aunt was just using the card, somehow "authorized", and that still doesn't sound right. 
+
+I'm working on convincing the affected parties to prepare for Monday. The aunt footing the bill has already given up her life goals due to how much is owed on this card that her mom can't pay. Shitty ass aunt dumped her mom to her other sister after she was done with her, and she is in grandpa's ear like Jafar or some shit. She was taking him to the city to sign papers, and nobody in the family was aware of what was signed. Nobody wants to step on toes, which is fucking silly to me.
+
+I will use all my energy to ensure this gets right.
+This paper was recently published (August 25th, 2022), regarding order execution across multiple retail brokerages (IKBR Pro, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Robinhood, etc).
+
+[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract\_id=4189239](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4189239)
+
+One of the authors, Christopher Schwarz, from UC Irvine, has been making the rounds on CNBC and other financial press outlets touting their findings.
+
+**Study highlights:**
+
+\- The paper claims this is the first study (to their knowledge) to attempt to compare **order executions** **at scale a**cross several brokerages in today's commission-free trading environment.
+
+\- The five brokerages mentioned account  for **14 million trades placed per day**. Assuming the typical retail trade size is $8,000 USD, this translates to **\~$114 billion in retail trading volume** per day, **$28 trillion per year.**
+
+\- Orders were analyzed for "**Price Improvement**". This is measured relative to the best quotes **NBBO (National Best Bid and Offer)**, which reflects the National Best Bid (NBB) and National Best Offer (NBD), on exchange order books, across all national exchanges, for round lots of 100 shares. Price improvement occurs when the "fill" you get for your order is better than NBBO. This study attempts to quantify the degree to which "Price Improvement" or "PI" is attainable via a retail brokerage. The best possible **PI% (a "perfect PI") would be 50%**, which would indicate trades always occur at the midpoint and commission-free trading is truly free. **The worst executions would be a PI% of 0%,** indicating all sells are always executed flat against the bid, and all buys occur flat against the ask.
+
+\~85,000 total trades were placed across 128 symbols placed on 5 different brokerages (Etrade, Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, TD Ameritrade), between December 2021 to June 2022.
+
+\- Target size for each order was $100, with only full shares traded, rounding order sizes to make the size of the trade as close to $100 as possible. Initially 26 symbols were traded with $1000 target sizes, alongside $100 target sizes, but the results for these order sizes were similar, so the $1000 target sizes were discontinued to save on transaction costs and commissions.
+
+\- Identical intraday orders were placed at each brokerage, submitted at identical time, with identical order sizes (and for the same symbol). Positions were opened and sold within 30 minutes, spread throughout the day.
+
+\- The trading program was single threaded, so orders weren't actually issued in truly simultaneous fashion. Instead, the program randomized the order of its API calls to ensure no brokerage was advantaged systematically.
+
+\- NBB and NBO were computed by recording bid / ask / quote prices immediately before and after each trade.
+
+\- After datapoints were thrown out due to API issues / disqualifying symbols / etc, around \~75,000 trades were analyzed.
+
+\- Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) was worth about $3.5 billion in 2021, up over 3x from 2019, account for 15% and 20% of revenue for TD Ameritrade and Etrade, 72% of revenue for Robinhood.
+
+Conclusions:
+
+The authors claim:
+
+\- **TD Ameritrade apparently has the best execution for trades**, across the board. 69% of trades on TD Ameritrade occurred at the midpoint between bid and ask, with a net PI% of 47.2%, so a roundtrip trade would pay 2 \* (50% - 47.2%) = 5.6% of the quoted spread. **IKBR Pro provides the worst PI,** with only 16% of trades occurring at the midpoint or better, and a cost of 62% of the quoted spread, over 10x worse than TD Ameritrade, and apparently even worse than Robinhood, which provides 26.8% price improvement / roundtrip cost at 46% of the spread.
+
+\- **TD Ameritrade > Fidelity / Etrade > Robinhood > IKBR Lite > IKBR Pro**
+
+\- These differences are economically significant, with a theoretical annual cost savings of $28 billion if all retail trades experienced the PI% of TD Ameritrade compared to the PI% of Robinhood.
+
+\-  Payment for order flow explains very little to none of the observed differences in order execution. Payment-for-order-flow at most accounts for \~ 3.4% of the difference in PI%, which is not considered economically meaningful.
+
+**- The authors propose that the SAME trades, placed on the SAME market centers (e.g. Citadel and Virtu), are treated differently across brokers.** They provide some evidence for this claim, and note that wholesalers, unlike exchanges, are not required to treat clients equally.
+
+​
+
+Thoughts? Anybody surprised by these findings? I have IKBR, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade and now actually entertaining closing out my IKBR Pro. Some people may not care if they only ever enter limit orders, but I tend to prioritize getting filled so these findings still impact me.
+
+Anybody see any major issues with the methodology of this  study?
+
+​
+
+I downloaded the PDF but it looks like the PDF published has none of the tables / figures attached to it.
+
+Anybody have a copy with the figures attached / know how to get one :D ?
+I've never known anyone to actually do this but you can negotiate house prices so is it possible to do this and be successful or is it highly unlikely when compared to buying a house? The rent is £795 so I'd love to get it down to 700-750
+
+EDIT - Thanks everyone for the valuable insights! I'm sure this will help a lot of people as most didn't know you could do this with rented properties it seems haha
+Hi gang.
+
+
+A lot of chatter recently about personal flairs got us thinking, perhaps we should have a crack at explaining the story behind some of them.
+
+
+
+If you:
+
+
+- Have a shiny flair you want explained
+
+
+- Have seen some one else’s shiny flair and you want to know the back-story
+
+
+
+Posts comment below.
+
+
+The mod who Flaired you will endeavor to answer it, assuming we can remember why we did it in the first place...
+
+
+Play nice kids...
+The DD on MYE I did the other day was cathartic. Seemed to help me crystalize my conviction. Making my thoughts explicit also holds me accountable in future when the dust settles.
+
+That gave me the idea to do a DD here on a pick I did last year, am still holding, and I think is still an opportunity.
+
+Disclaimer as with anything here: I’m retarded. But you’re more retarded if you don’t do your own fucking DD, so fuck you if you think this is advice. But without further ado, I present to you…
+
+# Myer (MYR)
+
+**The Department Stores Question**
+
+Let’s address the obvious elephant first. Are department stores a dying business model?
+
+Answer: No.
+
+Pack it up boys we're done.
+
+That being said, a lot of department stores are going to go bankrupt and already have. If mature business models are all about market share, then it matters if the market gets smaller. Whether or not there is a market later on is the real question here, and I think that there will always be a market for in-person shopping. Further to this, I think there will always be a market for the anchor style destination stores with diverse home goods, clothing, and accessories.
+
+My opinion, yeah. But if you do not believe me, then it would seem instead the position is that that all brick-and-mortar retail is dead. Smaller specialty stores exist on foot traffic from the larger anchor stores. If the big anchor department stores die, it’s reasonable to expect the smaller shops to flounder too. Grocery stores are a pseudo anchor, but after you go grocery shopping you don’t tend to stick around, so it isn't quite the same. Ultimately the position is that online shopping accounts for more or less *all* consumer discretionary spending.
+
+I think this thesis has some merits. Online shopping has been a growing rapidly. Every year more and more people decide to take their purchasing online. That is true. However, to believe that online shopping will completely replace in-person shopping would seem to indicate that there are no inherent disadvantages to online shopping and conversely, no advantages to brick-and-mortar.
+
+Stepping back a level and looking it at a meta level. The pie of consumer discretionary is shopping and it’s not a zero-sum game. Online has increased its share. When it’s convenient to shop online, or when there are advantages to doing so (e.g. better selection of products), online will succeed. I think that’s why you see electronics and books really take off in that space. But there are also some real disadvantages to shopping online.
+
+* Example 1: I bought a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes last year online. I really wanted try them on first, but these things unfortunately are not commonly held in stock in the normal shops in Aus. I ordered online figuring I can return them if need be. Problem is they were too small and it took me a long time to realize that. Well past the return date. Either way, it’s a fucking hassle to return shit too, whatever way you slice it. I would have preferred to buy it at a brick-and-mortar store so I could try different sizes and get the feel right. I just was forced online by the circumstances of the item, not my own preference.
+* Example 2: I like fancy dress shirts. I own a good hundred or so. Having tried on and worn literally thousands of dress shirts, I know that size is only a very basic guide. Brand and cuts matter. Like shoes, you really really need to put a dress shirt on to know if it fits you or not. Maybe try a few sizes. I like getting to do this before I buy. This is the same for most clothes really. Slacks, jackets, not just dress shirts. And I am a dude. It’s much easier for a dude. For women, fuck me dead.
+* Example 3: I once bought a few shirts off a company that sells them online. Presumably a pretty good deal price wise. No shipping. A lot of people recommended the brand in different forums. So I choose a few that seemed nice in the photos. They arrived. All good. But… I mean, I wasn’t entirely disappointed with what they looked like, but certainly I was surprised. Photos seemed much different. Then there was the fit of them. My shoulders were just not designed for the arm hole cut for these things. They looked great if I stood still with my arms at my sides, but otherwise were very uncomfortable. I’ve never bought shirts online since.
+
+In my own lived experience, there’s a place for brick-and-mortar. And I’m willing to spend a bit more if I don’t have to go through the hassle of returning shit in the mail and waiting weeks to finally get the shoe size right. Or end up with a dud of a set of shirts or clothes that I don’t like to wear.
+
+Then there is the whole other thing called browsing. Personally, browsing a website just doesn’t cut it. Until we can VR ourselves into a virtual shop front, I think browsing is only really possible if you’re in a store.
+
+I think online shopping works best if you know exactly what you want and you are just trying to find it. This is how I shop usually. I know what I want before I’m even in the store. I left my house to go to that specific store to find that specific thing. I don’t want to spend a minute longer doing anything else.
+
+My wife on the other hand doesn’t know what she wants. Half the time she goes to the shops and end up leaving with nothing at all because nothing really grabbed her attention. Why did she go to the store? Fuck if I know, but she wanted to “shop.” I guess I shouldn’t complain, because the other half of the time I see like 6 different charges from every known department store in Australia. I mean, I figure you could probably get all of that from one, but I’m evidently retarded.
+
+What about walking through the mall to find out about stuff you wanted but didn’t know you wanted? Aka. window shopping. This is typical during holidays when you don’t know what to buy and need some inspiration. How do you even do that online? I don’t think you can.
+
+What about going to the mall to go to the nice mid-tier restaurant that is based there? Then deciding to have a walk through the mall as part of the experience?
+
+All these things matter because it means that in-person shopping is a thing. The pie for shopping is being split between in-person and online, but there is always going to be a place for a brick and mortar because there are things that are annoying to buy online, there are things that are not practical to buy online, and there is the experience itself that cannot be replicated online.
+
+I would argue even further that the online and in-person dynamic is interrelated. Have you ever looked online for what you want and bought it in a shop? Or maybe vice versa? I certainly have done the former, in large part because I don’t want to wait for the shipping, or deal with the returns process as above. Online is as much an advertising platform as it is a virtual shop front in its own right.
+
+If at all anything, my point is that the idea that the department store is dead is a cliché and overblown idea. In-person shopping still has its place. The real question is not whether department stores will exist, but which department stores will exist. The slice of the pie of in-person shopping is shrinking without a doubt, so only the fittest and best positioned will survive.
+
+This is where we come to the question of Myer.
+
+**Profile**
+
+Everyone knows who Myer is, but if you are truly autistic: Myer is perhaps the most iconic name in Australia when it comes to shopping. Department store with over 100 years of history in Australia. Perhaps only Qantas could compete with it for the most well known Australian brand.
+
+They 60 stores around Australia in most of the major cities. Myer commands prime spots in many of the best malls in the country. And despite all the fuss about dying retail and so forth, they get millions of customers visiting their stores on a yearly basis and turn over billions in revenue.
+
+**Competition**
+
+Myer’s position in the marketplace is in mid to upper tier retail clothing and housewares. I think this is a good spot for them. It’s above the fray when it comes to the bottom of the market Kmart / Big W war to be the Walmart of Australia.
+
+David Jones is Myer’s real competition, but in some ways Myer side steps even that, given DJ tends to pitch to a hoity-toity crowd more so. Myer’s target demographic is much more solidly middle and upper-middle class. As such, I think Myer’s potential customer demographic is much larger than DJ and they face less of a threat of competition from DJ for customers.
+
+Furthermore, DJ is struggling, and while on the surface this would seem to indicate a flaw in the department store business model, I see it as indicating that Myer has weak competition, and is therefore better positioned to capture more of the market.
+
+On the flip side, DJ may find it harder to make headway with Myer’s customer base because DJ price themselves outside of the affordability of Myer’s target demographic. It’s easier to sell a bit down market than up. Myer could well be perfectly positioned to benefit from the demise of David Jones.
+
+Furthermore, and apart from all that, Myer in 2020 had 5 million ‘Myer One’ members, and they account for a large chunk of the revenue, so it would seem they have a solid and loyal customer base.
+
+**John King**
+
+In 2018, John King took over as CEO. His experience included reviving UK department store House of Frasier back in the late 2000s. A major part of that revival was building an online portal for the UK retailer. Unsurprisingly, under his leadership, Myer launched hard into the online space.
+
+Last year, Myer’s website accounted for close to 20% of the company’s revenue for FY20. It had grown by 61% off the prior year. COVID had a part to play in this increase, but the growth of its online footprint had been progressing rapidly and well before the lockdowns. The seeds had been planted 3 years prior and had been growing ever since. What COVID really did was demonstrate that Myer as a brand has legs outside of just being a bland department store in a mall.
+
+Recently Myer expanded on this theme by doing a deal with Amazon for click and collect. Time will tell whether that is a worthwhile investment, but it does potentially drive some foot traffic into the store, which can hardly be considered a bad thing, and I believe provides a further revenue stream for Myer.
+
+In addition to the online move, King was very quick to jump onto Myer’s dreary customer service problems in stores. Years of apparent neglect at executive levels led to arrogant staff that were difficult to even find on the sales floor. In the first year as CEO, King visited nearly every store in the country. He spent a day each week working the floor himself.
+
+He also took an axe to a bloated and top-heavy bureaucratic management team, slashing a large portion of the deadwood from the company. He reversed course on plans to expand the head office into expensive and under the circumstances inappropriately lavish high-rise.
+
+Similarly, King has taken many steps to reduce costs in the company overall by reducing some of the excessively large store footprints and exiting unprofitable product lines. He put a lot of focus into building up strong profitable brands rather than chasing net money losing sales.
+
+**COVID**
+
+Fast forward to the last 12 months. COVID has put every company through the wringer. Travel, Hospitality, and Retail took the brunt of it. These companies were essentially put through an intense and lengthy stress test. Companies that were in serious financial stress prior to the lockdowns were liable to fail. Myer did not.
+
+To be fair, they did post a loss, but it can be mainly attributed to impartments, aka intangible value changes. Looking at their cash flow Myer had top line revenue of 2.16 billion, gross profit of just under 1 billion (roughly 44% GP), and an EBITDA of 134.7 million.
+
+Their latest balance sheet shows them with 86million in cash on hand with receivables and inventory adding up to 407 million. That does look shaky with current liabilities of 659, but about 40% of that is debt which under the circumstances Myer should be able to juggle. No-one holding those bags wants Myer to fail. The fallout of losing an anchor store like Myer for places like Westfields and others would be significant.
+
+**Solomon Lew**
+
+This brings me to Mr. Retail himself, Solomon Lew. The guy is literally part of the World Retail Hall of Fame. Billionaire business man whose relationship with Myer goes back as far as his teens when he supplied dresses to Myer with his small clothing business at the time. He went on to become chairman of Coles Myer back in the early 00s before being ousted by the board.
+
+Since then, Mr Lew formed Premier investments. Premier is maybe best known for its retail brand Smiggle, but also owns Just Jeans, Peter Alexander, and several other well-known clothing brands. You may be familiar but Premier also trades on ASX under PMV. It's a $20 stonk.
+
+FY20 Premier had a record result, 29% up from FY19 despite COVID. The group generated 1.2 billion in revenue at a 61% gross margin. They’ve been growing and posting solid profit since the first year of operation.
+
+Why do I mention Solomon Lew? Well, he’s on the board of Myer. He has been for a while, and he’s been at odds with others on the board for most of that time. He launched a takeover attempt a few years ago to try to turn around the then sinking ship.
+
+His latest attempt to spill the board was at the end of last year. He was successful. One of the major institutional holders that had opposed him in the previous spill did an aboutface. And while there hasn’t been a lot of media attention since, it is evident Lew has taken the helm with the resignation of the previous chairman.
+
+This, in my opinion, is a very good sign for Myer. In part because Mr. Lew is one of the best retailers in Australia. It's also helped by the fact that Solomon Lew might be the biggest bag hodler in Australia right now. He put down 100 million dollars a few years ago to buy an 11% stake in the Myer. This is back when Myer traded for $1.20, so he’d be down about 75% on that 100mil right now.
+
+Long story short, Myer now has a legendary retail billionaire with some skin in the game and a personal connection to the brand now heading up the board. Indeed, Solomon Lew showed a glimmer of what might be to come when he played hard ball with the landlords last year over rent for his Premier brand stores. In a drag out fight with Scentre Group (Westfield) and other big landlords he managed to force them into some significant rental concessions.
+
+**The Fundamentals**
+
+But while all those good vibes are great, is Myer even making money these days? Answer: Yes. But barely.
+
+* The Good: 2.1 billion in revenue which produces about 300million in operating cash flow. The company owns about 2 billion in tangible assets.
+* The Bad: It’s posted negative statutory net profits 2 out of the last 3 years. Both of which were massive losses (at least on paper) and has had negative growth most of the last 10 odd years.
+* The Ugly: It’s racked up a 1.6 billion dollar debt between FY19 and FY20. 1,000% looks nice until you realise it’s the D/E ratio.
+
+To be fair, the underlying profit for the last 3 years has been positive. The right downs on intangible assets really make it look much worse than it is. The reality is that Myer has been improving it's underlying profit since 2017.
+
+Per share, the current financials works out to be $2.63 SPS, 23.4cents CPS, and 21cents BPS. FY20 EPS was in the negative due to the statutory write downs, so for the purposes of evaluation FY19 EPS of 5.1cents might be considered a reasonable figure to use as a substitute under the circumstances.
+
+Using these metrics and the typical valuation multiples in the same sector, Myer’s price could be fairly priced anywhere from 58cents (P/B), to 82cents (P/E), all the way up to $3.52 (P/S). Averaging just P/E & P/B, fair pricing shoots around 70 cents. Twice where it currently sits. That’s current valuation, mind you.
+
+**Historical Performance**
+
+Looking at the underlying profits under John King, Myer has been able to reverse the trend of negative growth in FY19. That positive trend was continuing in 1H20. During this time, Myer had cut its long-term debt in half and was building a stronger balance sheet. That is probably one of the reasons Myer was able to survive COVID thus far. It was able to draw on its sizable asset base for credit.
+
+Going back 5-10 years, Myer routinely posted 2.7-3.0billion in revenue. Net profits of 100+ million. It’s been a slow slide to where we are now. However, with a leaner operation and more adept leadership, it’s not unrealistic to imagine Myer building back to those levels. 2.7billin only 20% above its 2020 revenue, which keep in mind included shutting down stores for a couple of months.
+
+Myer’s boasted a market cap of 1.5 billion in its first few years on the exchange. Their share price managed to get in the high 3-dollar range. A similar market cap now would put their share price solidly in the $2 dollar range.
+
+As mentioned, their revenue is only 20% less than what it was back then, even with COVID throwing a wrench. When compared to the 80% gouge in their market cap, it makes you think that a more fair pricing estimate of 70cents is probably not far off the mark. Indeed, it makes me question why everyone is so pessimistic about the company in general.
+
+Though, we know why. Department stores. That and now the debt. Thinking about it, I expect the exceptionally low share price right now is pricing in the immediate uncertainty over Myer being able to service its debt, combined with its ultimate future in retail. This just means it makes it a risky spec. But it also means a valuable one, since it’s well and truly below an otherwise blind evaluation of its intrinsic value on its metrics alone.
+
+**Servicing the Debt**
+
+If we projected out a conservative 2-3 years of continued progress on the turnaround, it’s reasonable to foresee Myer back at 2.7 billion revenue. They would only need to grow about 7-10% per year. And considering in FY19 they posted 2.5billion without COVID locking down their stores for months out of the year, it also seems reasonable to expect a big bounce in the first year of full open operations.
+
+With a 2.7 billion revenue at similar operating margins as FY20, they would be pulling in around 400 million in operating cash flow. This is in line with historical results. That would put their metrics at: $3.30 SPS, \~10cent EPS, with maybe 30cent BPS (factoring small improvement to equity as they pay down debt). That puts fair value around 1.25 to 2.30 depending on how much you weight P/S.
+
+In reality, sales growth would shrink fixed costs as a percentage, and so their overall position would improve more dynamically. Further cost cuts and potential improvements in margin with the stronger AUD reducing imports costs on clothing would also have a major effect on the bottom line. Then there is the opportunity improve the overall operational position through concessions from landlords who would be shooting themselves in the foot by killing off an important anchor to their malls.
+
+**The Future of Myer**
+
+At this point we enter pure crystal ball gazing on potential moves Myer could make strategically. Trying to get much from this is as meaningful as pissing in the wind I suppose, but I do think that Solomon Lew and John King both show in their own history the likely path forward.
+
+Mr. King has shown himself adept at building an online presence and making a business lean. I think that Myer can continue to build on its online brand and expand on that footprint. The scalability of this is evident in other online retailers. Myer has the advantage of having the brick and mortar as an anchor to this, mitigating some of the annoyances of online, and giving it a slight edge. It’s also damn good advertising for people who might decide to buy at the shop anyway. Furthermore, Mr. King’s tank commander approach at firing off dead weight management and improving the store experience will hopefully also continue to prove fruitful.
+
+Mr. Lew has demonstrated in his career an ability to foster strong brands. This happens to be one of Myer’s best assets being a 100 year old iconic Australian fixture. Mr. Lew Premier Investments portfolio of retail clothing brands may find a good match with Myer in the long run. I could envision Myer becoming a vehicle for these brands. Perhaps folded into the Premier group itself, or perhaps becoming the exclusive outlet (allowing Premier to dramatically cut costs on their own brick and mortar footprint). There’s a lot of potential here, and I think it’s a big positive for both halves.
+
+I think Myer is in a good position to become the premier department store of Australia, featuring premium brands exclusive to Myer. It can brick wall against its exposure to online by co-opting it. The near-term debt issue is the main hurdle I think, as otherwise it is evident there was some progress in King’s turnaround. Now that turnaround is backed by legendary Solomon Lew for good measure.
+
+It hard to say what FY21 will show, but there are a lot of opportunities for success. First half results I believe come out in March, so we’ll have an insight into the financial situation at that point. But if it’s moving in a positive direction, I think Myer may be able secure its future for the next decade, and the overall value for a shareholder in this position is in the many multiples. My opinion is that this has the potential to be a 10bagger in 2-3 years.
+
+**\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\***
+
+**EDIT**: I enjoyed some of the points made by commenters. It seems like Myer generates a lot of debate. I cannot respond to it all, but I felt a small edit was due. Specifically, a question from /tassiboy42069 inspired me to write more on the topic of this stock.
+
+*“OP in terms of competition, remember how Uniqlo and Zara pretty much reinvented fast retail for clothes and brought down an entire segment of aussie clothes shops?*
+
+*Im wary of this happening to Myer. Thoughts on any competition that can upend our thesis on myer?”*
+
+Good point. It feeds into a deeper analysis of the rest of the market that I didn’t go into a lot of depth on. I like your question so I’ll extrapolate a bit.
+
+**“Fashionable but Practical” Brands**
+
+I think Uniqlo, Zara, and H&M have pitched to a younger market demographic that want to look fashionable but don’t necessarily want to fork out the money for a recognised designer label. “Fashionable but practical.” I think there is also a dark horse in Harris Scarfe, which seems to do a pretty decent job in store atmosphere and their homewares departments, but I think comes up slightly lacking in their overall range, and certainly doesn’t have the same sort of quality level in clothing. I think in that sense these stores are not necessarily competing for the same customers as Myer and David Jones.
+
+This feeds into the point people have raised about Target. They were also going for a similar “fashionable but practical” sort of profile. However, I think the issue with Target was that it wasn’t authentic. They were Kmart’s supply chain dressed up as generic designer clothing. Ironically, Kmart sometimes had better quality stuff for cheaper anyway.
+
+Uniqlo, Zara, and H&M fit that profile much more authentically. I like Uniqlo myself. I buy t-shirts, gym clothes, underwear & socks from them. The basics mostly, which fits their minimalist sort of design at a good price. However, I don’t really look to them for the more important stuff like dress shirts and pants, etc. While the quality of their basics is pretty good for the price, when it comes to the regular cloths, it still isn’t the same as a good quality designer brand that you might find at Myer or David Jones. Same with Zara and H&M. It looks trendy, but it’s often made with cheap polyester mix fabrics and so forth.
+
+**The Myer and DJ Dynamic**
+
+This builds on a larger point of the dynamic between Myer and David Jones. I think the clothing that DJ sell is generally on the same level as with Myer. One of their largest brands, Country Road (also owned by Woolworth Holdings Limited, who owns DJ), is on level with many of the other brands you find in Myer like Blaq, Rodd & Gunn, and Gazman. I would argue that David Jones and Myer have similar supply chains, in terms of the sort of mid- to upper-tier designer clothing. The main difference is that DJ tries to sell it for 3x the price as Myer. In weird way, David Jones is to Myer what Target is to Kmart.
+
+Furthermore, when you look at Myer’s clothing range, you see a broader appeal across age groups and socio-economic positions than DJ. The thing that sets Myer (and DJ for that matter) apart from places like Uniqlo, Zara, and H&M, is that they house legitimate designer labels the people would recognise. I would argue that the quality level of the clothing is objectively higher too. People that are shopping at Myer are the type that might go to one of the speciality branded stores specifically for a level of quality and status that you get from wearing a recognised brand.
+
+**Cannibalization from Specialty Stores**
+
+This draws me to a separate point that I didn’t fully explain above. Outside of an anchor store, what is the point of a department store? What advantage does it have over these smaller brand specific stores? There is a valid thesis in saying that the big store concept is dead because it is being cannibalised by the specialty retail market. I don’t discount that there is an element of that.
+
+**The Department Store Question (continued)**
+
+I see the position of the department store needs to be refined at a department by department level. I think Myer is starting to do this too. They used to sell Apple products and TVs. They have exited their Apple distribution and are getting out of the big electronics and whitegoods. This is a not a profitable business for a department store any longer, with better specialty shops like JB HI-FI and Harvey Norman doing a much better job of it.
+
+However, in designer clothing, accessories, dress shoes, beauty & perfume, textiles & bedding, crockery, plates & silverware, kitchen appliances, and luggage I can see a department store having an edge over individual shops. A department store acts as a hub for smaller designer brands who may not have a big enough presence for a large retail footprint and consolidates a large range of selection into one place (which creates the element of customers being able to browse across brands and ranges). Departments stores may also have the economies of scale such that they can house more prestigious brands that other specialty stores might not have the resources to feasibly stock (e.g. Royal Daulton) or are otherwise not interested in due to having their own specific store branding.
+
+I think if Myer can effectively hone the product range and shed the unprofitable sections of their business, you could see a smaller but much more profitable business emerge. This is my point with Solomon Lew and his Premier Investments. I speculate at the strategic play that Mr. Lew had in mind when he first acquired an 11% stake in Myer. I believe he had plans with regards to his own retail brands in conjunction with Myer. It is definitely true that Myer hosts many of those brands right now. As I mentioned, I envision there could be mutually beneficial arrangements between Premier and Myer in terms of brand distribution in future.
+
+**\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\***
+
+**TL:DR** \- Myer's your mother's favourite stonk and it'll probably will make her a lot of money if they don't go bankrupt. They just need to adopt Z1P payments, mix some CBD oil into their beauty care section, sell lithium batteries... mine some uranium... and viola Bunnings snags for everyone.
+Fuck I swear every retard over there wants to Jack property off or get into politics discussion. I have a property and stock portfolio but I think there’s some diehards for sure that wanna go in circles every post. I just wanna get tendies
+**Disclaimer:** I got in at $0.705. As usual, by the time you look at this post, if the price has run up a quite a bit, please please avoid FOMO. No matter how good the company is, it's just not worth it. However, if it doesn't pop tomorrow, I'm buying more.
+
+TL;DR - no fancy catchy things here. I love what they do (I'm biased that brokers will be absolutely killing it this year), how they do it (I use them for trading), and how fast they are growing. 
+
+​
+
+I believe that SelfWealth will have great performance this year, and expect the share price to jump accordingly when the reports come out. Now, Superhero is a real threat, and could be an even more lucrative investment once they IPO (depending on which price they IPO at). However, that does not change the fact that SelfWealth has been having great year, and will continue to do so.
+
+​
+
+**What is SelfWealth?**
+
+Established in 2012, the one of the cheapest Australian owned brokers for trading shares under your **own HIN number** (Superhero is available to provide $5 flat brokerage using a different model). I would be surprised that if you are reading this, and haven't come across them before.
+
+​
+
+**Value proposition**
+
+Unlike some other DDs I've done, this one is extremely straight forward. Brokers and trading platforms are one of the biggest beneficiaries of quantitative easing, increasing property price, and people's gambling addiction.
+
+My view is that quantitative easing is not going away anytime soon, and there is an asset inflation, which is only accelerating every day. This works wonders for these guys who make money off increased trading activities.
+
+Firstly, there is a lot more extra cash in the economy, and some of it definitely makes it into the share market.
+
+Secondly, due to the record low interest rate, and due to dollar devaluation/asset inflation people want to invest in assets rather than holding it in savings. 
+
+Lastly, when the house price rises, again coupled with the record low interest rate, people tend to refinance and draw against equity. Some lucky people with enough money may put it into an investment property. People without enough money or who just think that the stock market will outperform the property market tend to buy shares.
+
+Also, it's my view that Coronavirus is not going away anytime soon, and we will continue to spend extended time at home, and look for indoor entertainments.  I'm a share trading addict myself, and firmly believe that it's one of the top indoor activity people turn to these days.
+
+​
+
+**Insane growth**
+
+Don't take my word for it. Just have a look at the following graphs to see their recent explosive growth.   
+
+
+https://preview.redd.it/rhwslxz8i8i61.png?width=702&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b6d0507c8133587e0b9287e96f1a34e6918b568
+
+https://preview.redd.it/yee8q0jbi8i61.png?width=659&format=png&auto=webp&s=bbe8ab7146e0ad90c506d5657f6dd48f628e6fe7
+
+https://preview.redd.it/dxo046vci8i61.png?width=678&format=png&auto=webp&s=1efb7ae46e8c046bd130fcc1ac865bf864a178b8
+
+  
+And I expect that we will have another boost in the activities now that SelfWealth have finally introduced long **awaited iPhone and Android apps, and US market trading**. 
+
+It should be noted that it's current net profit is minus probably because they seem to have been spending money on share repurchases (please let me know if I'm wrong).
+
+​
+
+**Can it beat the competition?**
+
+In Australia, we surprisingly don't have too many competitive brokers. Now, SelfWealth does not have a special competitive, but that's same for pretty much all the brokers. They simply compete on the fees and features.  
+With those, there are  2 threats.   
+
+
+1. **Banks start lowering their fees.** People love some of those platforms (CommSec and NabTrade come to mind), but they charge a little too much. A lot of people end up using their tools for research and use cheaper brokers for the actual execution. However, looking at how much they have been against lowering their fees for years, I don't think this will happen any time soon.
+2. **Superhero** and possibly other new cheaper players entering. It is a real threat that SelfWealth needs to deal with, and something you need to keep in mind if you decide to invest in SelfWealth. I wonder if SelfWealth will try to take the same business model as Superhero, but it's hard to tell at this point. It's probably not happening any time soon.
+
+However, I think that SelfWealth is pretty well positioned at the moment, and there is no need to worry for a while. However, the market could become more competitive like US, so we need to keep checking the market environment. 
+
+​
+
+**Financial**
+
+ 
+
+TL;DR - Although they were never really in a bad situation, 2018 and 2019 weren't good years for them. However, they absolutely turned it around in 2020, and like I said, I think 2021 is a great year for the industry.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/hmgf2xect8i61.png?width=667&format=png&auto=webp&s=623a989d8454822b497b04b55c1b7ad89722789d
+
+What we see here is accelerating revenue, along with proportionately increasing cost of revenue. It's natural as their operational cost grows with the operations size. 
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/798n0ajet8i61.png?width=673&format=png&auto=webp&s=db2c9577a78cb686bc5aa22c2862b8d63fa2337e
+
+The balance sheet is looking healthy. Assets to liabilities ratio look healthy and the recent change in stockholders' equity looks healthy too.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/yy1tpgwft8i61.png?width=664&format=png&auto=webp&s=22eef65c974f815ac6cdde8961b340a8f5d6ab8a
+
+Their net cash from operating activities have been increasing which means they are headed in the right direction. Their cashflow has been increasing at the same time, and now they sit on comfortable amount of cash.
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/c7nvk7sht8i61.png?width=383&format=png&auto=webp&s=c27e79de2a081fb9c2e5909a696de4e23bee4bf9
+
+Large number of shares are currently held by insiders, which is always a good sign. 
+
+​
+
+**Management**
+
+As far as start-up management goes, there is no superstar here. No big names, once head of multinational corps, fancy portfolio of successful start-ups or anything. Just average overachieving go-getters🙂.
+Hello I'm new to the whole "being an adult" thing and I was wondering what the best way to find a purely online bank. I'm looking at the APY but I'm more concerned with minimum deposit amounts and potential monthly fees. What I've been doing is using sites like nerdwallet and bankrate and then googling customer reviews and comparing. I feel like that's the smartest thing for me to do, but I would just like some more input.
+
+​
+
+(Also sorry if this is the wrong flair)
+
+​
+
+Edit: Probably gonna go with Ally. Thanks for all of your help!
+Pretty much title but UK jobs only! I found it unrelatable reading about a garbage collector in NY making $100k/year. Curious to see what unexpected jobs bring in the big £££s
+
+Edit: Let's present figures to back the job title up whenever possible, please!
+[Link](http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/njmin-aer.pdf)
+
+> **Abstract**: On April 1, 1992, New Jersey's minimum wage rose from $4.25 to $5.05 per
+hour. To evaluate the impact of the law we surveyed 410 fast-food restaurants in
+New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania before and after the rise. Comparisons of
+employment growth at stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (where the
+minimum wage was constant) provide simple estimates of the effect of the higher
+minimum wage. We also compare employment changes at stores in New Jersey
+that were initially paying high wages (above $5) to the changes at lower-wage
+stores. We find no indication that the rise in the minimum wage reduced
+employment. 
+
+***
+
+Sorry about the delay! 
+Why did they send us the ICMarkets (SC) email in the first place? Should we trust this and did anyone else receive this email after their withdrawal request?? lol
+
+​
+
+Note: I did change my leverage to 1:25 because I originally thought of opting out of the migration to SC. Could this have triggered the email below?
+
+\---
+
+Dear Client,
+
+You may have received an email from International Capital Markets (AFSL 335692) regarding the new regulatory developments within Australia on 21st of June 2019.
+
+We would like to inform you that IC Markets will keep your trading accounts under ASIC regulation without any changes.
+
+This means your Security of Fund and Trading Conditions will remain unchanged after 1st July 2019.
+
+Should you wish to continue trading with IC Markets under ASIC Regulation, you can login back to your Secure Client Area to cancel the withdrawal requests before market opens on Monday.
+
+**To cancel your withdrawal please login to the secure Client Area:** xxx
+
+**Select "Withdraw Funds" under the Transfers menu and click on the "x" symbol next to the requested withdrawal item to cancel.**
+
+If you are having difficulties cancelling your withdrawal request from your Client Area, you can send an email with the subject of “Withdrawal Request Cancellation” to icmarkets and our Accounts team will assist you as soon as possible.
+
+We wish to express our apologies for the late update on this matter.
+
+We hope to continue this relationship in the coming years with great reverence and respect.
+
+Kind Regards  
+IC Markets
+Is this true? will a strategy becomes less effective and lost its edge the more people knows about it? 
+
+I've been manually backtesting a very simple strategy with a fixed risk-reward ratio on several major usd pairs, with different times (e.g january-may 2017 august-december 2019 etc). I entered the trades while strictly following the rules that i've set. I marked every possible setups, and entered all trades. Eventhough there are times when I know a certain trade will lose, but I just entered there because of the rules set.
+
+I also calculated the amount of lots that I should use for every trades according to a certain variable. With this, compounding is achieved.
+
+At the end of the day, after calculating the trade's statistics, It has proven itself to have an edge and are very profitable in the long run, although the max consecutive loss (11) is higher than the max consecutive wins (6). Knowing this, Im planning to just create an EA and let it run on VPS to see how it will be doing in a 'Real' account.
+
+I am new to algorithm trading, and im still struggling to understand the basics from youtube and mql4's official documentation. I was thinking of hiring people from upwork/fiverr at first, but Im afraid that it won't work again as it has a possibility of being spread and a lot of people using it by the people(s) im going to employ. I've come to this conclusion after seeing the video from Youtube on an expert advisor tutorial by Mohsen Hassan (channel: bloom). 
+
+So.. is it true?
+I know this isn't about traditional trading but I recently had the idea of setting up a bot to algorithmically gamble (roulette specifically). 
+
+Now, before this gets shot down, I am well aware there is no possible algorithm that doesn't lead to the house having an advantage and my bot would lose all its money eventually, but I just want to mess around and do some martingale betting and am more so just curious if it is possible and how I would go about setting it up. 
+
+The website I'm using (Stake.com) has an API key that I can use but unlike algorithmic trading, there are no tutorials or anything online that I can find. I'd appreciate any insight or direction towards where I can learn more about doing something like this.
+So this past year I’ve taught myself how to build an NFL betting model using a wide variety of data I scraped using Python and then passing it into various machine learning libraries. I haven’t put too much money into it yet as I am still testing a few things, but my historical testing results have been good.
+
+On the other side though, I am a CPA and have two undergrad degrees in Accounting and Finance and currently work as a financial analyst.
+
+So my question to you all is, am I better off focusing my newly learned Python skills on algo trading or sports betting? Does anyone have any experience with both and can vouch for which one is a better use of their time in terms of having a  better shot at making passive income?
+
+Thank you in advance for any advice.
+Which platform is better for AlgoTrading? Interactive Brokers (IBKR), or Alpaca?
+
+I'm in UAE so it seems reasonable to open an IBKR, but i want to know how good IBKR's API is compared to that of Alpaca (NOTE: I had to stop using FXCM's API as it's terrible)
+I'm trying to figure out if it's possible for us to FAT Fire with 2-3 kids (have 1 currently) in a HCOL area where our joint income ranges from $200k-$500k per year, but very inconsistently. We are not moving out of HCOL area and we don't want to decrease our expenses dramatically, so I'm just trying to figure out if it is possible to FAT fire or if I should instead focus on finding a more fulfilling, likely lower-paid career and just work FT until 70...
+
+We are married but generally keep separate finances. At the moment, he makes 90k a year 1099 (flexible hours consulting for a nonprofit) and I make between $170k and $450k depending on bonus/stock etc. I'm conservative so I plan my budget around the $170k salary and save full bonus/RSU. Thus, I'm considering our sustainable household income to be $250k.
+
+We rent a 1br for $2550/month and have no debt. Would like to buy a house for $1.7M. There is an option to co-purchase a home with his mother as she has a substantial amount of cash sitting but doesn't own property currently and needs to leave her current housing in next 1-5 years. I'm not sure I want to do that as I don't like the idea of commingling our finances even if she wants to give my husband an early inheritance. My objective would be to buy a $1.7M-$1.9M home on our own in next 0-3 years.
+
+**My networth details/history:**  
+2007 - $28,000 (age 23)  
+2008 - $15,000  
+2009 - $32,000  
+2010 - $88,596  
+2011 - $145,149  
+2012 - $204,842  
+2013 - $250,419  
+2014 - $310,117  
+2015 - $355,427  
+2016 - $416,583  
+2017 - $551,332  
+2018 - $625,746  
+*2019 - $850,000 so far (age 35)*  
+2020 - aiming to hit $1M this year
+
+**Husband's Networth (Current)**
+
+2019 - approx $150k
+
+**Total Family Networth Current: \~$1M**
+
+Husband wants to go back to school to become a high school teacher which at least would give us good benefits and a pension. The benefits would be hugely helpful as my jobs tend to be high paid but short lived and there are periods where I am not working (also due to some mental health issues.) 
+
+**Major Upcoming Expenses (in current prices)**
+
+\- $1.7M-$1.9M 3br/2ba house in HCOL area  
+\- $60k - husband's teaching credential at top school  
+\- $50k - embryo freezing & IVF  
+\- $300k-$450k - savings for 2-3 children's 4 years at public university  
+\- $100k - weddings?  
+\- $90k ($15k x 6) - assuming 6 cars for rest of life total, 3 each, 1 \~every 15 years
+
+**Budget (Current, Family - \~$8k-$9k/mo)**
+
+Rent - $2550 (buying a house would increase this to $8k / mo)  
+Financial - $1400 (CFP, insurance, etc)  
+Food - $1400  
+Kid Stuff - $400  
+Bills - $300  
+Shopping - $1000  
+Gifts - $150  
+Home - $300 (buying a house would increase this TBD)  
+Personal Care - $250  
+Health - $200  
+Entertainment - $300  
+Travel - $300
+My girlfriend and I are in a tough financial situation. I have about $4,000 in credit card debt and my girlfriend had about $1,500. She also needs a car to get to and from work. Right now, she’s using mine to get where she needs to go. 
+
+We have a joint account with about $1,300 in it and we both put in about $400 each. I put in more since I make a little more. I’ve been trying to put at least $200 every pay day (twice a week) but after that I don’t have much disposable income.
+
+On top of this, we’re trying to pay back our respective parents after we fell on harder times earlier this year when my girlfriend lost her job. So it’s been tough to find some comfort and/or breathing room. 
+
+Can anyone help?
+1. Waters states that SBF was in support of regulations.
+
+2. Waters is nodding her head in agreement as a reporter is showing proof that SBF lied about being in support of regulations. That what he said was just PR. When asked what her take was on this, she claimed that she was unaware of SBF’s Statement. 
+
+3. Waters Response “We are sometimes told things that are not true and when we have an opportunity to deal with it we do. When we can reveal lies that have been told we go at it and expose it and make sure that it is looked at in ways that COULD cause indictments”. Mad Maxine “We are sometimes told things that are not true and when we have an opportunity to deal with it we do. When we can reveal lies that have been told we go at it and expose it and make sure that it is looked at in ways that COULD cause indictments”. 
+
+#KenGriffenLiedUnderOath
+If I bought 10 shares of a stock which was $10 a share ($100 total), and I have $10 in unrealized gains (so $110 total) from the stock appreciating, should I "realize" those gains and buy another share of that stock? why or why not.
+Hey everyone, long time lurker here. Really curious to see if there’s a bunch of fatties here who have built their wealth in the PM role and how your journey has been, is it doable as a PM?
+
+Long story short, I recently landed a  “decent” paying job as a PM, low six figures total comp, but wondering what the ceiling is. I know there’s always levels.fyi but that’s highly skewed to FAANG salaries whereas I’m at a large financial institution. 
+
+I’m currently early 30s, HCOL, in PM role hoping to make Director level next year (probably Senior PM equivalent in FAANG), and eventually aiming to work my way up as Head of Product but not sure where I can go from there. 
+
+Any nuggets of wisdom for an aspiring PM looking to reach fatfire? Much appreciated 🙏🏻
+
+Edit: to be clear this is not my first PM role just my first one with a good comp package. Experience wise I am quite senior.
+Apologies in advance for how crassly curious this post is! But if you are so kindly inclined, could you please share a) what you do b) how long you’ve been doing it and c) how much you make from your small business? 
+
+I am thinking of transitioning to self employment and I have a few avenues I could go down with my pretty diverse skill set.
+
+But it’s infuriatingly hard to figure out the annual income and profit potential for small business owners. I know it will be highly variable from one person and business model to the next but I’d at least like some very approximate figures to aspire to. If I wanted to switch jobs I could easily research what salary I should be aiming for, but as a wannabe entrepreneur it’s all such a terrifying unknown out there! 
+
+THANK YOU if you are sweet enough to answer this very nosy question!
+I trade QQQ primarily, and was short what I thought was a top, and remained stubborn. Feeling defeated, down 2 % Portfolio today but since I trade full time that's a huge hit for me.
+
+I feel super down, going to take time off from trading - question is, anyone ever feel like I do now, like just quitting? How do you get by?
+
+Thanks
+The changes we’ve made to the agreement include:
+
+an acknowledgement that Wealthsimple will obtain reports from credit reporting agencies;
+
+updates to Wealthsimple Invest, Save and Trade accounts including an acknowledgement of order delays, details on currency conversion of dividends for Canadian dollar accounts, a description of how share certificates are handled and information on valueless securities;
+
+general updates to all accounts including changes regarding the electronic retention and destruction of documents, authorization to use and disclose information needed by third party service providers to provide or operate the services, a software acknowledgement, consent to capturing your electronic signature, updates around verifying personal information, an acknowledgement that oral agreements do not replace the written agreement, an acknowledgement of truthful tax filing and disclosure of tax residence within 30 days of any change, and a description of how unclaimed property is handle, pursuant to applicable legislation;
+
+updates to disclosures surrounding referrals, commissions, market research surveys and a description of when a conflict of interest may arise; and
+
+other updates including a description of how to submit a request for support, terms for market data subscriptions, and a leverage disclosure in the new account application form.
+TLDR: Etoro has about 1.2 million TOTAL funded shareholder accounts.  His calculation is based off of 1.2 million Etoro shareholders that own GME.  
+
+# New Estimate:
+
+This is the post I'm referencing: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/np4wwu/etoro\_got\_their\_15\_of\_all\_gme\_holder\_straight/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/np4wwu/etoro_got_their_15_of_all_gme_holder_straight/)
+
+Etoro has 1.2 million funded accounts (page 5) [https://marketing.etorostatic.com/cache1/pdf/eToro-Investor-Presentation.pdf](https://marketing.etorostatic.com/cache1/pdf/eToro-Investor-Presentation.pdf)
+
+6.71% of Etoro shareholders own GME. source is screenshot from OPs post:  [https://preview.redd.it/ksbd4yfkwg271.png?width=283&format=png&auto=webp&s=de99df2f930e57711e0c04e685a08364ddd19bb3](https://preview.redd.it/ksbd4yfkwg271.png?width=283&format=png&auto=webp&s=de99df2f930e57711e0c04e685a08364ddd19bb3) 
+
+6.71% of 1.2 million is  80,520 Etoro funded accounts that hold GME. 
+
+ According to this email.....[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nmos5k/what\_the\_actual\_fuck\_did\_etoro\_just\_say/?utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_source=share](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nmos5k/what_the_actual_fuck_did_etoro_just_say/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) .... Etoro represents 1.5% of all GME shareholders
+
+So if 80,520 GME shareholders represent 1.5% of all GME shareholders, **the new estimate is 5,368,000 total GME shareholders (80,520/1.5%). Much lower than 89 Million.**
+
+Think about it,  6.71% of 20 million is 1,342,000 million accounts.  Right there that should tell you the data is wrong if over 100% of Etoro accounts would have to own GME for his math to work.  
+
+Again this is just an estimate so take it with a grain of salt.  Its also important to note that we are making this estimate off of only 1.5% of the data, so there is PLENTY of room for error here.   Feel free to check my math and let me know if I went wrong somewhere, but my main goal here was to stop the spread of misinformation.
+They are set to smash us at some stage this week. The compromised bets page usually deletes everything GME and now they are allowing everyone in? They want to inflate the paper hands so that when they crunch around earnings they will all flee and the price drop will be dramatic. 
+
+I have seen this before and I think I am right on this one. 
+
+Expect pump up this week before earnings - then tues/wed/thurs carnage next week. 
+
+Not to share FUD, I hold regardless, just to share why I believe is going to happen. 
+
+Finish the week above max pain 
+
+Monday maybe green then it’ll get a slap around.
+Norwegian ape here with GME YOLO
+
+Just read a newsarticle that our dearest Kenneth Griffin had to abandon his short positions on a Norwegian gas freighter company Flex LNG. 
+
+Any thoughts on what this could mean appreciated, link to article in comments!
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/xm5nn8n55it61.png?width=1313&format=png&auto=webp&s=fed87b2029f64700afc4e1cbb47f6a99066ad3c5
+**TLDR: GAMESTOP IS MAKING IT EXPLICITLY CLEAR THAT THIS MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME TO BUY BEFORE MOASS. THEY ARE GIVING YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO BUY**
+
+I'm sure that all of you have already seen GameStop come out of 5 months of silence with a BANG. Their social media team has been excellent and have been hyping up apes all day yesterday and today.
+
+What this tells me is that MOASS is imminent and is giving APES one last chance to buy this dip before MOASS. Thank you for letting us know GameStop. If you're a smooth brain ape that hasn't liquidated all other positions to buy $GME... well GameStop is making it real clear that something BIG is gonna happen soon. For GameStop to come out with provocative tweets such as the \*moass\* tweet means that they have already considered the ramifications of this and that it literally does not matter anymore.
+
+​
+
+[I support u\/Peachy-DMN-'s opinion](https://preview.redd.it/2l0bqlvqbqy61.png?width=725&format=png&auto=webp&s=1c87c7f296b6982f16b8605078fe01ca2aad1415)
+
+GameStop is prowling this sub daily and they WONT let us down. Power to the Players  💎🤲
+
+Can't Stop. Won't Stop. This is where the GAME STOPS.
+
+[GameStop Twitter hitting us with the BACK-TO-BACK Tetris](https://preview.redd.it/3d3i4b74cqy61.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=d9f0b21f0b97245da65b8e5eb55befe114b5dabf)
+
+Disclaimer: All of this is my opinion and please do not twist it into "tHiS pOsT sUgGeSts GaMeStOP iS mAnIpUlAtInG tHe MaRkEt. sHiLl FuD". Of course this is not financial advice.
+Over the years I've done multiple SFH brrrr's and I love the fact that this strategy allows you to build a portfolio much quicker compared to other strategies. While this is a great strategy, there are risks to consider when doing the BRRRR strategy, especially if you’re doing it out-of-state where it makes the most sense.
+
+While most investors on Youtube and Biggerpockets tell you to be aiming for an average of $150/200 in cash flow a month per unit, but what they don't mention is that repairs can be costly and do add up quickly. 
+
+Repairs are inevitable and can be costly especially if you're using a management company to manage your property. Even if your'e cash flowing $200/month it only takes a couple of repairs to completely wipe your cash flow for the entire year. 
+
+In my opinion the BRRRR is best suited for multi family 6+ units. But if your goal is not cash flow but having an appreciating asset that by the time its paid off will generate a good income then the BRRRR is great.
+
+:)
+I'm posting this here because the scammers who reached out to me said they did so after seeing a comment i made on this sub, so i know they are lurking here and probably attempting to prey on others here.
+
+The last few days I've been getting unsolicited PM requests.  This started right after a comment i made on a post in this sub, and one even said they had seen my comment.  They are obvious scammers, complete with broken english sentences vaguely talking about some business opportunities.  Be aware that it is out there and stay vigilant.  i know 99% of the people here are smart enough to not get scammed, but they play a numbers game and enough people must be falling for it that they are hitting up users in this sub more often.
+I am considering switching from my current high street bank HSBC. 
+
+I am tired of their customer service. Most recently the fact that they kept stringing me on the phone for an entire day as I needed to get a statement generated for my current account.
+
+So, no I am on the lookout for a new bank. Something with a nice app, that allows me to generate statements easily without having to be on the call with them entire day.
+
+I already have a challenger bank account with Starling and Chase. However would like to maintain a high street bank account too
+
+Edit: The issue with HSBC is that they are rigid on the statement generation date. My statement generation date is 2nd of the month. This meant I would have to wait till November 2 for my transactions done in the month of October. With Starling, I [can generate a statement](https://i.imgur.com/hE2z5dI.jpg) for whichever date range I want. That’s what I am missing.
+I can barely make ends meet and I’m 35 with a college degree.
+
+How awful should I feel for not being able to save money right now? Other than 401k and my car I’ve got nothing. I rent an apartment. No debt but nothing to show for my life. All my coworkers have savings and a house haha not me nope
+I have 18 credit cards which an overwhelming majority are and have been at a zero balance. I get them for bonuses and specific deals when need be and then just never use them again.  I have a mortgage and 2 car payments. Revolving utilization is at a steady 5-15 percent. I only use a couple of them frequently and have them set to pay balance every statement. A couple I have them for special 24-48 month special 0 percent financing so that where I carry a balance. Credit score hovers around 775-800.
+
+Is there any reason to not close cards? How do I get my score into the mid 800's? I honestly don't envision anything in the near future that would require me to have a perfect score but you never know.
+Because I work with computers all my friends are thinking that I'm a crypto master. But when they ask me about it I usually say I don't have any crypto, I don't know anything about it and I can't tell them if they should buy or not. They bought crypto anyway and tried to convince me that they are all going to be rich as fuck.
+
+Right now in this crash they are searching someone to blame. They hate each other, they went crazy, they are posting shit about crypto and are always telling me that they made a huge mistake and that they will sell everything soon. They can't handle to dip.
+
+I have crypto and keeping it a secret was the best idea I had. If not those guys would have started to blame me for everything.
+
+*
+
+Edit: Holy shit my first awards! Thank you guys. Feels great :)
+
+Edit2: its the first time I got gold. Now I know the feeling of a millionaire :)
+
+Edit3: stay strong and hodl! I would hodl but you know I don't have any crypto.
+
+Edit4: this is not a financial advice because I don't own any crypto. I swear to god!
+
+Edit5: I tried to upvote every single post in here bc somebody wrote that one karma is worth like 8 cents in moons. I'm gonna make you all rich! Except you Carl. Nobody likes you, Carl!
+After spending a decent bit of time in this sub, a realization came over me. The investments I make that perform the best are the ones that Reddit hated. I am downvoted relentlessly for saying Tesla is a less than glittering investment, shunned for shunning PLUG, GTAT, ect. You know the drill. My critique is that this sub is not welcoming of contrarian investors.
+
+What ever happened to buying when there is blood in the streets. I think the Buffet quote sums it up pretty well. If you want people to agree with your market decisions, you will have to buy grossly overpriced assets. The logic of it is so simple, yet so universally declined.
+
+All I want is to be able to talk about my less than popular investments (copper miners, precious metals, technology put options) and not be downvoted to oblivion and called an idiot.
+
+My investment thesis: [example stocks - these are not my only considerations]
+
+Tesla is currently trading around 30 times more than it's balance sheet value (assets minus liabilities). I am short.
+
+Banro Corporation (A small miner in Central Africa) is valued around 10% of it's balance sheet value. I am long.
+
+By these metrics, Tesla is valued around 300 times higher per its traditional value. 300 times. Not trying to sway anyone, just something to consider. Things are getting weird. This whole situation feels like a tech bubble 2.0 to me.
+
+The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, but fundamental investing will never die.
+
+If 1 person gets something out of this post, I'll be pleased. Consider for a second, the herd mentality of investing, and ensure that the herd you are in yourself is not about to run off a cliff. It definitely feels better to lose money surrounded by a group of others in the same boat, but is it what you want? 
+
+Once again, this is a rant/analysis (not advice). Thanks for reading.
+
+EDIT: *Small edits to make it easier to understand. Still no advice. All stocks used are only examples. This is not any kind of "guide" - just something to consider. Please be respectful regardless of your views. I would love to hear comments/rebuttals. Cheers. Nothing but respect to all investors. My short and longs mentioned are views/positions that I move in & out of.
+Smoking being the biggest but, also I cut out the huge amounts of soda I was drinking as well.  I added up how much I spent on these items a day and times it by 365. Holy crap 3.5k a year on cigs, $500 a year on fountain sodas.  This was about 20% of my take home pay.  
+Hey guys, 
+
+Some say this is not a good time to invest in crypto, some are selling at a dip -why, some are taking advantage and taking this as an opportunity.
+
+Which one are you? Yes that's me, Diving into to the depths. I see this as an opportunity and lucky for me I got introduced to a gem of a token. Ta-da CreamPye...yes the name sounded a bit cheesy at the beginning but after doing an intensive research, not just on their official website (www.creampye.com), I joined their Telegram (https://t.me/creampyetoken) just to check how they functioned and man this is one hell of a community. Have see a lot of tokens and part of many even modding a few but these guys are amazing the mods are absolute gems. They are really there to help and not a single bot. And the Dev.Team they keep popping up like mushrooms with news, update and actually converse with everybody, that you don't see much in any of the communites. They actually make time whether you are a small time shrimp(like myself) or a whale they answer every single question. And the best part is they have AMAs not like once a month but damn 2-3 times a week. Yes, they asnwer your questions too, the CEO Mr.Bill, Deven the COO, Noosh and they have Eric the CTO a bit shy I think great personality though. What I want to say is that you don't find the Dev Team interacting so much with the community. They are not like those techie I know everything type of person. They are humble, transparent and generous. I believe they have already donated $250000 to Action Against Hunger and the community can vote if they want to donate to other organizations. This in itself was enough for me to invest. On telegram the community is PyeNation and they will blow your mind they are so tight, everyone happy to be there and they spend hours discussing about the project and where it's going. 
+
+Sad thing is that the market is pretty bad at the moment but I took this as an opportunity or advantage and got me some more PYE. Like they say what goes down will find a way up. We've all taken a beating this week -everybody the big guys took a huge hit but looking at PYE the support from the community has been absolutely amazing. To get to the chase this not a meme or pump & dump token, this is a utility token. Just hold for awhile and see where this goes. I believe you will be thanking me later :D check out their website (creampye.com), talk to the community (https://t.me/creampyetoken), watch their video all sorta of them (AMA, slice of pye (behind the scenes)). Get your PYEs and hold you will be glad you did. That's all for now :) Join the family, everyone's welcomed. #pyenation #creampye $PYE. Peace. And do your own research. :) Shout out to PYENATION. ✊
+There have been recent articles about rent (In Toronto at least) increasing as a result of interest rate hikes since landlords will have higher mortgage payments. 
+
+They are going up CURRENTLY, but one factor that doesn’t seem to be getting considered is the recession that is inevitable as a result of the rate hikes.
+
+If it goes as far as 2008 levels, we could see a lot of layoffs in the coming months, and tenants who lose their jobs and income will no longer be able to pay rent. 
+
+So how do you think the rent prices will be affected if demand is technically reduced as a result of unemployment? In both Toronto and the rest of Canada. Will there be drops, increases, or stagnation? Would it vary by area? 
+
+It dropped somewhat during COVID, so would this be similar?
+Hey everyone, 
+
+Looking for some input on my strategy as a newer investor. My plan is to open a Direct Investing Account (thinking about just doing it through TD) and put in roughly $250-500 per monthly on stocks that are “safer” such as ETFs, TD bank, Loblaws etc. Basically stocks that I rather not have to day trade. 
+
+Long story short but I have roughly $6000 to play with as well in a TFSA investing account. Basically my parents have been putting in the max contribution for me so I can’t add any more money into that investing account. 
+
+Currently 27 years old, have a steady job where I net roughly $4000 per month. I just want to try to make more money rather than having it sit in the bank. I don’t really have any intention to pull my investing money out (unless something happens where I need the money). 
+
+1. Should I use TD or Questrade?
+
+2. Is $250-500 a lot to invest each month? 
+
+3. Any stock recommendations? 
+
+4. If I sell my stocks and transfer the money into my chequing account, will I get taxed on that? 
+
+Any help would be greatly appreciated!
+Hi all,
+
+I'm sorry for the super noob questions:
+
+My brother would like to set up a btc mining operation using solar with tracking (meaning the solar panels tracks the sun), and is trying to raise $2 million in capital.  Is this a worthwhile endeavour?  He never uses Reddit so I figured I’d ask for him here.
+
+I've read many posts from people asking if it's still profitable to mine btc, and pretty much everyone says it's just not profitable anymore.  But I assume that's for the average joe with a small budget.  
+
+Please educate me,
+
+QAR
+17.5Billion into the economy, projected to rise over 22B by the 21/22 period. 
+
+* $750 per person on a pension 
+* Heavily weighted to bussiness investment. 
+
+Discuss.
+
+EDIT 1: https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-12/federal-government-coronavirus-economic-stimulus/12042972?pfmredir=sm
+
+Edit 2: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus
+My wife returned to work after a year of maternity leave. In doing so she went from the manager's role to a part time senior role. 6 months later she has been made redundant, as they dont have use for the part time role.
+
+Tbh she felt this coming almost immediately after she returned to work. Her new manager wasnt comfortable with the old manager working  beneath them. This resulted in her being bounced to another department.
+
+I assume that her redundancy pay will be based on her part time wage of the last 6 months? Although she did 8 years full time working her way up from customer service to manager before maternity leave.
+
+Very disappointed, although she is well shot of this mob.
+Hello all, 
+
+In the wake of today's post by Pink, I've been tasked with offering what transparency we can about what is happening within the mod group and outlining our plan moving forward. 
+
+The mod team as a whole was made aware of the situation involving Pink last week. As emotions were running high coming into the weekend, we asked all parties involved to take the weekend off and planned to reassess everything on Monday. During the weekend several members of the mod team (including me) not directly involved planned a voice chat session for conflict resolution to try and allow the involved parties to work through what had happened and find a plan to move forward. That call was scheduled for this evening (7/13) at 8:30 Eastern. The delay was intended to give parties a chance to gather thoughts, as well as to be able to accommodate the schedules of those who would be meditating. All parties agreed to this delay and schedule, and seemed to be at least agreeable in the approach. 
+
+As we were preparing to have this call, Pink decided to make her post to the sub, outlining her reasons for stepping away from the Jungle Beat. In this post she made many references to the events over the weekend as well as many comments referring to what had happened. 
+
+As you can imagine, that post threw a pretty significant wrench in the established plan of a mediation between involved parties. The call has now been cancelled, and we're trying to figure out what our next would be. 
+
+I want to be very clear. The admin and moderator teams were all fully aware of the instances that lead to this. There had been multiple attempts at reconciliation and apology that weren't successful. We had a further plan in place to try and work through these issues, with a conflict mediation plan, to which all parties had agreed. 
+
+Pink has now become completely unresponsive to any messages we've extended to try and find out what is happening. She has continued to comment on her post as well as on Twitter with her feelings about the situation, but as of the writing of this post has not responded to any of our attempts to contact her. 
+
+To say this is a shitty situation is an understatement. The mod team recognizes that Pink absolutely had right to feel wronged and threatened by what happened. Apologies and explainations were made, but did not affect the overall feelings and situation. We scheduled specific time and effort to try and offer assistance and help find a resolution, and that has now been postponed indefinitely. Any and all attempts to deal with it have been met with resistance, and now pointed silence. 
+
+To be very honest, we're at a bit of a loss as of what to do. Due to her lack of response to any of us, her seeming unwillingness to accept apology or explaination, and the disregard for the processes that she had agreed upon for resolution, Pink has been given hiatus status until further notice. Any official action regarding her future on the moderation team will be decided and explained to the sub. We'll offer more as we can moving forward. 
+
+As is normally the case in times like these, this changes nothing of the big picture issue for GME as a whole. People disagreeing, feeling hurt, scared, or threatened doesn't change the game plan. Buy and hold, and Power to the Players.
+
+Edit: added "aware" in paragraph 1
+
+Edit: enough questions about this that I wanted to make a clarification. 
+
+The moderation team as a whole was made aware of the issue on Friday the 9. The information was presented in a way that made all involved feel like resolution was not only possible but the preferred solution. Parties were asked if a delay in official action so we could weigh the options was agreeable. All parties, including Pink, consented. When the mediation session was suggested and implemented, once again, all parties consented. I was fully ready to enter into a mediation session tonight with all parties eager to address this to the satisfaction of all parties, because Pink had behaved in a way that lead us to believe that's where she was at in the process. 
+
+Evidently Pink didn't feel like this was enough, that she wasn't being heard, or that we weren't talking things seriously enough despite agreeing to every one of our offered plans. 
+
+At no point did Pink ever raise a demand or plan of action that was ignored or neglected, at least to my knowledge. Her posts were always centered upon bringing awareness to the situation to the mod group. The awareness was raised, and the mod team immediately went to work to figure out our preferred strategy. Part of our planned call today was going to be asking exactly what actions she's desired us to take because of this. She never asked us to remove any one, or gave us any actionable demands on her end. Perhaps this was because she assumed we would come up with her preferred solutions without her outlining them herself? But if there were specific demands on how she would have liked the mods to respond, she did not voice them. 
+
+When her post today was made, we were 3 hours away from our planned meeting, and everyone who has known and approved that course of action was incredibly surprised and confused as to why the post was being made. As I said before, we were aware that Pink was upset, but she gave every indication that she supported our plan for response and willing to participate in it. 
+
+That's why no actions have yet been taken, and any and all possibilities were on the table heading into tonight's call. But we never got to that point. 
+
+Hopefully this clarifies out decision making process.
+For beginners in the investing world, I think this video is a great overview of how the economy works. So much mention of interest rates and debt gets tossed around, but a lot of people don't really understand what it means or how it impacts anything. This should help. 
+
+https://youtu.be/PHe0bXAIuk0
+Okay not a shill or fanboy, just looking for logical answers.  So what do you think is Bed Bath and Beyond’s BBBY turn around plan?  And why will it be successful?
+
+Where does the recent loan fit it?
+
+Why did Ryan Cohen sell ?
+
+Where does the short interest play in all of this ?
+
+What is your price target and why ?  Will we see a similar run up in like GME? Or perhaps a 10X?
+
+Edit:
+
+There will be an update on Wednesday August 31 at 8:15am EDT.  A press release will be issued approximately 45 minutes prior to the start of the conference call.
+
+https://bedbathandbeyond.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bed-bath-beyond-inc-provide-strategic-update-august-31-2022
+
+I suppose we know the true then…  🌙 or 💥
+EDIT 3 - I think this has moved well passed the point of on-topic advice about strategies and FI/investing and into the realm of "try X job" or "you made bad choices for this lifestyle, op!" - And it could probably do with a locking? Would love to keep it up and available though as i have saved a ton of very useful comments to peruse through in the coming days! Thanks again, all contributors!
+
+EDIT 2 - This has evolved. I can honestly state that I came here for some investment insights or help being pointed in the right direction to learn more, but it has taken on a form all its own. A few users mentioned it doesn't seem like it belongs. I think it did at first, but through the dialogues I have shared with the users perhaps not so much anymore. You have taken your time to break things down for me and be very specific while sometimes not holding back about your personal feelings toward my lifestyle. I mentioned in a comment that I view all feedback as constructive because to me, it is. I appreciate the tips and help and the personal anecdotes. Another user has mentioned that it seems the investment issues have been answered, and I agree. But I don't want this post to be removed by mods because I think it holds a lot of very valuable information about new/low-come trajectories that other users could find helpful. I know it helped me and has given me a ton of content to dive into over the next few days as I refine my strategies. From career advancement to personal advice to common-sense and cheers of encouragement; this has been a great experience. I have tried to respond to as many questions or comments as I could because I appreciate all the effort, but I likewise don't want to make the post seem spammie or hovering over someone else's valid questions or submissions. Thanks a ton to all who shared their opinions and advice with me. This is an amazing sub!
+
+Original:
+
+This is very different than most posts but nothing ventured..
+
+The first bit of information: i make in one year what most posters seem to make in one month. I just did my taxes a bit ago and have added up my entire life's earnings. It is less than what a lot of you make "on the side". And i am well older than most.
+
+I'm 36 and i average about $14,000 USD per year. I have made $123,000 in lifetime earnings. I live in (at least pay taxes and on paper) the USA.
+
+My lifestyle is also vastly different than most. This is where i usually get ridiculed and verbally abused by inconsiderate x-uppers but the basics around my survival have been focused on experiencing life and the planet as much as possible. I have been homeless, and hungry. It has not always been a fun road. I WWOOF and couchsurf and volunteer in positions in places that provide me accommodation and food and have swung around the world on shoestring budgets in low-cost places for almost a decade. For most of the previous few, I was involved in adventure-tourism stints in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I took tourists out camping and experiencing nature in exchange for a bunk in a basement and 2 square meals a day. I saved tip money/etc. I always save as much as possible - despite how little it is.
+
+Most of my income is generated in the summer months working educational exchanges and STEM camps around the US on case by case bases and earning around 7-10k in a few months. The rest i earn doing extremely random things that have zero stability or saving the scraps here and there. On average i am guessing i can save up/scrounge together about $200 in extra income per month from various jobs or day-labors.
+
+I currently have about $10,000 in cash spread out over a few bank accounts. I have no savings accounts or any investments. I have never contributed to a 401k or have any windfalls. I live out of a backpack, hold no property, do not own a vehicle, and my most expensive item i have ever owned has been whatever laptop or mobile phone i utilize.
+
+I have ~$60,000 in student debts that have been accumulating interest (they started around $40,000) but since i have never made enough to pay them back, they are currently on income-based resulting in zero monthly payments. I tried to break these down immediately after graduation and managed to dent them by $5,000 but it was ineffective and they still ballooned well past that within a few years. I have since abandoned ever being able to pay them off. I am only in year 3 of income-based. I will probably be looking at 17 more years of this lifestyle if i have any hope at all to see them gone.
+
+My degree has never resulted in anything positive, and i have abandoned that as well. Please don't assume i am lazy or a leech. I had submitted 1,873 job applications in 2 years. I tracked every single one, and wrote custom CV and covers for each. I could probably compile them into a compendium of failure but i have all documentation and saved rejection e-mail etc. It just never worked out. I'm not hurt about it. I just faced reality and had too much economic hardship so turned to my life on the go, for lack of a better phrase. I pay taxes. I do not use or abuse any services. I do not even have low-income healthcare. I utilize zero government services. Again, this is a serious post and not one to degrade those on less stable positions than yourself.
+
+That's the background and $ info. Here's my FI/RE question:
+
+I do not need much. If i could somehow generate about $500 in monthly income at some point that would place me in the FI department. I know i do not have near the capital to make that happen. So the issue here is that most posts concentrate on maximizing investments/etc. What can a polar opposite to the high-income/diverse-investment crowd in this sub do, to get to their place/version of what this sub is about? If anything - point me to resources, but again i searched and it doesn't seem to include someone like me.
+
+Much appreciated.
+I'm trading for 11 months with pretty good success.
+
+I never traded metals and forex before, just stocks. Today when gold started to consolidate at the last hour, I decided to scalp short it with a large amount, so I opened 100 lots. I haven't realised, in forex 100 (lots) doesn't mean "100 pcs", because I used to stocks and I went full retard without knowledge.
+
+Seconds later, I realised it means 10 million dollars (1 lot = 100.000, and I had 500x leverage).
+
+It moved up a bit and immediately I was down £4000. I scared as fuck and rather than closing the position quickly I hoped maybe I could close break even.
+
+The market closed, and I waited for the Asian session. The gold popped like never before, and I lost all my life savings (£55000) in less than two hours. (including the 1-hour break between sessions).
+
+If I count that I lost all my earnings as well, I lost around £85000.
+
+Here is the margin call
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/XY5m4ZA](https://imgur.com/a/XY5m4ZA)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/VSgmCSs](https://imgur.com/a/VSgmCSs)
+
+[https://imgur.com/pRWl5g9](https://imgur.com/pRWl5g9)
+
+IC Markets closed my position partially in every 1-2 minutes until I shut it myself at £35.
+
+You know the rest of the story. I'm depressed, crying and shouting with myself.
+
+Yes, I know I was stupid, thanks. I just wanted to share this with you.
+
+​
+
+​
+
+​
+
+**Edit:** WOW THANK YOU, GUYS!  I haven't expected this, but you help me.
+
+Many of you asked the same questions, I answer it here:
+
+\- I live in Europe, and we usually trade CFD's, not futures.
+
+\- Currency in GBP.
+
+\- As you can see, this account made on IC Markets. They not just allowing you a 500x leverage, it's the default.
+
+\- You can ask me why I went against the market. Because gold is way oversold? Because I expected institutions would sell their shares before gold is hitting £2000, leaving retails hanging there. Also, as I said, I wanted to scalp, not riding the gold all the way  down. If I had a loss of £100, I would close the position immediately. But when I saw the £4000, my heart is stopped, and my brain just freezes.
+
+\- I went for a revenge trade with my last £2k, and I don't have to say what happened. I uninstalled the app, and I give up trading for a while.
+
+\-  Again, in the past months, I was cautious, I lost a significant sum in March, but I managed to recover. Made consistent gains, always with SL. This is just an example of how easy is to fuck up everything you did.
+
+\- I didn't come here for some shiny digital medals. I can't tell about my losses to anyone who I know in real life. I would make a fool of myself.
+
+\- Anyone who attacking me that it is a scam. Well, think what you want. I feel terrible and the last thing is to answer all the messages saying "You fucking karma whore".  I don't give a shit about karma.
+
+​
+I know many apes still wonder what will cause the price to go parabolic for MOASS, once the float is DRSed. let's go through it logically
+
+- when DRS numbers approach the breakpoint, Computershare buys have to eventually get more expensive.
+- because as long as there's real buy pressure while the float gets smaller and smaller, there comes a point when Liquidity Providers can't fulfil buy orders anymore, except by raising the price.
+- the best part is no one has to spend millions to keep buying even when the price is parabolic. the way CS market buy works, apes should begin to see smaller and smaller fractionals for the fixed amount they spend.
+- with the DTCC running out of shares and apes buying more, the price can only go up. this signifies real price discovery for the first time ever
+
+where is the breakpoint? - the only way to find out is to go past it, and keep going no matter what. like just now with the instutional selloff that changed float DRS percentage from 54% to 47%, apes keep going and [it's already back to 49%](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/wweh7b/wasnt_this_47_due_to_institutional_selling_we_are/). this is how MOASS works, relentless neverending buy pressure.
+
+- CS market buy is the perfect tool for price discovery in the MOASS.
+
+Wall Street wants retail scattered on hundreds of brokers with no effect, but apes have access to Computershare now. the most diamond handed investors of this generation, with a plugged-in controller. when shit hits the fan, Computershare buy order is the way 💎🙌🚀
+I seem to have been at the 1 million (GBP) milestone for a few years, but haven't been able to push far beyond. I'm self-made through my dedication to saving, ruthless judgement on purchases, and businesses I run. I have 25% of my NW in index funds / premium bonds, 25% in my businesses, 35% in the home we live in and 15% in Bitcoin and other assets. I'm 41yo with partner and child. Our family won't be growing and whilst it would be great to move house one day, we are comfortable with where we are, and take many trips away thanks to owning a campervan. We don't have expensive taste, no fine wine or watches, and probably live on 40k per year. I know this NW is hardly anything compared to many of you, but I'm sure some of you were in this position at some point. I've never considered property investment, not entirely sure I have the stomach for it, and I forecast my businesses will continue to operate at existing levels (a mere 80k per annum) for another 5 years; albeit on very few hours actual graft each week. I'm a hard worker, strong work ethic, so starting a fresh business is certainly on the agenda but what else might I want to consider. I'm at a point of struggling how to reach my target of 5mil. Some will ask why I want to reach that; because I want to jump a couple of runs on the ladder for our next home, and I've always had a passion for cars and would like to finally get in to a supercar, rather than sports car. Above all, I want to provide a future for my son who suffers from a number of disabilities that will likely impact his chances of a 'normal' life when he's an adult. My post is because I'm lacking motivation right now, and to that end am not as happy as I could be. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
+Hello all - first time posting for a DD here. Simple right to the point. I have a doctorate degree so I can look at these trials a bit easier than most people.
+
+Novan upcoming phase 3 results are due March 25th 2021. The stock is at $1.42 right now. The drug is for topical molluscum contagiosum. There are no good treatments for this.
+
+​
+
+During $NOVN last phase 3 trials for other similar drugs :
+
+December 2016, buying \~6 weeks before completion of trial results was buying $18, sell at $27 (sell a few days prior to the day the results are released.)
+
+Again in April 2017, buying the stock \~6 weeks before phase 3 results are published had you buying at $4.46 and selling at $5.90.
+
+Buy now at the \~1.4X price and plan to sell around March 20th. Should make at least 50% profit. I have done these types of trades a lot recently. I have made nice % profit doing this same thing above. I thought I would share this with you guys.
+
+Edit - link for proof of date
+https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04535531?term=Novan&draw=2&rank=1
+
+Edit - WOW.... 50% up day one. The stock still has room to go...ENJOY the moon ride.
+Why do you invest? Is it simply to make money? 
+
+Or is it something more?
+
+For me, as I grow older, I grow tired of things that used to entertain me like games and watching TV, since there are fewer things new under the sun.
+
+But as for stocks, researching and buying a stock keeps me intellectually stimulated, gives me a sense of having a greater control over my life, and yet at the same time there is enough randomness and unpredictability to it that I get a slight gambler's high watching the number go up and down.
+
+What keeps you in the game? Is it just for early retirement or that yacht? Or is there something more?
+**Live donations for the homeless!**
+
+Gloves, jackets, socks and 1500 meals donated to the homeless thanks to token holders and $HOME team!
+
+​
+
+**New NFTs released!**
+
+​
+
+**CMC and CG should be landing very soon!**
+
+​
+
+**Billboards have been payed for and will be live in the coming days!**
+
+​
+
+Media articles went live on 180 digital newspapers worldwide on Monday 🌍📰🗞 Including Market Watch, Yahoo Finance and many more 💪🏻🚀
+
+​
+
+This will bring a lot of exposure and will create a lot of FOMO, we will see huge pumps when they are up 🙏🏻💎
+
+​
+
+Stay tuned we will share with all of you the articles when they are ready and posted. ❤️
+
+​
+
+**Huge celebrity shoutout coming!**
+
+​
+
+Based and known team with some REAL big names involved. Huge promotions have already been started.
+
+​
+
+The new meme token that will not only give uncapped ROI but also contribute to help homeless humans around the world! 🌍
+
+​
+
+HomelessShiba will payout 2% reflection off every transaction to its diamond-handed holders.
+
+​
+
+☄️ The development team is experienced, honest, and will spend every penny in the marketing wallet to push this great cause project.
+
+​
+
+​
+
+By holding Homeless Shiba.. the community will contribute to helping homeless humans around the world.
+
+​
+
+​
+
+– Weekly live videos of the HomelessShiba team donating food, clothes, and opportunities to those in need.
+
+​
+
+​
+
+– Monthly ”life-changing day” with a random person in need on live video!
+
+​
+
+​
+
+✅ FIRST LIVE DONATION TOMORROW
+
+✅ 2% REFLECTIONS TO HOLDERS
+
+✅ 4% MARKETING
+
+✅ 3% DOANTIONS
+
+✅ 1% DEV WALLET
+
+✅ STEALTH LAUNCH
+
+✅ VERIFY CA
+
+✅ LIQ. LOCK
+
+✅ BILLBOARDS PAID FOR GOING UP SOON
+
+​
+
+​
+
+**Telegram :** [https://t.me/HomelessShibaOfficial](https://t.me/HomelessShibaOfficial)
+
+​
+
+**Website :** [http://www.homelessshiba.com](http://www.homelessshiba.com)
+
+​
+
+**Twitter :** Homeless Shiba ([https://twitter.com/HomelessShiba](https://twitter.com/HomelessShiba))
+On days where there is just straight selling and straight buying I have a very hard time trading with the trend. On days where it is volatile up and down I am able to time my entries and exits really well and have a great trading day. Has anyone else experienced this problem and what have you done to fix it?
+Hi. I am 24 years old and from NJ, and I am a NJ teacher making $1700 per paycheck, or about $3400 per month (this includes contributions to Roth IRA, pension, & 403b plan, but does NOT include health insurance— still under parents plan for another year). I am also living with my parents and this loan is my only bill. I currently have 40k saved just sitting in my savings account. 
+
+I have a little over 150k in student loan debt. 100k is in private loans (NJClass) which I just refinanced. This costs me 1000k per month. My other 50k is federal loans which is paused from Biden. Usually, my monthly payments are $1500, but now it is $1000 because I am only paying my private loans now.
+
+I feel like I’m stuck. Pretty much, 1 entire paycheck goes to my student loans. This makes it nearly impossible to get out of my parents house on my own. In NJ where I live, I cannot afford an apartment or a house, unless I want a run-down place and be living paycheck-to-paycheck. Even with this, I wouldn’t be able to afford other bills that come with moving out (water, electric, car insurance, etc).
+
+I can’t and don’t want to switch jobs or careers. I love being a teacher. I am not putting too much into retirement right now because I’m focusing on saving as much money as I can in my TD bank savings in case I need it (in case car breaks down, gas money, emergency fund, etc). I would really appreciate any advice. What would you do this all of these loans with my salary, and what would you do with this 40k? I’m cautious of spending the 40k in case I need it for my car/gas etc. Thank you!
+
+—I also wanted to add that I am saving a lot and definitely taking advantage of the student loan pause. Typically, I spend 1 paycheck and the other goes directly into savings. Is this a good plan?
+I'm in Halifax, so my thought here is colored by a non-Toronto market. 
+
+Our housing prices are expected to rise 4% in 2020. 
+Lets say you bought a condo that was 170K with an association fee of 330, which is an actual listing I see. 
+
+330*12 months * a 20 year term = $79,200 
+
+79,200/170,000 = 46% of your initial value was paid in fees, annualized over 20 years that's 2.3% a year of your mortgage, making your 4% gain a mere 1.7% over 20 years, which is pretty poor as asset classes go (of course, it's an asset you can live in, which is understandably different), and that's before applicable taxes which I would figure leach it down pretty close to nill or worse. 
+
+I think I did that right enough for rock and roll, is my napkin math here off?
+Hello everyone,I was wondering if someone could enlighten me with some doubts I have. I just recently started looking into the stock market,and investing. I am 23 years old,I live and work in Ireland but am from Italy,so I have a tax residency in both of these places so to speak. I would like to up my earnings little by little by investing in the market and investing in companies that  I feel strongly about. 
+
+Would you guys recommend I invest in the stock market to max my earnings or is that an illusion? 
+
+I have a stable and fairly good earning job and am very frugal about my consumption's. I am planning on starting my portfolio with 20 euro on the platform DEGIRO,because I am still very newbie and don't want to lose money. Is that a good amount to start with?
+
+​
+
+From what I've read so far ETF's are the way to go since they are more stable and safe,but they require years and years for someone to even make an earning out of it. Is there any other way to go other than ETF's after you gather a bit more of experience?
+
+Again,I just started to learn about finances and stock market so please be gentle with me haha! And if you have any educational material you'd like to share I'd be more than happy to check them out.
+
+Thank you all in advance.
+Not sure if it’s the right thread but here’s my situation: I work for an internet company and have the option to either move to London or Berlin. 
+
+Since I don’t know much about both cities, I’m looking for people having done such a move and what are their pros/cons, what they like/miss about London or Berlin
+
+About myself: 29yo, male, single, into sports and culture, love good coffee, wandering around and going out occasionally.
+ Hello, I am from NL, Europe.
+
+Recently started for myself and now looking for an online bank to manage the funds. I find it difficult to compare cause theres so much around but still not enough information.
+
+I have the requirement of my bank giving me unlimited virtual debit cards and a relatively low monthly costs
+
+Do you know something lmk please
+Hello all,
+
+I currently have some stocks. After trying out 2 investment companies (which offer different risk/reward packages for investing) and lost on both, I decided to invest myself. Did paper trading for 6 months, wished I had done it for real.
+
+A friend suggested setting up a company in Estonia for the sole purpose of trading and reinvesting gains.
+
+My goal is long term investment, I may sell some stock to buy better ones, but not "cash out", unless a business opportunity arises.
+
+I am a EU citizen, living in Germany. My initial portfolio would be 20k€.
+
+My questions:
+- should I invest privately, skip the shell corporation?
+- what platform would be best for investing. I'm looking at both European (Xetra, London SE) and US stocks (NASDAQ, NYSE)
+- any other advice a noob needs to know?
+
+Thanks.
+I see multiple stocks listed for Volkswagen.
+
+*  **VOW3.DE** 
+*  **VOW.DE** 
+*  **VLKAF** 
+*   **VWAGY** 
+
+I don't care about voting rights so I guess I should choose **VOW3.DE**  over **VOW.DE.**  The  **VLKAF**  and
+
+**VWAGY** is in US dollars. 
+
+Questions
+
+1. So does it mean that I should get **VOW3.DE** as a European? 
+2. As a general rule is it always better to buy stock from the country of origin of the company?
+3. Is Volkswagen a good buy now?
+Hi guys. I am planning to invest in ETFs (e.g VWCE) 10k, and although that might not be too much for some of you, it's money that my parents have been putting aside for me so I value it highly and it's also my first investment ever so I'm naturally cautious :) 
+
+I wonder about the safety of Degiro and Trading212 - especially in these turbulent times. Will my money be insured up to some point? Could I lose the money due to the brokers bankrupting? Simply put, are those brokers trustworthy, and is it safe to invest in them? 
+
+And finally, do you believe it's worth waiting for the US election results first? 
+
+Thank you so much :) have a wonderful day.
+Hi all, 
+Long time lurker first time poster. 
+Thanks to a commission based job, I am now sitting on cash, and this is really destroying me inside. 
+I was planning a wedding and planning on buying a house, but COVID changed all of that. 
+We’re now also expecting our first child this spring. 
+That being said, I’m hoping to access some of this cash for a down payment on a house within the next 6-12 months. 
+My question is... where do I stick that money in a low risk option for the time being? 
+
+Thanks so much!
+I am 55 years old and make ~$48k working for a state government.  I have a pension plan which I pay 4% into.  The pension is calculated with the following formula:  Final Average Pay x Multiplier (0.017) x Credited service.  I will retire in 12 years with a total of 20 years credited service.
+
+The state also has a Deferred Compensation plan (457b) in which I contribute 4% of pre-taxed dollars.  There is no contribution from the state.
+
+I want to increase the amount of money going towards retirement.  Should I just increase the amount going into my deferred compensation plan or set up some sort of separate IRA?
+
+Also I use the Acorns app that takes the change from each purchase I make and invests it.  I've been using it as sort of a savings account and at the end of each year use the money to pay off debt.  It does way better than a savings account but I'm wondering if I should continue doing this or take that money and invest it cryptocurrencies or some other investment.  Our debt consists of a mortgage and $50000 for my wifes graduate degree.
+*First time posting here, I apologize in advance if this is not the right place for this post.*
+
+**TLDR**: I've been struggling to find an appropriate financial planner (advisor? coach?) and I'm feeling so overwhelmed and frustrated by the process in general.   I feel like I'm too in-between, don't have a specific goal at present, and there isn't a readily accessible professional option to help me with my finances, but I very badly want professional help.
+
+.
+
+I do not have a portfolio.  I'm not seeking bankruptcy or buying / selling a home, or any of the other specific categories it asks for every time I try to use one of the "find a financial planner near me" things online. I don't own enough assets to qualify for the local places I've looked into (they require a portfolio of at least $1M, lol).  I've tried a robo-planner and did not like the experience.   I don't know if the debt consolidation options I've considered are scams; I don't know if I can consolidate my various types of debt.
+
+Details:
+
+I'm a cash poor 37yo medical professional (RN supervisor), currently in grad school.  On paper my salary is great; in real life, I live paycheck to paycheck. I have a lot of debt I'd like to sort out (federal and private student loans, some credit card debt, money I borrowed against a life insurance policy).  I can't make any headway on my debt and the interest is consuming me.
+
+I don't really have any assets to speak of: I don't own a home (have in the past), the stocks I have are very meager at this point (like, $1k or less, probably).  I am divorced, I do not have any dependents and no one claims me as a dependent.  I lease a vehicle.
+
+I do have a newly opened 401k, but I have no idea how any of it works or what's in there.  I keep a spreadsheet of my fixed expenses, pay my bills on time, and live within my means. I have virtually nothing in savings. My credit is dropping and I was recently denied for an $8k private loan at several institutions (FAFSA does not cover summer classes, apparently).
+
+I just don't even know where to start.  The DIY guides I've read just confuse me more and don't resonate.  I work crazy long hours and am always too pressed for time to really sort my shit out, but frankly I don't know what I'm doing.
+
+I want to talk this through with a real live, trustworthy person, to whom I am not related. My financial situation is a major stressor in my life.  Every attempt to hire someone / pay for these kinds of services ends in a dead end because I don't meet the criteria.
+
+Is there some kind of professional planner I could hire to help me?
+
+How do I find that person?
+
+Is it reasonable to pay $2k for these services? (because that seems really expensive to me and I don't have $2k, but that's about the best option I've found).
+
+Does professional help exist for someone in my situation?
+
+**Any help would be so appreciated.  Thank you for even reading this anxiety-laden cry for help.**
+
+.........
+
+**(1.9.2021) UPDATE:**  Thank you so much for the award, and for all the support and help.  I'm blown away by your kind, understanding, and knowledgeable replies.  This sub is amazing, wow!
+
+I've gotten so many great resources here, and I feel really empowered to take control of my money and get out of debt.   I think I have a plan at this point to help redirect me towards a better way of managing this.
+
+My plan of action =
+
+1. low interest balance transfer or personal loan to consolidate my debt (Sofi hopefully)
+2. analyze my actual spending habits vs. fixed costs (bills, rent, groceries) and budget more closely to avoid unnecessary spending  (The YNAB app seems great for this)
+3. educate myself and stop hiding from this (analyze my debt, read the statements and update my spreadsheet with more data + use the educational materials / resources to just learn more about finances in general)
+4. contribute to my emergency fund on a regular schedule
+5. consider part-time covid vaccine work to throw some extra money at my debt and savings
+
+I have been so intimidated by this for so very long.  I finally feel ready to face things, and I owe this to everyone here.  Really, I cannot thank you guys enough!!  I'm sure you will hear more from me as I start tackling my list, and I think hanging out around this sub is just a great way to keep learning and to get ideas.  THANK YOU ALL TIMES A MILLION!
+I would also be receiving social security retirement benefits.  
+
+I have 2 kids also want to save some money for their college but not enough to pay it all as I still want them to know the cost of their education.  
+
+I would ideally want to save to take yearly vacations with them possibly even abroad . 
+
+Please enlighten me ! Thank you
+So, I have nothing new to base this on, but I suspect that there will be either an announcement of the marketplace launch date in the PM on monday or the actual launch.  This will be followed up by announcements through the rest of the week about everything else that is being launched.  This will create an upward pressure all week going into the date of record for the splividend.  Add to that the fact that this week has a monthly options expiration (I know, I know, Options...).  However Options have a T+1 execution timeframe, so options exercised on Friday will give share by COB on the 18th, so all those shares will be assigned the splividend. 
+
+Again, I have nothing new to base any of this, but I am hyped as fuck for the next week.
+I would love some examples of what people have used their EF for recently. Since I found this sub a 2 years ago, I've followed the steps religiously and built up 6 months worth in an easy to access account, but I haven't had to use it yet (which is fantastic, don't get me wrong) but it feels like it's just money sitting there.
+
+Hearing other people's experience might be helpful!
+In March I decided to go all in and then some into GameStop.  I got a 25,000 loan and I agreed to pay 1900 a month back because I was so confident in the fundamentals of this fine company (moass, OOPS).  I spent 16000 of that buying up GME shares ( DRSED from schwab later in the year) WELL, I quit my job too and I waited, paying off my loan for 4 months because from what I KNEW...moass was imminent.  I asked the bank if I could refinance after 6 months, but instead they granted me 3 extra months of not having to pay anything.  Then I ended up having to find a way to pay that loan.  I now live in a van by the river with a 47,000 annual salary, paying off the rest of my loan.  Those shares are safely untouched thanks to my retarded diamond hands.  I have to live in this van for 6 more months to pay off that loan but I'm ready for it.  
+Edit: my rent is 600.00 
+
+
+TADR: Don't take out a loan to buy gme if you can't afford the payments.
+My Fellow Apes-
+
+I’m starting to get the feeling we’re coming up on Valhalla, and there are a few things I’d like to say before this sub, or Reddit, gets obliterated. Hopefully a few of you get the chance to read it. 
+
+Firstly, thank you. Truly. It’s been one hell of a ride and I love you all. I’m an XXX hodler with 85% of my shares currently DRS’ed. Those are set aside for the infinity pool and long term growth of the company. The remaining 15% are for the MOASS. I joined the community the first week of February 2021, in response to Vlad shutting off the buy button. I’ve been a compulsive Superstonk checker every day since the great migration, and was a frequent reader and shit-poster on the previous subs before that. Suffice to say, I’m an ape. Not sure if anyone gives a rat’s ass, but I figured I’d offer up some context.
+
+Ok, now that the background check’s complete here is why I felt compelled to write this post. In addition to being an ape I’ve also been considered what most would call a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for going on two decades; I turn 39 in a few weeks. And I’ve never felt more vindicated in my entire life. My 13 months with our favorite stock, and the light this community has shone on Wall St. corruption has FAR surpassed my tin-foilest theories, which is no small feat. I’ve read Creature From Jekyll Island and The Devils Chessboard (I highly recommend you check those out if you haven’t already) I consider myself at least fairly well versed in all things central banking, FED, dark money, deep state, etc having read dozens of books on all that nightmarish shit. I’m kind of like a less attractive Fox Mulder, who lives in his moms basement. I’ve also read The Glass Castle, House of Cards 1-3, and most of the other exemplary pieces of DD our Pomeranians and wrinkled brains have produced for us. And guess what I’ve learned - all of my crackpot theories have been proven true. More so than I was ever willing to believe. Which is why my balls are in a tight knot whenever I see ‘tinfoil’ this or ‘conspiracy theory’ that on the sub. We have seen time and again that the rich and powerful ABSOLUTELY conspire to remain rich and powerful. That term was coined by the CIA in the 60’s when too many people were digging around the Kennedy assassination. I think it’s time we retired that term. No, I don’t think the Earth is flat. 
+
+Look around the world today, what do you see? If you’re able to see through all of the media bullshit you’ll see a mass awakening is taking place. The oppressed and downtrodden are standing up to totalitarianism in every corner of the globe. They are aware of our power and continue to use their tried and true means of defense against the rising tide of peace, love, and unity. Those tactics are division and distraction. Haven’t we seen our fair share of that around here?
+
+Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, or on all things Covid, Russia/Ukraine, one thing is clear - we are divided as a people. But not here. Not us. Sure we have the occasional dispute over options v. direct registration, but in truth we’ve been a shining example of camaraderie and collectivism. A hive mind in its truest sense. As a community we achieved extraordinary things and I’m confident there’s more to come, but we must stay vigilant, we must stay skeptical, and we must remain hopeful that a brighter day is on the horizon. 
+
+The world seems to be at a critical moment. Let’s continue to be an example of the best humanity has to offer. Even if we never reach the moon I’m so proud I was a part of this movement. Best job I ever had. Oh, and we’re reaching the fucking moon- I hear launch is today actually. If not, tomorrow 🚀 
+
+Safe Travels, 
+Your old friend Sisyphus
+
+Edit: Overwhelmed by all the love and discussion this post has sparked. I truly love this community. 
+
+To the few shill-bags telling me I hyped a date, and I’m just another ‘Trust me Bro’ I’d like to point out my closing sentiments were tongue in cheek. Kind of.
+My Fellow Apes-
+
+I’m starting to get the feeling we’re coming up on Valhalla, and there are a few things I’d like to say before this sub, or Reddit, gets obliterated. Hopefully a few of you get the chance to read it. 
+
+Firstly, thank you. Truly. It’s been one hell of a ride and I love you all. I’m an XXX hodler with 85% of my shares currently DRS’ed. Those are set aside for the infinity pool and long term growth of the company. The remaining 15% are for the MOASS. I joined the community the first week of February 2021, in response to Vlad shutting off the buy button. I’ve been a compulsive Superstonk checker every day since the great migration, and was a frequent reader and shit-poster on the previous subs before that. Suffice to say, I’m an ape. Not sure if anyone gives a rat’s ass, but I figured I’d offer up some context.
+
+Ok, now that the background check’s complete here is why I felt compelled to write this post. In addition to being an ape I’ve also been considered what most would call a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for going on two decades; I turn 39 in a few weeks. And I’ve never felt more vindicated in my entire life. My 13 months with our favorite stock, and the light this community has shone on Wall St. corruption has FAR surpassed my tin-foilest theories, which is no small feat. I’ve read Creature From Jekyll Island and The Devils Chessboard (I highly recommend you check those out if you haven’t already) I consider myself at least fairly well versed in all things central banking, FED, dark money, deep state, etc having read dozens of books on all that nightmarish shit. I’m kind of like a less attractive Fox Mulder, who lives in his moms basement. I’ve also read The Glass Castle, House of Cards 1-3, and most of the other exemplary pieces of DD our Pomeranians and wrinkled brains have produced for us. And guess what I’ve learned - all of my crackpot theories have been proven true. More so than I was ever willing to believe. Which is why my balls are in a tight knot whenever I see ‘tinfoil’ this or ‘conspiracy theory’ that on the sub. We have seen time and again that the rich and powerful ABSOLUTELY conspire to remain rich and powerful. That term was coined by the CIA in the 60’s when too many people were digging around the Kennedy assassination. I think it’s time we retired that term. No, I don’t think the Earth is flat. 
+
+Look around the world today, what do you see? If you’re able to see through all of the media bullshit you’ll see a mass awakening is taking place. The oppressed and downtrodden are standing up to totalitarianism in every corner of the globe. They are aware of our power and continue to use their tried and true means of defense against the rising tide of peace, love, and unity. Those tactics are division and distraction. Haven’t we seen our fair share of that around here?
+
+Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, or on all things Covid, Russia/Ukraine, one thing is clear - we are divided as a people. But not here. Not us. Sure we have the occasional dispute over options v. direct registration, but in truth we’ve been a shining example of camaraderie and collectivism. A hive mind in its truest sense. As a community we achieved extraordinary things and I’m confident there’s more to come, but we must stay vigilant, we must stay skeptical, and we must remain hopeful that a brighter day is on the horizon. 
+
+The world seems to be at a critical moment. Let’s continue to be an example of the best humanity has to offer. Even if we never reach the moon I’m so proud I was a part of this movement. Best job I ever had. Oh, and we’re reaching the fucking moon- I hear launch is today actually. If not, tomorrow 🚀 
+
+Safe Travels, 
+Your old friend Sisyphus
+
+Edit: Overwhelmed by all the love and discussion this post has sparked. I truly love this community. 
+
+To the few shill-bags telling me I hyped a date, and I’m just another ‘Trust me Bro’ I’d like to point out my closing sentiments were tongue in cheek. Kind of.
+TL;DR — I'll show you that it's mathematically impossible (under some assumptions, of course) that LUNA's price will go back up to its' glorious days again.
+
+​
+
+# Let's do some meth—umm I meant math!
+
+There are some important assumptions we need to make. This mini-analysis assumes that:
+
+* UST will be pegged back to around USD $1.00, and
+* LUNA (and Do Kwon) can **fully** gain investors' trusts, and
+* LUNA tokens won't be burned significantly to its' supply on March-April when it was trading for more than USD $100 per LUNA (very unlikely, which is why I put this as an assumption).
+
+​
+
+**Goal**: we want to calculate the minimum price of LUNA that is needed to get to its' market cap at ATH ($116/LUNA), considering the current supply of LUNA or May 20, 2022's circulating supply.
+
+​
+
+# Step 1: Recall that Market Cap (in cryptocurrencies) is calculated by the following:
+
+    MC [$] = Circulating Supply [tokens] * Price per token [$/token]
+
+​
+
+# Step 2: We want to calculate LUNA's market cap when it was at ATH.
+
+2a) According to the data from [messari.io](https://messari.io)... On April 4, 2022: LUNA's circulating supply was 353 million tokens.
+
+[April 4, 2022: LUNA was trading at USD $116.43 with 353 million tokens circulating.](https://preview.redd.it/7sycpgd3qp091.png?width=1296&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f32ad9f9f6cabe43f7c8547a2725aec6d6587d6)
+
+2b) Using the equation from ***Step 1***, Market Cap (MC) on April 4, 2022 is then the following:
+
+    MC @ April 4 [$] = 353,128,511 * 116.43
+
+2c) Plug it into your favorite calculator and you get:
+
+[Market Cap of LUNA at ATH \($116.43\/LUNA\) on April 4, 2022 = $41,114,752,536](https://preview.redd.it/bxghece5qp091.png?width=1292&format=png&auto=webp&s=89fa01fc3253b68d42bd0dd638d021298e5b13bc)
+
+​
+
+# Step 3: Let's calculate how much LUNA's supply jumped by, from April 4 to May 20.
+
+3a) On May 20, 2022, LUNA went to the moon... in terms of its' circulating supply. It had 6.53 trillion LUNAs circulating.
+
+[May 20, 2022: LUNA was trading at a fraction of a cent with 6.53 trillion tokens circulating.](https://preview.redd.it/4tkomr50rp091.png?width=1236&format=png&auto=webp&s=8327e2ffb7df78e92f7b98c77abb5cd0ddbbd18a)
+
+3b) We want to calculate the number of times LUNA's circulating supply jumped by between May 20 and April 4:
+
+    Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by = Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens] / Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens]
+
+3c) Substitute in the variables and the equation becomes...
+
+    Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by = 6,533,856,234,794 / 353,128,511
+
+3d) Plug them numbers into a calculator and we get:
+
+[Luna has 18,502 times MORE tokens in circulation in May 20 compared to April 4!](https://preview.redd.it/nlr76o1erp091.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=74e925e00129b585bab5fa2e513904fa13a7e641)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+# Step 4: Get the answer to our goal — the minimum price per LUNA needed to get to the market cap at ATH, which was when LUNA was about $116 per token.
+
+4a) Let's not forget our Market Cap equation back from ***Step 1***. If we are to translate our ***Goal*** into a mathematical equation, we'd get the following:
+
+    MC @ April 4 [$] = Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens] * Price per LUNA [$/token]
+
+4b) Let's re-arrange the equation so we can understand the ***Goal*** better:
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens]
+
+>**Goal**: we want to calculate the minimum price of LUNA that is needed to get to its' market cap at ATH ($116/LUNA), considering the current supply of LUNA or May 20, 2022's circulating supply.
+
+4c) In order to use our answer from ***Step 3d***, we can think of the equation above as this:
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / (Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by from April 4 to May 20 * Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens])
+
+Which is
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / (18,502 * Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens])
+
+4d) Plug in the numbers using our answer from ***Step 2c*** and the information from ***Step 2a***...
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = 41,114,752,536 / (18,502 * 353,128,511)
+
+4e) Grab your lovely calculator again...
+
+[Price per LUNA needed to get to the market cap at ATH on April 4, 2022 = $0.0063\/token](https://preview.redd.it/kvpkcawesp091.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=4347df9934c4964b28d640321ab4c397ce717660)
+
+​
+
+# 
+
+# Conclusion
+
+It won't even get to $1 per LUNA.
+
+Okay okay, since you insist. Let's math it again. Suppose LUNA gets to $1 today, that means the market cap of LUNA becomes:
+
+    MC [$] = Circulating Supply of LUNA @ May 20 [tokens] * Price per LUNA [$/token]
+
+Plug in the numbers from ***Step 3a***:
+
+    MC [$] = 6,533,856,234,794 * 1
+
+And you don't even need a calculator to get:
+
+[Market Cap of LUNA, if it were to get to $1 per LUNA = $6.53 trillion](https://preview.redd.it/3tyg6xinsp091.png?width=1586&format=png&auto=webp&s=172937730d5aeb1df8ce646deeaaf86244d3e9ba)
+
+Thus, LUNA's market cap would be much bigger than BTC... **and the entire cryptocurrency market cap**.
+
+​
+
+***Cheers y'all, have a great rest of the week!🍻***
+My mom and dad both come from generational wealth that pretty much dried up in the last decade or so. I grew up in a modest house and our cars were always used but we were upper middle class. I received my inheritance and bought a restaurant in may, 2008, just before the economy tanked. I lost over $235k in the following two years just trying to keep it open (I signed a bad owner finance contract). I was 23 at the time and became a father of 2 sons in that same time frame and their mother basically left me to raise them on my own when they were babies. I have absolutely struggled since then to provide a stabile home for my boys and I am ashamed at my financial situation. I’m 38 now with no savings, no investments, and no assets besides an old beat up work truck. My credit isn’t terrible and I don’t really have any credit card debt but I’m a giant ball of anxiety pretty much daily when I think about money. 
+Thank god for my wife who was able to buy a house and put a down payment. I make our mortgage and pay the utilities with the money I make as a contractor but it’s very much feast or famine in this very small midwestern American town. I work 50-60 hrs a week and I set my own rates but there’s just not ever enough money to actually start to save. 
+ Now with the holidays here I know my kids will get lots of great presents from their grandparents and other wealthy family members but I feel like such a failure because yet again I am scraping up pennies to just get some stocking stuffers. My constant stress about money is starting to take a toll on my marriage and I’m beyond ready for a change. 
+To be completely honest, I’m just terrible with money. I get chunks of money and try to hide it from myself as a sort of “savings stash” but when a big job goes too long or a repair has to be made or a tool breaks, I inevitably end up depleting it to stay afloat. My power has been shut off 3 times this year, cell phone twice, and ran out of propane this summer just because I forgot to pay the bills. 
+Is there some kind of service or professional I could hire to help me manage money or even just do it all for me and give me an allowance? My wife and I keep finances separate because I seemingly have a curse on me and she won’t help. I am in desperate need of an accountant but I don’t think I can afford one for the level of help I need. I know I need therapy but we don’t have insurance. I want to be better more than anything but it’s like my brain is broken when it comes to money. 
+
+Somebody please point me in the right direction.
+
+Edit: thank you all for your time and generous advice. I’m grateful for this community and I look forward to implementing some new thinking first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll be seeking a mentor and creating a solid budget tomorrow as I re-read through all of this wonderful advice. Good night.
+What are your thoughts? This stock continues to rally despite the market dips we've seen recently, and after this huge earnings it looks like theres more momentum. We saw a huge sell off before earnings and it quickly bounced back after the unexpected huge beat. Ticker symbol $MP. 
+
+[https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/mp-materials-quarterly-profit-jumps-on-rising-rare-earths-prices-2021-03-18](https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/mp-materials-quarterly-profit-jumps-on-rising-rare-earths-prices-2021-03-18)
+Not financial advice, this is barely even maths.
+
+It’s been 102 days since the Jan 29 spike. If they calculated 100 days to shake off retail investors, we’re barely over that.
+
+No new info, I just wanted to bring some attention to the 100-day period since they probably used that metric for risk management.
+
+Buy if you can. Hodlin costs nothing. Voting is your right.
+Life has been so much better since I started using NBDB and Disnat. The $0 fee to buy/sell equities has been one of the best gift I have received recently. I can buy even small quantities and DCA every other day if I want and have the cash. 
+
+The worst part is that I am finding it impossible to pull the trigger in  TD Web/BMO/RBC DI?. Can't justify paying $10 if I want to buy 5 stocks of [BNS.to](https://BNS.to), or a single share of VOO or 10 shares of Jepi. The market being down close to 25%, now seems like a good time to invest but I just cant get over the $10 fee.  And I am in no mood to buy more quantity to bring down transaction cost per share simply because good stocks are still very expensive. I am least interested in counting trades per month to get so called active trader status. Been there, done that.
+
+Hence the question -   is there any benefit in keep using expensive brokerages like TD Web/BMO/RBC DI? What are you guys doing?
+Hey guys.
+
+I am a new house-hacker and investor who has two roommates, one of which loves the property, jokes about buying the house from me, and even wants to extend his lease out for 2 years when he renews his originally 6 month lease; here in about a month. He's gardening, and looking to settle down in the house when I move out. He wants to be in the house when I rent it out fully, and again has also mentioned (not sure of how serious he is) wanting to buy the property when I do move out. So all good signs that he'll be here awhile and will be good on his rent (not that I see an issue with that with him).
+
+The kitchen needs remodeling. Fridge is leaking and missing parts from previous owner (I purchased this house back in May 2021 and it came with the house) The dishwasher doesn't dry and is beaten to all hell. The oven is also beaten to hell, I'm surprised it still works, but it's absolutely disgusting and uncleanable. There's also a bunch of other minor stuff (garbage disposal stopped working, cabinets are messed up, loads of minor cosmetic issues adding up to a big mess). All of the cabinets are deteriorating and need replacement. So therefore, in my head, it's time for a complete remodel.
+
+He is willing to go 50/50 with me on the kitchen to get nicer appliances (Hell yeah dude, I won't stop you) but is looking for some sort of security on his investment of going 50/50. He will be able to give me a grand now, and wants to make monthly payments back to me to pay for the rest (Which I'm cool with, because I could use the cashflow, and I know he's good for it).
+
+His biggest concern is that he will dump all of this money into a kitchen, and not have any written guarantee that he gets to get use out of it... I would have the same worry myself if I were in his shoes.
+
+So on that note:
+
+TLDR; What would you recommend me proposing to him as a way to protect his 50/50 investment into a brand new kitchen?
+So my wife and I found the house we liked and put in an offer that got accepted. At that point I already had a pre approval letter from Bank1 with a rate I was not happy about. I checked with Bank2 and they were going to do 4.1%. I went to Bank3 the next day. Rates seemed to be better. I got 4% with $500 towards closing. I called Bank4 that day and told them the offer from Bank3 and they locked us in at 3.8 with 1.7 points that they will cover at closing. This is amazing news. 
+Just wanted to share. That all this is negotiable and can save you hundreds per month depending on the loan amount. 
+The latest one (3 hours ago) which holds the top spot on google for a gme news search is titled ["Baird suspends GameStop stock coverage, citing continued Reddit influence and lack of company plan"](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/28/baird-suspends-gamestop-stock-coverage-reddit-influence-lack-of-plan.html) RESIST CLICKING IT!
+
+Remember what they did during the US Congressional hearing!
+
+Ordeal Summary:
+
+>- [**Here**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2DU6DXfGPM&t=2h32m25s) **is a link to the CNBC coverage** - 2 seconds - before the moment the video has a jump cut.
+
+>- [**Here**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imRzHXRq80I&t=2h37m32s) **is a link to the source Government live stream** with the missing 10 minutes and 18 seconds starting where the CNBC video cuts off. The edit was made between timestamps 2:37:34 and 2:47:52.
+
+>- [Side-by-side videos playing simultaneously for comparison](https://np.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m7vbli/video_proof_cnbc_edited_the_hearing_to_protect/)
+
+
+>- [**Here**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2DU6DXfGPM&t=2h32m25s) is a direct youtube clip with the missing CNBC footage.
+
+
+>- [**Here**](https://youtu.be/NkFyy-5MGSM) is the full context to what is being talked about in the beginning. **Is Citadel Too Big To Fail?"** Of course I put the Jojo meme at the end.
+
+>Conjecture & Hypothetical Analysis: Now, if this were to have occurred on purpose during the live feed, there would need to be complaints of an interuption in the CNBC live stream feed, and people watching have reported on reddit that this occurred. 
+
+
+>Allegedly, if CNBC did this live, then, hypothetically speaking, they would need to use a staggered start in order to maintain a buffer and then someone on the kill switch. A combination may have also been possible.
+I know this is going to sound like a dumb question but why is Ethereum so popular as a crypto currency? It has ridiculous fees attached to it making pretty much every transaction expensive. Again sorry for the potentially stupid question but I just don't get why it is so widely held and wanted by people?
+OK, I was trying to explain how option prices move today and I realized I don't entirely understand it because I'm dumb.
+
+On the one hand, the Greeks tell you how the price will move as the asset price moves. If Delta is .5, then for every $1 the asset price moves, the option price will 50 cents.
+
+On the other hand, the option is only worth what someone will buy it for. So, the price of the option you see on the screen is the midpoint between the bid and ask.
+
+OK, so....what actually moves the price? The movement of the asset price or the movement of the bid/ask of the option?
+
+Here's an example to illustrate my confusion. Say stock XYZ is trading at $100, and a call is listed as $2.00. It's low volume with a couple of bids showing as $1.90 and a couple of asks showing as $2.10. Delta is showing as .5.
+
+Now XYZ goes up $1 to $101. According to the Greeks, the price should now be $2.50, right? But what if nobody changes their bid or ask price - the price will still be the midpoint ($2), right? Which determines the real price?
+
+Thanks!
+We’re earlier stage than most of the other startups in the London branch of the accelerator, and one of the few focused on consumer tech, but we still graduated with the keynote speech at their pitch event! Needless to say we're incredibly excited, and the feedback we got from the post we did on here was instrumental in the development especially at ironing out any bugs the model, which is not surprising considering the level of knowledge that hangs around this sub :) 
+
+In addition to the [Homefinder](https://lifetise.com/homefinder?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Thankyou&utm_content=ukpersonalfinance) app that tells you the numbers to plug into Rightmove and Zoopla, we’re building a ‘life planning platform’ to help people afford the big financial decisions in their lives, including a tool for [Childcare costs](https://lifetise.com/childminder?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Thankyou&utm_content=ukpersonalfinance).
+
+Thanks again everyone :)
+I went to Consensus this week, and it sucked. By far the worst crypto conference I’ve been to. The networking was fine. Here’s why the actual conference sucked:    
+    
+1. Talks were superficial, and they didn’t seem to know who their audience was. Sorry folks, normies are gone. Speak to your core enthusiasts.    
+
+2. The whole presentation vibe was, let’s bend over backward for bankers and discuss how we’re going to do it. I get that it’s in nyc, but come on. If the suits are here, let’s discuss using their money to lobby congress in favor of crypto instead of shorting the market.    
+
+3. Presenters rehashed cliche after cliche, “muh 90% of icos will fail.” Instead of delving into the fundamental problems facing crypto (real world usage by the average joe, scalability, centralization).    
+
+Not to mention how disorganized everything was.    
+    
+It was embarrassing for crypto. The market spoke.
+
+Im not joking.  This is not a troll.  We know there have been countless pie in the sky "investors" in BTC over the past couple of days.  Shit Ive read more than one comment about how we've got college kids taking STUDENT LOANS to buy bitcoin when it was at 150+.  There is no way more than one person wont kill themselves over this.  Might as well make the info known to maybe save a life or two.
+
+I know this will get downvoted into oblivion by the bitcoin religious nuts who think this currency will change the world - because they fear it will only make BTC look bad or make it lose value - tough shit.
+**EDIT**: Yes, I forgot to factor dividends. Factoring dividends your annualized real return would have been roughly 2%. I will also add that another point this highlights is the importance of DCA, which a lot of people have pointed out in the comments. And finally, people seem to think I'm advocating not being in the S&P, or trying to time the market, or something else. Not at all. I just think this time period highlights that (a) uncertainty/risk is very real in financial markets and (b) there are basic steps you can take to defend against that uncertainty.
+
+In September 2000, the S&P 500 peaked around the 1500 level. Now, 15 years later it's been hovering around 2000-2100 for about 6 months. That's a total return of about 39%. Counting reinvested dividends your total return would have been ~88%. But inflation would have eaten about 37% of that. If you annualize that difference and factor in fees and taxes, your real return would have been pretty close ~~to 0%.~~ to 2% annualized.
+
+I don't necessarily have a specific point with this post. I was just fiddling around with an S&P 500 chart and this was something that struck me (and I do know that picking the peak of the 2000 bubble is cherry-picking). But I still think it highlights a few important things. First, the importance of *real* diversification. The S&P 500 does not represent true diversification. There are so many other countries and so many other asset classes. The more *truly* diversified you are, the less likely you are to be exposed to such poor returns. 
+
+Second, I think it highlights the importance of being realistic about future returns. What kind of real returns are you counting on? What are those expectations based on? Should you actually be saving more? Some people have realistic expectations, but I definitely see a lot of people on this sub extrapolating based on the past 5-6 years, which is bound to lead to disappointment.
+
+Lastly, I think it's important to be really being honest with yourself about time horizons. If you have money in equities, what is it for? Is it actually money that's got a multiple-decades-long time horizon? Or is it money that you have parked in the market because you think the returns will help you buy a house in 5 years?
+$SAFEMARS
+
+​
+
+UNRUGGABLE: LP tokens burned, presale remaining tokens burned (see tx hashes below)
+
+WEBSITE: [https://www.safemarscrypto.com/](https://www.safemarscrypto.com/)
+
+BUY: [https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?inputCurrency=0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88](https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?inputCurrency=0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88)
+
+GRAPH/USD: [https://goswappcharts.web.app/?isbsc=true&tokenId=0x3aD9594151886Ce8538C1ff615EFa2385a8C3A88](https://goswappcharts.web.app/?isbsc=true&tokenId=0x3aD9594151886Ce8538C1ff615EFa2385a8C3A88)
+
+GRAPH/BNB: [https://unidexbeta.app/bscCharting?token=0x3aD9594151886Ce8538C1ff615EFa2385a8C3A88](https://unidexbeta.app/bscCharting?token=0x3aD9594151886Ce8538C1ff615EFa2385a8C3A88)
+
+TELEGRAM: [https://t.me/safemars](https://t.me/safemars)
+
+​
+
+This is a COMMUNITY GOVERNED token! After launch we will:
+
+\- have regular votes where the community decides the direction
+
+\- LP tokens will be burned
+
+\- community contributions are encouraged, let's take this to Mars together!
+
+​
+
+RFI + LIQ
+
+We're gonna make everyone's (trading) life easier by lowering the fees:
+
+♻2% of all trades are redistributed to holders
+
+2% of all trades are auto-locked inside liquidity provider on PancakeSwap
+
+​
+
+So make sure to set slippage to 5%
+
+Fair launch: Initially there will be a max tx amount of 5 000 000 000 000 SAFEMARS (or 0.5 BNB at listing price)
+
+​
+
+Manual Burns & Buy-Backs
+
+​
+
+Total supply: 1 000 000 000 000 000
+
+Presale: 200 000 000 000 000 (1 BNB = 10 000 000 000 000)
+
+Liquidity: 18 BNB + 180 000 000 000 000 (same listing price as presale)
+
+​
+
+Contract address: [https://bscscan.com/address/0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88](https://bscscan.com/address/0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88)
+
+Token address: [https://bscscan.com/token/0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88](https://bscscan.com/token/0x3ad9594151886ce8538c1ff615efa2385a8c3a88)
+
+LP tokens burned: [https://bscscan.com/tx/0x6f4dec72265cda0acbc056d9bf2c19cdc182c873b48fd8329a9f9201c477e829](https://bscscan.com/tx/0x6f4dec72265cda0acbc056d9bf2c19cdc182c873b48fd8329a9f9201c477e829)
+
+Remaining tokens after presale burned: [https://bscscan.com/tx/0xbcd9961aae5f68798632dc05f860a60e29e7750137c07166ec16c1b6e08e8a88](https://bscscan.com/tx/0xbcd9961aae5f68798632dc05f860a60e29e7750137c07166ec16c1b6e08e8a88)
+
+​
+
+Roadmap:
+
+✅ Presale completed (reduced hardcap by 60% on community vote)
+
+✅ Fair launch with buy limit
+
+✅ LP tokens burned (liquidity locked FOREVER)
+
+✅ 53% remaining tokens BURNED (circ supply reduced in half)
+
+✅ Unirocket bot
+
+✅ Website and Twitter launch
+
+✅ Applied for Coingecko ⌛️ (waiting for listing)
+
+✅ Applied for Coinmarketcap ⌛️ (waiting for listing)
+
+✅ Marketing (ongoing)
+
+🟡 Apply to list on exchanges
+
+🟡 New platform extensions
+
+🟡 Website redesign
+
+🟡 More marketing efforts
+
+🟡 New community votes (e.g. changing taxes!)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+It is very early on this one. No website yet, but dev on telegram seems ok. DYOR as always.
+I’d never heard of this until I watched a Netflix show.  (Netflix: Connected; season 1 - Digits)
+
+If your unfamiliar with it, it’s this: 
+In any collection of random numbers,
+30% will begin with the the number 1, 
+17% will begin with the number 2,
+12.5% will begin with the number 3,
+And, less than 5% for the number 9
+
+Whereas “equal randomness” would presume an equal distribution of 11% per number. 
+
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law
+
+Once I came to terms with this law existing, the next thing I thought was how can I make money from this? 
+
+National tax collectors (the IRS will not confirm or deny they use it) determine if someone’s returns need closer inspection if it fails Benford’s. 
+
+Someone also checked Enrons figures after they collapsed and said Benford’s law if applied to Enrons accounting would have raised a flag. It’s also been used to detect deep fakes and photoshoped images.  
+
+I know checking for cooked books is not part of this thread’s mission, but I was trying to come up with some way to use it in trading and I don’t have anything.
+
+Anyone have any thoughts on how this could be used?
+Hey there, intro thread! I'm new here. 
+
+My partner and I both work in tech in SF, but we moved to Florida, a no tax state since covid. My networth became liquid during the Airbnb IPO recently, and we both have an IPO this year as well. All in all our NW will be in the 5-10M range. Exciting!
+
+We are in our low 30s, no debt, no real estate yet and no kids (and not planning till 35). We both actually like our jobs. It's good to feel like you are producing value, and when you have a bad day you can always think about your networth and feel like you care a whole lot less :)
+
+I'm wondering what everyone is thinking about next when they are in this spot? How do they think about their life, career and next steps? 
+
+Currently, we are thinking about settling in Florida and working remotely. Enjoy the state tax free setup and great lifestyle while still earning tech salaries. What's the local VC network like? And which neighorbourhoods do like-minded people generally reside in?
+Thanks to to all that read this. 
+
+About a year ago, I gave the proceeds of a home sale to a ScotiaBank advisor while I was out of country. My criteria was a safe holding spot for a year or two but hopefully with some returns that beat inflation. There was a chance I would need the money for a real estate purchase within that timeframe. 
+
+He maxed out my TFSA (with Scotia Partners Balanced Income Portfolio mutualities finds) and put the rest in non registered mutual funds (Scotia Partners Balanced Income Portfolio Class). I also have some RRSPs in ScotiaBank that were from before the sale. 
+
+I should note that he forgot to actually buy the funds for the TFSA, leaving $50k+ in cash until I noticed a month later, then used it to purchase more non registered mutual funds instead. A month later I was reviewing and realized what he had done. He then sold the mutual funds (I had to realize a small capital gain here) and bought them again in the TFSA. Ok he made a mistake, no problem. 
+
+Slowly, due to the website lacking even the most basic information on how my funds were doing compared to book value and a recognition that he was full of talk and slow to respond to even the simplest requests (like how much I should expect to receive in dividends per year), I started to get angry. 
+
+Using the statements of the purchases, I had to create a spreadsheet that showed how much they were making vs how much I had made. I found that that ScotiaBank made as much as I did in this 16 months. 
+
+I sent him an email explaining my frustration and a request that he find a way to satisfy my need for information on a regular basis to which he didn’t respond. 
+
+I then sent another email asking him to liquidate all the funds and sent the cash to my TD account. He called and had a little tantrum on the phone and I hung up on him. 
+
+That day he liquidated the non registered but didn’t touch the TFSA or RRSP. So I still have about half of the funds in Scotia with this childish person and he is withholding any advice on getting the money out properly. 
+
+I have a few questions for anyone able to give me some advice. 
+
+1. How do I get the TFSA money to my self directed?  Either sell to cash, then move the cash to my self directed? Or is there a way to bring it into TD without a sale? If a sale is necessary, why didn’t he liquidate it when asked?
+
+2. My RRSPs. Kind of the same question but I know there are tax consequences  so this can be transferred in kind? My understanding is that the request has to come from the destination bank so how do I get this to my self directed?
+
+Cheers!
+
+Hey guys, I want to shift the tone from "dip vs crash" and "xbal vs xEQt" posts. I am looking to hear about people's risker stock picks. Is there certain industries or emerging markets that have a potential bright future? 
+
+My pick is HURA, I feel like nuclear has a huge potential to help with future energy problems. With advancements into adoption, SMRs, and diamond batteries perhaps this pick will payoff.
+ENB & BIG5 are the best yielding and safest dividend plays on the TSX right now 6-7%.
+
+Why did you buy that 8%+ yielding stock? 
+What makes you so sure that it won't be reduced or cut? 
+
+This post is brought to you by: FOMO 👍
+
+
+
+Please only comment if you're seriously invested (10%+  portfolio)
+I think it is very clear it has literally no impact whatsoever. For apes that have been around for a while, this isn’t news. But can we stop taking about ‘hitting it’ or hyping it. 
+
+Let’s face it, until there are actual laws or regulations upheld against the hedgies, the present ones do not stop them from doing whatever the fuck they want to the stock.
+EDIT: Voting is closed. I took screen shots and will post the selected stocks here tomorrow morning
+
+EDIT: [Here is the list](http://i.imgur.com/dtkOLM5.png). The highlighted ones are in.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Hey, 
+
+I have a tonne of time to kill this week and was looking to occupy it with some stocks to value. 
+
+Rather than do it just for me, I thought I would value stocks that /r/investing wanted. 
+
+**The proposal:**
+
+- Post the company you would like valued. Others vote it up or down. 
+- The 10 companies that have the most votes by end of day Monday (11:59pm EST on August 3, 2015) are the ones I will value.
+- I'll post the results of each valuation in a separate thread by the end of this week for everyone to judge.
+
+**Rules:**
+
+- No penny stocks
+- No pre-revenue companies 
+- Less popular is better. I'm not sure what value I can add by being the 10 millionth person to value Apple or Tesla or IBM. Go beyond the "big boys". It'll be more interesting that way. [READ THIS](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/3fk5u9/i_have_time_to_kill_what_stock_do_you_want_valued/ctpo1ov) & [THIS](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/3fk5u9/i_have_time_to_kill_what_stock_do_you_want_valued/ctpo82v)
+- No Resource stocks. They are reliant on commodity prices and that is something I don't feel comfortable projecting out into the future. But I can take a pass at it if people want
+
+**My Promise:**
+
+- Complete Objectivity. I will use only that which I can objectively justify with data as far as possible
+- Full transparency. I'll post all my assumptions, thought processes and sources and I'll be around to answer any questions
+- A Comfort Rating. I'll rate each valuation from 1 to 5 to illustrate how comfortable I am with the numbers that went into it. For example, a valuation of ConEd would get 4 or 5 because it is easy to know most things about that company great accuracy. it's revenues and margins are regulated and not much is going to change about its market
+
+Hope this is something people are interested in. 
+
+
+EDIT: grammar, many missing words and a re-wording to make things succinct 
+
+EDIT 2: I have no way to police this, but no vote manipulation okay? play nice
+
+**EDIT 3: Foreign companies are welcome as long as they have filings in English!** I can read some french and italian but it'd be a mess
+
+EDIT 4: I am silently judging all of you on your comment histories. Some of you are fucked up
+I’ve lurked here for a bit trying to determine if this is the right forum for me. 
+
+Not sure what the thresholds are, I certainly don’t make anywhere near some of the sums I’ve heard on here. 
+
+My networth is just shy of $4m (depending on how the NASDAQ feels). Most of my holdings is RE which returns a post expense cash flow of $120k/year. 
+
+I make another $140k from a tech job and consulting gigs (midwest pay). 
+
+I'm LCOL and hoping to FIRE within the next year which would drop the $140k tech job to about $40k. But over time, the $120k from RE will grow as more properties are paid off. 
+
+My cash burn rate is $50k/yr. Primary residence paid off. 
+
+So, is this simply just FIRE? If it is, I’m totally ok with that. 
+
+Edited: Cash burn is $50k
+Shiba Inu is on Coinbase. WHY?!!? There are so many other projects - ERGO, NANO, LUNA, FLOW, etc etc etc that are solid projects with huge potential and Coinbase is thinking.... NAH, give me the one with 1 QUADRILLION coins because it has a puppy dog on it. All these actual world changing coins sitting in limbo waiting for the masses to turn eyes to it, and Coinbase is playing games, helping people throw their money away. Does Coinbase even share their selection process and why they choose the coins that they do? Because the fact that Doge and Shiba Inu exist on Coinbase before dozens of other real projects is truly disheartening.
+I have been working in the Bay Area for 20 years. Slowly worked my way up in tech. Bay Area middle class. Starting to think about retirement but stressed that I have not made enough to be able to retire and travel the world with my retirement income. Planning to live on my investment income starting age 55. 
+TC 700K (including RSU vesting). NW 6M hopefully will bring that up to 8M by the time I retire.
+[BBC Article](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-53666535)
+
+Nationwide are temporarily capping gifted deposits to 25% of a buyer's deposit for 5% and 10% deposit mortgages. People taking out these mortgages must prove they have saved 75% of the deposit themselves.
+
+They are the only bank to do this so far; others may follow suit. Nationwide will keep this decision under review.
+
+What are everyone's thoughts on this?
+So today has been one of Those Days. The day where everything just kinda goes to crap. My kid woke up sick, but I was scheduled to work, come in early at 7 am to do a re-organization of the store. Made sure my mom (my childcare) knew. Mom admits daughter probably got it from her friends coming over and stuff. Alright that sucks. Drop daughter off, head to work. I'm an assistant manager for a retail chain. Had customers get shitty with me because the person who closed last night didn't re-arrange the clearance racks and stuff that actually wasn't on clearance got put there and yadda yadda. Nothing new when you work in retail hell. 
+
+But our district manager made a surprise visit today. No warning. Well shit. Turns my store manager's mood into a sour one. At one point, I'm ringing up a customer and my DM is standing behind me, watching the transaction. I offer the customer our store credit card, tell them they can save 25% off this purchase if they apply for this insane card that has an 18% APR and just isn't worth it. Customer says no. At the end of the transaction, I ask again because I can feel my DM's eyes staring a hole in the back of my head. Get a glare from the customer and they answer no, again. Finish the transaction, bag their stuff and go on to the next customer. District manager pulls me away from the cash wrap and verbally berates me. Tells me I didn't "follow protocol" by getting 3 "No's" from the customer. Tells me that i will be receiving a write up because I'm not following the training properly. Greaaaaat. 
+
+Once my DM leaves, the store manager comes into the back while I'm on my 15 (and on the phone with my mom. Trying to see how my kid is doing) and snaps at me for making the "store look bad in front of the DM". I didn't say anything back, took the feedback and told my SM I'd do better. I understand the whole store credit card spiel but even my store manager hates doing it - she just has to do it because it's required for her.
+
+Clock out, thinking well its been a crap day. My girl is sick. Let me surprise her with a Happy Meal.  It's a rare treat, because we eat out maybe once a month and it's off the value meal. I order my kiddo a happy meal and get myself the little $3 bundle that's a cheeseburger and fries. I specifically tell the worker at McDonald's to make sure my burger has no onions. I can't stomach them, I get super sick and throw up later. Even says on the receipt that I asked for no onions. 
+
+Pick up my kiddo, my mom tells me I "look like shit" and gives me crap because my daughter threw up all over her rug. Sigh. Alright mom. I tell her to let me know what she wants me to do about it and she doesn't give an answer, just keeps going on and on about how she could barely stand to clean up after my kid. 
+
+Get home and give my kiddo her happy meal. She's super excited and happy. I take a bite of my cheeseburger and there's fucking onions on it. Dammit. I scrape off what I can but I was also super hungry and at that moment, just wanted to eat. Now I'm paying for it because my stomach is killing me and I'm cramping. 
+
+Just one of those days. Payday is next Thursday and I have just enough gas to get back and forth to work and the food bank next week. I was trying to do something nice for my kiddo. But I'm not gonna lie, I cried over McD messing up my burger. I spent less than $10 total but now I'm like well fuck that money could have been used for something else. It will be okay in the end. My daughter was happy with her treat and is feeling better, so I know that's all that matters but dammit McDonald's, you suck today.
+[https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/13/inflation-rose-0point1percent-in-august-even-with-sharp-drop-in-gas-prices.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/13/inflation-rose-0point1percent-in-august-even-with-sharp-drop-in-gas-prices.html)
+
+​
+
+ 
+
+Inflation rose more than expected in August even as gas prices helped  give consumers a little bit of a break, the Bureau of Labor Statistics  reported Tuesday.
+
+The consumer price index, which tracks a broad  swath of goods and services, increased 0.1% for the month and 8.3% over  the past year. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, CPI rose 0.6%  from July and 6.3% from the same month in 2021.
+
+Economists  had been expecting headline inflation to fall 0.1% and core to increase  0.3%, according to Dow Jones estimates. The respective year-over-year  estimates were 8% and 6%.
+I've made it to my forties without ever taking out a car loan, but I'm also in a great career, mortgage, have a family, and am tired of driving 15-year-old beaters. I ordered a vehicle back in November that's finally coming next week. Because it's taken so long, I've saved up about half of what it would cost to buy the vehicle outright in the interim between socking money away, stimulus, and work bonus. I'm happy with the APR I'm being offered, but is there any reason I shouldn't put all of this $$ down up front and only stick to a 20% downpayment or so? I like the idea of keeping my monthly payment as low as I can and paying off the car as quickly as I can since I've never had a car payment and I've never met someone who wasn't counting the days until their car was paid off. I don't invest or play the market, so any money I don't put down is only going to sit in my savings account in the meantime.
+Everyone is wondering. Not just here on superstonk, not just here on reddit. Lots of people are intrigued by this purchase.
+
+(Edit 2:) as u/thatskindaneat points out below, there are obvious reasons as to why Ryan Cohen would invest in BBBY. I'll cite a few.
+
+> RC is proving to be a value investor in brand loyal brick and mortar stores
+
+> RC understands e-commerce/supply chain as well as anyone in the world and knows BBBY’s issues are fixable, especially since he’s doing the exact thing at another legacy brick and mortar
+
+While these are obvious reasons, I still think there's something else to consider. Ryan Cohen couldn't possibly be ignoring the ramifications and rumors of announcing his stake at this time, before the succesful transformation of GME is fully concluded.
+
+Other posts have painted a narrative about this investment being a "play" in order to simply make money. I do not believe it is as simple as that. I think RC is very adamant about exposing the fraud and corruption in the stock market. (/Edit 2)
+
+Let's have a look at Ryan Cohen. 
+
+- He created Chewy and showed that the little guy can compete with the industry giants and win, by creating a healthy business with customer satisfaction as the main goal.
+
+- Again and again he's honoring the memory of his father. He's got love in his heart.
+
+- He's an activist investor. He tweeted about monetary and fiscal policies having a worse impact on humanity than climate crisis ever could. He believes in changing the stock market for the better.
+
+Does that sound like a man who's trying to game the system for his own personal gain? He's not trying to get rich. He is already rich. His family is secure for generations.
+
+Why would he buy a 10% share and absurd leaps in BBBY? Obvious! **To make people wonder why he did it!**
+
+It makes *no sense* to the regular investors. They'll wonder why the chair of GME goes into another half dead brick'n'mortar, when GME is still on the ground?
+
+The regular investors will search for answers.
+
+They'll find no compelling arguments in MSM, because the corporate media would never risk exposing the short basket swaps for what they are! That would be opening a huge can of swap-worms. 
+
+So they'll dig a little more. And maybe, just maybe, they'll learn more about shorted stocks, cellar boxing and the short basket swap connection. 
+
+Genious move, RC
+
+Edit: people are asking for DD on this. I have read so much DD about total return swaps, portfolio swaps, ETF shorting etc that I forget it's not common knowledge. Please help me and comment with links to dank DDs!
+
+To start with, here's u/broccaaa  https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pbibrk/the_start_of_the_swaps_packaging_meme_stocks_up/
+Everyone is wondering. Not just here on superstonk, not just here on reddit. Lots of people are intrigued by this purchase.
+
+(Edit 2:) as u/thatskindaneat points out below, there are obvious reasons as to why Ryan Cohen would invest in BBBY. I'll cite a few.
+
+> RC is proving to be a value investor in brand loyal brick and mortar stores
+
+> RC understands e-commerce/supply chain as well as anyone in the world and knows BBBY’s issues are fixable, especially since he’s doing the exact thing at another legacy brick and mortar
+
+While these are obvious reasons, I still think there's something else to consider. Ryan Cohen couldn't possibly be ignoring the ramifications and rumors of announcing his stake at this time, before the succesful transformation of GME is fully concluded.
+
+Other posts have painted a narrative about this investment being a "play" in order to simply make money. I do not believe it is as simple as that. I think RC is very adamant about exposing the fraud and corruption in the stock market. (/Edit 2)
+
+Let's have a look at Ryan Cohen. 
+
+- He created Chewy and showed that the little guy can compete with the industry giants and win, by creating a healthy business with customer satisfaction as the main goal.
+
+- Again and again he's honoring the memory of his father. He's got love in his heart.
+
+- He's an activist investor. He tweeted about monetary and fiscal policies having a worse impact on humanity than climate crisis ever could. He believes in changing the stock market for the better.
+
+Does that sound like a man who's trying to game the system for his own personal gain? He's not trying to get rich. He is already rich. His family is secure for generations.
+
+Why would he buy a 10% share and absurd leaps in BBBY? Obvious! **To make people wonder why he did it!**
+
+It makes *no sense* to the regular investors. They'll wonder why the chair of GME goes into another half dead brick'n'mortar, when GME is still on the ground?
+
+The regular investors will search for answers.
+
+They'll find no compelling arguments in MSM, because the corporate media would never risk exposing the short basket swaps for what they are! That would be opening a huge can of swap-worms. 
+
+So they'll dig a little more. And maybe, just maybe, they'll learn more about shorted stocks, cellar boxing and the short basket swap connection. 
+
+Genious move, RC
+
+Edit: people are asking for DD on this. I have read so much DD about total return swaps, portfolio swaps, ETF shorting etc that I forget it's not common knowledge. Please help me and comment with links to dank DDs!
+
+To start with, here's u/broccaaa  https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pbibrk/the_start_of_the_swaps_packaging_meme_stocks_up/
+I need another LLC for a software company I am starting. I currently own an LLC in my state (WA) because I do business locally.
+
+I am leaning towards Wyoming because it is the easiest of the three and provides the same benefits, however most of the big tech companies are either Nevada or Delaware so I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing.
+Guys, I lost over 20k dollars in the last few days thinking that I would get rich out of stuff. I thought I am doing a decent research before to not be scammed and whatever but it was not enough. Now I am barely left with anything and not sure what to do.
+
+The last attempts were to get into presale and cash out even in 2-3x just to get some of my money back but even that was a bad decision.
+
+The last one I bought in was Pickle Rick which I thought would do good because there are lots of fans out there and the telegram community seemed to get better and better as well.
+
+I've put my last 1066 dollars into it and thought this would be a nice ride. After exactly 1h, my 1066 bucks are worth 0.049 dollars.
+
+Both telegram channels disappeared after the first 15 min after launch and price started to drop heavily and the rest is history.
+
+I am not even sure what I will do from now on but I was on a strike of very bad decisions the last few days with several coins that looked good initially and went down to 5-10% of what they were worth in a short period.
+
+Please do not do the same mistakes that I did or you will be left with nothing like I am...
+ *“The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.”*
+
+*- John F. Kennedy* 
+
+Today we begin yet another transformation towards a brighter future. Through all the struggles of the way things used to be, I see a brighter future lighting the way for all of us, no matter the race or creed. I offer a direction that you can control. An idea that has not been available to human civilization for a long time. The perceived flagrant idea of self governance and control from the bottom up, not the other way around. Today we look at how the STP network envelops this ideology and leads us to a brighter future for all. The long existent chapter of a monopolistic view on wealth distribution can finally come to a close. The Standard Tokenization Protocol is one of the protagonists of this story, and we are watching this happen in real time. Let me walk you through this idea right now. 
+
+The Standard Tokenization Protocol (STP) defines a revolutionary platform hitherto missing from the blockchain ecosystem. STP has devised an open-sourced standard designed from a principle of trustless asset management and record keeping available not only on the Polkadot infrastructure, but also other blockchain platforms as well as assets off-chain. They give the user the ability to compile any asset from any medium and create a trustless security token creation platform. This guarantees that assets representing the security token’s valueship are present, no matter the medium. The result is an opportunity to invest in something either previously unavailable or lacking a tantamount level of security. We can thank the blockchain for such a possibility. STP is seamlessly leveraging and executing this idea with a high level of precision and offers an opportunity like none before it. The very idea hinges upon the notion of ‘synthetic asset’.
+
+The idea of a synthetic asset is not new. CoinTelegraph explains that “a ‘synthetic asset’ refers to a mix of assets that have the same value as another asset. Traditionally, synthetics combine various derivative products - options, futures or swaps - that simulate an underlying asset - stocks, bonds, commodities, indexes, currencies or interest rates.” Several other entities have their way of achieving this through many different formulations. These current formulas do not lend themselves to a decentralized principle, nor do they offer much to the average investor in terms of trust or the flexibility to become something more than just a glorified “stable coin”. STP disrupts this paradigm by rejecting the current narrative. This inverted idea is that it cannot be improved upon and must only be duplicated. Obviously investors in blockchain have the lens to see the bigger picture and realize that the S&P 500 and a handful of tech stocks are going to be the golden future of our financial system. 
+
+Why can’t we decide what our gold standard will be? What happened to letting the market decide what is a valuable indicator for the health of our financial systems? Who said we have to accept what we’re given and that we have to continue playing by their rules? Who made those decisions, anyway? Now that we have the privilege and resources to construct our own economic future and track the pulse ourselves, we can focus our intentions and potential forward. Lest we forgive or forget the moneyed few responsible for our (many) common and shared woes, observe that some have already transposed this oppressive and undignified problem onto the blockchain. They toxify our ecosystem with the same old-money ideologies. I am proud to say that STP, from its core, defies this idea wholly and enthusiastically and allows us all to pave the future for a new financial structure already at our doorstep. Whoever declares that they can fulfil the betterment of all society without input from the people is not truly operating for your benefit. 
+
+I admit, however, that I do not offer any other solution besides advocacy for the working class and collaboration with those that conform to our outlook on how things should be. I back this token not only for its revolutionary protocol, but also for its ability to add more depth to the blockchain ecosystem and its ability to leverage our community for the benefit of our community. By supporting a financial counter-culture, we ensure that governments and other entities cannot dictate how we can provide a better future for ourselves and our families. If any of these ideas resonate with you, please visit their website at [https://stp.network/](https://stp.network/).
+
+Announcements for STPT use case
+
+Binance and Expedia-Backed Travel Agency uses STPT as Payment 
+
+[https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-partners-with-travala-to-connect-stpt-with-expedia-and-other-global-hotel-online-booking-payment-channels/18](https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-partners-with-travala-to-connect-stpt-with-expedia-and-other-global-hotel-online-booking-payment-channels/18)
+
+STP 2.0 
+
+[https://gov.stp.network/t/introducing-stp-2-0-a-protocol-for-synthetic-tokenization-on-polkadot/13](https://gov.stp.network/t/introducing-stp-2-0-a-protocol-for-synthetic-tokenization-on-polkadot/13)
+
+STP Invests in Cobak, Largest Korean blockchain community
+
+[https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-network-makes-strategic-investment-in-cobak-1-blockchain-community-in-korea/16](https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-network-makes-strategic-investment-in-cobak-1-blockchain-community-in-korea/16)
+
+STP and HedgeTrade
+
+[https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-network-and-hedgetrade-partner-to-offer-social-trading-of-stpt-tokens/17](https://gov.stp.network/t/stp-network-and-hedgetrade-partner-to-offer-social-trading-of-stpt-tokens/17)
+
+*“You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny.”*
+
+*- Roy T. Bennett*
+
+So this is actually a situation I had forgotten about for a while. While game planning my credit score.
+
+A couple years back I was doing terribly and trying to get out of a terrible marriage. I bought a little beater car using Wells Fargo Dealer Services with a super high interest rate. 
+
+As my situation deteriorated I pretty much gave up on a lot of things including paying my car. Well I tried to negotiate a couple times but just couldn’t keep up. But then I got a letter in the mail and a call stating that due to a pending class action lawsuit they would not seek to repo the car. The person helping me was pretty honest and said they couldn’t do a thing, and even mentioned that if I waited and didn’t acknowledge I got a settlement from the lawsuit they would write it off. 
+
+Couple months later I get the title to the car. So my question is where does that leave me? 
+
+Can they still sue me for a settlement on a car I now hold title to due to them being in a lawsuit? They never sold the debt off to a third party from what I can see. Should I rock the boat and attempt to remove it from my credit history (charge off happened in 2018 btw)?
+ [https://thestonkmarket.com/2020/03/02/the-motley-fools-finds-the-next-amazon-for-the-67th-time-this-year/](https://thestonkmarket.com/2020/03/02/the-motley-fools-finds-the-next-amazon-for-the-67th-time-this-year/) 
+
+ **Wall Street** – Not a surprise to anyone on Wall Street, but the Motley Fool has discovered a stock that has potential to become the [next Amazon](https://thestonkmarket.com/2020/03/01/cfa-level-four-launching-this-summer/) (“AMZN”) for the 67th time in just 2020!  “This is a record-breaking year of finding the next Amazon,” a spokesman for the Motley Fool said.  “By this time last year, we found the next potential [Amazon only 50 times](https://thestonkmarket.com/2020/02/29/people-who-dont-build-dcf-models-are-sloppy-retail-investors-with-an-iq-of-a-worm/).  67 times is record-breaking and something we are extremely proud of.”  The Motley Fool has already purchased billions of dollars of advertising space, along with [James Altucher](https://thestonkmarket.com/about-reader-beware/), on Yahoo Finance, Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone that ‘this stock is the next Amazon’.  I personally have clicked on the advertisement thousands of times and still don’t know what stock they are talking about!  “It’s likely we will find the next Google, Netflix, Tesla and Facebook tomorrow so keep an eye out for one of our annoying ads,” the Motley Fool spokesman mentioned.  David Gardner was unable to comment as he was busy looking at potential ten thousand bagger stonks.  
+https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/your-money/stock-market-after-hours-trading.html
+
+Check out the graph about halfway down in that article. It's revelatory.
+
+If you had bought the SPY at the last second of trading on each business day since 1993 and sold at the market open the next day capturing all of the net after-hour gains your cumulative price gain would be 571 percent.
+On the other hand, if you had done the reverse, buying the E.T.F. at the first second of regular trading every morning at 9:30 a.m. and selling at the 4 p.m. close, you would be down 4.4 percent since 1993.
+
+I had no idea of this fact and thought it was quite interesting.
+
+credit to u/doublecastle for posting this on r/stocks
+Okay, it's become apparent that the vast majority of you don't know what a repo is.  That's fine, you can largely live your life and invest successfully without this knowledge.  But it is the topic du jour so let's see if I can't offer the most simplistic of explanations here to help provide some context of today's events.
+
+Lets say you have 10 brothers and sisters.  You're all young adults and have been quite successful in life.  Your father is pretty conservative and asks that you keep your savings primarily in treasuries so you do.  
+
+Right now you have 1MM in 10yr treasuries saved up but you don't have a lot of cash on hand.  The cable bill is due today and you get paid tomorrow.  Wat do?  You can of course liquidate some of your million worth of bonds but that's silly right?  Your brother has 500k of cash sitting in his weed box.  So you waltz over to his room and ask for $100 to cover the cable and promise to pay him back tomorrow.  He thinks you're a bit of an asshole so he says no because he doesn't trust you.  So you offer him this: you sell him $100 worth of your treasury bonds and he tells you he'll sell it back to you tomorrow for $100.01.  Congrats you've funded your need for cash today while preserving your balance sheet.  That's a repurchase agreement or repo. 
+
+So now you and your siblings have a thriving market of trading these overnight promises back and forth all while your dad is slowly selling more bonds to you and taking your cash.  Eventually you run in to a problem where there just ain't enough cash right?  Your brother the dick decides to still offer the same agreement but tomorrow instead of you buying your $100 worth of bonds for $100.01 he tells you he needs $105.  That's a huge difference but given how little cash everyone has you might need to pay it.  Enter your mom, she keeps the family in order but doesn't normally like to step in to the finances.  She tells you she'll start buying your bonds and selling them back tomorrow at the aforementioned $100.01.  That's what the Fed has been doing lately.
+
+Takeaway: nobody here is bankrupt or insolvent.  You've all got millions of dollars worth of bonds but you need cash to fund short term obligations and there just isn't much going around.   
+
+Obviously the real world is significantly more complex but this should serve as a very basic framework of understanding for what repos are and what some of the news you've been reading means.
+
+E: I want to be clear: this is nothing short of the most dumbed down explanation possible.  If you're looking to further explore this topic it's best to abandon the analogies and dive right in.  I generally don't love analogies in thus world because at some point someone's trying to argue if the FDIC is your uncle roofus who vouches for you or your dads side chick that slips you money to not fuck up.  That doesn't help anyone.  So once you get a grasp on the basic framework you should either decide if that's good enough for you or expect a much steeper learning curve from there.
+Buzz is a hard thing to ignore but you have to know when you missed the seat.  Starting out investing reminds me of the scene in Knockaround Guys when Vin Diesel explains how he became a tough guy.  Decided that he needed to be in 500 fights before he could call himself a legitimate tough guy, so he got started.  I know I'm going to make mistakes. Hell for the first 3 weeks I just used the paper money app from TD. I never use money I wouldn't have wasted anyway, and anything I buy I'm mentally prepared to carry for atleast a month.  Either way I now dread the weekends and get wood when I hear that bell ding.  Think I found my new home.  Cheers fellas and I hope you all stay in the green!
+hi all! so two weeks ago i setup a demo account, and have since been using a scalping strategy that is about 95% accurate on a $200 demo account. I grew the $200 into $320 in four days with lot sizes of 0.01-0.1. I'm curious if these are realistic expectations for when i start using a live account this coming week. Thanks!
+
+edit: screenshots! https://m.imgur.com/a/hnATwLk
+So I'll admit I got a little bit aggressive with some deductions, and didn't properly file my taxes a few years back.
+
+The IRS caught me. I was looking owing not a huge sum of money (very high 4 figures) but considering the economic impact of COVID19, and the fact that I have a baby on the way, on top of a business deal I was involved in going south  in short I'm broke.
+
+Now that tax attorney idea, yea you see you need money for that and I didn't have that. So I decided screw it I'll just call up the IRS and be honest. And by honest I mean I told them what's going on. I told them my income has been slashed by COVID19, that I have a baby on the way, that I recently had things go south, and in short I don't have the money to pay them.
+
+I was given several options, I ultimate decided to do a payment plan. The IRS also waived my interest and I even got them to agree to not charge any interest. Also I won't be getting any tax return money until my debt is paid.
+
+But considering I basically got a 0% interest loan for a really long time to pay back the IRS...I'm fine with that.
+
+One agent even told me the IRS appreciates people who get in trouble talking to them. They recognize people screw up, fall on hard times, and will work with people.
+
+I even heard they sometimes completely forgive tax debt. Although you gotta provide documentation for everything and since I still have an income I didn't qualify for that. But they did say if my life situation changes (i.e I can't work at all, or I lose my job etc to just call them)
+
+I'm really happy I didn't employ a tax attorney, also over the amount I owed I don't think it would have been worth it.
+TL;DR: The algorithms that work to maintain the value of algorithmic stablecoins like UST also function as death spiral convertible bonds. Exactly the same way. But really, read it all.
+
+Many of you will have seen u/MovieUnderTheSurface's [DD from last month](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/u50zhv/death_spiral_convertible_bonds_another_missing/) on death spiral convertible bonds. If you haven't, I would strongly recommend reading it but you don't need to in order to understand this post. I'd also recommend taking a look at [my post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/umx0gr/ust_the_stablecoin_that_lost_its_peg_bigtime/) from the other day about UST and its potential correlation to GME. The TL;DR of that post is that UST has unpegged multiple times before on significant dates for GME, including apparently participating in the sneeze. Since that post, LUNA has gone to 0.
+
+* **Intro to stablecoins**
+
+Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are designed to always stay the same value. Some of them track the price of gold ("being pegged to gold"), some of them track various foreign currencies, but a lot of them track the good old USD. Since cryptocurrencies are traded on the open market, there would be all kinds of natural pressures that would slowly shift it off peg. Different stablecoins use different mechanisms to counteract this. Some of them, like USDC, are fully collateralized, meaning that for every coin in circulation, the issuer has $1 of hard collateral reserve and thus the value of the coin is closely tied to the value of the assets. Others, like USDT, Tether, are "fully collateralized" with what is *definitely totally not Evergrande bonds*, but that's [another story](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qr7cow/tether_the_nuclear_bomb_that_hides_the_chinese/).
+
+* **UST, LUNA, and Death Spirals**
+
+UST is a third type, an algorithmic stablecoin ("algostable"), which are designed to maintain their value through some other means, often through a relationship with another token. In the case of UST, the corresponding token is LUNA. The way that UST maintains its value is that, at any time, you can burn $1 worth of LUNA for 1 UST, or you can *burn 1 UST for $1 worth of LUNA*. You see where this is going?
+
+>A death spiral convertible security is similar to a normal convertible security, with one key difference: instead of getting X number of shares, I get X dollars paid in shares.
+
+So, if UST were to fall below its peg, you would be able to buy UST and immediately burn it for more value in LUNA than you just paid for it. Then you sell the LUNA on the open market, driving the price down. Rinse and repeat, but now LUNA's price is lower so you get *more*. To make matters worse, UST is essentially collateralized by LUNA, so as the value of LUNA crashes, it becomes harder and harder for UST to get back up to its peg and break the cycle. This then leads to runaway inflation of LUNA. A week ago, there were about 350M LUNA, by the end there were over 6.5T(!!!) a 20,000x dilution. And, as if all that wasn't bad enough, whoever engineered the crash was also likely short selling into it before and during.
+
+This is the *exact* mechanic that makes death spiral convertible bonds so dangerous. Only this time, it's crypto investors buying the death spiral instead of failing companies. I am actually shocked with how close this parallel is, to the point that I can't believe this is an accident. So, if this were some sort of intentional plot to create bagholders by selling death spirals directly to retail, surely there would be shills, right?
+
+* **The Shills**
+
+In this case, I'm looking through the coinmarketcap comments sections for UST and LUNA. This page is the first result on google for these coins, and so would likely be targeted by shills if a shill campaign were in progress. Just like we see with other shill campaigns (*cough cough popcorn subreddit was created on 1/27/21 cough*), there are attempts to co-opt ape style language and emojis all over. 
+
+There are the badly coded bots, like [this bot which apparently failed to pull the price numbers](https://i.imgur.com/mqIaZvH.png), rendering the message [hard to even understand](https://i.imgur.com/ldAgikb.png) at first. I suppose this could also be an extremely lazy copy paste, but the point is the same.
+
+There are the [painfully obvious political bait posts.](https://i.imgur.com/ZndvDcF.png) [So so many of them.](https://i.imgur.com/8rBPy29.png) [How is he possibly relevant to UST?](https://i.imgur.com/FMQlVGr.png)
+
+[Then there are the bald-faced lies.](https://i.imgur.com/LO5ov8H.png) The minting of LUNA tokens *cannot* be stopped because they are freely interchangeable with UST. This process *always* values UST at $1, even if it has lost its peg. This, ironically, is supposed to ensure UST stays on peg. As long as UST is off peg, massive amounts of LUNA will continue to be minted as people buy UST for pennies on the dollar and convert it to a whole dollar of LUNA, *no matter how low LUNA's price is*. This process cannot be stopped except by UST restoring the peg, and that's not happening before they both go to 0.
+
+[Absolute pants on fire.](https://i.imgur.com/4p4n0hj.png) You can check any other resource to confirm, but here's [coindesk showing supply in the trillions](https://www.coindesk.com/price/luna/).
+
+[This is the opposite of the truth.](https://i.imgur.com/b1sU5K7.png) One cannot recover without the other.
+
+[No, no it isn't.](https://i.imgur.com/JUqZCCv.png)
+
+And on and on and on. I think I've seen my fair share of shilling in these [84 years,](https://i.imgur.com/DGEoPl3.gif) and these comments sections are a dumpster fire of shills. [Take](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terrausd/) a [look](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terra-luna/) yourself, and you'll see even more blatant shills if you sort the comments by newest instead of best, or look through the sub-comments on some of the top rated ones.
+
+* **The Bottom Line**
+
+It sure looks like someone decided that selling death spirals to failing companies wasn't good enough, they wanted to sell them to retail too. And through the (dark) magic of cryptocurrency, their dreams were made manifest. How shocking that there are already rumors Citadel is involved in crashing UST/LUNA.
+Hello Reddit. I've been very depressed and stressed about about my debts. I'm finally reaching out for help because I can't keep it to myself anymore.
+
+Long story short I opened 4 credit cards in the last two years. Paid for dinners and dates and even a vacation with my ex girlfriend. I was making about 2k-4K a month depending on how busy the restaurant I was serving at was. 
+Then my car takes a shit....
+
+So I decide that a new car is a great idea even though I've been told never to buy a new car and I knew I would be strapped if i went thru with it. So I  got a new scion iM at 9% interest and I owe a total of almost 30k on it. 
+
+Now here's where it gets fun!
+
+The restaurant I was working for closed, my girlfriend (who I thought I was going to marry, and she was going to help with the money we had spent) broke up with me, and now I need to find a new place to live by January because we rent our house and the owner is selling it.
+
+I'm so fucking stressed I can't sleep well, I'm gaining weight from eating and drinking, I don't know what to do. I'm selling anything I have that isn't a guitar or my bed, and I'm working at a new job but it only brings 400$ a week. 
+
+Right now I have 6k in credit card debt (17% , 10%, 28%, 22% interest)and the car loan is 433$ per month. I am a payment behind on my car loan I know I'm in a horrible spot. Please if you have any advice let me know I need it... Thanks!
+
+Edit 1: wow I didn't expect this many responses. Big thanks to everyone for giving me advice. I'm at work right now and I will be home in a few hours to read every reply and to answer more questions. Thank you all so much, I'm already starting to feel a little better. 
+
+Edit 2: what would bankruptcy do? (Would I lose all my money, car, and assets?) I only have read a little about it. I'm definitely ready to pick up another job. 
+I talked to my current employer and I am able to work 40 hours a week at 15 an hour. This will definitely help but I need a car because my work is 30 miles from my house
+
+Edit 3: how do I go about doing a voluntary repo of my car? How much would I owe from said repo? I could save a few grand and repo the car, then buy a cheap one cash and that cuts my debt down like crazy. I think the $433 per month plus insurance and gas is just too much for me. I'm also hunting for a second job as we speak.
+Ok ok... I understand the buying and selling of items in games because well... they have a purpose. You can use them to enhance your gaming experience... 
+
+I understand music.. I buy an album and then forever own it. If you wipe your hard drive you can recover it without having to buy it again..
+
+I don't understand why on earth people pay huge money for gifs and jpgs. What do you do with it? Set it as your wallpaper? 
+
+I'm being a bit facetious, I understand the concept of collectables but I don't see how it translates into digital form. If I buy a Rembrandt there's that knowledge its the exact canvas he worked on.. the texture, wear and tear, the history etc. In the digital world, the original has all the same properties as a replica. Why is one more special than the other?
+
+Am I the only one?
+Went to the one big shopping centre in town. 2 food stalls were empty - probably due to increase in rent. My question is - how do shopping centres make money if they increase rents, businesses close and are left empty for an extended period.
+Other debts:
+
+Personal loan $16,000 at 10.5% (to pay off the credit card debt I had at 19.x% interest)  
+Student loan $90,000 at 5% (it’s a lot but I have a good job and mortgage)  
+Car note is 4.75%
+
+Let me know if i can clarify anything
+I have \~£390k // 28.5 years left on my mortgage which I used to purchase my flat for £530k about 18 months ago. Unfortunately, in the time since then the building in which my flat resides has failed its EWS1 inspection, and millions of pounds of remedial work may be required on the building to remove cladding, balconies and insulation in order to make it mortgageable again.
+
+My natural instinct on the mortgage so far has been to overpay as much as I can, as regardless of the current "value" of the flat, I still owe the bank that money. However, I am also slightly concerned about pouring money into what is essentially a black hole when the possibility of selling the flat (and therefore reclaiming the money) is probably out the window for at least the next two years. There is also the worry that I may be asked to pay thousands of pounds towards the remedial work, although I already have a significant emergency fund which I believe would cover this.
+
+A further complication is that the fixed term on my mortgage expires in November, and although I believe I will be allowed to remortgage with the same provider on the same product without EWS1 certification, this also appears to be unclear. I don't want to ask my bank because I don't want to tell them the property is currently unmortgageable.
+
+Should I continue to overpay the mortgage, or would I be better saving/investing the potential overpayment elsewhere?
+Guten Tag to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+The best time to be alive in human history is now.
+
+Unless you are short GME.
+
+Today is Thursday, July 28th, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- 🟩 120 minutes in: **$33.75 / 33,25 €**  *(volume: 5917)*
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+- 🟩 US close price: $33.78 / 33,27 €   *($33.39 / 32,89 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.0152. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+New to the game, and would love some advice from the more experienced folks, feeling this could be the right place for that. I want to move all my cash to real estate, and 20% down to avoid PMI made the most sense to me. I just learned that you can buy an investment property right after opening an FHA with 3% down, which should be around 20k with closing costs included. I'd have another 100k left to put on 20% down on another around 400k multifam. So the idea would be to have two multi-families, one on an FHA, which I would live on, one on a conventional, and rented out. The only issue is that I currently live in a $2,300 luxury rental, which I split with two roommates, so I only pay $800, and we like this place a lot! All multifams on the 400k price range in my area (Hudson County, next to NYC) are fixer uppers, or in not good conditions unless is like 2beds first floor, 1 bed on top, which wouldn't really cashflow well. Would you go for the two multi-families and downgrade lifestyle? Or just stay renting the luxury place, and get one nicer, bigger multifam instead of 2? Or would you do something different? Would love to see your inputs!
+
+
+As far as income, I'm a freelancer/self employed, so nothing specific monthly, but average yearly for my past two years is about 70k, which translates to about 4 to 5k a month.
+New to the game, and would love some advice from the more experienced folks, feeling this could be the right place for that. I want to move all my cash to real estate, and 20% down to avoid PMI made the most sense to me. I just learned that you can buy an investment property right after opening an FHA with 3% down, which should be around 20k with closing costs included. I'd have another 100k left to put on 20% down on another around 400k multifam. So the idea would be to have two multi-families, one on an FHA, which I would live on, one on a conventional, and rented out. The only issue is that I currently live in a $2,300 luxury rental, which I split with two roommates, so I only pay $800, and we like this place a lot! All multifams on the 400k price range in my area (Hudson County, next to NYC) are fixer uppers, or in not good conditions unless is like 2beds first floor, 1 bed on top, which wouldn't really cashflow well. Would you go for the two multi-families and downgrade lifestyle? Or just stay renting the luxury place, and get one nicer, bigger multifam instead of 2? Or would you do something different? Would love to see your inputs!
+
+
+As far as income, I'm a freelancer/self employed, so nothing specific monthly, but average yearly for my past two years is about 70k, which translates to about 4 to 5k a month.
+So I realize this will come off as aggressively opportunistic, but given the massive economic upheaval currently going on, I want to know if anyone has insight into finding more desperate sellers of illiquid assets. Given the huge number of businesses facing potential bankruptcy, and general financial stress, it seems like there should be an opportunity for those with cash available to make cheap purchases. Are there efficient means of finding these opportunities? The types of assets I mean are things like yachts, planes, collectible cars, art, really anything of high value where the typical market would be broken in this environment.
+Not sure if the heading makes sense but I was wondering about your opinions on how you guys define your position weights in your portfolio as the prices fluctuate. Just as an example: 
+
+I want 50/50 in Stock A and Stock B so that's what I buy. Now over time Stock A grows and Stock B declines to make my portfolio 65/35. 
+
+Now in this situation would guys continue regular deposits and buys of 50/50? Or would you buy extra of Stock B and less of Stock A in order to maintain 50/50 in your portfolio? 
+
+Sort of a DCA-ing question.
+ 
+
+[This is the official $GME Megathread for r\/Superstonk.](https://preview.redd.it/gzy9yfftoov71.png?width=778&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ce125aa2d7455f994d74a4192f1a04b7d14448c)
+
+**Please keep ALL conversations contained to Gamestop and directly related topics.**
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+# Brand new to the sub? Start here!
+
+***You must read the*** [***Superstonk Rules***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) ***before commenting or posting on*** [***r/Superstonk***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/)*.*
+
+https://preview.redd.it/u7nzd0m0pov71.png?width=1651&format=png&auto=webp&s=df5232178c4035ba1c069f9306b30453b42946cd
+
+The extremely talented and dedicated [u/zedinstead](https://www.reddit.com/u/zedinstead/) has created this beautiful collection of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence in PDF format that can be easily accessed and shared. If you're looking to familiarize yourself with the GME bull thesis or the underhanded tactics of the short sellers involved in this trade-- then this is for you:
+
+# [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg)
+
+[r/Superstonk](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/) employs strict posting requirements to ensure our community stays moderately free from trolls and other such bad actors. As such you may find you have trouble posting if you haven't fully read and understood our rules.
+
+**Posts keep getting removed?** [Find out why.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules)
+
+**Not enough** [**karma**](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204511829-What-is-karma-)**?** Here's a [quick guide](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-get-karma-on-reddit/) on how to get it.
+
+**Want to learn more?** [Check out our extensive Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) and [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq)
+
+**Eager for more even more GameStop info?** [gmedd.com](https://gmedd.com/) is a spectacular resource.
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+# Flair Links
+
+[📚 Due Diligence](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Due+Diligence%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📚 Possible DD](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Possible+DD%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💡 Education](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%A1+Education%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) |[📈 Technical Analysis](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%88+Technical+Analysis%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🗣 Discussion / Question](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%97%A3+Discussion+%2F+Question%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🤔 Speculation / Opinion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%94+Speculation+%2F+Opinion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💻 Computershare](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB+Computershare%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📰 News](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B0+News%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🤡 Meme](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%A1+Meme%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [👽 Shitpost](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%91%BD+Shitpost%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📳 Social Media](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B3Social+Media%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [☁ Hype fluff](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%98%81+Hype%2F+Fluff%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [HODL 💎🙌](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22HODL+%F0%9F%92%8E%F0%9F%99%8C%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all)
+
+You can also find the main flairs in the sidebar on New Reddit and under the "About" page on mobile.
+
+**Mod Flairs**
+
+[📣 Community Post](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%A3+Community+Post%22&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=relevance) | [📆 Daily Discussion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%86+Daily+Discussion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🏆 AMA](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%8F%86+AMA%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🚨 Debunked](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%9A%A8+Debunked%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📖 Partial Debunk](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%96+Partial+Debunk%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🔔 Inconclusive](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%94%94+Inconclusive%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [⌚ Pending Review](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%8C%9A+Pending+Review%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🥴 Misleading Title](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A5%B4+Misleading+Title%22)
+
+**No CS/DRS Mode**
+
+[New Reddit Filter](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) | [Old Reddit/Mobile Filter](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=)
+
+To filter out CS/DRS posts, click the links above or type `-flair_text:"💻 Computershare"` into the search bar.
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+***What's This Post All About?***
+
+The first thing you'll notice is a stickied comment right at the top. We call this the "Front Desk". Every day a moderator will create a new sticky comment that includes links to community announcements, fantastic posts that deserve more attention, and generally the simplest and easiest way to interact with the moderators of this community. The rest of the post is designed for general discussion and content/questions that might not need their own post.
+
+If you are new please mention that when you comment. There are no stupid questions but "shills" (paid accounts with the intent to disrupt the sub) are real. This community sees a lot of trolls. If you do not distinguish yourself as someone with genuine questions it is likely that members of our community will assume you are just spreading "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). I hate that I have to give you this warning but it is just the nature of the beast at this point.
+
+Please have fun, play nice and be civil. Many of our rules are heavily enforced. Debate is welcome but if it devolves into personal insults please report the comment. *Ape no fight ape!*
+Browsing by new this morning as I sip my coffee, there is an uncomfortable amount of people that seem to be rushing it, encouraging others to sell as that’s the ‘same’ as closing your account or transferring. DO NOT SELL YOUR SHARES!!!! This is **exactly** what the hedgies want. 
+
+There is no urgency, remember how shills use that tactic? Just wait until we can chew up the new rule and spit it out. Wait until a reputable broker is found for our Europoor brothern. 
+
+Remember,
+
+ Apes together strong.
+ 
+Buy, Hold, Vote.
+
+Don’t let them off easy.
+
+Edit: 
+
+Hello Shills, I see you spamming downvote. 
+ May I direct your attention to the SEC’s [Whistleblower program](https://www.sec.gov/whistleblower) 
+
+There’s millions waiting for you
+
+Edit 2: User Leaglese’s [Thoughts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nahwr5/warning_ibkr_is_changing_its_terms_of_services_in/gxu681u/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
+
+Edit 3.  [IBKR RESPONSE](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nalin2/for_uk_ibkr_confirms_positions_will_not_be_closed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
+
+Edit 4: I’d like to take a moment here and thank the mods and all my fellow members of Superstonk for shutting that FUD Down. This sub has come so far in such a short time and I’m proud of every single damn ape here. 
+
+**APES TOGETHER STRONG**
+Ok, I've done a lot of these bubbles. So for the n00bs and the people that have only done it once, let me give you some sober advice.
+
+* Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges during a bubble. If you're an active trader, you're probably an idiot and won't listen to this advice. But at least I can say I warned you.
+
+* Bitcoin price will go to the moon, and Bitcoin price will drop. The pain of drops gets worse and worse and worse. When we hit $30 after Schumer told the world you could buy drugs with Bitcoin, there were tons of people who bought, and were sad and lonely and depressed after it crashed back to just below $1. Think about how much worse that will be when people put their life savings in at $10,000 and the price crashes to $1,000. There is going to be a bad multiplicative effect here if the bubbles get bigger and bigger.
+
+* You don't know anything, you don't know how high it will go, you don't know how far it will crash. Don't play the game. Just ride. If you belieb this experiment will work, then just hold. You will be sad you didn't sell at the top, but you will be glad you ended up better than you were when it was low.
+
+* Don't invest more than you can lose.
+
+* Stop trying to explain why the price is going up. There is almost no reason that it should be mooning right now, which should tell you that this is very likely just irrational exuberance. Many of you will be given to it. You will dump your money in, exacerbate the bubble, and we will see a rash of news reports, more and more people will pour in, and more and more money will be on chain. It will be good for Bitcoin, as it will bring with it a large number of new beliebers. But it won't be easy when we hit another long lull where Bitcoin sits for a long period of time at some small number.
+
+* Don't tell your family to get in.
+
+* Don't tell your friends to get in.
+
+* Avoid pumping generally. Answer questions about Bitcoin, but give everyone the caveat: "I never recommend anyone buy unless they first understand the technology and beliebe that it will work." Or something like that.
+
+* With a new rash of people there will be new scams. If you have not yet been scammed, you will be, and if bitcoins are worth a lot, it will hurt now worse more than it ever has. You will hear people say, "I wish I bought when it was $200." The appropriate response is: "Bitcoin never goes up, only down."
+
+* Remember, in the aftermath of every price increase, is a deep regret from everyone who did not buy before the price increase. Do not live with regrets, just keep marching forward. We are here because Bitcoin as a technology works. If you don't belieb that the Bitcoin will only work if you get rich, you should probably get out. Because this is a very slow, long play.
+
+* Everyone who comes to Bitcoin now will come with an arrogance you will not realize you had when you came. You probably don't realize how much you have learned since you got here. Be kind, but be a dick. Now that you have seen it, you need to save the n00bs from giving their money away. Be highly critical of their wrongheaded ideas. Also, remember to point to history when they start to tell you all the ways in which they want to repeat it: "I don't think Bitcoin will work because... 10 minute transaction times... no one accepts it... it's too hard to use... it's not scalable... it's not anonymous enough... you can buy drugs with it... only criminals use it... Bitcoin companies are all scams... it has no intrinsic value... and on and on and on." For them we have a meme: http://imgur.com/t2sfuot
+
+* When all is said and done, many of you will have a lot more money than you have ever had before. Spend a little, have some fun. Hold the rest and save it for a rainy day, because Bitcoin *could* go to $0. You never know.
+
+* Get your money out of exchanges.
+You are a middle aged person working in technology, business, or finance. You make over $100k/year, and you regularly invest in stocks & ETFs. You heard about Bitcoin 3 years ago, and were interested because people seemed to be making money on it. The narrative was somewhat bizarre and not entirely believable, yet somehow there was actual crime connected to it. As the story faded from the media, you lost interest and moved on. You had unanswered questions, but whatever. Life is busy.
+
+Fast forward to 2017. You've been hearing about cryptocurrency again. Except this time, there's a new upstart that has backing from big-name businesses. This time, it's being used for new kinds of software, not crime. You do some research. You're blown away.
+
+So you sign up for an exchange and easily buy the one that's being used for reputable projects by big-name companies. You don't buy too much at first, maybe $10k.
+
+Gentlemen, this story is about to happen to tens of thousands of people.
+
+We are now feeling the affects of a full fledged bear market where it seems like there is no bottom to this carnage.
+
+I feel bad for the guys who are taking on major losses, I can't imagine how you must feel right now. I feel bad enough having lost what I have lost since the ATHs of January. But despite my losses I am still up significantly on my initial investment which is mainly ETH. It's hard to accept seeing the majority of my gains wiped away but in retrospect I am still largely on the winning end of my investment. Early this year I thought I would see my portfolio grow to a personal goal of mine and I was naive to think that this bubble would not pop like it has.
+
+Crypto is a completely different beast compared to traditional assets and so as a fairly new person into the space and this being my first bubble experience I didn't think it would perform like traditional assets would, and I thought this new revolutionary world changing technology had the ability to grow for a decade before any major interruptions. That's where I was wrong, and when the market peaked I was too optimistic about the future to think that the bubble could have burst that quickly. Perhaps that was a newb mistake, or perhaps I got caught up in the spirit of the market and the euphoric state was just too hard to see beyond.
+
+So what happens now?
+
+I think what happens now is the need for opportunistic buyers to enter the market again causing a change in sentiment. In a way we are seeing the polar opposite affects that we felt when it peaked. Now it's all doom and gloom and hard to see beyond that. The market is not going to die. ETH is not going to die. The market will return to a 'normal' state and over time it will reproduce the gains it had early in 2018. BTC will be here, ETH will be here, and plenty of other projects that were able to weather the storm and develop quality products will be here. It's a great time for the opportunists to start picking winners again. The falling out of many projects will be determined over this next stage of growth. Quality will prevail.
+
+Looking forward to when we see stabilization (return to mean) this market will likely see it's next growth phase begin to gear up sooner than later. Simply due to the fact there is rapid growth still happening in the industry. Real use cases will begin to emerge over the coming months and years and that combined with adoption and scaling we will undoubtedly see an upswing that will dwarf this latest bull run. I think ATHs are coming in 2019 and euphoric dreamy bubble prices will happen again in 2020/2021. $10,000-$20,000 per ETH might be reasonable to consider.
+
+I'm no veteran or even a professional but I have spent the better part of the last 2.5 years fully immersed in this space learning as much as I can about the technology and have also spent a lot of time learning about different projects and observing their communities. ETH is a true winner and simply based on the community, development, first mover advantage, and the potential for how smart contracts can change the world I still think ETH is the safest long-term crypto bet in the market right now. Overtime the Ethereum network will bring the most blockchain innovation to the world which will be unmatched by any other projects.
+
+I'm a hodler, and a true believer and I love the technology and I love the idea of it changing the world so I'll be hodling and I won't be looking back. To my fellow hodler's... The darkest hour is just before the dawn.
+
+TLDR: We are suffering and the market is overly pessimistic right now. ATH in 2019. New bubble prices 2020/2021. ETH is the best crypto investment going. 
+Someone from the inside (Bruno most likely) just restarted the ICO sale and bought millions of PRL tokens and went on to market sell them on kucoin. Stay Away! May be an exit scam. 
+
+
+Here is the eth transaction that opened the sale: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x2321e305c20f45429f11045b9235e9bbd66b17bacede173ca86144ac5533d3bf
+
+
+Edit: It's official, Bruno has exit scammed. This is what happens when you support a project with an anonymous founder. OysterConeeeeect
+These were just filed at the SEC on July 05 at 17:00(5 PM this afternoon). The trades took place on July 01.
+
+[REED HASTINGS](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AVL2U22CZ222K262222F2MZ28PQNKV222242/) (Co-CEO sold 39,363 shares)
+
+[Theodore Sarandos](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AVL7P22CZ222P272222P2MZ2C978ZV222242/) (Co-CEO & Chief Content Officer) - sold 23,155 shares
+
+[Gregory Peters](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/A2L2K22CZ222E272222D2MZ2STNNUV222242/) (COO and Chief Product Officer) - sold 9,262 shares 
+ 
+[ Spencer Adam Neumann](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AGLZM22CZ222D26222232MZ2ATQTZV222E42/) (Chief Financial Officer) - sold 8,104 shares
+
+[DAVID A HYMAN](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AWLZK22CZ222B262222N2MZ2FTWMZV222Y42/) (Chief Legal Officer) -5,789 shares
+
+
+[Bradford Smith](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ADLHI22CZ222Q272222K2MZ2G87QZV222242/) (Director)
+ 
+[Ann Mather](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ACLR822CZ2229272222M2MZ2NSKKZV222242/) (Director)
+
+ [Strive Masiyiwa](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ATL2O22CZ222Q27222292MZ2RIMKAV222242/) (Director) 
+ 
+[RICHARD N BARTON](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ANL2P22CZ222727222282MZ2PP99KV222242/) (Director)
+
+
+ [Meabe Sergio Ezama](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ASLZR22CZ222V26222292MZ25EI3ZV222O42/) (Chief Talent Officer)
+ 
+[Marian Lee Dicus](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/ASLZI22CZ222K262222D2MZ2DGPJZV222442/) (Chief Marketing Officer)
+ 
+[HALEY TIMOTHY M](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AULH522CZ2228262222F2MZ28FVNZV222242/) (Director)
+ 
+[Rachel Whetstone](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/A8LR422CZ222V262222G2MZ2PO2UZV222242/) (Chief Communications Officer) 
+ 
+ [Anne M Sweeney](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AGL2P22CZ222R262222Q2MZ2VRDNUV222242/) (Director)
+
+[Rodolphe Belmer](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/A7L7L22CZ222B262222D2MZ2K6Q9ZV222242/) (Director)
+ 
+ 
+[Mathias Dopfner](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/A9L2N22CZ222M262222N2MZ2O32BAV222242/) (Director)
+ 
+[Jay C Hoag](http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220705/AB2INQ2CZC259ZXJ222M2ZO2NHFKZZ22Z242/) (Director)
+So yesterday I was talking with a buddy of mine about the whole GameStop situation (he’s generally educated in investing but not a wrinkly) and suddenly I found myself talking about total return swaps, collateral obligations/margin requirements, settlement cycles, payment for order flow, the CFTC, SEC, etc…and the crazy thing was that I actually knew wtf I was talking about!!!
+
+And therein lies their biggest threat and worst nightmare; an educated and informed mass of regular everyday people. Just like you, just like me.
+
+GME isn’t the threat to their game. WE are.
+
+Last year you probably would’ve found me YouTubing “basics of trading options” and now here I am talking competently about derivatives and the mechanics of the market.
+
+The shift is here apes. It’s starting and we’re ALL a part of it (as individuals investors of course). Whether you’re here just for the squeeze or also here to push for major reform (or a combo of both), it’s all steering us towards the greater good. 
+
+We don’t all have to become ultimate-wrinkly brains either, just buying and hodling is contributing to the fairer and more transparent market of tomorrow. One that works for EVERYBODY. 
+
+We clearly can’t depend on the crooked politicians, complicit regulators and greedy financial terrorists to turn this ship around, but we CAN depend on each other and I just wanted to say that I appreciate ALL of you guys - especially the wrinklies who selflessly dedicate their time educating the rest of us. 
+
+Endless love to you all. 
+
+And just to reiterate - Yes, WE are their worst nightmare.
+
+TL:DR - BUY, HODL AND KEEP DIGGING!!
+Based on the recent Credit Suisse post with 550k. puts at 150 strike price for October 15th, IN BRAZIL. Isn't sus that they are tanking the price to 150 these 3 weeks for them to exercise, somehow, 50million shares, or the equivalent in money by trading the contract?
+
+ 
+
+They are 10 dollars away from reaching it, right?
+
+ 
+
+Source of the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/otzu3e/posting_some_more_info_to_help_wrinkle_brains/
+
+ 
+
+*edit: For visibility. [The Chief of Compliance (Scarlatto) left Credit Suisse 2-3 months ago and there is a New Credit Suisse Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio from Portugal who conveniently knows Portuguese.](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/12/credit-suisses-swiss-compliance-officer-scarlato-leaving-.html)
+It requires more research tho... I'll keep updating it here...*
+
+ 
+
+#What does the Head of Compliance do?#
+Head of compliance:
+The Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) The Chief Compliance Officer, one of the most important members of the management team, is primarily responsible for overseeing compliance within an organization, and ensuring compliance with laws, regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures.
+Source: google
+
+ 
+
+*edit 2: As some have pointed out. Tanking the price also means they may prevent GME from going to the S&P 500 due to the market cap. Gonna read on it.*
+He wants to put it in his savings for big expenses we have coming up and I don't think it makes sense because the APR for the loan could exceed the interest that the money generates. It also sounds like a bad idea to take out so much money at once just to have it sit there - what if we need to take out another loan? I'm doing my research to see if this makes sense but I am wondering if anyone can offer advice. Thanks. 
+
+Edit: Thanks for your help. I to him and told him this didn't make sense and that he should just keep saving like he's doing. And that we need to educate ourselves on the best course of action and do some research for financial planning instead of making impulse decisions based on what one person suggests to him. He got the advice from his boss who also mentioned some other things where this might make sense but my boyfriend didn't tell me that. He is definitely not going to be doing this. Thanks. 
+I’m 25, just graduated and am moving to a bigger city to start a sales job where they project 45-50k first year. Need help/advice in a few areas:
+1. How do I budget? Does anyone have a simple spreadsheet or app that will make it easier?
+2. Where and how much should I start investing? I want to for sure have a long term plan where most of my money goes. But also wouldn’t mind getting into the stock market and trying to make a little more short term. I just don’t know where to look for what I need/should get. 
+3. My buddy says I should ask for a different form (can’t remember the name) instead of a W2 and I’ll be able to get less money taken out of my checks. Is that suggested, I know it makes it so you get less on your tax return also?
+4. Just any other tips, apps, advice, will also suffice!!
+
+I’m not very experienced in finances!!
+Hi! I’m 33yrs old, married with one kid and another on the way. Wife is being an amazing stay at home mom. I live in Ohio.
+
+My salary is $80,400. My yearly bonus is 17% of that if all metrics are hit. Bonus is paid out in half stock of the company, half cash, or I can elect all stock. Was just promoted into the position so I won’t see that full bonus until next year, which I will contribute all to retirement vehicles. 
+
+Monthly pay check is $6700. I have access to employer HSA. Employer also offers a 401k, and a Roth 401k.
+
+I already have a Roth IRA with Fidelity that I max out each year. I also have a 529 I will max out each year. 
+
+Employer match for 401k is 6%. They also match 50% of 6% of salary in stock. I’m not sure if they match Roth 401k contributions or if the match only applies to the 401k.
+
+There’s a lot of options here. I can’t afford to max out everything yet. Do I need both a 401k and a Roth 401k if I already have a Roth IRA? I’m a good planner and budgeter, I’m just having FOMO about picking the best options.
+
+Edit: I apologize for abandoning this post today. Many more fires to put out at work than I thought. 
+
+As far as the 529, I will have to relocate several times to continue to climb in my career. I don’t want to be held hostage by school districts. A 529 can be used for K-12 and beyond, so if I need to privately school my kids, I have this fund. Ohio allows you to deduct $4000 a year in contributions to 529, that’s what I meant by maxing it out.
+
+As for the HSA, I plan to annually transfer it to a Fidelity HSA. My deductible is $2000, so it sounds like I should save at least that much. I know I can do $7800 annually as a family, but I think I’ll direct more and more towards 401k once I hit my deductible amount. 
+
+I will contribute to the 401k up to the company match and then heavily favor the Roth 401k. 
+
+I can fully max out a Roth IRA this year and next year with money I have on the sidelines. Leaves me more money to divert to retirement. 
+
+Thank you all for the advice!
+My husband had some changes in 2020 to his medical coverage. We got hit hard in January and had to take a loan to pay for his special insulin. We changed it with the help of a social worker who busted her butt for us and found a way to get relief from the cost going forward. No medicine should be over 8.50 for a year!  When I got the letter, I looked and it was backdated to January. When I called the pharmacy to ask if there was any way we could recover what I had to pay and they were able to help us rebill his medicines. We are getting back over 400.00 from the pharmacy!!! We can pay back the loan and it only took a wonderful person who researched for me! Read the fine print. It can make a major difference.
+
+Edit for clarification: Thank you all for your responses. This plan called "extra help" is for people on medicare insurance with astonomical costs even with insurance coverage. It will help pay all but 8.50 per month per medicine. His monthly out of pocket cost without any isurance for just one medicine (a special insulin) is 2700.00 called u500 made by one company who offers awesome payment plans for commercial insurance, under insured, and for children. The 400.00 we saved was for his medicare part d insurance annual deductible. Stay awesome reddit. Thanks for reading!
+Guten Tag to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+By this point, everyone who regularly reads my GME editorializing here should be aware that I am confident in the DD and that I believe the MOASS to be inevitable. The institutional shorts were so certain at the start of the year that they could weather the storm, and that they could manipulate enough stonk investors into paperhanding that they would be able to recover, or at least survive.
+
+They underestimated Apes. We rose to meet their challenge, building our collective understanding of investing and developing the level of discipline necessary to HODL through their most aggressive short attacks. Their pump and dumps hardly faze us anymore, and only dig them deeper into the hole.
+
+They underestimated Ryan Cohen and the team he assembled. They have turned the company around, and are revolutionizing game retail before our eyes.
+
+So yes, I am confident. I have Diamantenhände. I like the stock. No amount manipulation will shake that.
+
+I choose to HODL *and* to HOLD.
+
+Today is Thursday, November 11th, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- 🟥 120 minutes in: **$201.05 / 173,95 €**  *(volume: 1412)*
+- 🟥 115 minutes in: $201.07 / 173,96 €  *(volume: 1406)*
+- 🟩 110 minutes in: $201.64 / 174,46 €  *(volume: 1399)*
+- 🟩 105 minutes in: $201.51 / 174,35 €  *(volume: 1397)*
+- 🟥 100 minutes in: $200.46 / 173,44 €  *(volume: 1277)*
+- 🟩 95 minutes in: $202.83 / 175,49 €  *(volume: 1137)*
+- 🟥 90 minutes in: $202.70 / 175,38 €  *(volume: 1130)*
+- 🟥 85 minutes in: $202.71 / 175,39 €  *(volume: 1037)*
+- 🟩 80 minutes in: $203.22 / 175,82 €  *(volume: 805)*
+- 🟥 75 minutes in: $202.44 / 175,15 €  *(volume: 679)*
+- 🟩 70 minutes in: $204.78 / 177,18 €  *(volume: 607)*
+- 🟥 65 minutes in: $200.20 / 173,21 €  *(volume: 295)*
+- 🟩 60 minutes in: $200.21 / 173,23 €  *(volume: 285)*
+- ⬜ 55 minutes in: $199.95 / 173,00 €  *(volume: 254)*
+- 🟩 50 minutes in: $199.95 / 173,00 €  *(volume: 250)*
+- 🟥 45 minutes in: $199.88 / 172,94 €  *(volume: 195)*
+- 🟩 40 minutes in: $199.91 / 172,96 €  *(volume: 179)*
+- 🟥 35 minutes in: $199.45 / 172,56 €  *(volume: 128)*
+- 🟩 30 minutes in: $199.46 / 172,57 €  *(volume: 128)*
+- 🟩 25 minutes in: $199.45 / 172,56 €  *(volume: 128)*
+- 🟩 20 minutes in: $199.35 / 172,48 €  *(volume: 108)*
+- 🟩 15 minutes in: $199.27 / 172,41 €  *(volume: 101)*
+- 🟥 10 minutes in: $199.25 / 172,39 €  *(volume: 19)*
+- 🟩 5 minutes in: $199.26 / 172,40 €  *(volume: 7)*
+- 🟥 0 minutes in: $199.17 / 172,32 €  *(volume: 6)*
+- 🟥 US close price: $199.19 / 172,34 €   *($198.25 / 171,53 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.1558. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+Latin Resources had their General meeting yesterday and all on track, all resolutions were 95% agree. Drilling results at the  NOOMBENBERRY HOLLOYSITE-KAOLINITE PROJECT are going to be out at any point now, no later than the end of Feb. Judging by the drilling results, it looks like white cocaine and tonnes of it. It's been slowly rising and up today. Just wondering if it could be the next ASX:ADN?
+
+​
+
+Forgot to add the  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀  🚀
+Edit: holy crap you guys replied to this a lot... Thanks for the feedback/advice! 
+
+Hello r/personalfinance! 
+
+I am 24 years old working for a fortune 500 company. I am a salary, exempt employee making around $85,000 per year. I do not have any degree, I went to a trade school after high school. 
+
+My employer wants me to go to school and get either an engineering degree or a business degree. If I don't go get a degree then I likely won't be able to promote and my prospects for raises are pretty low (I might be able to get my salary to 90-95k in the next 10 years without a degree). 
+
+Here's my problem - if I go get a business degree then they'll try to push me into management. I really don't want to be a manager and I'd quit if that happened. So, for now, a business degree is off the table. Maybe someday when I'm older I'll change my mind on that. 
+
+Regarding the engineering degree, my salary grade is 2 levels higher than the salary grade for an entry level engineer at this company. I'm on the same salary grade as a senior engineer. To get a true promotion, I'd have to move into a project manager role. There's no way they'd give me a project manager role fresh out of school (nor should they). 
+
+The engineering degree would cost me around $30,000 (that's after my employer pays for half) and 5-6 years to complete. I'd probably spend 3-4 years within my current salary grade before getting a promotion for $10k more or so per year. That means it would be 8-10 years before I start seeing any returns and about 11-13 years before I start profiting from the degree. 
+
+I think that I should just continue with my current job and save/invest money. I've been maxing out my 401k every year and I want to start investing in rental properties. 
+
+What do you think r/personalfinance? Thanks! 
+
+TL;DR: Employer wants me to spend $30,000 on a degree. It would take 11-13 years before I start seeing a profit from getting that degree. Is it worth it or nah?
+The last few days we've all seen the huge numbers right?  
+The so-called Darkpool trades, as everybody keeps referring them to.  
+
+
+I'm talking about these:
+
+https://preview.redd.it/ww9pos13i79a1.png?width=638&format=png&auto=webp&s=cd01f3b70a80d2d7c40692c9a351768e18c04bdb
+
+It's been a hot topic again.
+
+I feel I should address that because all of this came from things that happened to me and I posted about on this sub months ago.  
+For some reason it seems to be circulating again.  
+And I’m all for hype and copium if you need it, but let’s get some things straight.
+
+​
+
+It started with this post:   
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zw9mo2/dark\_pools\_are\_one\_hell\_of\_a\_funny\_thing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zw9mo2/dark_pools_are_one_hell_of_a_funny_thing/) 
+
+Then this one:  
+[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zx9jvb/so\_youre\_telling\_me\_gamestop\_is\_going\_for\_13m\_per/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zx9jvb/so_youre_telling_me_gamestop_is_going_for_13m_per/) 
+
+and then this one today:  
+[https://reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zzevro/if\_a\_real\_share\_of\_gme\_can\_sell\_for\_between\_13m/](https://reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/zzevro/if_a_real_share_of_gme_can_sell_for_between_13m/) 
+
+  
+I'm sure it's all but hype, but I love that people seem to *know* it's darkpool trades while I, the one who had this happen live, and posted about it both times, still to this day have no answers on what happened.
+
+I actually commented on the first 2 posts. When I saw the 3rd I figured it’s probably better if I made a post about it.
+
+So honestly I don't know how to see this, but here we go.
+
+​
+
+It started on the 25th of May in After Hours.  
+Suddenly I see big prices in TWS.  
+Now, I blew up Discord with it.  
+The sub a bit later too with this post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uxsftq/uhm\_youll\_wanne\_look\_at\_this\_prices\_go\_up\_spy\_gme/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uxsftq/uhm_youll_wanne_look_at_this_prices_go_up_spy_gme/) 
+
+I was legit tripping out for a bit not having any idea what was going on.
+
+The post blew up and dlauer showed up quickly writing it off as 'just a glitch' and thus a moderator reflaired it to debunked.  
+Everybody here loves Dave right, so that's the part people remember: It got debunked.
+
+While in reality, it really wasn't.
+
+I updated the post accordingly with that it ‘might’ be ‘just a glitch’ and I’ll contact my broker for more info.
+
+I've actually contacted the broker after that and made a follow up post ([https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uzrk4t/update\_on\_the\_weird\_prices\_glitch\_from\_the\_25th/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uzrk4t/update_on_the_weird_prices_glitch_from_the_25th/) ) which nobody bothered to read at that point. It's not hype, who cares, right?
+
+Spoiler alert: Support wasn’t really supportive and it ended up in nothing. Read the post if you want to know more. I’ve included screenshots!
+
+The weeks after this event I had many conversations with people about this.  
+How could it be? Where does it come from? What would be the reason?  
+From 100 layers of tinfoil and me being paranoid to normal reasoning that it has to come from the broker.
+
+To break it down: The data comes from the provider. If the datastream gets corrupted it won't selectively print different numbers. It just stops, crashes, fails, breaks. You get the point.
+
+That didn't happen, as you can see in the screenshots in the posts I made.  
+That didn't happen, because it did not effect every ticker I started watching or tracking. Just a very select few.
+
+But then, why me? Why only me?  
+And since IBKR didn't give any answers I didn't get anywhere.
+
+​
+
+Then, a few months later it happened again on the 27th of September.
+
+After months of nothing, no bugs, no glitches. Just perfectly functioning software it just happened again.  
+Same as before. Almost the same numbers. The same weird epochs and big volumes on the same, yet different tickers. I wasn't tracking the same as back in May.  
+The control tickers started when it was happening didn't 'glitch'. Those worked fine. Just like in May.  
+And like back in May Forex didn't 'glitch' either.
+
+I made a post about that which you can find here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/xptb9a/so\_uh\_13m\_per\_share\_yeah\_i\_just\_had\_that\_again/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/xptb9a/so_uh_13m_per_share_yeah_i_just_had_that_again/) 
+
+  
+Now, when I said nothing happened in those months.. that's not completely true. There were a few times where on a trade there wasn't an exchange listed.  
+Which is weird, every trade has an exchange.  
+But these were for normal prices. Just had some weird epochs (and I've no idea why)  
+But a theory is that weird epochs could be used to hide trades.  
+This also strengthens the theory that it's actual data send through and not 'just a glitch'.  
+If you take a look at the spreadsheet linked below you see it's just a handful of trades compared to the whole day. Ask yourself why would only these 'glitch' and not everything?  
+This happened on the 10th of June.
+
+I made a list which you can view here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ5thglc5wg6iYhh3YE8G27payuN8BByXfg\_Yquc-qLMAmc0XXd-ZCZW8zllxaKxjQYwapx5G\_11ivl/pubhtml](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ5thglc5wg6iYhh3YE8G27payuN8BByXfg_Yquc-qLMAmc0XXd-ZCZW8zllxaKxjQYwapx5G_11ivl/pubhtml) 
+
+No worries about you doxxing yourself. It’s anonymous read-only published html, no login needed.
+
+Except for that, nothing happened in those months from the 25th of May to the 27th of September.
+
+​
+
+Fast forward to now.. The last week of December 2022.
+
+Suddenly one screenshot from one of my posts pops up again, with a lot of hype and people talking about how it’s darkpool trades.
+
+Now, they could be.
+
+One of the theories is that for some reason I got some weird access to, or got data sent from a darkpool.  
+But, it’s unsubstantiated at best. Simply because it’s a theory. I have no proof.   
+Funny thing is that in the 3 posts I made I never mentioned the word darkpool. Yet here we are, people stating it’s darkpool.  
+If you’re reading this and you have actual proof that what I saw was actual darkpool trades, then dm me, let’s talk. Because even after all this time I really want to know what’s going on.
+
+And to be clear: I've seen darkpool trades. They do get posted on the sub at times and they're relatively easy for me to find. They don't go for these big numbers.
+
+If you don’t have proof, you’re basically helping spread misinformation if you still label it as ‘darkpool’.
+
+I get the copium and hype, but I’m also starting to regret posting it.
+
+​
+
+I really hope this brings some perspective and answers to some questions I've seen in the comment sections of the posts from the last few days.
+
+​
+
+That said, I wish all of you a very happy new year!  
+And now fuck off, go spend time with your fam or something.
+
+​
+
+Peace <3
+Over the past couple weeks, there have been a number high-horse posts on this sub directed at people who underperformed the S&P 500 index this year. 
+
+I am here to tell you this: You might have done everything right and still fallen short of the S&P. That isn't inherently bad nor is it inherently a sign of failure. Lots of great companies' stocks had a bum year (AMZN, V, WMT, DIS, BA, MRK) and some got clobbered (PYPL, telecos, etc.) 
+
+Despite popular opinion, investing in individual stocks is not about beating the indexes over an arbitrary short-term period of time. It's about owning shares of strong companies regardless of what the market is doing. Stocks like V and DIS could very feasibly beat the market significantly next year, and may be better positioned to do so if they're seen as a good value. 
+
+Meanwhile, many posts and comments on here suggest getting out of every stock immediately (and worse, selling while they're down), and that you're foolish for even trying. This is not helpful advice. This advice is only helpful if you're the kind of person whose portfolio is 100% meme stocks with no earnings and you have no desire to learn anything new or improve your understanding of stocks or companies whatsoever. If this is you, then yes, you should listen to VTI or VT gang. 
+
+But, I suspect this is not most people here. I suspect this is a tired stereotype, and that a large number of people reading this understand the fundamentals of their holdings quite well but still underperformed this year. Big deal. If you're a buy and hold investor, this isn't a problem unless there's really something wrong with the companies. We all know stocks are more volatile than index funds. 
+
+There are lots of other reasons why someone might not be enjoying this 28% ride: Maybe they didn't have much invested at the beginning of the year. Maybe they're actively learning and making adjustments along the way. Maybe their net worth *is* mostly in index funds and they just want to play jazz with their stock portfolio. Maybe they're in VT and bonds, which is arguably more responsible, and had a far lower return than the S&P. 
+
+I have learned an incredible amount about stocks this year thanks to this sub and websites like Investopedia, FinViz, OpenInsider, and others, and it has given me much enjoyment to participate in the markets in this way. Posts and comments that demean underperforming stock pickers essentially discourage learning. 
+
+One last point: There is an ever increasing interest in socially responsible investing, and rightly so in my view. However, the S&P is not very ESG. Everybody "buying the haystack" is profitting off the fossil fuel industry, war planes, guns, major polluters, animal testing, alcoholism, lung disease, the list goes on. The best performing sector this year was energy, specifically oil and gas companies, the main culprits of climate change. Of course, many people don't care and flout such concerns. But I bet many people in VTI or VT gang don't fully appreciate this relationship and would choose not to invest this way if they knew of a better option. Stock picking allows you to invest in companies you actually support without enriching the insiders of companies you don't. 
+
+In summary, this is r/stocks. We should be encouraging informative and intellectual discussion about stocks, and not ridiculing fellow redditors like they're a bunch of idiots.
+I’ve spoken to my neighbor multiple times about buying her house and we verbally agreed multiple times on that notion. She even expressed her desired sell price and I agreed to it. 
+
+I get home yesterday and notice a survey line was marked in our driveway. We share a driveway which is why it would be beneficial for me to buy the property.
+
+I want to make sure my neighbor still wants to sell me her house but wanted to find the best way to approach her about it without seeming pushy. Any thoughts on how to approach the subject without seeming pushy?
+I’m looking for my first rental and I’m scoping out deals using the 1% method. A lot of the houses I’m looking at are way overvalued back the rent they would bring in. 
+
+Are you currently investing in this market or would it be smarter to wait?
+Am I delusional for trying to make a career out of this? Taking a statistical approach, if you have any strategy that is above 50% success, you'd be profitable over time, meaning your income is exponential. So why don't we hear success stories of these people? Why am I not successful? Where are the millionaire algo traders? Multi-Millionaire spec traders?
+
+If you're a successful trader, what's your annual salary? Is there hope in learning all this shit?
+
+I've spent over 2 years trading and studying the market and I'm still down 11%, reading Mark Douglas, other materials, being a part of 3 brokers, developing all kinds of strategies for different assets, I'm putting as much time into this as a full time job, but I'm actually losing money and literally working another job would be better. I really want to know if I'm just wasting my time and that this 100k-200k career is actually delusional. 
+UPVOTE ⬆️ ⬆️⬆️⬆️🆙
+
+Reposting from [InvestingRetards](https://www.reddit.com/r/InvestingRetards/) 
+
+SO EVERYONE CAN SEE THIS & WE DON’T LOSE.
+
+We need as many warriors as possible.
+
+We made it through the battle today and are UP 69% (nice). The hedges are only getting more desperate after the put options that expired today but REMEMBER: they have at LEAST 2-6 days in the market to pay these off, and likely have MANY MORE options expiring in coming weeks. With the lack of shenanigans today I predict an extended-hours ladder attack is incoming when many retail traders are sidelined from the action, combined with another media push of scare tactics incoming this weekend. We were caught off guard with the RH bullshit but hopefully enough people can get set up with Fidelity, CASH, WeBull, TD Ameritrade or whatever brokerage, next week to even the playing field. But above all else: fuckin hold and we're golden
+
+DON'T TRUST EXTENDED HOURS PRICES TODAY OR MONDAY MORNING.
+
+ DON'T TRUST ANY MEDIA HITPIECES CLAIMING THE SQUEEZE IS OVER THIS WEEKEND. 
+
+THEY WILL TRY TO KILL THE HYPE WHEN TRADING IS DOWN AND CAUSE A MONDAY SELL-OFF. 
+
+HOLD. THE. FUCKIN. LINE.
+
+Want to connect to like minded people for further discussions: [InvestingRetards](https://www.reddit.com/r/InvestingRetards/) 
+
+*obligatory 'not a financial advisor' BS goes here, we just like the fuckin' stock*
+Thanks to everyone who helped with our last topic: "Education".
+
+In continuation of our communal wiki build, today I would like to know: **"What are the best pets and pet resources for low-income people?"** How do you keep your pets healthy and well fed on a budget? Are there any resources everyone should know about?
+
+As a reminder, I'm **posting a topic on most Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and soliciting advice from the community**. I'll take your suggestions and build them into a wiki page for each topic. Once we've built up a foundation we'll go live with the wiki and I'll solicit feedback for additional topics/gaps to fill.
+
+Check back frequently-- even if you aren't experienced with the current topic there will be some that you can likely contribute to in the future.
+
+Thanks again for helping improve our community.
+Hello, 
+
+this is a relationship question, that if I would not have real estate and more importantly a fast growing family company would be easy to solve: we should move. But now my assets seem to lock me down and destroy our relationship.
+
+I (m33) am from Austria and my spouse (f31) is from California. We are together since 7 years, and live in Austria since 5 years.
+
+The first few years, we lived together in Vienna, and she loved it there. Vienna is international and has a lot to offer. Her German speaking skills advanced really quickly and she started her own small company.
+
+During that time I started to build up a real estate portfolio in my home town Salzburg. But then, 3 years ago I got to acquire a small manufacturing company together with my retiring father. For that we moved from cosmopolitan Vienna to small Salzburg.
+
+Because of some lucky circumstances, my father and I grew that manufacturing company from 4 to 15 employees and from 500k€ to close to 8m€ revenue. (we outsource a lot). I am pretty sure, that our maximum revenue can be maximum 15m€, because it is a very niche industry.
+
+On top of that, I got to purchase more commercial real estate that I am renting out. 
+
+I estimate my net worth to be 1.2m€ commercial real estate (+1.4m€ in debt), about 0.1m€ in stocks and savings. My yearly income is close to 400k€ - mostly from real estate and my company.
+
+My fiancee and I have a great relationship and want to start a family. But since about 2 years stuck in a tiny village next to a tiny city, she feels like she was robbed of her potential. Furthermore, that nearly everybody has a tough to understand dialect and not many English speakers are around makes her feel isolated. 
+
+**This might break us apart.**
+
+Even though it's my home town, I don't have many friends that are still around. 
+
+So without my company, I would move somewhere else in a heart beat.  
+But because of the responsibility towards my father as co-partner who wants to retire, my employees (what might they think and might they lose their jobs?) and because my assets are quickly growing but very illiquid, I don't know what to do.
+
+Can you help me sort this out? Has anybody of you had a similar experience?
+I have a part time government job (20 hrs/week) that pays $18.50/hour. I am a third year for computer information systems in college. I have approximately $4000 in my bank account and I have no idea what to do since my school and my job are 13.6 mi apart and I will probably have no car. My paycheck of $1000 will be in my account tomorrow, but I have school MoWe and Work TuThur.
+
+I have a gym membership for a shower and was wondering about buying a car, and I can probably just live there. If I drop school, my job will drop me since it requires me to be a student at an accredited college.
+
+​
+
+The reason why I am in a situation like this is because I have a very strained relationship with my family. While I like to say that some of it is my fault, they will never take blame for themselves, and my sibling (currently almost financially independent and out of state) has highly recommended that I do NOT live at home. If I hadn't met the friends I met in my life, I probably would have killed myself a while ago. All in all, it is impossible for my parents and I to compromise if I were to be myself and they were to be themselves.
+
+​
+
+I really don't know what to do. I have friends that live in houses, but my life shouldn't impact theirs. I consider myself financially stupid and young and foolish but I am willing to learn from my mistakes. Let me know if I missed anything, I'm at work right now and my entire body is shaking in frustration. Thanks.
+
+​
+
+Edit: I have a makeshift plan that I would ideally like to follow. If this plan is not viable, feel free to throw suggestions.
+
+* Buy a car with my current funds
+* Find a second part time job
+* Live with my friends and pay rent/Live in the car
+* Shower at the gym
+* Laundry my friends can help out with
+* Food and Gas is covered by me
+* Apply for FAFSA 2019-2020 as financially independent
+   * Possibly drop out of university and attend community college. I need to be in an accredited college to retain my current job.
+* Do I have to do taxes? I know I get something called a W-2 today.
+
+Apologies in advance for not responding as I am at work.
+
+Update: Some assholes down at the bottom told me to man up and solve it with my parents, so I did. I’m now covering more expenses on my own as a result, but I’m planning on staying until I get my degree and am gunna book it soon after. I’ll be fine, and thanks for anyone who took the time out of their day to criticize me, support me, or give any type of advice. I will still talk to the financial department at school and see what my options are to get out of home ASAP, since it’s definitely financially more smart to not have student loans.
+
+And lmao to those people who tell me I’m being a bitch.
+**TL;DR:** There is to many shenanigans, and to many unrelated anomalies occurring for shorts to have covered. Read the damn list. 
+
+Whattup apes, I don't normally actively post, I prefer to scroll through for the memes and look for confirmation bias in well written DD.  It's my turn to contribute to the community.  Over the last few days, Superstonk has been bombarded with some craziness that can't be explained. Let's clear the air.
+
+Occasionally, apes will loosen their grips on their diamond hands, and this is **something that we can never do.** (In this instance, we indicates "retail traders" and none of this is financial advice, even though the SEC has never done anything important, not one time since its founding, literally ever, but that's besides the point). I digress.  Anyways, whether it be FUD, boredom, FOMO on other opportunities, etc., **apes must never release their diamond grip.**  There will never be another GME.  There will never be another opportunity like this, because the SEC and rule makers are going to step in and protect their rich, asshole friends to make sure they never lose this amount of money again. I would be surprised if anyone went to jail after this is all said and done.  Once again, I am cynical and absolutely would love to be pleasantly surprised, but the wealthy protect the wealthy.
+
+Let me propose to you a couple metaphorical questions.  If apes were barking up the wrong tree, and this was all for nothing, then what the hell is actually going on here? Let's review some of the situations that apes have been tested on so far, and you'll be rest assured that we are on the right track, and the correct thing to do is hold until your face is red and your hands are bleeding. 
+
+​
+
+* If GME wasn't about to break the market, why the hell did they turn the buy button off in late January?  This was unprecedented, and nothing was ever done about it. (**BTW**, **FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE ROBINHOOD.  DO NOT LET THEM TAKE ANOTHER CENT FROM YOU. SERIOUSLY, THE TRANSFER TAKES 48 HOURS, AND THE MOASS WILL LAST FOR DAYS/WEEKS. YOU ARE A TRUE TARD IF YOU'RE STILL ON RH)** All we got from regulators and Congress was a dog and pony show on why retail investing can be risky and should be regulated.
+* If the thesis was wrong, and shorts covered, then why the hell is there **NOTHING** but FUD articles taking a crap all over our favorite stock? Seriously, the ratio of positive to negative articles must be 1:15, and we only get the one short, pointless article when it's a face ripping 30% up in a day.
+* If shorts covered, why is there a constant stream of shills and bots running over our subreddits? Bots were prevalent before, but this is unprecedented.  Shoutout to the mods for their hard work.
+* If shorts covered, why did WSB abruptly change, have a meltdown, and remove DD posts about GME? (This one will certainly ruffle some feathers, I know ZJZ lurks here, but it my **OPINION** that the sub is a husk of its former self) The content there no longer seems as organic as it used to be.   This is not an attack on WSB, we wouldn't be here without it, but its changed undoubtedly.  I still love the idiots over there that YOLO.
+* If shorts covered, why did Ken have five lawyers in the room with him during the Congressional hearing? An honest man who has done nothing wrong would not need advisors.
+* If shorts covered, why did DFV exercise his call options, and buy more? That man is not in the business of losing money, and has been on the winning side of the GME bet since Day 1.
+* If shorts covered, why would Ryan Cohen consistently reference bears doing dumb, foolish things in his tweets? Why would Ryan Cohen, the man who built his business off the grounds of pleasing customers and shareholders, take time out of his busy day to send cryptic messages? Additionally, why would Gamestop's official page constantly drop ads that contain key words related to and merchandise that references apes, the moon, etc.?
+* If shorts covered, **what the shit** happened February 23rd and 24th? Somebody was out for blood and wanted everyone to know that GME's story was not dead, was not over, and to keep your head on straight.  That's the type of price action we'll see during the MOASS when Citadel and friends lose.
+* If shorts covered, what happened March 10th, where GME gained over 90% in two days, and **FLASH CRASHED** to $180 in thirty minutes, losing over 50% of its value?  I have never, in my life, seen something so aggressively be driven into the ground. Someone was very scared of $350 per share. I watched that day in disbelief, and yet we still closed green. 
+* If shorts covered, why were prominent DD writers and wrinkle brains being threatened? Why were some attempted to be recruited to bat for the other team?  Why would someone waste time, energy, and **money** to try and change the sentiment on our favorite stock?
+* If shorts covered, why did Citadel sell $600 million dollars worth of bonds? Admittedly, companies do issue bonds regularly, but the timing in this instance is very odd.  
+* If shorts covered, why did Melvin Capital's Gabriel Plotkin get bailed out by Point 72 and Citadel? Was it because their institutions were at risk should Gaby be margin called? 
+* If the god danged shorts covered their outrageous positions, why the hell were major financial institutions, stock exchanges, and hedge funds working until the wee hours of the morning in their offices last weekend, in the middle of a pandemic?  Google geolocation data confirms this. What do they know, that retail hasn't uncovered yet?
+* If the shorts covered, why the hell is the DTCC proposing new rules as fast as the printer can print them? Along with this, why swear the SEC head in so suddenly, on a Saturday? It sounds like it must be pretty damn important. 
+* If shorts covered, why is GME consistently running out of shares to borrow on the trackers that apes like to check? This, along with the absurdly low borrow rate also seems suspicious.
+* If shorts covered, why are they watching this subreddit like a hawk?  Google trend data showed Superstonk trending in Chicago one day after Superstonk split from /r/GME.  Why watch this sub if you closed your position? (**Sup hedgefund employees, you can be a whistleblower and make millions of dollars by** [clicking this link](https://www.sec.gov/whistleblower/submit-a-tip)**.  But, you better hurry, time is running out**).
+
+There is speculation in my bulleted list.  I am aware of this, and I do not care.  If you care enough, please go find the DD related to it, and change your opinion.  But really, can one attribute all of this to mere coincidence? The odds of that are not improbable, they are impossible.  There is something bigger going on here, and apes are going to shake the banana tree until it breaks.  
+
+Apes will not sell, and apes will not be manipulated. Retail investors are smarter than we have been given credit for, and the house of cards is getting ready to crumble. When this is all said and done, I will be weary of any investing done in the American market until a more transparent system is implemented. I think big changes are coming, and that if I do invest again after this, I will manage my own portfolio.  I have learned so much from this saga, and to be honest, it makes me sick. We have been robbed blind for years, for a measly 7% yearly return with the hope to one day be able to retire and live off $2500 a month. Fuck that. The time of the ape is here. This will build generational wealth, and no other opportunity will ever present itself like this again.
+
+Peace out, and tendies for all.✌
+\~ 23% of Americans rely on astrology for buying or selling stocks - that's the title of the article posted by LendingTree some time ago.
+
+>Americans mostly tap into their horoscope for making decisions on how to save money (42.1%) and whether it makes sense to splurge rather than save (33.5%). But 23.1% rely on astrology for buying or selling stocks, and then same percentage align their job-seeking activities with the positioning of the stars and the planets.
+
+I backtested that for $SPY since 2015. I'm pretty sure there is unlimited variations of how you may read astrology when buying and selling stocks but for this study I used Moon Phases.
+
+People tend to think that on full moon stocks go up...
+
+**The Setup**
+
+* Buy on full moon
+* Sell on new moon
+* $10,000 for each trade
+* No stop loss
+* Testing both LONG and SHORT sides
+
+[Moon Phase Strategy Setup](https://preview.redd.it/2v2qp4bh7em81.png?width=2516&format=png&auto=webp&s=327b57d4e7cedafc14345332d2af543c366e06f1)
+
+**The Results**
+
+Going long in a bull market is profitable as expected. At least that's better than most of the traders according to CNBC, who says 90% lose money.
+
+[LONG side results for $SPY](https://preview.redd.it/rqn68jh28em81.png?width=2110&format=png&auto=webp&s=c522046b8be2a8aefb366da89276d1b31588d953)
+
+[SHORT side results for $SPY](https://preview.redd.it/who1b0619em81.png?width=2106&format=png&auto=webp&s=03ebfcb4d8a682e56117c3874d4117a0e9d30f98)
+
+PS: do not trade like this. Do your research and due diligence before trading or investing.
+Last September I picked up my first job since I had to pay for some expenses (college classes, personal expenditure, etc). My mom, who I currently live with now and has basically paid for most of my living expenses since I was a baby, has an accounting friend who usually does our taxes every year. Since I got a job, she had him do my taxes as well.   
+  
+A couple days ago he informed us that my dad has claimed me as his dependent for last year and that my dad will be receiving my tax return unless he cancels his claim on me. However, my dad moved away when I was in sixth grade (I'm a college freshman now) and the only financial support he's provided me in the last year was $150/month that is supposed to be shared between me and my older sister. Seeing how I made a few grand working last year, I don't believe I'm dependent to him (correct me if I'm wrong, Im not 100% knowledgeable on this subject)   
+  
+I attempted to contact my dad in the last few days to see if he made a mistake claiming me as his dependent or if I could change his mind but he hasn't responded to my emails or my calls.   
+  
+I was wondering if there was something I could do in my situation as the amount of money I'd receive from the tax return could be extremely helpful to pay for upcoming summer classes and my housing for the fall semester.  
+  
+Thanks!  
+  
+Edit: Holy this blew up big time while I was at work. Thanks for the replies. I'm going to have to spend some time reading through all of them. 
+\*\*\* Updated Research
+
+​
+
+**SWK provides an amazing opportunity to take advantage of the bull market in precious metals at an undemanding valuation with excellent operational momentum.**
+
+**Environment:**
+
+Precious metals have had a phenomenal ride lately; both due to fear arising from COVID-19, and coordinated monetary policy stimulating economies at an unprecedented level. The graphic below shows the recent parabolic move in GLD (overshadowed by SLV) and reflecting upon the 08 crisis and the numerous QE policies that followed, this upward trajectory may continue further.
+
+​
+
+[GLD vs DJIA \(2006-Present\)](https://preview.redd.it/pw23fo99iwg51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=5bca0189949f981792181d6abd88b8b189af7f21)
+
+​
+
+With rises in commodity prices, the logical next step is to get some operating leverage and purchase the gold miners. No doubt, this second level thinking has been handsomely rewarded albeit encountering the sovereign and FX risks with many of the global miners domiciled in South Africa and Russia:
+
+​
+
+[DRDGold, Polyus and Polymetal \(April 20 - Present\)](https://preview.redd.it/lv1ytp7aiwg51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=15ae5014f90dc89b6cf11806b40e1593f3f021e4)
+
+Since many of these miners are in the process of expanding production, cash flow won't be realised for several years and operating margins may not improve as much as managements' forecast (i.e. ASX: DAC). Further, since the market has drawn the logical connection between commodity prices and miners, these companies have run a very long way in the last few months.
+
+​
+
+**Company Overview:**
+
+This is where SWK provides us with a cheaper and lower risk opportunity to gain access to this thematic. SWK provides drilling services to large miners of metals (i.e. nickel, silver, gold etc.) in US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Specifically, they use specialised drills to extract samples, which they analyse to then assess to the viability of a site. Increasing demand for mining exploration will, intuitively, increase drilling utilisation and drilling rates. SWK also entirely owns Orexplore, which provides mobile sample analysis to determine the characteristics of extracted cores. This improves the efficiency of examining the quality of a site by removing cost (transportation and storage), timing (it can be conducted on-site), and operational risk (damage in transit) all of which further benefit the mining co. and embed SWK into the exploration process.
+
+​
+
+**Competitive Advantage:**
+
+SWK’s competitive advantage is being able to a world class cost effective and efficient underground drilling. For example, their development of DeepEX allows for longer hole from underground that are cheaper than many shorter surface holes. Their recent contract extension from BHP at Olympic Dam despite competitors (i.e. MSV and BLY) rigs being used onsite is testament to their value proposition.
+
+SWK has also invested heavily (\~$25mn) into their Orexplore technology in an attempt to move up the value chain away from high-capital intensive drilling into a higher margin business. This technology removes significant operating expenses (employees and equipment), reduces lead time (can be built and shipped globally within 2 weeks), is very simple to use (technical training is not required), and most importantly, is currently being purchased for free and is the main catalyst in this investment (more on this later).
+
+Furthermore, SWK has made a concerted effort to increasingly diversify their product offering to different miners (with exposure to various commodities), and geographically. Their global and diversified footprint has provided them with a world-wide footprint, with costs to build their global business already incurred (most recently in Pogo – Alaska), further encouraging a buyout (more on this later).
+
+[ FY19 Financial Report ](https://preview.redd.it/nddsvldf3dh51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6302d363c1aadd5f1bc9881e121ec0e7576756c)
+
+[H1 2020 Financial Report](https://preview.redd.it/824k6w7f3dh51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c04441f145437196ad739a758fc7a7252e1018)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+**Catalyst and Valuation:**
+
+**Exit Options:**
+
+The primary catalyst for a revaluation in SWK is a huge macroeconomic tailwind providing momentum that might facilitate a sale of the drilling business to a strategic buyer. Without doing too much crystal ball gazing, I view the exit opportunities as follows:
+
+5% - Amazing sale of drilling business = >100%+ returns;
+
+65% - Solid sale of drilling business = 50-100% returns;
+
+20% - No sale and general re-rate = 25-50% returns;
+
+10% - Languishing business and capital destruction = -25%-0% returns.
+
+Given management’s firm guidance towards the sale ([https://www.openbriefing.com/OB/Swick-Mining-Services-Ltd/2020/2/25/Swick-HY20-Results-Conference-Call/3716.aspx](https://www.openbriefing.com/OB/Swick-Mining-Services-Ltd/2020/2/25/Swick-HY20-Results-Conference-Call/3716.aspx%20~08:00) at \~08:00) I will focus on our base case that entails: (i) selling or closing surface drilling business as it’s the lowest margin / weakest vertical; (ii) selling underground drilling business; and (iii) refocus towards Orexplore either through taking the business private, IPOing a new entity or rebranding SWK.
+
+Given shareholders have been frustrated with SWKs delay in progressing the business towards a sale and having difficulty commercialising Orexplore it has been important to wait for a noticeable inflexion point in the business to attempt to “time” entry as much as possible. Let’s see how the inflexion point is here beyond the macroeconomic environment above.
+
+Miners around the world are aggressively looking to expand their operations due to increasing commodity prices and SWK's services become front of mind. Recent news is ticking all the boxes and adding huge momentum in the stock to catalyse a re-rating.
+
+1. Reinstatement of dividend payment and share buyback program showing prudential capital management and a positive outlook relating to future financial position. This is a double-edged sword as management raised capital at 23c and bought back shares from 12.5c through to 17.5. By buying now, we have avoided this dilution although acknowledge this was not the best form of capital management. On the other hand, it does suggest management are flush with cash and happy to redistribute to existing shareholders before a possible sale; that is, **we get paid to wait**:
+
+​
+
+[ASX Announcement 1](https://preview.redd.it/b9sbvdq83dh51.png?width=567&format=png&auto=webp&s=13cfbfc4fd50263fb8e89158be1fba3dcbdebe42)
+
+ASX Announcement 1
+
+​
+
+[ASX Announcement 2](https://preview.redd.it/o4hlyeib3dh51.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=fddd42ef80219e8ad6ef6c31d0d9578b8fdddf94)
+
+​
+
+2. Contracts are being extended, new contracts being won, and guidance on FY21 figures. Management are highlighting clear intention to demerge and growth is providing EBITDA      growth for a better sale price:
+
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/06fxmos33dh51.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=70367dc6c623a4bb16c434f7f0f9892cd2a2f20b
+
+​
+
+3. Large contracts with key miners and commercialisation of Orexplore. This is increasing utilisation rates and improving margins by expanding work at existing sites:
+
+[ASX Announcement 3a](https://preview.redd.it/d352wl2diwg51.png?width=477&format=png&auto=webp&s=24ebe8768f3ec2b10805b654fd146a4ea13135e8)
+
+​
+
+[ASX Announcement 3b](https://preview.redd.it/x8t09atdiwg51.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=caa9c17e2c7e3649f5bba5b9c8b4e205bf5a5b6a)
+
+​
+
+4. Upcoming earnings call to catalyse re-rating:
+
+[ASX Announcement 4](https://preview.redd.it/3kgsprdeiwg51.png?width=577&format=png&auto=webp&s=2534ed76373bcc432ee11e5fee5691939ff5f794)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+5. The Orexplore website ([https://orexplore.com/the-orexplore-review/](https://orexplore.com/the-orexplore-review/)) has received increased attention with far more activity within their “Review Blog” section leading towards commercialisation. Posts are being made almost weekly increasing its awareness:
+
+https://preview.redd.it/snsbk0vz2dh51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb5a68c362a20c900c127dd53357ac5bf46dbbd5
+
+https://preview.redd.it/1a80klgz2dh51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab1f81609e06fc30683de45a4de778bb2838bb80
+
+​
+
+6. MSV as the strategic buyer for the drilling business has shown intent to inorganically expand their operations. Deepcore had an EV of \~$44m (excl. additional earnout payments), revenues of \~$50m p.a., and an EBITDA of \~$12m with approximately half the rig number of SWK. This purchase confirms the “fair value” multiple for a drilling business is \~4x EV/EBITDA, even for a significantly weaker private business due to utilisation, profitability, scale and contractual certainty.
+
+https://preview.redd.it/jumpn58y2dh51.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad650e7b63b341e06ddd0a8bff88121249a03925
+
+**Valuation:**
+
+Ok, so let’s turn our attention to the forward guidance and conservative estimates for SWK. SWK against mostly all metrics is very cheap. Management have forecast EBITDA to be \~$25mn in FY20. Although I think we can conservatively estimate this to grow significantly throughout FY21.
+
+The improvements to EBITDA will come from the following: (i) commercialisation of Orexplore = $0.5-1mn, (ii) \~$3-4mn in reaching steady state (20%) margin from the Pogo contract as costs normalise and backdated earnings flow through; (iii) \~$2mn in operating expense reduction during COVID-19; (iv) the $120m increase in the order book between 30 July and 14 August implies $120/5 = $24m p.a. at a slight discount to target margin of \~15% gives another $3.5mn EBITDA. Putting this all together FY21 EBITDA might be \~$35mn.
+
+In addition to the purchase of Deepcore, we can use the current valuation ratios of MSV and CAPD as a guide. Currently competitors trade between 3.5x (CAPD) and 4.5x (MSV) EV/EBITDA multiples. If we use 4x as a reasonable multiple on current EBITDA, this would imply an enterprise value of \~$100mn (or a 30% upside) whilst paying nothing for Orexplore. Upon conservative forward FY21 EBITDA figures, the enterprise value could easily reach \~$150 (or a 100% upside) again paying almost nothing (only $1mn / $35mn in EBITDA) for Orexplore.
+
+By way of reference, SWK with similar metrics in 2011/12 was trading at a \~100% premium (i.e. \~40c (market cap $90-110mn) whereas now it is \~$20 (market cap $50mn). A decade ago, it also did not have the same existing clientele and large-scale contract wins (see 3a above with a forward order book of $363mn (relative to current revenues of \~$150mn).
+
+The cherry on top of this investment is Orexplore, which we buy for free. None of the revenue and earnings multiples above include any real impact from Orexplore. On 14th August the commercial viability of Orexplore was been partially validated with their first contract win. Although its value is only $700,000 over 6 months this call option like payoff comes entirely for free. Further, the true profit margins of SWK has been hidden due to the losses incurred from Orexplore, which has to date cost $25mn in R&D (or equal to almost 10yrs of earnings), the amortisation of associated software development, and continued global expansion (Portugal and Europe before North America) each requiring initial costs prior to achieving target margins. Even better we get a first glimpse at how attractive Orexplore might be. Combining discussion in the latest conference call ([https://www.openbriefing.com/OB/Swick-Mining-Services-Ltd/2020/2/25/Swick-HY20-Results-Conference-Call/3716.aspx](https://www.openbriefing.com/OB/Swick-Mining-Services-Ltd/2020/2/25/Swick-HY20-Results-Conference-Call/3716.aspx) 04:30 - 06:30) with the recent contract we can conclude the following: (i) 3 machines at Sandfire will generate \~$3.6mn in revenue covering approx. 50% of cash flow with nearly no operating expenses; (ii) $700,000 for 6months scanning 1500m of core per month implies \~$75/m (against an estimated $100m from guidance). As per guidance, if we assume Orexplore machines can scan \~$4m/hr ($300hr) and total costs may include one unskilled technician and minimal overheads \~$50mn this provides a gross margin of \~75% (or almost 4x undergrounding drilling). Due to the profitability of Orexplore, 15-20 operational machines on yearly contracts would provide greater earnings than SWK’s entire business. Hopefully the publicity of Orexplore at Sandfire can attract some attention, and in turn some additional contracts.
+
+​
+
+**Risks:**
+
+No investment is without its risks, and for SWK they fall into: (i) capital mismanagement; and (ii) poor communication / delays. Firstly, the recent capital raise at \~23c followed by aggressive buybacks at \~12.5-14c-17c seems unwise. Although buying now avoids this dilution, it is unclear why excess capital was required if dividends and buybacks were announced shortly thereafter. Secondly, the share price has historically languished due to a lack of publicity and detail on the transformational Orexplore. It is likely that management were unwilling to oversell the Orexplore narrative before genuine contracts were won and the technology was established. Now that these are in place, hopefully the corporate restructure can take place and the upcoming strategic review can provide a clearer picture for the near term.
+Brothers, 
+
+Any thoughts on why VML's SP did not react to today's announcement as expected?
+
+Does the market need more time to react and soak in the announcement?......... Or am I missing something. Been hearing about SP manipulation through bot accounts. Is this possible through reputable stock brokerage firms eg Commsec? 
+
+Still pretty new to this stuff, please take it easy on me.
+Your markets are run by bots. Now your Weekend threads are too[.](https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_2hqqj5/styles/communityIcon_41pmnaqp4zn41.png?width=256&s=59bf38425fb316fdcba30365b272a5f19352f370)
+
+Read the [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/asx_bets/wiki/index/) people.
+
+[Posts relating to the "Is /r/ASX\_bets about finance or effect your mental health?" etc will lead to a ban of the mods chosing. You have been warned.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ASX_Bets/comments/l0l9et/the_does_asx_bets_effect_your_finances_emotions/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) 
+
+[We have an active official/unofficial discord. It's open to all discussions, stonks related and non-stonks related.](https://discord.gg/ywAGqfUAQE)
+Your markets are run by bots. Now your /r/Asx_bets daily threads are too.
+
+Read the [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/asx_bets/wiki/index/) people[.](https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_2hqqj5/styles/communityIcon_41pmnaqp4zn41.png?width=256&s=59bf38425fb316fdcba30365b272a5f19352f370)
+
+[Posts relating to the "Is /r/ASX\_bets about finance or effect your mental health?" etc will lead to a ban of the mods chosing. You have been warned.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ASX_Bets/comments/l0l9et/the_does_asx_bets_effect_your_finances_emotions/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) 
+
+Automoderator may provide "Guidance" for Lazy and zero effort posting.
+
+[We have an active official/unofficial discord. It's open to all discussions, stonks related and non-stonks related.](https://discord.gg/ywAGqfUAQE)
+
+
+\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
+
+It has recently come to the moderators attention that two of the top users this month have been operating multiple accounts in order to bypass the karma limits on this subreddit. These users are:
+
+u/WackyMister
+
+u/Imaginary-Cow25
+
+I won't share many details on how this has been identified but the moderation team and myself have *no doubts* this is the same user, using multiple accounts to bypass the 15k karma limit. As you can see below, those two users (or shall I say this user) have a lot of similarities in writing style
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/8wgniqW](https://imgur.com/a/8wgniqW)
+
+[https://imgur.com/a/2qQNna3](https://imgur.com/a/2qQNna3)
+
+These are not the only evidence there is, moderators have **many other evidences** that won't be disclosed on here for obvious reasons.
+
+Keep in mind, these users are not banned just for having a very similar writing style. The examples cited above are just a ***tiny sample***. Writing style is not the only thing moderators look for, but it's the most visual thing to share to everyone on here.
+
+While this user may have been permanently banned from this subreddit, we still need an emergency proposal to remove this user from distribution or **20158 karma or 5422 moons** will still be distributed to this user on October 6th.
+
+This subreddit have very strict rules on using multiple accounts to bypass the karma cap, or otherwise game the system in an effort to earn more moons. Rule 3 is "No Manipulation" and that counts for bypassing Governance rules for the subreddit.
+
+By passing this poll, it will remove the above accounts from the current distribution, ensuring they do not receive the final moons allocated for their posts and comments in snapshot 18. The methodology to address problem users has been laid out by Reddit admins.
+
+[View Poll](https://www.reddit.com/poll/q1tcgp)
+I’m back for another Insurance Insights post! For previous Insurance Insights have a look at these links:
+
+* https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/ihcahk/insurance_insights_how_you_can_own_your_life/
+* https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/i7imzo/insurance_insights_the_difference_overlap_between/
+
+There’s a lot of confusion out there as to where to buy your Life & Disability insurance from and it is important to know your options and the differences because it really makes a difference to the quality of the policy, the premium that you pay, your experience as a policy holder and your options and experience at claim time.
+
+At present there are 6 main methods for purchasing Life & Disability Cover. The list below starts with the most basic option and works its way up. 
+
+1. Direct Insurance Policies *(eg: Real Insurance, Insurance Line, Funeral Insurance – basically your TV/online based policies)*
+2. From your Health/House/Car Insurer *(eg: Allianz, AAMI, HCF, Woolworths, Qantas)*
+3. Directly from a Life Insurance Specialist *(eg: OnePath EasyProtect, Zurich Ezicover, TAL Lifetime Protection)*
+4. From your Super Fund
+5. Online Broker *(eg: Lifebroker)* 
+6. Through an Adviser
+
+**1. Direct Insurance Policies**
+
+These are the policies you see advertised during daytime TV, saying things like “apply over the phone, no medical, do you want peace of mind” etc. Common players in this space are Real Insurance, Insurance Line, Funeral insurance policies. 
+
+In my opinion some cover is always going to be better than no cover but these policies:
+
+* Are not underwritten
+* Are expensive relative to what they cover you for (dollar for dollar often more expensive than advised/super policies due to high cancellation rate/advertising costs)
+* Are low-quality/very basic (eg: many general exclusions, pre-existing clauses, basic definitions, grey-area terms and conditions, policies are often not guaranteed, may be non-renewable)
+* Are held under different legislation and consumer laws to specialist life insurance products 
+* do not take your personal needs or circumstances into consideration and,
+* do not provide ongoing service, reviews, assistance other than to try and upsell you or market other products to you.
+
+Without getting too controversial I’d personally put these policies up there with the ‘Junk Insurance Policies’ you’ve heard about in the media. They’re not quite at that level and I know people have had successful claims with them but they’re not great if true ‘peace of mind’ is your goal. 
+
+**2. From your Health/Home/Car insurer**
+
+These products are similar to Direct Insurance Policies outlined above. These products are available from either companies that add life and disability insurance to an existing base/core product offer. 
+
+Common players in this space are health, car and home insurers as well as companies such as Woolworths, Virgin, Qantas etc – the key is adding more products to bring consumers into their fold and marketing opportunities. 
+
+Life and Disability cover available from these sources is often similar quality/consumer experience to Direct Insurance Policies outlined above. 
+
+**3. Directly from a Specialist Life Insurance Company**
+
+You’re buying your Life and Disability cover from a specialist Life Insurer, usually via their website. However, the products available to you are their most basic policies. A specialist life insurer can only offer basic policies direct to consumer as their best quality policies are technical and require the expertise of an Adviser.
+
+But don't be fooled, whilst you might think the quality of these policies would be higher than options 1 & 2, they're often not. Basically it's the specialist life insurers trying to get a slice of the direct insurance market. 
+
+Not all of specialist life insurers offer a product that you can buy directly from them. Most of them only offer products available through an adviser. Common players in this space are Zurich EziProtect and TAL Lifetime Protection. 
+
+**4. From your Super Fund**
+
+A lot of people have some cover in their super fund either by default (ie: it was given to you when you joined the fund) or have actively taken out cover through the fund. Cover available through a super fund is called ‘Group cover’. This is because you take out cover with the whole group of members.
+
+Most industry funds in Australia do not have their own insurance offering, instead they contract their insurance cover out to either AIA, TAL or Metlife (plus a few smaller players). Most retail funds are more flexible with their insurance options or use the in-house insurance (eg: ANZ super you’ll often find offers ANZ Group Insurance).
+
+Whilst AIA, TAL and Metlife are specialist life insurers, most specialist life insurers have a few divisions to their business:
+
+* Direct to consumer (outlined in point 3)
+* Group Cover (super funds and employer-paid policies)
+* Personal/Advised Policies (point 6 below)
+
+Cover through super is often better than options 1, 2 and 3 above but be aware that:
+
+* Taking cover out through super means the insurance has to meet superannuation legislation, meaning the cover has to be basic
+* Potential tax implications
+* Good option where cashflow is a concern
+* In the event of a claim you deal with the insurance company and the super fund, can add complexity to the process. I’ve seen many successful claims but just something to be aware of.
+* Depending on the fund the cover is often not guaranteed renewable and policy terms and even insurers can be changed from under you (ie: Rest changed their insurer from AIA to TAL recently without member’s say).
+
+**5. Online Broker**
+
+Not to be confused with option 1, 2 or 3 an online broker offers ‘advised’ quality policies that you choose yourself. A big player in this space is Lifebroker. 
+
+For all intents and purposes Lifebroker are considered an ‘adviser’ in the advice space however, online brokers do not provide specialist advice on either how much cover you may need or what the different policies are – to do this would require personalised advice and this does not meet their model, which is all about scale.
+
+As an example, when I go to LifeBroker to do a quote they want me to know how much cover I want. If I don’t know then they direct me to a calculator. 
+
+The products Lifebroker provides to me can include several from the one insurer, differing on the product quality. Eg: If I do a quote for Life, TPD and Critical Illness/Trauma cover I receive the following options from Zurich:
+
+* Protection Plus, TPD, **Extended** Trauma
+* Protection Plus, TPD, **Platinum** Trauma
+ 
+You are then expected to do your own research on how these policies differ and make your own informed decision. No advice is given on quite a technical product. You also go through the application process yourself and if you miss something on your duty of disclosure it’s on you.
+
+The key here is that whilst the product quality is light years ahead of options 1, 2, 3 and 4 you’re potentially not getting the cover you may need because they cannot give personalised advice due to their scalable model. Lifebroker are giving you access to good quality policies but putting the onus all back on you, effectively indemnifying themselves against your decision making.
+
+**6. Through an Adviser**
+
+By far the best option for most consumers as this results in personalised advice. A good adviser should be able to offer the following:
+
+* Your current circumstances are discussed taken into account when calculating types and amounts of cover required
+* Your goals and future plans are taken into account
+* Cover can be structured best for you (ie: personal cover, superlinked cover, tax decuctibility etc)
+* Highest quality with the most comprehensive definitions
+* Policies that are held to a higher legislative standard
+* Initial and ongoing relationship with a specialist adviser that is held to high and new legislative and professional standards that **MUST** act in your best interest
+* Depending on the adviser, a claims management service so you don’t have to go through extra stress at claim time
+* Policies that are surprisingly well priced, and often ~~cheaper~~ better value compared to options 1, 2 and 3. *(edited based on feedback from u/SackWackAttack).*
+
+Advised product suite names are as follows:
+
+* AIA Priority Protection
+* BT Protection Plans
+* Clearview Life Solutions
+* Integrity Life Here For You
+* Metlife Protect
+* MLC Life Insurance
+* Neos Life Protection
+* OnePath OneCare
+* PPS Mutual Professionals Choice
+* TAL Accelerated Protection
+* Zurich Wealth Protection
+
+**A Visual Example/Comparison**
+
+I thought I’d do a comparison on policy quality between the various options outlined above. Unfortunately the research can’t capture client experience but it might go some way to illustrating the various qualities available. 
+
+I’ve compared the Income Protection cover available through:
+
+* Real Insurance *(Direct insurer/option 1)*
+* AAMI *(Car/Health/House insurer/option 2)*
+* Zurich Ezi Cover *(Direct from a specialist Life Insurer/Option 3)*
+* HostPlus *(Through Super/Option 4)*
+* Zurich Wealth Protection *(Product only available through an Adviser/option 5 & 6)*
+
+Products are ranked by highest quality first/left hand column to lowest quality/right hand column.
+
+See document here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCVJurieVlN3ha4PZajJVbU_0jJ2QUu7/view?usp=sharing 
+
+**Summary**
+
+Even if you think your situation is basic it is absolutely worth seeking advice for your protection needs. 
+
+Insurance is a highly complex and technical area and the last thing you would want is to have dramas at claim time because the policy wasn’t underwritten, you didn’t understand the terms and conditions or you didn’t disclose something. Don’t leave this up to chance, it really could be your future at stake.
+
+Avoid options 1 and 2 like the plague. Options 3 isn’t much better to be honest. Options 4 and 5 are getting better. But ultimately seek advice from an Adviser, ideally a specialist Insurance Adviser. 
+
+As usual I invite any questions and note that this is general advice only.
+
+*EDIT: see u/feltoar comments below re: Noble Oak. They straddle a very fine line between direct and non-direct product. Omitting them from the purchasing options above was to avoid confusion on this issue, I would suggest they fit in point 5 - through an online broker.*
+Last week I appreciated a lot of educated comments on oil & gas forecasts (see [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/uz4afx/your_forecast_on_energy_stocks/)). Quite a few people were of the opinion that "oil will definitely not drop back to $80, let alone $50."
+
+This got me thinking, let's pretend we're in May 2023, and oil is now $60/barrel and falling. What would be your "see I told you so" reason? (The Russian invasion ends? China demand collapses?  Worldwide recession?)
+
+I remember back in 2013, oil price was high and everybody said oil will stay above $100 forever; then during the oil downturn and layoffs, many felt oil is dead and it won't recover...it's natural to go with today's sentiment and miss the big picture. 
+
+Serious replies only, thank you!
+Hi all, 
+
+Let me preface this with saying I know enough to know I don't know a lot. I have roughly 240kcad to invest (in TFSA, made from weedstocks) so that I can live off the dividends in Asia. At 4.5% annually it is enough to live (assuming health care if covered).
+
+My question is: am I too under diversified? I can't see these companies going bankrupt and if it dips hard I'll just continue to collect dividends. These are strong companies with history of dividend payments, however I am only invested in Canadian market.
+
+Telus $40,029.08 49.59 807 shares
+RY $35,093.00 101.69 345 shares
+CM (CIBC) $35,316.65 330 shares 
+TD $24,330.47 72.99 332 shares 
+
+Ill be looking to add AQN and Enbridge. I don't want to buy etfs as I dont like the MREs and I believe these are solid companies, but like I said I dont know enough probably. 
+
+Please roast me kindly. Thank you 
+
+Edit: I will add Enbridge and/or AQN, and will add CU. Not comfortable with REITS (dont know enough and don't trust canadian real estate after its blown up so much last 8 years.) any other tickets/sectors? Trying to keep canadian so I dont have to pay the 15% fee
+
+A lot of people missed out on the zoom and Lightspeed run, however I think the next big thing for investing is going to be mining companies.   With the rise of Bitcoin I see companies like Bitfarms (invested in) and HIVE (no holdings) making huge profits this year.    These companies are lagging behind American Companies in terms of valuation even though they are less speculative operations.  Bitfarms is the largest operator in North America, all the other companies are trying to catch up.  
+
+What are your thoughts?
+So I am not a coder, dont know any languages, but i have a strong financial background so understand the market well. I tried algo trading with crypto right as the crash was happening (using Gunbot) and while it gave me a good understanding of how it works, I thought there was no way to do that in the stock market without being a big bank....until stumbling upon this sub. 
+
+​
+
+Right now I'm trying my hand with options around earnings, but I may expand out depending on the fruits of this post and subsequent investigation.  In my brief scan of this sub I've seen that people advise to learn to code which is counter to what i was looking to find. I was hoping to find an existing bot that has the ability to customize based on TA and strategy like the crypto bots do. If you know of some please point me in that direction so i can do some due diligence.
+
+​
+
+Aside from built bots, is there somewhere you could point me that would be a quick and efficient way to learn to build my own bot. I say quick because I have a demanding full-time job currently and my free time is spent on trying to perfect my options strategy.  Also, where would be the best places to deploy said bots once its obtained through either means. If possible lower fees are better for me because I will not be working with a lot due to life lol, and my natural inclination if for high frequency trading on super short intraday trends so less fees equals better.
+
+​
+
+Thanks for reading this far and hopefully I learn enough to one day help someone in my position currently
+
+*Edit: since someone pointed me towards crypto information (which is appreciated), I'm looking to also trade stocks/options on a broker. I'm still avoiding crypto.
+If you started over knowing nothing about algotrading, what is your recommended reading order (or study plan) for algotrading from beginner to advanced?  It can be a mixture of books, articles, courses, blog posts, videos, etc.
+Hello I have a question and was it true that you have to fight against the best algorithms, the smartest people and against insider information ? I am relatively new to trading and wonder if you have a chance at all? If you have to compete against people with a Bloomberg terminal...
+Welcome to the Daily Altcoin Discussion thread of /r/EthTrader. 
+
+***
+
+The thread guidelines are as follows:
+
+-  All sub rules apply here so please review our **[rules page](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/about/rules/)** to become familiar with them. The rules page is also linked in the announcement bar above.
+-  This thread is intended as a welcome place for discussion of all non-Ethereum related crypto.
+
+***
+
+ Resources and other information:
+
+* Newcomers who have basic questions about Ethereum can find answers by visiting /r/EthereumNoobies or our Ethereum Education wiki page, [see here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/wiki/education).
+
+* To view live streaming comments for this thread, [click here](https://reddit-stream.com/comments/auto).  Account permissions are required to post comments through Reddit-Stream.com.
+
+***
+
+Enjoy!
+
+They claim that at this point if a guaranteed income is not provided to each citizen in some form, the global economy will inevitably collapse. How do you feel about this notion?
+I feel like it could have been anything that got shorted to hell when e-commerce started overtaking brick-and-mortar and old companies started going out of business. It could have been Toys-R-Us or RadioShack or Blockbuster or Chuck E Cheese. But as an awkward dork who didn't have a lot of money growing up Gamestop specifically was a bright spot for me. I didn't go there often, I got one or two new games a year and had to make the most of them, and every few years I might try trading in the games that I had thoroughly played through, but Gamestop was the starting point of thousands of hours of enjoyment throughout my childhood. So I'm really glad that if there's something apes are rallying behind, Gamestop is it.
+https://www.wsj.com/articles/meta-platforms-facebook-fb-q1-earnings-report-2022-11651022191
+
+Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is expected to post its slowest revenue growth on record as the company navigates growing competition for users and privacy headwinds in its advertising business.
+
+Meta’s stock price was battered in February when it posted quarterly results that showed a sharper-than-expected decline in profit, a gloomy revenue outlook and a drop in its daily active users.
+It was last increased in 2007, and $75,000 then is now equivalent to $101,869 in 2021 terms according to the RBA inflation calculator. As a sole trader in an industry where unfortunately GST is not able to really be passed onto clients and instead basically becomes a 10% additional tax rate— it kinda sucks that it kicks in at that level, especially since that’s 75k turnover not profit. Just hitting a little harder in these days of price hikes on everything else I guess.
+A few years ago in the Bitcoin community the discussion was all about how the Bitcoin blockchain could do it all so there was no reason for altcoins (or "shitcoins"). Everything was being built on Bitcoin, or should be built on Bitcoin, because it was going to be the only global blockchain that mattered. Need to issue your own tokens or do something that required more scripting? Colored coins and Counterparty (and later RSK)! Supply chain tracking? Blockchain voting? Notary? Property ownership? Bitcoin can do it all.
+
+But now the community seems to be more in the spirit of Bitcoin being a store of value and a transfer of value and that's it. [The comments on this post sum it up](https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5xkvc1/psa_were_running_a_stress_test_of_our_blockchain/). Ignoring Luke-jr's expected nonsense, so many people are adamantly against anyone using the Bitcoin blockchain for anything other than transferring money.
+
+Which is an interesting issue, because almost no one uses Bitcoin for that. Specifically, in 2016, [the majority of transfers are between exchanges, only a tiny fraction is for payments or other transfers, see chart in article](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/business/dealbook/bitcoin-china.html).
+
+This is probably why the number of transactions keep climbing and fees keep rising despite people complaining. Exchanges aren't really hurt by high fees, they can pass them on or absorb them since their average txn amount is relatively high so the fees for them are still low.
+
+As an aside, it's almost funny that LN is being offered as a scaling solution, but the majority of users who are actually making money off Bitcoin (exchanges, and miners) don't need that solution at all. They also don't need larger blocks (perhaps someday the exchanges would, but they don't seem to need them currently). Is it no wonder the scaling issue is in a stalemate? Anyway...
+
+So what does this have to do with /r/ethtrader?
+
+It seems to me that the Bitcoin community has mostly relegated Bitcoin to a use (transfer of value) that almost no one uses it for (majority use it for speculation and store of value, with the idea that future users will need it as a transfer of value). While a market can stay irrational longer than anyone can stay liquid, they do eventually catch up to reality, and when that happens with Bitcoin some money will go to things like Dash, Monero, and Litecoin, but I think the majority will go to Ethereum. It might be years, but that's ok, I think most of us are in this for the long haul, both as an investment and as a technological revolution.
+[link](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/20/mcconnell-says-congress-has-agreed-to-900-billion-coronavirus-stimulus-deal.html?utm_content=Main&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2uRFFTS_C1F32Pn2swO-ha4pde1W0MUJWq8RZywN_54slLZ-vuG98R7no#Echobox=1608504254)
+
+KEY POINTS
+Congress reached a deal Sunday on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
+Lawmakers will move to vote on the proposal, along with a full-year government spending bill, as soon as Sunday night.
+Millions of Americans have awaited aid for months as Congress failed to agree on another plan to boost a health-care system and economy buckling under the weight of the pandemic.
+
+Congress reached a deal Sunday on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, a long-delayed effort to boost an American health-care system and economy buckling under the weight of the pandemic.
+
+Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the agreement on a pandemic aid and full-year government spending bill. He did not delve into many details. Congressional leaders have not yet released text of the more than $2 trillion legislation, which they hope to pass in the coming hours.
+
+The agreement follows months of sniping on Capitol Hill over how best to fight a once-in-a-century crisis. A new round of aid cannot come soon enough for the millions of Americans who have tried to scrape together enough money to afford food and housing.
+
+The $900 billion coronavirus relief plan under negotiation on Capitol Hill was set to include direct payments of $600 to many adults. Some families were also expected to get $600 per child.
+
+The proposal was set to put at least $300 billion into small business assistance including Paycheck Protection Program loans. It would also add a $300 federal unemployment supplement and temporarily keep in place pandemic-era programs that expanded unemployment insurance eligibility.
+
+If those provisions expire the day after Christmas, 12 million people will lose unemployment benefits.
+
+The measure was also set to put critical funding into the distribution of the two FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. Health-care workers and top government officials have started to receive shots, and widespread inoculation in the coming months will help the world to emerge from the pandemic’s shadow.
+
+The rescue package was also set to send relief to hospitals, many of which have struggled to keep up with a flood of Covid-19 patients. It was also expected to put new money into education and transportation.
+
+As lawmakers finally reach a deal, the help comes too late for the nearly 8 million people estimated to have fallen into poverty since June. Many in Congress say the proposal will not go nearly far enough to address the scope of the health and economic crisis.
+
+Progressives and some Republicans have pushed for larger direct payments and retroactive federal unemployment payments. A $600 weekly supplement that buoyed millions of jobless Americans in the early months of the pandemic expired over the summer, and it took Congress months to agree to reinstate it.
+Unfortunately the beat was to the downside. This company somehow managed to lose $178.4 million CAD in a quarter that only included two weeks of the shutdown. For those of you counting at home that is $2.82 per share, beating estimates of a loss of 43 cents per share by about 550% to the downside. Debt covenants suspended, contingent on additional financing. Company is beyond fucked. This is at best a penny stock now. 
+
+Press release is here:
+
+http://irfiles.cineplex.com/Attachments/NewItems/Q1%202020%20Press%20Release%20FINAL_20200629232052_0.pdf
+Hello,
+
+I have been looking at HYLD (the Hamilton one traded on the TSX, not the one traded on the NYSE). Here is a link for anyone not familiar with it: [https://hamiltonetfs.com/etf/hyld/](https://hamiltonetfs.com/etf/hyld/)
+
+A few points:  
+1) The ETF is quite new, but is essentially an "ETF of ETFs", and in this sense the underlying holdings are not 'new'.
+
+2) It utilizes a covered call strategy to get enhanced yield
+
+3) It utilizes a 25% leverage to overcome the commonly reported 'downside' of covered calls, which is that they greatly limit growth.
+
+4) While the ETF is 'new', it is essentially the  Solactive U.S. Covered Call ETFs Index  with a 1.25 multiplier (due to the 1.25 leverage).
+
+5) The current yield is around 11%
+
+6) A comparison of the SP500 index vs. the  Solactive U.S. Covered Call ETFs Index x1.25 shows pretty close correlation. Most comforting (to me) is that the Solactive U.S. Covered Call ETFs Index x1.25 matches the SP500 quite closely during the 2020 bear market and subsequent recovery which seems to suggest this index(x1.25) can handle drawdowns and match the subsequent recovery of the SP500.
+
+7) While I understand I could simply buy the underlying holdings, from what I can gather it seems institutions like Hamilton can get a much better rate on their leverage than I (a personal investor) could get. Thus, it is the 1.25 leverage that makes this ETF interesting as this leverage helps to enhance the recoveries and is also cheaper than if I personally tried to replicate this fund. 
+
+With these points in mind, my question is:  
+What are the realistic risks of this ETF? If you put in a million dollars (and don't really plan on needing this cash at any point), it seems you can rely on an income of \~ 110,000 CAD/year. I get that the principle could vary a lot, but the core ETFs that comprise this ETF seem to have pretty stable/reliable distributions. As the Solactive U.S. Covered Call ETFs Index x1.25 tracks the SP500 reasonably well, it seems like it could be a reasonably safe choice long term. While I don't plan on moving all my investments into this fund, I can't help but admit that it's tempting based on the risk/reward that I can see. I'd be curious what additional risks more experienced investors would have to share. Are there any more serious risks that anyone can share?
+
+Thanks.
+Guten Tag to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
+
+The markets continue to be volatile, purportedly because of the Evergrande situation but I am convinced that we were in for some volatility this month even without that. Reverse Repos hit another all-time-high, nowhere close to the end of the month even. At this rate, I'd expect it to hit $1.5tn on September 30th. Apes continue to DRS their shares to ComputerShare, but also buy shares directly through ComputerShare. As more and more pressure builds on the SHFs, we can expect to see even extreme attempts to manipulate the stock and apes. I don't know how it is possible, but they must not know who they are dealing with. Our Diamantenhände are forged by their fuckery, and we are ready to buy the dips and HODL what we buy indefinitely.
+
+Today is Wednesday, September 22nd, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
+
+###🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
+***
+
+
+- 🟩 120 minutes in: **$187.78 / 160,36 €**  *(volume: 1296)*
+- 🟩 115 minutes in: $186.93 / 159,64 €  *(volume: 1288)*
+- 🟥 110 minutes in: $186.63 / 159,38 €  *(volume: 1237)*
+- 🟥 105 minutes in: $186.89 / 159,60 €  *(volume: 1109)*
+- 🟩 100 minutes in: $186.92 / 159,62 €  *(volume: 1046)*
+- 🟩 95 minutes in: $186.77 / 159,50 €  *(volume: 1046)*
+- 🟩 90 minutes in: $186.74 / 159,47 €  *(volume: 1036)*
+- 🟥 85 minutes in: $186.16 / 158,98 €  *(volume: 1010)*
+- 🟩 80 minutes in: $187.99 / 160,54 €  *(volume: 875)*
+- 🟥 75 minutes in: $187.62 / 160,23 €  *(volume: 597)*
+- 🟥 70 minutes in: $187.89 / 160,45 €  *(volume: 577)*
+- 🟥 65 minutes in: $189.45 / 161,79 €  *(volume: 442)*
+- 🟩 60 minutes in: $189.72 / 162,01 €  *(volume: 441)*
+- 🟥 55 minutes in: $189.66 / 161,96 €  *(volume: 439)*
+- 🟩 50 minutes in: $189.86 / 162,14 €  *(volume: 423)*
+- 🟩 45 minutes in: $189.75 / 162,04 €  *(volume: 372)*
+- 🟩 40 minutes in: $189.10 / 161,49 €  *(volume: 319)*
+- 🟩 35 minutes in: $189.09 / 161,47 €  *(volume: 190)*
+- 🟥 30 minutes in: $188.91 / 161,32 €  *(volume: 176)*
+- 🟩 25 minutes in: $188.93 / 161,34 €  *(volume: 166)*
+- 🟩 20 minutes in: $188.87 / 161,29 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 15 minutes in: $188.79 / 161,22 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 10 minutes in: $188.71 / 161,15 €  *(volume: 157)*
+- 🟩 5 minutes in: $188.63 / 161,09 €  *(volume: 120)*
+- 🟥 0 minutes in: $188.59 / 161,05 €  *(volume: 110)*
+- 🟥 US close price: $189.95 / 162,21 €   *($188.80 / 161,23 € after-hours)*
+
+
+***
+FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.17099447. I wrote and maintain a C# application that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check [Lang & Schwarz](https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/gamestop-aktie) or [TradeGate](https://www.tradegate.de/orderbuch.php?isin=US36467W1099)
+
+Diamantenhände isn't just a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
+I’m a part time student in community college working 2 jobs. I have 3,500 in my savings, zero credit and few monthly bills. I save more than 90% of my income from my 1st job and live off of my 2nd job which doesn’t pay as much. I drive an old beater car, live extremely frugal and am scared of seeing my money in my savings plummet. My family and friends are annoyed of my lifestyle as I work too much and don’t “treat” myself with shopping or trips out but I’m okay with that knowing I have money. However, I’m not sure if this is unhealthy or if anyone can relate to me. Should I stop being a freak with money? Am I always going to be like this and never really enjoy life as other people say? 
+
+
+
+
+Edit: I want to thank you all for your advice and even praise! I read through all comments and will for sure look into good advice I’ve seen I really appreciate your opinions and effort into giving me your advice. 
+Jack them titties.
+
+Last time around for earnings there was no news that came out of it, even though we felt entitled to something. Some kind of catalyst. Instead we got a 15 minute call in which RC spoke briefly and told us all to buckle up. 
+
+And so we did. 
+
+That shareholder meeting would be the last time we would recognize Sherman as CEO, and Matt Furlong would not be named until June 21st. As we all know, Ryan Cohen is unable to speak publicly about GME due to the “gag order” until next year at some point I believe. 
+
+So consider this…if RC is unable to speak on it, Sherman is leaving, and Furlong hadn’t been named yet; why would we have expect some blowout announcement? 
+
+However THIS time around…
+
+We have RC firmly in control, Furlong in position to speak publicly on behalf of RC, two completed share offerings, cash-lined debt-free coffers, a pending NFT announcement, new fulfillment centers and an expanding e-commerce presence to rival the likes of the largest global retailers.
+
+THIS time is going to be different. Buckle up indeed, apes. 💎👐🚀🦍
+
+Edit: it’s earnings Eve, LETS GET FUCKIN HYPE.
+Seriously, seems like the most investors in the space get investment information from internet blogs and Reddit. Do we influence price changes at all or are we just little fish in this big blue sea of coin 
+Turns out we have a credit card and she’s paying £200 a month to keep on top of the outstanding £6000 balance. I’m looking to balance transfer and spend the next 5 years paying this off. Any advice greatly appreciated. I’m losing my mind.
+[The MOASS is Inevitable](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mjo3jj/the_moass_is_inevitable/). It’s no longer a question of if, just when.
+
+Here is a cheat sheet to get you through the FUD when this takes off. The most important thing to remember here is that Apes have the data to back the thesis.
+
+It will be a bumpy ride, but the DD here will make it easier:
+
+Look back over things they’ve done to scare you into selling…
+
+* [FUD](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mnjqpw/dont_forget_what_they_did_a_running_list_of_fud/)
+* [Market Manipulation](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mqyp5w/now_is_the_time_to_stay_ready_a_running_list_of/)
+
+And yet Apes [**still**](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mcw74g/even_yesterday_there_was_a_31_buysell_ratio_on/) [**have**](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mebvks/daily_fidelity_update_buysell_ratio_still/) [**diamond**](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mo0qp2/buysell_ratio_is_51_on_fidelity_apes_buying_the/) [**hands**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mpw0ru/fidelity_orders_updated_412_still_looking_like_a/)
+
+You wouldn’t short a car would you? Well Citadel would, probably.
+
+Citadel has shorted everything to oblivion and the bill is about to come due. Press X to hold.
+
+* [Citadel Has No Clothes](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m4c0p4/citadel_has_no_clothes/)
+* [The Everything Short](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgucv2/the_everything_short/)
+* More [Naked Shorting](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/)
+
+It’s easy to sit there and think the numbers being thrown around aren’t realistic, and that’s because up until now they haven’t been.
+
+* [KBIO Squeeze was 6% SI with 10,000% growth](https://moxreports.com/kbio-infinity-squeeze/)
+* [Overstock was 13.7% SI with 4000% growth](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mqt7w6/gamestop_vs_overstock/)
+* [VW was 12-15% SI with 500% growth](https://imgur.com/a/Z2bF2wy)
+   * The part that always gets me, “Why did the short sellers hang on for so long when the tide was moving against them? Perhaps they remained focused on the long-term anticipated drop in price rather than the risk of being squeezed in the meantime.” What’d we learn Kenny?
+
+Yes, these are entirely different scenarios, and each one had additional variables that affected the squeeze. But it really puts things in perspective huh?
+
+Because:
+
+GME Short Interest\*
+
+* [Conservative Short Interest Calculation: 38M](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/lzj00a/super_conservative_calculation_puts_gme_short/) (\~147%)
+* [Slightly less conservative: 250-900%](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m19oh7/true_short_interest_could_be_anywhere_from_250_to/)
+
+GME Float
+
+* [APES. OWN. THE. FLOAT](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m7x2gq/dd_i_did_the_math_there_is_literally_no_doubt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
+* [Float/SI](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mofkra/institutional_ownership_and_short_interest_proof/)
+
+\*DD to get a realistic understanding of Short Interest:
+
+* [Fake Shares to Millionaires Common Misconceptions of Short Interest](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mmo9kw/from_fake_shares_to_millionaires_common/)
+* [Mythbusters DD: Can We Set Share Price](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mhjfee/mythbuster_dd_can_you_set_the_price_for_your/)
+
+[January was a 1500% increase](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/gamestop-mania-explained-how-the-reddit-retail-trading-crowd-ran-over-wall-street-pros.html) **and that wasn’t even the squeeze**.
+
+**The only thing that truly matters, is that by most conservative estimates, Short Interest is over 100%, and Apes own a significant portion of the float.**
+
+If even after all of this you STILL find yourself doubting, take a look back at the long term value. Or should I say, [the Deep Fucking Value](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTr1-Gp74U)
+
+And there you have it. The only doubts you should have left over should be about what champagne you’re celebrating with.
+
+As for your [exit strategy?](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m073v6/exit_strategy_dd_a_comprehensive_guide_to/)
+
+[From \/u\/BinBender's Fake Shares to Millionaires](https://preview.redd.it/w1t2xj7v4ct61.png?width=730&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fd0f6a31b05979ca2943407ad50985ed86d0b15)
+
+[Look at what this community created.](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/lj1wqv/a_comprehensive_compilation_of_all_due_diligence/) Look at the time and effort that’s been put in. The DD is incredible. Take a moment to appreciate what “dumb money” has accomplished. Thank you to every Ape here for being a part of this, from /r/WallStreetBets, to /r/GME, to /r/Superstonk, to every other sub. You all are truly amazing.
+
+The hard DD has been done. The only thing that can work against the squeeze now is the artificial limit you place on it.
+
+[Remember why you hold](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMKNU04cMvU)
+
+[Remember](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mqmhnm/its_430_am_cant_sleep_read_the_dd_a_million_times/) [why](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mqukfw/i_hodl_to_afford_my_transgender_surgery/) [the](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/m83920/this_is_why_i_hold_its_time_for_things_to_change/) [Ape](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mr4ec7/live_in_my_vehicle_this_is_my_bed_and_that_drink/) [next](https://reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mo9bjt/this_is_why_im_holding/) [to](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/lur26s/why_they_hold/) [you](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/moqsuv/why_i_will_hold_to_the_end_whatever_that_looks/) [holds](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/lb1dj8/why_im_holding_gme/)
+
+And that’s really all that’s left to do: Hold for yourself, and hold for the Ape next to you. That’s the only way GME hits 10M. It’s that simple.
+Theta wins until you have a sharp and sudden downturn that cannot be defended, then Delta wins.  If Theta always won then it would be a no brainer. These situations cannot be avoided, the key is to minimize the damage, and reposition for future gains.  Trust me, trading options is like fighting a war.  Reduce damage and live to fight another day.  You will most of the battles, but never 100 percent of them and that is okay.  Must have realistic expectations and not be emotional.
+I’ve seen comments like “your CCs are gonna get blown up when this thing moons” or “don’t come crying when you’re stuck with strikes 50% below underlying value.”
+
+Folks, a CC that goes ITM is a win. 
+
+Sure, you might want to manage that to improve your position even further, but please stop saying things like, “when that underlying doubles your CCs are gonna be rekt.”
+
+CCs and CSPs have the same P/L (with some minor nuances). Nobody ever says “oh you sold a CSP and the underlying increased, now you’re screwed.”
+
+Feel free to educate me though. I am just trying to learn.
+
+Edit: the title was ambiguous, I was referring to an OTM call that goes deep ITM. Not selling a call that was already deep ITM. Sorry for the confusion.
+TL;DR — I'll show you that it's mathematically impossible (under some assumptions, of course) that LUNA's price will go back up to its' glorious days again.
+
+​
+
+# Let's do some meth—umm I meant math!
+
+There are some important assumptions we need to make. This mini-analysis assumes that:
+
+* UST will be pegged back to around USD $1.00, and
+* LUNA (and Do Kwon) can **fully** gain investors' trusts, and
+* LUNA tokens won't be burned significantly to its' supply on March-April when it was trading for more than USD $100 per LUNA (very unlikely, which is why I put this as an assumption).
+
+​
+
+**Goal**: we want to calculate the minimum price of LUNA that is needed to get to its' market cap at ATH ($116/LUNA), considering the current supply of LUNA or May 20, 2022's circulating supply.
+
+​
+
+# Step 1: Recall that Market Cap (in cryptocurrencies) is calculated by the following:
+
+    MC [$] = Circulating Supply [tokens] * Price per token [$/token]
+
+​
+
+# Step 2: We want to calculate LUNA's market cap when it was at ATH.
+
+2a) According to the data from [messari.io](https://messari.io)... On April 4, 2022: LUNA's circulating supply was 353 million tokens.
+
+[April 4, 2022: LUNA was trading at USD $116.43 with 353 million tokens circulating.](https://preview.redd.it/7sycpgd3qp091.png?width=1296&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f32ad9f9f6cabe43f7c8547a2725aec6d6587d6)
+
+2b) Using the equation from ***Step 1***, Market Cap (MC) on April 4, 2022 is then the following:
+
+    MC @ April 4 [$] = 353,128,511 * 116.43
+
+2c) Plug it into your favorite calculator and you get:
+
+[Market Cap of LUNA at ATH \($116.43\/LUNA\) on April 4, 2022 = $41,114,752,536](https://preview.redd.it/bxghece5qp091.png?width=1292&format=png&auto=webp&s=89fa01fc3253b68d42bd0dd638d021298e5b13bc)
+
+​
+
+# Step 3: Let's calculate how much LUNA's supply jumped by, from April 4 to May 20.
+
+3a) On May 20, 2022, LUNA went to the moon... in terms of its' circulating supply. It had 6.53 trillion LUNAs circulating.
+
+[May 20, 2022: LUNA was trading at a fraction of a cent with 6.53 trillion tokens circulating.](https://preview.redd.it/4tkomr50rp091.png?width=1236&format=png&auto=webp&s=8327e2ffb7df78e92f7b98c77abb5cd0ddbbd18a)
+
+3b) We want to calculate the number of times LUNA's circulating supply jumped by between May 20 and April 4:
+
+    Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by = Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens] / Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens]
+
+3c) Substitute in the variables and the equation becomes...
+
+    Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by = 6,533,856,234,794 / 353,128,511
+
+3d) Plug them numbers into a calculator and we get:
+
+[Luna has 18,502 times MORE tokens in circulation in May 20 compared to April 4!](https://preview.redd.it/nlr76o1erp091.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=74e925e00129b585bab5fa2e513904fa13a7e641)
+
+​
+
+​
+
+# Step 4: Get the answer to our goal — the minimum price per LUNA needed to get to the market cap at ATH, which was when LUNA was about $116 per token.
+
+4a) Let's not forget our Market Cap equation back from ***Step 1***. If we are to translate our ***Goal*** into a mathematical equation, we'd get the following:
+
+    MC @ April 4 [$] = Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens] * Price per LUNA [$/token]
+
+4b) Let's re-arrange the equation so we can understand the ***Goal*** better:
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / Circulating Supply @ May 20 [tokens]
+
+>**Goal**: we want to calculate the minimum price of LUNA that is needed to get to its' market cap at ATH ($116/LUNA), considering the current supply of LUNA or May 20, 2022's circulating supply.
+
+4c) In order to use our answer from ***Step 3d***, we can think of the equation above as this:
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / (Number of times LUNA's supply jumped by from April 4 to May 20 * Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens])
+
+Which is
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = MC @ April 4 [$] / (18,502 * Circulating Supply @ April 4 [tokens])
+
+4d) Plug in the numbers using our answer from ***Step 2c*** and the information from ***Step 2a***...
+
+    Price per LUNA [$/token] = 41,114,752,536 / (18,502 * 353,128,511)
+
+4e) Grab your lovely calculator again...
+
+[Price per LUNA needed to get to the market cap at ATH on April 4, 2022 = $0.0063\/token](https://preview.redd.it/kvpkcawesp091.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=4347df9934c4964b28d640321ab4c397ce717660)
+
+​
+
+# 
+
+# Conclusion
+
+It won't even get to $1 per LUNA.
+
+Okay okay, since you insist. Let's math it again. Suppose LUNA gets to $1 today, that means the market cap of LUNA becomes:
+
+    MC [$] = Circulating Supply of LUNA @ May 20 [tokens] * Price per LUNA [$/token]
+
+Plug in the numbers from ***Step 3a***:
+
+    MC [$] = 6,533,856,234,794 * 1
+
+And you don't even need a calculator to get:
+
+[Market Cap of LUNA, if it were to get to $1 per LUNA = $6.53 trillion](https://preview.redd.it/3tyg6xinsp091.png?width=1586&format=png&auto=webp&s=172937730d5aeb1df8ce646deeaaf86244d3e9ba)
+
+Thus, LUNA's market cap would be much bigger than BTC... **and the entire cryptocurrency market cap**.
+
+​
+
+***Cheers y'all, have a great rest of the week!🍻***
+**TLDR: GME has been sitting below the delta neutral line for almost two weeks now, and the delta neutral is holding steady at $183, indicating the options mix does NOT support the current drop in price. Pressure is currently building, meaning changes to the underlying price will have unusually high changes in purchasing patterns due to hedging against those sold options. The point with the highest change in purchasing due to hedging has dropped to $205, and COULD setup a nice surge situation.** 
+
+​
+
+​
+
+ My work is built on the idea that the market is largely unpredictable, but one particular kind of behavior is certain - hedgies gonna hedge. It's written into their algorithms. Specifically, they like to delta hedge and gamma hedge. This work tries to profit on this one particular type of buying/selling behavior, and works well for giving guardrails for stocks with high options volume relative to the underlying equity volume. 
+
+I have a slightly new look for the graph below, so I could layer on the total market delta sensitivity test at the bottom to help explain what's happening. This graph contains the following:
+
+* Underlying GME Close (Blue)
+* Options Indicators
+   * Total maximum gamma (red) - point with the highest total market gamma across all open contracts. This indicates the point where a 1% increase in the underlying price would result in the highest change in the total market delta, indicating the point where a change in price would result in the highest buying / selling of the underlying stock due to hedgers hedging. 
+      * As you can see, this point generally acts like a market ceiling, but fun things happen with the price surges past. 
+   * Delta neutral (grey) - point where the total market delta is zero across all open contracts. This indicates the equilibrium of the call / put options based on the current mix of options contracts. 
+      * As you can see, this point generally acts like a market floor. However, the price does go below it occasionally, and the underlying behaves differently when that happens. 
+* Total Market Delta Sensitivity Test
+   * Change in the total market delta with a 5% increase in the underlying price (green)
+   * Change in the total market delta with a 5% decrease in the underlying price (orange)
+
+​
+
+[GME 1\/4\/2021 - 10\/7\/2021](https://preview.redd.it/u5ys4bf1c9s71.png?width=910&format=png&auto=webp&s=f61e2daab68dcf4096eedd63815576c6cb93382f)
+
+Here are the key points I want you to take away from this:
+
+* Right now, the underlying has been below the delta neutral for almost two weeks, but the delta neutral point has not decreased with the underlying, like it did back in June/July. **This indicates that the current options mix is NOT supporting the decrease in the underlying price.** 
+* So this means that call / put buyers have not changed their purchasing patterns in the last two weeks, or have not sold off their existing contracts. 
+* As a result, the total market delta sensitivity test is starting to climb, so the impact of delta hedging on the underlying volume is increasing. For example, if the the options mix hasn't changed, and all those call buyers are still holding onto their contracts at $190 / $200, then as the underlying increases, hedge funds will have to start buying the underlying stock to hedge at an unusually high rate. 
+* Right now, a 5% increase in the underlying price would result in a 75% increase in purchasing due to hedging! 
+* The sensitivity test at the bottom of the graph shows this unusually high impact of purchasing volume occurs BEFORE surges, and when the price drops below the delta neutral. This is what I mean when I say that pressure builds up when the price drops below the delta neutral. 
+* The gamma maximum indicates the point where a 1% increase in the underlying price would result in the highest change in the total market delta, indicating the point where a change in price would result in the highest buying / selling of the underlying stock due to hedgers hedging.
+* Right now the delta neutral is sitting pretty at $183. The gamma maximum has dropped to $205. SO! If we get a increase in the underlying price, then that should lead to an unusually high increase in buying pressure, which COULD translate into a price increase. If we surge past the gamma maximum (like we did back at the end of August), then this COULD translate into a gamma squeeze (like January). 
+* If that happens, then we could be looking at a sweet squeezy squeezy, lemon peezy. 
+
+Here are the graphs you're used to seeing if this is more to your taste: 
+
+​
+
+​
+
+[GME 1\/4\/2021 - 10\/7\/2021](https://preview.redd.it/codg2r2qi9s71.png?width=910&format=png&auto=webp&s=3016528b504e6b237720733b7dc4b7aaadbf660f)
+
+​
+
+Log-based 10 view, so you can see the 2020 values and the gamma neutral spikes. Aren't they pretty??
+
+[GME 2\/4\/2020 - 10\/7\/2021](https://preview.redd.it/uspywjlvi9s71.png?width=910&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b6f5084100273d3a4968cba4cdc8b563abd3962)
+
+Frequently Asked Questions or Comments:
+
+* Technical indicators don't work on GME because it's a conspiracy, man. 
+   * That's a perfectly find opinion to have, and I respect it. My work tries to add some rhyme / reason to market movements, and my work still indicates to me that there is some method to the GME madness.
+* Where can I get these indicators / analysis, or how do you make this?
+   * I make these indicators for all optionable stocks using options data feeds, Matlab and Excel. I use it for my own trading purposes. As far as I know, they aren't available elsewhere.  I have a methodology / assumptions section at the bottom if you want to know more. 
+   * I'm always happy to send anyone graphs for any particular stock they're interested in. Just shoot me a message, and bug me if I don't respond in a day or two. 
+* GME didn't do what you said it would. Is your model wrong?
+   * Always possible my model is wrong, and I'm always working to improve it. However, I will continue to emphasize that I'm only working in probabilities, and nothing is certain in the stock market. I think the scenario laid out in this post is the highest probability scenario. 
+* Gamma is always positive, so you can't have a gamma neutral. 
+   * It's true gamma factors are always positive, but when you make a total market gamma, or total portfolio gamma, you add call gamma and subtract put gamma. This is what I'm doing in my work. 
+* Don't be so cranky.
+   * I'm working on it. 
+
+​
+
+ **TLDR - 2nd note... for some reason you dumb dumbs can never find it if it's in one place. One more copy to go down below... GME has been sitting below the delta neutral line for almost two weeks now, and the delta neutral is holding steady at $183, indicating the options mix does NOT support the current drop in price. Pressure is currently building, meaning changes to the underlying price will have unusually high changes in purchasing patterns due to hedging against those sold options. The point with the highest change in purchasing due to hedging has dropped to $205, and COULD setup a nice surge situation.** 
+
+***Methodology and Assumptions***
+
+**Delta Neutral**
+
+The Delta Neutral price that creates a total market delta of 0 across all GME options (all expiration dates) for a given date. It can also be though of as the intersection of a supply/demand curve for hedged stocks. See the "Methodology and Assumptions" section for full detail on how I develop this indicator.
+
+Notes below for general options on how the delta neutral interacts with the underlying price:
+
+* There is a large influx of call option purchases, because:  
+
+   * The call prices get less expensive as the underlying price approaches the delta neutral
+   * Stock prices usually rebound/revert back to the mean after large crashes, so the price often rebounds anyways.
+* With the large influx of call volume, market makers have to start buying stocks to delta hedge, which turns the price back around and creates an upward trajectory.  
+
+   * Important note that hedgies often hedge with derivatives instead of buying stocks, so there isn't a 1-to-1 relationship between the delta and shares bought/sold by hedge funds.
+* Historically, you can see that GME often bounces off the delta neutral prices during drops. The exception is the February drop. When the underlying goes below the delta neutral price, a lot of pressure builds up that results in a significant increase when that pressure is released.  
+
+   * Note this is the primary way that I trade my model. I made a scanner that looks for equities that fall below the delta neutral.
+
+**Gamma Neutral**
+
+The Gamma Neutral price that creates a total market gamma of 0 across all GME options (all expiration dates) for a given date. See the "Methodology and Assumptions" section for full detail on how I develop this indicator.
+
+General notes below for observations on how this indicator behaves:
+
+* It acts like support/resistance between the delta neutral and the underlying, and typically bounces around between the two prices for most symbols (like we have seen with GME since April).
+* It also goes crazy in periods of high volatility, as you can see by the very higher spikes.
+* A gamma spike indicates the presence of POTENTAILLY slippery option market conditions, which COULD lead to a gamma squeeze. There were certainly spikes present back in January, but we had a few one-day false starts this last month.
+* They are often triggered by high price movement in a day, which can lead to continue high growth if underlying volume supports it.
+* Gamma spikes can also be triggered by unusual options purchases during the day. These are the one ones to find, because you can often catch the high increase waves before they actually start.
+* If I'm trading this indicator, I often either wait for a gamma spike to continue for 2 days in a row and supported by increased volume. Otherwise, I invest straight away if I find a gamma spike just based on options movement (i.e. no significant underlying increase yet).
+
+I write my own algorithms to produce the results above. The following lists some key methodology and assumptions I use:
+
+* I rely on daily options and stock summaries produced by [www.historicaloptionsdata.com](http://www.historicaloptionsdata.com/)
+* For the Implied Volatility (IV), I use the following method:  
+
+   * Calculate the raw IV of the mid-point between bid/ask price at close.
+   * Calculate a “blend” IV, which represents the IV where the call/put parity holds, i.e. where call delta – put delta = 1, using the same IV.
+   * Smooth the mid-point call/put and blend IV using a gaussian smoothing algorithm with a 20-strike window.
+   * Apply the smoothed call/put relativities to the smoothed blended IV curve
+   * Fill any missing values with a linear interpolation of the neighboring strikes.
+* Using the final call/put IV estimates described above, I calculate my own Greeks. I like this source if you're interested in the formulas: [https://www.macroption.com/option-greeks-excel](https://www.macroption.com/option-greeks-excel)
+* For the total market delta and total market gamma, I rely on the OI x delta and OI x gamma for each strike price.  
+
+   * Note that the delta of a call is usually equal to (1 - put delta), so not adjustment is needed to the delta signs when calculating the total market delta.
+   * However, the call/put gammas are both positive based on the B-S calculation. If you're calculating the total gamma for a portfolio, or the total market, you have to add the call gamma and subtract the put gamma.
+* To estimate the delta neutral and the gamma neutral, I have an algorithm that relies on the optimization toolbox in Matlab to identify an underlying price that achieve a total market delta and a total market gamma.
+* Note that the IV would change with higher/lower prices for the delta/gamma neutral and the sensitivity tests, but the impact is not significant enough to make a meaningful difference and takes significant processing time to apply the IV curves. However, it is an important simplifying assumption to be aware of.
+* Open Interest (OI) is always lagged one day for options summaries. The OCC releases final open interest on a given day, and it represents the OI for the close of the prior day. Therefore, the OI I get in my summaries on 6/28 does not represent the OI as of close on 6/28. It represents the OI as of close on 6/25. If you see a source like Yahoo give live OI throughout the day, they are only estimates, and their algorithm methodology for estimating the OI based on various price/volume movement is a closely guarded secret. Using the prior day OI is currently a limitation of the data available to me.
+
+​
+
+ **TLDR - 3rd note...hopefully you have found this TLDR by now... If not... then... ugh... GME has been sitting below the delta neutral line for almost two weeks now, and the delta neutral is holding steady at $183, indicating the options mix does NOT support the current drop in price. Pressure is currently building, meaning changes to the underlying price will have unusually high changes in purchasing patterns due to hedging against those sold options. The point with the highest change in purchasing due to hedging has dropped to $205, and COULD setup a nice surge situation.**
+I have a decent understanding of crypto currency and ethereum and I have a small amount of money sitting in ethereum right now. Recently I’ve been thinking about invest much larger amounts of money but I don’t really know enough about how much more it will grow and how risky it is. Anyone have any idea of projected growth over the next few months or years and/or  how much you think I should invest?
+**It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.**
+
+If you're a knowledgeable trader and can time the tops and bottoms with some degree of accuracy then this obviously doesn't apply to you.
+
+If you're in this for the long haul, the fundamentals haven't changed. 
+
+* There will still only ever be 21M BTC and in macro terms, it has historically only ever gone up.
+* ETH is still a monumental leap in technology and going to start burning supply from July onwards when EIP-1559 is implemented in the London fork
+* all the other promising projects are doing incredible things
+* Fiat currencies are still going to see massive inflation from all the printing going on
+* Bitcoin [has died 421 times](https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/)
+* China has banned bitcoin in every bull run to date
+* Institutional adoption is only just beginning, we're still reporting every new company that is accepting it or holding it on their balance sheet
+* You're still really really really early. Think of it in terms of internet adoption: How many people in your circles are into crypto vs how many of them are on Facebook, and how long did it take from the dawn of internet to reach that stage?
+
+**The price going down is a blessing not a curse because it's so much cheaper!**
+
+If you buy when it's red and sell when it's green, history tells us that you'll likely profit generously.
+
+If you couldn't time the top then you probably can't time the bottom, and you probably won't be able to in the next couple of years, so why are you scared of getting a massive 50% discount?
+___
+EDIT: Obviously if you have cash to spare. I'm not suggesting you buy any crypto if you can't afford to buy any. I thought that would be obvious.
+___
+EDIT 2: So many people saying they don't have any more cash to spare. That's because "your plan is seriously flawed". It's in the title. You clearly didn't budget correctly, but you can learn from that and not FOMO everything in all at once next time!
+I get the impression 80-90% of the members of this sub are engineers, computer programers, or similar analytical type professionals- and corporate as well. Is that accurate? 
+
+One thing that I notice when I read the sub can be illustrated with an example from the Mr. Money Mustache blog. To paraphrase Mr. Money Mustache's experience, he and his wife worked for about 10 years doing some work they weren't crazy about, to save up 600k, then retire to live on 25k per year, in his spare time he does construction and his wife dabbles in real estate.Thats roughly accurate, right? 
+
+My big issue with line of thinking is, you don't need 600k to live on 25k and do construction and part-time real estate. 
+
+And I think I understand the FI factor in this which is he doesn't NEED the money from his work, so it's different than my buddy who owns his own pest control business, takes off 4 days a week during hunting season, as much time as he wants around the holidays, and probably earns not too much more than Mr. Money Mustache and his wife live on, because my buddy needs the money to survive and they don't.
+
+Can we all agree there could be a disruption in your life that could clean you out? A health concern not properly covered by insurance, a lawsuit, some world event like the great depression.  Or, you could die early and no amount of money could save you.
+
+I wonder if a lot of you guys are deferring what you REALLY want to do out of what I assume is fear, but its disguised as being prudent and logical? I hope that doesn't sound rude- I just don't understand deferring life in a career you're not crazy about for 10-20 years to be FI. 
+
+Why wait? Why not just start doing what you want to do now? If it's because what you think you really want to do is sit around and play classic video games and travel, not do construction like MMM, it's the internet age! You could turn that into a business, cover your nut, and start living the life you want to live now.
+
+
+So, why am I on this sub and reading MMM? I think there is a lot of value in the prudent approach to life y'all are taking. Why drive an f150 that costs you 1k/mo to operate when you could be in the 10 year old honda civic? Why not invest optimally? I feel like there is a lot of responsible citizenship attached to FIRE, and there is no denying I'd have more flexibility with a mil in the bank. 
+
+I know everyone's situation is different and I'm generalizing A LOT here, not trying to be critical but it does seem like some of you would benefit from Warren Buffett's wisdom:
+
+“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?”
+
+I guess substitute "lead to financial independence" for "look good on your resume."
+
+Am I crazy for bringing this up? 
+
+Thank you and have a good day.
+I’ve been looking for role models and beasts in the daytrading space. I wanna know what could turn an average daytrader into a profitable daytrader.
+
+If you have a good history of consistent profitability, then tell us what it takes.
+Folks, it's dismaying to see the level of misunderstanding about how to use credit cards.  This is hardly a secret here in /r/personalfinance, but every day people still ask questions that imply they don't understand how to use their credit card effectively.
+
+**Always pay your statement balance in full, every month, without exception.** This is how you turn a miserable 24.99% APR card into a 0% APR card, for free and for no hassle.  The [*Statement Balance*](http://i.imgur.com/w1qUN3u.png) is the amount you need to pay by the *statement due date* in order to avoid charges on interest.  As you get closer to the end of the billing cycle you may notice that pending charges haven't posted to your account balance yet.  Don't worry about those - the only transactions that matter as far as interest goes are the ones included in your Statement Balance.
+
+* The [Minimum Balance](http://i.imgur.com/yMonKKO.png) is the amount you need to pay to avoid a late payment, but paying only this amount will result in interest being charged.
+
+* The [Current Balance](http://i.imgur.com/IWSdP1r.png) is the amount of all the charges that have posted to your account since the beginning of the billing period and when you pay your bill.  Some of the charges included in the Current Balance may be for purchases made after the previous billing cycle ended.
+
+If you are planning on using your credit card the correct way, APR is not a concern for you.  If you aren't going to use it correctly, and carry a balance past your statement due date, you should seriously reconsider using a credit card for purchasing things.
+
+Here is a good example of how to use a credit card:
+
+* Smart Sue has a 24% APR credit card with a billing cycle from August 01 - September 01.  
+
+* During the month of August she rings up $1000 of charges on her card.  Her statement for August is issued on September 02, and the statement balance of $1000 has a statement due date of October 02.
+
+* Smart Sue used her card strictly for things she could afford, so she can pay the full $1000 due immediately.
+
+* She makes the $1000 the day after her statement is issued, well before the statement due date.  Her statement balance is $0, and she avoids interest for the Aug/Sept billing cycle.
+
+Here is a bad example of how to use a credit card
+
+* Debtor Dan has a 24% APR credit card with a billing cycle from August 01 - September 01.  
+
+* During the month of August he rings up $1000 of charges on his card.  His statement for August is issued on September 02, and the statement balance of $1000 has a statement due date of October 02.
+
+* Debtor Dan didn't use his card strictly for things he could afford, so he can only pay $500 by October 02.  
+
+* He pays the $500 he can afford on October 01.  On October 02, the remaining $500 is assessed interest in the amount of (24% / 12) * $500 = $510.  The unpaid $500 in addition to $10 of interest remain on his statement balance for the next billing cycle.
+
+Don't fall into the habit of carrying credit card debt.  It can destroy your finances very quickly and, unlike payday loans (that even those who take one out seem to realize they're a bad idea), credit card debt is not treated with the degree of caution it needs to be treated with.
+Day 1 – Wednesday 5 February
+
+After repeated and failed attempts to withdraw my BTC from MtGox, I decided to jump on a plane and pay them a visit in Tokyo.
+
+After a 16 hr. flight from Australia I went straight to their offices, arriving at around 4pm.  The receptionist in the lobby told me there was no one available to meet me and I should arrange an appointment.
+
+I refused to leave and after about 15 mins or so, the receptionist handed me the telephone to speak with a member of  MtGox support. The support person referred me to their website. After a ‘lively’ conversation I told him I wasn’t gong anywhere, I didn’t travel 16 hrs to read a website I could have read at home. I would wait for Mark Karpeles to come down.
+
+Same thing happened 15 mins later, another call, more non-sense about technical issues, and a suggestion the authorities might have to be called. I told him great, I could lodge an official complaint against MtGox while they were here. 
+
+After some hours had passed, the building cleared out and the receptionists left for the night. I was alone in the lobby. Then at approximately 8 pm, I was  suddenly greeted by Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, Manager Business Development, and Mark Karpeles right hand man.
+
+I recognized him from some news articles. I thought great, and straight away put some burning questions to him: 
+
+Q1. What is causing the withdrawal delays?
+
+•	Well, because Gox is the best known of all the exchanges, we have been under the regulatory spotlight.
+
+•	This has created problems with government agencies, and also with our banking partners.
+
+•	There are also some ongoing investigations, which we cannot talk about.
+
+Q.2 Sure, and this would explain the FIAT delays, but what about the BTC delays; you can’t blame that on anyone else.
+
+•	The BTC withdrawal issue is a technical one, and one that has previously affected the MtGox system, our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem.
+
+•	As of now, some BTC withdrawals were going through
+
+•	For those transactions that remain broken for a week, the balance of BTC will be returned to a customers MtGox account. 
+
+Q3. A great way to buy time for a liquidity problem?
+
+•	No, it’s a technical issue. 
+
+Q4. So why are so many of the input addresses feeding into transactions in the queue coming up empty?
+
+•	This is a complex technical issue to which neither of us know the answer
+
+Q5. Try to explain it to me.
+
+•	Its technical
+
+Q6. There are over 40,000 BTC in the withdrawal queue, isn’t that the electronic equivalent of a bank run?
+
+•	The 40,000 figure is not correct, and the goxreport isn’t accurate.
+
+Q.7 But I actually obtained this data from Delerium’s website who is a gox employee / contractor / associate.
+
+•	I will have to look into that.
+
+Q8. Why doesn’t Gox prove they are solvent by transferring a large quantity of BTC between two internal wallets like Mark previously did.  Then we can all check it out on the blockchain and be reassured?
+
+•	The overwhelming majority of BTC are held in cold storage. Logistically and legally in would be difficult to replicate the transfer “trick” Mark previously employed at Gox to prove their solvency.
+
+Q9. Try me, how hard is it, what exactly is involved?
+
+•	Obviously I can’t go into too much detail for security reasons, but it would involve physically obtaining them from 6 or more locations.
+
+Q10. Well, why don’t u do it, isn’t this a critical situation?
+
+•	It’s not that straight foreword.
+
+Q11. You do realize no-one believes the technical excuses for the delay in BTC?
+
+•	Mt Gox has the coins, it is a technical issue and we need people to be patient.
+
+Q12. What is you view on the poll recently published by Coindesk on Mt Gox?
+
+•	Coindesk have a vendetta against MtGox.
+
+Q13. But they one of the most trusted sources of news in the Bitcoin community.
+
+•	Some people have it out for Mt Gox.
+
+Q14. How do you explain the vastly different prices that appear on Gox compared with other exchanges? It recently went to 25%.
+
+•	Some traders were responsible for the manufacturing  the differential in an attempt to financially benefit from arbitrage.
+
+Q15. But people exploiting the arbitrage opportunity would actually reduce the price differential, not widen it.
+
+[I can’t recall receiving a response to this particular point]
+
+Q16.  Is MtGox manipulating  the price by directly purchasing Bitcoins on their own exchange?
+
+•	No, MtGox is not permitted to do this.
+
+[coincidently, almost immediately after this meeting the price on MtGox tanked]
+
+Q17. People have a lot of money tied up in your exchange, and they don’t believe your excuses. All the evidence suggests something more serious going on at gox. You are playing with people’s lives here.
+
+•	All the coins are safe; this is merely a technical issue.
+
+When I left the office that night, I wanted to believe that everything was indeed fine, and these were indeed some temporary technical glitches, but this view was somewhat influenced by the fact I still have BTC on their exchange. All the evidence appears to suggest something more serious.
+
+For the record, I gave Gonzague an advance copy of this transcript and offered him the opportunity to have any of his answers amended if he felt I misrepresented him in any way.  A member of his support team replied by stating he did not have any comment on my version of the conversation.
+
+
+Day 2 –  Thursday 6 February 2014
+
+I arrived at MtGox early, approximately 8am, and stood outside with a sign reading “MtGox, where has my money gone”. I got some curious looks, and a lot of questions from passersby about my protest.
+
+Then at approximately 9.20 am, Mark Karpeles himself came along carrying a large, and very fancy coffee in his hand that could have passed as a dessert. I immediately confronted him and told him we needed a chat. So he stopped to hear me out.
+
+I told him he was playing with people’s lives, and some people stood to lose their entire savings. Like Gonzague  told me the night before, he mentioned technical issues, and that he would look into my case.
+
+Then 20mins later at around 9.40am Gonzague arrived. “Good news” he said, we have sorted out your account, go and check it online. After I got Wi-Fi connection back the hotel I discovered my failed BTC withdrawal transactions had been cancelled and all my BTC were put back in the one place in the world I didn’t want them: The MtGox website. Back to joining the queue of 40,000 other BTCs. 
+
+I think this was some sort of ironic joke. I quickly tried to withdraw them again; but surprise, surprise, stuck again.
+
+By late evening, the majority of the other workers in the MtGox building had heard of my protest and were bringing me out sandwiches and beer, and inviting me to lunch. As it turns out, Japan is probably one of the better countries in the world to protest. Everyone is so friendly; I can see why the Goxies choose to set up shop here.
+
+As the evening drew on, it looked like I would have do a late one to catch Mark again on the way out. However, at around 7.30pm, I was approached by a law professor from a local university who has written widely on bitcoin legal issues. He was on his way to a bitcoin “meet-up” and asked me to come along to tell my story to the other bitcoin enthusiasts. I was reluctant to leave the protest but was interested in what other Tokyo resident’s thought of MtGox.
+
+When I arrived, everyone was very interested in hearing my story. There was a general consensus amongst the participants that MtGox was finished as an exchange. They acknowledged that MtGox had played an important role in propelling Bitcoin to what it is today, but its decline and ultimate closure was inevitable.
+
+However, there was some divergent views on the reason for this, most people, including myself are of the view that bad business decisions and incompetence were primarily to blame, while others held the view that government restriction, and secret investigations were hampering MtGox’s ability to function efficiently. Who knows what the truth is, maybe it is a bit of both.
+
+At the end of the day 2, there was a very worrying development, the data feed for the goxreport, and delerium’s MtGox transaction failure website were cut. Perhaps a final act of MtGox’s desperation to hide the truth.
+
+Day 3 – Friday 7 February
+
+I started my protest a little later today in the knowledge that most of the Goxies don’t start work until after 9am. Then there was an unexpected twist; another person showed up looking for Mark. He was an emissary of an early adopter and well known member of the bitcoin community, and was there to collect an eye watering amount of money. 
+
+My emotions were mixed on seeing this person; on one hand I was glad to see another protester to fight the good cause. On the other hand, my heart sank in the knowledge that if Mark isn’t paying off his old friends in the bitcoin community then what chance do small fry like me have?
+
+As the emissary and I chatted, Mark Karpeles arrived, and we both confronted him, the conversation went on for some time and most of it conducted in French which I had trouble understanding. However I did mange to record the whole thing on video.
+
+The episode only came to a halt when Gonzague appeared in the lobby and rescued Mark. Very soon after this point, MtGox released a statement announcing that all BTC withdrawals were suspended.
+
+In conclusion, I think i just witnessed MtGox die today. I didn’t get my bitcoin, but glad I came and tried.
+I [24F] got my first “big girl job” and have been working almost a year and never saved a penny. I blew through $400 a week because i still live with my mom and though i pay all of my bills (car note, car insurance, phone, etc) she pick up the slack where my “rent and utilities” would come into play. 
+
+I started following this sub when i first heard about it and skimmed occasionally. Then one day i saw a comment. OP said (and im paraphrasing) it doesn’t matter how much you save as long as you save. If all you have this week to contribute is 1$. Then add that dollar. So i said okay okay okay, i went down to the local bank, and opened a savings account and threw the required $25 opening requirement in and never thought about it again. 
+
+So a week goes by and I go to cash my check. And the teller informs me that I had a minus but it was covered by the money in my savings. How much did I over draft by? $24.00 EXACTLY to the cent.  
+
+I never even caught the fucking charge! I never saw it because i never checked my statements. I would have been sitting on an over draft fee of $45. 
+
+It was at that moment that *i got it*. I realized money is no joke, swiping my card loosely without regard or respect is a dangerous game that i don’t want to play. 
+
+That was on October 22nd, 2018. As off this morning December 1st. i have $625 in my savings. I know i’m not rich lol but it’s more money than i’ve ever had before at one time, and i couldn’t be prouder of my self that i committed to something this serious for this long. 
+
+Thank you all for everything. 
+This is for all the xx, xxx, and xxxx apes out there. Like you, I’ve been adding for months and thought about how much money I actually want in life (its not much). 
+
+When we get hype weeks like this, I run numbers in my head and visualize the chart going bonkers and my heart racing and beating like a kick drum out of my chest. I planned to sell all but about 100 shares at a reasonable # and then ride off into the sunset. 
+
+Then I realized that is just what they want. They don’t want x apes to get their phone book number. They don’t want x apes to have anything. They need x apes to manipulate and control with their weakening grip. 
+
+Not anymore. I’m tired of this corrupt world and want change. Only you can change your world. Only I can change mine. 
+
+So I decided I’m only selling 6 shares (1 per immediate family member) and holding the rest in my ComputerShare infinity pool. 
+
+Now, even if the MOASS starts tomorrow, I won’t have to think about selling those 6 shares until weeks from now… when the price finally gets to the TENS OF MILLIONS. I can relax knowing the number will get there. 
+
+Think like an x ape. 
+
+We own the float. 
+
+BUY, HOLD, DRS
+Been a TSLA investor since 2017. This week I made the decision to pull out of the company (over 1,500 shares). After being up 800%+ at one point, I left after it came crashing back down to ~180%. I did not incur a loss, I am just not walking away with retirement levels of money that I could have possibly walked away with a mere year ago. Dumb? Maybe. Did I need to sell? No. Does it give me peace? Absolutely.
+
+Being a TSLA investor was interesting. Elon has always been Elon and I believe the company is indeed positioned for long-term growth (even now). There were plenty of ups and downs, but I never 'doubted my vibe' and the Elon antics up until the latter half of 2022 I would have described almost as eccentric. The guy was an idiot from time to time, but was definitely doing something right. Tesla is competitive, innovative, and is a leader in the EV space. Long-term, the company has a ton of upward potential. Emphasis on the word 'potential.' 
+
+However, there has been a change. Things with Elon have certainly become more radical and it seems that every single day there is a new headline that is slowly destroying the brand. Now, before we get into the whole "but Elon isn't Tesla!" let me tell you the incredible importance of consumer sentiment and branding. 
+
+I do not imagine Tesla ever being divorced from Elon Musk. When you think "Tesla" you cannot escape thinking "Elon Musk." It is like trying to think about Microsoft without thinking or mentioning Bill Gates or some other strong brand-to-noun association. Go ahead and do yourself a favor and search Tesla now and see what comes up. Headline after headline is about Musk. This is not good for the brand, especially considering their consumer segment is actively being isolated. 
+
+Now, one must ask: why do people buy things? There's a wide array of reasons, but I believe fundamentally it boils down to the value and reputation of the product. The value has a mix of factors that range from price, functionality, importance, etc. and reputation can be understood as how the brand is perceived, how the consumer is perceived as a result of owning the product, and how the consumer feels owning the product. This is where I lose the belief in the growth potential despite the positioning. Simply put, I do not think consumers are going to feel good about buying a Tesla with the negativity surrounding Elon. 
+
+A mere year ago, if a person bought a Tesla or owned a Tesla, what would this say about a person? How would that person feel about that purchase? Tesla was the cool, sophisticated brand that was essentially symbolic of changing the world. Just look at Tesla's mission statement: "Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy through increasingly affordable electric vehicles in addition to renewable energy generation and storage. Tesla is accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy." 
+
+Where is this brand now? How would a person feel now? Ask yourself, if someone pulled up in a Tesla what would you think about them? What feelings would it invoke?
+
+Often times, we want to distance ourselves from feelings and sentiment and put an enormous emphasis on reason, facts, and data. This is not necessarily wrong, but this is certainly also not unique to the financial realm and TSLA has a history of this as well. We had people putting in orders for vehicles that were not being produced, people YOLOing their life savings into the stock because they believed in the future growth of the company before the company was seriously competitive, an unprecedented cult-like following that boosted the stock and gave the company an incredible amount of capital, and so on. Yet, when we look at TSLA now and think about the projected growth, why think people will actually want to continue to buy this product? Who is going to spend the money of a luxury vehicle to suddenly be associated with a person that people are increasingly viewing in a negative way? Not me. Apparently not my friends or co-workers either who were previously considering a Tesla and now want nothing to do with it. And apparently not my friend who is a Tesla owner and is starting to feel embarrassed for driving one. We can talk about how "dumb" these people are, but we cannot escape these are legitimate and valid sentiments toward the brand that have real costs associated with them.  
+
+The sentiment cannot be captured in a graph right now. You have no data points on the would-be consumers because they are now never-were consumers. This data is only going to show in their sales. If sales continue to go up, then it seems reasonable to say that consumer sentiment has not reached a level where people feel so negatively about the product that they stopped buying. What I am suggesting here is that it my belief that this will inevitably happen because of the intimate link between Tesla and Elon. Tesla could get a new CEO, change leadership, etc., but I do not see them escaping this link and I believe it will ultimately be the detriment to the brand. Sales will not completely stop, but the growth projections that the stock relied heavily on I believe will certainly slow a lot sooner than shareholders anticipated and if it ever does reach previous target prices of $250+, this will not be for a long time. 
+
+I'm not bullish or bearish on the stock. I do not think the company is going to suddenly vanish and the stock will drop to <$50 (at least I hope not for many of the investors I know). However, I also do not think the growth will be as aggressive as it once could have been and this is going to limit the stock in many ways. If we factor in slowed growth from the recession, one must keep in mind that this is just more time for Elon to further damage the brand between now and when people are in better buying conditions. What's next? Apparently removing Twitter's suicide prevention feature. Maybe tomorrow it's denying climate change and next month will be another stock sell off after yet another promise of not doing so. Though, ultimately, this is no longer my problem. The integrity of my financial future is no longer jeopardized by a guy that is becoming increasingly unhinged without the board properly exercising their duty to act in the interest of shareholders.
+
+My thoughts on being a TSLA investor is what my mother used to say: it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun.
+I already posted about Kiraverse. So have many others. If you don’t know by now that it’s a high end multiplayer shooter game where you can bring your own NFTs, rent them, ride Cyber Cycles, shoot at Meta Boys with Chrome Cannons, and even use your own BYAC NFTs as characters, then do some fucking research. The Cyber Crew and now featured ParamLabs/Kira are the games you’ve all been waiting for to push this to the next level! Seriously, join their discords, sign up for the alpha, and step the fuck up. Believe it or not, you can do ALL of this and DRS at the same fucking time! 
+
+It’s here, but the bullshit making it through to Hot is not the stuff the company is focusing on. Look at the games! Those are our revenue streams! Those are the future. Check them out, and give them love. 
+
+I have been angry, salty, tired, worried, happy, confident, and most importantly DEDICATED. No way I’m losing to some dumb fucking banker. I’ll die of old age first. 
+
+Anyways, love you. Stay frosty. Enjoy this weekend because the next one might just be completely different. Take care of your fam! ❤️🏴‍☠️💜🚀🏴‍☠️
+These banks offer better Savings account rate for NRE SB and in FD.I'm planning to park a considerable amount of money across these three banks in both FD and SB for one year (until the covid mess is over)
+
+Why three sperate banks? OfCourse to reduce the risk. If there are any better options, I'm keen to explore that too.
+These banks offer better Savings account rate for NRE SB and in FD.I'm planning to park a considerable amount of money across these three banks in both FD and SB for one year (until the covid mess is over)
+
+Why three sperate banks? OfCourse to reduce the risk. If there are any better options, I'm keen to explore that too.
+The following are the kinds of debt funds available which we can use in our debt portion of our portfolios (in addition to PPF, EPF, FD, RD etc)
+
+ a. liquid/overnight
+ b. ultrashort
+ c. short
+ d. medium
+ e. gilt
+ f. dynamic
+ g. credit risk
+
+Since the primary function of the fixed income portion of the portfolio is capital protection and not returns, the general recommendation is to primarily use liquid/ultra short term debt funds. 
+
+I am curious to know what debt funds do all of you use.
+Every year I file my taxes via a CA. But this year he told me that he is not doing individual's returns because of "low margins" and "higher compliance".
+
+So I tried https://cleartax.in for the first time and and filed my ITR-2!
+
+Btw, I also did not know that it was free!
+
+So if you were holding off on using ClearTax then maybe now is the time!
+This is weighing very heavily on me lately. 
+
+My wife and all of her family disagree with my frugal lifestyle. I feel like I'm constantly ganged up on because my financial outlook is different than everyone else. It's like NOBODY understands the idea of making HARD SACRIFICE early in life for a plentiful payoff later.
+
+Even upon seeking relationship therapy with my wife the counselor gave the impression that my values, goals and happiness is less important than hers because hers aligns more closely with 'the norm'. Than it all turned back on me for being controlling and unwilling to compromise.... How is somebody saying "I want to spend $X on this thing... If you don't want me to spend that much then you're unwilling to compromise. I refuse to spend less than $X, but that's not a lack of compromise, the lack of compromise is your unwillingness to give me $X"
+
+How do you deal with this? I'm so angry all the time because I'm treated as if my opinion and preferences are wrong just because they're abnormal.
+
+I acknowledge that my mindset is abnormal and that the other people in my life have a right to their own outlook, but when their outlook actively takes away from my future and my goals it is extremely difficult to accept.
+
+Don't get married until you either agree to separate finances or you are 100% on the same page financially kids... It's going to rip your heart out.
+
+Having a strict financial mindset as a sole income earner is hard...
+
+Tl;dr - Most people seem to think that if your mindset is outside of the mindset which most of society holds that your mindset is incorrect and less relevant than their own... shit sucks. How do you deal with this constant feeling of being a lesser person because your abnormal lifestyle?
+
+EDIT: Couldn't work it out. Just filed for divorce. 12/10/2015
+My wife and I have been saving really hard since we started working and have always wanted to buy our first home, especially since having a baby. We recently bought a home at a very HCOL area and paid a lot over asking price. The location is good, close to work with good school, but I realized we've overpaid too much and I don't really like the house upon moving in. I have since felt pretty depressed and lost interest in other things.
+
+Financially we're okay, we only used 1/3 of our NW as downpay and we can afford the mortgage, but I still feel helpless because we can't really sell the house now that the market is not as hot; I am probably going to be stuck here for a few years after the price goes up to resell the house. The feeling is simply paralyzing.
+
+How can I get over this? Thank you.
+
+**Update:**
+
+Wow, I really didn't think this would have so many replies! Thank you all so much for your kind advice and support, I feel much better now. I'll try to focus on the positive and get out of this rut.
+
+The main issue I had with the house is road noise. The street is supposed to be a small road inside of the community but since our house is close to the entrance there's still quite some traffic. We have large window facing the street that brought in a lot of light but it also doesn't block the road noise well, although being double-paned and new. I'll check how to better soundproof the windows/house to make things feel better. I used to rent a small townhouse not on the street so there's no road noise at all.
+Let’s take VGRO for example - let’s say 5% of it includes TD Bank. When TD pays out 4% dividends to their shareholders, do VGRO owners get an exact proportional share of that dividend (eg 4% of 5%)?
+I have in hand a printed quote for a used car, from the dealer, handed to me by a salesman who told me verbally the price was good. I came back today to finalize things and, having a final price, dropped that I had secured financing through my bank. The finance manager immediately replied that the quoted price was only good if I financed through them. Now, I have no strong desire to have a second hard credit pull in my record, and I suspect my bank’s rate will blow theirs out of the water. I understand I can walk, but I also drove 200 miles to get this car. How should I respond?
+
+EDIT: Thank you all so much for the advice; I literally dashed this post off in 30 seconds while having a mild panic attack in the car (not the car I was buying), so to come back to this outpouring of support was wildly unreal. I ended up going the route of applying for their financing and then immediately refinancing, after confirming there are no early payment fees, so I’m spending today calling around and getting new rates. So far it seems like I probably won’t quite match my bank’s initial rate, but I’ll get much closer than the dealer offered, and honestly I don’t feel too remiss about paying an extra few hundred for this car. 
+
+(Now, had I known more about the extended warranty bs, I could’ve saved a whole lot more money…but really that one’s on me. A valuable lesson for a first-time car buyer.)
+​
+
+https://preview.redd.it/ferfaso4u4381.png?width=1256&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ce16a6f4bf4a5642765e1f8b54f2bdaca1faf51
+
+​
+
+Today I learned a lesson in patience and process this week. I went hard on shorts on the GBP USD H4 by adding multiple positions with multiple lot sizes I put in like 8 positions. That was my process baces on what I saw on the chart. 
+
+Of course, price when against me and I was down a lot!
+
+At first, I freaked out because nobody likes losing money right? I mean I was down almost $200 on a $6100 account. I don't like to be more than a -.25% loss on daily return on average.
+
+So I stepped away for 30 minutes and came back and looked to find a way to fix this. What I ended up doing was putting in long trades to increase my chance of booking more profits. This helps reduce my risk and as a result, I ended booking 379 pips this morning. 
+
+I still have two shorts going. I am watching the price to see if it will retrace back down after hitting resistance at 1.3346 and try to increase profit or at least reduce my loss. 
+
+This process took all week to get through but it was worth and I learned so much from it. By being patient and trading processes you can work out anything in trading.  
+
+Now I am more comfortable with trading the market knowing that I can find a way to deal with what the market throws at me. Just be patient and trade your process.
+
+Hello, new here and looking to start has anyone here actually been able to be successful and give me a quick story of why they started and how 
+
+Thanks
+*Welcome to my first lecture! With 1,200+ upvotes in my previous post asking if /r/investing would be interested in starting a “Introduction to Investments” class I decided I would go through with my lecture. I realize that many people on /r/ investing are far beyond with what I’m offering in this lecture, but this is an introduction class to investments and the first lecture at that, so be patient. Looking forward, Lecture 2, which I will post in a few days, will cover some basic investment criteria that investors look at. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I must say it's very hard to articulate what I would teach in a classroom to writing it all down so if you have some feedback on how I can make my lectures better, don't be afraid to tell me! Also, I encourage you guys to help me answer questions or help clarify a topic for someone, if you feel you can!*
+
+
+**Introduction**: We will begin our lecture with a two part introduction. In the first part we will discuss asset types and characteristics. The second part we will discuss some other broader definitions. 
+
+
+
+**Types of Assets**
+
+* **Investment Asset**: The study of investments is about selecting investment assets. An investment asset is any asset that an investor buys with the goal of increasing his or her wealth.
+
+* **Financial Assets vs Real Assets**: Investment assets may be divided into two broad categories. **Financial assets are claims to income streams produced by other assets.** Typically financial assets are defined as stocks and bonds.  **Real assets are tangible assets with a physical presence.** A landlord who owns rental properties have real assets. Financial assets and real assets can both be placed in finer classes. The majority of this course we will be focusing on financial assets, of course.
+
+**Types of Financial Assets**: There are three broad categories of financial assets: **equity, debt, and derivatives.**
+
+* **Equity**: Equity represents an ownership claim. Common equity, like securities that are traded on the stock market, represents ownership in a corporation. Common equity has a claim to the residual income of a corporation, that is, the income that is left over after all other claims are paid. These claims by common equity to a corporation’s net income are issued in the form dividends, as declared by the board of directors. Another form of equity is preferred equity. **Owners of preferred equity are paid a stated dividend amount and will experience little capital appreciation.**
+
+* **Debt**: Debt instruments are IOUs issued by governments, corporations and other entities. Debt instruments may be divided into money-market instruments and long-term debt. **Money-market instruments are generally defined as debt issues with an original maturity date of less than one year.** Generally, money-market instruments do not pay interest. Instead, money-market debt is issued and bought by investors at a discount from face value and receives a return as the money-market debt increases to face value at its maturity date. Long-term debt may take several forms but generally long-term debt is issued with a maturity date and a coupon rate. The face value of this type of debt will be paid at maturity. Equal periodic interest payments are made in accordance with the coupon rate and face value. We will study debt more in later lectures.
+
+* **Derivatives**: The term, derivatives, is used because the value of this financial asset is *derived* from the value of an underlying asset. **There are two main types of derivatives: options and futures.** An investor can buy either a call option or a put option. **A call option allows an investor to buy the underlying asset at a certain price over a certain time period. A put option allows an investor to sell the underlying asset at a certain price over a certain period of time.** An investor will choose to buy a call or a put depending on whether the investor is bullish or bearish. A bullish investor thinks that the price of an asset will increase, while a bearish investor thinks that the price of an asset will decrease. So, would a bullish investor choose to buy a call or a put? A bullish investor, an investor who thinks the price of a particular asset will increase, would buy a call. So, would a bearish investor choose to buy a call or a put? A bearish investor, an investor who thinks the price of an asset will decrease, would buy a put. The holder of a call or put may or may not choose to exercise their right to buy or sell an underlying asset. That is why this is called an option. The investor has the option to exercise their position. Options are used most frequently with common equity as the underlying asset. 
+
+* Bullish and bearish investors may also purchase futures. **A future contract requires the investor buy or sell a certain number of units of a particular asset.** Future contracts may deal with common stocks or other financial assets, but future contracts deal primarily with real assets such as agricultural commodities. A futures contract is created by a trade in the future market. **In a trade creating a futures contract one side of the trade agrees to make delivery of a commodity at a certain price on a certain date in the future.** The other side of the trade agrees to accept delivery of the commodity at that same price and date. Bullish investors will agree to accept delivery of the commodity, thinking that the market price will increase. This way the bullish investor can buy cheap on the futures market and sell high on the current or spot market (eventually). Bearish investors agree to make delivery of the commodity, thinking that the market price will decrease. This way the bearish investor can buy cheap on the spot market, and sell high on the future market.
+
+**Types of Real Assets**: There are a number of different classifications for real assets. They tend to be divided into four broad categories. 
+
+* **Real Estate**: Real estate, land and buildings, is the largest category of real assets. Real estate may be divided into categories such as: undeveloped land, single unit housing (rental units), multi-unit housing, and commercial real estate. 
+
+* **Precious Metal & Gems**: Precious metals and gems have long served as investment alternatives. The most popular investment asset in the precious metal category tends to be gold. Investors bullish on gold are often referred to as “gold bugs.” Gold prices are regularly reported in the financial press. On July 24th, 2013, gold was selling for $1,328 per troy ounce. Historically, gold has not been a good long-term investment. Other precious metals include silver, platinum, and various other rare metals. There are many different ways one can invest in precious metals. If an investor wants to invest in gold, for instance, an investor can physically buy gold bullion, gold jewelry, or gold coins. The other option for a gold investor is to buy financial assets such as gold mining stocks, options on gold, and gold futures.
+
+* **Collectibles**: “Investors” buy various types of collectibles in hopes that they will increase in value. These include, but are not limited to, fine art, antiques, beanie babies, comic books, baseball cards, etc. There are a couple of notes that need to be added. The first is that it costs money to maintain collectibles, especially true for fine art. The second is that the value of collectibles tend to be subject to fads. The value of a great baseball card collection is much less today than it was 15 years ago, but the market for vintage vinyl and music memorabilia is booming. The last is that collectibles are not considered an investment if the holder of the collectible is not willing to part with it. For instance, if a collector holds the worlds greatest collection of Marvel comic books, but would never dream about selling them, the comic books are not considered an investment (although he will tell his wife it is!).
+
+* **Commodities**: **Commodities are assets which are used in production processes and which fluctuate in value**. These include, for example, grains, cattle, oil, and common metals such as copper and aluminum. Bullish investors buy the commodity that they think is on an upward trend with the hopes of selling the commodity at more than what they bought it for, or at a profit. As with precious metals, an investor can choose to invest in commodities using financial assets rather than buying its real asset directly. The use of futures contracts allow both bullish and bearish investors to participate in the futures market.
+
+**Misc. definitions**
+
+* **Portfolio and Portfolio Effect**: Investors generally do not buy a single investment asset. Instead, investors hold a group of investment assets which is referred to as a portfolio. A portfolio may consists of any combination of real and/or financial assets. As the size of a portfolio increases an important thing occurs; the portfolio effect. **The portfolio effect is the idea that the overall risk of a portfolio becomes smaller than the average risk of the securities included in the portfolio.** This occurs because of diversification. Not all securities will move in concert with one another. If security A decreases in value, Security B may increase in value, offsetting the negative impact from Security A. The more assets that are in a portfolio, the greater the likelihood that these offsets will occur. And, the less impact anyone one security has on the overall fluctuation of a portfolio.
+
+* **Types of Investors**: Investors may be divided into two types: individual investors and institutional investors. Institutional investors include investment companies which pool money of other investors to purchase a portfolio of assets. Small investors can place money into mutual funds, closed-end funds and private equity funds. We will discuss these funds later on. Institutional investors also include firms such as Goldman Sachs and Smith Barney. These firms engage in a wide variety of activities including buying and selling securities and offering investment advice. All of these institutions are to have buy and sell side activities.
+
+* **Employment Opportunities**: Investment employment opportunities also have a buy and sell side. The sell side seems much easier to enter. The sell side includes commercial banks, brokerage firms, mutual funds and insurance companies. Despite negative stereotypes about pushy insurance salesman and cold calling, if the sales position provides a financial services this is a tremendous opportunity to help others and achieve good financial rewards. If you enter the sell side you should plan to get your CFP (Certified Financial Planner) certificate. The buy side involves conducting investment analysis to select securities for a portfolio managed by a mutual fund or other institutional investors. A position on the buy side is much more difficult to land. Investment analysis will want to get the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) certificate. Many firms hiring investment analyst require that the analyst has or is working on his/her CFA.
+
+Have about 1000 dollars I can invest right now. Been thinking I’d add it to an existing portfolio and include stocks such as GAIN, KIM, NHI, VLO, SPG, T, VTR, WMB, and IRM. Probably do 10% for each($100) and the remaining 100 will go to whatever else I have in the portfolio already. 
+
+Would that be a better idea than throwing it in my savings account with a 1.75% interest rate? 
+
+Also are these good companies or are there others you’d recommend before any of those?
+
+Any and all insight and advice is greatly appreciated!
+Genuinely curious about this because of a heated discussion regarding student loan debt relief and Bernie's plan. I know he wanted to add a tax on the buying and selling of stocks but I was told this would devalue stock and cause money loss for any and all who invest in the stock market. It was actually taken quite personally since this person's grandparents invested in the stock market and were able to leave their family a fair amount of wealth to start their own lives. I don't want this to get political of "typical liberals blah blah blah". Genuinely interested is all.
+Hi everyone, Bob here.
+
+I made a post to try to share my DD on another sub that i lovingly refer to as **balls deep pets** (of kenny & co).  The post was very well received and even made it to the front page of that sub today its short 4 hour life.  then.....
+
+https://preview.redd.it/z8v2cmzwly981.png?width=746&format=png&auto=webp&s=a03f1a1beaf7d01707c46342cb3c400f1f82f5ea
+
+# Mods removed the post without any notification.  When I reached out to them, there is no response.
+
+The post was a simple repost (sanitized for links) of my most recent DD you can find here in case you mised it: [Update to GME Cyles and FTDs](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/rw4769/dd_reposting_for_visibility_update_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
+
+# Wut mean doe?
+
+I'm fuckin jacked, that's what it means.  If mods ninja-remove a post that is clearly just data-driven DD, then .
+
+* I'd say mods r compromised over there
+* I'm jacked for the cycles
+* It confirms the fuck outta my bias.
+Just to give you some context:
+
+I'm 26 years old and am closing on my first property next week. I chose to employ the "house hacking" strategy and luckily had an offer accepted on a top tier duplex for $425,000 that I'm purchasing via an FHA loan with 3.5% down (\~25k with closing) at 2.5% interest in NE Minneapolis.
+
+I save up $1000 a month from my salary and I plan to cash flow about $250 from this property itself totaling $1250.
+
+Now that I have that under my belt, I'm wondering what the smartest thing would be for me to set my sights on next. I have a few ideas.
+
+a. Another FHA financed property, this time a single family home (since FHA only allows you to finance a second home if it has a smaller amount of units than the first one) This way i would be able to benefit from the 3.5% down payment again. I would also have to repeat the 12 month owner occupant rule again.
+
+b. A single unit property financed conventionally. I'm not sure what the down payment rate would be but I've heard a range of 3.5%-20%. Based on the down payment it would take me a variable amount of time to save up for it this way.
+
+c. Save up for another multi unit home, this could take me a lot longer.
+
+d. pool my money with someone I trust to try and invest via b or c.
+
+I was hoping I could get some advice, experiential stories or critique on my plan from you guys. If I'm missing something, please let me know! I'd very much appreciate it!
+I saved for years for my first, now I have a career it seems to be taking forever to raise enough for my second. 
+
+The first one I told the bank I intended to live there so I was able to put 10% down 45k including closing costs.
+
+Now raising 60k seems near possible. 
+I've thought of refi but that would only be 11k. 
+
+I have a stock portfolio at 27k don't want to sell yet and mutual funds at 6k, which won't do much. 
+
+The current plan is to put 500 to 1000 a month aside, just this seems it will take forever. I make 65k, 92k including my building.
+
+
+Other options to get the downpayment?
+I'm in DFW, and my complex is projecting a 400 dollar or so monthly increase to rent.   
+Is it just the fact of interest rates destroying demand for buyers and boosting demand for renting?   
+
+
+Most complexes should, themselves, be shielded from interest rates/new financing, right?  
+
+
+Just trying to understand what to expect now and 2-3 years in the future.
+I keep seeing lots of posts about people worried that the price is going up so much that they'll never get a chance to own a full coin.
+
+We need to take a step back and look at the psychology of this and why people are coming up with this thought.
+
+First of all the word "Bitcoin" contains the word "coin" in it.  What we typically refer to as coins these days makes us think that they should be cheap and you should be able to obtain them very easily.  The reason this is even like this is because the USD (I'm in the US so using our money as example) has constantly been inflating forever making 1 dollar the standard choice of use.  40 years ago coins could still buy you something so they didn't always come with a cheap connotation to them.
+
+Secondly once you get past the name you need to come to the realization that 1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 sats.  At the point of mass adoption the general public will be lucky to even have 1,000 sats given that people can't even come up with $400 emergency money.  Right now $1 USD buys you 5,591 sats.  20 years from now when you tell someone that you had the chance to get that many sats for a dollar they will be SOOOOOOOO jealous.  Meanwhile now you're stressing you don't have 100,000,000.
+
+Stressing at that is the same as someone getting upset that they don't have 1 billion dollars now.  Wouldn't you be more than fine with 20 million now?  Hell, you could live a great life with 2 million alone.  If the answer is yes then 20,000,000 sats (0.2 bitcoin = $3,569) should make you filthy rich in the future.
+
+Last, but not least you have to understand that 1 Bitcoin is literally just a label (an amount, a unit of measure) and not what's transacting through the network.  For example in comparison we have pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc..  I can give you 5 pennies or give you 1 nickel.  On the bitcoin network the only thing that's transacting are sats.  Sending a bitcoin is sending many sats.  It's ONLY sats.  1 Bitcoin is merely just a label, not an actual "coin" per se.
+Wow, this never got the attention it deserved. Bullish AF. They’ve known all along that we own the float and the SEC probably think the same as him which is why the 002 didn’t get passed!!!!!!!! HODL everybody were blasting off very soon!!!!!! And remember, ****NO DATES!!!!!!****
+
+
+https://youtu.be/WQPquBVtwMM
+So We all know Acitivion might be bought out by MSoft for $95 a share.
+
+The risk here is obviously the buyout goes south, and the price goes back to pre-buyout levels.
+
+I was planning on buying shares and selling ITM covered calls, weekly, all the way until the deal finishes or fails. I might buy far OTM puts using the premiums with the strike price of before the run up as a hedge.
+
+​
+
+I believe the price will remain flat until some kind of decision comes out.
+
+Do you think it's a viable move?
+So I had this call credit spread in MARA, long  Call aug/19 10usd and short Call aug/19 5usd.
+
+I received 250usd credit for it so my max loss was another 250usd. (Or so i though)
+
+I wake up to the short leg being assigned. 
+
+My portfolio has now 100 short stocks (-100) of MARA, with a cost of -500 and a value of -1320 an -826 unrealized p&l.
+
+How has my max loss changed from now?
+
+What would you guys recommed?
+
+​
+Just now getting into theta gang strategies. For those of you who do it full time or plan to retire off selling options, what was your plan? How much premium do you collect to call it a livable week? I’m looking to retire off selling contracts for premium but I would like to hear how much you guys trade with. What percentage of your earnings do you keep in your account for growth and how much do you pull out for expenses? What’s a healthy annualized rate of return for you to keep doing it full time? 
+
+Thanks!
+Have shares of a company with a cost basis of $45 and it’s currently trading at $31. To sell calls is minimal profit as any strike price over $45 is merely worth pennies.
+A lot of people lost everything. My whole portfolio was in a Celsius earn account and one day they froze withdrawals and that was that. 
+
+The portfolio I had built up for years was swept away from me more or less. Thousands of people lost thousands of dollars. I have pretty much given up hope on those coins returning and yet I feel ok.
+
+Since it happened a lot of people fall into this depression, psychosis, rage, and despair. I never thought it was that deep. I lost a lot of money. But I can’t do anything to change the outcome.
+
+Why should I lose sleep over something I literally cannot fix. When it happened I was frustrated for about and day and then realized ok fine, time to start new.
+
+I am young and I have time let’s start from scratch. And so here I am rebuilding my portfolio piece by piece. DCA by DCA.
+
+I think always taking up hobbies can distract you from trying times as well. Much like beating drug addiction the best way is to replace the thoughts with a hobby. I hang with friends or workout or rock climb to distract myself from constant bad news which is easy to find nowadays.
+
+It’s not the end of the world it’s just money and it can be rebuilt. It’s unfortunate but not the end of the line.
+To anyone else who lost it all take it from me losing your mind over it won’t help you get your money up.
+I get it: you want Moons. It’s basically free money for shitposting. I know that even back in 2015 this sub had its fair share of memes and shitposts, but now even the daily is full of wannabe e-comedians. I know, 69 is a funny number. And yes, this is a Wendy’s. And even I choose that guy’s dead wife, but it really, *really* gets old fast.
+
+So why don’t we start by just chuckling at funny posts or even replying with ‘haha’ without upvoting them. We have the power to upvote and reward interesting discussions, well written DD and real crypto news instead of memes, monologues and more memes.
+
+Let’s welcome new investors with knowledge, information and discussions that actually improve the cryptosphere. Because in the end, we all want to moon together. 🚀🌖
+
+**Edit: will donate moons and awards to people who actually contribute to this post by engaging in the discussion.**
+
+**Edit 2: for the people giving me awards: you're missing the point. But I guess you're doing that on purpose. Please don't do that. Buy crypto instead.**
+
+**Edit 3: /u/Nikeou, I have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. You and everyone else will now stop giving me awards and that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kiss you.**
+So what used to be $150 for 80GB over 12 months is now $180 for only 30GB. I'm absolutely not paying $30 extra for 50GB less, so I'm looking for an alternative.
+
+80GB is a pretty safe amount for my yearly use. Anywhere else offering a similar plan for ~$150?
+So what used to be $150 for 80GB over 12 months is now $180 for only 30GB. I'm absolutely not paying $30 extra for 50GB less, so I'm looking for an alternative.
+
+80GB is a pretty safe amount for my yearly use. Anywhere else offering a similar plan for ~$150?
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0mEetZT9U
+
+Considering this is topic about his personal life, 15 years ago.
+
+It's baffling how fast this sub was ready to label the dude as a pathological liar.
+
+Solana team was caught lying about the amount of token supply, but I guess THAT'S not a problem....when this thing doesn't really have direct relevance to Cardano as a blockchain to begin with.
+
+Why all the constant tribalism, misinformation gets upvoted to the top? Why people are so quick to believe their own bias and take slanderous claims as facts? How did Hoskinson hurt you?
+
+Welcome to modern-day "journalism", where if you're unfortunate enough to be relevant, you get thrown into situations where you must spend hours of your day to pull out decade-old paperwork to address whatever accusations these leeches throw at you. If you fail to do so you get canceled, if you decide to waste your time and do pull out the paperwork, those leeches won't even issue an apology and they still get the clickbait that they wanted.
+
+For people wanting details about his degree, here ya go "At 18 an AS from front range community College in 2005. " - https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1502097939669434378?s=20&t=1zqxKMiXKZcYZQS9pzw6Wg
+
+Edit:
+Okay. People have mentioned that Solana thing was widely discussed here. I admit I based this assumption on few comments by people who were shitting on Hoskinson while seemingly being all fine with Solana. In retrospect, I shouldn't have said anything about Solana. 
+
+But my point was, that lies about the total supply of tokens is something that is directly related to the blockchain of Sol, while this case doesn't have much to do with Cardano.
+
+However, I understand that I'm coming off as hypocritical here myself. And I'm sorry for that. But I just wanted to put these things into perspective when it comes to this cancel culture of this sub.
+I've been lurking in this sub for quite some time and many of the posts I read comments about VGRO like it's a no-brainer as a long term growth investment. I've researched it and it looks good to me but I'm wondering why this sub loves this specific ETF so much and why it is touted as superior to other comparable ETFs? 
+
+I feel like if I asked the question "should I park 10K into VGRO and buy $500 worth every month until I retire" I would probably get a unanimous yes. My question is why?
+Came across this analysis of BPY/BPYU that paints them in a quite a negative light, I've read through it and would be curious to hear others' opinions (I personally currently hold BPY, bought at the lows and am sitting on a nice gain, but am considering selling): [https://www.valuewalk.com/2020/09/bpy-bpyu-dividend-negative-equity/](https://www.valuewalk.com/2020/09/bpy-bpyu-dividend-negative-equity/)  
+
+
+The key issues highlighted (see the report for further context) are:  
+
+
+* Overpayment of distributions – We estimate that BPY had annual cash flow deficits after distributions of approximately ($1B) before [Covid](https://www.valuewalk.com/china-coronavirus/) that will grow in 2020.
+* Cash cow no more – BPYU was the largest source of cash for BPY. In 2019, we estimate that $790M of cash upstreamed from BPYU amounted to 67% of BPY’s distributions paid. BPYU’s cash distributions to BPY declined to $0 in 1H20.
+* Overstated NOI and operating metrics – BPYU’s steady q/q revenue and soaring accounts receivable in the face of collapsing cash flows suggests reported NOI and EBTIDA are overstated. We use reported figures, but adjusted operating metrics are likely 20% lower at BPYU and 10-15% lower at BPY.
+* Insurmountable debt – BPY and BPYU both have extremely high levels of debt. Debt/EBTIDA of 15.4x and 14.3x, respectively, are twice the peer group average of 7.4x. Interest expense is 61% and 182% of adjusted cash flow for BPY and BPYU, respectively, compared to 30% for high-quality peers.
+* Debt defaults and consequences – BPYU is in default on $1.2B of mortgage debt across 12 properties and has approximately $4.9B coming due by the end of 2021. We believe continued debt defaults may lead to a collapsing of the corporate holding structure, putting assets across BPY at risk.  
+\--------
+
+My takeaways are:
+
+* While they are backed by BAM, the debt/EBITDA is more than 2x higher than its peers (i.e. SPG) and operating cashflows are not currently covering their interest payments.
+* Both Brian Kingston and Bruce Flatt seem to be willfully optimistic in the future of office space
+* Their IFRS vs. US GAAP statements are conflicting, with the US GAAP showing significant more challenges with debt.
+* When GGP declared bankruptcy, their SPE structure was challenged by their debt holders which led to the courts collapssing cashdlows into a single pool (BPY relies on their SPE structure to keep debt at a property vs. company level, but this seems like it may not hold up in court).  
+
+
+In summary this report has definitely raised some red flags for me. While I continue to hold my BAM shares, the BPY side seems like the risk may no longer be worth the reward.
+I have $65,000 in savings. I’m 38, work freelance, make around $35-40,000/year, save about half of that while keeping expenses low. I own a home with a rental unit and have 14yrs left on my mortgage (just refinanced).
+I have a high interest savings account (1.25% APY), and recently started a Roth IRA. 
+I really want to grow this money over time, but am afraid of losing in the stock market because I know nothing and don’t find learning about it at all interesting.
+What would you recommend doing with my savings?
+Hello, I am 18 and will be entering college in late August this year as a freshman. As of right now, I have around $4,000 invested in the stock market, and some cash. I work a steady 25-35 hours, making around $600-800, per week, on top of high school. I invest 50% of my income immediately and use the remainder for bills, emergency fund, IRA, and “fun muney” (My term for spending $ on myself for fun). To not confuse anyone, ill get to it. I want to travel to Europe so incredibly bad, specifically Spain and Portugal. My question is if it is ok to remove $ from my investments to help pay for this trip, or if I will regret it in the future? I plan on reducing costs by staying in hostels, cooking my own food, and finding cheap airfare/transportation. I know it is never a good idea to remove $ from investments, but I also have not made any profit in many months thanks to the market. I also, however, don’t want to waste out on a great trip. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?
+My friend wants advice on how best to eliminate his 50k credit card debt. He's currently living off of social security, aged 71, supporting himself and his wife (was a housewife her whole life). The expenses that got him in this predicament are one-time events, he just didn't have the savings for them. Refinancing/HELOC is not an option for him. He is aware of the possibility of destroying credit, he doesn't seem concerned. This post isn't to request advice on how to curb spending habits, he's well aware he needs to live within his means. 
+
+​
+
+This is a request on how best to proceed forward to pay it down. He approached me to see if there's any credibility to using a debt consolidation service like national debt relief or one of their competitors. I did some research and found that they negotiate with creditors only after you stop making payments for a number of months to the credit card companies, and start depositing money in a savings account. This process destroys your credit, which he's prepared to do if it's the best strategy. He wants to know if there's a better way forward since he's on a fixed income, but lives on such a slim margin between his mortgage and living expenses, and his income. Is there an alternative method that some of you may have had success with? The minimum payments are far out of his reach as the credit cards in question are starting to go past their introductory interest rates.
+Let's talk about a time frame of 2-5 years. It's not so large, but also not so short.
+
+These are giants. The probability of them going down is practically zero.
+
+The only downside I can think of is that they're all tech sector, and I won't be diversified. But even if the tech sector drops, it should be back up in a relatively short amount of time. There is lots of intrinsic value here.
+
+What are your thoughts on this ?
+Terry Smith gives an example of how ROCE affects CAGR. In his example, you pay 4x book value for company A that has a ROCE of 20%, hold it for 40 years and sell on 2x book value. You buy Company B at 2x book value with 10% ROCE, hold it for 40 years and sell for 4x book value. In the end, Company A’s CAGR is 18% and Company B’s 12%. That example explains beautifully how important returns on capital is imo. 
+
+Charlie Munger talks about returns on capital as well, he says "Over the long term, it's hard for a stock to earn a much better return than the business which underlies it earns. If the business earns 6% on capital over 40 years and you hold it for that 40 years, you're not going to make much different than a 6% return—even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns 18% on capital over 20 or 30 years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you'll end up with a fine result."
+
+Now that quote explains perfectly why I have a position in MSFT at a higher valuation and why I don't have a position in AT&T despite it looking so cheap. 
+
+It is important to compare the numbers within sectors as well. Comparing Bank of america’s 6% return on capital employed to Microsoft's 32% wouldn’t be fair to Bank of America. 
+
+Another crucial point to keep in mind is that cyclicality may have an impact on the ROCE. Micron's ROCE was at 44% in 2018 when the chip industry was booming, and only at 6.8% in 2020, two years later.
+
+ In 2021 Google’s return on capital employed was 28.2% and return on invested capital was 25.5%. That was a huge jump from 2020 where the numbers were 16.7% and 15.2% and the reason is Google's net income significantly increased in 2021. Their net income increased from 40 billion in 2020 to 76 billion in 2021. 
+
+These figures for return on invested capital obviously reflect the business's previous performance. For instance, META is currently investing tens of billions of dollars in the metaverse, which will be the thing that determine their ROCE in the coming years. 
+
+I personally believe instead of searching the market for cigar butts it is better to invest in compounders with high ROCE. Will I be proven correct or will I be the sucker who paid 23x earnings to a 1.7T$ company? What do you think?
+
+I talk about this in my latest video as well. Here is the link if anyone is interested : [https://youtu.be/t6yEr2UIIuI](https://youtu.be/t6yEr2UIIuI)
+Hi.
+
+I heard somewhere that for cyclical companies, one should buy when the P/E is high and sell when the P/E is low. This seems kind of counter intuitive, but thinking about it it makes sense; when at the bottom of the cycle the earnings are typically low, and assuming the price stays constant, the P/E increases.
+
+However, the price typically drops too along with the earnings, so unless the earnings drop less than the earnings, this doesn't fit well with the above statements.
+
+What are your thoughts on high and low P/E for cyclical companies, and whether or not to buy when the P/E is high?
+
+UPDATE: Thinking out loud: If I buy a cyclical company with earnings of $100, and the company's earnings increase to $200, as a business owner I should have done pretty good. Assuming price remains the same, I paid less for the earnings when buying the company than what it makes now, and could thus make a profit selling the company. However, the price typically follows earnings, it's not as simple as that. 
+I know that SoftBank might be a buy based off of their Alibaba stake alone but that’s not even considering their selling of ARM that gave them a 8% stake in Nvidia back in September. That should now be worth A LOT more than when the deal happened. Thoughts?
+Hi there,
+
+I am writing a software for stock analysis that should automatically work on earnings reports, balance sheets and cashflow statement (instead of doing it by hand).
+
+Is there any terminal that allows for automatic exporting of such files in a commonly used file format? Like .csv, other excel files formats or json. I usually work with Tikr but it is not allowing me to export it in a file format, just copying and pasting it.
+
+Even paid plans are accepted.
+
+Thank you and Regards.
+They seem to have steady revenue growth and earnings growth. They are paying down debt consistently(minus some debt incursion during 2020 covid shutdown). They've just started buying back shares, reducing outstanding shares for the first time last quarter. They seem to have slightly cut revenue and EPS guidance over the next few quarters but still profitable. They are currently trading at a 3.5 P/E. Whats the hidden traps in this company outside of the usual fact that investors hate brick and mortar retail? I haven't done too much research into them yet but wanted to open some discussion about them since I couldn't find any on here.
+I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around a couple of the concepts in Peter Lynch’s book. Most notably that PE ratio should match the growth rate (or stated otherwise PEG >= 1 maybe overvalued).
+
+Conceptually, I follow that earnings growth rate needs to be high enough to justify a high PE to justify the price, but what is the math that says they should be equal?
+
+Should I be thinking about it similar to a house? (ie if you buy a house and rent it out for X, and that rent grows by Y, you will have paid back your invest in Z years + have the current book value of a house?)
+I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around a couple of the concepts in Peter Lynch’s book. Most notably that PE ratio should match the growth rate (or stated otherwise PEG >= 1 maybe overvalued).
+
+Conceptually, I follow that earnings growth rate needs to be high enough to justify a high PE to justify the price, but what is the math that says they should be equal?
+
+Should I be thinking about it similar to a house? (ie if you buy a house and rent it out for X, and that rent grows by Y, you will have paid back your invest in Z years + have the current book value of a house?)
+By Liam Denning
+
+August 16, 2022 at 9:50 AM EDT
+
+​
+
+Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. A former investment banker, he was editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and a reporter for the Financial Times’s Lex column. 
+
+​
+
+One of the benefits of being Warren Buffett is that you make things happen just by showing up. If he so much as gestures at a stock, it is liable to pop immediately, providing a nice self-fulfilling gain. When it comes to Occidental Petroleum Corp., the Buffett effect runs far deeper than that, and yet it is less pronounced — which says a lot about the US oil sector in 2022.
+
+​
+
+Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s latest quarterly holdings filing, which dropped late Monday, showed a 17% stake in Oxy, as it is known, as of June. In reality, other filings put the stake above 20% now. In any case, Buffett’s company is Oxy’s largest shareholder by far. As recently as last December, Berkshire owned none of the company’s common stock. That doesn’t mean Buffett wasn’t a presence though. Far from it.
+
+​
+
+Some history. In 2019, Oxy got into a bidding war with Chevron Corp. for Anadarko Petroleum Corp., an exploration and production firm. In order to beat Chevron, a much larger oil major, Oxy went all in, eventually paying a 54% premium to Anadarko’s undisturbed share price, with four-fifths paid in cash. To fund that, Vicki Hollub, Oxy’s chief executive, made a Gulfstream pilgrimage to Omaha to secure a $10 billion check. In selling preference shares and warrants in Oxy to Buffett, Hollub also avoided having to put the deal to her own shareholders, who were, judging from the slide in Oxy’s share price, somewhat aghast.
+
+​
+
+They were right to be. They’d been sidelined, and the timing was awful. Oxy swapped an appealing equity story of decent growth and solid dividends for debt-laden empire building — just as the oil price began dropping and a year before the pandemic took hold. No one could foresee a pandemic, of course. But oil crashes? They happen.
+
+​
+
+Oil’s subsequent rebound, as Covid-19 eased and Russia invaded Ukraine, has helped enormously. Net debt and preferred equity dropped from more than $54 billion when the Anadarko deal closed to around $32 billion today. The eviscerated dividend has been partly revived, and buybacks have resumed. Oxy’s stock has more than doubled this year, trouncing the sector and the market.
+
+​
+
+Nevertheless, if you actually owned Oxy before the Anadarko debacle kicked off, then perhaps you feel relieved but maybe not like a winner.
+
+​
+
+Factor in dividends and buybacks, and the annualized return on Oxy’s stock since then has been all of 3.2%. That’s less than half the yield on that preferred stock to Buffett. And it’s a fraction of the 15.1% and 16.3% made on the energy sector and the S&P 500, respectively. The biggest winners? Those Anadarko shareholders, with a 130.9% annualized return.
+
+​
+
+When Buffett provided that $10 billion at a cost of 8%, it was viewed by some as a bet on oil prices. I saw it as merely a function of having enough money lying around to lend to a desperate borrower at a cost of 8% — good job, too, given what happened to oil the following year. But the really remarkable thing is that, by showing up with $10 billion when he did, Buffett ended up turning Oxy into the kind of company he would like to bet on.
+
+​
+
+Those high-cost preference shares mark Oxy out from the rest of the sector, weighing on its valuation. The company can’t begin redeeming them until 2029 — unless it has paid out $4 per share on its common stock, via dividends or buybacks, in the prior 12 months. So here we have a trifecta for Buffett: A discounted stock in a company forced to be disciplined by its balance sheet and also incentivized to pay out cash rather than reinvest it. The kicker? Buffett’s own $10 billion check is the underlying cause.