diff --git "a/reddit_finance_43_250k_415.txt" "b/reddit_finance_43_250k_415.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/reddit_finance_43_250k_415.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,10000 @@ +What's the CTFC advisory you're pointing to you're probably wondering, and why Robinhood as anything to do with GME when we're talking about securities. + +Well... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/y485n73jrb371.png?width=661&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd56c116a05e1e8ed6914dc09bcac55750186605 + +Furthmore, here's a public statement from the SEC speaking directly on this matter. + +https://preview.redd.it/q7kpd0saub371.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b182cdf3b11a45894667de2c91f8ed4daa6ae0f + +Hey Robinhood, Dodd-Frank's Eddie Murphy Rule says commodities futures markets do fall under regulations. Just because you package them as a securities product doesn't mean they are. + +Hey Shitadel, I'd wager when it comes to options contacts you'd be the ones shitting those out. + +I found this nice little explanation of the caveats of Robinhood's system. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/rzg7p7ckrb371.png?width=771&format=png&auto=webp&s=07fc6a90e463eba57229ad015fe70906fa0bad18 + +No shit they lie and violate their own fine print. It took one click to the CTFC link below it to find an instance of it. + +So here's where Citadel's little small bond exchange comes in handy and becomes curious on its growth and the timing of the pandemic as the starting point. + +So first off let's begin with some TIPS + +# Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. + +What Are Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (T.I.P.S.)? + +>Treasury inflation-protected securities (T.I.P.S.) are a type of Treasury security issued by the U.S. government. TIPS are indexed to inflation in order to protect investors from a decline in the purchasing power of their money. As inflation rises, TIPS adjust in price to maintain its real value. + +Here's were it starts getting fun. + +>T.I.P.S. are issued with **maturities of five, 10, and 30 years** and are considered a low-risk investment because the U.S. government backs them. At maturity, TIPs return the adjusted principal or the original principal, whichever is greater. **T.I.P.S. can be purchased directly from the government through the Treasury-direct system**, in $100 increments with a minimum investment of $100, and are available with 5-, 10-, and 30-year maturities. **Some investors prefer to get T.I.P.S. through** a T.I.P.S. mutual fund or **exchange-traded fund (ETF)**. Purchasing T.I.P.S. directly, however, allows investors to avoid the management fees associated with mutual funds. + +SO T.I.P.S. are another for of Treasury Bond you can get government direct, and you can also acquire them via ETFs and Mutual Funds. + +I wonder what stock is dealing with a slew of ETF's being shorted. This is where I need smarter apes to assist me. If shorting those ETF's is leading to a reaction in the underlying TIPS then we should have seen some glitches in the matrix so to speak. + +Let's continue... + +I was hit with the question of can you find any correlations between the bond market and Robinhood, and found something pretty interesting. Someone else noticed a T.I.P.S. correlation that saved me the time of locating the data. (Apes to help verify would be appreciated) + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/ilxswfnlrb371.png?width=625&format=png&auto=webp&s=c0b26e28848604e88f0c0360638b8df958cfbe98 + +So it does really well when Treasury Bond Interest Yield rate is high but are dropping. It does poorly when Interest rates are low and rising. When Interest peaks, discount mode kicks in and now it suddenly begins to do worse driving investors to see value in jumping to one or the other. + +There seems to be a predatory nature to these controlled supply and demand if you ask me as Citadel and Hedge Funds monopolize both markets with the Bank buddies. + +Here's a fun graph of the two plotted against each other. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/0765pp5qrb371.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1a8cbc4f8dfcba258b6c774a738a01e0c4b82b3 + +Wonder what happened in January...oh yeah...GameStop. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/jnaht17rrb371.png?width=610&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f3757004732aaa51b8c0f41ee5f34a176c79963 + +This bit of an article tickled me. Bank of America is literally the fucking source here. + +Banks use it for payments. They're who is disagreeing with J Powell here. The CTFC classifies it as a Commodity for the exact same reason. + +Normal People use USD because the IRS doesn't let you pay taxes with it yet. Buying normal shit creates a hassle and normal people don't have time for that shit when filing taxes are annoying enough. You'd convert to USD first then buy shit and most exchanges people buy on don't let you use it anywhere else. + +The part to notice is J Powell doesn't think of it as money, because it's not and he runs the Fed so he should know. + +It's a commodity in the eyes of the SEC according to the CFTC. (edited the word to please the automod you all know the word I mean) + +>The CFTC has designated biconnect as a commodity.  Fraud and manipulation involving bicon nect traded in interstate commerce are appropriately within the purview of the CFTC, as is the regulation of commodity futures tied directly to biconnect.  That said, **products linked to the value of underlying digital assets, including biconnect and other biconnectcurrencies, may be structured as securities products subject to registration under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Investment Company Act of 1940.** +> +>[https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/statement-clayton-2017-12-11](https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/statement-clayton-2017-12-11) + +Shit I mean it's also a securities product sometimes...dang it. Going to need some help with sorting this out. Let's see...Oh yeah. + +# What's the DoJ been up to... + +Let's check in with them shall we...oh...they already unveiled their Enforcement Framework... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/bsrpgvjsrb371.png?width=662&format=png&auto=webp&s=597db7949ec4a6584504b83ce6d8ef244103d42e + +What's some more recent news...or IRS and DoJ are looking for fraud in exchanges.... + +[https://www.coindesk.com/doj-irs-investigating-crypto-exchange-binance-report](https://www.coindesk.com/doj-irs-investigating-crypto-exchange-binance-report) + +weird.... exchange getting looked at...what's the BSA again? + +>The **Bank Secrecy Act** (BSA) is U.S. **legislation** aimed toward preventing criminals from using financial institutions to hide or launder money. The law requires financial institutions to provide documentation to regulators whenever their clients deal with **suspicious cash transactions involving sums over $10,000.** + +10k huh? + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/v1jhnbntrb371.png?width=803&format=png&auto=webp&s=19b9ad28eeda301c39ba39dbb678794fb854a416 + +Well tickled me fucked Ken...that's $10,000...on the surface it seem to be the DoJ is finally applying the same regulatory standards of the BSA onto the markets where...Banks own a majority of it... + +No wonder it's been fucked. + +&#x200B; + +While Citadel is already profiting off of insider information on the Bond Market...The pandemic hits, and they receive insider information before hand that they global economy will tank... + +Kenny comes up with this brilliant idea he got from the movie Trading Places... + +Kenny and his buddies will Short anything Brick and Mortar based off of insider knowledge that the Pandemic will impact the future of the market and use control of the securities and commodities markets to juggle liquidity to syphon even more of the relief money out of the hands of the American People via a gamified app that eliminates most of the information indicating risks and limits user's ability to perform certain actions in the market, aka shorting. + +They eventually decide to go all in on a gaming retailer called GameStop once they've ammased what they feel is a healthy chunk of the demographic in their app who would invest in the ticker. + +Using the liquidity from their first scam to fund the second scam and drive GME to the ground along with the entire fucking market. + +They can control Treasury bond interest yields through this fucked up system it would appear and strangle the market to drive investors where they want them to be unknowingly via naked shorting. I believe this may be what connects the whole shitstorm together. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/csurecxurb371.png?width=321&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7744aff19a8cfd848f89a83fa43bb454662e214 + +>He added that the “significant credibility” offered by becoming a primary dealer was also attractive as the company continues to expand. **Primary dealer status is often said to be integral to trade with some of the largest central banks and asset managers around the world**. **The rule changes published by the New York Fed on November 9 include a reduction in the minimum net regulatory capital broker-dealers are required to hold, down from $150m to $50m.** + +So Ken walks up and says... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/j03djeg4sb371.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=cd4908557e50b2d88c738c012f70456a7ec2e915 + +https://preview.redd.it/se6z5lw4sb371.png?width=618&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e4b66573acaecf654770d2e404320d9190b2ed3 + +&#x200B; + +>‘‘(A) a **contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery** (or option on such a contract); + +Yikes Kenny...deep fucking yikes. + +&#x200B; + +*Cue Beverly Hills Cop theme.* + +*Laughs in Eddie Murphy.* + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**TL;DR:** Before Gary Gensler left during the last crash in 2008 that he helped us get back on our feet from, he successfully managed to get a provision added to the Dodd-Frank Act that made the same type of Futures Commodities Markets via insider information and market manipulation illegal. + +The Eddie Murphy Rule also states that despite it being illegal, there currently isn't other laws in place to prevent them from entering into this enormous fuck up in the first place. + +Robinhood's risk disclosure doesn't accurately represent the truth of regulatory authority over an exchange they market as a securities exchange. The lack of wallets and actual customer ownership implies that customers on their platform do not actually have any true influence over the market. + +That influence is controlled by Robinhood who ultimately has ownership over what to do with the commodities being traded themselves. PFOF I would posit is straight up illegal for a commodity with this set up as Robinhood always has full control over the entire actual market on the platform since again, there are no wallets so no actual customer ownership of the underlying commodities. + +I argue that there is absolutely no difference between that and a typical commodities futures market so the regulations and laws set forth in Dodd-Frank, Section 746 INSIDER TRADING more well known as the Eddie Murphy Rule. + +Knowledge of prior economic events and using that information to Short stocks and drive their investors into other areas of the market monopolized by Citadel Securities and Robinhood where pump and dumps are used as cheap ways to lure younger generations into the markets and onto their platform more specifically. + +I believe this was method for luring younger less knowledgeable investors into the market (gamers) who are knows to be riskier investors and more willing to "take a bet" and are small whales of a sort willing to dump loads of cash into digital assets (in game purchases) + +I legitimately do not believe they had any fucking clue that gaming culture has evolved to regularly include the gamification of information sharing to efficiently leverage community numbers of those interested in a topic to pool their resources in an open forum to learn and improve from one another until the desired result is found. + +Vault of Glass releasing for the first time in Destiny is one example where limited information was provided by the Developers (reporting source) and the community as a whole had to come together and share information to solve the puzzles or be stuck until they worked it out themselves. A choose your own level of learning and engagement situation just like we now have with GME. + +This backfired beautifully on them. + +The current push by the DoJ and the Fed to clamp down and aggressively peruse fraud and bad actors with new regulations such as the $10k transfers requiring taxes akin to the Banking Secrecy Act requires of cash assets to better track them and how they're used is a sign that the end is near. + +The lights are turning on, and the DoJ is looking upon the shit show it's revealed. + +If this is how they're powering any part of the scheme then I would argue that it opens up the path for investigators to have a way in to legally start looking and work from there out via the Eddie Murphy Rule's loophole that never prevented anyone from actually engaging in futures manipulation let alone at this scale. + +I think this shit storm is bigger than a lot of people believe so it makes sense that it required time to even begin sorting out before we can launch, and I haven't even gotten into the automated mortgage origination via one of the biggest lenders in the country aspect of this whole scheme and how that fits in. + +HODL. + +Edit: removed a duplicated sentence. + +Thanks for all the support! I think I may have to try and write up a few follow ups this weekend after the response. + +I'll try to answer all the questions I can best I can as well. I have way more sources and information since I raccoon links and quotes so I can usually try and expand further as needed and provide additional sources I used to lead me there. + +Edit 2: I references Jeff Bezos thinking I linked a Po article. That was uncalled for Jeff, and I'm sorry. I've updated to clarify. + +Turns out Rupert Murdoch owns it the WSJ. +So I’m a support and resistance trader but on Thursday and Friday the market just keep going up with very little to no down side or base for me to get in. Should I just chase it? I know that would break my rule and it could goes against me but the markets was so strong. But the fear of it reversing kept me out of the trade. So any experience trader here know how to deal with that? +Ive been trying to learn trading for about 6 months now, I started off with the low float momentum trading but have since been looking for slower set ups. Ive read a couple books and feel like Ive learnt a fair amount about the markets(still a total noob) + +The next step towards becoming profitable seems to be just trading every day with a journal in an iterative process until I reach profitability. The only problem is I have no idea what setup/strategy to use, seems like theres a million different ways to trade and I don’t want to spend a year trading a set up just to find It can’t work. + +How did you find what works for you? +The commercial real estate market is collapsing in China, and foreign lenders are being left in the dark while Chinese borrowers are prioritising domestic lenders. + +[https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-markets-return-break-more-evergrande-angst-2021-10-07/](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-markets-return-break-more-evergrande-angst-2021-10-07/) + +Notable from the article - + + SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, Oct 8 (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group [**(3333.HK)**](https://www.reuters.com/companies/3333.HK) offshore bondholders are concerned that it is close to defaulting on debt payments and want more information and transparency from the cash-strapped property developer, their advisers said. + + Evergrande... missed payments on dollar bonds, worth a combined $131 million, that were due on Sept. 23 and Sept. 29. + + With Evergrande staying silent on dollar debt payments and prioritising onshore creditors, [**offshore investors**](https://www.reuters.com/business/investors-grappling-with-evergrande-fallout-weigh-risk-wider-pain-2021-09-20) have been left wondering if they will face large losses at the end of 30-day grace periods for last month's coupons. + + Offshore bondholders want to engage "constructively" with the company, but are concerned about lack of information from what was once China's top-selling property developer, said Bert Grisel, a Hong Kong-based managing director at Moelis. + +"We all feel that an imminent default on the offshore bonds is or will occur in a short period of time," Grisel said on a call with bondholders on Friday. + + In another development, Evergrande dollar-bond trustee Citi [**(C.N)**](https://www.reuters.com/companies/C.N) has hired law firm Mayer Brown as counsel... + + The possible collapse of one of China's biggest borrowers has triggered worries about contagion risks in the world's second-largest economy, with other debt-laden property firms hit by rating downgrades on looming defaults. + +With few clues as to how local regulators propose to contain the contagion from Evergrande, the price of bonds and shares in Chinese property developers slumped again on Friday. + + The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday suspended trading of two bonds issued by smaller developer Fantasia Group China Co, with one dropping more than 50%, after controlling shareholder Fantasia Holdings Group [**(1777.HK)**](https://www.reuters.com/companies/1777.HK) missed the deadline on a $206 million international market debt payment on Monday. + + Meanwhile, bonds issued by Greenland Holdings [**(0337.HK)**](https://www.reuters.com/companies/0337.HK), which has built some of the world's tallest residential towers including in Sydney, London, New York and Los Angeles, and Kaisa Group both took another beating on Friday. L8N2R433Z. + +"Market participants are questioning if this may be a precursor for voluntary defaults by other developers with healthy short-term liquidity positions, but large unsustainable longer-term debt," Chang Wei Liang, Credit & FX Strategist at DBS Bank, said in a note. +I purchased some PayPal shares at 230$ because I was told it was a good buy, and because I frequently use PayPal as well and it had not been that low in a while. But it has just continued to drop all the way down to 204$?? Does anyone know if there is a reason for this +I did a quick perusal of the Verge subreddit. JFC. people are actively speculating about partnerships with AMAZON or MICROSOFT. The sheer credulity of these people is insane. Apparently a major public company has agreed to somehow “partner” with an *open source protocol* and pointlessly open themselves up to god knows how many securities/fraud lawsuits. And apparently this company is somehow cool with an NDA-protected arrangement being ransomed on twitter for $3,000,000???? SWEET MOTHER OF GOD. + +this is so idiotic that i am actually 100% on the developers’ side. anyone that “donates” is so dumb that they’re actually bad people and DESERVE whatever befalls them. The aggressively stupid SHOULD lose their money. the universe demands it. + +the only problem i foresee is potential regulation of exchanges and issuers because of horseshit like this. modern securities regulation came about because scammers were basically securitizing and selling obvious nonsense (“selling shares of the blue sky”) and people couldn’t help themselves from buying + +this is all embarrassing smh. i know this was previously discussed here but i NEED to insult these people in the harshest possible terms. go team verge - rob everyone that “donates” as part of this scheme lmao + +**** + +edit: i absolutely hate that i need to add this, but to be clear, i’m being *facetious* when i say that i’m rooting for people to lose their money. stealing is bad and i hope no one loses their money 🙄 + +Now stop crying m’kay +And damn, it gives me peace of mind. + +I held a few tokens, like UNI and RPL, and had some smaller investments over at the xDai chain. + +Keeping track of everything was difficult, and today it just clicked... + +Why hold all these, when you can simply hold ETH? + +So I did what a few in this sub already accomplished: I simply swapped everything, pocketed some gains, and bought ETH will all of it. + +*Now* I am ready for 4k! +Too early? I think not. This is what you call a fucking correction. A correction to ETH's true value. Bitcoin was the first, that's true..But that fact will not hold Bitcoin at the top for long. BTC has nothing on ETH capabilities..absolutely nothing. Being the first will only take you so far. Ethereum is the future. This is going to be a relatively smooth upward shot to $50, followed by a zig zag to $100...all within the next 6 months...**mark.my.fucking.words.** +##**[ICONOMI]( https://www.iconomi.net/)** +The ICONOMI Digital Asset Management Platform makes participating in the crypto-economy easy. Instead of designing a portfolio and buying into individual coins, users are able to choose between a wide variety of Digital Asset Arrays—tailored selections of digital assets—managed by experienced professionals. This removes the need to design and rebalance a portfolio, to store digital assets securely, and to use cryptocurrency exchanges to buy and sell coins. + +They kicked off their ICO at 25 August 2016 and ended their ICO on 29 September 2016, with a total raised amount of [$10,682,516.42]( https://medium.com/iconominet/iconomi-ico-token-share-calculation-finalised-9747e69d496d) + +The company is founded by Tim M. Zagar and Jani Valjavec, before ICONOMI they founded Cashila, the first licensed bitcoin company in the world. In December 2017 ICONOMI had 36 employees, but they are continuously on-boarding new ones. They have their headquarters in Ljubljana, Slovenia but are registered in Malta for regulation purposes. + +##**[ICN token]( https://iconomi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002851065-ICN-token)** +After the ICO, 100 million ICN were issued. 85 million went to the ICO participants and 2 million were used for early-stage marketing and bounties. Of the remaining 13 million ICN, 2 million tokens were distributed to advisors, 8 million went to the ICONOMI team and 3 million were reserved for future team members. The 8 million tokens distributed to the team are vested over 2 years, ¼ of all tokens are distributed every 6 months. That means coming October the teams ICN is fully vested. + +ICN represents [ownership]( https://www.reddit.com/r/ICONOMI/comments/70dahp/icn_iconomi_ownership_ama/) of ICONOMI, 100% ICN represents 100% ownership of the platform. + +As a result of that ownership, ICN will enable you to participate in ICONOMI [service operator voting](https://www.reddit.com/r/ICONOMI/comments/6zt5pg/iconomi_september_2017_reddit_ama/dn1m1ht/). The service operator is the actual team running ICONOMI operations. The first vote will be when the teams ICN is fully vested in the beginning of october. More details will come in Q3 2018. + +ICN is an ERC20 token and it’s deflationary following the [repayment program](https://medium.com/iconominet/iconomi-introduces-repayment-programme-54bfa449d458). + +There are several ways in which ICN will be bought back and burned: + +* DAAs collect fees, 30% of those fees go towards buybacks. + +* BLX, ICONOMIs first fund has a 3% management fee, all of those fees go towards buybacks. + +* 0,5% exit fee. + +* CCP, 20% of profits after a sale go towards buybacks. + +* Planned for [2018](https://medium.com/iconominet/iconomi-in-2018-e9d01ee5159e) is the introduction of fees payable in ICN + +The bought back ICN gets sent to a [burn-address](https://etherscan.io/token/ICONOMI?a=0x0006157838d5a6b33ab66588a6a693a57c869999) just before the quarterly reports. The address is tied to a smart contract without a withdraw option. +More on BLX and CCP later. + + + + + + +##**[Digital Asset Arrays]( https://www.iconomi.net/dashboard/#/)** +DAAs are portfolios of digital assets. Every DAA has a manager with their own vision. DAAs can be diversified to maximise value stability and others can aggressively pursue maximum gains. DAA managers can rebalance their DAA to respond to market developments. + +There are several benefits to investing in DAAs: + +* Diversify! No single point of failure. + +* Lower the risk of depreciation + +* Let the DAA manager do the research for you. + +* No trading fees. + +At the time of writing there are 19 DAAs you can invest in. Once you have an ICONOMI account, investing in a DAA is a simple 2-step process. Deposit Bitcoin or Ether to your account, and buy into the DAA. Once a DAA reaches $1 million or more assets under management it becomes eligible for tokenization. Right now there are three DAAs who have their own ERC20 token(BLX,GEM,CCC). This is the way to go for US investors, since they don’t have access to the platform yet. + +Investing in DAAs does have a cost, the DAA manager can set a fee anywhere between 1-10% per annum. At the moment the highest fee of a DAA is 6% and the lowest is 1%. The fees are deducted from the underlying assets every 6 hours. In addition there is an exit fee of 0,5% when you sell the DAA on the platform or when you withdraw the token from the platform. + +ICONOMI has different [tiers and verification](https://iconomi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004343265-Levels-of-verification-and-tier-limits) levels that limit your deposits and withdrawals. + +When you buy into a DAA, ICONOMI buys the underlying assets from a couple of exchanges. They also have a robust system of hot and cold wallets to handle every aspect of the safekeeping of users assets, so the users don’t have to worry about that. They have an audit planned in 2018 by one of the big 4. + +As a DAA manager you receive 70% of the management fees you set, 30% goes towards ICONOMI buybacks. You’ll receive the fees in the form of your own DAA’s token. +If you’d like to [apply]( https://medium.com/iconominet/become-one-of-the-first-iconomi-digital-asset-array-managers-1a4f1779a97e) to become a DAA manager you can do so, as of this moment it requires a seed amount of $100k, eventually the threshold will be lowered. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +##**[BLX](https://www.iconomi.net/dashboard/#/daa/BLX)** +BLX was the first DAA on ICONOMI and has been open for the first testers since 21 December 2016. Since then it has showed returns of 6387%. Initially managed by ICONOMI itself, BLX was handed over to London based [Columbus Capital Ltd.]( https://www.columbuscapital.com/) on 11 August 2017. + +Columbus Capital is working on getting an adapted for volume BLX listed on the Irish Stock Exchange(ISE) so it becomes available to accredited investors. It will be known as Blockchain.ONE. + +BLX has a management fee of 3%. Unique in the fees is that all 3% goes towards the repayment programme. + + +##**[CCP/Pinta]( https://www.iconomi.net/dashboard/#/daa/CCP)** +CCP or Pinta was also handed over to Columbus Capital. It is an actively managed, closed-end fund that invests in ICOs. It’s been created with $4.5 million of ICO seed money. Right now CCP is worth over $200 million. + +When an asset from CCP gets sold, 20% of it is allocated towards buybacks and 80% will be reinvested. + + +**To see what ICONOMI has planned for 2018: [ICONOMI in 2018](https://medium.com/iconominet/iconomi-in-2018-e9d01ee5159e)** + + + +###**Community resources:** + +[Icnhodler.com]( https://icnhodler.com/) – Hub of ICONOMI activity and values. + +[Iconomiexplorer.com]( https://www.iconomiexplorer.com/) – Overview of DAAs and what digital assets are added to DAAs. + +[ICONOMI, updates and resources]( https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CPUhAnkUVM9G4vpPzbg8yraRpyTn8GdKCOUM6IcFlIM/edit) – Everything you’ve read here, updates and resources. +Do you have any debatable opinions about this community in general, certain coins or projects you think are over-valued or under-valued, or just want to get something off of your chest??? Post it here! + +The more controversial your opinion, the better! + +&#x200B; + +Thank you all for the comments, and especially for the awards! What nice people you crypto-addicts are! +Recently this legit project shot to $4 but it has since come down to $1.1-1.2 with under 2 million mc. However they have a bright future and this project will only go forward with the kickass team. DYOR, read the whitepaper, prepare to hold until EOY at least. Personally my investment timeline is 2-3 years. + +Dumbed down explanation is dapps buildable decentralized paypal platform and it is one of my comfiest holds. + +I will just leave this pic [here](https://i.imgur.com/ezIa2aL.jpg) +Telegram: @xdaistable +Is there an online service you can recommend ? My initial research shows that there are a lot of scams out there. I found a guy named Matt Giannino on YouTube . Market Moves. Has anybody tried his paid subscription services? +Hey guys! I posted a while back about the paper trading app I was building for learning and practicing investing and that app is now in Beta! It has real-time stocks AND options. Create as many portfolios as you want, for FREE! Hoping this helps with strategy, practice, or even learning. Cheers! + +[On Paper Beta](https://onpaper.market) + +UPDATE: There is a bug in the build I just sent out. Fixed it and you will just need to update the app! + +UPDATE 2: Some of you are still experiencing the “Loading...” bug. I plan to fix that here soon. +Also, rest of the updates will go out tomorrow! +I have been wondering for the 2 million plus market. The people buying now are mostly upgrading and they have experience significant gains in property. But what about the next generation of buyers? They won’t have experienced significant property gains. Will there be a next generation of fools rich enough to buy from the current generation? If not, what will happen to property prices? +So I got an email that said something something something all the $75P $AMC contact's you sold have been assigned. And my day trade buying power is suddenly showing up as -$1,000,000 with a cash balance of $0. Also I can't view any of my positions/balances BUT the TD website is currently "under maintenance" at the moment. My question is, are the rest of you retards unable to see your account balance and positions or do I need to go grab some rope? + +https://imgur.com/gallery/wlVPcyH + +(Insight: it was a $75/$80 put debtit spread... I think. So the $80 should have been exercised as well.. probably) + +EDIT & CONCLUSION: Okay so after watching Mia Khalifa for 2 hours, I took some of your advice and logged out of the App then logged back in and all the positions/balances were back to normal. So turns out that hack does actually work. + +For those of you who are disappointed, I still have 2 naked short straddles on $AMC so there very well could be loss porn in the future. (Proof) http://imgur.com/gallery/2PQ2TsL +Prior to GME, I was a novice investor that picked a few stocks based on the relevance to up and coming trends and selected run of the mill index or target funds. I did alright, nothing special and I felt like I had an ok understanding on how things operated. I was fairly content to continue on this route for the foreseeable future and hope that after 20-30 more years I will have enough to retire. + +In the last 3 months my eyes have been opened. I don't think I will ever be able to fall back into line with the rest of the world being brainwashed. I have enough shares that after MOASS I could just, convert to gold, bury in my yard and dig it up when I need it, never needing to invest it again. Believe me its tempting to do just that. + +I am like to find a balance, with heavy diversification in many different things, like real estate, crypto, international stocks, possibly some VC action, and lots and lots of charity work. +Prior to GME, I was a novice investor that picked a few stocks based on the relevance to up and coming trends and selected run of the mill index or target funds. I did alright, nothing special and I felt like I had an ok understanding on how things operated. I was fairly content to continue on this route for the foreseeable future and hope that after 20-30 more years I will have enough to retire. + +In the last 3 months my eyes have been opened. I don't think I will ever be able to fall back into line with the rest of the world being brainwashed. I have enough shares that after MOASS I could just, convert to gold, bury in my yard and dig it up when I need it, never needing to invest it again. Believe me its tempting to do just that. + +I am like to find a balance, with heavy diversification in many different things, like real estate, crypto, international stocks, possibly some VC action, and lots and lots of charity work. +- Borrow as many shares as possible in run up to earnings +- Keep taking millions of short positions after hours to devalue stock price +- Defer any buying pressure through off exchange (dark pools) until settlement dates and release after +- Be aware of social media expectations and destroy any that aren't met in mainstream media +- Mainstream media fud released within minutes (or before) earnings are complete + +This is all to stop FOMO buying and to try to get people to give up and sell to reduce their risk. + +If you're disappointed tommorow at the dip, ask yourself is it logical people would sell on good news? + +Also, as a profit making business, why would you spend millions on main stream media marketing and price supression if you were in a safe position? + +Veteran apes you know the routine, new apes ask any questions below and we will try to guide you +This is a genuine question. I had it, bought at 90 but just sold because I’m not sure that my money sitting in Disney is going to make more than money sitting in say ABB or AMGEN. Sure, they’re making exciting things with their old content but I’m not excited about new offerings they’ll bring to the table in the same way I am about other content providers. I think a lot of their surge in subscriptions were trial accounts and I imagine a significant percentage will drop away once purple get their fill on nostalgia. + +Do we really think the upside is so great that it’s worth keeping your money there instead of something in a more profitable sector? +All you had to do was send a message to u/bitcointip with the subject “Free Bitcoin” and say REDEEM KARMA followed by your wallet address. + +Typing all that sounds like a scam you expect to find in the comments section of Youtube, but this was 100% real and legit. + +As far as I know, it wasn’t an official reddit thing, but a project by a crypto advocate. The purpose was to give redditors a few cents (which would be a couple hundred $$ now) to expose them to crypto and learn more about it. + +I don’t know what the exact exchange rate was, but here’s a sample conversion: + +* 1,510,146 karma = you get 0.01510146 BTC (worth 15 cents back then, and $744 today) +* 543 karma = you get 0.00100543 BTC (worth $50 today) + +Alternatively, you could also donate it to a public faucet instead of sending it to your wallet. + +There was a 100 karma minimum and it was a once-per-user thing. You had to decide whether to cash in right now, or karmawhore some more for a bigger payday. + +Good times. + +Unfortunately, the bot was turned off a few years ago and doesn’t work anymore (but you’re free to still try - who knows?) + +Here’s the [original post](https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/zqocl/exchange_your_karma_for_bitcoin_reddit_bitcoin/). +let’s say that from this point on transaction volume on the ethereum network will increase at the rate of ether inflation. What should the price of ether be in that case, if that’s something that’s possible to determine? + +Is it just some multiple of total daily fees collected? + +So like right now there’s 1.2 million transactions paying an average of $4 per transaction which amounts to $4.8 million dollars generated per day or $1.7 billion per year. + +Would we say that the value of the network (assuming no growth) would be 1.7 billion X 20 or 30 or some other multiple? Is that fair? + +Jesse Powell of Kraken (u/jespow) appeared on r/ethereum yesterday and made several comments that appear to imply, and certainly have been widely interpreted to mean, that "authorities" have directed Kraken and other exchanges to freeze the DAO-C ETC tokens that the White Hat Group had attempted to exchange for ETH with the purported final intention of returning the ETH to DAO-C holders. The key statements from Powell are: + +http://np.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/50781i/whitehat_withdrawal_contract_last_update_before/d71ykum, http://np.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/50781i/whitehat_withdrawal_contract_last_update_before/d7202oc, and http://np.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/50781i/whitehat_withdrawal_contract_last_update_before/d725582. + +The last quote is particularly relevant, I think, because in it Powell specifically brings up Kraken's exposure to regulatory and law enforcement bodies as well as his belief that the White Hat Group "appear[ed] to be laundering and liquidating stolen coins." Elsewhere, Powell assures his worried customers that "We're presently seeking approval from other interested parties to let the funds go out to the withdraw contract." + +I think the idea that the coins have been frozen at the request of law enforcement investigating the White Hat group for laundering and liquidating stolen coins is so unlikely as to be impossible. I think it is so unlikely, in fact, that it will ultimately come out that that is not what happened here, and without further clarification now, it will make u/jespow and Kraken look very bad indeed down the road if they had frozen customers' property for any other reason. I would like to avoid that by asking for further clarification now. + +I am going to lay out the reasons why I think it is so unlikely in more detail below, but first, I would like to invite Jesse Powell to respond. u/jespow, people across the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic subreddits and other social media have interpreted your comments as you implying that law enforcement have forced your hand and required you to act contrary to the obvious interests of your customers here and freeze their tokens. When you say you are seeking approval from other "interested parties" to return your customers' property to them, I certainly hope there is a very short list of parties to whom you would grant this kind of decision-making power. If it is NOT law enforcement, I would ask that you please clarify that and release the coins to your customers as soon as possible. It is possible that your remarks have been misinterpreted, but if so, you need to clarify. + +**Why I think it's not law enforcement** + +**1. Investigative/operational reasons.** The role of law enforcement in an investigation is to accumulate as much evidence as possible, *of as many plausible charges as possible*, against the target. The idea is to furnish the prosecutor with lots of ammunition, with the assumption being that some of the charges will stick and some won't. No investigator is going to take action that has the effect of stopping an investigation before they catch the perpetrator in the act of committing a new prosecutable crime, particularly if that crime is the one that carries the biggest penalties. +With that in mind, consider what happened in this case. The WHG announced that they had recovered the ETC from the DAO-C. They suddenly began converting it to ETH on the exchanges, with the stated but unverifiable intention of returning it to DAO-C holders as ETH. This is what Powell refers to as laundering and liquidation. + +The problem with both laundering and liquidation is that those are both crimes that require multiple steps, with a key part of the crime being what happens *after* the "laundering" and "liquidation". If the coins were indeed given back to DAO-C holders then that wouldn't have been laundering or liquidation. On the other hand, if the WHG kept them, it would have been. But how to know if they never got the chance? + +We might suspect that the intention of the WHG was to take DAO-C holders' coins, launder and liquidate them through exchanges and then keep them, but the point is, *we can't know precisely because the exchanges took action at the key moment to interfere with the supposed crime.* That is exactly what law enforcement doesn't do. Ever. They don't save criminals from incriminating themselves. + +If law enforcement had been involved, what they would have done is silently watched everything, ordered the exchanges to allow the WHG to carry on as if nothing were amiss, monitor WHG's finances for any signs of the ill-gotten gain making its way into their personal accounts rather than into DAO-C holders, and only then spring the trap. + +But that's the opposite of what happened. This is unfolding the opposite of the way it would unfold if law enforcement were involved. Rather, it is unfolding the way it would unfold if crypto exchanges were not putting their customers' interests first and were looking for excuses. + +**2. Absence of grounds for an investigation.** Related to the above, not only do I not see any grounds for charges of laundering or liquidating stolen assets (since nothing was ultimately stolen, nor could have been thanks to the exchanges freezing it), I don't see grounds for law enforcement to have gotten interested in the first place (at least not based solely on the WHG actions). I want to be clear here that I had mixed feelings about the WHG converting ETC to ETH without asking for DTH-C input first. On the one hand, I appreciate everything they've done, and I definitely feel a sense of team loyalty, having been with ETH since the beginning. On the other hand, yeah, it was a surprising decision and one that was obviously going to create some controversy and doubt about their intentions and it worried me. + +But think about it as a lawyer might think about it. When people invested in the DAO, what did they invest? They invested ETH. When the WHG decided to convert ETC to ETH with the stated intention of giving it back to DAO-C holders, what were the DAO-C holders going to get back? ETH. It is extremely easy to imagine that a lawyer of even middling talents would be able to argue that DAO-C holders had gotten back exactly what they put in, and the WHG had been perfectly justified in making the conversion without consulting them first. Moreover (the lawyer would argue) not a single DAO investor had even heard of ETC let alone expressed a preference for ETC at the time of the investment and so it would be absurd to assume they preferred to be paid out in ETC. +Now, please note I'm not saying that is my argument. I'm just saying it would be an easy argument for a lawyer to make, and thus while many people call what the WHG did "shady," it does not seem to me remotely *prosecutable.* Law enforcement doesn't give a shit what's shady. They give a shit what's prosecutable. + +Long and short of it, I don't see any realistic possibility that law enforcement got involved here, at least not from the perspective of the decision to convert ETC to ETH being a trigger for an investigation, which is what u/jespow seemed to be implying. I don't know why the exchanges would imply it if it weren't true, and I don't know why they would freeze their customers' tokens if they don't have to. I would invite them to clarify. + +Not because of the WHG, but because of the massive press attention around the original DAO hack, I would not be surprised at all if there were some law enforcement interest in the issue as a whole, but that interest could just as easily come around to burn any exchanges or traders involved in games-playing and manipulation at the expense of good faith traders and customers. I don't see any prosecutable crimes around what the WHG did, particularly since they didn't keep the tokens; I don't see how freezing customers' tokens would assist a hypothetical investigation (as unlikely as one is to exist); and I don't believe that investigators would have saved the WHG from incriminating themselves by freezing the tokens if there *had* been an investigation. + + +ETA: http://np.reddit.com/r/EthereumClassic/comments/50jbbs/within_the_next_few_hours_kraken_will_release/ + +I guess the Feds had a change of heart. +Welcome to the **/r/EthTrader** Daily Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: +*** + +- Discussion topics include but are not limited to general discussion, details related to events of the day, technical analysis, Ethereum Classic, and minor questions. +- Important content should be posted as a separate thread. +- Be excellent to each other. + +*** + +Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! + +Shares are trading at the $4 level in spite of the fact the retailer is continuing to grow its top line, and Custom Closet/Spaces market with plans to double its store count over the next 5 years. (2023 to 2027) + +Shouldn't the stock be trading at least in the 20s? + +Thoughts? + +MWWFAN +Hello FatFIRE, + +I was curious what others were spending relative to their earning during their accumulation phase? + +I make $700,000 a year (gross) while spending $240,000 a year not including taxes (VHCOL - Bay Area). I save about $200,000 a year. + +Curious what are your spending, income and savings numbers? + +Edit: For those of you asking what do I do for a living, I am in upper management in a mid size tech company (not FAANG). +The China Hustle is a documentary that follows a series of unfolding events after the 2008 financial crisis, where investors seeking new alternatives for high returns found a gold mine in China, at least until the discovery of a massive web of fraud begins to call things into question. + +Having just finished watching this documentary, and especially with the recent ongoing trade situation, it's definitely been an eye opening experience. I highly recommend anyone currently invested or looking into investing into Chinese stocks to heavily scrutinize your existing portfolio and consider carefully what exactly it is that you might actually be buying into. + +A link to the documentary can be found here - +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55892jT06aI +I am curious how it all works. I think some specific case examples might be educational for us. + +For example, for a FB employee, how has your financial profile specifically changed in the last year as FB dropped from $350 to $100. Are old RSUs invalid if there is a strike price threshold? + +How many shares do you get per year? Is there a strike price or do you just get shares outright? What is the vesting schedule? Lockup rules? Any tricky tax implications? Taxed at issue date, yet held through 50% drop? Or taxed at sale price? Do mortgage lenders consider RSU as qualified income for DTI calc? + +Any anecdotes of co-workers who bungled? Do most co-workers keep RSU forever bc stonx only goes up, or do most sell at vest to diversify? + +In light of the tech correction, I am hoping to learn some case studies with real numbers and amounts. Or maybe someone can post a link to this already discussed question? + +EDIT: If you are hesitant to post personal info, perhaps post it and come back and delete it in a few days time, to keep your profile free of personal data. Thank you? +We are raising rates and will do so untill the something breaks and can't raise anymore. + + +Once they can't raise rates anymore and Inflation is still high. What will be the feds gameplay to reduce inflation without destroying everything ? +My previous employer submitted an amended group certificate to the ATO in 2015, one year after i left the company. + +I didn't even know about this until last week with a letter from debt collectors on behalf of ATO. + +The resubmission pushed me $500 into the new tax bracket, which bumped up my tax oweing and my hecs repayments totalling $3.5k. + +Timing is bad as I'm now unemployed on Centrelink with my new born child. + +Is there anything you think I can do ? Can I resubmit my tax return and claim $501 in deductions ? + +Thank you ! +I currently own (with mortgage) one 2 bedder in a small two story block of five units in inner ring Brisbane. It’s one of those garage underneath brick blocks that are scattered around. + +One neighbour who we have a good relationship with is wanting to sell, it’s a 1 bedder but a larger floor space and has higher voting rights (terminology?) due to this. Our current apartment is the largest in the block and also has higher voting rights. + +The block is a decent size and to be honest, the units are really inefficiently designed and I can see a solid knock down and rebuild opportunity if I could get hold of all five units in the future. Neighbouring properties are 4-5 stories unit blocks and medium density so there are different planning opportunities available. + +Does anyone from the brains trust have any insights on whether this is a good strategy to pursue? Also, do banks look at your wider future strategy when considering finance (do they even want to know / does it impact?) or is just affordability they focus on? +Seeing the number of people complaining when mostly all stocks are bleeding is getting old. People buying at highs when the market opens and then complaining bout being 50% down. Do you think ALPP went up the whole time??? It has highs and lows so stop freaking out. Average down and gain profits over time. Jesus. + +Edit: thanks for the awards kind strangers 🥺💕 +The lowest point of my life is here. The biggest culmination of fucks. 36 years old, had a good job, bought a house, got a few cars, and got married. About a year ago, I lost my job. Difficulty finding a job resulted to maxed credit cards. Trying to start a business but hasn’t been profitable. + +Today I received priority mail from a creditor with Judgement and 14 days days to respond. After hours of research, I’m completely and utterly scared of what’s to come. I am powerless. I am sick to my stomach. My pregnant wife who is working will soon quit her job because it’s something we agreed on after childbirth. Her insurance apparently will not cover hospital bills if she does not return to work. I’m afraid to tell her about the judgement because stress is the last thing a women in maternity needs. + +I cannot file bankruptcy because I have enough mortgage equity to force a sale which will render us homeless. Doing nothing will get my wage garnished, bank accounts garnished, can lose our car, have our home forced to be sold, etc. All this during the course of pregnancy and the start of fatherhood. + +I’m so lost and bewildered that I’m on here sharing because I really don’t know what else to do. I just want to cry...I know I have to keep level headed and try to find a solution no matter what. But I really don’t know how right now...I have no money to pay the debt, I can’t file bankruptcy, and doing nothing will get everything I own and every dollar left in our bank accounts get taken away. Checkmate. + +I look at my wife and she’s so peaceful next to me...I’m so lucky that she’s staying positive with all this. But she doesn’t know time is running out fast...I just want her to stay happy and to keep the confidence she has in me. I’m so afraid for what’s ahead of us. I’m trying so hard to focus even with the stress and occasional cold sweats. I can keep typing here but that’s basically the sum of it. Wish me luck. +This sub looked very similar with all the bubble comparison bull trap charts when ETH went from $6 to $3. Don't be that hodlr who freak sold at $3 if you believe in the tech and keep up on your news. +Welcome to the **/r/EthTrader** Daily Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: +*** + +- Discussion topics include, but are not limited to, general discussion, details related to events of the day, technical analysis, and minor questions. +- Important content should be posted as a separate thread. +- Be excellent to each other. + +*** + +Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! +Welcome to the **/r/EthTrader** Daily Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: +*** + +- Discussion topics include, but are not limited to, general discussion, details related to events of the day, technical analysis, and minor questions. +- Important content should be posted as a separate thread. +- Be excellent to each other. + +*** + +Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! +I hate it. Not entirely because I'm poor, but partly. + I have kids and they just don't understand that I can't fill the space under the tree and provide a full spread at the table. I can't break even most months. + +Tim Hale's Smarter Investing was the first book I read about investing. It's very solid when it explains and shows evidence on how active management or stock picking is a terrible strategy. + +Where I think he fails is his portfolio and and overall smarter investing method. It's unnecessarily complicated, has higher costs than just holding a single broad index fund and requieres intricate rebalancing. + +A superior alternative is simply holding a broad based index fund like VWRL or VWRP (the accumulation version). + + +Check out [this post](https://jlcollinsnh.com/2020/04/22/investing-with-vanguard-for-europeans-2020-update/) in the JL Collins Blog that goes into more detail about this. In the words of the author: + +>That would be the Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF at 0.22% TER (exchange ticker VWRL). Through this fund you’re investing in 3,371 holdings in nearly 47 countries, including both developed and emerging markets. The fund covers more than 90% of the global investable market capitalisation. This way there’s no need to mix U.S., European and emerging markets yourself as the fund has already done this for you +Ever since the results of the earnings call came out after hours on Wednesday, GME investors have been bombarded relentlessly with toxic negativity from all sides. Make no mistake, this is very much a calculated ruthless attack to break down your resolve. To make you give in to despair. Don't let them win. + +Focus on the positive. Here are two main positives from the earnings call that should literally put a big fat smile on your face: + +1. We finally have positive free cash flow! Not only does this indicate good financial health for GME, it also indicates that GME's management team, including CEO Furlong and Chairman Cohen, are capable of executing plans successfully and achieving their stated goals. They are the captains of our ship and now we know they're capable of steering GME through the storm to safety! +2. DRSed share numbers went up! 500,000 additional GME shares were direct registered between end of July and end of October! That's great news! Now, the bears will twist it and say it's bad news because it's not a higher number but that's short sighted thinking. We have to consider the larger macroeconomic setting. Truth is, people are hurting all over the world. Persistent high inflation means many many people are struggling just to make ends meet. Credit card debt levels are at the highest they've ever been and savings rates are at the lowest they've ever been here in the USA. It's remarkable that the number of direct registered shares even went up! Seriously! + +So never forget to focus on the positive! Here's a news article that further reminds GME investors to focus on the light and ignore the darkness: + +[https://www.thestreet.com/memestocks/gme/gamestops-q3-earnings-review-look-on-the-bright-side](https://www.thestreet.com/memestocks/gme/gamestops-q3-earnings-review-look-on-the-bright-side) +Been looking into it for a while as I currently pay £20 for 100GB with 3s sim only plan but that will expire in 4th April. However I notice that EE has a better signal but is more expensive than 3 network. + +Anyone clarify that please? + +Thanks +I was at Blockshow Asia in Singapore this week and saw a ton of interesting talks and presentations. My favorite was Simon Dixon, of Bank To The Future - who stated that even at $10,000, Bitcoin was still the most undervalued asset in the world. + +His claim was supported by his strong belief that institutional money has still not yet entered the space. This isn't exactly a revelation since that it a widely held belief by many bitcoin bulls, but Simon had an interesting way of describing the situation Wall Street currently finds itself in. + +Dixon described bitcoin as the first investment in modern history that the small time investor has access to before Wall Street, which is hamstrung by the lack of regulation in the space. However, once Wall Street is able to enter, they will in a big way. With CME Futures on the horizon eventually paving the way for an ETF, their entry seems all but inevitable and they're not going to be buying with pocket change. + +Dixon said that whether individual fund managers are believers in bitcoin or not, they will have no choice to put their clients into BTC because it is one of the few investments that at present, is completely uncorrelated to the mainstream capital markets. Finding uncorrelated assets is a very basic element to traditional diversified portfolio management (which is also discussed in Chris Burniske's Cryptoassets), so it will be a no-brainer for them whether they like it or not. + +He also discussed the properties that will establish Bitcoin as the powerhouse he believes it is destined to become - the fact that it is the world's first truly neutral currency, that doesn't care about any specific country or government and can't be shut down by them either. + +On fiat currencies, he does not see them ever going away but sees a future where people can spend their local inflationary fiat currencies but hold their wealth in cryptocurrencies that have zero connection to whichever country someone lives in. The fact that people will have a choice will ultimately keep governments honest because if they abuse their power, everyone will be free to move their wealth and the government will be powerless to stop it. + +Lastly, he predicted that in 2018 we'll see the entire cryptocurrency market reach a trillion dollar valuation. He said that there will be will be bubbles, casualties, scams and regulation along the way but ultimately, the move towards a trillion is already fast in motion. + + +I'll be traveling around Asia for the next couple months writing about all of the cool blockchain and cryptocurrency tech that's developing here. You guys can support me by subscribing to my website - www.cryptoambit.com. Anything of value I learn, I'll do my best to pass it on to you guys since I've already learned a ton from the reddit community. Thanks! + + +### Market Notes: + +Market's are still going absolutely crazy in my opinion. The IPOs of DASH and ABNB show that. Along with some crazy runners this week, **GLSI** and **SLS**. + +But the overall markets are beginning to turn. The **VIX** started climbing on Wednesday and is flying in the premarket as futures are falling. + +Big news stories of the week include jobless claims rising, COVID-19 deaths spiking, **PFE** vaccine is ready for emergency use authorization. With the vaccine several months off, the negatives could give the bears an edge at least in the short term. + +I'm watching for the dip to get bought. If the selling continues at the open we could be in for a bumpy couple of weeks. + +### Watchlist: + +\*Low Float + +\***TDAC** has support at $13.50 + +\***FIII** has support at $12.50 + +\***PHIO** has support at $3.20 + +\***SLS** is on watch + +\***ZDGE** is on watch + +\***FPAY** has support at $2.50 + +\***RAIL** has support at $3 + +\***CLSK** has support at $15 + +\***VTVT** has support at $4 + +\***PERI** has support at $11.50 + +\***WTT** has support at $2 + +\***SURF** has resistance at $10 + +**TRVG** watching for a setup above $2.50 + +**RGLS** has support at $1.20 + +**PLG** has resistance at $5.20 + +**VERU** is on watch + +**SLCA** has support at $6.50 + +**SMTS** has support at $3.20 + +**TRQ** has support at $12 + +**SM** has support at $6 + +**UUUU** has support at $3 + +**XXII** has support at $2 + +**AMPE** has resistance at $1.48 + +**ERF** has support at $3.20 + +**AR** has support at $4.60 + +**NXE** has resistance at $2.60 + +**CLF** has support at $13.65 +Back in Jan my Monzo account was offering me £10000-£15000 in personal loans with rates of between 3.1%-7.4% APR. My financial situation has actually improved (am now on higher salary) and have since paid off some additional credit card debts. Yet now I am only eligible for a £500 loan with 25.9% APR? Is this simply due to the covid-19 crisis and Monzo being inundated with loan requests? Has anyone else experienced this? +All is in the title. It was 95% of my savings. Now I come here not to lament or anything, I have to deal with that shit on my own. My friends and wife (as of now...) have my trading account frozen anyway. + +I come here to remind that losing can have consequences and what got me is the infamous but very real "I'm going to recoup my losses". At first I lost on long plays, shares, i kid you not in March i sold fsly and net at respectively 24 and 18$, approx 160k down to 120 (I bought Fastly at 32 last year). + +Then I discovered options and bought monthly ATM 550c from TSLA and it visited the 400 pretty quick at that time. This got me another 40k deeper. I know today it's close to 3000 (600 post split)... + +I did some good lucky moves and mostly made it all back in the summer, but then decided for whatever reason to bet on Intel, with hindsight because there was a a series of good chip manufacturers earnings and I was on a positive streak... They did -20% the fuckers and that's when things started getting fun. I got margin called so I wired intraday more funds, it was Friday, they were immediately available and in my panic I discovered 0DTE, those funds got fucked as Intel didn't rally back much. + +0DTE was the beginning of the downward spiral that transformed a 160k loss into a 410k loss, week after week, by chunks of 25k i kept wiring to reload my day trading limit. This is basically when you MUST find the strength to stop. I kept dreaming about more multipliers "I can do x3, x5 or x10 with a good 1pm qqq buy that will end up with a hulk dildo by 4pm". This my friends is typically the exact reason your brain will defeat all your rules, your checks and you might even start lying just because you think its possible to make it back. + +I've lost everything, I don't own any property, my parents are poor and not from the US, I'm actually homeless right now but I have a good paying job in a Bay Area company. The morale of the story is that it's all fun and games if you play and stick to a small % of your savings and ABSOLUTELY don't refund your account if you take losses, denial is a stronger force than you think, and addiction to day trades is very real. I repeat, addiction is very real especially with the gamification of most trading apps (webull, robinhood, power etrade). Anyhow, I will carry over my big loss for years while my wife is going to use my savings and buy regular SPY so we can at least offset the possible gains in 10-15 yrs... + +&#x200B; + +Don't be the next me. + +\[EDIT\] I can't post the chart atm, besides ETrade app really sucks and Webull might be somewhere still but its really painful to open those apps.. + +\[EDIT2\] I know next weeks will see SPY and QQQ skyrocket with speculation on PLTR and shit exploding. But that was already the reason i kept chasing in September before the drop, the reason I chased this summer and before. There always will be money to be made on the market, but its more of a guarantee when its just shares and you hold them. I know this is straight /r/investing shit. I guess losing my saving account in my 30s made me enough of a loser to reconsider my choices. + +\[EDIT3\] I'm going to go to therapy, yes. + +\[EDIT4\] When you lose you might start making excuses like "if i didn't have to pay my student debt" or "if i didn't need to make enough money for a downpayment" you think you wouldn't have traded that risky. But it's all on you, it's all your responsibility and you stayed because you managed to make those lucky moves that actually printed and you hoped you could do it again. + +\[EDIT5\] Missing 25k due to a change of broker last year (charles schwabbs to webull), during the 5 days transfer FSLY lost 15% + +[https://ibb.co/kxPKvb6](https://ibb.co/kxPKvb6) + +[https://ibb.co/jGBQ6wp](https://ibb.co/jGBQ6wp) +&#x200B; + +[not my mobile home](https://preview.redd.it/ca925k8i4ba81.jpg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb419f35673ca604aea747e9e7ed00302b790a32) + +Look into mobile homes ie trailers, and don't believe the negative stereotypes. Depending on where you live they are amazing affordable options. No neighbor on the other side of your wall, the ability to update and improve your space, and sometimes a little strip of land to grow a garden. + +The initial price down can be difficult, but a lot better then a house. Lot rents can be much more affordable then a yearly tax on a house of similar size. + +Ex: + +I live in 1150ft double wide 2 bed 2 bath near Worcester, MA. Average rent for a 1 bedroom apt. is 1k a month right now. + +My lot rent is 450 a month. 5,400 a year with water, sewer, trash and snow removal. + +Average tax for a house of that size in the area 7,600 a year. Nothing else included. + +I bought it for 60k at a time when the average house of the same size was 4 times that. + +Since I bought it I used all the money I saved from a giant mortgage and taxes to update and improve it. + +The lot rent goes up a little every year. But its always better then property taxes or rent. +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/z109dntuo3p71.jpg?width=1752&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6dbc37dd74a48a614dac2ea237f47fab00908873 + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/2kbijxqxo3p71.jpg?width=1752&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=283f09918c4d2900cd1107d80747cda2d4b72709 + + + +9:36am today "Sell $1 call. 299k premium. 16 contracts" +11:04am "Sell $1 call. $305k prem. 16 contracts" +12:26 "Buy $1 call. $305k prem. 16 contracts" +12:41 "Sell $1 call. $302k prem. 16 contracts" +1:21 "Sell $1 call. $304k prem. 16contracts" +2:07 "Buy $1 call. $266k prem 14 contracts" +2:30 "Sell $1call. $57k prem. 3 contracts" +2:30 "Sell $1 call. 230k prem. 12 contracts +Hey guys, I apologize if this is the incorrect place to post this. + +So I have an interview at a big bank this week for a risk management internship. I know someone on the inside and they basically told me I would be working heavily with data, data manipulation, and managing/comparing it to the companies risk appetite. When I asked specifically what I should know for the interview I was only really told to have a firm grasp on Access and strong analytical skills. + +I do not have any previous experience with risk management (and little with Access) so I am a bit nervous. My questions to any of you willing to help would be: + +What aspects of Access should I really have down? + -ex. Commonly used functions in risk management + +Is there anything I can bring to the interview to show that I know what I am doing such as past work (ex. stock pitch perhaps to prove analytical abilities)? + +Any general information/advice. + +I appreciate any help you are willing to provide, + +Thank you +https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/23/netflix-was-the-top-stock-of-the-decade-delivering-over-4000percent-return.html + +Netflix was by far the best performer in the S&P 500 during the decade among companies currently in the index. + +Netflix joined the S&P 500 in 2010, replacing The New York Times, but found itself mired in a deep crisis the following year. + +Subscriber growth in recent years has been driven by the company’s international expansion. +So I’m mid 30’s and I remember my grandfather telling me stories of gas being 5 cents and how cheap everything used to be am I gonna be that old guy talking about how in 2022 I bought a million Sats for 200$? + +I think it’s likely +My wife and I are 41, have no kids, have good jobs and have a frugal lifestyle. Based on our current savings and spending, I think we could retire now. + +The one variable that makes me unsure, however, is health care: How do we estimate what our health care costs will be? We currently have employer-provided health insurance and we're unsure how much we should expect to spend if we're buying individual health insurance. We're also unsure about long-term care: Do most people who retire early in the U.S. have long-term care insurance? + +We're both in great health with no pre-existing conditions and very few medical costs, but obviously that can change at any time and we want to be prepared if it does. Any advice would be appreciated. +I’m considering setting up a family trust, but I have a few remaining questions about how they work. + +I earn $250k+ before tax as an IT consultant. My spouse is in graphic design and probably doesn’t really push more than $20k. We’re both sole traders, with two young kids and a mortgage. + +My understanding is that by setting up a trust, I would trade under that name, and distribute earnings to my spouse (let’s say 70/30). + +By splitting the income, the tax burden would be reduced, potentially saving us around $15k pa. + +Super payments and deductions would be calculated as usual. + +My main questions is: does the trust pay corporate tax, or do we each just pay income tax? + +Also, can we each sell our (very different) services through the same trust? +Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ:FB) worst month ever continues: The stock tacked on another 4.1% loss Thursday, another $24 billion in market capitalization out the window as the stock dropped out of the top 10 most valuable companies. + +At a value of $565 billion, Facebook fell to the No. 11 spot, a ways behind Tencent Holdings at No. 10. During the fall, Meta has stumbled past companies including Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor. + +When it was Facebook, Meta had been among the top five or six most valuable companies in the world for the past few years. + +Meta's now near a two-year low, at its lowest point since May 2020. + +Thursday's move accelerated a staggering loss of value that amounts to a 46% decline from an all-time high of $382.96 on Sept. 7. The amount of market value it's lost is bigger than nearly every company in the S&P 500. + +Earlier Thursday, MoffettNathanson mounted something of a defense of the stock, suggesting that the company's story is more complicated than it appears and the stock is trading at a discount. +In reference to this [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/539gze/forensic_bitcoin_cracking_someones_tried_over_500/?ref=share&ref_source=link), I'd like to mention, that the Large Bitcoin Collider [LBC](https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/stats) has recently passed the 1000 tn mark of searched private keys. + +As both uncompressed and compressed addresses are searched, a total of over 2000 trillion addresses was searched and checked against the ~11 million addresses with funds on them. + +While these numbers may seem large, compared with the search space of BTC addresses, it's a negligible amount of search done - but it demonstrates what a small group of enthusiasts is able to achieve. + +The [trophies page](https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/trophies) lists what the pool has found so far: the first 50 addresses of the [puzzle transaction](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.0) plus ~~two~~ (meanwhile three) addresses **with funds on them**. +Ill probably get blasted by the apes but how do yall feel about puts. Can it stay this high? Surely at some point soon people will want to start selling for profits and leave the rest holding the bag or is it just better to mot be involved with it at all? +I get it. + +It’s terrifying at first. At the beginning, you feel proud that you decided to finally invest in crypto after hearing about all the gains everyone has been making. Soon after you invest, things are actually looking okay and this optimism you feel remains with you. But then things suddenly change and the market just plummets without no forewarning to you. You begin to feel nervous as you lose more and more money with each refresh of the market. You think you just have bad luck and timing and even contemplate selling to cut your losses. Its a shitty feeling and you feel powerless as you can only watch. + +But I promise, dips are normal. Crypto has experienced countless significant dips since Bitcoin ever became a thing. And you don’t have to take my word for it, simply look at the charts of the past and they’ll show you. + +The first dips are always the worst but eventually you get used to it and if you’re a holder, you will soon no longer even care if the market goes up or down because you learn one major fundamental truth: the current value of your assets does not matter, it’s about the future value. + +I don’t blame you for being scared during dips or corrections, I was the same when I first started investing and I’m sure many of my fellow investors here were also. But now I’m an emotionless bastard whether prices go up, down, sideways, whatever. So just know that you will get used to it and each dip you experience will become more and more bearable. Dips are actually a wonderful opportunity to grow your assets. Just remain calm and don’t let emotions cloud your judgment. The more dips you experience, the easier it becomes. +Somehow everything has broken: freezer, dishwasher, microwave, and clothes washer, all in one week. I own the house (barely) but can't afford the repairs. I can do without everything but I miss ice in this heat. Cold water in the fridge just doesn't cut it. + +I don't ask for much. Vacations, expensive items, dining out......those are not in my life. But ice? I just want some freaking ice. I'm so tired of being broke. +I was let go. COBRA is $500 a month. Why isn’t it based on prior income or something? Perhaps I should be venting this in r/healthinsurance, but I’m honestly just irritated in general. Was let go because my boss that hired me didn’t realize I wouldn’t put up with workplace bullying. I surpassed productivity expectations with no losses or mistakes. However they fired me for not meeting office expectations. Was told I was entitled and disrespectful and that my attitude would not be tolerated. Two bosses literally made fun of a coworkers pants because he’s AMAB wearing salmon colored slacks calling them his “girl pants”. Were racist to one guy who left the company before me implying that “all black people look the same”. I JUST received my accommodation letter from my doctor yesterday that I was going to turn in today that directly addresses my “attitude”. This was my dream job with a really great company. Everyone had been in the department or with the company for at least 5-20 years and I worked well with all of them. Except this boss. He’s been there for 2 years. I requested an exit interview to discuss the potential harm on the rest of the department and the company allowing his toxicity and bullying to continue. It probably won’t amount to anything, but if they at least listen, I’ll feel better. Cronyism and discrimination. This company literally has an entire department for Diversity and Inclusion. I’m still in shock. +Do you think I should begin dividend investing now at 23 or wait until I get closer to retirement and have more of portfolio built up? I have seen that some say it’s better to be a little more risky at my age and then begin dividend investing once my portfolio is built and when I’m at an age where I cannot take on as much risk. Let me know what you all think. Thanks! +(United States Of America) I started investing on birthday a week ago, and wanted to know some resources that I can use to increase my dividend portfolio. The stock market right now is very volatile being red but I kept my stocks. I don't have alot of money but I invest what I can. I have 1 share of VYM and KO. I'm in it for the long term but also want to enjoy myself with the dividend any advice on future shares, etfs, fundamentals, techniques? I get a dividend of 11 cents in October how would taxes work for that? Thank you +[Yahoo Finance article](https://finance.yahoo.com/m/c1ffe598-cb35-3262-afc2-08e8d1ff2881/thursday-s-big-stock-winner.html) + +STOR was one of my favorite REITs. Now what am I going to buy to replace it? I already own O, STAG, WPC, and VICI. **What other good REITs with yields** ***above 5%*** **do people own?** + +And how does it work with my shares? Do I get a check from the new buyer? Or does my brokerage just credit me with the money? +Just curious what others opinions are on this … I have been an investor for about 15 years now, I'm in my mid 30's, I've done growth investments, Crypto, Real estate , Penny stocks, even weird things like vintage video games, but my current kick is Dividend Stocks, specifically covered call ETFs like SCHD/DIVO/JEPI. + +I currently have about 250K spread out across all 3 of these ETFs in a standard brokerage, my regular ROTH IRA/401ks are just straight SP500 mutual funds. + +I know that things like SCHD obviously trounce JEPI in the long run, but I am also an psychological investor who prioritizes feel good things over what would produce the greatest possible total return or end result, as as example I paid off a 30 year Mortgage @ 3.5% in under 7 years simply because I get feel good feelings of not owing money to anyone, **these same feelings** trigger when I get monthly dividend hits from JEPI. + +**Is there an argument to be made for JEPI if someone already has a large cash pile , say over half a million dollars (700K+) ready to go who only really cares about the large monthly payouts and is completely fine with a very small growth rate of the initial capital itself?** + +Its probably a good mix of stupidity/impatience, but I really don't care much about unrealized gains of SCHD compounding every quarter, what keeps me going and keeps me **WANTING** to invest continuously is seeing the monthly income hitting my investment account. I feel this is a stronger motivating factor for me than trying to make it to 60 and see a massive pile of money after most of my life is already gone. + +It's not so much about wanting to reach FIRE, I love my job/career, and want to continue working probably into my 50s, but I want the OPTION to FIRE, knowing I could leave at any second and still be okay. The OPTION to FIRE is more important to me in my head than FIRE'ing itself, if that makes any sense. + +I should also note I do plan on using portions of JEPI payouts/other income to continuously buy more JEPI, I am also fully aware of the tax treatment of JEPI in a standard account and I'm fine with this. + +How do you all feel about this? +How are people thinking about the QYLD’s of the world during a recession? Do they still make sense to hold if the underlying assets are all likely to depreciate? Are the high yields as attractive or is it time to pivot to blue chip value picks to weather the storm. (Obv not investment advice but curious as to people’s thoughts as we head into what has the potential to be a difficult few years) +Hi, Is it possible to lose all your money invested on dividends? Or not really? Please explain different cases. And I am talking like safe companies like coke, Pepsi, msft etc, can you lose your money. + +Thanks, +I'm having trouble finding good dividend stocks at fair value. I understand market is overpriced at the moment but would like to know your stategy. + +I have had some luck in the past with growth stocks ( most recent QTWO yield 430% return) and bad luck with wrong analysis ( lost 60% on ATEN). + +According to my analysis, some of the current value dividend stocks at or below fair value are + +WBA + +ATT + +INTC- bought it few days ago + +MET + +It looks like everyone is buying up at market value or my calculations are very conservative. +(United States Of America) I started investing on birthday a week ago, and wanted to know some resources that I can use to increase my dividend portfolio. The stock market right now is very volatile being red but I kept my stocks. I don't have alot of money but I invest what I can. I have 1 share of VYM and KO. I'm in it for the long term but also want to enjoy myself with the dividend any advice on future shares, etfs, fundamentals, techniques? I get a dividend of 11 cents in October how would taxes work for that? Thank you +Now that STOR is about to be gone <sniff, sniff>, what's a good REIT to replace it, with a yield above 5%? + +I know there's more to a REIT analysis than this, but STOR had a 5-year CAGR (with dividends reinvested) of about 7.8%. With $10K invested, you would have collected dividends totalling $3341 over the 5 years, meaning it had a yield of about 6.7%. + +DEA's CAGR was 3.1% over the last 5 years, and you would have collected $3304 on your $10K, for a 6.6% yield. Not bad. DEA is no STOR, but it's definitely not bad at all. I'd be happy to shift my STOR to DEA, but has anything got anything better in terms of CAGR? + +I know about and already own O, STAG, VICI, and WPC. I'm looking for a REIT **above 5%**. What else is out there in REIT world like STOR? +Hi there! Is there anyone crazy enough to be 100% all in on Realty Income? + +Here are some reasons I think Realty Income is superior: + +1. Scale advantage allowing the company to make bigger deals + +2. Management and history of increasing dividends + +3. High current yield of >4.20% APY + +4. A-rated credit by Moody's and S&P Global + +5. Exemplary capital allocation by Morningstar + +6. European expansion allows for more growth opportunities with little competition, mainly WPC + +7. European expansion gives O access to bond markets with very low yields + +8. Inflation means increasing property values, which is good for O because it's an equity REIT. Increased book value compared to dividends paid reduces WACC on the issuing equity side + +9. If inflation is transitory, then interest rates will likely stay low for a while, keeping WACC low on the borrowing side, so a heads-O-wins and tails-O-wins situation + +10. One downside to inflation is the fact that there are not very many CPI-tracking rent escalators for O leases, I read that a lot of their leases have a 1% annual increase + +11. Monthly dividends are cool, and management's first focus, which means the company is conservative with investments + +12. Tenant diversification, creditworthiness, and defensive sectors limit probabilities of things going wrong + +13. Personally, B2B NNN real estate has a low carbon footprint due to operational efficiency, and it doesn't harm people + +14. They have recently this year committed to better environmental outcomes for their properties + +15. The fact that they have so many tenants in different industries basically makes it a diversified fund + +The only real negatives that I can see is nonsystematic risk regarding management decisions, but the corporate culture seems strong, and the adherence to the dividend protects against this. The dividend growth rate is also somewhat low at ~4-5% annually, but I think there is a chance that this is conservative due to the competitive advantages involving the scale efficiencies. + +Any thoughts? +# This post will dive into one of the most important concepts in options trading. + +# Understanding this concept will change the way you think about options trading (for the better). The concept is called volatility. + +As an option trader, you are expressing a view on volatility... some know this and others don't :P + +Because options expire, we now have be aware not just of what direction the stock will move, but *by how much* it will move in a given time period. + +Note: you can find the previous parts of this series on my profile. + +If you have questions about this post, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. + +Let's get started!! + +# Example 1: Comparing 2 stocks. + +Lets say we are looking at $AMC and $KO (Coca Cola), and we want to compare how each of these stocks moves over a 3 day period. + +If we look at KO, this is a company that has been around for a long time. We understand how much money they make, how they make it, what their future revenue is likely to be, etc.. So on a day to day basis, we shouldn't expect massive swings in the stock price. + +Perhaps on day 1 we see the stock move +1%, then -1% on day 2, and then +2% on day 3. + +But what if we looked at AMC? + +From what we know about AMC, it moves a lot. It could move up 10% 1 day, down 15% the next day and the back up 20% on the third day! + +Thinking about these two stocks. It's should be clear that KO is much more stable than AMC. There is a lot less risk on KO than AMC. + +# So, which of these stocks do you think would have more costly options? + +The reason AMC options would be more pricey relative to $KO is because there is more *risk* that AMC moves a lot. Remember, the options market tries to price what is going to happen in the future.. Since it is a lot more probable that AMC moves 10% tomorrow than Coca Cola, *the options of AMC imply more future big move risk than the options for KO.* + +**The simple way to put this would be:** ***AMC is more volatile than KO.*** + +If both stocks were trading at $100 per share, we would expected a $100 strike call option on AMC to be much more expensive, since there's a higher chance of it having a bigger move. Remember! In a trade, there is a buyer and a seller. + +So if that option on AMC was only like $2, we would all want to buy them, and no one would want to sell them, so the price would go up (supply and demand). + +# So why do we care about volatility? + +It's the factor that the market looks at to determine how much the options should be trading for. + +Most retail traders are *price insensitive* in the options space. They are more focused on the *exposure* the options give them, rather than the cost of the option. But as we move through this lesson.. really start to think about the value of options. If we can go out and find an option trading for $10 that is really worth $5, we've found a really good trade. So let's try to tie everything here back to *the value of options.* + +# Checkpoint summary 1: + +1. Volatility is simply the size of the move for a given stock. +2. The a big factor in the price of options is how volatile the market thinks a stock will be in the future +3. Since volatility is a big part of how the market prices options, we can say that the option prices *imply future volatility*. +4. volatility is not direction. fundamentally it is the size of the moves, not the direction the stock goes. +5. If you are trading options, you are trading volatility. Understanding volatility is an important part of understanding how to trade options. + +# The 3 Circles of Volatility + +Now that we understand (in general) what volatility is, we need to understand that there are *different forms of volatility* that impact every single stock. To explain this, theres a demonstration made by Predicting Alpha that explains it really well. It's called the **3 circles of volatility**. + +# There are 3 forms of volatility that impact any given stock. + +1. The first form of volatility is called **market volatility**. + +The market has volatility. All of the stocks we can look at exist within the market. Let's say the market crashes. All of the stocks that we are looking at would also take a huge hit. The market overhands all of the stocks we look at, and what happens to the overall market impacts all of the stocks. + +[All stocks exist within the market, and are therefore subject to what happens to the market.](https://preview.redd.it/cbppljlin1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=0b0ded0cb0d5b558f3008f4a1efe67f9f7482d17) + +2) The second form of volatility is called **non-event volatility** + +Let's say we zoomed in and looked at one stock in particular. We would find another form of volatility called *non-event volatility.* Non event volatility is the movement of a stock on its regular day to day. How has the company been doing? Does it move on average 1% a day? or 10% a day? For example, $KO is going to have less non event volatility than $AMC. Different stocks move different amounts regularly. + +&#x200B; + +[Each stock has its unique day to day movement, specific to the trading around that company.](https://preview.redd.it/4147qqrbm1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=84e86d5ee4777cb3f564d2578916a5afcfadfbcd) + +&#x200B; + +3) The third form of volatility is called **event volatility** + +If we zoom in a bit further, we see that within each company there are key events that drive big movement in the share price. Earnings events, product releases, drug approvals, etc. Company events introduce new information into the market, leading to "jumps" in share price that we typically wouldn't see. Because of this, events can drive short bursts of high volatility for a stock. + +[Within the regular movement of a stock, there are big events that drive short bursts of rapid stock movement.](https://preview.redd.it/emm3b69am1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2291be9a53ffa643efa9a93703aa698600456551) + +By taking these 3 forms of volatility into consideration, we are able to understand what's causing the stock to move, or impacting the price of the options. + +For example, If the stock market crashes, it will overshadow the non-event volatility of a company. Even though the stock maybe moves only 1% a day on average, a market crash could cause it to move a lot more. + +For another example, When GME was moving like crazy over the last few months, event volatility around their earnings releases was almost the same as non-event volatility, almost as if no "event impact" was being priced in. + +# Relating it back to options + +Let's say we are looking at an option expiring in 30 days. Taking into consideration the 3 forms of volatility, the market is going to try to determine how much the stock is likely to move over the next 30 days. + +If the stocks trading at $100 and the at-money call and put are each going for $5 (5% of the share price), we can add them up and see that the "range" the market implies (the at-the-money straddle) is $10 in price, or 10% of the share price. + +This tells us that the market thinks the stock will move up or down 10% in the next 30 days. The option prices are reflecting the *market implied volatility*. + +Let's say in the middle of those 30 days there is an earnings event. We can now says that the market volatility , non event volatility AND event volatility are all a part of the "10% up or down" that the market is baking into the price of the options. + +[All 3 forms of volatility are impacting this option. Can you think of how the event volatility can skew our view on the time period?](https://preview.redd.it/o1enqjj8m1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=55e6e9fc6f3a8526c23bbdcb7051cd6a18b89d76) + +Why is this important? Well, if we know there is an earnings event in the middle of that time period, we can use the 3 circles to think that *a lot of the 10% move the market is implying might happen on that 1 day, and we will see very small moves on the other 29 days.* We can use some analytics tools to try to separate the event and non event volatility to understand if this is the case, which is really useful for selling options and knowing *exactly what you are selling.* + +&#x200B; + +[We can extract the event volatility from the non-event\/market volatility. This helps us understand how much the market is implying for the event, and how the value of options will change after the event passes.](https://preview.redd.it/o8rck0o6m1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2e27dde1e3bb5669d9aec66f27bf95ddab48f0c) + +The picture above shows the term structure for DAL and how much earnings event volatility is priced into the different DTEs (earnings is this week). + +# A cool thing about the 3 circles of volatility is that we can isolate which one we want to trade + +Depending on what you think is mispriced, you can isolate one of the forms of volatility. For example, If you just want to trade an earnings event, you can structure your trade to remove a lot of market and non-event volatility! + +More on this in a future post where we talk about earnings trading. + +# Checkpoint summary 2: + +1. There are 3 forms of volatility that impact a stock. Market volatility, non-event volatility, and event volatility. +2. Market volatility is like the "tide that rises and lows all ships", non-event volatility is the day to day movement of a stock, and event volatility is a short burst of big movements caused by new information coming into the market (earnings, product releases, etc). +3. The option price reflects the impact of each of these 3 forms of volatility within the days to expiration of the option. +4. We can isolate different forms of volatility depending on what we want to trade. + +# Implied VS Realized Volatility. + +Imagine you are at a horse-racing track, and you want to place a bet on the next race. + +You take a look at the odds, and see that the horse named Seabiscuit has 4:1 odds on it coming first place. Nice! The market is saying that you only need to risk 1 to make 4 if Seabiscuit comes in first. You do some math, and you think that theres a 50% chance he will come in first (market is implying about a 25% chance) and decide it's a good bet. So you place your bet. + +Then the race starts, and even though he was off to a good start, Seabiscuit ends up coming in 4th place. Damn. + +When you went to place the bet, the market gave you a bet you could choose to take. The market was *implying a certain likelihood of that horse winning*. + +Then the race started , and the *realized outcome,* or what actually ended up happening was that Seabiscuit lost the race. + +This is like what happens in the options space.. + +**Implied volatility** is how much the market *thinks* the stock will move in the future. + +**Realized volatility** is *how much the stock actually ends up moving.* + +# How does the market determine implied volatility? + +The basic way to think about this, is that the market participants look at the 3 circles of volatility and make an opinion about how much each of them will impact the stock between now and the option's expiration. The market consensus on each form of volatilities impact will then become the *market implied volatility*. + +If the stock moves more than what was implied, the buyer makes money.. If the stock moves less than what is implied, the seller makes money (there is nuance to this, but for this lesson we are keeping it simple). + +**note**: There are tools out there that help you graph and analyze the difference between implied and realized volatility. You can get some basic charts in most brokerages. My preferred tool is Predicting Alpha Terminal which allows me to do some unreal analysis. + +For example, here's the IV/RV ratios for $KO and $AMC. + +[There are tons of analytics specific to volatility. The insights help us understand the value of options better, and therefore make more money trading.](https://preview.redd.it/kovfuu04m1t71.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b3afacbcd6bdb598d3c39ed1e6061096986e011) + +It's pretty cool. This shows us the gap between the implied and realized volatility for each of those companies on the same graph. Looks like they have both steadied out to a similar spread. + +# Checkpoint summary 3: + +1. Implied volatility is how much the market thinks the stock will move in the future +2. realized volatility is how much the stock actually ends up moving +3. If we have a different opinion from the market, and we end up being closed to what the stock "realizes" , we should make money. + +# OK so we understand the "bet the market presents us with" (implied volatility), and "what actually ends up happening" (realized volatility), but how do we know what side of the trade to be on? + +You remember in the horse racing example how we said that you think the odds of Seabiscuit winning are 50%, but the market is implying a 25% chance? This is an extremely important part of the example. + +The reason it is so important, is because *that is why you took the bet!* + +Think about it. If you agree with the bookie on his odds and likelihood of winning, why would you take the bet? You know that he skews the odds a bit in his favor (revisit my post on expected value if you need to), so taking that bet would have negative expectancy. + +# The reason we took the trade is because our forecast for the race was different from the market. + +# We do the same thing in the option market. + +The market presents us with options priced at a particular implied volatility level. *Our job is to come up with our own forecast of future volatility.* + +You can think of your "forecast" as your opinion on things. If the market thinks a stock isn't going to move a lot, but you think it will, options are cheap. If the market is implying that the stock will move more than you think it actually will, options are expensive. + +If we can develop a really solid forecast of future volatility, options trading becomes pretty straight forward. Now of course, if it were easy to do we would all have matching lambos already. But this is the fun of trading, the better opinions you can develop, and the better you can express those opinions, the more money you should make. + +# Conclusion + +*"Gold slips away from the person who invests gold into purposes through which they are not familiar"* + +That is a quote from a book called The Richest Man in Babylon that often comes to mind when I see traders getting into trades without understanding the product and space they are participating in. + +To be honest, a lot of times it's this lack of familiarity that can drive inefficiencies that more sophisticated traders profit from. + +Let's keep in mind that options are volatility products. Let's strive to learn more about how these products are priced and how to create good views of the future. There is plenty of opportunity for retail traders to make money, but it all starts by understanding the product we trade, and how to trade it. + +If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to get back to everyone. + +# In my next post, I will dive into how to isolate event volatility for earnings trades, and how I have been able to make a living trading earnings events as a primary strategy. + +Happy trading everyone. + +\~AG +# This post will teaching you the key to trading options in illiquid markets. + +# Low capacity spaces contain some of the best trading opportunities for retail traders because they are usually less efficiently priced. + +**But** **one of the hardest parts of trading in low capacity spaces (and most overlooked) is execution.** + +Often times, it can be the difference between a profitable strategy and an unprofitable one. + +This is because our edge is usually small, and leaving money on the table due to poor execution can be devastating in the long run. + +This is why I usually tell traders I know to stick to liquid names. The bid ask spreads are much tighter, and execution has less of an impact on your outcomes. + +The problem with strictly sticking to liquid names is that as retail traders, often times there is more opportunity to be found in smaller, less liquid names. + +With less eyes on a stock, it makes sense that volatility will be priced less efficiently (which means more chance for us to come in and price volatility better than the market)! + +# But if the market is illiquid, how can we trade it? + +The short answer is that we need to *understand what volatility line we want to sell at*, and then try to get filled at the corresponding option prices! + +&#x200B; + +>Note: *Want to read the rest of my posts?* [Click here to view a list of them.](https://classic-desert-4cb.notion.site/Ultimate-Guide-to-Selling-Options-061ca90e28cc494eb855de5ce398af7e) +> +>\^ Link to a notion page with all the reddit posts listed + +&#x200B; + +# This post will dive into the concept of understanding the volatility line you are selling at so that you can trade illiquid stocks with more confidence. + +To understand this, we are going to use $VOD as our trade example. + +&#x200B; + +>**Note**: *I do not have a position on VOD. It came up in my scan expensive volatility scan, and chose to use it for this demonstration because a) IV is overstating RV b) It is very illiquid* + +&#x200B; + +When it showed up in my scan today, the 15.5 puts expiring Jan 07 2022 had a bid of $0.67 and an ask of $1.94. + +Let's say I came in and tried to get a fill at the mid for $1.30, and I did! I might sit there and say "*Nice, I got filled at a fair price!*" + +But here's the issue. In this case, the mid is *not* fair value. It's not even the markets fair value. + +# The mid is just the middle price between the bid and the ask. + +If the person on the ask is more aggressive, then the mid will be much more favourable to the buyer than to the seller. And if the person on the bid is more aggressive, the mid will appear much more favourable to the seller. + +This is because the mid price can be easily changed by small actions on either side of the market. + +# Here's an example to make this clear. + +Imagine we are looking at a stock with an illiquid options market for it. + +When we look at an option for it, we see that the bid is $0.50 and the ask is $5.00. There is 1 lot on the bid (one person looking to buy one contract as the bid), and 1 lot on the ask (one person looking to sell one contract as the ask). + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/4lv4fte321481.png?width=1332&format=png&auto=webp&s=bee4f470b5a2bec5a5d636e064c1ff0f01113384 + +The picture above is what this market would look like. Given the gap between the bid and the ask, we would see the mid at $2.75. + +But what would happen if a new market participant came in and offered to sell options at $3.50? Well now the ask on this option chain is $3.50, not $5.00! + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/bx0jf29621481.png?width=1608&format=png&auto=webp&s=424d7ee4629adf56d6430c2fb9f266716246c6d2 + +This means that our mid has just changed drastically. It was $2.75, now it is $2.00! So which is the markets true fair value? + +*The answer is that in illiquid markets, we can't use the mid to estimate fair value.* + +On something liquid like QQQ, SPY, or AAPL, the mid is great. The market is really competitive, with really smart people on both sides posting the bid/ask. So it's actually a good estimate of market fair value. Butt when it's illiquid, the mid is meaningless. + +# Let's go back to our VOD example now. + +At the time of the trade, I went into my brokerage was showing IV at around 50% for the put options. But with the bid ask spread so wide, how do we know if this is even a legit number? To figure out if we can actually sell at 50% IV, we can answer the following question: + +*"If I wanted to sell VOD puts at 50% IV, what price would I need to sell the the put options for?"* + +To answer this, we can use a Black Scholes calculator to price what the options should be worth *given* the level of implied volatility we want to sell at. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/lu1gdyh121481.png?width=1592&format=png&auto=webp&s=56c2c92132d9167be782687b11f19c69b6d88362 + +I input the current price, strike price, expiration, and volatility my brokerage was showing. Once I ran the calculation, I see that the put premium is $1.12. + +With this, I can conclude: + +***If I want to sell put options at 50% IV on VOD, I need to collect at least $1.12 in premium for each option***. + +If I collect more than that, I am selling at a higher IV, and if I collect less than that, I am selling at a lower IV. + +# Let's say we didn't know how to price the options, and we blindly tried to get a fill. + +Imagine this situation: + +*We looked at the data ad thought VOD options were expensive at 50% IV. The stock is only realizing 30% volatility.. so it's an easy sell! The market was illiquid, so we worked our order and* ***eventually sold a put option for $0.95.*** + +Is this a good trade? Did we even sell what we meant to? + +# Let's check. + +To figure this out, we need to use a calculator that allows us to input basic option information, but instead of adjusting the volatility to get price (as we did with the previous calculator), this time we are going to input the price to get the volatility! + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/9dkkjkeul5481.png?width=2326&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf5f9cf76adf197be71e503e5e69eef3ac10af8c + +Just like the other calculator, I input the option basics (what kind of option, underlying price, strike, expiration), but now I also enter the price I sold at (rather than the IV). + +The output is the implied volatility of the option I sold, given the price I sold it for. + +# Because I was too aggressive on my order, I actually sold at 40% IV instead of 50% IV. + +With my fair value at 35% IV or so, I just erased almost all of my edge by being too aggressive. I didn't know when to stop, and I've either left money o the table or actually have a -EV trade now. + +I hope this example with VOD makes it clear how important knowing the vol line *you want to sell, and actually get filled at* is for your trading. + +If you have questions about this, please leave a comment and I will try my best to help you. + +# Ok, so I priced the option, and know where I want to sell. How flexible can I be with getting a fill? + +Once we know the IV we want to sell at, and what price we should be selling for in the market, how strict do we need to be with getting that price. + +Looking at our VOD example, we are aiming to get $1.12 for the put option. But would we be happy with $1.11? How about $1.05? How can we figure out the minimum that we are happy to collect on this trade? + +The answer depends on how much edge you have on the trade. This is why valuation is important. + +# Here's a clear example (not options related, but it illustrates my point well). + +**Let's say that you know for sure that AAPL is going to $200 tomorrow. How much should you be willing to pay for AAPL today?** + +The answer is obviously *anything below $200.* + +Maybe with some room for error depending on your confidence. + +**But the key point is that you have to value it**. **You have to be able to say that AAPL is worth $200.** + +The same thing goes for option trading. We are saying that the fair value for VOD is much closer to what it is currently realizing. Maybe 35-40 vol. + +So how can we think about this? + +1. VOD is currently trading for 50% IV. It's realizing about 32% IV. +2. I think fair value is closer to 35-40% IV. +3. I need to leave a margin for error incase my calculations are slightly off +4. After everything, there needs to be enough profit that it's worth taking on the risk of this stock moving a lot. + +# Knowing this, it doesn't make sense for me to get filled at the 40% IV line. + +Its very close to my opinion on fair value, doesn't leave much room for me to be wrong or make a profit. + +Anything below about 47% IV would not be something that I would do. Using the option calculator and adjusting for this, I can conclude: + +* I want to sell the put option for $1.12 +* I am willing to lower my ask to $1.06 + +If I am unable to get a fill for above $1.06, the trade is no longer worth taking, and I will have to either wait for a fill or move on to another trade. I've witnessed many occasions where traders will get too aggressive with their orders, and then are left wondering why they are losing money. + +By always knowing the volatility line you are selling at, you will avoid this problem and be able to better take advantage of illiquid markets. + +# Conclusion + +Most the time, traders think that once they have found a good idea, the hard work is done. But what you come to realize as you continue to improve and find your own edges, is that one of the hardest part in trading is actually the execution. Usually, that is the difference between a +EV and -EV strategy, and I will consider this post a success if that has been made clear and you have a solution to this problem when liquidity makes it hard to find market fair value. + +Always remember, when we are trading in an illiquid market we **need** to price our options. + +This is crucial. If we can't price the option when we go to trade it, all the work we put into trying to price it beforehand is jeopardized. + +On the flip side, when we are able to price the volatility we are aiming to get filled at, we are now free to explore illiquid option chains for potential opportunity. These tend to be lower capacity spaces, with less eyes on them, and therefore more opportunity for the small guy. + +Remember, as retail trades, we are all relatively "small fish". We don't need to be in the ocean to find food, we can hunt in a pond. + +When you can price the volatility you need to be trading at, hunting in the pond becomes a lot more satisfying. + +Happy trading, + +\~ A.G. +365/366 is not evenly divisible by 14 (2 weeks) so an extra day gets shifted into one payroll cycle every 11 years or so (since leap year eats up 3 of those days, otherwise it would be every 14 years). + +It's called a ["pay period leap year"](http://biztaxlaw.about.com/b/2009/01/08/2009-pay-period-leap-year-how-will-you-deal-with-an-extra-pay-period.htm), and aside from creating headaches for payroll departments everywhere, it does mean something for you. + +FSA, HSA, 401K/403B, ESPP, and other pre-tax benefits are frequently deducted on a per-paycheck basis. If you're the type that does the math to figure out when you can max out your 401k or if you have multiple 401ks you contribute to in the same year (switch jobs), this is an extra hiccup to be aware of. Likewise with PTO that accrues by the pay period or week. + +If you are paid monthly, or semi-monthly this doesn't apply to you. If you are paid weekly, your "leap year" happens every 5 or 6 years. The cycle also depends on what day of the week you close your pay period/issue checks and how you deal with payday holidays. I believe 2015 is only a leap year if your pay period ends on Sunday. This doesn't mean you'll get more checks in 2015, but you will work for 27 pay periods in 2015. + +Just something to keep in mind as you begin forecasting your 2015. + +Edit: Since lots of people seem to still be confused, I'm going to show the math that explains this: + + 365 days in normal years / 14 day pay periods = 26.07142857142857 + + 366 days in leap years / 14 day pay periods = 26.14285714285714 + + If it were exactly 26, you'd expect to have 286 paychecks in 11 years. + + However, in 11 years, there could be 3 leap years and 8 regular years + + So, (26.07142857142857 * 8) + (26.14285714285714 * 3) = 287 + + One extra paycheck. + + +I tried to do a 401k rollover between companies over the past several months. Following my company's directions for a 401k rollover, I requested checks from my original 401k management company, they sent them to me, and I sent them on to the new company, Vanguard. The checks were received by Vanguard but they "rejected" the transaction due to missing "Confirmation of after-tax cost basis from prior account". Rather than calling me or notifying me, Vanguard claims to have mailed the checks back to me via USPS Priority mail with no tracking information. The checks never arrived and after many months of going back and forth between the two companies, requesting stop payments and reissue of checks, I was told that the larger check \~$30k was "cleared" on 10/3/22. Vanguard insists that they didn't deposit the checks and that they mailed them to me on 9/16/22. I have a scan of the deposited check, there is no information (that I can discern) re: who cashed the check. Rather than a stamp on the endorsement line it is just a "wet signature" (which is a scribble) and there is a alpha-numeric sequence (TX\_02\_220913\_....) stamped on the bottom of the check - maybe by the bank which deposited the funds. + +I have called each 401k company extensively and neither will help. I have tried to file fraud claims with both of them, I have tried calling the US DOL EBSA, the SEC, I have filed a police report, and I have tried to file a fraud claim with JP Morgan since the check has their name on it and they disbursed funds to someone other than who was named on the check (it was addressed to VFTC Vanguard FBO <my name>). So far no one is helping. EBSA agreed that JP Morgan 'should' be liable, but I have no idea how to get them to correct this issue and restore my money. + +I'm hoping someone would know how I can use the TX\_02\_220913... code on the back of the check to get more information (it looks like this reads as TX: Texas and a date: 9/13/22 but I don't know if that is correct). The location and date in which the check was deposited has big ramifications re: who was in possession of the check at the time (e.g., was it still at Vanguard? or was it stolen from the mail?). +[GameStop.com](https://www.gamestop.com/) || Shop [Internationally](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/vyyzmx/gamestop_retail_international_nft_game_informer/) || [NFT Marketplace](https://nft.gamestop.com) + +GameStop [Investor Relations](https://news.gamestop.com/) + +# 🙋 ​[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/) + +# 📚 Library of Due Diligence [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg) + +>A collection of over 200 of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence. 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 + +# 🟣 [Computershare Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/yjawq7) + +*gobble gobble'n up those shares* 🎃🦃 + +>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! + +# 🎁 [Very GMErry Holidays returns for more cheer!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ylyszu/very_gmerry_holidays_returns_for_more_cheer_wont/) + +>Superstonk held a toy drive for Toys for Tots (TFT) last year and we raised over $103,000 in money and toys! +> +>We even had a way for Apes to shop GameStop.com and ship it directly to a TFT site that was super close to a GameStop distribution center in Grapevine, TX. +> +>We had a huge positive impact! And we’re doing it again. + +🏴‍☠️ [NFT Marketplace & Wallet Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/vluysg/gamestop_nft_marketplace_wallet_megathread/) + +>Why is GameStop getting into NFTs? *WTF* even is an NFT? How do I set up a GameStop Wallet? How do I get a cool/custom wallet address? All these questions and more are answered here! + +**Read** [**the Rules & Wiki**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) **||** [**MOASS FAQ**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq) **|| Join our** [**Discord**](https://discord.gg/Superstonk) + +How to [feed DRSBOT](https://www.reddit.com/r/GMEOrphans/comments/qlvour/welcome_to_gmeorphans_read_this_post/). Low karma? Post your DRS on r/GMEOrphans + +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 user flairs, find [custom emoji options here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/v89p0h/new_superstonk_user_flair_emojis_how_to_edit_your/) +My sister is a single mom to an autistic child who lives in a trailer in Wisconsin. Her roof is leaking badly due to rain and she has no money to fix it. I don’t know how to help her. Right now it’s a 14x74 tin metal flat roof, but my friend who works in roofing is saying most places would want to replace it with steel ($5-6k) or shingles ($3-4K). I’m at a loss. She doesn’t apply for emergency housing because her house is too old (1975). I told her to set up a gofundme but she refused because people tend to be nasty on there. + +EDIT: I’m asking for ideas on how to help. Right now she’s got a guy friend trying to help with tarps and the suggestions below. I’m not asking for anything but ideas or suggestions on how to help. Thanks! +Hello PF, + +I am a 25 year old who makes $45,000 pretax. I graduated with about $33,000 in student loan debt and I have managed to whittle it down to about $10k over the past 4 years. + +More recently, the last 2 years, I have been dropping $1000 every month on my loans to try to get rid of them as soon as possible, but I have been neglecting savings and investments so I can get rid of this debt. Is this a good idea? I would like to have all of my student loans paid off before the end of 2020 and then I can take that extra $1000 and put it towards savings and investments. I want to know if I am making the right move financially. + + +I have 0 debt other than the student loans. Car is paid off and I always pay my credit card bills completely each month. + +In Betterment, have about $3000 in savings, $1100 in an investment account, and about $6000 in an IRA which was a rolled over 401k from my previous employer. + +I also have a $3600 simple IRA through fidelity that my current employer matches 3% on. I do not have any other savings or depositing to these accounts. + +Thank you! + +Edit: Wow this post blew up. I was not expecting that. + +I would like to clarify a few things. My student loans are federal loans and at a fixed rate of 3.6%. Reading comments I think I could make a better use of my money at cutting it down to the minimum and putting the rest into a Roth. + +I appreciate all of the comments. I will be reading through them more today when I have time. + +Thank you personal finance! +As you can see - almost every year when 7 or more people have died on this famous high altitude death trap, the market has been very healthy overall, with the following year being overall bullish as well: + +https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7cFR61UIAAaHGd?format=png&name=small + +Courtesy of OddStats: + +https://twitter.com/oddstats/status/1132381792571281408?s=21 + +The question now is, with Tariff Man in action effectively countering the human sacrifices, how do we get more people to voluntarily kill themselves on Everest, in order to keep getting gains. + +I think we should start a GoFundMe to send the mods, but am open to other suggestions. +Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! + +Have a look at the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/wiki/faq) for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. + +Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. + +I'm a high-school debater and the December topic is: + + Resolved: The United States should prioritize tax increases over spending cuts. + +The wording is fairly ambiguous so for my Affirmative case I would like to emphasize the short-term costs of cutting government spending. This is true correct? Correct my rudimentary understanding of economics if i'm wrong, but the government dramatically cutting back on it's spending very quickly would have a detrimental effect on the economy right? Can you help me prove this? Or any general advice on the resolution would be VERY much appreciated. Thanks! +I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to global economics. I do not have any investments outside of US-government and California bonds. + +I hear a lot of news about the EU collapsing because of the 30% unemployment in the PIGs, the BRICs slowing down, Chinese housing bubbles and a possible US government shutdown/default and I get worried about weather or not my money will be safe. + +I don't mean to make dumb threads but I would like some reassuance that it's all not going to collapse. +Not expecting to need money for a down payment within the next 5 years, but probably in the next 10. Should I start saving for a house, or is it alright to put extra funds toward retirement knowing there’s no early withdrawal penalty on your first downpayment. What are the downsides to relying on that? + +Edit to add some specifics: + +Does your answer change if we’re talking Roth IRA not employee 401(k)? I have about $15K/year available to save. I could put $9K toward my 401K and $6K toward a Roth IRA, and over 10 years I would have contributed $90K and $60K. At that point I can freely withdraw the contributions I need from Roth without penalty right? Would it still be better to have just saved that $6K a year separately, and have total $90K in retirement and $60K available for down payment? + +One thought I have is if the downpayment is less than $60K, let’s say $40K, then after 10 years I’d be in the position where I have $20K of contributions leftover in my Roth if I went that route, versus zero contributions and $20K in savings. +I just sold my old Honda CRV with 235,000 miles, and have found a car I want to buy from a dealership - a used ‘09 Honda Fit with 62K miles listed for $12,900. With taxes and fees and everything else, it would be $13,911 total. + +I am approved for a 36 month loan at 4.99% interest. My husband and I are in our early 30s and have $20,000 in liquid savings (in retirement accounts we have $27,000). We also have $55K of federal student loans which are on pause and we are cautiously optimistic $20K will be forgiven, or at least the payment pause will be extended again. We are about to have a baby and want to buy a house next year. + +Currently, each month we are able to put about $1500 in savings and $450 in retirement. I plugged some numbers into a calculator, and am struggling to decide whether to… + +A) Pay cash for the car and work on building our savings back up as quickly as possible + +B) Put down $5K to keep more in savings, and have a $267 car payment (would pay $702 in interest) + +C) Make a bigger down payment, like $8K, and have a $177 car payment (would pay $465 in interest) + +What would you do?? + +ETA: My MIL passed away in 2021 and left her estate to her 3 children, but everything is tied up in probate court. We could get anywhere from $15-$75K when all is said and done. This $ would go towards student loans and/or home down payment. +My father has retired from his first job as a teacher. He gets 2000$ per month. + +He has the following expenses + +loan for $23k until the year 2027 +Another loan for $43k for the year 2024 + +He does not have a debt, because he just took the $23k loan to close his debt. He has +500$ left in the account. + +He pays: +1000$ per month to rent a property for a business that does not generate revenue +992$ paid out for the loans + +He needs to make 3000$ per month in order to pay the above 'monthly requirement' + government tax before so he doesn't go below the 0. + +Here's the problem. His business does not generate that. The way he has been going at it for the past few years, is that he will continue to lose money and going into debt, and by the time the next loan is about to expire, he'd be about $15k in debt and then he'd take another loan to cover it. + +It's a vicious cycle. The solution is to stop working in that business. But, he says that he is old and that he needs the work to keep his mind sharp and his body strong. When he was unable to work due to Covid, he did feel his body wasn't doing well. +Can anyone suggest what to do in the case, where their parents are stubbornly choosing a financially bad path. +I bought a house last year, put as little down as possible (actually got some of my earnest money refunded), got a 3% interest rate. Friends said "put a little bit extra towards your mortgage each month- you'll save so much interest!" Ii also see a lot of people on here and on budget podcasts talking about paying off a mortgage early. I mean, I get the cash flow perspective. I could go on a nice vacation each year for what I pay in interest. But, from a sheer "let's maximize the amount of money I have in my entire life," isn't that better in the stock market? I mean, doesn't compounding interest work both ways? Not to mention I'm in a position where I might not be able to buy my next car with cash- wouldn't I be better off saving that money to avoid a car loan? I get that, over 30 years, even 3% interest compounds to be a lot, but wouldn't I be better off padding my retirement? The only thing I can think of is the 3% is guaranteed, and it's possible the stock market won't perform as well over the next 30 years as the last 30... What do you all think- are there advantages to paying off a mortgage early that I'm missing, or am I thinking about it wrong somehow? +Long story made short, I told some co-workers that I made about 400 euros by investing in bitcoin. Now this is a tiny amount of money, but it has not stopped some of my colleagues from asking me to share my gains with them. One of them is getting married and he suggested that I should give him a generous cash gift. Another one said that I made a promise to give him some profits a few months ago when bitcoin was at 3000 euros. I don't ever recall making such promises and even if I did, I'm not legally bound to give him anything. + +I basically told all them to get lost (cuss words left out from this post) as I was the one taking a risk with my money and not them. Had things gone south nobody would have offered a helping hand and yet when profits are made everyone expects a share just because they simply know your name. +There were a couple of people who only asked for help on how they can invest in bitcoin and I gladly pointed them to a number of exchanges. + +Now Imagine if instead of a measly 400 euros, I made thousands or hundreds of thousands, the situation would have been far, far worse. + +TL;DR: No matter how much money you make in Bitcoin don't tell anyone about it. Just explain the benefits of block-chain technology and stop there. +[Original thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6jlyew/underpaid_got_offered_a_81_increase_from_a_new/?st=J4HISGGF&sh=33dc35e5), so I accepted the other companies offer and gave my office manager a two week notice. I left this evening and got a call from the owner of the company telling me that a two week notice was very unprofessional and that I need a one month notice as it's professional courtesy. I feel like I just burned a bridge and it's made me feel so much worse. I've never even heard of a one month notice. + +I'm basing my assumptions on MMM's: + +http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/ + +Of course, I don't think it's worth $15,900 extra for every mile I live closer to work (per his math). Although I'm worth $25/hour I wouldn't be working those hours otherwise. My math comes in at $10,000. It's worth $10,000 every mile closer to work I get. My realtor tells me she's there to tell me what the best investment is. She doesn't understand that appreciation is not at the top of my list. I live in Austin so basically nothing will depreciate. I want to invest by saving! Should I keep my agent? + +update: I had a heart-to-heart with my realtor. I basically said life betterment is the goal here with less stress than apparent value/future market potential. I said living close to work means the most to me for the right price. We looked at a house in a neighborhood she told me wasn't any good (apartments nearby and the neighborhood is mostly rentals). It's not a dream home, but it's my first home and I need to get this right in the early years of my career. Plus it'll likely be a rental property whenever I move up so I'm not AS worried about it being in a rental property. Sure, it'll affect how much rent I can charge. But financial independence is more about life betterment than getting rich. +I am 25, engaged, and I have a very solid job. My fiancee is 27, and also has a very good job. I make around $80,000 a year, and she makes $110,000 a year. I invest around $10,000-$15,000 a year in various stocks which tend to make me money which we use to pay for all vacations. I have a pretty much brand new car, and I split rent ($1900) with my fiancee each month. My fiancee's car is also only a few years old. + +Basically after after 401k contributions, utilities, rent, and other expenses, I am saving $1500-$2000 a month. My Fiancee has $14,000 in student loans, but she is going to pay that off in one large payment in the next month or so. After that, we will be saving almost $5,000 a month. + +I already have $50,000 in my savings, and I really don't know what to do with it. I feel like I shouldn't have that much in my savings. We are saving up for a house, but that probably won't be for a few years. Should we continue to keep putting money into our savings until we buy our home, then essentially restart? Or is there another smarter option? +About 4 years ago I wrote [this post](https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/5xe7vj/10_years_from_disability_to_half_a_million/). If you ever needed evidence of the power of compounding, it took a decade to get to 500k, and **only** 4 years to get the next 500k and a paid off condo, which is insane when you consider that I’ve held a 50/50 stocks/bonds AA most of that time. Increased comp has done some of that work, but I’m still in the south east. We’re not talking Bay Area pay :\^). + +I started out on SSI and food stamps. If not for my degree, I’d still be there today. That shapes you. The biggest thing I wanted from FI was a sense of financial security. By any measure, I’ve achieved it, but 2020 taught me I was not *entirely* rational. Remember the food shortages at the start of the pandemic? Remember how staples were out of stock? That was enough to make me completely regress back to ‘poverty mode’ for a while. You know what was funny? I had a stable job and I made more from comp and stock trades than I ever had in my entire life, yet I found myself cooking and eating like I was surviving on $90 a month food budget again. I didn’t snap out of it until I found myself inventorying pounds of dried beans in my pantry. Absolutely strange. + +I’m beyond FI for myself, but my ultimate goal is to be able to comfortably support a family at the median household income. My RE target is somewhere around 2M. I’d guess I’ll hit that in my mid 40s. Between now and then, I’ve intended to purposefully my lifestyle in line with what my portfolio can support at 3%. The thing is? I’m finding it awfully hard to spend my ‘fun budget’. Some of that has been down to the pandemic (and a good chunk has gone to charity), but some of it is me holding every purchase to a ‘is this *really* worth it’ analysis that helped me survive back in the day. It’s a good problem to have I guess, and there aren’t any budget police ready to swoop down from black helicopters if I *don’t* spend it, but I hope it gets easier for me to find balance. + +I’m in my late 30’s and I’ll probably retire by my mid 40’s. That leaves me 5-10 years left to really sort out all the non-financial aspects that I’ve neglected. Stuff like health, hobbies, friends and dating. If the pandemic taught me anything, I really have to put in the effort to get this squared away. My retirement experience will be a dreary grey experience otherwise. Hitting FI has evaporated so much of my work stress and worry that I can finally focus on what’s important. I don’t know how the next decade will turn out, but I think I’ll be a better, more rounded person at the end of it. If I can do this, I think just about anyone can. Good luck and god speed. +This weekend I’ve seen several topics about how retail should put pressure against gme about this whole situation. (see vote counts, Crime, naked shorting etc.) + +DONT fall for it, why should i go up against the company that im investead in for the long run? Alot of the shill comments states that they are only in it for the moass and by that argument they want us all to focus on that and, as stated, put more pressure on gme. + +This post might not even be needed but i firmly believe in lifting up and beeing transparent about the weekly shilling strategies is a good thing, especially for new apes. + +Back to buying, hodling and drsing this week for me. + +Have a wounderul upcoming week. + +Edit: +I am not saying beeing in for the MOASS is the wrong reasonat all. Im saying that they target these apes that are here only for the moass with the argument that cohen doesnt do shit etc and keep spewing on him, on gme, in a really really profanity/bad way to divide and conquer. +I just need to vent. I’m really stressed out right now. I’m currently studying and working as a barista in NYC and living with my girlfriend. I’ve been together with my girlfriend for over a year and half and during the first year it was good. I met her late spring and I was still working as a barista downtown Manhattan. Like many college students, we are always applying for internships for the summer and luckily I landed one and that internship became a full-time job for a year. It was contract so I had an expiration but I thought, if I do my job well perhaps I’m able to get an extension so that was my plan. It didn’t happen. My last day was June 1, 2019. Of course I knew so I immediately began looking for other jobs. I saved up a good amount of money to survive for at least two months, just in case if anything went wrong. Oh boy. I didn’t land anything for 3 months. I lost track how many interviews I did. From video, phone, person-to-person, group interviews, you name it. + +So I was interviewed at different companies for 3 months. I lost all hope. Lost all my confidence. My motivation completely gone. Now what? I had no choice but go back making coffee. + +I randomly called local coffee shops and asked for employment and I was able to get one. The problem was it was below the minimum wage. I had no choice. I was desperate so I took it. + +Fast forward today, I’m still in school and I’m about to fail 2 classes but that’s okay, I have to retake them in the spring and I’ll be graduating. However, I know I don’t want to make coffee for the rest of my life so I’m constantly in the lookout for internships and I was able to get one! Remotely too! We were told that this job/project would last about 3 months. I was excited knowing that I would be continuing shaping my skills and experience in my field. I told my boss from the coffee shop that I was not going to be able to work during week, only weekends. They weren’t happy but they couldn’t do anything. + +Now, if you’re still reading, you should know that I’m living with my girlfriend and our current lease ends on Dec 1st. She was able to get a studio with the help of some relatives but the problem is that studio is quite pricey. She does make a decent amount of money working as a waitress (she’s an international student). But on the other side, I am not making no more than 300 bucks a week. + +This is the worst part, the remote job that I had that was supposed to last “3 months" only lasted a week. Apparently I wasn’t the only one working on this project and it was completed within a week. There was an email sent by the team that were roughly at least 100 people working on this project. Pure bullshit. I’m supposed to get paid this Friday. + +So I told my boss from the coffee shop that I wasn’t going to be available and my availability was going only weekends and now this remote job doesn’t exist anymore. + +I’m completely embarrassed to go back and tell them that I need my hours back and I’m a complete failure in my girlfriend’s eyes. She’s questioning me about my current position and I just feel so useless that I can’t even help with basic needs. + +This shit sucks so much that I wouldn’t want any one to go through this. + + +EDIT: I would like to thank everyone for their support and advice. I couldn't have been more grateful. As some of you were curious of my major, well I'm concentrating in the realm of Data Analytics. Unfortunately, there's little hope for me to pass those two classes. I would have to stop working completely since it's difficult material to cover (Combinatorics and Adv. Inference Statistics). And I will be speaking to my boss tomorrow morning about my open availability. This post has given a lot hope and motivation. Thank you again guys! *sheds tear* +Take two being a publicly traded company is beholden to major shareholders that are going to be PISSED. The hacker is allegedly an 18 year old that pulled 90 videos, source code and possibly a test build of the game from rockstar employees slack servers. Slack is owned by salesforce (150 billion market cap). WTF kind of cyber security engineers do they have? What’s going to happen from here? Who the hell will continue using slack after arguably the number one entertainment company on earths IP was compromised? What do you guys think? +The new legislation the MiFID II blocks any trade of ETFs and other derivatives until there is documentation released of these in the native language of the country. + +In my case I will not be able to buy vanguard ETFs until vanguard releases Dutch documentation as I live in the Netherlands and my broker (de giro) is also centralized in the Netherlands. Is it expected that they will release these documents or should I switch my broker +It seems like Bad actors or should I say shill team 6 have colluded and are breaking reddit rules on purpose in order to get this sub taken down. + +I come here only because I like the stock and the community. Kick ass DD and funny memes. Purple Nurples are the best. I am here every single day, wether a couple hours or 5 mins, I'm still here every day. Everything and everyone here keeps me sane. Its one hell of place to get away from the daily grind of the 9-5 or for some the godforsaken 4am to whatever time. I highly doubt that anyone here that likes the stock as much as I do, waste time brigading. +My fixed rate at 3.8% comes to an end next summer but I'm absolutely out of my mind with worry right now about whether I should cut my losses (e.g paying the exit fees) and grab a new deal now. I'm seeing deals at around 5 or 6% that I think I could easily get onto. However, I'm worried about wasting money by doing this (my partner and I are not high earners, ~40k joint, and don't have excessively large savings, ~8k all together) as the fees aren't cheap and a lot of deals have start up costs that inflate the cost of this jump even further. I'm also extremely anxious about rates going to 16% next summer like some articles have said (can't find sources right now but they compared it to the 80s) and literally having to sell up and move back with family. Either that or our home being worth like £10 after the economy completely becomes non existent and being in negative equity. I've calculated that the max we can possibly pay on the mortgage p/m is 1500 to actually be able to eat and pay other bills and am willing to go onto the SVR to 'weather the storm' for a bit if my deal expires and the UK is burning in hellfire at that point (i.e there are no deals or all deals are 2 years at 10% plus which would be silly to agree to). + +Details for reference: +- 150k house value in 2018 +- 95% LTV mortgage back then +- 132k approx will be left at the end of the deal (88% LTV) +- 3.8% fixed for 5y +- 577 p/m current payments but overpay by 100 +- Exit charges are around 2k all said and done +- new deals I've seen cost about 1k to organise considering everything +- I could potentially pay the funds to drop down to 85% LTV but I don't think it'll help my case all that much and would mean eating into long term savings + +So, does anyone care to speculate on what the UK might look like for someone like me next summer? Or am I insane waiting that long? Please be kind, I'm not rich nor all that savvy when it comes to the ins and outs of interest rates and what the BOE is even doing half the time. I'm just trying to survive this really and still have a place to live. +This is what I'm grappling with: + +1. Bitcoin Core uses RAND_bytes from OpenSSL to generate new bitcoin addresses. Source: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/24722/what-kind-of-random-numbers-source-does-getnewaddress-in-bitcoin-core-api-bitco/24751#24751 + +2. On Linux, RAND_bytes relies first on /dev/urandom to create the random data (only if /dev/urandom is not found does it use /dev/random). Source: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/47598/why-openssl-cant-use-dev-random-directly/47882#47882 + +3. According to the maintainer for Linux's /dev/random, /dev/urandom doesn't produce very random results. Source: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/insecurities_in.html (search for "they end up with keys that aren't very random"). + +Why is this not a problem? + +Can we really trust Bitcoin Core address generation mechanism? +Hi, + +I am a Data Scientist by profession and I use tools built using Artificial Intelligence methods to anticipate stock movements. Here the picks of my tools for tomorrow. These are not all penny stocks but they are all pretty cheap, hence the post here. If I receive some reception from the community, I will keep posting them. + +Bullish picks for tomorrow. + +* **$TORC** \- Biotech stock, the sector is hot right now. There is the huge gap up that needs to be filled which means less resistance in the trend up. The chart looks very similar to $INMB from last week (my tool anticipated that as well) +* $**HMHC** \- This should only be used if it breaks resistance with high volume. There is a solid resistance level right above the price. +* $**NRBO** \- Again, a biotech stock. Coming off of a support level. The tool expects this to go up with a probability of 77.9%. + +I am planning on posting these alerts on daily basis. They have been working pretty well for the last two weeks (alerted $INMB $BOXL $EQ etc). Let us see how they work this week. + +Thoughts? +Stop fucking around with these government power grabs, whether you're in the US, the UK, Aus, NZ or Canada, tell those leeching fucks in the capital to get the fuck out your business, they are obsolete and have no actual authority of your finances. + +Financial privacy is a human right. +About to put on offer down on either a ground floor flat or top (4th) floor flat in the same block in Southwark, and considering the recent flooding across (different) areas of London, and recent IPCC report, I've second-guessed my decision to offer. + + +Did anyone else factor in future flood forecasts when making a house purchase? + + +Most areas are protected at the moment by the Thames Barrier, and whilst predictions of floods seem to show us being okay for 30-50+ years, but I imagine the penny will drop at some point, and house prices in at-risk areas will drop significantly. + + +Can't tell if I'm going mad in assuming all this and pulling out. My partner thinks I'm catastrophising and that we should proceed with the offer given that central London is bound to be protected from future floods and sea-level rise. + + + +Some flood data: +https://flood-map-for-planning.service.gov.uk/ + +https://coastal.climatecentral.org/map/9/-0.0933/51.2441/?theme=sea_level_rise&map_type=coastal_dem_comparison&basemap=roadmap&contiguous=true&elevation_model=coastal_dem&forecast_year=2050&pathway=rcp45&percentile=p50&return_level=return_level_1&slr_model=kopp_2014 + +https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/maps/lpj5/London/ + +(There was another post similar to this in UKPF last year which I found very insightful. But I'm posting this with as my question is focused on London specifically. FWIW I would definitely 2nd guess/ not buy a property in a forecasted flood plain area outside of central London) +Is it possible for the market to continue its current average growth since inception when population growth comes to a halt? We are going to reach a point in my or my kids lifetime where the only reason the US stays population neutral is with immigration while most other developed countries see their population shrink. + +What do you guys think? +Hi. Throwaway here for reasons...but I am curious on this topic because it looks like I will be dealing with this in my near future. + +I have a bunch of questions for those of you now help manage your family office as a full time job, or even part time. + +&#x200B; + +1. Do you call your job your "Family Office"? Or do you have another name for it? +2. Do you find enjoyment and fulfillment from your new role as much as your past job (maybe a more normal 9-5?) +3. How many hours a week does managing the FO take? +4. Outside of the FO - what do you spend your time doing? +5. What do you tell people you do for a living? +6. How do you view money? +7. Would you recommend doing the FO as a full time job or not? +8. Do your friends or family view you differently or ask what you do? +9. Do you have any resources that can help kids of wealth deal with this transition? (books, programs, etc) +10. Anything you wish would be differently about your life/situation - how can things improve? + +A good amount of questions I know...but thank you in advance! +TLDR: **Naked shorting appears prevalent in GME, and if true was likely aided by DTCC, whom by extension may have shut down the short squeeze on 1/28 because it would've caused a massive scandal had the squeeze happened**. (This post has a lot of sources but in order to push this through I've had to remove most of the link, you can pm me for sources if you'd like) + +I was doing some research on naked shorting in the context of GME which led me down a rabbit hole of pieces connecting with each other as it relates to GME. I was taking notes while reading and below are the results of my notes. This is still a hypothesis and theory but appears supported by numerous pieces of the puzzle, I could be wrong but personally the pieces seem clear to me now: + +One of the interesting things about GME and a big part of what triggered the short squeeze happening is the extraordinarily large short interest percentage reported by Finra to be 226%, and later in the range of 150% percent of total float. Another interesting factor is the extraordinarily high number of FTIDs ([https://wherearetheshares.com/](https://wherearetheshares.com/)). Both are strong indicators of the practice of naked short selling which in general is illegal. In addition there have been many indications that there are far more shares out there then should exist. Where do these shares come from? One potential explanation is covering using synthetic long shares or counterfeit shares caused by naked shorting. + +I’m an entrepreneur, not a finance expert, so I started doing some more digging on naked short selling to educate myself more on the subject. I started withreading SEC Regulation SHO which deals with naked short selling. “Failures to deliver may result from either a short or a long sale. There may be legitimate reasons for a failure to deliver. For example, human or mechanical errors or processing delays can result from transferring securities in physical certificate rather than book-entry form, thus causing a failure to deliver on a long sale within the normal three-day settlement period. **A fail may also result from “naked” short selling**.” + +Interesting. We have a consistent and very high rate of FTIDs dating from 2020 and beyond, an indicator that the stock has potentially been naked shorted for a long time. + +According to former Chairman of the SEC Christopher Cox, “Abusive **naked short sales... can be used as a tool to drive down a company's stock price** to the detriment of all of its investors. The Commission is particularly concerned about **persistent failures to deliver in the market** for some securities that may be due to loopholes in the Commission's Regulation SHO, adopted just two years ago… Selling short without having stock available for delivery, and **intentionally failing to deliver stock within the standard three-day settlement period, is market manipulation that is clearly violative of the federal securities laws**… We are particularly concerned about the potential negative effect that **substantial and persistent fails to deliver may be having on the market in some securities.** Specifically, these fails to deliver can deprive shareholders of the benefits of ownership - voting, lending, and dividends from issuers. Moreover, **they can be indicative of abusive naked short selling, which could be used as a tool to drive down a company's stock price**. + +In a different speech Mr Cox re-iterated that short selling helps prevent "irrational exuberance and bubbles. But **when someone fails to borrow and deliver the securities needed to make good on a short position, after failing even to determine that they can be borrowed, that is not contributing to an orderly market – it is undermining it.”** Mr Cox also “referred to "the serious problem of abusive naked short sales” as “**a tool to drive down a company's stock price**" and that the SEC is "concerned about the persistent failures to deliver in the market for some securities that may be due to **loopholes in Regulation SHO**" + +As another datapoint, Robert J. Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs has claimed that **naked short selling has cost investors $100 billion and driven 1,000 companies into the ground**. + +I also read ‘**One complaint about naked shorting from targeted companies is that the practice dilutes a company's shares** for as long as unsettled short sales sit open on the books. This has been alleged to create "**phantom" or "counterfeit" shares**, sometimes going from trade to trade without connection to any physical shares, and **artificially depressing the share price’**”. Shortly after, I read that Matt Taibbi contended the use of naked shorting and counterfeit shares was the tactic used to help kill both Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. Taibbi said that the two firms got a "push" into extinction from "a flat-out counterfeiting scheme called naked short-selling". + +All these sources above seem to support the theory that GME stock was wildly naked shorted, which put funds in the risk of being badly short squeezed. If investing on the basis of the extraordinarily high short interest percentage, GME was a prime candidate for a short squeeze to happen -- potentially even an infinite short squeeze. On 1/26 Elon tweeted about Gamestop and that was the day the stock entered the mainstream for a lot of people and retail investors began to really pile on to the stock outside of WSB. The goal of this was to push the stock price up and trigger a short squeeze, the theorized losers would be the funds that naked shorted and would be stuck in the squeeze. + +On 1/28 Thursday when the stock had immense momentum from the moment pre-trading started (the stock shot up to 513 in pre-trading) and it looked like the squeeze was going to happen that day, the momentum was suddenly shut down when RHood (where many or potentially majority of retail investors were on) were shut off from the ability to buy GME stock and only allow selling, followed by several other brokers. Many believe this was a result of collusion and that this shut down allowed badly besieged hedge funds to close some positions while the public was shut out of buying (but funds were not.) When this happened people were upset at RHood suspecting it was a result of potential collusion between RHoodand Citadel (which along with Point72 invested a lifeline of 2.5 billion to Melvin Capital, one of the short side funds, and is also responsible for something like 40% of RHoods entire revenue by buying their order books), but many also speculated collusion with DTCC itself. Now, personally speaking, its kind of crazy to think about DTCC being complicit in something like this. However, looking into the details of what happened, a skeptical part of me became suspicious. + +Apparently what triggered the shut down on trading GME on that day was DTCC sending a letter at 4 am to RHood requiring them to come up with 3 billion dollars. So it sounds like it was essentially this DTCC letter that led to the shut down of the momentum on GME and the short squeeze happening. On that day, there were theories thrown out that DTCC was potentially complicit in the naked short selling of GME and intentionally did this to stem the massive blow back/scandal if an infinite short squeeze did happen. Assuming the price of share of the price rocketed to 1000 or beyond (which would be likely in the event of a short squeeze or infinite short squeeze), hedge funds would likely go bankrupt as financially speaking there would be no way they would be able to cover all their shorts, and presumably entities that lent the short side hedge fund the shares to short would be holding the bag. Worse, DTCC would be exposed for being complicit in this entire thing, I imagine it would be an incredible scandal to say the least. + +Then I read something that caught my eye… DTCC has had a history of being at the center and source of naked shorts. From an article dating back to 2007, “Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. is a little-known institution in the nation's stock markets with a seemingly straightforward job: It is the middleman that helps ensure delivery of shares to buyers and money to sellers. About 99% of the time, trades are completed without incident. But about 1% of the shares -- valued at about $2.5 billion on a given a day -- aren't delivered to the buyer within the requisite three days, for one reason or another. **These "failures to deliver" have put DTCC in the middle of a long-running fight over whether unscrupulous investors are driving down hundreds of small companies' share prices**.” + +Apparently the DTCC has been known to be allowing or complicit in this action for a very long time. According to Wall Street Journal “**There is no dispute that illegal naked shorting happens. The fight is over how prevalent the problem is -- and the extent to which DTCC is responsible**. Some companies with falling stock prices say it is rampant and blame DTCC as the keepers of the system where it happens. DTCC and others say it isn't widespread enough to be a major concern.” + +"It has been alleged in **tens or hundreds of lawsuit**s that the DTCC and its **Prime Broker owners have abused their monopoly position to create numerous techniques that allow for the creation of counterfeit shares through naked shorting** that facilitate stock manipulation by hedge funds. Law suits have been brought against Merrell. Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, UBS, other market makers and also the DTCC. The Prime Brokers and DTCC have fought back ferociously against these lawsuits with great success and **have been largely successful in blocking attempts to gain access to their transaction data bases. The information that they do release is incomplete, self-serving and misleading**. + +As a thought experiment, lets say naked shorting is rampant in GME (many many indicators point to this) and lets say DTCC was ultimately responsible for allowing a wide scale naked shorting campaign on GME, wouldn’t it be in their best interest to make sure this doesn’t get out and blow up in their faces? Something to consider. Because had they not done what they did on 1/28 Thursday, many traders believe the squeeze would’ve happened that day. + +From the Wall Street Journal: “The Securities and Exchange Commission has viewed naked shorting as a serious enough matter to have made two separate efforts to restrict the practice. The latest move came last month, when the SEC further tightened the rules regarding when stock has to be delivered after a sale. But **some critics argue the SEC still hasn't done enough**… Some delivery failures linger for weeks or months. Until that failure is resolved, there are effectively additional shares of a company's stock rattling around the trading system in the form of the shares credited to the buyer's account, critics say. **This "phantom stock" can put downward pressure on a company's share price by increasing the supply… Critics contend DTCC has turned a blind eye to the naked-shorting problem.”** + +From everything I’ve seen, as someone who has been an observer and a participant of this saga starting from 1/26, many things look very fishy and there are a lot of red flags people have documented. I personally hold the following hypothesis: + +* GME shorts engaged in rampant naked shorting which lead to the short interest of the stock being 221% and 150% at various times, and as late as 1/28 reported by S3 to be 122% +* GME shorts potentially hid their positions via a loophole of generating synthetic longs and using those to “cover” their positions but not truly covering, which is illegal to cover using this particular method, and which has the effect of delaying the short needing to be closed, potentially betting on retail investors to lost interest and price to go back down before they truly close +* As a result of naked shorting a large amount of counterfeit shares are floating in the market leading to there being far more GME shares then the actual float +* The counterfeit shares can/have been used in aggressive naked short attacks to further drive down the price of GME, which may have led to the precipitous price drop starting last Monday and which may have also been aided by if they were able to artificially cover their shorts using synthetic long shares +* Due to the widespread naked shorting that all signs are pointing to, DTCC which has had history of being accused of turning a blind eye to naked shorts, may’ve turned a blind eye to the rampant naked shorting happening in GME +* There was potentially collusion on 1/28 to stop the short squeeze from happening whereby DTCC may be involved and may be implicated had the squeeze happened due to the position of naked shorts, it would have been an unbelievable scandal if exposed. + +With the GameStop hearings coming up on February 18th, I highly recommend you email and tweet the representatives involved in the hearing, as well as your own district representatives, and urge them to read into the factors presented in this post and **call the DTCC and Prime Brokers to the hearing**l. **They need to be questioned on why GME has so many counterfeit shares, failed to deliver, their complicity in naked shorting, and investigated for their role in the retail shut down of 1/28.** Below are 4 members of congress I recommend both tweeting and emailing + +Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [https://twitter.com/AOC](https://twitter.com/AOC), email: [us@ocasiocortez.com](mailto:us@ocasiocortez.com) + +Al Green [https://twitter.com/repalgreen](https://twitter.com/repalgreen), email: [al.green@mail.house.gov](mailto:al.green@mail.house.gov) + +Maxine Waters [https://twitter.com/maxinewaters](https://twitter.com/maxinewaters), email: [maxine.waters@mail.house.gov](mailto:maxine.waters@mail.house.gov) + +Nancy Pelosi Email: [https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi](https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi) email: [sf.nancy@mail.house.gov](mailto:sf.nancy@mail.house.gov). + +And you can find other members of Financial Services Committee here to reach out to: [https://financialservices.house.gov/about/committee-membership.htm](https://financialservices.house.gov/about/committee-membership.htm) + +**Edit: Matt Taibbi's rolling stone article is highly relevant and good reading on this subject** [**https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/wall-streets-naked-swindle-194908/**](https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/wall-streets-naked-swindle-194908/)**, so many parallels that the signs are hard to miss. Even if you've read it before, recommend reading it again. Shows me that if the hypothesis posed is true, Prime brokers are likely complicit. Prime brokers also happen to own the DTCC.** + +**This brings up another interesting thought experiment a Redditor brought up: On 1/28 when the price was 450+ and shorts were likely under 100, if we assume prime brokers allowed naked shorting in GME, then when the squeeze was about to happen (or happening), if brokers margin called the shorts, they would presumably also go down because shorts would not be able to pay in that event and the brokers would be holding the bag. By that logic, they have every incentive in this case to NOT to margin call because doing would also taken them down and they would lose a lot of money. Instead the most logical option would probably be to make a backroom deal, which is what I personally think mostly likely happened.** +Hi all, hopefully this sub will be suitable. My partner has been getting calls, texts, and emails from dodo about an unpaid electricity bill. The thing is, she has never had electricity with them and the address that she supposedly had connected is one she has never lived in. + +She did have internet with them, but that is literally all. + +We've tried calling them and explaining the situation, upon which they say they'll check it out and get back to us (they don't); blocking their number, they call on a different number, and contacting the complaints department, all to no avail. Most recently they have sent an email stating they will have to take action with commercial credit control. + +I can confirm that it is actually Dodo, as they acknowledge the supposed debt when we can them on their official number. + +Does anyone have any advice on how to get them to stop? My partner spends probably over an hour each week trying to sort this and it's been going on for nearly two years. +EDIT: Matt Miller just tweeted this!: Anyone know how to get in touch with Jason King or @SeansOutpost? We want to run a segment tomorrow, collecting #bitcoin for the cause + +[Blockchain confirmation](https://blockchain.info/address/1GkBw2o1ZeqsrbtVNbuBiqfoWd95Q2s6Ku) + +If you haven't heard, I "stole" a bit of bitcoin from Matt Miller's gift bitcoin certificate when a co-host on the segment he was on, ironically called "Street Smart", showed the private key of his bitcoin paper wallet. I took it because I knew that if I didn't someone else would. I let Matt know that I would return the amount to a new address but he just let me keep it and congratulated me for a job well done. + + I still wanted to send it back on live tv to show how fast Bitcoin is and to have a chance for others to send Bitcoin to a public key that Matt would then send to Seans Outpost. I don't think Matt will be doing this on national tv so I decided to just send the amount to Seans Outpost myself. + +Would have been nice to show not only the speed of bitcoin transactions on live national tv but also the generosity of the Bitcoin community. Nevertheless, I do applaud Matt for explaining the need for security when dealing with bitcoin private keys and acknowledging that I said I would send the money back, even if the news articles are portraying me as a "thief", "hacker" and "mugger". Let's hope they update their articles to include the donation to Seans Outpost! + Hey guys, if you have not seen my Yolo post, here is a shot of the position at the time …. + +&#x200B; + +[YOLO](https://preview.redd.it/6bx6d3rm2fg91.png?width=807&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb3d24bf0a0bd8446e2a29b44a9c7bc945165041) + +...My inbox has been going absolutely insane, with people asking what my decision making process was and taking such a large position in a seemingly dying equity. The following is a summarization of my answer. + + +My Thesis on this Play is as follows - +I have been monitoring the stock ever since Ryan Cohen took a position. Although, it has been on my radar since January 2021, as it was one of 13 stocks that popped in sympathy w/ GameStop, and due to the basket swap ETF that those stocks were added to, it has been consistently running in tandem with Gme ever since. However this is the only one of those companies (other than GME) that Ryan Cohen has personally taken stake in.. + + +After the BBBY URN - ings disaster, the stock was pummeled and plummeted from around 15 bucks to around 7$ bucks. So Initially, I started seriously looking at it for a reversal play. However, After the aforementioned meltdown and a subsequent -50% day and news of the CEO stepped down, the stock was pounded further down into the 4s. + + +…Come to find out Ryan Cohen, (after acquiring 10% of the company in March) was again performing a hostile takeover, and had actually forced the overcompensated CEO out, while also being alotted three seats on the board. This is also after penning two open letters on behalf of RC Ventures, voicing his distain for the way the company had been running, it’s lack of profitability, and how it stemmed from the top down, as its corporate executives were highly overcompensated, and he proposed the sale of its spin-off company- “Buy Buy Baby”. This spinoff acquisition seems to be rolling, and a proposal of a hefty investor dividend from the proceeds has been initiated. + + +With GME as far and away, my primary holding, I am, and have been HEAVILY invested in Ryan Cohen. As an investor, I do not invest in companies with the conviction in which I invest in people. This theory of mine started with Steve Jobs / AAPL , back when I was 18 and the first iPhone came out, continued with Elon Musk in Tesla before they even had the first consumer vehicle on the road, and now Ryan Cohen, as he is tactically fighting to dismantle the forces of Wall Street that blatantly fuck the little guy. Not to mention the turnaround/pivot strategy in which he executing in GME. So naturally - his acquisition of equity in $BBBY caught my attention, and it soon became immediately clear that this was possibly the deepest value stock on the market. (Especially considering RC’s cost basis is $15, in addition to the millions of dollars worth of $60, $65, $70 and $80 strike call options he holds, expiring January 23.) + +&#x200B; + +[RC VENTURES BBBY HOLDINGS](https://preview.redd.it/6fyertmk3fg91.jpg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=478d80696050b72babda6908d275b968acd075ca) + + +As GME was getting ready to split, I started seriously tracking and charting $BBBY to find a clear bottom, as I had/have supreme confidence that a serious turnaround is/was just on the horizon. +That said, it does not take genius to see the DEEP value, and spot a reversal play when a stock goes from mid $30s in March to sub $5 in June - even without the Ryan Cohen factor. + + +Again, $BBBY was one of the 13 stocks that had the buy button taken away when GameStop originally popped off in January of last year. All of those stocks are in a basket swap ETF that hedge funds use to short these stocks. The correlated movement is especially apparent when GME is in its FTD cycle - The one that has seen it consistently and predictablely pump from The bottom, to the tip top of the descending wedge in which it is currently in the process of breaking out of. But when is the next FTD cycle you ask? I’m glad you did, because it started last Friday, and runs into OPEX clearing at the end of August. + + +So again, these stocks move in tandem, and usually all pop one GameStop pops - or in the case of bed Bath and beyond in March when they announced a share buyback after hours in March 2022, BBBY actually acted as a catalyst for the rest of “meme basket” and bed Bath & beyond, GameStop, K O S S, AMC, and the rest of the Memes all had an exact correlating after hours pop. + + +So back to this play - I started seriously considering taking a large position leading up to the Gme split, as I anticipated a very solid pop in GME’s stock price, and a subsequent appreciation from BBBY, as it was literally, aside from the Covid crash, at its lowest point since 1996 - almost 3 decades. + + +I waited patiently to take the larger position, while playing the weekly five and six dollar calls, especially on Fridays, as they would usually have a VERY solid 0DTE run in that span of a few weeks. I actually hit another separate 2000% gain on a Friday, as the five dollar calls ran from .035-$.60+ - except I only had about $1000 in play at the time… either way, gains is gains, and that is when my eyes truly lit up to the probability of a massively historic opportunity here. + + +As things played out, $BBBY would go on to show a bullish divergence, and completely decouple from the indices. It reached 100% utilization, with several days of zero shares available to borrow on interactive brokers or FIntel. +Then last week I come to find out that they had shorted over 100% of the float. That is when I decided to take this risk, and look for an serious entry. + +&#x200B; + +[BBBY Short Percentage of Float](https://preview.redd.it/a0qkfrw44fg91.jpg?width=541&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8705b60271ccf02b2958658978c4855929a5d279) + + +After watching it for so long, the options prices were so ridiculously manipulated that I did not want to gamble on 0DTE, even though I had major success with it prior. So I bought one week out (not 2 1/2 as stated in the original post… I was super burnt out and my brain friend when making the post. My apologies)…. +Anyways, I do trade for a living, and rather than compulsively day trade, I look to set up monsters like this. So I guess it was a combination of skill and luck that I timed the bottom and my entry so precisely. + + +The stock gapped up the next Monday morning, and kept rising all week long. If you look at the chart, you will see a pattern of a big pop in the a.m., and then a slow steady rise throughout the rest of the day, with a very bullish finish. +So yeah, I just kept holding them, and they kept appreciating in value. I did put a shitload of time and effort into setting this up, and after Tuesday I was up considerably. Enough to feel comfortable holding as the entire float was sold short. +Eventually word got out and the options chain started going crazy. On Thursday there was an incredibly bullish finish and follow through, and Thursday evening, $BBBY was all over WSB. + + +Thursday 8/4.22 it closed at $6.12, and if it were to be able to close above $6.50 the next day, Friday 8/5/22 (It did), The entire float would be in the money via derivatives (It Is). That is a pretty intense situation considering the entire float is also sold short, as well as 100% utilized, meaning held by institutions insiders and retail. + + +Friday morning it popped off, and just kept rising. +So yeah… I would say a combination of skill and luck, but mostly just putting my money where Ryan Cohen does. +Again, he has millions of dollars in $60- $80 call options expiring January 23, as well as a $15 cost basis. He also holds the grenade that should act as a catalyst to send $BBBY to the moon, should any type of “MOASS” like Price action go down with Gme , but once again, at the very least, his cost m basis is $15, just about double what the current price is. + + +As one of, if not the best investor of my generation, as well as the largest single entity shareholder in $AAPL, I think it wise to closely monitor and follow his investments. + It is my hope that in addition to providing some DD on BBBY and why I believe it is a very bullish future, this post can serve to answer the hundreds of inquiries I have received, questioning my decision making process around entering the YOLO. + + +In closing, if you feel like you have missed out on this opportunity, **You could not be more incorrect, in my opinion.** As it is my opinion (and just that, my opinion - nothing else) **I believe $BBBY is one of - if not the best deep value play of 2022.** I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is GameStop2.0, but it is most certainly close, and if there was ever anything even remotely close, $BBBY is certainly it (again IMO). + + +For anyone interested in the statistics on short interest end all around holdings I would urge you to check out - w w w. byebyeshorts . c o m + + +In regards to the Yolo… + + +I Chose the strikes I did because they were closest to in the money, had the best Delta, & the least risk of incurring a substantial loss, should the price have had negatively fluctuated overnight. +I decided to Exercise what I could because I have supreme confidence that the stock price will go much much higher. Also for tax purposes obviously. HOWEVER - I believe the $BBBY stock price will reach between 60 and $80 if not more before January 2023 here is why…. +Much love everyone! Let’s get this sub Reddit back to what it used to be, which was a place to share information about profitable investments, and A hub for novice and experienced investors alike to help each other make money! So let’s make some fucking money, retards! + + +\*\*\*\*\*\*Also, this is 100% absolutely not financial advice in any way shape or form. I am literally a retarded person, and am more qualified to give open heart surgery than I am to advise anyone on this earth what to do with their money. \*\* +If the powers at be decide to take action against some of our fellow long holders once we start seeing other-than-sideways trading, I think it’s important that we all remember any action taken against investors is an action against everyone holding GME. + +I fully expect that if any actions like PCO’ing or forced position closing are taken, they’ll be accompanied by a flood of shill posts along the lines of “you should have DRS’d!”, “it’s your own fault for staying in etoro!”, and “you should have bought 100% shares and not any call options!”. While you may somewhat agree with these points, there are a lot of investors who believe in GME that aren’t on this subreddit, and may not know any better. Also remember that any forced selling or disabling of buying hurts EVERYONE who has invested in GME, and all individual investors should feel compelled to get loud about any such shenanigans and fight them with public opinion. + +Yeah, someone who holds GME in Robinhood may be a bit of an idiot, but that does NOT mean it is okay for their fully-paid positions to be closed against their will. +I was thinking about how I hear all this talk about shills, but I've never seen one that wasn't highlighted as an example of shillery. It made me realize that I rarely see shills not because they are uncommon, but because the Knights of New keep them at bay. + +I'd like to thank the apes on the front fighting the good fight, and that your service does not go unappreciated. Cheers! +So as most people know the rule 002 was delayed until June 21st at the latest. How ever rule NSC-2021-006 was passed effective immediately tonight. This basically removes the 10 business days notice until rules take effect They don't believe they need the 10 days because members are given ample notice during the rule change process, basically giving them the leverage to enforce new rules much more quickly and efficiently... The part I am really excited about was It's effective immediately! No "69" day review, questions and comments phase, just immediately effective. Not to get anyone's hopes up but this clears the way for immediate implementation of all the other "00x" rules. Monday can't come quick enough💎🤲 + +Edit; thank you u/Chrisanonymous for some added context and clarification - + +- This rule doesn’t allow them to fast track the approval of new rules, only the implementation. + +For example, 002 still needs to be approved but once it is it can be implemented immediately instead of having to wait an additional 10 days. + +However, 002 could still be approved at any time between now and June 21st, and if it does it can take effect immediately. +We are (M51 & F46) located in Australia and achieved FU money last year. It's different here because healthcare and pensions. + +I was planning on going part-time sometime in the next year or four but I was crunching the numbers again this last week and thought fuck it! I'm not going to work as a barista, instead I'm sticking with my IT job since it's pretty low stress with an easy commute and an easygoing boss and colleagues. The users aren't too bad. + +Our leanFIRE journey started after 14 Aug 2014 with over 60k of debt and that is where we were at when my wife had a stroke. + +Having taken the reins of the finances I was shocked to see our position (wife had managed the finances) and went into overdrive on debt reduction. That took about a year and a half to zero out mainly by transferring to zero interest on transfer credit cards and personal loan. Ate vegemite on toast (aussie ramen), sausages in bread (aussie hotdog) and drank cheap white wine (Chateau d'Cardboard). + +During that time my wife had some income protection insurance the helped get the debt down and I ground down the outgoings. I also obtained a disability payment for her since she can no longer work - she has [locked-in syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome). + +Prior to December last year we were living apart since she was in care. Since December we have relocated to a facility where we can live together. In this facility all of my costs (power/water/internet/cable/landscaping/aircon/maintenance) are rolled into one all encompassing and very manageable rent payment. I just have to feed myself and the dog. + +I've been saving like mad and after crunching the numbers I can see the goal of working only 3 days a week coming up as of the start of July 2017 (new financial year in Australia). So soon I'll be having Wednesdays and Fridays off so I can provide additional care for my wife and stuff. + +I'll model/track things over the next year and see how that plays out. + +The main tools I use are a series of google spreadsheets for expense tracking, debt and asset tracking, and retirement scenario modeling. That last one has a line for every month until we are past 100yo with a column for every income class (wages/withdrawal from savings/withdrawal from super/income from pensions) a separate set of those for both my wife and myself so we can see what kicks in at what age. Then there are the assets columns (cash on hand/investments/retirement accounts) for both of us followed by the final group of columns (expenses/total net worth/improvement by month/withdrawal rate). + +I go through these sheets every month and pull the transactions for all our accounts and plug in the numbers to give a pretty good picture of where we are at. Also take some time to fiddle the modeling a bit. + +Additionally there are some tools that can inform how I structure my models and test my math and assumptions: + +* http://firecalc.com/ + +* https://draftfinplancalc.com/Calculator + +* http://www.superguru.com.au/ + +* https://www.amp.com.au/calculators/sal_sac_calculator/salary_sacrifice.htm#top1 + +* I'd welcome suggestions here + +You guys have been very helpful. + +16 days to go. +I’m a 19 year old online college student with about 25k saved up right now and my whole family is pressuring me to buy a car when I feel as if I have no need to. The only place I go at the moment is back and forth to work(it’s about an 18 minute walk each way) as I feel like a cars a huge commitment right now and it’s not necessary. Plus I’m more interested in investing my money at the moment. I just want to hear some other perspectives on this, should I cave in and buy a car or just keep doing what I’m doing? +******The motivation behind this post was from reddit u/PaulieD00 [his post](https://www.reddit.com/r/pennystocks/comments/nje4l8/a_new_trend_is_coming/) was taken down by the u/moderators because of issues with his post. Please go give his some love I dont deserve the awards******* + +Edit: tldr + link to rules + foreign exchange tickers + Clarity + +There are new rules coming in to affect soon with stocks traded on OTC market. This rule is affective on September 28 2021. + + The new rule requires that all companies quoted on OTC market must disclose current information on a continuous basis, effective September 28, 2021. Securities that do not meet the Rule’s disclosure standard will have their public quotes removed from Pink as of the September deadline. + +OTC market suggests getting their updated info to OTC by June 30th to be sure their is enough time to review their current status. + +Companies like EEENF are exempt from this rule because they are current on a foreign exchange. + +What companies do you think that you are watching that are not current will most likely get all of their disclosures up to date. Ill start $PHIL + +Tldr. If a public traded company isnt current with filings they can’t be traded on market soon. + +[OTC Market Rules](https://www.otcmarkets.com/corporate-services/information-for-pink-companies?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OTC%20Markets%20Monthly%20News_May%202021&utm_content=OTC%20Markets%20Monthly%20News_May%202021+CID_b2ac81d06e41a399187b84926cb5d71a&utm_source=Email%20Campaign&utm_term=here) +Trading stocks isn’t easy. Let me start off by saying that. There are some traders that make it look easy and then there are others that look like a mad scientist in the lab. Everyone has a different style when it comes to taking profits and mitigating losses. It’s important to find your style in the beginning of your journey. Knowing this up front will help you understand your position in the market. + +When it comes to trading stocks a lot of people forget that you are making a transaction with another individual and the broker is acting as a middle man. Buying shares at low prices usually indicates that the person on the other end is losing money. You have to consider, why is someone else willing to take a loss when you are just entering the market. On the other hand perhaps the person is exiting with profit and in this scenario we have to ask ourselves why this individual is exiting when we believe more profit is on the table. + +Anytime I’m making a trade these questions are floating around in my mind. There is always doubt and I want you to know that this is a good thing. If you aren’t questioning your trades then you likely haven’t done enough research. Always be cautious because at any point in time the market can turn sour and rip your greedy little heart out. + +In this article I’m going to lay out the three golden rules of trading and to be honest if you’ve done enough research these shouldn’t be new to you. Following these three key rules can help you stay in the green and prevent unnecessary losses. You can view the full article here: [https://news.thebreadmaker.app/p/three-important-rules-when-trading-stocks](https://news.thebreadmaker.app/p/three-important-rules-when-trading-stocks) + +## Leave Emotions Out of the Trade + +I can’t tell you how many times I had a “feeling” about a stock only to watch it crash and burn. Companies whose product I have been religiously in love with have burned me on the virtual trading floor. Too many traders get attached to stocks for no reason. It’s important to understand that the stock market does not love you. It does not care if you have a roof over your head and food on your table. The market is ruthless and it will take advantage of your puny human mind at any chance it can get. + +Before you enter any trade you must go into it emotionless. You cannot care about the stock, the company, product, trials or what the latest cure it’s working up (looking at you biopharma). You have to become an emotionless robot when trading. Remember, you are here to make money so act like it. + +## Stay Disciplined At All Times + +If you want to be successful you have to be disciplined 100% of the time. This second rule goes hand in hand with the first. The best way to be disciplined is to be an emotionless robot. When you are doing your research its important to have an exit strategy and stick to the plan. You need two exits just in case. A “in the green” and a “in the red” exit strategy. Set a strategy you are comfortable with, that means exiting profitable trades at a specific percentage gain, technical level or something you have come up with that works well for you. Same goes for losing trades, you need to be consistent in those scenarios as well, cutting trades at a specific percent loss or technical breakdown or something else you already had in mind prior to entering the trade. + +## Ignoring the Hype + +Trading is different today then it was decades ago. The internet changed everything. Then the smart phone came along and changed everything again. Trading stocks from anywhere in the world on a small screen that fits in your pocket can be incredibly awesome or incredibly dangerous. + +One thing I’ve learned is every stock is “goin to the moon”. Be careful reading anything about a stock. One thing for certain is nobody knows what is going to happen to a specific stock. The individuals who do know aren’t going to tell you and have long set themselves up for success before the action really comes in anyways. + +I have talked to so many people who have fallen for the trap of Stocktwits. Hell, I’ve been knee deep into threads on there myself. You need to consider this entertainment only and ignore everything you read on there. In my opinion if you are a new trader you shouldn’t even indulge yourself with places like Stocktwits. It will only confuse you. People will say things that you want to believe when you are picking your plays. It will sway your opinion and it will break our first rule. Remember, we want to be an emotionless robot. A robot doesn’t waste time following Joe Blow whose avatar is another person’s Lamborghini. + +## Conclusion + +These three golden rules of trading aren’t going to be easy to follow. You will be tempted and you will deviate. Start small with baby steps and once you are ready you will see that by following these simple processes it will help you become a better trader and a better overall investor. + +Don’t just take my advice though. Go pick up any book on trading and see how the author describes some of the key ways to be a successful trader. You will find that all of these books have common themes and they all circle back to leaving emotions out of the trade, staying disciplined and ignoring the hype. If you can do this you will be one step closer to success. + +Hopefully you found this post helpful. Feel free to share your thoughts with me on **Twitter: @ TheBreadMakerr**. +I tried to buy a simple domain with bitcoin today on [namecheap.com](https://namecheap.com) using BitPay just to check out how smooth the whole payment process is. + +&#x200B; + +After clicking on namecheap's 'PURCHASE NOW' button, a mysterious looking BitPay popup occurred. I entered my email just in case I needed a refund, clicked on continue and this is what I got: [https://imgur.com/Q9xMIYR](https://imgur.com/Q9xMIYR) + +&#x200B; + +Well, I was using the [blockchain.info](https://blockchain.info) wallet in a google chrome OSX Browser and I had no way to scan this QR code. They just fapped a QR Code right into this shit hole and thought it was okay to let the desktop users rot in hell. Seriously, WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PROVIDE AN ADDRESS? Fuck off with your 'Make it simple and intuitive' approach. B\*tch just give me an address so I can quickly copy it in my wallet. Who in his right mind thought it was okay to ship a product like this to the mass? AHHHH.... + +&#x200B; + +Anyways, I clicked on the 'Open in Wallet' button, checked my [blockchain.info](https://blockchain.info) tab and nothing happened. I repeated this step numerous times, but the result was always the same and it was clear to me that I had to download the [blockchain.info](https://blockchain.info) mobile app to scan the QR code, because yeah, bitgay wants to be smart and thought adding a simple address is not good enough. + +&#x200B; + +At this time I was already pissed but I downloaded the mobile app anyways just to try it out. Scanned the code and an error occurred. Well, after researching a bit, I found out that bitpay only accepts 'Payment Protocol-compatible' wallets and [blockchain.info](https://blockchain.info), one of the biggest or even the biggest wallets, is not one of them. Why did nobody tell me this? Bitpay, why is it so hard to tell this to your customers? Why do I have to waste my fucking time and destroy my joy of using bitcoin? + +&#x200B; + +I ended up purchasing the domain with paypal. This took me 5 seconds. + +&#x200B; + +Thanks for fucking this up BitPay. + +&#x200B; + +\#BoycottBitpay + +&#x200B; + +tldr; + +bitpay sucks + +forces users to use specific wallets that comply with their bullshit + +newbies don't know shit and are getting annoyed af + +f\*ck them up + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; +Title says it all really, the markets are absolutely racing upwards today. Maybe a rebound, maybe a dead cat bounce, maybe a rally, maybe just a small pull back we don't know. + +Nothing has changed from last week so don't be surprised if the markets continue going back down again tomorrow, especially with the heightened political tensions in Europe at the moment as well as the threat of inflation increasing scaring the larger market investors out for now. + +However, no matter what the future holds today saw an amazing rally upwards and everyone that sold yesterday must be hating themselves. Especially for some alts that are pushing into the 30% range, that's almost 3 years of stocks growth right there in 24 hours! + +The last month has really shown us yet again that shorting / leveraging / day trading crypto can make you some pocket change here and there but you miss one key swing and you're out on the streets with nothing. +Recently took my first graduate job where the vast majority of people buy food at the canteen. Fell into this habit thinking “I can afford it if they can”. + +So we are talking £3/day for breakfast and a coffee and £5 for a hot meal and a drink for lunch. Works out around £8/day. + +I work 5 days a week, so that’s literally £160/month in eating at work. That’s not including additional coffees or snacks I sometimes got. + +So the last month I went to the shop on a Sunday and bought a loaf of bread for £1.50, some peanut butter, crisps, kitkats etc. All less than £8 for the week. + +I now transfer that £160/month straight into my savings account on Pay Day and use it so save for the things I really want, like a budget holiday or driving lessons. + +For me, being lazy as fuck, the trick was the buy foods I could just stuff in my backpack and not need to keep them cold. I know some people bring fancy lunch in Tupperware, but even starting the lazy way on this makes SO much difference. +A lot of posts on this sub are about how best to invest £x amount of money, or whether a job move is worthwhile. I don't often see (positive) posts about getting out of debt. + +Bit of a backstory. A few years ago I went through PTSD and instead of seeing a doctor to get myself diagnosed and treated, I self-medicated with Xanax. Xanax not being prescribed in the UK makes it hard to find someone with a script and so it gets imported and becomes quite expensive. + +I accumulated a debt of over £30k with banks, credit cards, payday loans, you name it. I was finishing university without a job. + +Strangely, I managed to get away with only two CCJs. + +In the meantime I've been negotiating the hell out of everything and pouring all my extra income into paying off the debts. + +The negotiated amount comes to £19k (negotiating over a third of the original debt away). + +Recently I received a contractor job payment for £3750, took a dividend of £3000 and spent £2200 of it on debt repayment. The remaining £800 is sat in my current account reducing my daily overdraft charge by about £1/day (Lloyds). + +I now owe a little over £8k. + +6 months ago I negotiated a new role where I work with a £9k payrise, which got boosted again in September giving me a disposable income of around £1000 before treats (nights out, entertainment, etc). + +Meaning by this time next year, assuming nothing goes massively wrong, I should be debt free. This is assuming I don't pick up any more side jobs (with employer's permission). January I'm going to start building my emergency fund, which I learnt on this sub. + +Not looking for advice, not showing off. I want to communicate that no matter how bad your position is, you can do something about it. + +In debt? Don't ignore creditors. Get in touch and explain your situation. If they've been sold on to a debt collection agency even more so as they will have bought your debt for a tiny percent of what it originally was. + +Got a CCJ? Even more so don't ignore it! By this point your creditor is pissed off that you ignored literally dozens of letters from them and once they have a CCj, if you still don't communicate, they will get an enforcement warrant very quickly. + +Negotiate with creditors. They will almost always offer a discount. I got over 60% wiped off on some debts. You don't ask, you don't get. + +If you do agree a reduced settlement, don't miss payments, as they might withdraw their offer or add new charges on. + +In any case, if you can't make a payment, communicate. + +If you get extra income, (almost) always pay off debts first - obvious exclusions aside like 0% finance when you're on track to pay off reasonably, etc. + +If a jobless drug addict can do it, you can too. + +PS: for goodness sake, if you can take your own lunch into work, do it. Probably saves a grand a year. +In light of the news that the blackout in China cause the overall hash rate dropped 45%, and it was just one Province in China which means the overall hash rate by Chinese mining farm and pool is well over 50%. + +https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-hashrate-drops-xinjiang-blackouts-blamed-btc-price-slides/ + +I can't help but feel a bit uneasy with this. I always knew China has a centralized hashing monopoly but didn't really click with me until the blackout. + +Utlimately BTC is China. + +And China is the CCP government. + +As much as we think crypto is decentralized but ultimately the chinese government controls the very nature of how the blockchain is being secure is a bit frightening. + +Thoughts? +Okay so we went from $45 to $184.68 and closed at $108.73... So why the hell are there people complaining? That is great news and to top it off, short sellers lost $1.9 BILLION dollars just from these past two days. + +Fucking WOW. + +Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-short-sellers-billions-losses-reddit-traders-wallstreetbets-rally-gme-2021-2%3famp + +So stop complaining, we're not even close to being done. GME was down to $45 yesterday... Today is a win and so will tomorrow. Expect the worse but be prepared to land on the fucking moon. + +Oh here's some rockets for you retards. 🚀🚀🚀 +So my wife and I have Comcast. And as the story usually goes, we hate them. But what else are we going to do? We moved apartments and Comcast did not switch my account from our old apartment to our new. So for months were getting bills to our new address but the money was paying for our old address. Which means our new address's bill was not being paid for for several months, though we didn't know it. Obviously this created problems. After hours of being on the phone, trying to help Comcast figure out how to take my money from me more efficiently, we figure out that this whole none switching of the accounts was the problem. So they tell us they're going to put a "tag" on our account so some higher ups can review the problem and help us out. They were supposed to call us back within a week. Instead they sent us to collections. I really don't want to pay late fees and bills that aren't mine to pay. What should I do? +I have a job and work 48 hours a week and make $825 a month. I am struggling to pay for my apartment. I love my job and dont want to leave it, but with my wife I am not willing to be away from home any more hours a day, or days a week. If there is another way, like making things and selling them online that would work too if anyone could reccomend a site. +Now they didn't come out and say that was the reason but I know that's the reason after doing some googling. Be careful guys. They could have just warned me and I would have switched Coinbase to one of my other accounts. Damn, this is frustrating. It doesn't seem like a bank should be able to do that just for having a Coinbase account. I know it's their choice as to whom they want to work with business-wise but it's so inconvenient to now have to change everything over. I have so much time invested into creating payees and auto payments and all my business income comes into that account. I feel like this shouldn't be legal. Ugh. Another reason why crypto currency needs to end the banking industry. +My dad has a $5 million portfolio and would like to sell stocks to buy a home. Should he sell like $1 million worth to pay for it in cash or just take out enough for a 20% down and pay off the monthly mortgage? + +He does not want to pay for an advisor because he thinks they usually don’t give great advice and they’re expensive. +I drove this lemon for 7 months now, come this july 14 2020. It's the day the rego would end. The repairs bills on this car will easily cross 2000+$ and likely to be around 3-4000$ by the year, in further repairs and maintenance cost, not to mention rego and greenslip costs as well. + +So, I have decided to buy another one, more reliable and efficient from my boss. He is giving a good deal. So, I no longer need this car. But, when I rang up some wreckers I was offered 50$ by one and 100$ by the other after being totally honest about what it needs in repairs and what is wrong with it. + +The after market head unit (that cost me 250$ new just 2 months back) would alone bring me 100$ easily. So, I am trying to figure out, how about can I go with wrecking this car? + +I don't have any mechanic friend nor access to tools to take out parts (like wheels that I put one just months back and are still good and plenty of threads on it). And I am trying to make at least 4-500$ off it. + +So, what would be my best way to go with this. + +**Why I want to wreck it and not sell it.** + +**Following are the problems with the car:** + +\-Window on the passenger side behind the drive seat, makes grinding noise when closing and has difficulties fully opening or closing (possibly a motor failure) + +\-Has catalytic converter code. Been told to start with O2 sensor which might fix the problem- but I have my doubts. + +\-A drive shaft/cv joint- not sure what's its called is broken on the front passenger side. + +\-Got rear ended by god knows who once during my car in parking. The trunk had few difficulties opening, but have stayed locked since a month a now. + +\-Minor maintenance have been advised like changing few small parts according to its age (its a 2005 Mazda 3 sp23). + +\-Was a repairable write off back in Oct 2005, but the PPSR says, it was repaired re-inspected and was passed for registration ever since- which made sense as a small panel near the passenger front head light was repaired. + +**So all in all**, as you can see I was driving a nightmare, and don't want this car to be on the road. So, please do advice me what are my options, as I doubt any wreckers would give me 4-500$ for this car and I feel, I am better off selling few parts online first and then scrap it, but I am not sure, how I can do this. + + +**Edit: Got the offer of $420. Thanks for your suggestions. Hope this lemon is squeezed and crushed to its core!** +I graduated high school at the end of last year and I’m not really sure what I want to do with my life now. I got into a uni course (business and industrial design double degree) but have differed for 12 months and would honestly rather not go to uni and put myself in debt unless I can see myself using the degree which I currently can’t. + +I had a go at a sales role at a real estate agency but quit after a week as it really just wasn’t me and seeing what even the people who’d be there for years we’re doing wasn’t appealing in the slightest. + +Currently I’m working at a bar (about $300/week) and run a lawn mowing business which brings in about 300-600 a week but obviously don’t want to be doing this my whole life. + +I’m super financial aware compared to most people my age and my dream is to start a business but I’m really not sure what to do. + +Just looking for advice and direction +Thanks :) +Let me clarify. + +We've been trying to purchase a property and have been accepted to sign the contract. We fully went through the details with their agent and double checked what our offer price was. We signed the contract and were later told the owner wants thousands more than the discussed amount and had already signed the contract. Before all this the owner chose another buyer but then moved back to us and now this. Is this even fair? +As someone that initially went into the FI dream also wanting to be a homeowner, I'm now well aware of the pretty widespread caveats that many in this community provide to those wishing to combine these two goals. I've read all the Jim Collins posts about houses being bad investments and have combed through the slew of financial articles advising those with FIRE aspirations to avoid home ownership like the plague. + +I understand the math behind it. I understand that having so much capital tied up in home equity is an inferior means of generating wealth to having it in stocks. I understand that it's a personal lifestyle decision and depends on your local real estate market, employment stability, travel plans, etc. + +But so many of these posts seem so focused on disproving the merits of home ownership by going through the bullet points that non-FI minded people often incorrectly believe that I feel like they miss out on the simple logic that I and probably many others are thinking when considering buying a house: I don't care about the limited utility of home equity, the inferiority of rising property values compared to the stock market, or viewing my home as a savings account, I simply want to pay the least amount of money to housing over time as possible. + +If I live in an area with a reasonably priced housing market, and could theoretically put the lowest down payment humanly possible while still getting good rates to minimize the opportunity cost of lost potential investment capital while still keeping my total monthly payments at or below what I would pay in rent, how is this not the most optimal strategy? I don't care if that monthly payment is going to principle, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI or maintenance, much like I don't care what my landlord is spending my rent check on. I don't care what theoretical value I am generating in the future through home equity. If it's less than what it would cost to rent, what am I missing out on? The lost future returns of the down payment I made? I'll need a smaller nest egg in the future anyway since my housing prices will be dramatically lower once my house is paid in full. + +Say I'm living off 20k, paying 10k annually to rent and 10k to everything else. I need a 500k nest egg to continue this lifestyle indefinitely pulling 4% annually. If I owned a home outright that was the exact equivalent of what I was paying in rent, I'd pay about 5k a year to taxes/insurance/maintenance reducing my annual expenses to 15k. I now instead need only a 375k nest egg to continue supporting myself. Say I can secure a rate that enables all this with only a 15k down payment. Over 30 years, I lose out on 15,000*(1.07^30 ) = 114,183 in potential 7% investment returns. I'm about breaking even but that's assuming I would have been able to pay only 10k annually in rent for the next 30 years, which I definitely won't because my rent is not a fixed rate like my mortgage is. I know taxes will also rise over that time frame but not as much as rent will. + +If I could theoretically obtain a mortgage to make this all happen, is there literally any financial reason not to? +This is your safe place for questions on financial careers, homework problems and finance in general. No question in the finance domain is unwelcome. + +Replies are expected to be constructive and civil. + +Any questions about your *personal* finances belong in /r/PersonalFinance, and career-seekers are encouraged to also visit /r/FinancialCareers. +Any suggestions on how to become really proficient with excel? Learning financial modeling, visual basic, etc...basically anything to get a head start on before I graduate? +This is your safe place for questions on financial careers, homework problems and finance in general. No question in the finance domain is unwelcome. + +Replies are expected to be constructive and civil. + +Any questions about your *personal* finances belong in /r/PersonalFinance, and career-seekers are encouraged to also visit /r/FinancialCareers. + +Could someone please explain the rationale behind negative interest rates in layman terms? I have a really hard time understanding why would anybody pay to take the risk of loaning money to someone else. +It seems like the argument is that short term volatility should not have a bearing on long term (years and years) price predictions. + +Do we see these "wildly inappropriate values" in warrants or LEAPs or is it just in the 15-20 year put options sold by Berkshire (as described on [page 16 of the 2007 annual report [PDF]](http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2007ar/2007ar.pdf)) + +[exact quote from 2010 annual report [PDF], page 21](http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2010ar/2010ar.pdf) + +>**Both Charlie and I believe that Black-Scholes produces wildly inappropriate values when applied to long-dated options.** We set out one absurd example in these pages two years ago. More tangibly, we put our money where our mouth was by entering into our equity put contracts. By doing so, we implicitly asserted that the Black-Scholes calculations used by our counterparties or their customers were faulty. + +>We continue, nevertheless, to use that formula in presenting our financial statements. Black-Scholes is the accepted standard for option valuation – almost all leading business schools teach it – and we would be +accused of shoddy accounting if we deviated from it. Moreover, we would present our auditors with an insurmountable problem were we to do that: They have clients who are our counterparties and who use Black-Scholes values for the same contracts we hold. It would be impossible for our auditors to attest to the accuracy of both their values and ours were the two[sic] far apart. + +>Part of the appeal of Black-Scholes to auditors and regulators is that it produces a precise number. Charlie and I can’t supply one of those. We believe the true liability of our contracts to be far lower than that calculated by Black-Scholes, but we can’t come up with an exact figure – anymore than we can come up with a precise value for GEICO, BNSF, or for Berkshire Hathaway itself. Our inability to pinpoint a number doesn’t +bother us: We would rather be approximately right than precisely wrong. + +The "absurd example" is on [page 20 of the 2008 annual report [PDF]](http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2008ar/2008ar.pdf) + +>So let’s postulate that we sell a 100- year $1 billion put option on the S&P 500 at a strike price of 903 (the index’s level on 12/31/08). Using the implied volatility assumption for long-dated contracts that we do, and combining that with appropriate interest and dividend assumptions, we would find the “proper” Black-Scholes premium for this contract to be $2.5 million. + +>To judge the rationality of that premium, we need to assess whether the S&P will be valued a century from now at less than today. Certainly the dollar will then be worth a small fraction of its present value (at only +2% inflation it will be worth roughly 14¢). So that will be a factor pushing the stated value of the index higher. Far more important, however, is that one hundred years of retained earnings will hugely increase the value of most of the companies in the index. In the 20th Century, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average increased by about +175-fold, mainly because of this retained-earnings factor. + + +>Considering everything, I believe the probability of a decline in the index over a one-hundred-year period to be far less than 1%. But let’s use that figure and also assume that the most likely decline – should one +occur – is 50%. Under these assumptions, the mathematical expectation of loss on our contract would be $5 million ($1 billion X 1% X 50%). + +>But if we had received our theoretical premium of $2.5 million up front, we would have only had to invest it at 0.7% compounded annually to cover this loss expectancy. Everything earned above that would have been profit. Would you like to borrow money for 100 years at a 0.7% rate? +Let’s look at my example from a worst-case standpoint. Remember that 99% of the time we would pay nothing if my assumptions are correct. But even in the worst case among the remaining 1% of possibilities – that +is, one assuming a total loss of $1 billion – our borrowing cost would come to only 6.2%. Clearly, either my assumptions are crazy or the formula is inappropriate. + +>The ridiculous premium that Black-Scholes dictates in my extreme example is caused by the inclusion of volatility in the formula and by the fact that volatility is determined by how much stocks have moved around +in some past period of days, months or years. This metric is simply irrelevant in estimating the probabilityweighted range of values of American business 100 years from now. (Imagine, if you will, getting a quote every day on a farm from a manic-depressive neighbor and then using the volatility calculated from these changing quotes as an important ingredient in an equation that predicts a probability-weighted range of values for the farm a century from now.) + +Haim Bodek of "Dark Pools" by Scott Patterson fame is featured in this new documentary showing the true scale and scandal of the High Frequency Trading Space. Exchanges collude with HFT bandits to make millions off the backs of pension funds, mutual funds and other market participants by giving them the worst prices possible and manipulating laws to their advantage, all without oversight or penalty. http://www.sanglucci.com/checkout-sanglucci-in-this-new-documentary-the-wall-street-code/ +Anyone have experience attending meetings with other real estate investors like the ones organized through BiggerPockets? Is there a spot for a broke college kid at one of those meetings? I don't really offer anything of value to seasoned investors and want to attend mostly to make connections and learn from people with more experience than me. I just don't want to seem like a waste of time/space at the meetings. I'm still a few years out from being able to begin making purchases but want to become as knowledgeable as possible leading up to that point. +Private lenders: How long of a track record are you looking for in a new borrower? + +How did you meet these individuals? + +Do you request different terms for a first time borrower rather than a repeat individual? If so, what are they. + +Those using private money: +Do you use one lender or multiple? + +How far into REI did you begin using private money? + + +I have 2 duplex’s, in process of buying a SFH. All done through a local credit union over the past 4 years. High equity in both duplex’s. + +There’s also a duplex I’m considering but with private money for the deal. + +Currently zero debt outside mortgages, 100k day job salary and just learning more about non-traditional financing. +I figured I would give a little more info: THIS IS NOT THE INSPECTION. We would like to pursue the property but aren't entering contract until we know it's something we want to do, so we're making a sight visit and need some kind of guide. + +EDIT: Just got back to reading all these comments. Thanks for the intel here. All good thoughts. +Pretty simple question, and I apologise if it's been asked here before, but how did you get into real estate? Did "know a guy" that walked you through it? Self taught? Where did the initial funds come from? It's something that I'm interested in for the distant future and I'm curious. Maybe not so distant future if it's not as daunting as it seems. +First post here. I have a 3 family home and just bought a 2 fam. I have security cameras installed in the 3 family but am not quite happy with the product. I’m looking to add cameras to the property I just purchased and was wondering what everyone was using for the cameras on their investment properties and if they were happy with them. Ideally I’m looking for something that is WiFi and battery powered with no monthly subscription fee, I’ve looked at the products available and the reviews are very mixed. What do you guys use and how do you like them? + +Edit: I should have specified that the cameras are on the outside of the property surveilling the perimeter, pointed at the driveways to make sure nobody’s messing with the cars. Just was looking for a reliable brand people are happy with. +I’m thinking of buying a building in NYC that has a commercial space on the first floor and apartments on the upper floors. All the units are occupied and the rent roll would cover my costs including mortgage, taxes, water/sewer, electricity, insurance, super, repairs/maintenance (according to the high level info provided by the broker). The property is in a safe, family friendly neighborhood that we are very familiar with. I see this as a long-ish term investment where I can have a property that appreciates with costs covered by the tenants and potential for me to live in if we want to. + +This would be my first time doing this sort of investment so I don’t know what I don’t know. What due diligence should i be doing to reduce risk? What other costs should I try to uncover? +I own and live in a 3bdr condo in Colorado that happens to be the boundaries for the #1 ranked high school in the state. + +Two of the bedrooms aren’t really used outside of a home office and I had a family friend reach out. She got divorced and had to move but she wants to keep her daughter in the same high school where that my condo is assigned to. She doesn’t want to live in my place but rather just rent a room so she has a valid address within the school boundaries. + +Is there anything I should be concerned about with this other than the standard HOA stuff? +I bought a dublex last year as my first house. My mortgage is going to be $1550 after refinancing and my tenant pays me $1300 and the floor I lice in could rent for about $1100-$1200. I live in a 3 bedroom apartment for about $300 "Rent". I'm about to have a baby so I have no problem living here for the next 5 years or so but I really want to buy a primary residence and have no desire in buying another rental. I just did this to be able to house hack and save money as a 23 year old starting out his life. My fiance and I talked about it and we decided it would be a good idea to keep this property and use the income to help pay for our primary residence so we can continue to live below our means but still afford a nice house. This could also be our kids first place when they decide to move out. I know this might be against this alot of what this subreddit is about but Im just curious what you guys think of that idea. +I'm about to start a gut renovation on a heavily dated, poorly laid out small seaside apartment. The view is fantastic, but the interior uses space very poorly, everything is worn and the inside hasn't been updated since it was built in 1985. + +We're planning to rent this as a weekly/monthly rental throughout the tourist season, hoping that the value also gradually climbs. Our goal is to renovate this to attract a more affluent tourist, so we're hoping to do things right and give a premium feel without spending unwisely. + +Given that this is my first real estate investment and renovation, I'd love to find out what rules you stick to or the advice you have about renovation. + +Where do you focus your money? Where do you spend less? What matters? What doesn't? What do most people fail to consider? Do you follow a formula or specific plan? + +Thanks! + + + + +I'm purchasing a single family home in Pa. that is in a HOA community. I'm paying cash so lenders title insurance is not required. The sellers are the original owners of the house and there hasn't been any additions or alterations to the property. + +Reasons I DO NOT want owners title insurance: + +1) Cost is very expensive ($4,400) + +2) Very low risk of incident + +3) I ran my own search from public records - owner history, tax, mortgage, deeds, bankruptcy and everything appears in order + +4) Title insurance is a scam - Title insurer is also owned by the same company of my realtor. Premiums do not match the level of risk. And the title company says I can't just purchase a 100k policy - its insure the full purchase price of the house or nothing at all. +I live in Downtown Jersey City, NJ and I have a next door neighbor who rents out their older looking unit and I have considered making them a cash offer so I can merge it with my own condo. + +Both my unit and his unit are 2bed/2bath at 1300sqft and I’m not sure if it really makes sense or not but I know 4bed/2bath apartment with like a study/den would be highly coveted here especially at 2600sqft. + +Market value for my neighbors unit is probably in the ballpark of $700k (I paid $645k for mine) and I think I could spend $65k to renovate the bathrooms, refinish floors, knock out one kitchen, and transform a bathroom into a study. + +What I don’t really know is what kind of surprises come with this type of project. We both have our own furnace/laundry/water heater/etc... + +I also don’t know if I did do it what the unit would be worth. If I could get 1.7million I’m not convinced it would be worth the headache and I’m not sure it would fetch such a high price tag + +Side note: I live in a walkup (3rd floor) +My wife and I both work full time. We make around 125K combined. We owe 250K on our home and have approximately 100K in equity built up. We have an emergency fund of 20K which I do not plan to touch. We have about 15K saved up for investment purposes. + +After reading this sub, I am thinking a SFH local to us would be the best way to get started. Given my financial situation, should I continue to save for a while or dip into the equity either through a HELOC or refinance? I am of course open to any other suggestions. +30-40 years later where are they now? Management, retired, rehab? + +I recall reading book Liars Poker where author claimed many were glorified gambling addicts. + +Oddly, or accurately I'm listening to Billboard Top 100 of 1985 which stemmed the 80's-esque question. Surface level corporate rock. +I was thinking about researching a bunch of random coins just to expand my knowledge on the space, as well as the potential to finding some gems out there. The idea hit me that I should ask reddit what their favorite coins are. To make it that I actually do the research, ill try my best to research each coin in the comments and give my thoughts on them. I will not however research any shitcoins, meme coins, food coins, or anything that looks like a blatant scam! Now please tell all about your favorite coins! + +&#x200B; + +Edit: It will take a while(weeks, if not months), but I will do my best to reply to each and every comment :) + + +Edit 2: What im giving here is just my personal opinion and by no means am I a crypto expert. Im just your average guy who is very much into crypto. Please don't take my opinions to the bank as I am a flawed human being and could objectively be wrong on my points. DYOR at the end of the day. Im just doing this for fun. + + +Edit 3: I will only reply to a coin once. +I've always been intrigued by dividend stocks. The thought of having a constant form of cash flow/income always seemed like a good idea, and some protection from the overall volatility of the stock market. However, from what I've seen, dividend stocks tend to have less overall growth compared to growth stocks. I like the idea of putting something like SCHD or VYM in a roth IRA, but what would be the point if the S&P and Nasdaq outperform it? Are there any dividend stocks that tend to outperform the market, or is there some element I'm missing? +Basically what the title says, I've set myself a target for 3k a year to invest and I'm mainly going for ETF with like 20 percent of my investments being stock (that's the plan at least). also am in the UK if that matters. +Title basically. I only started investing roughly couple months ago . I seen some of us here was saying they like jepi with the monthly dividend to build up their cash flow quicker ( my goal at this point is to try to do 50/50 of Schd and jepi ). Anyone have any good experiences with jepi can help me real quick ? +Hi, in a 23 year old who began dividend investing back in December. I have a portfolio across many different industries and feel that since I have such a big time horizon I can try some more aggressive growing dividends. Was just wondering which you guys like that fall into this category. +Basically what the title says, I've set myself a target for 3k a year to invest and I'm mainly going for ETF with like 20 percent of my investments being stock (that's the plan at least). also am in the UK if that matters. +&#x200B; + +Married sixty-six years old, retired, and living in the US. + +Have never invested other than TSP. + +Have no bills. House paid for. Approx 250k in the bank. Retirement is around 5-6k per month for the wife and me together. We also have about 400k in TSP. Tired of earning less than 1% interest on our bank savings. Thinking of setting up custodial accounts for the grandkids and getting some dividend income going. + +Have been looking at KMI, PRU, MO, IRM, CVX, T, VLO, SCHD, + +Looking for suggestions. + +Thanks in advance +At times like this, I remind myself of my philosophy about dividend stocks. I see myself as a landlord. Property values rise and fall. Regardless, the checks keep coming. When prices fall, it presents an opportunity to increase units. +Hello everyone! I am a bit of a crypto-connoisseur and have been managing a pretty large scrypt mining setup which has turned a nice profit for me. At first my father was a skeptic till he saw the real world value of what I was actually doing and is extremely interested in all the hype around Bitcoin. This post is actually for my father, the owner of one of the largest wine bars in New York City. I know there have been similar posts with regards on how to go about accepting Bitcoin, however he will be directing all of his attention at posts here. The restaurant does significantly well and celebrity clientele is a daily occurrence. Not to mention he has several PR people who can get the word out to newspapers regarding the move to Bitcoin. I have a few questions that he would like the specifics to: + + +* 1)Are there any other restaurants/wine bars in NYC currently accepting Bitcoin? Would this be the first? If not are any of them well-known? (Basically he wants to know if this was the case for advertising purposes. If not then would we be the largest restaurant in NYC to do so being the other possible "claim to fame") +* 2)With regards to legality/tax issues, what would the concerns be and what actions should be taken beforehand? (An accountant and/or lawyers perspective would be greatly appreciated with this regard) +* 3)What could be used to handle transactions and what would the process be? +* 4)***(This is a BIG sticking point for him)***What is the fastest way to do transactions? I've heard of people throwing "Bitcoin parties" and having issues with relatively slow transaction times. Seeing as the restaurant does very high volume, this could pose as a potential problem if it isn't handled properly. + + +Thanks in advance for any help some of you may contribute towards these questions. As of now, the idea is to use Bitcoin perhaps once a week to fully grasp its functionality and gauge its profitability, although for the latter he isn't too concerned about for the time being. He also owns other restaurants in NYC, albeit a little smaller but this is potentially a very large step forward for Bitcoin! We look forward to your responses! +I was unaware when I was pregnant and first going on my interview. During the second round of interviews, I found out I was about two months pregnant. Looks like I'm going to get the job offer. The issue I have is around maternity leave. Per their company policy, I have to be employed for 1 full year before I'm benefitted for maternity leave. + +&#x200B; + +This position is about a 20% increase in my salary, compared to my current position. I figured it's still worth it to take the new position, without maternity leave, and just take state disability at 60%. The new position has more room for growth, and a bigger company, which knows how to utilize my skill sets better than my current position. Medical benefits are effective immediately, which is great. + +&#x200B; + +What is/are thoughts on this? Is this irresponsible? Thank you in advance! +There's been a lot of negative sentiment thrown around with the recent market volatility. Some people clearly haven't been investing for a longer period of time (neither have I) and others just don't deal well with the bad days. + +My advice is this: during red periods take a look at your investments and see if anything about the company has changed since you started investing. If there is no significant change why would you sell now? + +Second, if you have cash on hand try to incrementally buy shares of your highest conviction stocks or buy those who you think have been hit hardest. + +Third, think about the overall state of your portfolio. If it is too focused on one particular section, then consider broadening out your portfolio to different ones so you mitigate risk if you are not comfortable with the current volatility of your portfolio. + +The final piece of advice is to just not stare at the graphs everday if you can't handle looking at the red candles. If you are like me and you are investing for the long-term why would you need to look at the graphs every single day? +Just grab the stock chart of any stock for a 5 year period and look at the peaks and downturns in stock price. Some stocks lose like 30 percent from one peak before doubling in price compared to that peak and stockholders who held through that downturn eventually got rewarded for their patience. This doesn't mean that every investment you make will turn out alright in the long-term but panicking and selling at a loss just because the price went down isnt going to make u money especially if nothing about the company changed. + +Just today as I write this my portfolio is down about 3 percent while the nasdaq is only down about 0.5 percent. I am not too worried because I am investing with money I don't necessarily need right now and am investing for the long-term so temporary downturns are only opportunities to add to my highest conviction positions. The point is, if you are investing like me theres no need to panic about what is happening now. + +Anyway, I wish u all good gains in the rest of the year and don't stress about the market too much, there is more important stuff in life to worry about and we've got time on our hands. + +Edit: + +Also, if you are relatively new to investing and want to learn more, there is alot you can learn just through reading books and practicing doing your own DD on stocks + +This post gives a pretty good starting point: + +https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/m85sp6/list_of_books_to_read_if_you_want_to_actually/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share +Seems to me this type of rise is unsustainable and prices will crater as soon as Corona news washes through since that’s the only thing this price action is based on but maybe I’m missing something. Thoughts? + + +https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-apron-soars-cities-curtail-162639757.html + +**Edit**: Placed a market sell order for half my holdings on Robinhood around $27. Order never executed for unknown reasons. Feeling absolutely dreadful now. +I currently have a \~$80-$100k job I can work hybrid, the office some and home some. The commute is also only 15 minutes. Last year, I made $150k and this year I am on track for $100k, with the possibility of higher six figure income in the coming years as we grow the business. The job is totally flexible, I work in a family business at a hedge fund doing research where my father is the PM (which I feel fortunate about, although a family biz can have pros and cons but all jobs have that), and I like that I am able to learn about managing my own capital on the side. I am considering studying for some certifications as well. We are trying to make connections with other family offices, some of whom are very wealthy, and we have the potential to grow exponentially. We also began working with a marketing group who is helping us scale the business. + +The downside is that the job can be a bit lonely. I wouldn't say I am passionate about the job. I am passionate about the financial stability, being able to support myself, build a nest egg, etc.. I have been told that maybe I should challenge myself more, which maybe I should?, but they aren't the ones paying my bills and I think I can challenge in other ways. I see some of my peers struggling in their very stressful careers, just trying to survive, and I don't want to minimize the benefits I am able to have or give them up without thinking it through. + +I occasionally get thoughts of doing other things in my career or considering other industries. I am currently 26. I feel conflicted because I don't know if I would want to sacrifice the relaxed and secure lifestyle for something more exciting or fulfilling (which may not turn out to be fulfilling). These opportunities could also include more stress, a tough commute, etc. + +So I think I am on track for FI if I can continue with this job for a few more years and see how much I am able to build upon my nest egg. + +I'm leaning towards staying at my current job, regardless of what better offers arise, so I am trying to find passions outside of work. I really enjoy fitness and exercise regularly and am able to connect with others in that way. + +I would love to get your thoughts here and also hear how some of you are dealing with something like this. + +Should I remain grateful for the current situation and find satisfaction outside of work or should I re-enter the rat race? +Hey all - as a quick intro, I was one the only active mod a number of years ago. I slowly dialed down my involvement in the sub (as a moderator, and reader) over time. Turns out there's only so much tuning and fiddling you can do with hands-off investment. Yesterday I removed my mod access because we have a pretty awesome team of active mods in place right now. + +July 2018 I posted that we had made our last conservative milestone, and there were no more (FI) goals left. I won't re-cover some of the points I made in this last post. Summary is that I was a manager of software teams (up to Director level) at a FAANG company, which enabled a pretty high savings rate: + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/8vjoob/made\_it\_last\_conservative\_fi\_milestone\_no\_more/](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/8vjoob/made_it_last_conservative_fi_milestone_no_more/) + +Since I have temporarily re-engaged with the sub , I thought it might be worth sharing a few things I've observed and/or learned over the last 2.5 years. + +First - an updated networth graph - [https://imgur.com/a/tznzIcD](https://imgur.com/a/tznzIcD) + +**Random observations, updates, and other bullet points!** + +1. *Privilege*. Before anyone gets offended with us being wealthy, I'll repeat that we're well aware that we got lucky to get into the right industry, lucky to be born in the USA, etc. Lots of luck in life :) +2. *Frugality & Covid.* In my last update, I mentioned how our family is pretty frugal. Covid certainly didn't change that. We already avoided restaurants, our main entertainment has been (and continues to be) hiking, etc. So in my opinion, frugality really prepared us well for a pandemic. So that's an argument for frugality I wouldn't have guessed two years ago - preparation for global catastrophe. +3. *Work Update.* When I posted, I said I'd be taking time off work, and we didn't know what we'd be doing with our jobs. My wife ended up quitting hers, and I took a \~9 month sabbatical. The time off work was fantastic and involved a lot of travel and other fun things (thankfully we picked 2019, not 2020). +4. *Purpose in life / benefit of FI* \- Due to not actually needing more money (see the networth graph above), after my leave I was able to be very flexible on the type of work I was willing to do. I ended up taking a job making \~1/3 of what I was making before my leave working for a non-profit. Always wanted to do something meaningful at work, and FI enables it. +5. *Acceleration of networth* growth - The significantly lower pay is invisible on our networth graph, because of the crazy markets, and the fact that our networth is high. As everyone always says, the first million comes slowly, and each milestone after that comes more quickly. We have months where we gain (or lose) many multiples of my income. +6. *Doors open through FI* \- Being FI and having excessive saving opens up random doors. It's having a valuable tool in your toolbox which isn't only used for your personal expenses. We were able to help one of our family members with quick financing to buy a house (temporarily solving a banks moving slow problem for them). We were able to invest in a semi speculative real estate investment with a friend. All around I find we're able to have more open minds about opportunities when we have a good amount of cash sitting around. +7. *Careers driven people* \- In my experience, moving up in your career in a large company means that you spend some amount of mental energy on optimizing your career, comparing yourself to your peers (for good old competitive motivation), watching your compensation closely, etc. Early on to my leave, I observed previous peers moving their careers forward (getting promotions) and felt a sense of missing out. But over time as I took my leave and changed my career path, I found myself less emotionally connected to titles and compensation, and that's decreased the negative feelings. Which is a relief, because I don't like the idea of feeling jealous of something I don't need :) +8. *It's hard to walk away at the peak of your career.* I continue to play with the idea of going to make more money. I am sometimes tempted by people reaching out for neat opportunities, recruiters for hot tech companies, etc. A short two years of work could move our retirement from "very safe" at our current spending levels, to "very safe" at extravagant spending. Or we could become a huge safety net for our kids someday, or we could contribute millions to charity, etc. I think it's a core aspect of FIRE, that leaving work quite likely comes at the peak of your career. I've invested in myself and my reputation, and it's really hard to not take full advantage of it. (I have plenty of plans to not be bored and do cool things which might make money, but it's not the same as making 7 figures). +9. *Spending time with kids and family is priceless.* My kids spend far more time with me than most parents. Particularly when I was on leave, but even now that I have a very flexible schedule (and it's not nearly as demanding as a high tech job). I can have breakfast with them, hang out at dinner, never need late night emergency work, have spent weeks / months traveling, etc. By far the best thing FI gave me was time with my kids, since they'll never be this young again. + +Anyway, I have always enjoyed learning about those who have made it to the finish line of FIRE, and thought it would be worth sharing. I'm happy to answer any general questions people might have. +So I had a 286p and a 264/263 put credit spread for today and robinhood decides to break the spread into a 286/263 spread automatically and execute forcing a $533 loss when I was expecting assignment. + +Why not just go buy the shares at market huh? Well robinhood hasn’t released my fkin buying power collateral and spy’s back at nearly 282. + +Wtf... +Hi friends. So last Tuesday the 4th, I opened a put credit spread on SPX. It's my first spread and boy was it a fun learning experience... + +SPX 4700p exp 1/7 -1 +SPX 4660p exp 1/7 +1 + +Spx was just over 4800 when I opened the spread, .15 deltas roughly. I was trying to be conservative. And thought it would take a large even to get spx to move $100 in just 3 days... + +Then the fed minutes came out and this trade went to hell. Friday the 7th rolled around and and I was underwater quiet a bit, but midday I saw I could roll for +$300 credit to Monday. Seemed like maybe the minutes would die down over the weekend and Monday would be ok. + +Then Monday happened. Whatever that was... I could have rolled at a cost of $700 early in the morning, but with Jpow talking tomorrow and more crap CPI numbers on Wednesday, seemed like I could be just donating it. By the end of day it was 1500 to roll. Any further out was more expensive and down was really more expensive. I wouldn't have made this trade now, so instead of roll, I took a $2700 loss and let them expire. + +Question is, what would you have done differently. Here to learn, so don't hold back. +Say I only have $1000 and want to sell CSPs and a $10.50 strike is going for $0.75. Could the $75 of premium be added to my $1000 to cover the $1050 of collateral Robinhood requires? Never had a setup to try this out that made sense so I thought I’d ask y’all. +The strategy is essentially buying a call ATM and selling 2 calls OTM that pay for the long call. If price goes down you lose nothing, if price goes slightly up you can make some good profits. If price starts to go past the short calls you should be able to close everything for a small loss at most as the long call would negate alot of the loss in value up until price goes past your short calls. Seems like a good strategy. + +Has anyone tried this here, it so what has your experience been? The only losing scenario I can think of is if price rockets past your short strikes and you don’t have time to close out the trade before losing a significant amount. (So I would avoid playing this when news comes out). +I’ve sold an iron condor on spy and my call 396 got assigned. +If ibkr would have taken the difference I would have lost like 20$ of gains. Instead it automatically shorted 100 spy. Which is a much greater risk. + +Is there a way to avoid that in the future ? Or should I just close the position before expiration? + +Cheers! +The strategy is essentially buying a call ATM and selling 2 calls OTM that pay for the long call. If price goes down you lose nothing, if price goes slightly up you can make some good profits. If price starts to go past the short calls you should be able to close everything for a small loss at most as the long call would negate alot of the loss in value up until price goes past your short calls. Seems like a good strategy. + +Has anyone tried this here, it so what has your experience been? The only losing scenario I can think of is if price rockets past your short strikes and you don’t have time to close out the trade before losing a significant amount. (So I would avoid playing this when news comes out). +I've just sold one 550p TSLA for 1.95 premium expiring tomorrow. Is it really a free $195 or, worst case scenario, owning TSLA stock at a great entry price if it tumbles over 15% in one day? What am I not seeing here? + +edit: theta is just going at it. I've gained 20% of it in under an hour. +I started selling puts this week using some of the recommended guidelines i’ve read from this subreddit. Basically 30-40 DTE around .2-.3 delta with a ROI close to 10-15% and also sold some covered calls on a solar stock I own. + +The premiums on this solar stock are juicy, and I’d like to sell another put because i’d be fine owning more. How much is too much? I don’t want to have too many positions to handle but also don’t really see any cons to selling puts and calls if it’s stock I like. Probably 5/6 puts i’ve sold expire in 30-40 days. + +Is it recommended to have less tickers and a mix of shorter to longer DTE sold options? I’m okay with more risk but want to do it right and not reckless. Feedback is greatly appreciated. + +Happy to be a part of Theta Gang! +I sold CCs for CRSR July 16, 21 with a strike at $32.50. I must admit that I lost faith in the stock and I was thinking that $32.50 I was ready to sell but suddenly, you have certainly experienced it a few times, the stock goes up to reach $34 I was losing theoretically, at that time, $1.50 buy share and I didn't want to let them go at $32.50 anymore…. The point is, I didn't wait and rolled to $35 on Aug 20, 2021 for a small credit of $ 0.30(my emotions did…). My question is: should I have waited until the last minute to roll? +JetBlue tender offer is $30/share. Trading today at 23.46, so the tender offer represents a premium of $6.54. Buy and tender shares. Protect the downside if deal falls apart protect with long puts. 7/1/2021 ATM stike is $1.21. 12/16/22 22.5 is mid $2.70. If merger goes through you get the premium minus what you paid for the put. If it falls apart the put hopefully prints. Spirit was \~16 when the merger news started happening. What am I missing? +Say I only have $1000 and want to sell CSPs and a $10.50 strike is going for $0.75. Could the $75 of premium be added to my $1000 to cover the $1050 of collateral Robinhood requires? Never had a setup to try this out that made sense so I thought I’d ask y’all. +Hello Gang. + +I started doing wheeling (or rather selling CSPs) TQQQ for an year now. I sell CSPs with 30 DTE with the strike price about 15% lower from the current price. I then roll these religiously every week to collect premium. I don't wait for the 50% profit mark, as most here suggest to do. There were only two instances where i was ITM, which i rolled with adjusted strike price. So, i was never assigned the whole year and hence i didn't have to sell CC. I don't look at the greeks (delta, etc), as they are a little over my head. My portfolio is up about 24% this past year (I started with a portfolio of 175k). My question is am i leaving a lot of money on the table by rolling every week rather than wait until i get 50% profit? If yes, how much better returns can i expect keeping the risk levels about the same. I am trying to find if the returns would be so much better that it is worth to spend the additional time it takes to monitor the profits and trade accordingly. Thanks +Just curious, how many people here use theta gang techniques in tandem with value investing? I.e, try to find discounted stocks with high enough volatility to enhance the discount by going short options. I’m very much a rookie in options, so I’m kind of wondering if this is a viable strategy, or if stocks volatile enough to make selling contracts worth it tend to be inherently overvalued. +On Feb 1st AMC had climbed to \~$17 premarket. I had at 100 shares of it and I thought what the hell let's throw in a cheeky limit order for 7.50 at the Feb 5 18.50 strike. Quite unfortunately 8 seconds into the market opening some poor guy with probably a market order filled it before the price immediately corrected and crashed down to the $5.44 and continued to crash as AMC plummeted on open. To the guy out there who bought my call, I'm sorry. + +[https://imgur.com/a/5cyQYbu](https://imgur.com/a/5cyQYbu) \- My order + +https://preview.redd.it/k6xxbeqr07f61.png?width=1631&format=png&auto=webp&s=263920c57a0e959a9e05e4d0c225b9ec8f8fbbf9 +So, this might sound silly I know, but I’m not sure why I have this fear of totally fucking up a credit spread I might open that will ultimately result in me having to come up with a ton of cash for a spread that went south. Specifically, I’m talking about a situation where the stock ends above the short contract but below the long contract, effectively forcing me to fulfill my end of the deal. How do you manage such a scenario and does my fear has any basis? Idk why but I just hate dealing with margin and so I stick to a cash account and do only CC and CSP. I feel like I should branch out of those but just can’t get myself to do so. + +Any tips or comments are welcomed. Thank you +So, this might sound silly I know, but I’m not sure why I have this fear of totally fucking up a credit spread I might open that will ultimately result in me having to come up with a ton of cash for a spread that went south. Specifically, I’m talking about a situation where the stock ends above the short contract but below the long contract, effectively forcing me to fulfill my end of the deal. How do you manage such a scenario and does my fear has any basis? Idk why but I just hate dealing with margin and so I stick to a cash account and do only CC and CSP. I feel like I should branch out of those but just can’t get myself to do so. + +Any tips or comments are welcomed. Thank you +Hello Gang. + +I started doing wheeling (or rather selling CSPs) TQQQ for an year now. I sell CSPs with 30 DTE with the strike price about 15% lower from the current price. I then roll these religiously every week to collect premium. I don't wait for the 50% profit mark, as most here suggest to do. There were only two instances where i was ITM, which i rolled with adjusted strike price. So, i was never assigned the whole year and hence i didn't have to sell CC. I don't look at the greeks (delta, etc), as they are a little over my head. My portfolio is up about 24% this past year (I started with a portfolio of 175k). My question is am i leaving a lot of money on the table by rolling every week rather than wait until i get 50% profit? If yes, how much better returns can i expect keeping the risk levels about the same. I am trying to find if the returns would be so much better that it is worth to spend the additional time it takes to monitor the profits and trade accordingly. Thanks +I recently collected intraday stock history for every stock on NASDAQ, NYSE, and AMEX from January 1st till April 16th (2019). It has a data point every minute. I collected them from IEX. I converted them to .csv where each .csv has every minute of every day for one particular stock. It is about 3gb compressed. Anyone interested? I will happily upload if so +After just 4 days lurking in this sub i now got Wallets set up, a Binance account, a miner set up on my PC, got a general idea of what Crypto is and invested my first 100€ worth of ETH and altcoins. + +&#x200B; + +Thank you everyone who keeps this sub filled with informational gold (and sometimes comedy gold). + +Crypto to the MOON 🚀🌕 +**See bottom for updates on the situation** +EDIT: I realized how confusing it was for everyone that I listed all prices in Canadian currency. I went through my post and edited all of them to USD. If you see people talking about a $69k loan, that’s referring to $49k USD, as now written below. + +Hey! My fiancé and I purchased a 2019 Kia Sorento in May 2019 from a Kia dealership. It was our first car purchase. We did end up having some buyer’s remorse for the following reasons (I’m Canadian but I converted all prices to USD): + +1. $231 biweekly, 84-month financing at 7.99% - High interest rate, long term loan made me nervous and payments were a wee bit above budget (by a wee bit, I mean more like a lot). + +Originally, we wanted to get a cheaper used car (budget: &lt;$20,000) but the $8,000 cash-back offered by the dealer was a pretty attractive option at the time. That cash back was only available on the purchase of a brand new, more expensive car. The Sorento was valued at ~27k. We paid off most of our credit card debt with that cash back. + +So I was making breakfast two days ago when I got a random phone call. I answered, and it was the Kia dealership that sold us our car 10 months prior. They were letting us know about low interest rate promotions they have going on. “You could qualify for a 0.99% interest rate if you’re interested in trading-in your car!” I was skeptical but kept an open mind. Going from 7.99% to 0.99% is a big jump worth looking into, in my opinion. I let them check our eligibility for this rate and yes, we were eligible. They asked if we wanted to come in to know more and check out some models so we decided to go in the next day. + +Fast-forward to yesterday afternoon, we test drove a 2020 Kia Sportage SX Turbo. Going in, I was hoping that if we did decide to trade in our Sorento, it would be for a car cheap enough to keep our biweekly payments roughly the same. I didn’t feel great about looking into a trade in so early on in our financing due to the negative equity from the car we barely paid for. + +The dealership offered us only $17.5k for the Sorento. My question to them was: is rolling over that much money into a new loan really worth the crazy low interest rate? Their answer was yes, but I was still skeptical. They convinced me when they said that we’d be paying down our principal much faster than with that 7.99% rate. More money goes to the car, less to the bank. + +I did not think we would be walking out of that dealership 3 hours later having signed a bill of sale and loan paperwork for that Sportage, but we sure did. + +My regrets: + +1. I rushed the decision. I told myself I wouldn’t but we were getting close to them closing for the day and I wouldn’t have had time to come back for a little while. What if the deal was gone after a few days? I let them pressure me into making a choice right then and there, I should have slept on it. + +2. We are now binded to a loan of 49k over 84 months, $280 biweekly at 1.85% (apparently the bank could only offer 0.99% for loans less than 15k... 1.85% is still better than 7.99% though.... right?). That’s an extra $93 a month out of our pockets and we have reset to 84 months of payments ahead of us. Negative equity rolled over was ~13k. + +3. I think we should have waited at least 2-3 years before considering this, to reduce the negative equity rolled over. But how much interest money were we throwing away with that 8% rate?? + +I need some perspective. Are we complete idiots or was there some sense in rolling over that much negative equity to slash our interest rate? Be as harsh as you need to be, I really need some guidance. We’re feeling SO stupid right now but are we overreacting? + +For your info, we haven’t even driven this car off the lot yet, that’s happening in 6 hours. + +EDIT: If anyone has advice on talking to the dealership about backing out, I could use that too. I know that legally I don’t have a leg to stand on, but I’m hoping to make something work. + +UPDATE (super detailed, for anyone interested): +So we spent roughly four hours at the dealership today. We went in there and first read through all the paperwork with the hopes of finding a significant error. The only thing that was weird was that in the loan paperwork, under our expenses, the amount I pay for my apartment rental was written as $1 (I had inquired about that before signing, she said that it doesn’t really matter). The actual rent payment was put under my fiancé’s name, who was put down as the co-buyer in this thing. + +The sales manager came in and listened to what I had to say. He asked me what I want, and I said that we’d like to cancel the contract if at all possible. He said that he’s willing to go ask his boss. A few minutes later, he came back telling us that he didn’t notice that the loan had « already been processed by the bank » and that there’s nothing they can do on their end. We told him we’ll give the bank a call then. By this point, we expected some serious bluffing. While on hold with the bank, we told him that we don’t feel good about the slight increase of interest rate exposed to us right before signing. He replied by offering a $1400 USD rebate (not part of loan but I’d have to make sure of that). He also added on free oil changes for life. We thanked him but expressed we’d still like to cancel. + +We were on hold for almost two hours but finally got to a CSR. We explained our situation, gave our names and phone numbers and he attempted to pull up the loan information. He found absolutely nothing and told us that a loan like this wouldn’t be processed in less than a day. We went back into the dealership to tell them that. The sales manager showed us an ‘official document’ from the bank itself showing details of the loan. That’s when the GM came into the picture. He said that CSR’s normally wouldn’t have access to that kind of info so soon so that’s why the guy missed it. He was pretty stern, telling us that they’re within their rights to refuse any sort of unwinding of contract (which we acknowledged as well) but that he’s willing to sympathize with us. He explained why it’s not as simple as just ripping up the contract and going about our separate ways. Here’s his points: + +1. « The way that registering a sold car works, we can’t register one and cancel that registration without the car’s status permanently changed to Used. The low interest rate that we offered you, we got from paying the bank that difference in interest (from a typical rate like 5-6%) out of our own pockets. If the car comes back to us as Used, we can’t offer that same low interest deal to others so we lose potential sales » + +2. « You were already in a not so great situation with your Sorento. At an 8% interest rate, you’re spending over $10k in interest over 7 years. Why not put that same amount of money into paying down principal faster? + +So as you can see, more sales tactics at play. My questions at that point: first the only issue is the bank already procesded the loan, now it’s also that they can’t unregister the car without penalties. Obviously they’re trying to keep us locked in. I explained some more how I’m feeling about this sale. Their general manager offered that we pay them $5k to offset their losses from: undoing the registration, from prepping the car for possession, etc. We’d get the contract voided and get our old car back, which they now own. That was his final word. + +Alternative? Keep the contract, but with added incentives: $1.4k check (difference between 1.85% and 0.99% interest rate), free oil changes for life and a $1000 CAD credit for servicing from them. + +I know that these incentives don’t measure up to our losses from going through with this loan so we don’t wanna go that route. + +We left the dealership telling them we need an extra day to think this through. We’re still using the car we test drove as a loaner car for the time being. Still haven’t driven the new car so hopefully it’s not over yet. + +FINAL UPDATE: The contract is now VOID! We did end up paying for some servicing fees on the original car (cleaning, tire changes they had already done) but considering they cancelled the contract for us, that was more than fair! We have 100% learned our lesson. Thank you all! +- There was a discussion on our future, because the Foundation only has a couple of Bitcoins left. They've been running on a skeleton crew for the last half year, but even that money has ran out. +- Someone (not me) started a vote on shutting down the Foundation. During the vote, I said that I'm not comfortable continuing the Foundation without a plan and direction. Jim and me have been asking for a plan and direction for many months. The voting result was 2 for (Jim and myself), 3 against. We were one vote short to shut it down. +- Jim resigned after this vote +- We then had a discussion about the future of the Foundation. They wanted everyone to start raising money, so they could come up with a plan. I said I'm not comfortable to raise money UNTIL we have a plan. +- They then proceeded to vote me off the board, because they did not like that (I guess it's bad intent on my behalf to ask to come up with a business plan before you decide to raise money). + +I would like to thank everyone for their support, especially those who voted for me. I ran on a platform to bring transparency. I think I kept my promise. During my tenure, board minutes and financials have been consistently released. I know I was a thorn in the eye of the Foundation since the beginning, and they waited for the right time to remove me. The truth is that the Foundation is pretty much dead. They will try to keep it going just for the name and ego, but they have no support left with the community. Their reputation is permanently destroyed, which became clear over the last year. From this point forward, I will also no longer be able to keep you informed on any of their actions. + +Olivier +I feel like investing in index trackers within a S&S ISA is not well known the the majority within the UK. Is it just me or is it just hard to tell because generally people don't talk about their own personal finance? Just looking for a discussion on this topic with everyone to gather everyone's thoughts. + +Thanks +I’ve been meaning to write this post for several weeks now. I originally learned about this concept in The Four Hour Work Week, and I think it has financial independence written all over it. I’ve expanded on the premise just a bit, its not uber profound but I think very pertinent to the way in which we think about work. + +Absolute Income = Your total gross income you make in a year + +Relative Income = The income you make per hour working, or per responsibility you manage + +It’s easy to get jealous of the seemingly endless number of people in this sub claiming they make $300k a year, or $200k, or some will get jealous over all the $100k salaries. Some of us are pulling in $70k, $50k, or $40k annual salaries and thinking WTF did I do wrong. And really none of it matters because we're talking about Absolute Income and not Relative Income. + +Jobs that pay $150k/year and higher are generally very difficult to get and will generally require a high level of responsibility, education, stress, and time commitment. (And I’m not talking about $150k in ultra HCOL areas - just the general US.) If you’re making $150k, $200k, $300k or higher you are likely working alot of hours, have tons of responsibility, and little free time. Not to mention the grit and grind and BS it took to get to that salary in the first place. Sure there are exceptions, but this appears to be a general trend. There are people in this sub who will work non-stop making $300k, $400k, $500k per year until the day they die, because they are addicted to the pleasure and security money can buy. + +The more important figure to consider, especially for those seeking freedom and independence, is relative income. Relative income is the amount of money you make relative to the hours worked, the stress/responsibility taken on, the flexibility of your schedule, and your local COL. + +Who’s doing better: someone making $300k/year as a banker in NYC working 80 hours per week ($72/hr) or a part time business owner in the Midwest working 10 flexible hours per week and 35k per year? ($67/hr) + +Or another, less extreme, example: a business executive making $100k/yr yet working 60 hours per week ($32/hr) or their neighbor, a government manager making $75k/yr but only working 40 hours per week. ($36/hr, plus potential pension) + +Relative Income matters a ton in regards to financial independence. If I’m a nurse that can live frugally on my $30/hr salary while only working 2 ten hour shifts per week, I’ll enjoy my 5 days off while my peers work endlessly. + +Similarly, if I’m a plumber or a software engineer that can work contract part time, somewhat flexible, yet still accrue more than I need to live off of, I’ll take that any day over working 60 hours a week for a plumbing company or Amazon. + +If I can save up $300k, which will produce $1,000 per month in income forever. I can take a step back and coast. Maybe I’ll work part time, or maybe I’ll take a job that requires only 40 hours of work, and not the typical 55-60 I’m used to, regardless of overall salary. Because Absolute Income is meaningless (unless you want to live your life working,) we need to focus on Relative Income. + +I’m not saying it's wrong to grind it out making the big salary while you can. But as we compare salaries and careers we’re really comparing apples and oranges. It’s easy to lust after those big numbers as we read them throughout this forum. But I suspect there are some overworked, overstressed, people behind those numbers who enjoy very little free time. And for some people they’ve lived that way for decades. Just something to consider. + +If you can achieve a healthy savings rate, allowing you to retire in under 15 years, yet work a low stress 40 hours per week, you’ve struck gold. Forget the uber rich in this sub throwing out ridiculous 6 figure numbers (but I am a little jealous of you sometimes.) + +If you can hit your “coast number” and find a way to still live well via working part time, you’ve struck a similar gold mine. Relative Income matters way more than Absolute Income. + +Just got off the phone with a very friendly but ultimately useless young chap at Sky who informed me that I couldn't access mining.bitcoin.cz as it and many other bitcoin-related sites have been blocked (and will be staying that way) in order "to prevent illegal activity, and comply with court orders" + + +I do not have the words... + + +*Edit: I live in the UK, though possibly not for much longer if this sort of thing keeps up* + +*DoubleEdit: Seems to be working ok now. My guess is that either they switched the filter on on our account for shits and giggles, or the site was blocked by accident and they've now fixed it.* +Hey everyone, + +My company is in acquisition mode and has been buying actively through COVID, but with interest rates increasing so significantly it looks like there may be serious financial pressure underwriting deals. What was a floating rate of 5% - 6% is starting to look a lot more like 9% - 10%+ with the way things are going. + +I'm curious how all of you are managing in this environment. For those of you who own companies or are working in M&A and are actively making acquisitions, how are you planning to manage the interest rate burden at your portfolio companies? Is this environment changing the way you underwrite deals? Are you reallocating capital from doing deals to repaying debt? +I’m 21 years old and plan to buy my home (multi family investment) within the next year. I haven’t been investing in my Roth because i feel that $6,000 is more valuable in a down payment/emergency fund at my stage in life. My question is, is it worth maxing it out once i have my home or start contributing now? +I (30, Germany) recently joined a company that offers a pension plan benefit. I contribute 4% of my base salary (pre tax) and the employer - 8%. That’s on top of the statutory contributions towards my pension plan. Payout is either lump sum payment or pension. + +Even though it doesn’t sound bad I am trying to evaluate it against ETF/stocks investments, also considering inflation etc. since we are talking about a 30+ years period. + +Any considerations & thoughts are highly appreciated, thanks! +I make about 95k a year and I currently share a car with my sister, I’m moving out in January and I plan to buy a used 2020 Accord Hybrid with around 30k miles. My bank will give me a loan with an 8% apr because my credit is relatively young and after taxes and fees the car will probably be around $27-$28k. Depending on my down payment, the car note will be between $380-$480 a month, should I continue with the purchase or is this a bad financial decision? +Hello, I am in the process of buying a home with my longtime girlfriend in a HCOL area. We will both be on the loan and title as 50-50 owners, however, I will be putting down approx. 66% of the 20% mortgage DP (20% down) and she will be putting down the remainder, basically because I can afford to put more down. We will be splitting all monthly costs evenly after we close on the mortgage. Also, if we sell the property, the current understanding is that we recoup our down payment costs and split any equity posts expenses 50-50. I have never gone into a huge capital purchase with a someone else (and I have never been married before). We have agreed to have a co-habitation contract that I would guess should include language on payment defaults, selling, etc. Any advice on this? (Much appreciated) +Make sure you take time for other things in your life. Limit your exposure to the market. + +I spent the majority of last year learning how to read charts, and I eventually got to a point where I was setting up price alerts that would wake me up in the middle of the night. Checking my portfolio would be the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing I would do before I went to sleep. + +I lived my life glued to charts and twitter, unable to get a good nights sleep for fear of missing out on profits, and had trouble giving other things in my life full attention with crypto always in the back of my mind. + +When my investments were down, I had anxiety. When they were up, I felt good. Don't let crypto dictate your life. + +I know a lot of people can balance stuff like this completely fine with the rest of their life and not have any issues, but I also know there's people out there right now that are just like I used to be. I'm writing this for you guys. + +Take a walk without your phone. Maybe go read a book. Play some video games. Uninstall Blockfolio for a couple days, or even completely. You'll be better for it. + +**EDIT:** I promise I will get to every PM. If you're dealing with something like this and need someone to chat with then please don't hesitate to PM me. +Let us first cover the elephant in the room: the Elon dump. Firstly, there were 19,259 BTC moved onto exchanges before Elon’s tweet and ensuing price dump. I do not think this is coincidence and was likely someone with insider information. + +Elon’s tweet regarding the energy use of Bitcoin at 6:06PM EST initiated a cascade of long liquidations, including $208M within a 10-minute period. This cascade of liquidations is why the price dump down to $46,000 was so aggressive. + +It’s very interesting to see inflows to exchanges (presumed selling) spike in the time before the tweet, followed by net outflows ramping up after the event. This data makes a strong case for someone having insider information. Would be quite a coincidence to say the least. + +Read more at https://pomp.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-bitcoin-when-elon +Let's say for example that each month I want to invest 500€ into VWCE, so I calculate how many shares that is, and currently it's around 6,6. + +Would you guys just round it up and send different sum each month to be able to buy full shares? If yes then it's pointless to set a reccuring monthly payment. +I get the fact that dividend companies (and thus dividend funds) pay out cash, because management sees no growth potential, so better to pay out. In contrast, a world index will contain more growth stocks. Therefore, in case of the latter you will see much more price appreciation, while in case of dividend ETFs less, but higher dividend payouts. I also get that if you have a small portfolio you have to grow it first to receive sizeable dividends. + +What I do not seem to understand is the following: why is a world equity index considered a better wealth accumulating ETF than a dividend paying one? You can use the dividends to buy further dividend ETFs, therefore achieving compound growth and build your financial nut. Yes, world indices also pay dividend and you can do the same, but yields are much lower. + +There are two reasoning I can come up with: 1. total return (appreciation + dividend) of a world ETF is generally higher than those of dividend ETFs, thereby you build your financial nut more quickly. 2. reinvesting dividends may be tax inefficient in some countries (where you first have to pay div tax). + +Sorry for the stupid question. I'm not trying to argue that dividend ETFs are better (in fact, I have IWDA). I just got a question from a friend which I couldn't properly answer and made me think. +Hi all, starting off saying this is a wonderful idea for a subreddit hopefully it will catch on! + +So, I graduated in the summer and I was lucky enough to find a job in September. I now make enough money to have a small sum to put on the side and I'm looking for the best way to save them/multiply them that is secure but perhaps also available to use in case of an emergency. + +I have an account with Lloyds and so far I've been transferring that small sum into the "Cash ISA saver" account that Lloyds lets you open online. + +1) Is this a good strategy? + +2) Is there something better out there? + +3) Is it worth worrying about pension plans? + +4) Actually does the UK do pension plans, my employer pretty much laughed in my face when I asked and told me the best pension plan is buying property and renting it out. + +I appreciate all the help guys, I hope the questions aren't too silly and worth your attention! +Hello, I am starting in the investment world. I have done my research to the point I got overwhelmed with all those ETFs out there.  + +I want to follow the most profitable, yet simple strategy. I could use your opinions on the following:  + +**Data** + +\- Country: France + +\- Monthly investment capacity: 1500 EUR + +\- Initial investment: 10k  + +\- Strategy: Long term 10 to 20 years + +**ETFs** + +Out of that 1.5k / month, I will be putting 500 each month towards bonds (or any safer option) and 1k inequities. + +I want only Ireland domiciled accumulating funds for tax porpuses. + +Two options: **iShares Core MSCI World UCITS** or **iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS** + +Facts:  + +* The TER is 0.20 and 0.07 respectively +* The S&P 500 had outperformed the MSCI for several % points each year. + +I am looking for the most profitable way to grow my money with ETFs + +Questions: + +1. Will I be good with only 1 of the above equity ETF? +2. If yes, which one? +3. Do I need more ETF in my portfolio? +4. Is there any better combination to achieve better profits? +5. If no, why I see people having 5 or more ETFs? + +&#x200B; + +Thanks for taking the time to comment.  +I am trying to compare two ETFs tracking MSCI World: + + +[iShares Core MSCI World (IWDA)](https://www.justetf.com/de-en/etf-profile.html?isin=IE00B4L5Y983) + +[Lyxor Core MSCI World (LCWD)](https://www.justetf.com/de-en/etf-profile.html?isin=LU1781541179) + +Both are accumulating with physical replication (optimised of course). The Lyxor one is new (inception 28th February 2018). The main differences are fund size and fees + + ETF Fund size TER + IWDA 13,319M 0.20% + LCWD 36M 0.12% + +Which one would you pick? + +* LCWD because of the lower fees. + +* IWDA because of the bigger fund size. + +* Both so you have issuer diversification (to reduce counterpart risk). + +Are there any other alternatives? + +----- + +EDIT: + +Following u/john1443's advice I am including [tracking differences](http://www.trackingdifferences.com/ETF/Index/MSCI%20World%20Index) (TD) in the comparison + + ETF Fund size TER TD Comment + IWDA 13,319M 0.20% 0.04 (underperform, since 2011) + XDWD 2,940M 0.19% -0.03 (overperform*, since 2015) + LCWD 36M 0.12% n/a (too new) + +Also included [Xtrackers MSCI World Index UCITS ETF 1C (XDWD)](https://www.justetf.com/de-en/etf-profile.html?isin=IE00BJ0KDQ92), which is the second biggest physical, accumulating ETF tracking MSCI World. + +\* Note that overperformance is [not necessarily a good thing](https://old.reddit.com/r/eupersonalfinance/comments/9af5or/msci_world_etf_iwda_ishares_vs_lcwd_lyxor/e4v5ysz/). +I was just looking at my DeGiro end of year report, and it is listing one of the shares I invested in as having been sold during the year and profits realised. I had not done anything with it, the stock just went through a 2:1 split and it looks like DeGiro did a sale and buyback to handle it. + +This is putting me on the hook for a sizeable capital gains tax payment next year. Am I liable for tax every time a stock split happens? +I've bought some ETF shares (via Degiro, custody account). Is there a way to receive a third party confirmation/certificate that I actually own these shares? Right now I'm basically taking Degiro's word for it. +Hello everyone, + +&#x200B; + +Well, the end of 2018 isn't the best for me. Learned about 10 days ago that my wife wants to divorce. In the following days she has already make contact with a mediator to help determine who takes what. + +&#x200B; + +To make the situation clear : + +We live in Belgium, Flanders, less than 5min by car from Brussels. + +We bought a house for 320.000 EUR, 4.5 years ago. We are paying 1455/month, 20.5 years left, fixed interest rate. + +As of today, we still have 280.000 EUR to pay. + +&#x200B; + +By talking with a real estate agent, I learned that, if I want to take her part of the house, the price would most likely be just reevaluated based on indexation, so about 340.000. 340.000 - 280.000 = 60.000, her part is 30.000. + +&#x200B; + +So, I have to make a new mortgage of 280.000 + 30.000 = 310.000 EUR. There is a possibility that if I don't change banks, I don't have fees (notaris etc.). + +&#x200B; + +My goal in this case if to contract the mortgage and try to rent the house. The real estate agent estimated between 1100 and 1200/month. (Not sure yet on the amount for the mortgage, rendez-vous is on 7 january). + +&#x200B; + +The other option, is to just try to sell the house, maybe we can get 350.000 from it. So we both would have 35.000. + +&#x200B; + +Now I'm quite hesitating on both options. + +In both cases, I would live for about max 2 years with a friend, all costs included are 450/month. + +I make about 2600/month, so even if I don't have a rent coming in, I can live normally, but with almost no-extra and unable to set cash aside. + +If rent is coming in, I can put 1000+/month on the side and/or live life to the fullest on some months. + +&#x200B; + +My thinking is, during 2 years, every month that goes by with a rent is an investment + the cash that I set aside. + +During this period, I can see how life progress, if I go in a new relationship, can sell the house or live in it again with someone, or even just take some time to figure where I want to live/buy an appartment. + +&#x200B; + +But, I'm wondering if the risk of not getting rent + fees / repairs etc, real estate fees (should I go with an agent or do it myself? etc.) is worth the fact that if I sell the house (how many months will it take ?) I'll have directly more cash. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +I'm just asking your opinion on the matter, I know nobody can tell me what to do in my situation, I'm asking for advice/experience from people. + +&#x200B; + +Thanks in advance for the read, +Hi peeps ! I thought I might pick your brains a bit. + +Context first: I'm in a very young but very fast moving relationship with someone, and we plan to move in together in the next months or so. We have discussed rent/spending allocations etc, the only thing is the car. I already own the thing and have gotten quite a bit dependent on it. I know a car is a financial black hole and the best decision would be to get rid of it, but I can't. + +We will live in Brussels, in a neighborhood where parking spots on the streets are rarer than GPUs today. No parking spots are bundled with our appartement sadly, but I can rent one for ~100€/month. + +There is a second option: buy a parking spot for around 20.000€ (it is also amazingly close to the appartement, closer than the renting one). The thing with the parking spot is: it is subventionned by the town and the contract locks me out of selling it for more than what I bought it for for the next 20 years (I can sell it, but at 20.000€ and will have lost money due to inflation). I can also rent it, but at a flat rate of 60€/month for those 20 years. + +Question is: is that investment worth it ? "Throwing away" 100€/month for renting would be cheaper probably in the sort run, but we are unsure of how long we would stay there (4 years minimum, at least of everything goes well in the relationship) and it feels like a waste + +Financial info on me: 24F, in computer science, salary of 2.200€/month. I have enough savings to buy the spot without borrowing from the bank (or I could probably borrow from family with 0 interest). + +Should I do it even with the weird 20-years thing ? Thanks for your feedbacks ! +Hey all, + +I'm a Swedish student studying in the Netherlands, and every month I get my student loan to my Swedish bank account. I realized that every time I transfer the money to my Dutch bank account I pay 12 euros in fees and the conversion rate is terrible. Does anyone know of a good way to transfer money without paying too much in fees? + +My PayPal account is registered in the Netherlands so I can't add money to it using my Swedish bank. Does Revolut or TransferWise allow doing something like that? +Crypto lending platforms like Nexo boast about having [collateral insurance](https://nexo.io/security) for retail deposits. Since they're offering 12% APY on Euro, it looks really tempting compared to my bank's offering. However, I do not understand any of the legalese in their description. Does anyone know if the insurance they describe [here](https://nexo.io/security) actually protects investors? +Hi All, + +I would like to understand if it makes sense to create a company to use as an investment vehicle. I still don't have clear what goals I can achieve in this way but they could be multiple: + +* take advantage of lower taxation on companies +* alienate some money from my person +* simplify my tax return + +Also, from what net worth makes sense to start doing something like the above? I mean, what are the management costs of such a structure? +I want to open an ETF account for my son, who is below 18, is there any legal way to do it? Or my best guess is to buy his ETFs and keep them in my account? Any suggestions on how I can separate them? + +I am based in Germany if that's important. +Hi all, starting off saying this is a wonderful idea for a subreddit hopefully it will catch on! + +So, I graduated in the summer and I was lucky enough to find a job in September. I now make enough money to have a small sum to put on the side and I'm looking for the best way to save them/multiply them that is secure but perhaps also available to use in case of an emergency. + +I have an account with Lloyds and so far I've been transferring that small sum into the "Cash ISA saver" account that Lloyds lets you open online. + +1) Is this a good strategy? + +2) Is there something better out there? + +3) Is it worth worrying about pension plans? + +4) Actually does the UK do pension plans, my employer pretty much laughed in my face when I asked and told me the best pension plan is buying property and renting it out. + +I appreciate all the help guys, I hope the questions aren't too silly and worth your attention! +Hi All, + +I would like to understand if it makes sense to create a company to use as an investment vehicle. I still don't have clear what goals I can achieve in this way but they could be multiple: + +* take advantage of lower taxation on companies +* alienate some money from my person +* simplify my tax return + +Also, from what net worth makes sense to start doing something like the above? I mean, what are the management costs of such a structure? +Source: https://www.edhec.edu/en/edhecvox/economie-finance/promises-and-perils-crowdlending + +--- + +* P2P platforms offer high-risk investments. +* If things go wrong - unlike with a bank, you can’t just ask for your money back. +* Stricter regulation is coming. +* Always do your research. +* Stay away from Funding Circle. +* If you are not certain, take financial advice. +* Happy Friday! +Contrary to occasional accusations, crypto discussion is not banned from UKPF. + +The rules are as follows: + +## NOT allowed: comments which violate rule 4, 'Responses must be high quality' + +Rule-breaking comments about crypto often: + +**1. Don't engage with OP's situation or goals at all +2. Don't provide any reasoning for their suggestions +3. Don't include any discussion of risk +4. Create a sense of frantic urgency to avoid missing out +5. Promise extremely high returns, or quote previous high returns as though it's inevitable they will continue** + +- + +As an example, in a recent post the OP asked: *'I've just won £20k. I plan to use £15k of it on various things. Is there any meaningful investment I can make with the remaining 5k to help me put a deposit in a house in a few years?'* + +It was actually a great post with a ton of thoughtful, engaged conversations. However here is a small (!!) sample of comments removed by the mods. + +* 'bitcoin' (x8) +* 'Buy some Bitcoin and sit tight' +* 'BTC, ETH, LINK' +* 'Throw it all on Crypto!' +* 'GME if you wanna be a billionaire' +* 'Buy BTC and retire in 10 years' +* 'Buy GameStop of cause 🚀🚀🚀' +* 'Amc invest all 20k the squeeze is coming' +* 'Cryptocurrency. Have a look into cardano, Ada' +* 'Put it in Bitcoin, and thank me this time next year 🚀' +* 'Buy Ethereum. Not financial advice' + +These are *not* high quality, helpful responses, and are not appropriate in this sub. If you post something along these lines we will remove it and ban you. + +#### Is the issue that the comments are too short? +While most offending comments do look like the short ones above, making a comment *longer* doesn't necessarily make it *high quality*. Examples of longer comments that still break the rules: + +* 'Give it to me, I know what to do with it! In all serious though, invest it, look into crypto, if you can do without that amount & let it sit for a few years then by some crypto and let the gains flow in' +* 'Trubadger with Reflection and air drops from every project launched this is not a rug pull project it is a seriously solid project that I believe will see exponential growth within a few years. I’d look at breaking it into 5 x $1000 investments and have a good look at Trubadger.io if your looking for an opportunity to make maximum dollars. Trubadger is about to launch Catabolt Swap and 3 more projects before Christmas. It captures my curiosity and I can’t describe my excitement of where this will go. DYOR.......I did and I’m invested!' + +(This last user was actually not a spambot, they're just doing a good impression of one for some reason). + +#### I only said they should look into it?! +Adding a disclaimer like 'not financial advice' or 'do your own research' does not make an otherwise rulebreaking comment okay. + +-- + +## What IS allowed: thoughtful, informed discussions and questions about crypto +Talk as much as you like about: managing tax, keeping records, those crypto debit cards, whether buying crypto works more like an investment or is purely speculative, what role crypto or meme stocks might play in a portfolio, what risks are involved in the crypto ecosystem, what WSB are up to now, etc etc. We love to see it! + +-- + +## The wibbly grey area: inaccurate, uninformed discussion and questions about crypto +We do *not* love to see it, but we don't tend to ban people for being wrong about something, whether it's about how stable 'stablecoins' are or about how ISA allowances work. + +If you see a comment about crypto or meme investing (or indeed any other topic) that seems sincere, effortful, and engaged, but *wrong*, we highly encourage you to take the time to reply to it to explain why, or at least downvote it. You are also welcome to report it. We'll review and may take mod action, especially if it is more towards the hype-y, YOLO FOMO end of the spectrum, or if it's a repeat problem with a user. +I'm at $1M right now, after 5 years. Gonna start spending a bit more on a nicer apartment. How much should I expect to see it grow? Obviously a bunch of things are out of my control, but I want to see what others have experienced. +Background: +26M +130k income +NW ~1.6M: 1.4M index funds, 150k retirement, remainder other brokerage/cash. +No other debt. + +There’s about 500-600k in capital gains baked in there that I’d like to avoid realizing. +Looking at using a PAL for the down payment on a condo or home for around 550-750k at 20% down w/ 30 year fixed on the remaining balance. Planning to use dividends/distributions for funds to pay down the PAL over a couple years. Does this seem like a reasonable idea? +Anyone use these to reach FIRE goals? Looks like they can be expensive. But, also looks relatively simple to create, self- administer, & self direct. Anyone goto this extreme to avoid finnicial advisor fees? + +Source law: 28 USDA 501(c)(4), Rev. Rul. 72-509, 26 cfr 1.40-1, and Rev. Rul. 74-466 +In the past video technology, such as VHS and DVD have become popular also due to the porn companies deciding to support these formats and bringing out their content on these formats. For years now porn has mainly moved to the internet and although there are enouh places where we can fap for free there are also enough people that pay for their content, be it videos or webcams or other forms of sex via the internet. + +If one of these companies would start accepting Bitcoins as payment I personally think Bitcoin would grow even more as the defacto payment method on the internet. + +Heck maybe we even can get some technical minds together to build a BTC based porn site ourselves? + + +EDIT: Well this blew up far more than I expected. Frontpage on /r/bitcoin, thanks! +As the title suggests, i really believe it’s no coincidence that this shakeout is happening just before Christmas. Everyone was expecting a pump, instead the market was dumped with only 8000 btc moving onto exchanges. + +The on exchange reserves of btc (and eth) keep dropping. Big wallets are buyng the dip. This to me says that this isn’t a true selloff, I think it’s the dump before the pump. + +If the big players aren’t selling , who’s left? The little guy. Retail investors like us. Psychologically it makes sense. People are more desperate at Christmas than most other times. Many newer investors overdid it and were depending on the pump to have extra money for Christmas. They are more likely to panic sell. + +People thought: Why not fatten the Christmas budget by riding the December pump? Everyone thought the pump was coming, it’s q4 the year after a halving! + +Tldr: since big money aren’t selling, i’m convinced they’re soaking up what they can of the remaining available liquid btc by scaring more easily frightened noobs and exploiting xmas desperation. + +Edit: metrics im refering to for those interested are illiquid vs liquid supply, balance held on exchanges, time spent holding, and activity seen in major wallets https://btc.com/stats/rich-list +Everyone of you know about lululemon, **why** did the stock price go up 100x from 2009? Because we like the stock, we like the girls, but most importantly we purchase the goods! More tight yoga pants = leads to more sales of more sheer tight pants, literally cannot lose. + +Support your company through buying their products. + + 🚀 Gamestop 🚀 - why buy games anywhere else? + +[https://www.gamestop.com/](https://www.gamestop.com/) + + 🚀 **Blackberry** 🚀 Cylance - protect your boomer parents from **clicking every link possible** on the internet and get the virtual corona, then call tech support in India and get scammed for $420.69 and then their credit card maxed out when they can buy another share of GME, or 30 shares of BB. + +[promos.cylance.com/](https://promos.cylance.com/en-ca/) + + 🚀 AMC 🚀 - fuck what can we do to help them out, cash infusion already done, can't go bankrupt. + + 🚀 NOK 🚀 - more below. + +**I think we have enough top level people watching this sub, where we can actually move stocks based on our preferences. Literally giving fundamentals where they weren't there before.** + +We at not all retard paperboys like myself who make $3.50 an hour, some of us are top executives who can decide to **switch** tens of thousands of our Cyber protection products from crowdstrike to Blackberry. + +We have the power **change** purchase location everything we play through gamestop and more depending on how papa Cohen directs this ship. + +We have the power to **hit** that AMC theater when it is available and make movie watching great again at AMC. + +I will even go as far to say that we have people here who can **decide** the fate of Nokia's 5G future watching this sub. + + +We like the STONKS! +I know most investors on this sub aren't gamblers but I'd still like to hear about any trades you really regret, got in/out of at a bad time, and the ones where you got really lucky or predicted accurately with a nice return. Let me know your best/worst trading experience. +http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roku-stock-rises-market-debut-1043973 + +>The video streaming device maker had late Wednesday set its initial public offering price at $14 per share, or a market value of $1.3 billion. + +>The stock of video streaming device maker Roku rose in its stock market debut on Thursday. It opened just after 10:35 a.m. ET at $15.78, up 12.7 percent. + +>About 10 minutes later, it was up 28 percent at $17.94. + +>The company had recently filed for an initial public offering and late Wednesday had set its IPO price at $14 per share, which raised about $219 million and made for a market value of $1.3 billion. + +>The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company, which makes TV set-top boxes and other devices, listed its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ROKU. Its filing have shown that Roku lost $42.8 million in 2016 on nearly $399 million in revenue, up 25 percent from 2015. + +>Roku, led by CEO Anthony Wood, has also disclosed that its users streamed more than 6.7 billion hours of programming on its platform during the first half of 2017, a 67 percent increase in streaming time from the same period a year earlier. + +>Since launching its first device in 2008, Roku has become a market leader for devices that help people stream content directly through their TV sets. Its set-top boxes and streaming sticks cost from $30 to $110. In addition, while it also sells connected TV sets, known as Roku TVs, through partners such as TCL and Sharp. + +>Roku has always given consumers the choice of which apps they want to download. The company says that Netflix accounted for about one-third of all hours streamed during the first six months of this year, but that revenue generated from Netflix was not material to its overall financial performance during the period. Roku does make money by sharing advertising revenue with some of the apps it carries. + +>Roku previously raised more than $200 million from investors such as News Corp, Viacom, Sky and Hearst. +#10:1 Index Plays for the X-Mas Rally + +Coming off of a similar correction this time last year lead us to a strong year-end rally. Tom Lee of Fundstrat sees this year being even bigger. These are 8 index positions that can be used to chase 10:1 returns. + +-XLY or XRT: Retail and consumer discretionary has been hanging out in a tight range since March '21. XLY is a better pick leaning into names that crushed last quarter and will likely do it again (TGT, WMT, MCD, LOW). XRT gets an honorable mention but it's more heavily weighted towards newer, growthier names like Etsy, Doordash, and CarMax, so I'm not as into it. That said, both will make great plays for the holiday season. + +Recommending XLY $205C 01/2022, costs $1.02 (XLY is currently $184.89), becomes a 10-bagger if XLY sees +16% by January (The period between September 25th and January 21st of last year yielded +20%, despite the market being shaky at the time). + +Comparatively, the XRT $100C 01/2022 (costs 3.3 at the time of writing) would require a *40% gain in XRT* to achieve that same 10-bagger. At best, you could try the XRT $110's (1.05) but that would still require a +27% move - That IV is no bueno. + +-SMH or QQQ: Semi's are a no-brainer here. We're about to have a bounce-back to ATH- that's most always driven by semi's. QQQ works too if you're a basic vanilla hoe. + +Recommending SMH $305C/$325C 01/2022 (costs 2.12), max return ~10:1 if the SMH can rise +19% before January. + +Of course if you're riding the Q's you can grab QQQ $410C/$425C 01/2022 for 1.48, offering a 10:1 return if QQQ can rise +13.5% by the new year. + +-DIA or XLF: I'm not huge into banks so I would be more likely to grab the DIA here, but if you're a believer that inflation is going to be more than transitory, you want either of these value baskets in your portfolio. + +Recommending DIA $375C/$390C 01/2022, payout ~10:1 if we get +10% out of the DIA. + +If you're more interested in banks specifically, you can grab the 01/2022 $40C for .94 and pray for a *31%* rally to $50 - which would be your (unlikely) 10-bagger. + +-IWM: #1 Component in the IWM is a dead movie theater company, so this makes a great put hedge in a long-biased portfolio. I don't think we're really correcting this year, but if we are, and SPY goes -10%, IWM is going waaay further. + +Recommending IWM $190P/$180P 01/2022. Costs $1.05, ~10:1 return if IWM drops -19%. + +-SPY: Last one and most obvious, but you HAVE to buy SPY OTM spreads on a dip like this. You'd literally be stupid not to. + +Recommending 480/490C 01/2022, payout ~10:1. That's a ten-bagger if we get 10% out of SPY over the next four months. + +The idea here is to have a portfolio that is both concise and diverse, using options that have a reasonable OI, high rate of return, and a reasonable probability of happening. If you were only correct about 1/8 plays, you would still be profitable. + +Tl;Dr: + +01/2022 Index plays for 10:1 returns in order of smallest to largest required price move: + +SPY $480C/$490C, +10% (Highly recommended) + +DIA $375C/$390C, +10% (Highly recommended) + +QQQ $410C/$425C, +13.5% + +XLY $205C, +16% + +SMH $305C/$325C, +19% + +IWM $190P/$180P, -19% + +XRT $110C, +27% (Not recommended) + +XLF $40C +31% (Not recommended) +THE RESULTS AREN’T IN YET…DON’T ASK… + +...Ok, now that that’s said…the official 2021 FI survey is now available and will remain open for responses until April 30. For those that are new here, this is a mostly-annual tradition for this sub. This post will be a bit long, so buckle up. + +***ALL RESPONSE DATA WILL BE RELEASED IN A SPREADSHEET TO THE SUB***. If you’re not comfortable with that, don’t take the survey. Whenever possible, identifying information (such as age) is obscured in ranges. The survey does not ask for location, username, email, or other unique information, so your privacy is reasonably protected. + +This survey asks for a lot of numbers. To completely fill it out, you will need to have the values of your investments, expenses, debt, and assets at hand, plus 2021 income and expenses. The expenses portion of the survey follows the Your Money or Your Life model, which includes *all* taxes as expenses. Savings are considered expenses for survey purposes as well. [Access the Preparation Spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11gPB1PkqhJdhlyQstm4x5SgZ8749rc1D2B0tftEBhR8/edit?usp=sharing) to get your numbers ready first. + +**Survey Instructions** + +The survey will take 20-40 minutes to complete, depending on how prepared you are with your numbers. + +Enter all annual information for calendar year 2021. Enter all point in time data (like account balances) as of December 31, 2021 (or as close thereto as you can get). Enter all amounts in current dollars (or your native currency). + +Remember that personal finance is personal. Enter your numbers as you interpret them, personally. If you really get stuck, I will be watching this thread and answering interpretation questions as able. Because personal finance is personal, some buckets may not be precisely consistent with your personal buckets. + +The survey is long, and asks for a lot of information. You can save your progress at any time using the "save and continue later" option in the top right corner of the screen. + +You'll be asked for the cost of living in your location, using [this listing](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_current.jsp). If you're on mobile, you'll want to determine that first as clicking through to the index tends to take you out of the survey. If your location is not on the listing, use your best estimate based on the listing. + +You can enter all "dollar" amounts in your native currency. Anywhere a question asks for "dollar" amounts, answer in your native currency. The survey will ask what currency you are using for your answers. + +Enter dollar amounts as a whole number, appropriately rounded. E.G. $32,594.56 is entered as 32595, with no commas. + +Enter percentages as a number, not a decimal. For example, 4% is entered as 4 (not .04), 20.5% is entered as 20.5 (not .205), etc. + +Symbols for dollars ($) and percentages (%) are not needed. + +The survey asks how many people contribute to your household finances, and thereafter your responses should include all assets, debt, etc. belonging to those people. You determine the number of people who contribute to your finances. If you indicate more than one contributor, you will be asked for demographic information for contributors 2 and 3 (it caps out at 3). + +Almost all questions are skippable; if a question does not apply to you or you haven't yet determined the answer, skip it. + +At the end of the survey, you will be asked for any comments on the survey. If you had issues with a question, please refer to it in your comments by the question number. Because the survey does not ask for identifying information, the survey team will not be able to follow up with you, so please be as specific as you can about the issue or difficulty you encountered. Please leave suggestions for next year in the survey itself (not on this thread, it's much easier to keep track of them in the survey responses) and be specific with your issue and solution. Comments like "there has to be a better way to ask this" are not helpful - if you want it asked a "better" way, you need to suggest a better way. + +**Now that you’ve read all that…** + +[Here's the survey link!](https://survey.zohopublic.com/zs/ziCzOg) +I currently work a physical job that I enjoy making $18 an hour. I was approached by a relative today about an open position in the company they work for that they felt I would be a great fit for. It is salary at 40k a year plus quarterly bonuses with typical 8-5 Mon-Fri hours. + +Pros of current job: + +* Hourly pay + +* I enjoy the company of my coworker + +* Physical work, I like moving around and it helps keep my weight down. + + +Cons of current job: + +* Early morning hours, usually starting at 5-6 am with up to a 2 hour travel time (jobs requires daily traveling to job sites) + +* Personal car is used during travel, but I am paid hourly and reimbursed mileage. I average 500 miles a week. + +* Due to hours and traveling, caring for my son is difficult, I have a live in babysitter to care for him while I am working since no daycares are open at 3-4am + +* Hours are inconsistent. We work until the work is done. Sometimes that means 6 hour days, sometimes that means 12 hour days. I average 35 hours a week. + + + + + +Pros of new job + +* Working close with laid back relatives + +* Bonuses + +* Office is around the corner so I can take my child to school/daycare and will no longer need a live in babysitter. I will also not potentially be hours away in case of an emergency. + +* 8am start time. Oh how I'd love to sleep in again lol. + +* Consistent pay since it is salary. Also would make 10k more than I did last year with base pay alone. + +* Potential to work from home + + +Cons of new job + +* Desk job + +* Leaving behind a career/company that I thought I would be with for a long time. + + + + +What would you all do? + + The prospect is exciting but I feel guilty for leaving my current company. I was told the new position is being held for me so if I'm interested I should put in my 2 weeks tomorrow. +I’m assuming not everyone has played the game as poorly as me. I fell in love with blockchain tech in 2020 and then decided to get risky at the top of this recent market. I’m not in an awful position but I am forced to consolidate into 3 of my most passionate chains and ride the HODL train. + +But I want to hear from the folks who have played the game well. Did you get in at 2015 and are you still way up despite the current bear? Did you get in in early 2021 and degen your way to glory and sell while the rest of us were sucking on the ‘Super Cycle/BTC to 100k by EOY’ hopium? + +I know there’s got to be a bunch of you out there who are comfortably in the green right now. I’m not looking for advice, I’m just more curious on hearing a TLDR of what got you up in the green. + +So out of the presented options. Do any of them apply? + +A) Did defi and did well + +B) Bought early, and still holding + +C) Rode a meme coin with good timing + +D) I bought low and sold high + +E) Actively trade. And doing well? + +F) I was already rich, bought a bunch of stables and still just as rich +Perusing down this subreddit, It's like watching crackheads looking for their next hit. + +"I bought XSPA yesterday and it didn't go up 100% overnight? Must mean its a pump and dump I'm bailing." + +"IDEX hasn't gone up in a whole three days wtf must be manipulation." + +Seriously y'all gtfo out of here with your FUD. + + Learn some patience people ffs. + +/rant +The best investing strategy is and will always be BUY and do absolutely NOTHING. You may hear stories of people trading their way to riches, but that only happens to less than 1% of people and my guess is their luck eventually begins to run out and they end up back where they started. + +People are trying to sell this short term top and buy back in on a dip may never get the opportunity and miss out on huge returns. + +Time in the market is better than timing the market. There is a reason most actively managed portfolios rarely beat passively invested ETF portfolios. + +Invest for the long term and not the short term. Don't make emotional irrational trades when your coin moves 20% in a day and panic sell. JUST DO NOTHING. + +Not only does this give historically greater gains, but it is a much less stressful strategy as well. + +\#HODL +This post is in direct response to: + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/t3rqfq/citadel\_still\_has\_no\_clothes/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/t3rqfq/citadel_still_has_no_clothes/) + +Consider it a corollary to the DD that u/atobitt has done. + +Initially I wasn't necessarily going to share this information, because it's not specific to GME, but... fuck it. Because fuck Citadel. Here's my theory on Citadel's business model. + +\--- + +We all know Citadel Securities is the Market Maker. A Market Maker's responsibility is tO pRoViDe LiQuIdItY. They buy and sell stock AND options to "make a market." + +We also know Citadel Advisors is a hedge fund. That means they raise funds into a pool, and use that pool to invest (in the case, in the stock market). Their "value" is their ability to devise a strategy, algorithm, trading platform, etc. that yields a profitable return (and the more profitable the return, the more successful they are as a hedge fund). + +\--- + +Now here's where it gets dodgy as fuck. Citadel also pays for order flow (PFOF). What does that mean? It means that they are the first ones to "execute" a trade. The idea is that they "skim" money between the bid/ask spread. In theory, it's like showing up at a used car lot, pulling the buyer to the side and asking them the max they'll buy. Pulling the salesman to the side and ask the lowest they'll sell. Then buying the car from the used car lot, and selling it to the buyer. Collecting a nice little fee just for showing up. + +&#x200B; + +**But Citadel doesn't give a fuck about profiting off the bid/ask. That's not their business model.** + +\--- + +Citadel uses PFOF in order to be the ***absolute first*** one to the party in order to have full information. They want to have the "god mode" of all the orders that are placed on the market. They want, in real time, complete and unfettered access to exactly what trades are being made, **and in what dollar amount**. + +Citadel uses the order book, the open interest of the options chain, and the options flow in order to plug into an algorithm to find out where a stock needs to go in order to make the most money from the options premiums. Why options premiums? Because options contracts have an expiration date. A stock HAS to move up or down (or not move at all) within a SPECIFIC time horizon, or else the contracts lose a dramatic amount of their value until they expire worthless. + +So what does Citadel do? They USE contracts in order to push the stock in the direction that they need it to go in order to make money. Let's say 1,000 traders all take positions on AMZN, and it turns out that AMZN needs to go up 5% in order to make money for CITADEL (and the majority of options traders will lose money by extension, as Citadel is the counter-party). + +So what will Citadel Advisors do? They'll buy contracts in order to leverage the stock in the direction they need. But they're greedy, they'll push it DOWN first (so that all the options traders that are long on calls get stopped out or sell at a loss), then when sufficient call holders jump ship, they'll send the stock up to the 5% they need. + +Citadel Advisors will BUY or SELL (long or short) ACTUAL CONTRACTS. They will USE DERIVATIVES (these options contracts) in order to move the market. Example, if you need the stock to go up, you use a shit ton of your capital to buy delta-hedged calls. These are ITM or close to the money calls. That way, a market maker (Guess who? It's fucking Citadel Securities) will "have" to buy a bunch of the stock in order to be delta neutral. This buying activity will send the stock up. Or down. Or whever Citadel needs it to go for Max Profit. + +Because Citadel is often times also the counter-party to options trades, that means they are casino. It would be like if every gambler in the casino played the roulette wheel and bet on red. Citadel would see the bet, and rig the roulette wheel to ONLY roll black. Then, a few of the gamblers get smart enough to bet on black. As soon as a bigger aggregate bet is placed on black, BOOM. Citadel rigs it to ONLY roll red. + +**THIS is why their holdings are almost all derivatives. They don't give a fuck if a stock goes up, or down. They don't care about longs or shorts. They utilize the Market-Maker wing in order to leverage the underlying stock, so that their hedge fund wing can print the most money.** + +This is also why they have such a big call position in TSLA. If you need me to spell it out for you, they don't give a FUCK about TSLA. They don't give a FUCK about Elon Musk. Before TSLA's prolonged short squeeze, a ton of traders piled into put contracts on TSLA, because everyone thought TSLA was going bankrupt. Naturally, Citadel was the counter-party of these put contracts, and they're not in the business to lose money. So what do they do? They load up on calls so that they can leverage their capital and push the stock upwards, so they can collect all the put premiums. + +Similar situation with GME. They don't give a fuck about shorting GME, they were just the counter-party to a Gamma Squeeze, and when they found out they were in a losing position... they did what they always do. They fucking cheated and rigged the game by calling up Vlad. They INHERITED the short position from Melvin. The thing is, they have more money so they can sit on their thumbs longer. + +Citadel's business model is "fuck you, pay me." +I am looking at Armstrong Flooring (AFI). The company hasn't made money in years and doesn't look like they will anytime soon. + +Their book value, though, is much higher than market cap. This mainly looks to be due to PP&E. + +The company continues to take on more and more debt and has significant pension/retirement obligations to take care of. + +What I am trying to figure out: + +Do companies that are shit at making money but have a book value that is much higher than market cap make good investments or is it better to just leave them be? + +Is there any reasonable way to know the likelihood of the company getting acquired? + +What I don't want to do is invest in this company and they not get bought and continue to just shit money down the toilet until they file chapter 11. + +I am very foggy in this area of investing, typically I like fast growers or companies that are fine but become undervalued do to some overreaction in the stock price because of stuff like a CEO sex scandal \*cough Activision Blizzard \*cough + +Anyone with experience investing in companies like this or have resources for this type of investing? +Please forgive my account age and my lack of karma. I only ever read posts on here and I lost my main account a little while back. + +I’ve been doing some reading and I think I understand the general principles and theory of investing. What I am having trouble with is finding stocks that are buyable at a bargain price. I feel like every stock has too much debt, or is a great company but is priced far higher than it should be. I try to use stock screeners (I know, screeners aren’t enough to find good companies) but my criteria which are usually a price to book of less than 1.5, P/E of less than 15, debt to equity less than 2, dividend yield of 2-8%, etc. tend to yield no results. Am I doing something wrong? + +My one theory is that companies tend not to offer a dividend, but I would be sad to hear that I have to find companies without them. + +I’d appreciate some pointers for a beginner on how to find a good undervalued company. Thanks for your time. +When asked where to look for equities, Buffest says to "Start with A". + +Canada has sedar [https://www.sedar.com/issuers/issuers\_en.htm](https://www.sedar.com/issuers/issuers_en.htm) where all Canadian stocks are listed in alphabetical order with direct links to all their filings. Not the easiest to navigate, but still allows one to go through all stocks from A to Z. + +Anyone know of an equivalent for US listed equities? I'm looking for to "Start with A" on US stocks. + +Thanks in advance. +T is still off more than 25% from pre-pandemic prices for what feels like an improving situation for them. Curious if people think that's justified or not? + + +My read is - their base revenue from pure phone/internet subscribers is safe, meanwhile they've been able to refinance all their debt at the record low rates from some previous mistakes (DirecTV acquisition). The only significant hit they would seem to have taken in the pandemic is Warner Bros studios shutting down for awhile and a delayed release of some movies, but that's very temporary and easy to make up. Their main competitors (Verizon, Comcast, Disney, Netflix) are all up in the pandemic - Why is T still down? + + +Plus, as a bonus (its not a significant percentage of revenue, but is very high profit margin) HBO Max launched at exactly the right time mid-pandemic and tripled projected subscriber numbers, mostly leveraging the old catalogue of content they already own (Friends, West Wing, Sopranos etc.) which costs them nothing for sticky, high profit customers + +Disclosure: I am long several hundred shares of T and a couple small long call options +I have recently learned that Monish Pabrai is investing in some Turkish businesses and I was interested in cloning a couple of them. However, Turkey's inflation recently hit 71% year over year. What generally happens to investments in countries with super high inflation? +Or is anyone else here just value investing so one day they can be the old guy working at Lowe’s just help young people with their house project questions? + +Thanks my dream. What’s yours? +I am not a believer of most US tech companies especially ones that has never had profits. Some of these that fell 80+% still doesn't seem cheap to me, I like high dividend paying stocks that still have potential to grow. Recently I have been considering weed stocks, and selling some uranium for oil stocks. My current portfolio is: + +Uranium producers (a bunch of developers not CCJ)- 47% + +Precious metals (gold, platinum, silver, SBSW EMX PLG) - 32% + +Chinese companies (huya, baba) - 14% + +shipping (ZIM) 6% + +I have a rental unit aside from portfolio, in the comments please let me know either what you think of mine, or let me know if there is 1 thing you'd recommend what stock/thing it is. thanks! +The news I find interesting and strong back for the company by Berkshire (Buffet) as holder. + +The stock price of KHC has dipped recently. + +The financials of the company looks bit off recently as well but are we expect a turn around on long term and should start DCA specially in the current price ?! + +The news: + +"Heinz Company (Nasdaq: KHC) ("Kraft Heinz" or "Company") announced today that after years of distinguished service Alexandre Van Damme, director nominee of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ("Berkshire Hathaway"), will retire from the Company’s Board of Directors following the end of his term. Berkshire Hathaway has indicated that it plans to nominate Alicia Knapp, President and CEO of BHE Renewables, to fill Mr. Van Damme’s vacancy at the Kraft Heinz 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders." +What stocks are on your radar this week? + +What's in the news that's affecting the market? + +Celebrate your successes, rue your losses, or just chat with your fellow Value redditors! + +Take everything here with a grain of salt! We suggest checking other users' posting/commenting history before following advice or stock recommendations. Watch out for shill accounts that pump the same stock all over Reddit, or have many posts/comments deleted in other investing subreddits. Stay safe! + +*(New Weekly Megathreads are posted every Monday at 0600 GMT.)* +Wondering about how many potential Lehman Bros we could find and if we always prescribe the extremes to every scenario. + +Their reported P/B is 0.04. +Thinking takeover, liquidation of assets, PRC bailing it out on the condition they clear house, etc. + +One last puff? +Obviously we are looking for specific companies that are wonderful and at fair prices. But what countries have you had success finding those businesses in recently? +Im new to investing and today I read crocs posted this in their presentation: + +**Share Repurchase Activity** + +During 2021, we spent $1.0 billion to repurchase 8.2 million shares of our common stock, including the impact of the Accelerated Share Repurchase share delivery in January 2021. At year end, $1.1 billion of share repurchase authorization remained available for future repurchases. In the immediate term, we plan to prioritize repayments of debt, including debt incurred to finance a portion of the HEYDUDE acquisition, and thus have suspended our share repurchase program until such time that our gross leverage is under 2.0x. We do not expect this to occur in 2022. + +**HEYDUDE Acquisition** + +The transaction is expected to close in February 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. As previously announced, the acquisition will be funded by $2.05 billion in cash and 2,852,280 shares issued to one of the sellers based on the average of the daily volume-weighted average price of our stock for the 20 days immediately prior to the signing date of December 22, 2021. To fund the cash consideration, we have secured commitments for and expect to enter into a $2.0 billion **Term Loan B Facility**. We also expect to borrow $50.0 million under our existing **Senior Revolving Credit Facility** as well as exercise the accordion provision on the Revolving Credit Agreement to increase the borrowing capacity thereunder by $100.0 million. + +&#x200B; + +Can please someone explain me what is "**Term Loan B Facility**" and "**Senior Revolving Credit Facility"** and comment if is it a good idea for a company to get this kind of debt? +There was this excellent thread[1] yesterday about 21st century's value investors. I like Mohnish Pabrai and am trying to take some inspiration from his portfolio(someone gave me a better source[2]) + +What about you guys? You can't possibly hold all, so which portfolio(or investor) is your favorite and why? + +[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/qjwn0m/who_are_the_21st_century_equivalent_of_buffett/ +[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/qjwn0m/who_are_the_21st_century_equivalent_of_buffett/hiu323x/ +Hey guys! I've been studying the theory behind DCF models and I got several questions: + +* How do you estimate future cash flows? +* What is the steady growth rate you use to get the terminal value of a company? +When i am trying to do DCF valuation, i don't get the idea of beta or market premium etc. But it is more sensible for me to do DCF like pricing bonds. + +So when you think (hypothetically) about buying an 1000$ asset and this gives you dividends(all the free cash flow) next years 100$ , 115$, 150$, 175$ and exit price of 1750$ (10x of FCF). After 4 years, if nothing change in economy, interest rate or industry, this is a high posible outcome which gives an annually %25,6 return to its investor. + +My question is what are the cons and pros of this type of relative valuation? + +Sum of my insights: + +1. Does not calculate intrinsic value. +2. Gives the annually return (not real return) if every thing goes well. +3. Good for comparison. +4. Exiting price is open for bias. + +What are your thoughts about it(especially negative ones)? +GM is trading at a ~4.7 forward PE ratio (5.5 current PE) and Ford Motors at a 5.7 forward PE (3.9 current). I'm trying to play Devil's advocate against my immediate "these look amazingly cheap" reaction, but am failing: +1) the semiconductor/chip shortages are eating into sales... But that is already priced into the forward PE. +2) forward ratios use estimates of future earnings... But by any measure those forward ratios are still pretty low +3) PE in the auto industry is lower than in other industries... But come on, sub 5 forward for GM?? + +Can anybody who studies the car industry more closely give me some insight into why their stocks are so darn cheap? At this price, they look like they have solid upside with very minimal downside (what, are they going to trade at a PE of 2??). Ford even pays a decent 3.3% dividend which further derisks things. +Would appreciate some value input on UPST (AI for smaller loans) at its current market cap of $9b as a 3-5 year hold. Anyone else checked this company out as a value buy as of recently? +This is a fantastic value play. But all the idiots pumping GME don't want to hear about it. + +Read this: [https://smallcappower.com/expert-articles/apollo-healthcare-canadian-manufacturing-stock/](https://smallcappower.com/expert-articles/apollo-healthcare-canadian-manufacturing-stock/) + +Or This: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/kcjqwh/deep\_dive\_into\_apollo\_healthcare\_ahcto\_the/?utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_source=share](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/kcjqwh/deep_dive_into_apollo_healthcare_ahcto_the/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) + +Basically it is that fair value is almost twice it's current shareprice. And we can probably expect it to start paying a dividend in the next couple years. Anyone buying shares around the prices this year will be very happy in 2 years. + +&#x200B; + +I am obviously long AHC +Let me preface my post with the fact that I have very little knowledge about mining/precious metal stocks beyond knowing that they are cyclical in nature, there is also an almost 1:1 stock performance correlation with the price of the metal in question (gold in this case), and also the likes of Warren Buffet don't seem to favor them since precious metals don't have any intrinsic value (in his own words: "gold just sits there"). + +Anyway, there's been a lot of chatter around how to best construct a portfolio in light of the crash that everyone is predicting because of interest rates in the US, money printing, and now Evergrande default's risk. A lot of people seem to favor commodities, including gold, as a potential strategy for investors. + +I went ahead looking for mining companies, especially gold, and came across the Canadian mining company B2Gold, see analysis below. + +**Fundamentals**: + +|Stock price|$3.62| +|:-|:-| +|Market Cap|$4.89B| +|Current Ratio|4.35| +|Working Capital|$0.57B| +|Long Term Debt|$0.06B| +|P/E ratio (using 3 years avg EPS)|11.83| +|P/B ratio|1.39| +|EBITDA|$1.35B| +|EV/EBITDA|2.86| +|EBITDA Margin|75%| +|ROIC|25%| +|ROA|20%| +|Dividend Yield|4.38%| + +&#x200B; + +* **Financial condition:** looks strong. Great coverage of long term debt with plenty of working capital and current ratio of 4. +* **Earnings:** had to go with EBITDA since I couldn't get good EPS data in the 10 years. There is EBITDA growth, albeit slow, in the last 10 years with the exception of two bad years in 2014 and 2015 (from $0.11B in 2011 to $1.35B in 2020) . EBITDA Margin up to 73% from 48% 10 years ago. +* **Valuation multiples all check out:** P/E of 11.83, or earnings yield of \~5%. EV/EBITDA is very low as well at 2.86. P/B is 1.39. All ratios are below the index averages for basic materials. +* **Return on Assets and Capital:** after rough years of little and even negative ROA and ROIC, since 2019 both percentages went up past 20%, which is optimal and above industry averages. So either management finally dialed in and put assets and money to work optimally here or the increase in gold prices played a major role in the returns, or both. Not sure. +* **Dividend Yield** of 4.38%, one of the highest in the industry. + +**Business outlook:** + +* B2Gold currently has 3 producing mines in Mali, The Philippines and Namibia. Another 2 projects in development in Colombia and Burkina-Paso and 2 exploration projects in Finland and Uzbekistan. +* Management indicated that due to strong cash position, and current high gold price, the dividend rate is expected to be maintained ($0.04 per common, quarterly). +* Five year average of gold production from 2021 to 2025 will oscillate between 930 Koz and 970 Koz for the three producing mines, and 50% of the production in Colombia starting in 2025. This does not include any additional expansions, projects in exploration, or additional profitability maximization. + +**Conclusion**: + +* **Worst case scenario**, but unlikely, production is maintained and future projects do not bear fruit. Stock will only become more valuable if price of gold increases, but with the dividend payout (if maintained) owning a stock like BTG could be better than investing in gold directly in the event that the price of gold rises or is maintained. +* **Best case scenario,** management does a good job at increasing margins while exploration projects come to fruition, which builds pipeline for 2025-2030. If we are betting on gold prices increasing this could be a great investment for the next 5-10 years to achieve a little diversification. Stock is incredibly cheap now, and still trading at below 2% of 52-week-low. And again, dividend is also a very nice plus here. + +If anyone here has experience investing or working in this industry I'd appreciate your comments and perspective on the above. Would you invest in gold directly instead? Why? +Just watched deepfuckingvalues (aka roaring kitty) YouTube video on his spreadsheets. He uses an API to automatically pull financial values into his spreadsheets base on the ticker. + +Was wondering if anyone else does this and if so how did you learn? Any video or resource recommendations? +Would appreciate some value input on UPST (AI for smaller loans) at its current market cap of $9b as a 3-5 year hold. Anyone else checked this company out as a value buy as of recently? +[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pc-shipments-plunging-consumer-demand-at-risk-of-perishing-in-the-long-term-analysis-finds-11657566344](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pc-shipments-plunging-consumer-demand-at-risk-of-perishing-in-the-long-term-analysis-finds-11657566344) + +"On Monday, research firms International Data Group and Gartner both released estimates of world-wide second-quarter PC shipments, and both show a double-digit percentage decline back to levels from before the COVID-19 pandemic launched a boom in computer sales. While Gartner characterized the drop as the “sharpest decline in nine years,” IDC told MarketWatch that “from a growth rate perspective,” it’s the worst drop their analysts have tracked since they started covering the PC market in the mid-1990s." + +"The discrepancy lies in Apple [**AAPL,** **-1.48%**](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AAPL?mod=MW_story_quote) : Gartner estimates Apple shipments rose 9.3% to 6.4 million units, but IDC tracked a 22.5% decline to 4.8 million units." ... "“What I will say is that based on IDC’s research, we heard that Apple was targeting higher volumes 2Q but due to lockdowns and worsening logistics their volume was below target and our preliminary research landed us at the 4.8M,” + +"“Consumer demand for PCs has weakened in the near term and is at risk of perishing in the long term as consumers become more cautious about their spending and once again grow accustomed to computing across device types such as phones and tablets,” Ubrani said. + +"IDC said this year’s second-quarter sales are similar to those at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when volumes for the second quarter of 2020 were 74.3 million, IDC said. PC sales boomed during the first two years of the pandemic [as consumers and businesses stocked up to work from home and use videoconferencing software such as Zoom Video Communications Inc.](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-pandemic-has-brought-the-personal-computer-back-to-life-with-help-from-zoom-11599316207)[**ZM,** **-9.53%**](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/ZM?mod=MW_story_quote) that taxed older computers." + +"Danley said that while AMD derives about 35% of its revenue from the PC industry, **90% of Intel’s sales come from PC and server segments**." +Ok. So I know the basics of stocks and I’ve been picking up more and more through reading posts on various subs. But do any of you have good resources to learn more about value investing? + +And before you suggest the intelligent investor, I would really love some updated, modern resources. I’m a visual learner. So videos really help. I’ve tried searching for videos on YouTube and looking for other resources online, but I’m afraid that I am running into a lot of people who are scammers or get rich quick people. + +So any suggestions on YouTube channels that are above board with good content especially around teaching how to value invest as in what to look for the really appreciated. + +I’ve tried reading some of the kind of classics of a value investing but I find them a bit of a slog to get through. So if there’s any kind of more modern book are you investing that summarizes value investing in what to look for would be really appreciated. Next line. The other thing is sort of a checklist of financial data that you look for to look for valuable companies and how to create valuations things of that nature would be awesome. Any ideas are appreciated thanks +When Warren Buffett was a teenager he used to go down to the racetrack and find peoples losing tickets they threw away. He knew that some people would make a mistake, and throw out a winning ticket. This was a “free lunch”. + +When I think of Net Net companies, this is what I think of. After all, if the company liquidated, you would still get your money back, if not a profit. Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much. + +But my fear is entrusting companies with bad management, even if they are cheap. What if they burn through the cash before they liquidate? +My question is, what sort of standard does a net net coming need to meet for you to invest? Do you still require a good management or underlying business. It’s not often you find Net nets, it’s probably impossible to find one with actual good management. +Hello from London, + +I am doing some value investing reading. + +I would like to get some ideas of what value investors do to ward against the emotional/psychological behaviours that hurt investor performance. + +Some of my rules: + +**1-** Only place basic market orders with my broker that go automatically at a fixed time each day. + +**2**\- Going through my checklist requirements. + +**3-** Not selling the stock for at least a whole year after buying it. + +**4-** Telling myself that "[I don't have sunk costs](https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy)". + +**5-** Not to get caught up by the quarterly earnings release game. Too much hysteria and commentary about a non-event. Its really for traders than long-term investors. + +Please let me know what are your ideas - or if you disagree with something I wrote. +I posted a while back about my situation, things haven't improved. I am on a payment play with the IRS for substantial back taxes. I have $80k+ of student loans that is only getting bigger, even after paying minimums. Credit card is climbing higher every week, I put off logging into my online bank account as long as I can because I dread seeing what the CC amount is now at. + +To top it off my dog needed an expensive operation that I couldn't pay for and I got physically ill over the thought of starting a payment plan with a vet for it. We were able to re-home him with a sweet lady from a church and she is taking care of him and paying for his operation. So I lost my dog, which makes me chuckle a little thinking of how my life has become a stereotypical country song. + +I sold my fiances engagement ring for a lot less than I paid for it, but it barely helped. We fight all the time and she has made comments that show she is very resentful of me, with good reason I admit. No one should have their ring taken back and sold because their partner cant take care of his finances. + +I make about ~30k and I don't have the means or any idea of how to increase my salary. So tonight, after adding everything up and projecting to the future I have determined I will never get rid of this debt and will never live a financially successful life. That being said I do not blame anyone by myself. + +I truly envy the posts of people that talk about maxing out their 401k for the year, putting huge down payments on houses with the only struggle being should I buy a bigger house with a smaller down payment instead. + +Please teach your children, brothers/sisters, friends how to handle money. Don't make it a taboo subject, especially with your children. Let them help you pay bills, balance a check book, etc. Warn them of stories like mine, of ignorant, useless people who ruin their lives because they never took the time to understand how to handle money. + +**EDIT: I did not expect this post to get as much attention as it did. Thank you for all of your comments, even if I cannot respond to all of them please know that I am reading every single message in my inbox. I truly appreciate all of the advice, criticisms, tough love, personal stories that are being posted. I know my tone here is very defeatist. I will work to change my attitude and fix my situation using a lot of the great guidance I have received from this community** +I was just presenting in a team meeting with software I'm unfamiliar with and when I clicked "share Screen" it just offered a bunch of chrome tabs to choose from. So, I'm clicking one, nothing happens on my screen. Manager goes "we can see your screen" at which point I already clicked the next tab and manager goes "now we can see your GME." I panick and try to switch screens and he says "I hope you moon. I'm still looking at my AMC chart." And I go "I'm glad I'm not the only..................... Weird person..........." Because I couldn't remember the word "ape" while in a panic mode +TL;DR: I just gotta find some more hobbies/fun activities to go after; I do believe that these kinds of activities will be more prevalent, now that my city is opening back up again. + +I’ve credited this detailed budgeting spreadsheet, that calculates a slew of different financial metrics that are good to keep track of. Currently, however, it assumes that everything that I’m able to SAVE (as of right now, around ~$30-31k per year), goes right into general savings, stocks/ETFs, Roth 401k, HSA (gross salary of ~$73k). The spreadsheet does NOT consider budgeting for fun things. And, unfortunately, that’s actually how I’ve been living my life since I started working full-time, as the pandemic shut everything down, and all I had was Netflix (I’m 25, single, finished my BS + MS back in December 2019, started my first full-time job out of school in January 2020, and then the pandemic came and f’d us up… I have around $76k saved up right bow, in the aforementioned savings-vehicles. + +Overall, I’ve just been throwing all of the money I have left over after I’ve taken care of my necessary expenses, into the aforementioned savings-vehicles. It’s safe to say that it’s been a boring 18 months! + +Have y’all felt the same thing, at all? I’m just fortunate I’m able to save so much, it’s just been pretty boring in the process. +Hey there! Not sure if this is the right place to go, but: + +LG were executors of the estate, so they purchased an “investment property” for me, which they are now trying to sell. If I want it, I can have it for 123k, and my LG swears that I will “regret missing out on this”. Oh, and I’ll get the money they borrowed back when they pass away. + +Realistically? I can’t do this, unless I live there. And I’m not going to pretend that Ocean City, Maryland is going to have some crazy job opportunities for me....it’s a tourist spot. I did scope out Craigslist for jobs, but most of the ads were for seasonal work. + +My current situation: working full time for 40k, have a few months’ expenses in an E.F., and a little bit invested through Stash. 11k in student loans, which I expect to be fully paid off by next year, as I have a 529 and am contributing on my own. $600 credit card debt. About 50k of inheritance which is invested w a financial advisor. + +So the questions: +1) is this even feasible for someone in my situation? I just got into the whole Stash thing and “grabbed the reins” w my spending and finances and such. +2) is this truly the deal I’ll hate “missing out on”? I can’t figure out where to look this up, but I thought I read OC was going to be underwater in the next 15-20 years. +3) what’s the legality w how they bought the condo in the first place? I plan on requesting the 10k back once they sell the condo — I’m one of 7 kids and would rather not wait until they’re both gone to resolve that. I’d like to trust them, as I have pretty much forever, but my older brother had some suspicions about them mismanaging things, and I know people can be different when money is involved... + +EDIT: I’m not sure if this relevant, but they also took 10k from my younger brother for this transaction. He has since passed away, and I received his money. Is that just gone now? Or would that be owed to me as well? + +UPDATE: I’m asking that upon the sale I'd like my original $10k plus either the proportionate appreciation in the property or interest, whichever is more. I attempted to bring it up with my mother today, who said that I can’t receive the money because they will be moving to FL and need it -_-. I will be bringing the subject up again tonight while we’re all at dinner, as that answer is unacceptable. +Facebook parent [Meta](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/META/) reported earnings after the bell. Here are the results. + +Earnings per share (EPS): $1.64 vs $1.89 expected, according to Refinitiv + +Revenue: 27.71 billion vs. $27.38 billion expected, according to Refinitiv + +**Wall Street is also watching other key numbers in the report:** + +Daily Active Users (DAUs): 1.98 billion vs 1.98 billion expected, according to StreetAccount + +Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2.96 billion vs 2.94 billion expected, according to StreetAccount + +Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.32 expected, according to StreetAccount + +Facebook’s parent is contending with a broad slowdown in online ad spending, challenges from [Apple’s](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL/) iOS privacy update and increased competition from TikTok. Add it up, and Meta is expected to post its second straight quarter of [declining sales](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/27/facebook-parent-meta-earnings-q2-2022.html). + +Although Meta is investing heavily in its Reels short-video service to steer users away from TikTok, the product is in the early days of generating revenue and isn’t as lucrative as Facebook’s core features, like Stories and the newsfeed. + +Meta is trying to make Reels more attractive to advertisers and has announced new ad formats intended to give businesses enhanced options for promoting their products through short videos. The company also recently [debuted](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/04/facebook-is-selling-ads-in-new-places-on-instagram-and-whatsapp-.html) new ways for companies to advertise on Instagram and Messenger, padding its overall ad inventory, which could potentially bolster overall sales. + +Still, the stock is down 62% for the year, more than double the drop in the Nasdaq, and analysts are skeptical of the company’s prospects through this year and into 2023. + +Bank of America recently downgraded Meta from buy to neutral and said in a research [note](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/24/bank-of-america-downgrades-meta-says-lower-ad-spending-could-hurt-reels.html) that “we expect advertiser budget cuts in early 2023 to weigh on sentiment and drive added uncertainty” following the Apple update and the “Reels transition.” The firm said it expects 4% growth in 2023, below Wall Street estimates of 9%, and sees “some downside risk to our estimates in a recession.” + +Investors will also be focused on Meta’s user numbers, which have stagnated. Most concerning are the user figures in the U.S. and Canada, its biggest region for revenue.   + +In the second quarter of 2022, Meta counted 197 million daily active users in those two North American countries, down from 198 million in the same quarter in 2020. + +Meanwhile, Meta is investing billions of dollars a year into the metaverse, the yet-to-be developed digital universe that people can access with virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. + +Earlier this week, Meta shareholder Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital wrote an open [letter](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/24/altimeter-capitals-brad-gerstner-calls-on-meta-to-slash-headcount.html) to Meta, lambasting the company for employing too many workers and spending too much money on the metaverse. + +The firm recommends that Meta reduce its head count by 20% and trim its metaverse investment to a maximum of $5 billion a year. Meta’s Reality Labs unit [lost](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/meta-reality-labs-reports-10-billion-loss.html) more than $10 billion in 2021. + +“Meta needs to re-build confidence with investors, employees and the tech community in order to attract, inspire, and retain the best people in the world,” Gerstner wrote in the letter. “In short, Meta needs to get fit and focused.” + +On Tuesday, [Alphabet](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL/) reported weaker-than-expected results and said [YouTube advertising revenue](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/youtube-shrinking-ad-business-ominous-sign-for-online-ad-market.html) dropped 2% from a year earlier to $7.07 billion in the third quarter. Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, said the decline “primarily reflects further pullbacks in advertiser spends.” + +Source: [https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/26/facebook-parent-meta-earnings-q3-2022.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/26/facebook-parent-meta-earnings-q3-2022.html) +Finally, a transparency move - See CDC CEO twitter feed (@kris) as of an hour ago. Retyped below: + +--- +'We share the belief that it should be necessary for crypto platforms to publicly share proof of reserves and crypto.com will be publishing our audited proof of reserves' + +'This is a critical moment for the entire industry. Transparency is more important than ever, and safety and security of users and funds remains the priority. It requires full and collective commitment.' + +'Restoring trust in our category will take time, but it's incumbent on us to send a strong message to the world that there are trustworthy crypto platforms.' +--- + +Applause from me on it anyway. +Long post here, I'm just going to spill it all out and try to be as organized as possible with my thoughts. + +**About me:** + +* 27 years old : Still living with parents. +* Single +* Went to 2 "for profit" colleges getting a useless associates and a 3D art bachelors. +* Moved out of state for 2nd college, and lived entirely off of loans for 3ish years. +* Over those 3-5 years, the gaming / film industry has started seeing corruption in outsourcing majority of their jobs across seas. Rendering me with a useless degree until my skills are at godsend level or I get really lucky while networking. (Don't ask to see my portfolio, I'm going to get enough shit from my bad financial decisions to get shat on more on my work) +* It's been roughly 2 years since I graduated, spending about 10 months unemployed and looking for work. +* I work at a job that's "Somewhat" related to my field making around $34,000/year. I also do part time 3rd shift at a job at a hospital making about $12 an hour. +* I'm trying to find a 3rd source of income and I keep jumping around between ideas. Do I code an android app and hope for the best? Do I make funny youtube videos and hope for the best? Do I write a shitty book and hope for the best? I am constantly trying to learn new skills that could help me knock out a good portion of these loans. + + +**My Debt** + +Everything should be summed up in these screenshots. + +http://imgur.com/a/REz2Y + +* The first 3 images are from Sallie Mae and the last is from Wells Fargo. +* As you can see, a majority of these loans are private. +* I'd really like to know what is going on with all these different little interest rates for little loans on the Sallie Mae side. +* As you can see, it is literally impossible for me to make even reach a minimum payment. +* My parents Co-Signed most of my way through these loans. +* I'm not in default status, but at one point I have received a threat letter for almost being set in default. My parents once again came and saved the day and made a generous donation to them. + +**My Bills** + +* About $330 / month on my leased car +* About $100 / month on car insurance +* I currently have no health insurance, I NEED to get it by march though due to the "affordable" health care act. +* About $50 / month on phone +* About $150 for gas & random expenses +* The rest of what I got is split evenly among Sallie Mae and Wells Fargo, maybe $500 each a month? +* I'm obviously not reaching the minimum payments required by them, but I'm literally clearing out my bank account monthly to these companies in good faith to show that I'm at least making an attempt. + + +**Yes, I get it** + +* I'm dumb for spending so much on an art degree +* I should move out of the country +* My parents should be ashamed of me for dragging them into this hell with me. +* I suck at budgeting +* Death is the only way out + +I've contemplated suicide too many times over this, so I guess that's a plan B. I just want serious, constructive feedback on what I can do to start tackling this monster. I've been in very high spirits the past month and I'm motivated to come to a reasonable solution. I knew right from the beginning that I would be in a lot of debt, I think I am just running in horrible luck as far as the job market goes. I'm working on that. + +**Future Plans** + +* I want to get a cheap apartment, being 27 and single for over 6 years because of this ordeal is chipping away at my sanity. +* I want to save +* That's basically it, I can worry about my retirement plan later in my 30's or 40's.....I have to.... + + +**Options I'm Considering** + +* Consolidation - This may not be an option for me, I think it's mainly for federal loans and not private. I also believe that consolidating would require me to take out another loan, requiring a co-sign again. I do not wish to dig my parents in the hole more than I already have. +* Bankruptcy - I don't know enough about how this works, I think I would need to speak to a lawyer. +* Repayment change - I considered this, but I figure that this would double my overall balance by the time its done. +* Deferment due to economic hardship - This just delays the inevitable. +* Forbearance - This I believe would require me to bring the balance to current, which is kind of impossible for me at the moment. Again, this just delays the inevitable. +* Income Based Repayment - If I do this with Sallie Mae, I'd have to do the same with Wells Fargo separately, I'd imagine that to still take up as much money as it does now with what I pay (shrug). + + +I wish I never went to college. I'd rather be broke than be in debt. It's already said and done though, so I'm ambitious to find out what I can do to both please my needs, and the needs of the puppet master. + +Thank you for reading my sob ass story, and thank you in advance for your advice. :) + + +**Edit:** I'd like to add to the "I get it" portion. I get it, I'm spending too much on my car. Just add that to my list of dumb mistakes to which I'm now aware of and will remember this rude awakening I got from you guys to buy used. My main reason for this post is to try and get options on how to deal with these loan companies so I don't end up dying a debt slave. Apparently Income Based Repayment is only for federal loans, and that only takes up about 1/4 of my total loans, what can I do about the rest? + +**Edit:** I'm trying to respond to each of you guys, I didn't know this post would blow up to this extent lol. Thank you all so much for all of your input, I'm so grateful I discovered this website because my solo research on this matter has been quite slow. You guys are so awesome! + +**Edit:** For future responses, let me reiterate that I am not actively suicidal. Thank you all for you're kind comments regarding this, though they are unfounded. I only mentioned this just because it crossed my mind quite a few times. I was trying to just give you an idea at how much this situation is stressing me out. Again, thank you all for your support and advice. I've gotten more good advice on this thread alone than I've ever gotten in the past years from research and consult from banks and relatives. I am eternally grateful to everyone of you that posted here. I will give you all an update in the next couple of months to show you my progress. :) + + +Listen up degens. This is important. + +[cohens 🍦 tweet](https://twitter.com/ryancohen/status/1364650709669601289?s=21) + +Cohen tweeted out this cryptic tweet of McDonald’s soft serve ice cream yesterday. + +If you go to this website and scroll down to fun facts about chewy you’ll see that chewys first ever board meeting consisted of two slides AND A TRIP FOR MCDONALDS SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM. +[chewy’s first investor site](https://www.volitioncapital.com/news/portfolio/chewy/) + +CFO IS FIRED, COHEN IS CLEARLY DOING SOMETHING BIG, CEO? FINALLY REVEALING THE PLANS FOR GME? + +I don’t know BUT THIS IS BIG. 🚀 + +Edit: scroll down in comments for possible explanation of toad being linked to an old GameStop meme. Give that man some upvotes. +Gary Gensler has settled his FTD on the GameStop report before the T+35 deadline. Direct Link - [https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf](https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf). While there are no immediate calls to action, there are hints at what GG is working on, and I was pleasantly surprised at the level of detail and actual substance the report contained. I don't want to jack my tits too hard over it, but I am more hopeful after reading the report that the regulators may actually do something. I recommend reading the report when you can, but want to highlight some of the best things I found. + +&#x200B; + +**TA/DR - The "Gamestop" report provides data and insight into GME's Jan trading, and while the report does not outright state this, looking at the information it is clear the shorts did not close in Jan, and a large short position likely is still held by Citadel.** + +&#x200B; + +I am not a financial advisor, this post is not financial advice. I will rely primarily on the SEC report to share what I deem as important information, and will specify what is my personal opinion/speculation where applicable. I'm not going to summarize the entire report, just things that stuck out to me. Again, I recommend reading the report first before reading this post so my opinions/speculation don't cause bias before you read things directly from the source - [https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf](https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf). Buckle up, it's time for the tea... + +&#x200B; + +The SEC is well aware GameStop was heavily shorted. A quick Ctrl+F on "short sell" shows 38 hits. Ctrl+F on "short" has 158 hits. Ctrl+F on "short interest" has 48 hits. While to me the congressional hearings on GME seemed more like political theater than anything material, this report does have substance. There are mentions of short interest in terms of float, and shares outstanding. Do not confuse these terms, and I have a suspicious feeling the shills will be out in full force in an attempt to sway the narrative here. Because the report uses both terms, it is not always easy to trace back what SI they are referring to, so I want to start there. Starting on p. 22 - + +&#x200B; + +>Some institutional accounts had significant short interest in GME prior to January 2021. GME short interest (as a percent of float) in January 2021 reached 122.97%, far exceeding other meme stocks. Through most of 2020, GME’s short interested hovered around 100% as a percentage of public float. + +&#x200B; + +While almost 123% of the float being reported short in Jan 2021 is high, the report notes that short interest of total shares outstanding on Dec 31 2020 hit a high of 109.26% (p. 24). For reference, GME shares outstanding on 12/31/2021 was 65.147 million, meaning on 12/31/21 there was a *reported* short position of 71.2 million shares. To further highlight point, the report states on p. 25 - + +&#x200B; + +>Until recently, short interest of more than 90% was observed only a few times—in 2007 and 2008. When examining short interest as a percent of shares outstanding, GME is the only stock that staff observed as having short interest of more than shares outstanding in January 2021. + +&#x200B; + +IMHO, this is where the report really starts to get interesting, as on p. 26 the SEC notes there was some short covering, but it was only a small fraction of the buying - + +&#x200B; + +>Figure 6 shows that the run-up in GME stock price coincided with buying by those with short positions. However, it also shows that such buying was a small fraction of overall buy volume, and that GME share prices continued to be high after the direct effects of covering short positions would have waned. The underlying motivation of such buy volume cannot be determined; + +&#x200B; + +[Figure 6, p. 28 of SEC GME Report](https://preview.redd.it/urt9yxh3yau71.png?width=1602&format=png&auto=webp&s=3bfc6ca244ea30c7170fbd85015823b4afe46a17) + +Now, I could not find the actual data the SEC used to make this chart, but giving my best estimation through just looking at this graph, it seems like only 1-2% of the buying volume in late Jan was part of short covering, and when the buy button was turned off, there was very little short covering. I speculate instead of closing shorts, Citadel and others added shorts prior to and during the "PCO" buy button removal, as highlighted by the recent lawsuits filed in the southern district of Florida. For more on the lawsuit, see this post - + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ptvuq5/citadel\_never\_closed\_highlight\_from\_class\_action/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ptvuq5/citadel_never_closed_highlight_from_class_action/) \- credit to u/bosshax + +Since I can only eyeball this, I will try and be conservative, but to my eye it looks like 20-25 million shorts closed based on this graph. Considering the 71.2 million shares sold short going into Jan, I'm going to say 26.2 million shares were covered to be safe. This means, after the unprecedented removal of the buy button, 45 million shares were still shorted. This does not include any new short positions that were opened prior to or during GME being "position close only" by many brokers. I think this clearly shows, without a doubt, the shorts have not closed! More on this later. + +&#x200B; + +The next section of the report highlights how ETF's were also likely used to short GME, with a dedicated section specifically referencing the XRT, with a shoutout to Reddit, starting on p 29 - + +&#x200B; + +>Finally, as discussed above, the volatility in GME impacted some ETFs due to their holdings in GME, and potential short interest in the ETFs themselves. The most notable of these was XRT, an ETF of retail companies. XRT garnered attention in the press and on Reddit due to a combination of its GME exposure and its pre-existing short interest, which was several multiples of XRT’s shares outstanding.82 As GME increased in value, price changes in XRT became increasingly driven by those of GME. Shorting XRT could have served as an indirect, though imperfect, way of shorting GME. In fact, staff observed a large spike in net redemptions of nearly 6 million shares in XRT on January 27, which may be consistent with short selling activity. 83 This redemption activity was generated nearly entirely by ETF market making firms. It therefore was likely the result of net selling of XRT by market participants against market makers (e.g., market makers buying from investors selling short) where the market makers, rather than offsetting those purchases, subsequently redeemed the XRT shares from the ETF sponsor for shares of the underlying stocks. + +&#x200B; + +This leads into the role of dark pool and off-exchange trading. I had to read this part several times to wrap my head around what to infer from the report and understand the graphs provided. The SEC states on p 35 - + +&#x200B; + +>GME trading in January 2021 shifted the prevailing distribution of GME equity executions across venues. Specifically, the proportion of off-exchange activity initially rose as individual investor activity increased, then fell as volatility increased... An increasing percentage of volume executed on exchange when volatility spikes may indicate that market participants, including wholesalers, are seeking to avoid internalizing customer orders to reduce potential losses when hedging becomes more difficult. + +&#x200B; + +[ “TRF” refers to the Trade Reporting Facility for the reporting of transactions effected otherwise than on an exchange. i.e. Dark Pool &#37;](https://preview.redd.it/1pb9vja03bu71.png?width=1625&format=png&auto=webp&s=2ca659baa383389c45e8a6d2c6c40af918fd4fb7) + +Now, while the SEC states volatility lead to an increase in on exchange volume, that increase is largely referring to exchange volume NOT on the NYSE where GME is listed. The SEC also believes this was the result of hedging activity. I respectfully disagree, as I believe during the last week of Jan, Citadel was using other exchanges to further short GME, and since retail for the most part was kept out of the market, there was no need to "hedge". As highlighted by u/Bladeace, there is evidence Citadel used multiple market centers such as CBOE (Edgx) and NASDAQ combined with their market making privilege to [make a market for itself and shuffle FTD's](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nc1h4o/findings_from_my_analysis_of_605_data_huge_short/) while further shorting GME. Moreover, u/Wallstreet_Owes_Me has highlighted [Citadel's connection to the CBOE](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ox93kt/citadels_connection_with_cboe_global_markets_and/) that raises further suspicion CBOE could help facilitate further manipulation through the EDGX and BATS exchanges. Like Citadel, the CBOE also has a history of wrongdoings, highlighted by u/Lunarnautics post on the [CME Group and Citadel](https://www.reddit.com/r/Autisticats/comments/ojrh8x/chicago_mercantile_exchange_cme_group_and_citadel/). Below is a chart highlighting the changes in exchange volume from 2020. Note MEMX and EDGX are both CBOE owned - + +[Credit to u\/jsmar18's post - https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Superstonk\/comments\/p661bf\/exchange\_volume\_analysis\_over\_the\_past\_6\_months\/](https://preview.redd.it/6g8cotz1tbu71.png?width=1218&format=png&auto=webp&s=7974b5182c4051ea936374a41ecfa50213c6089c) + +&#x200B; + +The last section of interest in the report dives into the options trading in late Jan. The report does not touch on potential abusive or manipulative option trades, rather, it makes the point the SEC does not believe the Jan "sneeze" was driven by a "gamma squeeze" as shown on p 42 - + +&#x200B; + +>Theoretically, a large number of call options written could have contributed to further increases in the price of GME. If market makers purchased GME stock to hedge the risk associated with writing call options on GME, it would put further upward pressure on GME’s stock price. However, as discussed above, staff did not find evidence of a gamma squeeze for GME during January 2021 in the available data. See supra Section 3.4. + +&#x200B; + +[SEC report highlighting how options volume was skewed towards puts, not calls in JAN](https://preview.redd.it/e2d2uidovbu71.png?width=1485&format=png&auto=webp&s=be71bb32abe05806af9a7b8aa9b7324025c4d114) + +I believe GG and the SEC intentionally tried to avoid diving into too many details regarding options and the known manipulative strategies associated with nefarious option trades. Calling back to the earlier point that at the end of Jan, it appears at a minimum 45 million shares remained short, yet reported short interest dropped well below that threshold, as shown in Fig 5 - + +[I cannot reconcile this drop with data provided in Fig 6 - Buying Activity](https://preview.redd.it/p85w0ek5ybu71.png?width=1575&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf6718da9ee074fe9fc3016fb707158e9eff0ae5) + +Perhaps this means there will be a follow up report with actual actions against bad players? I have a feeling some of the incredible work [u/broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa/) has done, such as [highlighting married puts and FTD's](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvdgf5/the_naked_shorting_scam_in_numbers_ai_detection/), might be used as evidence, but this is speculation, I digress... + +&#x200B; + +**Which leads me to my favorite line in the entire report, buried in the middle starting on p 30 -** + +# While a short squeeze did not appear to be the main driver of events, and a gamma squeeze less likely, the episode highlights the role and potential impact of short selling and short covering. + +&#x200B; + +**I MIGHT NOT BE THE WRINKLIEST OF BRAINS, BUT THAT SURE SOUNDS LIKE THE SEC IS SAYING THE SQUEEZE HAS NOT SQUOOZE!** + +&#x200B; + +But wait, the good news doesn't end there! If there was ever any doubt as to how many apes are in the wild, the SEC report shows at a minimum about 900,000 unique users purchased GME in Jan on a single day! Now, not all of those users were 💎🖐 (sorry Portney), but just looking at the shear number of individuals trading GME in Jan I think it is safe to assume well over 1 million apes are lurking in the wild, and given this saga is turning 1 year old soon, it's logical to think many more apes exist now than there were in Jan. + +[ January 27, the number of unique accounts trading GME on a given day increased from less than 10,000 at the beginning of the month to nearly 900,000 ](https://preview.redd.it/x2fivwm30cu71.png?width=1589&format=png&auto=webp&s=5164be7f2aae8794f9ae1804ea6c64a911159e92) + +&#x200B; + +To further validate the number of apes is now in the millions, I want to highlight p 43 again - + +&#x200B; + +>In mid-January, individual customer accounts reached a peak of 91% of the non-market maker volume in options. + +&#x200B; + +Assuming "Mid Jan" is referring to Jan 11- Jan 22, it appears from Fig 12 (from above) around 6 million contracts traded during that time. At 91% of the volume, that means retail traded around 5.5 million contracts, again supporting the thesis more than one million apes jumped into GME at the start of the year. + +&#x200B; + +One final point I want to highlight before wrapping up was the report specifically calling out certain brokers on p 43 - + +&#x200B; + +>Individual customer accounts made up a high percentage of options trading in GME during this time. A small number of retail brokers facilitated this activity, with three brokers (Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, and E\*Trade Securities) representing over 66% of individual customer accounts trading GME options.120 A small number of retail-focused online brokerages had the majority of volume from individual customer accounts, with Robinhood and TD Ameritrade alone accounting for over half of this volume. + +&#x200B; + +Now, this could just be a coincidence, but I find it interesting that the brokers listed here are the same brokers that are struggling to perform DRS transfers, or outright denying the requests (Robinhood). Pure speculation here, but perhaps these brokers really took a hit in Jan and left themselves with open short exposure after the Jan sneeze, partially due to options being exercised. They were able to carry that exposure all the way until the great Ape DRS migration to computershare, but now find themselves in an even more difficult situation. I've stated this before - I believe there will be broker failures during MOASS, and now believe Robinhood, Etrade, and TDA will be the first ones to fall. I recommend taking some time to understand how SIPC insurance works if you haven't yet, and I wrote a post recently [as an overview of SIPC](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/q3hjjs/hope_for_the_best_prepare_for_the_worst_an/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) that might help. + +&#x200B; + +I don't want to overshadow what the SEC has done, so I will simply add their conclusion to close things out. I was pleasantly surprised by this report, and have a newfound hope the regulators may actually be looking out for retail this time. Time will tell... + +&#x200B; + +>The extreme volatility in meme stocks in January 2021 tested the capacity and resiliency of our securities markets in a way that few could have anticipated. At the same time, the trading in meme stocks during this time highlighted an important feature of United States securities markets in the 21st century: broad participation. There are many different types of investors, and they buy and sell stocks for many different reasons. However, when share prices change rapidly and brokerage firms suddenly suspend trading, investors may lose money. Underneath the memes are actual companies, with employees, customers, and plans to invest in the future. Those who bought GameStop became co-owners of a company through a system of mutual trust and participation that sustains our economy. People may disagree about the prospects of GameStop and the other meme stocks, but those disagreements are what should lead to price discovery rather than disruptions. These events present an opportunity to reflect on the market structure and regulatory framework and identify additional areas for potential study and further consideration in the interests of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation. +> +>These areas include: + +1. Forces that may cause a brokerage to restrict trading. A number of clearing brokers experienced intraday margin calls from a clearinghouse. In reaction, some broker-dealers decided to restrict trading in a limited number of individual stocks in a way that some investors may not have anticipated. This episode highlights the integral role clearing plays in risk management for equity trading, but raises questions about the possible effects of acute margin calls on more thinly-capitalized broker-dealers and other means of reducing their risks. One method to mitigate the systemic risk posed by such entities to the clearinghouse and other participants is to shorten the settlement cycle. +2. Digital engagement practices and payment for order flow. Consideration should be given to whether game-like features and celebratory animations that are likely intended to create positive feedback from trading lead investors to trade more than they would otherwise. In addition, payment for order flow and the incentives it creates may cause broker-dealers to find novel ways to increase customer trading, including through the use of digital engagement practices. +3. Trading in dark pools and through wholesalers. Much of the retail order flow in GME was purchased by wholesalers and executed off exchange. Such trading interest is less visible to the wider market—and payments to broker-dealers may raise questions about the execution quality investors receive. Further, though wholesalers increasingly handle individual investor order flow, they face fewer requirements concerning their operational transparency and resiliency as compared to exchanges or ATSs. +4. Shortselling and market dynamics. While short selling and calls on social media for short squeezes received a great deal of media attention, the interplay between shorting and price dynamics is more complex than these narratives would suggest. Improved reporting of short sales would allow regulators to better track these dynamics. + +&#x200B; + +**Buy. HODL. DRS is Best. NFA. See you beautiful apes on the moon soon.** + +**🚀🚀🚀🌙** +Howdy! + +So obviously for legal reasons all trades are made by my mother, but aside from that, I’m 15, I’ve seen 250% portfolio increase in the last 3 weeks, not because of strategy or anything just got lucky with PLAY, CCL and AAL. So I have a large (to me at least lol) amount to invest and I’m not quite sure what to do from here. + +I’m in the process of transferring from Robinhood to TOS, and I was just looking for some advice from more experienced traders/investors, any tips on how to start, how you started, where you went, risks, things like that. + +Regardless of if you comment or not thank you for reading! +Giving someone free karma for buying from or transferring to ComputerShare is the easiest way to keep the hype train going. Look, I know the posts are boring. I know you've seen a hundred posts that all look the same. + +But small rewards like karma farming encourages more people to get in the game. More people getting in the game builds hype. Building hype gets this in front of people who aren't terminally online. Getting those who aren't terminally online lets you build a movement. + +Brick by brick. Let's go. +Edit: I know this is not enough to retire now, I was asking how to use it as a head start into FIRE as early as possible. + +Hey guys, posted this on personal finance a while back but there were several people saying it wasn't possible or feasible and being downright negative. I have read the wiki on how to handle a windfall and several posts by others but am still quite lost. + +Received 350k inheritance. Just graduated last week with a Bachelor's in Communications. No debt at all. 2010 car paid off. Currently unemployed. Living with mom currently. Monthly expenses 800-900? Had 13k in savings prior to the inheritance. I do NOT want to ever get married or have kids. + +Was thinking about putting this into S&P 500 for the long term and contributing to it monthly once I get a job. But I'm not sure how the math on that works and how I would even go about putting the money in there or how I would be penalized if I wanted to take some money out (taxes, etc). + +I met with a financial advisor at my credit union and mentioned early retirement (30s) and asked what type of account I would need to live off the 4% SWR and he told me he has never heard of anyone retiring that early and that he doesn't know of any accounts that will not charge you for taking money out. + +Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you. + +Edit 1: Money is from a house that was sold, 350k in my savings right now. +I would rather live lowkey and not spend much, but in a nice area. I'm thinking at most 20-25k. +Although if an extra 10 years would mean I could retire THAT much more wealthy then that's another thing I would have to consider but I am not sure how to do the math on that. +Hello i was recently looking at ordering a 2018 mustang gt for my first car. I got a price of $31,500. I am going to put down $25,000 as a deposit and finance the rest plus the tax(near the ball park of 3k). Anyway i am 20 years old with a clean driving record and was curious as to how much my insurance would be so i started getting quotes online. I got an online quote from geico and they want me to pay $2737.94 every 6 months. It blows my mind that the insurance would be more than my car payment. I am in the military and have heard that USAA is great for insurance but the online quote site was down. So my question is, is insurance that expensive with every company? Can i expect way better rates with USAA? And finally should i just save up the remainder and pay the car in full. +A friend is renting a house. His landlord wants to remortgage it and for him to cosign on the paperwork. I think he's getting 20% equity in the house in exchange. Is this a bad idea? It set off a number of red flags for me. +2017 vet here. Zoomed out. Forgot how to find the sell button a long time ago. Just buy what you can afford, and then fucking forget about it. Close that tab you have sitting open at work all day, sitting there staring at the lines move, and go get a fucking life. Seriously. Throw some money at it every now and then, then come back like I did... a mere fucking 3 years later... and laugh. You will win if you stop fucking worrying about it. + +Tldr: laughed and cried through 2017, and got dulled to the swings. Now I just buy occasionally and laugh as my portfolio consistently outperforms literally every other asset class. +//**Edit** IOTA shills prove me right. They keep harrassing and sending me abusive private messages for posting accurate information cited with objective sources + +[IOTA shills sending me abusive messages](https://imgur.com/a/nHFDgQ9) + +Please check my response to their post in r/cryptocurrencymeta. + +https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrencyMeta/comments/p4yhip/serious_we_should_stop_tolerating_the_spread_of/h94v5oe + +I cannot respond to their new post in r/cc harrassing me because they will mass downvote and bury my comment immediately.// + +I am making this post for one reason. To stop newbies who don't know about IOTA history from getting scammed by the IOTA ads from Linus Naumann who is a MOD of official IOTA sub. + +Look at [this most recent post](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p46tqq/a_future_day_with_iota/) from Linus Naumann. + +You can look at every post in this sub made by him. + +As soon as he makes these advertisement posts for IOTA, it gets brigaded within just a few minutes to hot with upvotes and awards for a coin which is pretty much dead and almost nobody cares about. + +If you write any critical comment then it will get instantly downvoted to hide them by the IOTA brigaders who come here with him. Every reply from Linus gets instant 5-10 upvotes. + +This is nothing new for IOTA foundation. They play nice to shill their shitcoin but if you ask tough questions or disagree they will attack or try to silence you. + +Linus Naumann probably gets paid by IOTA foundation to make these IOTA shill posts in this sub full of lies, empty hype and false promises. + +Take a look at [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Iota/comments/l74il1/does_anyone_else_find_the_new_iota_underwhelming/) from r/Iota. Someone who invested in this scam is asking a critical question and see how the IOTA sub MOD shuts that person down in the top comment. + +**A short backstory for people who don't know about the history of IOTA.** + +In 2017 during bull market, IOTA started doing heavy marketing with fake partnership announcements with Microsoft etc. + +They also kept making a series of overhyped posts in the IOTA blog just like Linus is making here without even having a working product just to pump the price during bull market. These fake announcements and false hype caused a lot of retail traders to get rekt last time. + +Eric Wall, CIO of the Nordic cryptocurrency investment firm Arcane Assets who researched the project described the project as “the worst coin to have gotten as high as it did. They’re pushing the boundaries of the fake-it-till-you-make-it approach to the extreme.” + +IOTA only pumped from empty marketing hype and announcements. During the following bear market there wasn't any serious development till the current bull market and now the marketing train is back with brigading tactics but still no working product. That's why nobody takes it seriously anymore and it's ranked below SHIB. + + +**IOTA foundation harrasses and attacks people for criticizing them** + + +The MIT Tech Review ran a scathing review of the IOTA protocol’s insecurities 4 years ago. The founders constantly harrassed and attacked the person who wrote that review. + +In 2018, IOTA Foundation became known for scandalous emails between IOTA Foundation co-founder David Sonstebo and Neha Narula of MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative. + +Members of the IOTA community earned a reputation for routinely harassing women security experts, like Open Privacy founder Sarah Jamie Lewis, who found flaws in IOTA research. + +They also harrass people on social media and try to mass report and ban their accounts for criticizing the project. + +https://news.bitcoin.com/faced-with-criticism-iota-fans-try-to-bully-growing-list-of-detractors/ + + +**IOTA is a centralized scam without working product, gets repeatedly hacked and founders fight over tokens** + +IOTA foundation since the beginning has been using single controlling node called coordinator. The coordinator is authority node operated by the IOTA foundation and it's a single point of failure for the IOTA network, which makes the network centralized. + +IOTA has suffered attack after attack and network outages as a result of bugs in the coordinator and it is proven to be insecure to DDos attacks. IOTA first used a custom made hash function which was broken from the start and let you forge transactions. + +Last year the coordinator had outage for 20 days after their wallet got hacked. The network did not process any transactions during that time. Private keys of users and associated IOTA tokens worth around two million dollars got stolen. + +https://www.coindesk.com/iota-being-shut-off-is-the-latest-chapter-in-an-absurdist-history + +Just few weeks before this outage one of the founders Sergey Ivancheglo AKA Come-from-Beyond/CFB decided to quit the project and had a fight with other founder David Sonstebo over splitting the founders IOTA tokens. + +As they were fighting the third founder who is Dominik Schiener claimed that he “single-handedly conceived” the IOTA brand. It was a messy fight and they were all trying to claim the founders tokens for themselves. + +Now since bull market is back IOTA is saying they are doing tests without coordinator. Thats the DevNet testnet. IOTA said the same thing in May 2019. Quote from founder David Sonstebo in 2019: + +“We have been working towards the removal of the Coordinator since IOTA's inception. Now with the maturity and growth of the protocol, and the quality of our research team, we are bringing that promise to fruition.” + +Guess what? It didn't come to fruition. Another false promise. Now IOTA foundation is claiming they have a new solution to replace coordinator. IOTA is full of claimed research and pilots but no working product and there are no clients using the protocol. + + +**Will IOTA ever work?** + +I have no idea. I would say not because of how founders behaved in the past and repeated false promotions and announcements. Even if it did there are million question marks from the code to security of network. + +Imagine if Satoshi hyped Bitcoin in 2000 without any idea how to solve BGP but he took money from investors with false hopes? Then if Satoshi was a group of people and they all started fighting over the money? + +Satoshi simply gave us Bitcoin and left. Now we have all these selfish scammers doing empty social hype for projects without even working product for over 6 years. + +**P.S. I will link tweets from Sarah Jamie Lewis and CFB in comments since twitter links are blocked in posts** + +**EDIT** If you observe in the comments almost everyone attacking this post in comments gets their comments immediately upvoted with 5-10 upvotes and critical comments get immediately buried. If I reply, it's immediately buried. Classic IOTA mob behavior. + +I don't care about their mass downvotes. In a time of deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act. + +They can brigade all they want. People need to know the truth about IOTA and who is this Linus making IOTA shill posts full of lies and false promises everyday. + +Even redditor for 1 hour accounts are here 😂. Imagine if these guys spent this much effort on development as social engineering. +I'm having a great day today. Everyone around me has gone into full panic mode over the Bitcoin price and I think it's hilarious. + +Last week everyone around me was asking how to buy in and that Bitcoin was the easiest way to make money ever. Today they're all panic selling their portfolios and screaming it was the worth decision ever. + +This is normal! **We're still up 4.6% compared to last week Monday** + +I didn't get worried at 3k, I won't get worried at 20k either. Buy and hold. Take a day away from checking Blockfolio, maybe even een week or a month. The price will recover, it can't go up every single day just because we want it to. +**DISCLAIMER: This is not a financial advice** + +TLDR: I have been following Huya for a while and I believe the stock is much undervalued at the moment, since 80%+ of the stock price is made of its net cash position. I believe that the only meaningful risk that could lower the price is the possible delisting, since the stock is listed on the NYSE. + +*Sources: Huya’s annual report, Huya’s stock prices and Huya’s press releases,* [*marketbeat.com*](https://marketbeat.com) + +Huya is the leading live streaming platform in China, that is primarily focused on gaming and e-sports live streaming but has also extended its contents to talent shows, anime and outdoor activities. + +Stock chart: [https://imgur.com/pIGlRTU](https://imgur.com/pIGlRTU) + +In July 2021 the company announced the termination of the merger agreement with DouYu (the second biggest live streaming platform in China) because of the intervention of the State Administration for Market Regulation. The reason was that Huya and DouYu together would have controlled more than 80% of the market based on active users. + +The stock reached its peak in March 2021 (non-considering IPO prices), reaching 36.33$ before starting a steep downtrend, touching its all-time low at 6.08$ the 3rd of December 2021 also due to the strong short positions held on the stock, that reached approx. 30% of the Market Cap (Today’s market cap is around $ 1.7bn) before decreasing in the recent quarters. + +Short Positions trend: [https://imgur.com/qviqYzU](https://imgur.com/qviqYzU) + +Taking into account the 9M21 results (unaudited) and $ 7.50 as Huya’s stock price the situation is as follow: [https://imgur.com/zlxP0D9](https://imgur.com/zlxP0D9) + +**Aggressive scenario**: we do consider Cash & CE, Short Term investments (short-term wealth management products and money market funds with maturities of less than one year), Short term deposits (interest-bearing bank deposits) and financial liabilities (leases). It this scenario, Huya’s net cash position is worth $ 7.21 per share (96% of the current price) + +**Base scenario**: we do consider Cash & CE, Short Term deposits and financial liabilities (aka leases). It this scenario, Huya’s net cash position is worth $ 6.55 per share (87%% of the current price). + +**Cautions scenario**: we do consider Cash & CE, Short term deposits, short term investments, financial liabilities and operative debts (mostly made of revenue share fees to be paid to content creators). It this scenario, Huya’s net cash position is worth $ 6.06 per share (81% of the current price), that is the all time low reached by the stock. + +That means that you are buying Huya’s brand, customer base, assets, softwares, and so on, **just for** 68 / 225 / 341 mn $ (**0.29 / 0.95 / 1.74 $ Per share**). **If the company goes bankrupt today, you are going to get almost the same amount of dollars you spend to buy it**. + +My idea is that the stock was too hyped before because of the merger, and got really hurt by the government decision (it was the first time the Chinese competition authority stopped a deal). Moreover, a series of headwinds kept the trend bearish (delisting, chinese government against tech stock, see Alibaba, short positions built in the months before) for the rest of the year. At the moment, I don’t how is it possibile that the stock is worth the same amount of the cash the company has, expecting ZERO growth for the future for a company that is still growing (+30% FY20 vs FY19, 9M21 flat compared to 9M20 that were positively impacted by the pandemic) per year and that is profitable. + +I have invested in Huya and I may be biased, that’s why I want you to tell me why I am wrong, the only headwind that I believe could push the stock lower than these prices is the delisting (Huya is listed on the NYSE), which I consider to be unlikely. + +APPENDIX 2016 - 9M21 Data: + +Net revenues trend: [https://imgur.com/jDeKeVn](https://imgur.com/jDeKeVn) + +Operating income trend: [https://imgur.com/vCctpTk](https://imgur.com/vCctpTk) + +Net income trend: [https://imgur.com/u9zBD3Z](https://imgur.com/u9zBD3Z) + +Margins trend: [https://imgur.com/dmuqYWE](https://imgur.com/dmuqYWE) +I’m dying, help me + + +Edit at 13:43 eastern: I gave up and sold at 34.77, my loss is somewhere at 25k mark. I learned a valuable lesson of not fucking with shit like that. This is a valuable lesson for me, due to the fact that I’m still 19 and still a little retarded. I should be able able to earn my money back by hard work in 1-1.5 year (finished college by 18, did some shopify befo re it fucked up because of over-saturation, worked hard by my diploma as an immigrant and saved up on everything). Unfortunately I will not be able to flex with a new Tesla and my future investments will certainly be more technical and less impulsive. I lost this money in stupid way, but I could have lost it by spending on some random shit instead of saving + + +CALGARY, May 18, 2021 /CNW/ – High Tide Inc. (“High Tide” or the “Company”) (TSXV: HITI) (OTCQB: HITID) (FRA:2LYA), a retail-focused cannabis corporation enhanced by the manufacturing and distribution of consumption accessories, is pleased to announce today that it has been added to the Cannabis ETF (NYSE: THCX) (the “THCX”). Listed on New York Stock Exchange’s Archipelago Exchange, the THCX tracks the Innovation Labs Cannabis Index, a portfolio of 33 stocks that are expected to benefit from the growth of the legal global marijuana, cannabinoid and hemp industries. + +“High Tide’s inclusion in THCX is a significant vote of confidence in the progress we have made growing and expanding our business, particularly in the United States”, said Raj Grover, President and Chief Executive Officer of High Tide. “Today’s news provides us with an additional tool to broaden our reach and profile among U.S. investors who are attracted to High Tide’s consistent track record of delivering profitability and results for shareholders. With our pending listing on Nasdaq, we hope that more institutions and ETFs will continue to take positions in High Tide”, added Mr. Grover. + +About The Cannabis ETF + +The THCX is a U.S.-listed ETF that provides investors with a liquid and diversified vehicle to gain access to the explosive growth of the legal cannabis market. The THCX tracks the Innovation Labs Cannabis Index, a modified-market capitalization-weighted index that is rebalanced on a monthly basis. +In an effort to keep the "main sub" a little cleaner in regards to "low effort posts," this will be a catch all for the simple questions that get asked on a regular basis. + +We want to help new investors/traders. That's definitely one of the main goals of this community. We don't want to run people off, but at the same time we want there to at least be some sort of standard to what constitutes "low effort." We wish to differentiate between legitimate, detailed questions predicated upon at least a base level of due dilligence and questions that may be better served going into an "other folder," so to speak. + +Also to note, anything that fits the description of what goes in this thread will be deleted from the "main sub," so there may be a learning curve of people wondering why their posts are getting deleted. This new format sticky thread will be auto re-posted daily so as not to get too cluttered. + +The following is a list of what is relegated to this "catch all" thread, and is subject to change based on the needs of the sub: + +1. What broker should I use? +2. What do you guys think of "XXXX" stock? +3. Should I buy or sell "XXXX" stock? +4. Any threads with ZERO DD +5. Anything that would have gone into the "any stocks go here" sticky thread (cryprocurrency is still banned) +6. Any questions you think might be "stupid" questions +7. Any post requesting people's thoughts on your thoughts +with today's rise in bitcoin I'm officially a millionaire. I'm gonna cash out over the next 30 days. I'll keep 50 % in bitcoin gold and silver for long-term and the remaining 50 % for a house and vanguard. Thank you bitcoin! You changed my life +Tesla reports fourth quarter Model 3 deliveries at 1,550 compared with estimates of 2,917, Bloomberg News reports. + +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-03/tesla-s-fourth-quarter-model-3-deliveries-fall-short-of-estimates +# Why buy AMC? + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +1.) COVID vaccine rollout has started, and we will be able to attend movies soon. The Biden Administration (sorry for getting political, just pls keep reading) has an ambitious plan (100 million vaccines in 100 days or whatever the fuck) and this pandemic is almost over. I’d give it until the end of the year. + +2.) **Most** [**AMC**](https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-movie-theaters-reopening-0123-2021) **theatres** [**are open**](https://www.amctheatres.com/amc-safe-and-clean#locations) or they are planning to open soon with social distancing and mask measures in place. They will shut down the food services and concessions, but they are coming back. + +3.) **Consumers have a sentimental connection to movies. They will come back**. People are starved for the outside world and will come out in massive hordes to watch movies. People will go out and see movies, take their kids, go on dates, etc. Nothing can replicate the experience of a giant screen and surround audio. + +4.) This major influx of blue balled movie goers will cause a major boost in 2021. Then we will see a continuation of the year over year growth we have been seeing since 2012. + +5.) The AMC business model is working. The revenue has steadily increased since 2012 year over year. [**In 2012, they made $811 million. In 2019, they made $5.47 billion.**](https://www.statista.com/statistics/206959/revenue-of-amc-theatres/) There has been a steady rise. **THEY ARE NOT IN DECLINE.** + +6.) I understand they have many loans, but it is something that can be paid off in a few years with the help of their parent company, Wanda Entertainment, and increased profits in 2021. + +7.) They will not go bankrupt. WANDA entertainment, a Chinese company owns the plurality share (20%) and will bail them out if it is necessary. They bought for $2.6 billion in 2012, and have seen a ROI, scoring $2.7 billion in 2013, the year immediately after their purchase. AMC is too good of an asset for Wanda to lose them. Also, AMC can take advantage of new stimulus and other government assistance programs. + +8.) It’s extremely cheap right now because everybody is shorting, and there’s a pandemic. Corona is only temporary. Everybody thought GameStop was going to go under, until we showed them. Remember that. + +9.) If there is interest or heightened trading in the stock, AMC can dilute shares and sell them to help finance operations and pay debt, using stock sales as leverage. AMC just did this today, and they can do it again if needed. + +10.) AMC will not go bankrupt, not only because of the potential Wanda bailout, but [**they also raised $917 million today. They have enough runway to stay operational the end of the year. "Bankruptcy is off the table for now."**](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/25/amc-ceo-adam-aron-on-917m-financing.html) (We should be able to return to theatres by then.) A slight majority of this new liquidity comes from issuing new shares, as described in 9. They are also planning to do debt/equity swaps, so those who take out debt can hold shares in the company, and AMC won't get fucked over by high loan payments. + +11.) [**AMC is about 70% shorted**](https://www.highshortinterest.com/)**, there is much potential to cause a squeeze**. However, there are still many more reasons to invest in AMC beyond a simple short squeeze. + +12.) AMC does very well when it is not pandemic. $5.4 billion in revenue last year, and there will be many movies, as well as many moviegoers that come out after the pandemic. Especially with major franchise movies, which have been delayed. They [have also reached a deal with Universal, which allows Universal to do home releases earlier, but stipulates they must be in theatres for 17 days before that.](https://variety.com/2020/film/news/universal-amc-deal-theaters-pandemic-1234801134/) + +13.) AMC is only $12 a share right now... Even if it loses, you’re only going to lose a bit. Meanwhile, the ceiling is high, and there is much potential. If you want in, do it now while it's cheap. People keep talking about how dumb it is to buy during the pandemic, but this is the point of largest potential. Don't wait for the recovery to buy. + +14.) AMC used to trade at $10 before the pandemic. Let’s keep it at its former glory. AMC deserved a $1bn market cap and they got one. They will probably hit $20 tomorrow (predicting $25 by Feb1, peak in summer with COVID all done.). + +15.) Even though the Net income is negative and they lose money, it consistently stays in the hundred thousands range, and it does not lose that much. Any autist on here from GME could pay the difference. [**AMC has also increased gross profits year over year, from 2,004,200 in 2016, to 3,493,200.**](https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/amc) + +*(The rest of these bullet points are just jokes, so feel free to skip if you want.)* + +16.) Without AMC there’s no place to spend my AMC points, and there better be a place for me to spend those points because I invested my entire life savings into those damn AMC stubs. + +17.) Going to the movies was my childhood. We must save my childhood. DO NOT LET AMC DIE. Save AMC. + +18.) You can take ur wife and her bf to the movies when this is over. + +19.) The AMC food court literally sells tendies. (But we should call AMC tendies popcorns instead.) + +20.) **STONCCS only go up.** + +21.) you guys are all retard who cannot think for themselves and will do whatever is echoed in this fucking internet cave. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +TL;DR : AMC has done a great job with fundraising and can survive until the end of the year. Vaccine rollout has started, and recovery is coming soon. People are due to return to movies. About 70% of shares are shorted, so we can potentially trigger a squeeze. + +# Pandemic recovery & squeeze combo. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +**Buy AMC. Or don’t. Your choice.** + +**If you’re with us, let's save the movies. I hope you like popcorn. Get on the rocket, because you're going to the moon.** + +**If you don’t, then bye bye, I wish you the best.** + +"The sun is shining on AMC." - [Adam Aron](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210125005273/en/AMC-Raises-917-Million-of-Fresh-Investment-Capital-Since-Mid-December-of-2020) + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +Sources Cited: + +[https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-movie-theaters-reopening-0123-2021](https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-movie-theaters-reopening-0123-20210122-smgxbbkwcbcpdhcbjm2i5ariri-story.html) + +[https://www.amctheatres.com/amc-safe-and-clean#locations](https://www.amctheatres.com/amc-safe-and-clean#locations) + +[https://www.statista.com/statistics/206959/revenue-of-amc-theatres/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/206959/revenue-of-amc-theatres/) + +[https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/25/amc-ceo-adam-aron-on-917m-financing.html](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/25/amc-ceo-adam-aron-on-917m-financing.html) + +[https://www.highshortinterest.com/](https://www.highshortinterest.com/) + +[https://variety.com/2020/film/news/universal-amc-deal-theaters-pandemic-1234801134/](https://variety.com/2020/film/news/universal-amc-deal-theaters-pandemic-1234801134/) + +[https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/amc](https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/amc) + +[https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210125005273/en/AMC-Raises-917-Million-of-Fresh-Investment-Capital-Since-Mid-December-of-2020](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210125005273/en/AMC-Raises-917-Million-of-Fresh-Investment-Capital-Since-Mid-December-of-2020) + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +Portfolio disclosure: I own 200 shares of AMC long currently. + +The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice. Invest at your own risk, and understand that you may lose money. These are just my thoughts, make your own decisions, and do your own research. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +**EDIT: the autobot seriously out here banning me for talking AMC smh. It was fucking worth it.Well, if i can't comment, I will let you know that I am with you AMC army retards with my upvotes and awards.** + +# EDIT 2: GODDAMN I REALLY WANT TO REPLY TO SOME OF THIS SHIT BUT I CANT + +EDIT 3: for the retards buying calls, **BUY SHARES**, not calls. + +# EDIT 4: for those of you who can't understand English, what i'm trying to say is + +# $AMC🚀🚀🚀 + +translation. + +# EDIT 5: ONCE AGAIN, BUY SHARES NOT CALLS. NOT DIFFICULT. also i've realized that most of you are buying because i said "short squeeze one time". this isn't over, this is going far beyond the squeeze. diamond hands until COVID ends. + +#EDIT 6: $5 END OF DAY LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO OPEN THE FUCKING WALLET + +#EDIT 7: DONT BE A PAPERHANDS BITCH! GO BUY THE DIP! You’ll need some dip for your tendies, there are no stops on the way to the moon. (You’ll have to piss in a bucket) + +#EDIT 8: updated price targets on AMC, updated portfolio disclosure, and now a reason 21. + +#EDIT 9: there will not be a dip. Go buy it now to fuel the rocket. It’s not too late. If there is a dip, take advantage to expand your holding in AMC + +#EDIT 10: (because I’m a greedy bitch): if you feel like supporting me, you can either + +#1.) buy amc shares. + +OR + +#2.) make a direct donation to me. My wallet is: + 0x86c4e867c9E5b72872a505d2ae1F24312E3b73c8 +You can send me any coins, but Ether/Etheruem is preferred. + +##EDIT 11: i have a [twitter now.](https://twitter.com/time_has_odor) + +##EDIT 12: HOLY SHIT I'M UNBANNED, TIME TO REPLY! + +##EDIT 13: making price adjustments to keep this relevant. + +##EDIT 14: keeping it relevant + +##EDIT 15: reminder: it’s buy o clock. You best not sell. HOLD THE LINE. We’re heading to the moon, no matter what these robberhood shittertons or hedge funds say. We fell because we were locked out of purchasing. We will return to normal. DONT SURRENDER NOW. HOLD THE LINE. HOLD THE STONK. + +#EDIT 16: [ROUND II DD is out now](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/nvkuc0/amcapes_dd_round_2_buy_the_dip/) +Laying down thinking about taking a punch of pills because I don’t see my life improving. I am genuinely curious why not? Like truly.. What are reasons not to kill yourself when you’re in a cycle of struggle? And idc for family so that’s pointless, mine sucks. So I’m at a lost because I have no more energy to try anymore. + +Update: feeling a bit better and motivated. Went for a walk and journaled. Selling more things I can sell onto fb, got my email for an inventory job I can start right away Monday for training and start Tuesday. Weary about it because it requires traveling and gas is so high but I figured it’s a job, quick money, paid weekly, and with the pay card, they pay 50% of your check next day.. just need to figure out housing situation, family isn’t an option but that’s ok. Hopeful I’ll find someone who will let me crash and pay monthly for rent. I appreciate every one your advice truly! +Hi personal finance, + +I'm long overdue for a raise at my current company, and frankly, I'm at my wits end. I know that I'm valuable and qualified, and I have to data to prove my value to the company. I'm a marketing manager (with director responsibilities) in the greater Chicago area making $60k per year. It's a 38M per year software company, and I'm the entire marketing team. I've been with the company for seven years and have vast industry experience in a niche market. I brought in 40% more leads this year, revamped our website, and can point to significant financial gains that I've made for the company through my efforts. + +In attempting to negotiate a well-deserved raise last year, I failed. I asked for 75k but instead went from 50-60K with a promise of a quarterly bonus structure that was never delivered. + +Please provide tips for negotiating a significant salary increase that aligns with the market standard by helping me to take emotion out of it. + +The truth is, I love my job and I'd love to stay, but I'm worth a lot more than what I make. I'd love to be able to explain this to upper management without crying. + +**Update**: Hi personal finance, thank you so much for all of your input! I used your advice to successfully negotiate a 42% raise! The raise comes with more responsibilities, including managing a few people that we plan to hire (BDR, Marketing Coordinator). In addition to the raise, I've been tasked with developing a quarterly incentive plan for myself - yet to be approved. I'd like to use this for the opportunity to drive my salary from 85K to over 100. Do you have any advice about how I should structure it and what KPIs I should include? + +&#x200B; +Hey Everyone! + +Ever since I went down the rabbit hole back in January and starting reading all the DD and doing some research of my own I was inspired to attempt to help in any way I could. + +[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakpRq\_lPxg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakpRq_lPxg) + +I think I ended up finding something I could offer. That is a place, monetization free (seriously)(we actually give away a Gamestop gift card every once in a while and will be doing so this week\*\*($125)\*\* for anyone to join and watch some hype videos together and jam out to the ticker with hype sprinkled in throughout the day. + +Join for the daily pre-market hype show or come by at 3:00 PM EST for the power hour show! Or hang out during the day in zen and chat with fellow apes! + +Most of all, don't forget to DRS! + +Thanks to everyone who has been a part of the adventure together. It's been an absolute blast with all of you! + +I'm just a guy working from home with the ability to run the stream on an extra computer and I don't ever want to push any type of monetization. I'm doing this strictly for fun and have been getting so much out of it in terms of my daily happiness because of all of you! I can't thank you all enough. + +Cheers! and Happy HODLing! + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/5hq1930fn7u71.png?width=2942&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec65562f3f587caf76353162c1f4e119a02cf626 + +🦍💜🦍 +Twitter user FatmanTerra recently tweeted a thread about Do kwon's arrogance which cost Anchor users in $20.8 in losses. + +https://preview.redd.it/x96ux0tt82191.png?width=668&format=png&auto=webp&s=39f5400a539fb16f5e00a06da3c8932ef30f6435 + +> In August of 2021, whitehat dev +> +>[@0xfr\_ (Twitter)](https://twitter.com/0xfr_) +> +>contacted Do Kwon about a serious bug involving Anchor's possible liquidator issues. He was dismissed for 'raging' and Do Kwon was 'pretty confident' that it would work (you can already tell what's about to happen) + +&#x200B; + +> In April this year, as per responsible disclosure, +> +>[@skgBanga](https://twitter.com/skgBanga) +> +>and +> +>[@0xfr\_](https://twitter.com/0xfr_) +> +>emailed the Anchor team, describing three issues in detail (one of which could potentially cause hugely unfair liquidations due to a major bug in the liquidation queue). + +&#x200B; + +> The Anchor team never replied. Did they ignore the email? Did they just not bother checking their inbox? Either way, during last week's meltdown, Anchor accrued $20.8m in bad debt at a direct cost to depositors. [https://github.com/throwaway0xfr/anchor-bad-debt](https://github.com/throwaway0xfr/anchor-bad-debt) + +&#x200B; + +> I remember seeing a lot of reports in the Anchor Discord of people being liquidated for their entire collateral instead of just what they owed. This bug explains it. Carelessness led to people's money being unfairly snatched away (again) + +&#x200B; + +> In the grand scheme of things, $20.8m is not that much (especially when UST was shedding billions from its market cap), but this event lends to a certain culture & environment that seem to be present at TFL. Despite being paid millions, they seem to be flippant at times. + +Whole Thread: [https://twitter.com/FatManTerra/status/1528404015767343105](https://twitter.com/FatManTerra/status/1528404015767343105) +We've got a good 12 month window to be shorting everything into the ground. Not things like Tesla that actually makes something people want to buy. I'm looking for companies that are real dogs or are downright fraudulent. + +The best idea I have right now is JC Penny. They are in massive debt and it's one of the shittiest retailers there is. Not a very sexy short, but neither is my wife and I love her. + +What short idea do you have? +I'm guessing not many people are shorting and I'd love to know why. Is it because it's hard psychologically and that you have FOMO about the recovering? That would be the reason for me. +that stocktwits is borderline depressing, it went from "5$ next week!" to "$3 next week!!" to "$2 next week" and the stock is just non stop going down. What are these people drinking? move on people. I never baghold cause I can make it back faster on other garbage stock to buy. +Their financial looks solid, EPS growing, shares outstanding are getting lower, sales also growing slow but constant, operating margin growing, payout ratio between 75%-78% the last 10 years, p/e 8.8, yield 8.16%. + +It’s this a trap ? Or it is actually good ? Am I missing something ? +I’m 24 and recently decided to dividend invest. The information from this Subreddit has been helpful. As of now I have settled for 20 stocks in my portfolio, cut it down from 45. Here’s what’s in my portfolio. ABBV, PFE, MRK, AAPL, MSFT, SO, NEE, DUK, MMM, GD, JPM, C, T, VZ, PEP, KO, MCD, O, PG, JNJ. To me this is a solid portfolio, but I’m open for critiques, and what would be some good ETF’s to get into? +**[Lowe's Companies, Inc. Snapshot:](https://imgur.com/0Sj2QbJ)** + +**Introduction:** *Dividend DD with a slight twist* + +Lowe's Companies, Inc. + +Ticker: **LOW** + +Consumer Cyclical | Home Improvement Retail | USA + +P/E: **16.59** + +Price: **$211.36** + +Buffett Purchasing Range: **$158.14 - $173.95** + +Morningstar Economic Moat: **WIDE** + +Dividend Yield: **1.99%** + +12 Year Dividend Growth Rate: **19.22%** + +Consecutive Years of Dividend Payments: **42** + +Shareholder Yield: **11.83%** + +Amount of capital dedicated to share buybacks and dividends in the trailing twelve months: **$15,977,000,000** + +______ + +On December 15th 2021, Lowe's board authorized a new stock-buyback program north of $13 billion. This new stock-buyback program brings the total share amount authorized for repurchase to $20 billion. On May 27th Lowe’s announced a cash dividend increase to $1.05. This represents a **31 percent increase** over the company's previous quarterly dividend of $0.80 cents per share. + +Lowe's chairman, president, and CEO Marvin R. Ellison said of the dividend increase; + +> "I am pleased with the meaningful progress that we have made in our journey to becoming a world-class omnichannel retailer, and I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Today's dividend increase reflects the strength and consistency of our cash flow and **our continued commitment to returning capital to our shareholders**." + +**Home Depot vs Lowe’s** + +Metric | Lowe’s | Home Depot +---------|----------|---------- +Dividend Yield | 1.99% | **2.37%** +Dividend Growth | **19.22%** | 17.59% +Avg. Change in Outstanding Shares | **-4.33%** | -3.11% +Shareholder Yield | **11.83%** | 6.11% +Buffett Pre-Tax Net Earnings Multiple | **12x** | 15.1x + + +**About:** + +Lowe's Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and internationally. The company offers a line of products for construction, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and decorating. It provides home improvement products, such as appliances, seasonal and outdoor living, lawn and garden, lumber, kitchens and bath, tools, paint, millwork, hardware, flooring, rough plumbing, building materials, décor, lighting, and electrical. + +It also offers installation services through independent contractors in various product categories; extended protection plans; and in-warranty and out-of-warranty repair services. The company sells its national brand-name merchandise and private brand products to homeowners, renters, and professional customers. + +As of January 28, 2022, it operated 1,971 home improvement and hardware stores. The company also sells its products through websites comprising Lowes.com and Lowesforpros.com; and through mobile applications. +______ + +**The Buffett purchase range** + +This general rule of thumb is rooted from an answer Warren Buffett gave when asked about valuing potential investments. Specifically, Buffett stated: + +> “Geico would be valued differently than Gen RE and other insurance businesses because it’s rational to assume a large underwriting profit and significant growth. You cannot say that about many insurance businesses. I would love to buy a new bunch of operating businesses with similar competitive positions to the ones we own now at **nine to ten times pretax earnings**.” + +Although Buffett's answer was in reference to insurance companies, Berkshire has a consistent record of purchasing high quality companies within this range (AAPL, WFC, KO, BNI, etc.). Don't fight the Oracle. + +**Shareholder Yield** + +After reviewing Epoch Investment Partners’ William Priest in his 2005 paper entitled, “The Case for Shareholder Yield as a Dominant Driver of Future Equity Returns” I thought it would be interesting to expand my own investment thesis to find corporations that have more of a symbiotic relationship with it's shareholders. The shareholders yield presented is different than the original calculation used in the 2005 report. The original calculation includes dividends, share buybacks, and debt reduction as direct compensation back to shareholders. However, I have omitted the debt reduction. My logic in doing so is that debt reduction is not as tangible of a return of capital to shareholders as buybacks or dividends are. + +In the spirit of full transparency here is the full excerpt from the original paper on the addition to debt reduction. + +> "Debt reduction also creates shareholder value, but the means by which this is achieved is slightly more subtle. To understand why paying down debt results in shareholder yield, it is helpful to consider the famous finance paper by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller. These two Nobel laureates proved that a firm’s value is independent of how it is financed, provided that one ignores the tax effect of debt interest. If Modigliani and Miller are correct, then using free cash flow to repay debt results in a wealth transfer from the debtor to the shareholder. Since the value of the firm remains the same, shareholder wealth is increased as debt is reduced." + +I may revisit this variable in the future. + +The 10 year projection simply shows the growth and compounding effect that high quality dividends and share buybacks have over a period of time. The caveat that needs to be acknowledged, is that share buybacks do not always have a constant capital appreciation effect. The macro environment, public perception of the company, and general business execution can all reduce the capital appreciation effects buybacks will have. + +**Thanks for coming to my TedTalk** + +**Previous DD** + +[The Home Depot, Inc. (HD)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wu08jb/the_home_depot_inc_hd_company_snapshot/) + +[JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wt87ev/jpmorgan_chase_co_jpm_company_snapshot/) + +[Bank of America (BAC)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wss721/thoughts_on_bank_of_america/) +I recently started buying stocks for dividends, I only have 70-100 dollars a week to purchase with. Is it best to buy same stock until I have a set amount, or spread it out over my portfolio? TIA +Always good to hear one of our favorites is still paying.. + +Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income, NYSE: O), The Monthly Dividend Company(R), today announced that its Board of Directors has **declared the 598th consecutive common stock monthly dividend. The dividend amount of $0.233 per share,** representing an annualized amount of $2.796 per share, is payable on May 15, 2020 to shareholders of record as of May 1, 2020. The ex-dividend date for May's dividend is April 30, 2020. + +[https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/research/stocks/news/article?dockey=100-104p2685-1](https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/research/stocks/news/article?dockey=100-104p2685-1) +**[Lowe's Companies, Inc. Snapshot:](https://imgur.com/0Sj2QbJ)** + +**Introduction:** *Dividend DD with a slight twist* + +Lowe's Companies, Inc. + +Ticker: **LOW** + +Consumer Cyclical | Home Improvement Retail | USA + +P/E: **16.59** + +Price: **$211.36** + +Buffett Purchasing Range: **$158.14 - $173.95** + +Morningstar Economic Moat: **WIDE** + +Dividend Yield: **1.99%** + +12 Year Dividend Growth Rate: **19.22%** + +Consecutive Years of Dividend Payments: **42** + +Shareholder Yield: **11.83%** + +Amount of capital dedicated to share buybacks and dividends in the trailing twelve months: **$15,977,000,000** + +______ + +On December 15th 2021, Lowe's board authorized a new stock-buyback program north of $13 billion. This new stock-buyback program brings the total share amount authorized for repurchase to $20 billion. On May 27th Lowe’s announced a cash dividend increase to $1.05. This represents a **31 percent increase** over the company's previous quarterly dividend of $0.80 cents per share. + +Lowe's chairman, president, and CEO Marvin R. Ellison said of the dividend increase; + +> "I am pleased with the meaningful progress that we have made in our journey to becoming a world-class omnichannel retailer, and I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Today's dividend increase reflects the strength and consistency of our cash flow and **our continued commitment to returning capital to our shareholders**." + +**Home Depot vs Lowe’s** + +Metric | Lowe’s | Home Depot +---------|----------|---------- +Dividend Yield | 1.99% | **2.37%** +Dividend Growth | **19.22%** | 17.59% +Avg. Change in Outstanding Shares | **-4.33%** | -3.11% +Shareholder Yield | **11.83%** | 6.11% +Buffett Pre-Tax Net Earnings Multiple | **12x** | 15.1x + + +**About:** + +Lowe's Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and internationally. The company offers a line of products for construction, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and decorating. It provides home improvement products, such as appliances, seasonal and outdoor living, lawn and garden, lumber, kitchens and bath, tools, paint, millwork, hardware, flooring, rough plumbing, building materials, décor, lighting, and electrical. + +It also offers installation services through independent contractors in various product categories; extended protection plans; and in-warranty and out-of-warranty repair services. The company sells its national brand-name merchandise and private brand products to homeowners, renters, and professional customers. + +As of January 28, 2022, it operated 1,971 home improvement and hardware stores. The company also sells its products through websites comprising Lowes.com and Lowesforpros.com; and through mobile applications. +______ + +**The Buffett purchase range** + +This general rule of thumb is rooted from an answer Warren Buffett gave when asked about valuing potential investments. Specifically, Buffett stated: + +> “Geico would be valued differently than Gen RE and other insurance businesses because it’s rational to assume a large underwriting profit and significant growth. You cannot say that about many insurance businesses. I would love to buy a new bunch of operating businesses with similar competitive positions to the ones we own now at **nine to ten times pretax earnings**.” + +Although Buffett's answer was in reference to insurance companies, Berkshire has a consistent record of purchasing high quality companies within this range (AAPL, WFC, KO, BNI, etc.). Don't fight the Oracle. + +**Shareholder Yield** + +After reviewing Epoch Investment Partners’ William Priest in his 2005 paper entitled, “The Case for Shareholder Yield as a Dominant Driver of Future Equity Returns” I thought it would be interesting to expand my own investment thesis to find corporations that have more of a symbiotic relationship with it's shareholders. The shareholders yield presented is different than the original calculation used in the 2005 report. The original calculation includes dividends, share buybacks, and debt reduction as direct compensation back to shareholders. However, I have omitted the debt reduction. My logic in doing so is that debt reduction is not as tangible of a return of capital to shareholders as buybacks or dividends are. + +In the spirit of full transparency here is the full excerpt from the original paper on the addition to debt reduction. + +> "Debt reduction also creates shareholder value, but the means by which this is achieved is slightly more subtle. To understand why paying down debt results in shareholder yield, it is helpful to consider the famous finance paper by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller. These two Nobel laureates proved that a firm’s value is independent of how it is financed, provided that one ignores the tax effect of debt interest. If Modigliani and Miller are correct, then using free cash flow to repay debt results in a wealth transfer from the debtor to the shareholder. Since the value of the firm remains the same, shareholder wealth is increased as debt is reduced." + +I may revisit this variable in the future. + +The 10 year projection simply shows the growth and compounding effect that high quality dividends and share buybacks have over a period of time. The caveat that needs to be acknowledged, is that share buybacks do not always have a constant capital appreciation effect. The macro environment, public perception of the company, and general business execution can all reduce the capital appreciation effects buybacks will have. + +**Thanks for coming to my TedTalk** + +**Previous DD** + +[The Home Depot, Inc. (HD)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wu08jb/the_home_depot_inc_hd_company_snapshot/) + +[JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wt87ev/jpmorgan_chase_co_jpm_company_snapshot/) + +[Bank of America (BAC)](https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/comments/wss721/thoughts_on_bank_of_america/) +There's about $50K in the 401K. It's made a whopping 2% return over the last few years. Honestly I've never seen that crazy of a portfolio for 401K, it's like an ETF with all sorts of holdings in bonds and weird MFs, which I know nothing about. (Don't invest into something you don't understand). + +I propose to move it over to roth IRA and split into: + +O - real estate exposure + +HD or WM - seem to be solid. Unlikely to be disrupted by any "tech" in the next 20 years. + +And SPHD - monthly drip + +Possibly SCHD - I think it's a very solid ETF. + +I have additional investments in crypto and some tech ETFs so I'm still relatively diversified. But that 401K isn't working. + +**Edit, I'm definitely dropping HD, for some reason I thought it was $86/share. WM probably not going to make the cut. +For a "dividend" buy-in, I don't want to look at anything above $100. Basically I don't see any reason to get something at $300 / share, if they pay you $.45 quarterly. I'm looking for more income to make drip compound faster. + +For growth I have exposure through other ETFs, where dividend income / drip isn't the primary goal. + +Long story short, my current plan is to go 30/30/20/20 on: +O, SCHD, SPHD and IDV to hedge against mostly US investments, which I carry otherwise. +I've been investing slowly for about 6 months and have done a bit of research on the dividend focused strategy. Could I get some feedback on my portfolio? I'm 31 now and am aiming for that 50k a year dividend goal. I'm using M1 Finance. I started the Taxable M1 account first (before I learned I could open a Roth) then the Roth. + +&#x200B; + +Only disclaimer: I bought CCL at $8.xx, hoping for long term growth (out of curiosity). :D + +&#x200B; + +Roth IRA: https://m1.finance/g49UJoVY2ogM + +Taxable M1: https://m1.finance/O3LvsbbuStox + +&#x200B; + +Thanks all +Hey everybody, CNR (NYSE:CNI) have announced a dividend increase today, which has put me over the $300 per month average milestone ($3600 per year)I was hoping to get to by end of 2020 (hey, it was close...) and as a Canadian with a tax-free savings account, I don’t even need to worry about capital gains or income tax on this money! + +With other stocks likely announcing increases next month (and no, of course it isn’t guaranteed, but they’re solid businesses so I don’t see why they won’t) my dividend income is likely to progress even further too! + +This is something to consider when building up your portfolio, back when I started with dividend stocks, my initial thought was to chase yield and while that can certainly have an early advantage, investing in companies that are able increase their payment each year can easily surpass that! Not to mention the ability to keep up with inflation when I start to draw this money out for living expenses. +I know this sub isn't a very active sub and it seems like the only activity we see are these YouTube links but damn. Can this activity be stopped by the mods? I not only believe it is useless to watch these videos but also can be careless to those who follow their advice. So far any of the videos I have came across are from amateur investors that really do not know enough to give advice. I would rather have a sub with occasional insight and genuine questions than this garbage spam. And if you don't think it's spam look through any of these users posts and you will see the trend. +I’m 24 and recently decided to dividend invest. The information from this Subreddit has been helpful. As of now I have settled for 20 stocks in my portfolio, cut it down from 45. Here’s what’s in my portfolio. ABBV, PFE, MRK, AAPL, MSFT, SO, NEE, DUK, MMM, GD, JPM, C, T, VZ, PEP, KO, MCD, O, PG, JNJ. To me this is a solid portfolio, but I’m open for critiques, and what would be some good ETF’s to get into? +My employer is continuously late on paychecks. I know its not everyone because people talk. Its really starting take a toll on making payments and clearing debt. I looked at my state labor laws (co) and all I found was what to do after a longer period of nonpayment. It hasn't hit the 15 day mark yet. I feel taken advantage of because when I talk to the lady in charge of payroll. She says "must be hung up, I submit another payment". I think they are waiting til I speak up before paying. Since I have never been doubled paid. + +What are my options without risking my job? I don't have the means to go looking for another job. I'm trying harder at cutting spending which has helped me not get overdraft fees. +Hello UKPF! + +I've been thinking of getting a credit card lately as I understand that they're good for building up a credit score. + +I don't think I need one though, I have no debt and never had the need to use my overdraft. Every month I manage to save between £400 and £500, and I have a 6 month emergency fund. So if the case arises that I need to spend big on something, I just take from the emergency fund and replenish it right away. I'm 29, rent in London and don't have children or car. + +I'm generally ok with managing my money and it scares me a bit to get a credit card as a debit account is very easy to manage. + +Should I get a credit card anyway? And if so, who would you recommend me to go with? I've had 2 Barclays accounts since I came to London 4 years ago, and use Monzo for my daily expenses. + +Thanks! +https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/27/alphabet-goog-earnings-q1-2021.html + +Earnings: $26.29 per share vs. $15.82 per share expected + +Revenue: $55.31 billion vs. $51.70 billion expected + +Google Cloud revenue: $4.05 billion $4.07 billion, according to FactSet estimates. + +YouTube ads: $6.01 billion vs. $5.70 billion, according to StreetAccount. + +Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC): $9.71 billion vs. $9.25 billion, according to FactSet estimates. + +This is a good quarter for google. It is really the best reopening play. The stock performance ytd has been outperforming the entire Faang group. + +Thanks for the awards. +First of all: Happy New Year dear ape family! 🦍🎉🚀🎇 + +I'm a Swedish ape who have gone through a lot of hardships to DRS my X shares. I had to sell all the toys, gaming consoles, everything left from my childhood to afford the shares since my life literally depends on the outcome. + +Ever since I read about Fidelity and what they did (and probably all other banks) I've felt that I wanted to go 100% DRS. I plan to sell late in MOASS to get the most out of it and I assume the best way is simply to sell directly from Computershare. I've seen in the CS thread how easy it is. + +When discussing this in a Swedish stocks discussion subreddit I got bombarded with FUD about how "one will need to have some shares insured by the DTCC so never DRS all your shares" and so on. Insured?! + +First of all, I don't trust any broker. My broker Avanza keeps our US "shares" (IOU's) in a bank in the US, I think it's JPMorgan but not 100% sure, and after reading about the Fidelity thing I'm sure they all lend them out without my consent anyway. I've also read about how some brokers automatically sold shares of other companies without the "owner's" consent when they started to skyrocket. + +Second, I think most of us here aim for the goal of securing the float through DRS to get the MOASS started. So why would there be any reason to keep IOU's at a broker? (A broker who refuses to DRS by the way, so I had to do it through IBKR.) + +Since my life literally depends on the outcome of all of this, it's extremely important for me to be able to rest assured I made the right decision and I am a worried type of person. Even if I make the most logic choice I can't help but worry. And that's why those people attack me with their FUD, I guess. Since I'm one of the "poorer" apes who absolutely needs every bit of the MOASS. + +I also know it's my money = my choice. I don't have anything left to lose so I'm ready to ride it to the moon or into the dirt. + +My fellow apes, would you please be so kind as to offer some words of encouragement in these (for me) dark times? And don't forget: I hodl for you, you hodl for me! 💗 + +&#x200B; + +EDIT: Thank you so much everyone for your support! And for proving the FUD-spreaders and bullies wrong. I'm leaving that Swedish subreddit now. Just the fact that they allow people to curse and bully each other for what financial decisions they make proves that it's not serious. The ape family is all that matters! Apes together strong! +EDIT 3: This thread has grown far beyond what I anticipated. To those that offered advice on the subject matter, thank you. To those that offered relationship advice, thanks but no thanks, I can head over to /r/relationships, and some of y'all need to stop with the negative outlook on life and relationships. It ain't all that bad! + +I'll preface this by saying that I've read some articles on the matter at hand, but I was hoping to get some opinions from /r/personalfinance on the matter. + +I have been with my SO for about 18 months now. She's an all around great girl, sharp (two bachelors) and a great job as an ICU RN. She has an income that's about 2x the mean for the area, and i'm about 1.5X. I myself do alright as well. If we were to get married today, we would have a combined income of about $130K, plenty of income to pay off student loans, buy a house and live comfortably. + +But we're not getting married today, instead, she is leaving the workforce for two years to attend an accelerated program in anesthesiology at a school/hospital about an hour away. It's a stressful program that requires 60-70 hours a week of classroom and study time. + +We came to the conclusion that it would be best to live together. We decided on a city/neighborhood about 10 minutes from the hospital and 55 minutes from my office. I'm OK with commuting for two years (it currently only takes me 5 minutes to get to work!), we plan to move back to the area when she is done with her program as her field is in high demand and the company I work for is growing rapidly. + +We started preparing for this over the past few months. We came to the conclusion that buying out her auto lease was a good decision as it would be damn near impossible for her to get financing next year when her lease came due. We started putting aside some money, individually, for moving expenses. But we haven't figured out how we're going to divide the costs. + +What kind of options do the fine people at /r/personalfinance propose when it comes to a couple moving in together. She will have no income other than student loan money (the program automatically budgets living/travel expenses into the tuition as they do not allow students to work during the program), and we can manage anything else just fine on my $60K/year. Do we get a joint checking account for common expenses/bills? Has anyone had success with doing a 60/40 or 70/30 split on expenses? Our rent at our new place will be $850 and I have no problem covering up to $600 of it as that is what I currently pay (thanks mid-west!). What about saving, new purchases? + +I'm honestly pretty lost on how to join finances with someone, something I'm not proud to admit at 32 years old. Maybe some of you with experience in this matter can provide some advice. + +edit: words + +edit 2: Just to be clear, I'm hoping this doesn't turn into an /r/relationship post. I was really hoping that I could just get some good ideas of how to make this happen. We're moving in together, that's happening. My commute is increasing, I signed up for this so I know it's not ideal. At this point, I'm hoping for different ideas on how to split costs when she will have a fixed income (loans) and I will have a salary. +Having traded since the late 90's, I can sincerely state that it's been easier then ever to make money. You have to realize, there is someone on the other side of the trade. That someone might be a fund, an algorithm or some rando like me. + +Since March 2020, the sudden volume of new participants has made the whole thing significantly easier because everyone who has done this for a long time sees the exact same newbie tendencies in themselves decades ago. Except the volume is 1000x + +Here are my 2 cents for what it's worth. Hopefully y'all come out of the other side of this. + +1. "You don't lose till you sell" (sunk cost) is bullshit. If you enter a trade without a hard downside limit to get out, then you are gambling, not trading. + +2. If you don't have a hard exit of which to set your exit point with trailing stops on the upside, you are gambling and not trading. + +3. Those YouTube video with literal children telling you which stocks to pick and how to read charts are peak stupid. That said, note what they are pumping because you know everyone else will be, creating a nice feed forward loop. + +4. You don't have to make all the money. You just need to make some money. This little reminder is probably the main reason I'm successful. Before you fomo in, say it to yourself. + **Dalio says we’re headed to a ‘warlike environment’** + +Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge-fund behemoth Bridgewater Associates, believes investors haven’t necessarily been investing on a firm footing and that’s a condition that will eventually have to be rectified. + +The prominent investor, during [**a particularly downbeat CNBC interview**](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/11/05/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-bridgewater-founder-ray-dalio.html) on Tuesday, suggested investors are flush with cash because of monetary policy but haven’t been discerning about selecting investment strategies. They are “buying dreams rather than earnings and stocks,” he said. + +[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/founder-of-worlds-biggest-hedge-fund-warns-of-big-squeeze-with-investors-buying-dreams-rather-than-earnings-2019-11-05](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/founder-of-worlds-biggest-hedge-fund-warns-of-big-squeeze-with-investors-buying-dreams-rather-than-earnings-2019-11-05) +Presumably things like energy, subscriptions, and anything imported is more or less the same. If I do things like cook most meals at home anyway, is it just my rent/home prices that will be lower for similar space? +So this is just a question to all of you really as to how you manage your finances between you and your partner or person you live with. + +How do you manage a distance in income between the both of you? If so does that affect the amount someone contributes towards household bills. + +For example: + +Both me and my partner split the bills down the middle. I transfer slightly more for what I consider luxeries benifiting just me, like a faster broadband connection. + +However, I earn quite a bit more than her expecially in the last year where her industry hasn't been doing very well. + +I want to balance the fairness a little better. Whilst my half of the household bills doesn't skint me, it does her. So wanted to know if there's a nice bit of formula you nice people follow to make it 'fair'. We are very open about finances in general, she knows how much money I have spare each month and she's never complained about having no money. But, I know that she must not have much money left and what she does has left she normally saves it anyway. A very frugal person for sure. I on the other hand have no where near the amount of money saved as her, and considering I earn a lot more than her it's a bit shameful really. Do you take that into account for splitting bills? + +Looking into my friendship group for inspiration they either split everything evenly because they're closer together in terms of salary, or they have children where one person isn't working at the moment. + +Edit: + +Just to give a bit more information on this. We have a joint account where all our bills and rent come out off and we also have our own bills that we pay for from our own accounts. We only split the joint bills. I can imagine most people do it this way, and it's worked very well for us. + +Edit 2: + +Wow! I'm shocked at how many of you have replied to this, thank you all for your comments and suggestions. +1. Go against the general sentiment of this sub. Seriously - fuck this sub for being so full of obviously the wrong information at the wrong time. I'm not saying there isn't quality content here - you just have to wade through a sea of shit to get to it. + + +2. Take this rare and amazing opportunity that your brain has presented you with - giving a flying fuck about something that can have world changing consequences for you. Make a god damn entry/exit plan. Set some goals. Spend proper time learning about investing and stop looking at damn memes/being entertained by the equivalent of crypto reality TV. + + +3. If you've spent a reasonable amount of time researching crypto and you don't feel comfortable with these dips and corrections - get the fuck out. Seriously - you are doing something very wrong. You have either invested more than you can afford to lose, invested in shitcoins, invested without spending the time to understand the market and tech or don't really believe the technology is quite that revolutionary. If any of these are true - chances are you are not making it big time. + + +4. When the suicide prevention hotline is posted here- this is the time to buy. When your hairdresser mentions thinking about "buying into this whole bitcoin thing", it's time to cash out - all of it, a half, a quarter, a fifth - whatever goal you set earlier. It's hard to not FOMO when things are going great. It's hard buy dips when it only seems the dips get worse and worse. But honestly that's about it - once you truly figure that out you will realize that's all the investment advice you ever need for crypto. Buy low, sell high - easy to say, hard to do. + + +5. You can't day trade. You can't predict the dip or the peak. Sure, you'll get your lucky break and think you are crypto Jesus. Sure there's that guy you know who knows exactly when to tether up, when to cash out, when buy in again. You're not him - you're retarded. The only way to make it big is to invest based on things within your control - choosing quality technology, reliable team members, proven track records, real world results, etc. + +Finally, bitcoin might be worth $1000 again tomorrow and I might be left holding some heavy bags - and I'm OK with that. Oh, I'll be pissed and it will set me back financially a few years, but I will go to bed and sleep like a fucking baby. Because I'm not a pussy. These fucking whale manipulations and fluctuations just give me a god damn boner like I've never had before. I didn't come here for the security and reliability - I came here TO MAKE IT BIG BABY. + +This post might or might not have been conceived under the influence of half a bottle of jameson. + + +EDIT: Can't spell. + + +EDIT 2: Please take this purely for entertainment purposes and don't listen to my advice. I really don't know what I'm talking about. +[GameStop.com](https://www.gamestop.com/) || Shop [Internationally](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/vyyzmx/gamestop_retail_international_nft_game_informer/) || [NFT Marketplace](https://nft.gamestop.com) + +GameStop [Investor Relations](https://news.gamestop.com/) + +# 🙋 ​[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/) + +# 📚 Library of Due Diligence [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg) + +>A collection of over 200 of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence. 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 + +&#x200B; + +# 🟣 [Computershare Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/yjawq7) + +>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! + +# 🏆 [Computershare AMA #3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/z16nw3/superstonks_3rd_ama_with_paul_conn_president_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) + +# 💎🤝 [Help Revise Superstonk's Subreddit Rules - Start Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/z1fs86/help_revise_superstonks_subreddit_rules_start_here/) + +>Based on feedback from the most recent revision to Rule 2, we're asking for comments on all of our rules for the sub, some of which will contain our proposal for discussion on revisions. + +# 🎁 [Very GMErry Holidays returns for more cheer!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ylyszu/very_gmerry_holidays_returns_for_more_cheer_wont/) + +>Superstonk held a toy drive for Toys for Tots (TFT) last year and we raised over $103,000 in money and toys! +> +>We even had a way for Apes to shop GameStop.com and ship it directly to a TFT site that was super close to a GameStop distribution center in Grapevine, TX. +> +>We had a huge positive impact! And we’re doing it again. + +# 🚀 [GameStop Wallet HELP! Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/z23wjx/gamestop_wallet_help_megathread/?sort=new) + +>Need some guidance with the Wallet, Activation, Buying/Sending/Receiving NFTS, or getting a cool wallet address? Join us here! + +🏴‍☠️ [NFT Marketplace & Wallet Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/vluysg/gamestop_nft_marketplace_wallet_megathread/) + +>Why is GameStop getting into NFTs? *WTF* even is an NFT? How do I set up a GameStop Wallet? How do I get a cool/custom wallet address? All these questions and more are answered here! + +**Read** [**the Rules & Wiki**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) **||** [**MOASS FAQ**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq) **|| Join our** [**Discord**](https://discord.gg/Superstonk) + +How to [feed DRSBOT](https://www.reddit.com/r/GMEOrphans/comments/qlvour/welcome_to_gmeorphans_read_this_post/). Low karma? Post your DRS on r/GMEOrphans + +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 user flairs, find [custom emoji options here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/yuarvq/how_to_get_a_userflair_on_superstonk_new_emojis) +**EDIT:** See comments below. It seems my math is off. Will need a lot more thinking, since I feel like people have proven it's never a good idea to pay off your mortgage ;) + +We regularly have posts asking if they should pay off their mortgage during the FI process. I feel we most often reply with hand wavy "I think I can make more than 4%" and "I feel better if I pay it off". Not very data driven. I'd like to hear people's opinions if the below resonates to mathematically explain the tradeoffs. If so, considering this is a common question, I could consider adding something similar to the FAQ. + +\-=-=-=-=- + +Assume you have expenses of $80k. You have savings of $2.5 million. You have a home worth $500k, and to keep it simple, a $500k mortgage. A calculator shows at a 4% rate, a $2387 monthly mortgage payment. + +**Scenario 1**: $108,644 expenses, $2.5 million in savings. You're keeping the mortgage. + +**Scenario 2**: $80k expenses, $2 million in savings. You've paid off the mortgage. + +FireCalc ([https://www.firecalc.com/firecalcresults.php](https://www.firecalc.com/firecalcresults.php)) says (for 30 years): + +**Scenario 1**: **89% success rate**. " The lowest and highest portfolio balance at the end of your retirement was $-2,262,401 to $13,415,907, with an average at the end of $3,944,811." + +**Scenario 2**: **94.9% success rate**. " The lowest and highest portfolio balance at the end of your retirement was $-801,972 to $11,358,949, with an average at the end of $3,721,201. " + +Seems clear (and what people regularly say). Paying off your mortgage reduces risk. Keeping your mortgage will on average make you more wealthy. + +\-=-=-=-=- + +**Potential complaint:** This doesn't take into account the portion of principal your mortgage would be paying off. + +**True -** My assumption is that you live in your home for the next 30 years, and you don't move. Therefore, principal payments vs mortgage balance don't make a difference, since your home value could be $10 or $10 million, it only matters if you're planning to sell. YMMV. + +**Potential complaint:** This doesn't take into account the tax benefits of mortgage payments. + +**True -** Due to standard deduction, I'm going to assume \*most\* people won't benefit much, and it wasn't worth the complexity. +**Thank you for all the help everyone. I've come to find that I do in fact have a dodgy boiler. It's been on full blast for nearly 2 years straight. Brilliant... Now to work out the next step. I'll be leaving this thread up in case anyone else has something to gain from it. Again, thank you all so much.** + + +Student based in Cornwall here, I've just been hit with an absolutely whopping electricity bill of £1,800 from Octopus Energy. While there is more to it, I'm simply not going to be able to afford this and I'm worried, big time. There must be something I can do about this, it just doesn't seem right... + +I've noticed a weird pattern (or lack there of) between "Submitted Readings" and "Estimated Readings" As explained in the email screenshots. I've since been told that it's all correct and upon telling them I'm totally screwed and that I'm unable to pay this their response has been "If you are unable to pay immediately then we can set up a direct debit in which you'll need to cover the payment within the next 14 days" - So let's get this straight, I'm a student from the UK, with no income, expected to cough up 2k in 14 days, how is this possible? And what legal action are they going to be able to take if and when I don't pay this? + +Can someone please have a little look through this album and let me know if there's anything can do. I'm worried sick about what's going to happen... + +[https://imgur.com/a/ZeIJ7ty](https://imgur.com/a/ZeIJ7ty) + +Edit: So after receiving a few comments on /r/PersonalFinance it appears that the readings are correct, however the amount of energy used is absolutely huge. For a flat of 4 people, 3 of which work full time , I'm not sure how it's possible to use nearly 14kWh in a year. What could be happening here? Nobody is mining Bitcoin, yea we use laptops and computers a lot for Uni work but that's nothing too mad. + +Any help means a lot, thanks in advance. + +Edit2: So I've had a look at my meter and even with every circuit still on, it's hardly ticking now. Compared to the evenings at least, now that could be when everyone is in (but what is 3 extra people on a laptop going to do). Or it could be due to something on a timer. I'm thinking the water tank might be set ridiculously high. Could it really be adding that much up though even on a timer? +The [House Financial Services Committee Report on GameStop](https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/6.22_hfsc_gs.report_hmsmeetbp.irm.nlrf.pdf) recommends giving the DTCC & NSCC more money. + +[\[PG-13\] \(Simulation Confirmed\)](https://preview.redd.it/byisyyk4w0891.png?width=1642&format=png&auto=webp&s=5441acb8e797a7b00271eb606a1e031b03796207) + +**Why does the DTCC and the NSCC need an emergency backstop funding facility?** + +[\[pg 116\]](https://preview.redd.it/uycsf8dhw0891.png?width=1822&format=png&auto=webp&s=a44ba99dd13ae98e35da157e746be52f9fbeeea2) + +An emergency backstop funding facility (💳) for "member firms who are unable to meet collateral deposit requirements". ***Oook Oook Oook!*** + +*Wut mean?* + +🤦‍♂️ The House Financial Services Committee is recommending member firms get a line of credit 💳through the NSCC (and, by extension, the DTCC) to *"meet collateral deposit requirements"*. 🦵🥫 + +🦧 The GameStop problem is now possibly bigger than what the "loss absorption waterfall embedded in the NSCC rules" can handle. + +**CRIME**: Instead of fixing the market to ensure integrity, money printer go brrr! 🖨💵💵💵💵💵 +Today my wife was looking at her 401(k) and was pissed off that she was down 4% since she started contributing. She started asking why we were wasting money in the market if her portfolio is down in a 5 year period where most other securities are up. Setting aside the reasons for that (for the curious...her company matches entirely in company stock, which we rebalance away quarterly, but not fast enough apparently...it's dropped from above $30 to under $10 in the last year....I'm amazed we've only "lost" 4% under those conditions), and also setting aside that we're in it for 30 years, not 5, I was running some numbers to show her that I thought might be worthwhile for r/pf. + +She has contributed the maximum allowed to her 401(k) every year since she started this job and has accumulated $129,000. The web interface reports that she's averaged -4% rate of return every year. But has she really? What has she put in versus what she has now? The company is actually matching some of her contributions 100%, so even with heavy losses she should make out like a bandit. + +And that's what I proved to her: + +Year|Max Contribution +------|------- +2011| 16500 +2012| 17000 +2013| 17500 +2014| 17500 +2015| 18000 +Sum of Contributions| 86500 +Actual Total| 129,000 +Company Match Plus 'Gains'| 42,500 + +Even with a good chunk of her match being made in a continually declining security, which is an abnormality for most folks, she's averaged about a 16% "return" each year. THAT'S why we "waste" the money in the market. Even with the incredible losses of the matched stock, the combined return is more than good enough. +Background: + +In May I got the "brilliant" idea of beefing up the security of my BitcoinQT wallet by replacing its password with a longer passphrase. Somehow I managed to mistype the passphase twice. I tried every thing I could think of (adding spaces, inverting capitalization, etc. etc.) but without success, even automating the guesses with a simple script from someone on bitcointalk. + +Eventually I wrote the coins off and my next wallet passphrase was typed with extreme caution. (Plus I switched to using Armory where the paper backup feature is a nice safety valve.) I gave the wallet.dat file to a few people who contacted me via the bitcointalk forums, and thought that was the end of it. + +So last night, I'm obsessively watching the BTC-CNY exchange rate like everyone else, when I get an email from one "Dave Bitcoin" who announced that he had cracked the passphrase (after more than 5 months!). In short order he sent me 2.0 of the original 2.5 BTC in the wallet (keeping a finder's fee we had agreed to when I originally sent him the wallet file, not that I was in a particularly good bargaining position). + +It was a very pleasant surprise that he (a) was able to crack the wallet, and (b) was honest enough to return the coins. He mentioned in the email that part of his motivation for (b) is that he has started a business doing wallet recovery. I figure the least I can do is vouch for his competence and integrity. So all you morons out there who lost a wallet like me, consider using Dave's services at http://walletrecoveryservices.com/. +With many investors leaning towards index funds lately, won't the already big companies have to deal with the high capital inflow they may actually don't need? + +What are your arguments against passive investing or views supporting it. +|MphasiS|945.4|-0.04| +:--|--:|--:| +|TTK Prestige|7121.85|-0.04| +|Chennai Petro|213.35|-0.05| +|Mindtree|980.05|-0.18| +|Infosys|722.4|-0.21| +|Finolex Cables|425.6|-0.23| +|Emami|367.7|-0.27| +|Petronet LNG|236|-0.27| +|SIS|879.55|-0.28| +|TVS Srichakra|2060.65|-0.28| +|eClerx Services|927|-0.33| +|Grindwell Norto|595.6|-0.36| +|Oracle Fin Serv|3426.85|-0.38| +|Rajesh Exports|668.6|-0.39| +|Tata Elxsi|861.4|-0.4| +|Suven Life Sci|253.95|-0.43| +|Zensar Tech|245.9|-0.49| +|NESCO|478.35|-0.54| +|Symphony|1222.55|-0.57| +|Eveready Ind|74.2|-0.67| +|Tech Mahindra|779.35|-0.7| +|Varun Beverages|908.75|-0.7| +|Glenmark|576.7|-0.76| +|Hatsun Agro|719.15|-0.91| +|Aurobindo Pharm|664.25|-0.92| +|Bajaj Auto|3006.3|-1.11| +|Bata India|1357.8|-1.24| +|Interglobe Avi|1454.95|-1.28| +|Page Industries|22464.8|-1.31| +|Sun Pharma Adv|146.3|-1.35| +|Heritage Foods|441.45|-1.56| +|L&amp;T Infotech|1759.6|-1.6| +|Tata Chemicals|609.45|-1.66| +|TV TodayNetwork|278.1|-1.8| +|Thomas Cook|241.05|-1.93| +|Balkrishna Ind|778.9|-2.01| +|Sudarshan Chem|310.4|-2.02| +|Thyrocare Techn|434.7|-2.08| +|Excel Crop Care|3026.8|-2.3| +|Zee Entertain|362.5|-2.59| +|Mcleod|30.95|-4.62| +|Jubilant Life|565.15|-5.1| +|Dr Reddys Labs|2589.4|-5.67| +Right now I invest only in Mutual Funds. Recently opened Zerodha account to invest in Direct MFs, and also to invest in stocks. + +I am only interested in Long term stock investing, not day trading. What stocks do you guys own in your folio which are more than 1/3/5 years old? If more than 3, what are your top 3 holdings? +I'm from NJ and I want to move to Southern California. How much money should I have before I make the move? What are some of the best ways to earn a good living out there? +It's that time of the month. Some of us just received cash from salary or business income. What are you planning to invest in? What did you sell, and why? If you are continuing to hold onto existing investments, what are they and why do you hold them? Are you avoiding anything? Again, why? + +The discussion is not just for individual stocks of companies, but also for mutual funds and other investments. Feel free to share your investment rationale. This thread does not exist not only for disseminating knowledge on investment decisions (the why?). Others are free to assess your rationale. + +Be aware that these answers are just opinions of Redditors and should be used as a starting point for your research. None of this is investment advice or a stock recommendation. Kindly do your due diligence and/or consider seeing a registered investment advisor before making any financial decisions! + +Previous [Links](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=monthly+discussion+thread+&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) + +PS: Be friendly. Be civil. +This has been by far one of the toughest weeks. Im legit seconds from just breaking down. It seems like the minute i start doong good the drought hits me even harder. +I just put my financials back into perspective and had everything planned out. Only to get hit with a 200 dollar phone bill and a fucking +114 dollar overdraft fee thanks to blink fitness. Like this is the most bullshit. I thought hey maybe my school refund would come and help me. Lol guess what. That shit aint coming. I spent 100 on books. Thank god for ebooks. I have to wait two more weeks. My job is only paying 260. Like i really didnt know life was planning to hit me so hard. Welp thanks for listening to me vent. Good luck with the rest of your evening. Cause o just want my bed. +I just got hired and my dad has a yearly fishing trip planned for friday and sat, I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse to miss 2 days. If someone gives me a good one i will pay them $5 venmo or pay pal +This is not a get quick rich post, I'm just curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this idea. + +Imagine you are given $100 in cash from a friend. Your goal is to turn that $100 into as much money as possible over the course of a few hours (let's say 4 hours). You live in an urban area and transportation. What kind of things would you try? +I'm 16 and I'm tried of doing nothing ,is there anyway that I can start making money over the Internet that pays good or any other method of making cash out side of the Internet +Hi Guys! Im 14 and I'm going to end up with around $1500 at the end of summer from work, rather than spending the money I would rather invest it. any suggestions in where the money should go? Thanks in advance :D +My mom rarely uses her email ID so she hasn't received spams in all these years. Recently I moved my mom's demat account to Zerodha and within a month her email is bombarded by spams selling financial products. Has anyone experienced this? +Been browsing historic prices of Gold in INR and USD, and see this interesting trend with them. USD prices saw some kind of fluctuations, that went down by 42% between 2012 and 2016, and then came back to the highs in 2020. + +INR price - [https://imgur.com/GqWdCCZ](https://imgur.com/GqWdCCZ)USD price - [https://imgur.com/7jCwvpK](https://imgur.com/7jCwvpK) + +INR Prices pretty much are trending upwards. It does not make sense to me including USD getting stronger against INR. Between 2012-16, INR weakened by \~20% against USD, gold price lowered only \~10% in INR while it was easily 70% or more in USD. + +I always thought gold is an international commodity and prices and consistent across the world. Does domestic factors effect the price as well. +Can someone explain how imposing more tariff lead to decline of the economy of the nation. For instance take an example of US imposing tariff on 200 billion us dollars on Chinese goods. It has to show and it has to lead rise in economy of US by the end of 2020. But I've read an article where the impact will be completely reverse. Moreover how it would effect the other nations mostly India. +>A person with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named said that the exposure was backed by collateral of shares in Zee Entertainment and Dish TV. He added that the collateral was greater than the amount owed to the fund house but the fund manager would exercise the collateral as per his discretion. He added that the specific paper held by Franklin was not downgraded but the AMC had proactively taken the measure. Franklin Templeton amended its schemes to allow for side pocketing on November 22th. However due to the mandatory 1 month exit-load free period that has to be given to investors, side pocketing cannot be carried out against the Essel paper. + +I didn't get why they are not using side-pocketing and going straight to write down? Also why are they not selling/using the collateral shares. Also why is only 50% written down. Is this money permanently gone? + +[Tata fund which I held was also in similar situation when DHFL collapsed in June. They also were in the middle of this free exit load period when DHFL collapsed. However, DHFL is now part of side-pocket.](https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/stock-markets/tata-mutual-to-side-pocket-dhfl-investment-more-fund-houses-to-follow/article27582857.ece) + +I held high regards for Franklin in terms of trust but their actions in this case is not reflecting the investor capital protection. Their so-called proactive measures are hurting investor returns. + +Can someone please explain how this action will benefit investors? + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +[https://www.livemint.com/mutual-fund/mf-news/franklin-templeton-mutual-fund-writes-down-exposure-to-essel-infraprojects-11575618750654.html](https://www.livemint.com/mutual-fund/mf-news/franklin-templeton-mutual-fund-writes-down-exposure-to-essel-infraprojects-11575618750654.html) + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +Edit1: Not sure how Mint calculated the NAV fall but from VR datapoints I see it fell from 22.65 to 22.20. That makes it roughly 2% fall. Is media getting its calcs wrong? +Hi everyone. There's been a lot of days this summer where I'm not really doing anything so I want to do something productive. I figure doing something to earn money is productive, but I can't get a job or commit to anything for an extended amount of time due to other commitments (volunteer work, family vacation , etc). Do you guys have any ideas on something I could do for a day (I'd likely do multiple days) to earn money with minimal prior experience and planning to do the task? Something you could just get out of bed and the morning and do (like mowing a neighbors lawn or something). So yeah any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance. +Ps. If you guys know another good subreddit to ask this on, let me know. Thanks +State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has declined a government call for a dividend for the last financial year, saying it did not have “any cash and bank balance” and that its debt-to-income ratio was much higher than agreed with some lenders, showed an internal document reviewed by Reuters. + +... + +SAIL’s refusal could make it harder for the government to meet its budgeted target of raising 1.06 trillion rupees ($14.95 billion) from the dividends and profit of state-owned companies this fiscal year ending March. Last fiscal year, the government received 1.23 billion rupees, 13 percent below the then target. + +Link: [https://in.reuters.com/article/sail-india/exclusive-sail-declines-dividend-to-government-cites-financial-covenant-risk-idINKCN1LG0WC](https://in.reuters.com/article/sail-india/exclusive-sail-declines-dividend-to-government-cites-financial-covenant-risk-idINKCN1LG0WC) +[https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/investors-body-claims-over-10-mfs-may-go-franklin-templeton-way-causing-rs-15-lakh-cr-loss/2182725/lite/](https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/investors-body-claims-over-10-mfs-may-go-franklin-templeton-way-causing-rs-15-lakh-cr-loss/2182725/lite/) + +I feel that a withdrawal frenzy can only cause this. +There has been a divergence between GDP growth and Earnings growth of Listed companies in India over the last ten years. During this period the nominal GDP has grown at a CAGR of 12.8%, whereas the Earnings growth of listed companies was a CAGR of 4.1%. + +&#x200B; + +There could be many factors behind this divergence. However, what could be the most significant factor. I think it is the growth of employee cost. To understand this, we need to understand the relationship between value added (the component of GDP) and Company Financials. + +&#x200B; + +Broadly, we can approximate, + +Value added by a Company= Profits +Wages. + +&#x200B; + +The earnings of top 10 listed companies by profits in the last ten years have grown at a CAGR of 9.8%, whereas the employee cost for top 10 listed companies by wages has grown at a CAGR of 14.6%. Combining these two, Earnings+Employee cost has grown at a CAGR of 12.5%, which is more or less the same as the growth of nominal GDP, which is 12.8%. + +This also partly explains why the consumer sector has been the best performing sector in recent years. + +&#x200B; + +P.S The numbers used here are not precise. The only purpose of this analysis is to see how wages could have been the driver of GDP growth. +I have applied for health insurance for a family member but it has been denied by the company due to PED. + +I have taken the policy via Policybazaar EMI. + +Charges in my credit card statement shows + +Policybazaar - 49451 +Principal amt amortisation - 2467 +Interest amt amortisation - 618 +IGST CI - 111 +IGST CI - 36 +Processing fee - 199 +Instant EMI conversion + 49451 + +Now I don't expect to get the processing fee of rs 199 returned. (I was not informed about this charge from policybazaar, but as I got a no-cost-EMI... total interest amount discounted upfront like what amazon does, the 200 rs charge was worth my convenience). + +All the charges above has been done within 6-8 August. I've been denied insurance today 21 August and they said money will be refunded within 7-10 days. + +1. Will I get the interest amount 618 back? + +2. Will I get gst amount 147 back? + +Do I have to call and cancel EMI separately or it'll happen automatically and my credit card block will be opened for the whole amount? + + +Edit: also if you people know of any HI plans which cover elderly (58y) person with history of cancer completely cured 6 yrs back and no recurrence documented regularly, please let me know. +I have been using Zerodha's Coin for long time for Mutual fund investment and I have got access to Paytm Money. I haven't seen/used Kuvera or Groww. I found few features like risk meter, sectors or companies invested in, fund managers profile, fund ratings etc. on Paytm Money interesting, important and easy to access for people investing through direct mutual funds. Can we discuss advantages and disadvantages comparing all the major available apps? +I’m 15m. I was looking into this thing called “mud lurking” where you basically dig through the mud looking for old artifacts. I live in Canada Ontario, and there used to be natives living here. I can go to the places where they used to be, and dig for coins, parts, weapons etc then sell it as a bid on eBay or something. I could get a permit if it’s required (I’ll look it up). + +How’s this sound? You can use it too if you think it sounds good haha +It's that time of the month. Some of us just received cash from salary or business income. What are you planning to invest in? What did you sell, and why? If you are continuing to hold onto existing investments, what are they and why do you hold them? Are you avoiding anything? Again, why? + +The discussion is not just for individual stocks of companies, but also for mutual funds and other investments. Feel free to share your investment rationale. This thread does not exist not only for disseminating knowledge on investment decisions (the why?). Others are free to assess your rationale. + +Be aware that these answers are just opinions of Redditors and should be used as a starting point for your research. None of this is investment advice or a stock recommendation. Kindly do your due diligence and/or consider seeing a registered investment advisor before making any financial decisions! + +PS: Be friendly. Be civil. +I’m considering two different jobs. + +One is very high stress with a pretty high salary and has a ton of opportunities to get jobs that’ll pay 150k-200k + +The other is very laid back, at a university. Salary will be mid 60k for a few years and six figures in about 10 years but it has AMAZING benefits and few enough hours so I could have a side hustle. + +My question is, how significant is income to financial independence? +Hi all, I have shares in a company called MindMed, researching Psychedelic medicine and therapies, however Euroclear, Hargreaves Landsdowns custodian no longer wants involvement with 'cannabis related stocks' + +They have given me 3 options + +Sell now (big loss) + +They sell automatically by January 2023 + +I transfer stock to another broker + +The problem is, are there any UK brokers that don't use Euroclear? + +I'm afraid that I'll have no option but to sell at a loss +And surprise you need internet for crypto… + +&#x200B; + +Coming from a person living in Lebanon (a country on the verge of political, economical, and civil collapse) I can tell you that only a self centered asshole will look at what's going on Kazakhstan and just think of Bitcoin. + +&#x200B; + +They're having much bigger problems than mining, I can assure you that. + +&#x200B; + +And if you really want to bring crypto into it, this might be the chance for alts to finally decouple from BTC. + +&#x200B; + +It’s slowly but surely happening and I already bought some DeFi alts like Curve cause I think its the best DeFi project and some BitDAO considering how much they’ve been investing in the DeFi space recently. + +&#x200B; + +Many are the times that BTC has ruined an uptrend cause it went down 0.01%. So this might actually be good for the market long term if you all care about is crypto in this humanitarian disaster… +I've been investing in stocks for some time and only relatively recently got into crypto on a larger scale. In the time I've been in crypto I've seen my investments make far more in a far shorter time. + +Day trading has never been my thing; i'm a put money in and let it sit kind of person and with crypto I just feel much more relaxed. Particularly as you don't really have to use a broker - just transfer your coins to a wallet and secure your passphrase. + +The potential for mass adoption is so exciting to me; I will always diversify but most of what i have invested is now in crypto. + +Crypto just seems on the verge of mass adoption and the monetary explosion which comes with it. +I am not sure what is needed to officially announce the bear market but I believe we are already in the middle of it. + +In traditional markets, some say that a bear market is indicated when a 20% price drop occurs within a 60-day period. This downturn is typically the result of investor pessimism related to a loss of confidence in the overall performance of the market prices. + +Bitcoin held up nicely between $42-45k but fell now to $39k. As you all would know Bitcoin reached its ath not too long ago of $69k. + +So I am not sure what we are waiting for, do we need a crypto VIP to tell us that the crypto winter has started? +I am coming up on a liquidity event that will net my wife & I $5MM. All of this is just happenstance, right place right time. She comes from a rural upbringing and I’d like to make my timely departure from corporate life into challenging work on my schedule. Does anyone have any experience with running a small hobby farm with salaries help? I was thinking just on the SWR of $5mm, we could probably fund a few fieldhands and folks to help us operate the hobby farm. We could probably offer onsite accommodations, food, etc. with a modest salary to accompany. Wanting to steer clear of WWOOF, etc. not interested in transients. + + +Anyone tried anything similar? +Many of you maybe still work a 9-5 full time iob and daytrade too. My question is, how do you manage to stick to this long term? To learn how to trade after you came home from an exhausting job. How do you find your balance? + +In my case I work 8-5. I commute between 1 hr - 1hr 30 mins drive so I wake up at 5:30, I leave around 6;40 am and I get home at around 6:40 pm usually. + +By the time I’m home I’m completely exhausted, I need to do my workout, do housework and I try hard to stick to my listings and the news. (i also use the hour lunch break to analyze the market). +I also have a small night self care routine (girls will understand this need more maybe). + + +But my mind is too tired. Maybe I do something wrong but I feel long term I can’t do this at a professional level if I also keep my full time job. + +I’m afraid to drop my job now in corona times. The crisis will hit harder. Maybe I do something wrong. Maybe you handle this better. +Are you able to trade while you are at your work? How do you cope with it? + +Thanks guys! Best wishes! +My boyfriend and I are in the very preliminary stages of thinking of buying a house. Mortgage payments are a similar price range to our current rent so we aren’t worried there. The down payment and closing costs are the main issue as we don’t have enough saved up for a substantial one of either. + +Will it be almost impossible to win a bid on a house with no down payment? Is it true that you’re able to roll closing costs into a mortgage? +I’m genuinely confused here. All the airlines are down despite the fact that TSA numbers show that yesterday’s number of people flying were 87% if the same day in 2019, pre pandemic. + +All of the airlines showed profitability on their last earnings reports and the surge in flying for the Holidays is expected to exceed 2019. + +The White House has said that oil supplies are supposed to normalize in January 2022 bringing down the cost of fuel and every airline is announcing daily more flights and more bookings. + +Airports are packed and passengers are being bumped on full flights left and right. + +Am I missing something? Has the entire market just decided Rivian and Tesla are the only places to put capital? + +What in the fiddlers fuck is going on? +So, I recently found out that I made partner at a "biglaw" firm, which means that I'll go from making 500-600k a year to meaningfully more than $1M a year (don't want to get into specifics because it will out the firm I'm at), essentially for as long as I care to stay in the job. + +I'm honestly not sure what to do. This isn't a "life calling" for me, in that if I won the lottery tomorrow and had $15M in my bank account post-taxes, I would 100% quit. My current NW is \~$1.5-2.7M, depending on how you count it. $1.5M is post-tax if I exclude my home equity (I paid my mortgage off early so this is a huge hit) and include what I call net college costs, which is the sum of (x) current cost of attendance at the most expensive private colleges for my kid; plus (y) 4 years of in-state tuition for another family member; minus (z) what I have in 529 savings (this is about a $180k deduct right now, i.e., I have to save another $180k for college to zero this out)). $2.7M is pre-tax if I include my home equity and exclude net college costs (including that I exclude the 529 savings, which I no longer view as "my" money). + +I have a lot of insurance--life, disability, umbrella, etc. + +I'm in my upper 30s. Spouse keeps our household going and is priceless in that regard, but doesn't bring in a separate income. Kid is 4. + +I'm just kind of lost. I never expected to make partner at my firm, I've just been kind of staggering until they fire me and, lo and behold, they haven't fired me. I spend about $110k/year right now in COVID-world (excluding income taxes, including property taxes, insurance, etc.), a number that will go up significantly once traveling is happening again and eating out is happening again, so probably a realistic baseline of something like $150-200k/year (again, excluding income taxes). There are definitely things I'd like to spend more money on that I haven't--personal training once COVID isn't as much of a concern (my health is very poor and I haven't been able to self- motivate to work out in the last 2 years), upgraded travel, eating out, massage (I have a lot of pain and massage is basically the only thing that provides temporary relief). + +My fatFIRE number is probably around $12M if I'm really focused on it in terms of truly optimized. $6.7M (3% SWR of 200k for myself and my spouse). $700k for college savings (different from net college costs above... this is a more generous savings amount that would include grad school for my kid and more than in-state tuition for other family members). $5M for generational wealth to pass down to my kid (I am getting nothing from my family whatsoever and want to be able to provide something for my kid given the position I am in.. enable my kid to choose what they do with their life). + +I'm inevitably going to have some lifestyle inflation from making partner, which is why I'm really keyed at $200k/year. So assuming $200k/year spend--which I fear isn't high enough, because I can definitely see how I could get higher than that--and an all-in effective tax rate of 45%, I should be able to save $500k-$1M per year (I know that's a large range). So rough justice, I can be done in a decade, assuming essentially flat market returns. + +I don't really want to do this job for another 10 years (and have no idea whether I'll actually make it another 10 years). I'll basically miss my kid's entire childhood. Obviously I could cut several years off if I cut out the substantial generational wealth component, but I'm confident that even though my kid would rather have more time with me now, in 30 years or whatever, my kid will be better off from an overall life perspective with the money. + +Anyone else here found their way to fatfire through this kind of professional services firm track? So many people around here are basically "lol $10M in early 30s from tech stock, thanks very much." I never expected to find myself in this position don't really know whether I want to actually be in this position, and I guess I'm just looking for advice/thoughts from people that have found success/balance/happiness out of similar circumstances. + +I have no practical exit options, by the way. I made partner because I specialized, but my specialization doesn't translate. So as long as I'm in this job, I have crazy, crazy hours--I exist to bring in a paycheck and very little else. Which is fine, that's my highest and best use, but I'll admit that it makes me tired, from time to time. +Like many of you on here I run a SMB (saas) and have the usual set of assets--primary house, rental property, and some securities. + +My accounting firm is quoting me around $14k for this years tax prep. We're providing them with clean books and organized docs. I know there are a lot variables at play here, but the number sounded high and I wanted to get a pulse on what others in the group were paying. +Gold has a reputation as a good hedge against inflation, so if gold is rising, it must be that markets are sniffing out inflation, right? Crispin Odey, a European hedge fund manager, even argues that governments may ban private gold ownership if they lose control of inflation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. + +But that line of thinking simply doesn’t stand up. Inflation has been dropping as a result of the pandemic, not rising. Consumer prices fell 0.4% in March and 0.8% in April. The destruction in demand from high unemployment has more than offset the reduction in supply from shutdowns of factories, slaughterhouses, and the like. Sure, the Federal Reserve is offering lots of low-cost loans, but without demand from borrowers it’s about as effective as pushing on a string. So, no inflation from the Fed, either. + +There’s a more straightforward explanation for gold’s recent rise. Gold goes up when interest rates go down. This pair of charts shows the relationship. If you adjust the price of gold for inflation, you see it falling in the early part of the past decade as the real yield on government bonds rose. (Real means adjusted for inflation.) More recently, the opposite has been happening: The inflation-adjusted price of gold has risen, while the real interest rate on 10-year Treasury notes has fallen. + +This relationship makes sense. Gold pays no interest, so it’s unattractive at a time when the real interest paid on bonds is high. In economists’ terms, the opportunity cost of holding gold is high at such times. In contrast, at times such as this, when the yield to be had from Treasuries is actually negative, gold looks pretty good. + +In short, gold isn’t going up because of inflation. It’s going up because the Fed and other central banks are slashing interest rates to fight the opposite risk—deflation caused by the deep Covid-19 recession. + +Of course, gold would also do well if inflation surged and the Fed went easy on raising rates as the economy regained steam. The fear of that scenario is probably behind some investors’ gold-buying. But to argue that the rising price of gold is a symptom of hidden inflation is getting the causality backward. Deflation, not inflation, is the motor behind gold’s rise. + + +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-26/here-s-the-real-reason-gold-has-been-rising?sref=s0L1qQ1H +Something doesn't add up! Obviously this is all speculation and nothing of financial advice. Just some patterns I have noticed... It just so happens the the Brokers who receive the most payments from Citadel, Susquehanna (Owns Global Execution Brokers) & Company also suspended trading... ***Please add anything you think valuable in the comments would love to source more links!*** + +First lets start out with who created Payment For Order Flow.... King Ponzi Bernie Madoff + +https://preview.redd.it/tnagv9kjps891.png?width=841&format=png&auto=webp&s=45b876eb18d54d3ef7025d0ceb860b0f4e5a182f + +Here is a video of Bernie Madoff in 2007 at a roundtable. He discusses taking the human element out of trading and potential of using technology to bypass regulations.... + +[Roundtable Discussion With Bernard Madoff - October 20, 2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab1NTIlO-FM&t) + +Speaking of removing human element that is exactly was Ken Griffin did at Citadel in 1998 when he hired Boston Consulting Group to also removed the human elements from trading.... + +[ Boy Wonder Article On Ken Griffin](https://preview.redd.it/idhwdwvqps891.png?width=765&format=png&auto=webp&s=201a4b1bd3b54bc7a5df5662259b8c36340a2c23) + +Ive made some connections via Ryan Cohens Tweets.... Boston Consulting Group was running Gamestop Pre Cohen and also Bed, Bath and Beyond.... + +[Oh Ya Its All Coming Together.....](https://preview.redd.it/r0iu8flxws891.png?width=744&format=png&auto=webp&s=37a783d33be22cdd13fdb626168b786252d2391d) + +[See Full Article Here](https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b15134ls4fblx7/boy-wonder) + +**Citadel was also fined by the SEC for using algorithms between 2007 and 2010**: + +*Citadel Securities, the market-making arm of billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin, has agreed to pay $22.6 million to settle charges that it misled customers about the way it priced trades, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.* + +*The SEC found that between 2007 and 2010, Citadel used two algorithms to execute stock trades on customers’ behalf that gave investors a worse price for their trades, even when Citadel knew better prices existed elsewhere. The SEC penalized Citadel for failing to disclose the use of those algorithms to clients.* + +*“This affected millions of retail orders,” said Stephanie Avakian, the acting director of enforcement at the SEC.* + +*Citadel neither admitted nor denied the findings.* + +**Now lets break down PFOF and the brokers and venues paying for it.....**. + +[ PFOF Broker Revenue In 2021](https://preview.redd.it/qhac0usvps891.png?width=1004&format=png&auto=webp&s=5938a3375a96b7364e1a3277e06894db25e4574e) + +[ Venues Paying Brokers For Order Flow](https://preview.redd.it/wffidtm0qs891.png?width=683&format=png&auto=webp&s=64f7f28517e17ace324455aa9b473de5d5e00734) + +So the top brokers receiving money from Citadel, Susquehanna & Company all suspended trading...... Focus stays on Kenny (Which is should) but Jeff Yass of Susquehanna seems to fly under the radar. Dont forget he was absent from the Gamestop Hearing.... + +[ Yass Absent From GameStop Hearing](https://preview.redd.it/3p49osa3qs891.png?width=917&format=png&auto=webp&s=2be8544920c8d323ed42c4e38e71f53ed522bd8e) + +[Dont Forget Kenny Said Hes Fine Getting Rid Of PFOF Since Its A Cost To Him....](https://youtu.be/ddXMLb3VMis) + +Robinhood suspended trading in the most amount of stocks and I believe was up to 50 (Possible Cellar Box List)? + +[Robinhood Restriction ](https://preview.redd.it/ro8suis8qs891.png?width=767&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba29bbbf520a7eb5a45264dbd6911141840ffd69) + +[ TD Ameritrade & Charles Schwab Are Now Apart Of Same Company](https://preview.redd.it/p57ebwbbqs891.png?width=847&format=png&auto=webp&s=10cf6dd607568a9d994d0c12ebd57504e11c4e42) + +Dont forget that Joe Ricketts was in on the Chelsea bid with Ken Griffin and was the founder of TD Ameritrade.... + +[Chelsea Bid ](https://preview.redd.it/pe63prfeqs891.png?width=921&format=png&auto=webp&s=908811cdf12b7c33f0dbbe8f3ad6c568f9a8cd1c) + +***(Minor Tin Foil)*** We also cannot forget the disaster at the alleged TD Ameritrade storage facility..... + +[Bartlett Warehouse](https://preview.redd.it/ynnt9x2hqs891.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=780ace83712d7524bf9fb461f830a0e17b8a1aa3) + +[E\*TRADE Restriction ](https://preview.redd.it/3qm8a1diqs891.png?width=842&format=png&auto=webp&s=e4ecbca9a14b2e1dba25d85bae20b23f32f9c0b8) + +[Webull Restriction ](https://preview.redd.it/bl8mqs2mqs891.png?width=844&format=png&auto=webp&s=ddf23347afeb82026e4ada8cc7633b57ec04037a) + +Apex Clearing also played a role in the suspensions on January 28th 2021 and is owned by Peak 6 Investments (Which is located 0.3 miles from Citadel HQ).... + +[Apex Clearing Suspension ](https://preview.redd.it/a9e7ms7oqs891.png?width=755&format=png&auto=webp&s=84f6868817a81926888fef7dd8a9e9fc7a0c28f6) + +https://preview.redd.it/k9194outqs891.png?width=857&format=png&auto=webp&s=d674785492a05b1027f81871e60d034df2698da0 + +https://preview.redd.it/8cf3kmquqs891.png?width=775&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2071344313ae999058704743ee617dc443a01bc + +I noticed that Citadel, Susquehanna & Peak 6 Investments all have very similar 13F's filled with puts and calls on what would be considered "blue chip" stocks. I have noticed these stocks running in similar algo patterns. See here: + +[ Top 13F Position Moving In Algorithmic Patterns](https://preview.redd.it/fzj82wbwqs891.png?width=1554&format=png&auto=webp&s=878919d595a276f1cddf0f79e4d283f7077780ab) + +[ Large Candles On Them Noticed After Hours.....](https://preview.redd.it/61cimj71rs891.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=69fc914d0ffb9d36e446fa033a818a8f328cfc66) + +Here are Citadel, Susquehanna & Peak 6 Investments 13F's which look very similar filled with Put & Call options..... Including NVDA, FB, MSFT, NFLX, AAPL, TSLA, AMZN, SPY & QQQ (What's Shown above). + +[Citadel 13F ](https://preview.redd.it/u8z7scv5rs891.png?width=3797&format=png&auto=webp&s=83b808705856c396c398b24433183b425621f110) + +[ Susquehanna International Group 13F](https://preview.redd.it/pvu1kun7rs891.png?width=3760&format=png&auto=webp&s=7a1f13ad7f36c878a1a15e90510109b4fbcfc3c4) + +[Peak 6 Investments 13F](https://preview.redd.it/2trvi5z9rs891.png?width=3757&format=png&auto=webp&s=c76be2a4f78a7b3ce2fa2f131f33c7025bf5f72f) + +Obviously this is all speculation and trying to piece it all together.... But from what it looks like from my perspective is the following...... + +"Its A Big Club And You Aint In It" - George Carlin + +Cant Stop. Wont Stop. GameStop. XXX DRS. Whats An Exit Strategy? I Like The Stock!!! +NIO delivered 4,708 vehicles in September 2020, a new monthly record representing a strong 133.2% year-over-year growth. The deliveries consisted of 3,210 ES6s, the Company’s 5-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV, 1,482 ES8s, the Company’s 6-seater and 7-seater flagship premium smart electric SUV, and 16 EC6s, the Company’s 5-seater premium electric coupe SUV. NIO delivered 12,206 vehicles in the third quarter of 2020, representing an increase of 154.3% year-over-year and exceeding the higher end of the Company’s quarterly guidance. +I read a reddit post that scared the crap out of me. + +Someone said they were going to commit suicide tonight. I hope it was a stupid joke and not real. Fingers crossed they do not commit suicide if its true. + +This being said, I also hope you stupid trolls calling mtgox victims names such as idiots and stupid stop and think about what you say. You name calling of people who have suffered enough these past few weeks is not helping anything. + +Stop trying to be cool and smarter than everyone and think that your actions/words have real consequences to those that may be fragile right now. + +Grow up, this is real life, not school. + +Have something constructive to say for a change. + + + + +No foreplay from me this time, I'm just gonna present the data! + +All information is taken directly from [FINRA OTC Transparency website](https://otctransparency.finra.org/otctransparency/OtcIssueData): + +[https://otctransparency.finra.org/otctransparency/OtcIssueData](https://otctransparency.finra.org/otctransparency/OtcIssueData) + +Please refer to The Cooks Keep Cooking the Books series for additional information and details on Robinhood and Dirvewealth LLC 'adjusting' their reported OTC trades 8-12 months after they supposedly occurred: + +[Volume 1 - Robinhood](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p4w9hq/january_gme_otc_trades_increased_by_32_last_week/) + +[Volume 2 - Robinhood does it again](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pbhj00/the_crooks_keep_cookin_like_nobody_is_lookin/) + +[Volume 3 - Robinhood and Drivewealth](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/tdw59e/the_crooks_keep_cookin_like_nobody_is_lookin/) + +[Volume 4 - Featuring Drivewealth LLC adding 3 million OTC trades](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/) + +# GME Weekly OTC Shares + +This shows the total weekly shares traded OTC by Citadel, Virtu, G1 Execution, Two Sigma, UBS, Drivewealth, and Robinhood (and others) over the counter (as internalized trades from retail) + +https://preview.redd.it/au8apq7gah091.png?width=3311&format=png&auto=webp&s=3121cde0007085026535cde1c9ea3be841203e3f + +# A deeper dive: + +# January Jumpoff 2021 + +* **1,262,397,065** shares traded overall +* **527,520,375** shares traded **OTC** +* **41.79%** of monthly volume traded **OTC** +* **8,031,573** total **OTC trades** +* Shares/trade was **65.68** overall, while RH shares/trade was 1.01 and Driveweath was 1.00 +* Robinhood's **1,852,210 trades** were more trades than Virtu (1,774,037), and second only to Citadel (2,557,687 trades) +* All other participants submitted their monthly trades to FINRA on 3/1/2021, while RH submitted their January 2021 monthly OTC trades on [8/12/2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pbhj00/the_crooks_keep_cookin_like_nobody_is_lookin/) +* According to the monthly data, Drivewealth submitted their **401,797 brand new OTC trades** on **1/10/2022** after previously not reporting any GME OTC trades before the week of October 4, 2021. +* Citadel traded **252,315,846 shares**, **47.81%** of all shares traded in January 2021. They also made **31.85%** of all GME OTC trades. + +In total, [2,254,007 trades were added 8-12 months after the trades were supposedly made. These now account for 28.06% of the total OTC trades for January 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/). + +**Here's the latest data from the week of 1/25/2021** + +* **6,289,486 trades** were made OTC during the week of 1/25/2021 +* **186,346,005 shares** were traded OTC among 21 participants (**559,240,540 shares** traded overall) +* Shares/trade dropped from 167.64 (1/19/21) to **29.63** (1/25/21) +* Citadel traded **92,991,756 shares** (**49.90%** of the OTC shares that week) and made **1,983,757 trades** (**31.54%** of the weekly OTC trades) +* Virtu made 1,205,460 trades with 43,388,647 shares (35.99 shares/trade) +* RH posted 1,665,394 January 2021 trades in [August 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p4w9hq/january_gme_otc_trades_increased_by_32_last_week/) +* [Drivewealth posted 348,218 trades in January 2022 (see post)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/) + +# + +# February Fuckery 2021 + +* **827,561,959** shares traded overall +* **303,214,145** shares traded **OTC** +* **36.64%** of monthly volume traded **OTC** +* **8,842,686** total **OTC trades** +* Shares/trade was **34.29** overall, while RH shares/trade was 1.00 and Driveweath was 1.00 +* Robinhood's **1,316,242 trades** trailed only Virtu (1,991,314), and Citadel (2,653,066 trades) +* All other participants submitted their monthly trades to FINRA on 4/5/2021, while RH submitted their February 2021 monthly OTC trades on [8/19/2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pbhj00/the_crooks_keep_cookin_like_nobody_is_lookin/) +* According to the monthly data, Drivewealth submitted their **557,604 brand new OTC trades** on **1/18-1/24/2022** after previously not reporting any GME OTC trades before the week of October 4, 2021. +* Citadel traded **115,716,597 shares**, **38.16%** of all shares traded in February 2021. They also made **30.00%** of all GME OTC trades. + +In total,[Robinhood and Drivewealth added 1,101,840 trades 6 to 11 months after the trades were supposedly made. Drivewealth and RH now account for 21.19% of the total OTC trades for February 2021.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/) + +&#x200B; + +# March Manipulation 2021 + +* **679,785,707** shares traded overall +* **253,160,215** shares traded **OTC** +* **37.24%** of monthly volume traded **OTC** +* **8,697,515** total **OTC trades** +* Shares/trade was **29.11** overall, while RH shares/trade was 1.00 and Driveweath was 1.00 +* Robinhood's **1,656,463 trades** trailed only Virtu (1,994,731), and Citadel (1,866,781 trades) +* All other participants submitted their monthly trades to FINRA on 5/3/2021, while RH continues to update their March 2021 monthly OTC trades as of November 2021. +* According to the monthly data, Drivewealth submitted their **1,025,550 brand new March 2021 OTC trades** on **1/25-1/31/2022** after previously not reporting any GME OTC trades before the week of October 4, 2021. +* Virtu overtook Citadel for OTC shares and OTC trades in March 2021... They made 1,994,731 trades with 97,711,689 shares and were responsible for **38.60%** of the 253,160,215 shares traded OTC in March 2021. +* Citadel traded **31.41%** of all shares traded in March 2021. + +[Drivewealth added 1,025,550 trades 10 months after the trades were supposedly made. Drivewealth and RH now account for 30.84% of the total OTC trades for March 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/). + +# + +# GME Weekly OTC Trades + +https://preview.redd.it/7am6008kah091.png?width=3356&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b24f3d5b6830fe1c95001b446f5329d62ea8017 + +# [Learn about what was going on with GME OTC in 2019 and heading into RC's buy-in August 31st, 2020](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/tdw59e/the_crooks_keep_cookin_like_nobody_is_lookin/)! + +# + +# GME Weekly OTC Shares/Trade + +[GME OTC shares\/trade have plummeted since the end of 2020](https://preview.redd.it/bnuq9iloah091.png?width=3167&format=png&auto=webp&s=673e1ccdb35f5389d52e551ffd5da084cd70bf12) + +&#x200B; + +# Let's take a look at the Monthly Data + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**Monthly GME OTC Shares** + +https://preview.redd.it/veqcaon5yg091.png?width=2316&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8b735029b67c6ee91156d5126a7f6261925b126 + +**This is just OTC data (i.e the internalized trades)** + +* **101,926,503 shares** in September 2020 +* **175,936,989 shares** in October 2020 +* 69,453,506 shares in November 2020 +* **110,606,452 shares** in December 2020 +* **527,520,375 shares** in January 2021 +* **303,214,145 shares** in February 2021 +* **253,160,215 shares** in March 2021 +* 64,910,629 shares in April 2021 +* 66,045,511 shares in June 2021 + +And + +* 60,762,480 shares in March 2022 + +&#x200B; + +**Monthly GME OTC Trades** + +https://preview.redd.it/6oshcbm6yg091.png?width=2318&format=png&auto=webp&s=ebbef0c79ee36ece1d7bd7fcf991d34652136acf + +* **8,031,573** trades in January 2021 +* **8,842,686** trades in February 2021 +* **8,697,515** trades in March 2021 +* **2,452,631** trades in April 2021 +* **1,807,747** trades in May 2021 +* **2,320,109** trades on June 2021 + +And + +* **1,060,739** trades in March 2022 + +&#x200B; + +**Monthly GME OTC Shares/Trade** + +https://preview.redd.it/em4my06mxg091.png?width=2298&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8ed64950a34f26c5dbfdfeba0221180b00bd622 + +The shares/trade is an interesting trend. After a major decrease in shares/trade from December 2020 to January 2021, we've been under 50 shares/trade for 13 months. There has been an increase in the number of shares/trade over the past several months, and to me, this seems to correlate with the increase in DRSed shares. In other words, they have to make larger trades. + +Here's a link to [a previous post of mine](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/sruz7l/in_honor_of_our_beloved_chairman_i_present_69/), which references Dave Lauer's first Superstonk AMA. He talked about GME OTC vs ATS: + +From the [AMA transcript:](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/n7295i/david_lauer_ama_transcript_summary_22/) + +Dave Lauer [u/dlauer](https://www.reddit.com/u/dlauer/) : + +* "**So in November (2020), it was predominantly Citadel with a little Virtu and an even little more G1X** +* **This is market share, you can see that accounts for almost 85% of all OTC trading, and the rest is a bunch of smaller internalizers** +* And then it peaked for Citadel in January +* But what we've seen since then is actually **Citadel’s** market share in GME has dropped significantly and so has **G1X**, and **Virtu has really taken over** +* At the same time, the average trade size that's being executed OTC has *plummeted*. +* **This was honestly really astonishing to me.** +* I guess this is probably the Robinhood effect or the retail effect. +* But you can see in December, the average trade size for Citadel was relatively high, it was around 350 shares and for Virtu it was around 200, and a little over 250 overall. +* **And since then in January, I mean, these, these** ***dropped to under like 40 shares average trade size***\*\*.\*\* That was really shocking to me. +* Part of that has been the price increase, absolutely. +* But at the same time like an average trade size of **40 shares is extremely small.** I don't know what to make of it necessarily but I thought it was an interesting sort of data point to highlight. I just wanted to show that." + +&#x200B; + +**How does this compare to other stocks?** + +Here's the shares/trade GME vs the entire OTC (including GME) for these same participants: + +https://preview.redd.it/8jgz4krfrh091.png?width=2881&format=png&auto=webp&s=84005ffc138d1dd3a72ab1a53ee770b0717a5ad3 + +# 21 Month OTC Scoreboard + +https://preview.redd.it/9wtc0e2tvh091.png?width=1074&format=png&auto=webp&s=05914c14118d6a29dd526c6c0b6843a89e2d63d7 + +This is the most updated OTC data available: + +* **1.999 billion** shares were traded OTC over 21 months from **August 2020 - April 2022** +* The total volume over the past 21 months was **5.092 billion!** +* **40.04%** of the total volume over that span was traded OTC, with another **\~7% traded ATS** (dark pools) +* **40,671,198 trades** were made OTC overall +* These participants are responsible for **98.97%** of OTC trades and **98.37%** of OTC shares traded + +&#x200B; + +Here's a pie chart for **GME** **OTC shares** traded: + +https://preview.redd.it/5dmdo60s7h091.png?width=2244&format=png&auto=webp&s=4db68fd4a2ddd0269ed5d95d9e6c546acb92841f + +Citadel leads the pack with over 803 million shares (41% of total) + +Virtu is second with 629 million shares (32% of total) and G1 is third with 232 million shares (12% of total). + +All 3 combined for **83.3%** of GME OTC shares. + +Jane Street (82 million), Two Sigma (75 million) and UBS (58 million) round out the significant participants in terms of total shares. De Mimimis Firms account for 57 million shares (3% of total). + +&#x200B; + +And here's a pie chart for **GME OTC trades**: + +https://preview.redd.it/hxs7nda77h091.png?width=2244&format=png&auto=webp&s=b93cc26bf195ee39eab9479cb1d9ae919d226003 + +Much more dispersed between the OTC participants, but still led by Citadel (11.111 million, Virtu 8.948 million, and G1 3.542 million). + +Citadel accounts for 28% of OTC trades, followed by Virtu (8.948 million) (22%). + +Robinhood has accounted for almost **17%** of GME OTC trades since August 2020 with over 6.765 million trades. They did so with only 6.798 million shares, 1.004 shares/trade. + +Drivewealth is now reporting 3.435 million trades, [after adding over 3 million trades](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ulbfkx/the_crooks_keep_cookin_the_books_volume_4/). They traded 3.435 million shares, for exactly 1.000 shares/trade. + +&#x200B; + +And just so we can see what happens to with all those OTC trades, let's look at the weekly range (weekly high - weekly low) vs OTC trades. Lines up pretty nicely... + +https://preview.redd.it/2vdcfxdl4j091.png?width=3207&format=png&auto=webp&s=38bbcc3f92b665cd23f1c1140793a300b45d55a9 + +More trades, more volatility, higher range. + +&#x200B; + +# Short Volume Data + +I get most of my GME short volume data from: [https://stocksera.pythonanywhere.com/ticker/short\_volume/?quote=GME](https://stocksera.pythonanywhere.com/ticker/short_volume/?quote=GME) + +&#x200B; + +**Here's reported daily Short Volume vs. Closing Price** + +[That's a lot of daily shorts...](https://preview.redd.it/5vdcj8tahh091.png?width=4680&format=png&auto=webp&s=6497f48dddb7ace5ca8aa83da5da29f279677462) + +In all, they're reporting 383,036,921 in short volume (55.52% of "total volume") + +&#x200B; + +**Here's Short and Long Volume vs. Closing Price** + +[As you can see, it's very cyclical](https://preview.redd.it/2uf7a6pfhh091.png?width=4682&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f373b1689e67980edbb3b5512933f88424200ff) + +So 383,036,921 short volume vs. 297,882,968 long volume + +That's **55.52%** short vs. **43.18%** long vs 1.30% short exempt volume = 100% + +However, that only represents **689,887,993 shares**... + +We traded **1,686,702,863 shares** over these 303 trading days. + +So **996,814,870 shares** **(59.10%** of **total daily volume**) is not represented in this data. + +&#x200B; + +**Here's Short Volume vs. Percent Shorted** + +https://preview.redd.it/89vjtq2osh091.png?width=5034&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf92efe848f6db9de8547234b106d3a6f8135efb + +**Here's the percentage of GME daily volume not represented by the short volume data:** + +[This graph illustrates how much daily volume is not represented by the short volume data \(missing\), and ranges from 47&#37; to 88&#37; on any given day.](https://preview.redd.it/o5fe4ubjth091.png?width=4234&format=png&auto=webp&s=d25c841618c0476a1ecaef2655b762876f0d301c) + +&#x200B; + +# Raw Monthly Data + +https://preview.redd.it/dmntcfvl0h091.png?width=2498&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca9c380630416b9846b6d987e8786d968ae6f2f2 + +https://preview.redd.it/m5x1fsvh6h091.png?width=1783&format=png&auto=webp&s=e81fb4870626f08ca46e702853835cd77f4a5f35 + +https://preview.redd.it/vwta8icw6h091.png?width=2128&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca7e87c78945e655f5f29a07256563581d977b06 + +# Raw Weekly Data + +https://preview.redd.it/7ktt3pywyg091.png?width=2508&format=png&auto=webp&s=6aa057449a7415f42519579cb4e7ca41d5e7b39b + +https://preview.redd.it/xbhmmy4izg091.png?width=2509&format=png&auto=webp&s=825c9ebd3d0c5b0c8c5764b2287e29191e8aa7fd + +There's a slight difference in the totals from the weekly and monthly data, mostly because they keep changing the numbers on me... + +The monthly numbers are most accurate, but I did spot-check the weekly data, and can't find any major errors. For now, the weekly helps us see the cyclical nature of the GME run-ups and the monthly data is the most accurate. + +&#x200B; + +**Interesting Milestones:** + +* **Citadel Securities** just broke **800 million GME shares** traded OTC! Congrats to them! + * In all, they have accounted for **803,253,810** GME OTC shares + * They also made over **11.111 million** trades. Make a wish Kenny! +* **Virtu** has accounted for less than 20% of weekly GME OTC trades in 32 of the past 38 weeks + * They accounted for over **629 million shares** and made over **8.9 million trades** +* **G1 Execution** has accounted for over 10% of weekly GME shares 34 of the past 37 weeks +* **Jane Street** has accounted for over 10% of weekly GME shares in 23 of the past 26 weeks +* **Robinhood Securities** has been under 10% of weekly trades in 7 of the past 11 weeks +* **Drivewealth LLC** has been over 10% of weekly trades in 41 of the past 60 weeks. They have extended their streak of exactly 1.00 shares/trade to 71 weeks. +* **Comhar Capital** always seems to come into the GME OTC during weeks of high volume, providing much needed liquidity. + * They accounted for 5.65% of August 2020 GME OTC shares and 4.16% of August 2020 GME OTC trades + * They came back in October 2020 with the spike in volume during the week of 10/5/2020 + * They accounted for 1.16 - 1.81% of OTC shares from January 2021 - June 2021 + * They came back in January 2022 and made another significant contribution to the OTC in March 2022 + * In all, they have accounted for at least 23.69 million GME OTC shares (1.18% of total) +* We have a new **Interactive Brokers** sighting! For the first time since March 2021, Interactive Brokers has entered the GME OTC trading frenzy. + * In fact, they accounted for **17.37%** of GME weekly OTC trades for the week of 4/25/22. GME was 21.91% of their total OTC shares traded that week and 21.91% of their total OTC trades + * They accounted for **13.95%** of GME OTC trades for the week of 4/11/22. GME was 22.74% of their total OTC shares traded that week and 24.06% of their total OTC trades + * Wut doin Thomas Peterffy? + +&#x200B; + +TLDR: I'll see ya on the moon! + +**Buy, HODL, DRS, and Vote!** +Hello, + +I'm in my early 20s and decided to dive into financial planning. I've read a book that I had sitting on my desk for a long time, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. I enjoyed the read because it gave another perspective of making money, didn't get to technical and was filled with little experiences that made the whole thing pretty easy to read. That said, it was my first book on the topic of investing (in particular) and financial planning (in general). Since I'm inexperienced, I would like to know what you thought of the lessons and points of the book. I could criticize some imperative aspects, but overall it's difficult for me to discriminate, since I have little to no reference to compare and no experience. + +&#x200B; + +Thank you ! +I have heard a lot of different things about life insurance. My mom says it's a waste of time because once you stop paying it, it just disappears. But I have also seen a lot of things on TT that I don't know if it's reliable info to go off of or not. +Which type of life insurance would be best for my baby? Will it help me save on taxes? How does it all work and how do I know which one to go with? +**Disclaimer** + +This is not financial advice. Also, I assume you have some basic knowledge of the Bitcoin market cycles and have already invested in Crypto. Always do your own research. + +Finally, English is not my mother tongue, so please bare with me. + +\--- + +I've seen countless YouTubers giving (not financial) advice about exit strategies. But they don't all offer the same advice. Why? Isn't there an optimal strategy? If so, why do they differ so much from one another? + +Do I HODL all my coins? Do I HODL only BTC? Do I take my profits in fiat or BTC? Do I buy real estate with my gains? Do I sell and buy other assets to hedge against the bear market? There are no good or bad answers because we are all different. + +Someone in Venezuela might change his entire family's lives because he owns a few Sats on an old phone with the crash of the Bolivar. His reality is much, much different than mine. I'm not looking to eat, I'm looking to retire early. + +In the end, unless they know exactly who you are and what your goals are, those YouTubers' strategies are merely good ideas, but otherwise ultimately meaningless for most of us. + +I've gathered here most of the helpful tricks and tips I've found. I'm sharing those with everyone in the hopes that it will help someone make good choices. Or, at least, an informed one. + +\--- + +Before deciding on a strategy, you need to figure out what your risk tolerance is and what you ultimately believe in. Let me explain. + +**What is your risk tolerance?** + +A risk averse person might decide to invest in BTC, close their eyes and open them again in 10 years. A person that tolerates high risk could go all in on XRP, sell near the top and buy back in again near the bottom of the bear market and make an absolute killing and become filthy rich. He could also lose a ton of money as well. Risk vs Rewards. + +Therefore, assessing your risk tolerance and using risk management to pick a strategy is essential. + +For those who don't really understand the whole crypto market in regards to risk, it's actually quite simple: The larger the market cap of a coin/token, the lower the risk. The smaller the market cap, the higher the potential upside. + +I will not spend time explaining why that is, but it is so. You can confirm this with your own research. + +In general, the whole market pumps in the bull run. Some coins do better than others, but every good project will see huge gains. + +BTC arguably offers the best risk to profit ratio. It's extremely asymmetric. There is huge upside with almost no risk. That's the main reason behind the institutional adoption. It is not, however, the best way to make lots of money. It will be outperformed by a ton of altcoins, but know that very few (if any) will outperform it during the bear market. + +ETH is a little riskier, but arguably not during this bull run. It's almost a sure shot that it will outperform BTC. It's almost a sure-shot that it will underperform BTC during the bear market. However, please keep in mind that it is NOT risk-free like BTC. Something can happen to Ethereum. It's extremely unlikely, so it's still the 2nd safest coin. + +ALTs are all risky, period. Any bad news can kill a coin. Even our beloved ADA. Good projects generally are pretty safe (top tier coins). The lower down the rankings, the higher the risk.Small gems' performance can be downright outrageous, though. We're talking in the thousands of percent gains. Almost all (if not all) of them will crash hard during the bear market, according to past history. This could change, but I wouldn't bet on it. + +On a scale to 1 \[super safe\] to 10 \[super risky\], a safe portfolio looks like 100%-80% BTC. A risky portfolio looks like 50% ETH and 50% Alts. A ridiculously risky one is 100% XRP. + +You can assess where you fit on that scale. + +\--- + +Now that we know your risk tolerance, we need to know what do you believe in. + +There are 2 questions to answer: + +**1- Do you believe in the US dollar, Bitcoin or other assets? And what about the economy?** + +So, do you believe there will be an economic collapse? Will BTC become the world reserve currency? Will there be (or is there) hyperinflation in your country? Those questions are legitimate and personal. + +They are also important when trying to figure out your strategy. I personally think Bitcoin will one day be the world reserve currency, for instance, even though my local currency is somewhat stable for now. I'll put myself into the "Believe in Bitcoin" category. That basically means I want to take some, most or even all my profits in BTC or Satoshis. + +Maybe you think the US dollar will survive (or your local currency), at least for the coming years, and just want to make money in crypto. You don't really care what happens with the financial system, as long as you can make money. Then, you are in the USD category. Take profits in Stable Coins or your local Fiat currency, pay capital gains tax (if needed) and buy yourself a Lambo, a house, or just food if that's what you need. There's nothing wrong with that. + +Maybe you're unsure. Maybe you like other assets and want to diversify. Gold, Silver, Real Estate. This is not my area of expertise. Consider a financial advisor. Take profits in Fiat and diversify the hell out of your portfolio to reduce the risk of hyperinflation or an economic collapse. + +**2- How bad do you think the bear market will be?** + +Understanding the market cycles is important to answer this question. If you have no idea what I'm talking about with the Bitcoin market cycles that (re)start each halving, has 4 phases including a bull run (what we're in now) followed by a bear market (should be in 2022), then you need to study it. It's important. You have a few months left to do so. + +There are pretty much 3 school of thoughts on that subject. + +1. This cycle will rhyme with the past cycles. + +Essentially, this means that BTC will rise to anywhere between 150k to 400k (or so - hard to tell) and crash down hard (about 80-85%) during the bear market (next year-ish). + +2. This cycle will rhyme with past cycles, but with reduced volatility. + +The argument here is that BTC's volatility is declining and the bear market crash won't be as bad. The last cycle, the major pullbacks were 30-40%. In this cycle they are closer to 20-25%. (more or less - didn't do the exact math). This reduction in volatility leads some of us to believe that the bear market (a multi-months long pullback) will not be 80-85%, but rather closer to 50-60%. Maybe 40%, maybe 70%. No one knows. + +I'm in this camp, btw. + +3. This cycle will be a supercycle. We have to acknowledge the fact that adoption will one day break the market cycles. Of course, the halving will always have an effect on the price, but the cycles might stop repeating. Some, like Dan Held and Michael Saylor, believe this might be the case this time around. There are a few arguments (covid, money printing, economic collapse, etc.), but the main one, I believe, is the institutional adoption. This should create enough buying pressure to keep Bitcoin afloat during the bear market where the correction would not drop so drastically, but instead only significantly. Consider a possible sideways time-based correction with relatively small fluctuations (30-40% or even less) over a long period instead of a huge sudden -80% drop. + +I believe this is a possibility. And regardless of what you believe, it's important to keep this in mind when implementing a strategy. Personally, I think it's still too early. Many, like me, think this will happen, but maybe only on next cycle or even the one after that (in 4 to 8 years). + +However, with all the uncertainty and instability in the world, it's safe to assume it is at least a possibility. + +Ok, great, now what? We pick a strategy. + +**Bear market and exit strategies.** + +Before I start, I want to point out that these strategies are not meant to be followed. Rather, they serve as guides and examples of what is possible. You can mix and match anything to create your own strategy according to your own needs. Everything is scalable with a wide range of possible variations. In other words, it's kind of like a buffet :) + +**Strategy #1**: HODL (Hold On for Dear Life) \[Risk 1, Bitcoiner\] + +This is the perfect strategy for people who don't like trying to time the market. It's also the only one I'm 100% confident in. There is a great saying describing this strategy: "Time in the market > Timing the market". It's an investor's perspective. + +If you don't know what the hell you are doing, you can't go wrong, here. Buy BTC. HODL forever. You'll do more than fine. + +The strategy assumes that you don't care what happens in the bear market. This is not an OPTIMAL strategy, but it is a good and SAFE strategy. + +Imagine buying at the top of the 2017 bull run. You would have bought BTC at 19.5k. Looks pretty bad when it drops to 4k the following year. However, you only lost money if you SOLD. If you HODLed, you are doing great right now. There isn't a single soul on the planet that wouldn't buy BTC at that price today. HODLing simply works and is almost 100% safe. + +If you HODL, I assume you will do it with Bitcoin. So what do you do if you are a long term investor but own other coins as well? + +Well, in this strategy, you HODL those too. Ironically, keeping Altcoins (and even Ethereum) during the bear market is actually a risk. Therefore, this strategy works a lot better if you are 100% BTC, or at least mostly BTC with some other projects you just love and want to contribute to. For instance, while this is not my strategy, I AM planning to keep a small ADA bag to HODL because I want to support Cardano and believe in the project. + +**Strategy #2**: Stacking Sats is the name of the game. \[Risk 2-3, Allcoiner\] + +Disclosure, this is my personal strategy. + +Here, we HODL BTC, which makes up most of our portfolio, but we use altcoins during the bullrun to stack more Satoshis. The ONLY use we make of altcoins is speculating on the fact that it will outperform bitcoin and take all (or most) of our profits in Satoshis. + +The way we do this is by pricing those alts in Satoshis instead of USD. A variation of the Little Old Lady investing strategy is used to take profits. This strategy is extremely powerful in Crypto. + +Essentially, when the altcoin doubles (or whatever percentage you like) vs BTC, we take out our initial investment and let the rest ride as a "moon bag". We take profits along the way to the top, or simply try to time the top as best as we can. Both are viable. It's a personal choice. When in doubt, Dollar Cost Averaging is the safest option. People often forget this is also possible when selling. It's the strategy used by (most) miners, for instance. + +If we believe in a super cycle, we can be riskier with our moon bags, but we always make sure we to take out our initial investment. We're not in the business of losing Sats. We Stack Sats. + +If we expect a harsh bear market, the goal is to purchase those coins again very cheap when they drop hard (90%+). This should turn into incredibly good profit in the next bull run 3 years later. Of course, fiat (stable coins) can also be used for this strategy, depending on what you prefer. + +The ultimate goal is to transform the alt gains into something that will lose LESS value during the bear market to purchase them back again near the bottom while stacking as many Satoshis as possible. + +**Strategy #3**: Sell the TOP, buy the BOTTOM. \[Risk 8+, Harsh Bear market expectation\] + +This is for people like the (infamous) BitBoy Ben. He says he's a crypto guy. He's not. He's a money guy; a businessman. It just so happens that he understands that fiat is not very good money and that crypto gains are insane. + +If you are a risk taker like him, you can make huge gains by trying to time the market. For instance, if you own 1 BTC and it reaches 400k. You could sell it for 400k in Stable coins. In the bear market, if it loses 80% of its value as expected, you can buy 400k worth of BTC at a price tag of 80k. Suddenly, you own 5 BTC instead of 1. + +This is honestly the optimal strategy to make most out of the bear market. There are issues and risks involve, however. So let's take a look. + +First, there's the issue of timing the market. Nobody will time the top and bottom perfectly. So that hypothetical 1 BTC isn't really turning into exactly 5 depending on your performance. You will likely have to scale out when taking your profit. You probably (hopefully) DCA'd in (Dollar Cost Averaging) and you should probably do the same when taking profits. + +When the top nears (according to key indicators - more on this later), you want to start to DCA out of your position. Something like selling 20% of your full position every week for 5 weeks, for instance. + +Personally, I started DCA since the beginning of 2018. I bought at 18k and all the way down to 3.5k and back up to 17.5k, my last BTC purchase in December 2020. It was not optimal, but it was safe. Every good investor understands the value of Dollar Cost Averaging. If you like risk, you chose a smaller period of time (1 month instead of 2 years, let's say), but you should probably still DCA in. Or, you know, go all in if you really like the price. Since I had funds available, I purchased more at 3.5k than 17.5k, obviously. + +Secondly, there is the risk that you miss the top completely. That's the only reason I am not fond of this strategy. For instance, if I believe the top is 200k and eventually sell all of my position around that price target, but BTC keeps going up... 250, 300, 350, 400, 500k! Then it crashes to 250k and stabilizes there for 3 years. That's a pretty big loss. + +Is that a likely scenario? Probably not. Is it possible? Fuck yes. Certainly, those who believe in a super cycle think it can be much worse than that. So, who's right? I don't know. Neither do you. Nobody does. Risk management. + +If you, like BitBoy Ben, truly believe in a harsh bear market and a top around September, this is the ultimate strategy to make the most gains. If you dislike the risk of timing the market or the risk of a supercycle, you probably should stay clear or only consider doing this strategy with a fraction of your portfolio. + +In my case, even though this is not the strategy I will use, I could still convert a very small part of my BTC portfolio to stable coins and try to buy the bottom. + +Or... + +**Strategy #4**: Short the bear market \[Risk 9+, No super cycle\] + +The last thing I would like to talk about is shorting the market. Trading portfolios should never, ever be refilled. When trading, you accept the risk of losing it all. Once you are OK with this, you can try margin trading. + +I highly advise against it, but it's a valid option. + +Just be extremely careful. + +However, if you do believe in a long bear market, placing a long term short on low leverage with a big margin can be quite rewarding. + +If you are a trader, you are unlikely reading this. If you aren't, consider studying a LOT before trying to margin trade. It sounds easy. IT. IS. NOT. + +Strategy #5: The best strategy (Yours!) \[Everyone\] + +There is a high probability that you should not use the previous 4 strategies. The important parts are the concepts I shared, not the strategies themselves. You should make up your own strategy according to your goals and risk tolerance. + +After assessing your own needs, you can come up with a fair plan for YOU. It doesn't need to be perfect, because it CANNOT be perfect. Don't be too greedy. Regardless of your risk tolerance, risk management is important. + +Even if you believe in something (USD IS SCREWED!), it doesn't mean it will happen. Have a plan in place for scenarios where what is expected doesn't plan out. + +Manage your risk responsibly. + +\--- + +**How to time the TOP?** + +Unfortunately, the answer is that you can't. It's not really possible. Once again, the goal is to be as close as possible, not hitting the jackpot. That's why DCAing out of your position has the best chance of getting you the best outcome. The riskier you are, the smaller the time frame. I would DCA out within a couple of months, personally. Someone might want to do it all in a week. To each his own. + +I will also not tell you how to use the following indicators, nor will I list all of the useful ones. You need to do that research yourself because I am not confident I can be of much help. Just know that there ARE cycle top indicators, and many of them are pretty useful. + +I'll briefly explain the three that I will be using. But I follow quite a few market analysts and value their opinion greatly. PlanB and Willy Woo for instance. Lots of good YouTubers (Coin Bureau specifically) can clue you in as well. Again, do your own research, + +\- The first indicator is the cycle length. By determining when in the last 2 cycles top were (by counting the number of days the top was reached after the halving), we can approximate when the top will be this cycle. Since the last two were very similar, we assume this one will be as well. There are plenty of better resources than me on that subject, but it is expected to be late Summer to early Fall. September / October is a fair guess. This can vary. It could be in July, it could be in January 2022. It could be never. Who knows? What's certain is that it is not tomorrow (April). We still have plenty of upside left. + +\- NUPL (Net Unrealized Profit/Loss). This has been very accurate in the past. In essence, when too many people are in unrealized profit, we can expect mass selling. This can trigger an avalanche of fear in the whole market and everything crumbles quickly. That's what happened in the last 2 cycles. The danger is a double top scenario like in the 2nd cycle. It hit the "euphoria" level (I think it's 95+), crashed, then picked up again, reached "euphoria" once more, and THAT was the top. In 2017, it only reached it once and it was the top. It's a good indicator, maybe one of the best, but it has shown a fake top before. There's no magic recipe. + +\- BTC Exchange flows. This graph shows how many BTC is deposited or withdrawn from exchanges. Since the main way to sell BTC is by first depositing them on an exchange, when the in flows are too great, it's a sign that a lot of sellers are entering the market. At the moment, the out flows (BTC withdrawn from exchanges) are quite high and it clearly shows a shortage of sellers (and a shortage of supply on the exchanges). +To start with, I love this sub. Most of the people are super nice and helpful. Having said that, does anyone else think there’s a lot of fear mongering here as well? + +Every now and then there are comments like “If you had bought QQQ in 2000 you wouldn’t have recovered for 15 years”. The same person in another thread comments “Past return doesn’t indicate the future bro”. Sooo which one is it? +Can’t we agree 2000 was a totally different time than 2022? It has been over 20 years since the crash but fear mongering is still there. + +Today, 60% of QQQ consists of companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Costco and more such. Are these companies similar to what we had in 2000? I don’t think so. Also how would I l know, I was 5 at that time. + +What do you guys think? +[The current IPO craze is starting to look a lot like 1999](https://www.reddit.com/user/Fatherthinger/comments/kb7kg2/the_current_ipo_craze_is_starting_to_look_a_lot/) +IM DELETING YOU, YELLEN!😭👋 + +██]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 10% complete..... + +████]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 35% complete.... + +███████]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 60% complete.... + +███████████] 99% complete..... + +🚫ERROR!🚫 💯True💯 Fed Chairs are irreplaceable 💖I could never delete you Yellen!💖 Send this to ten other 👪Technocrats👪 who give you 💦price stability, maximum employment, and moderate long-term interest rates💦 Or never have a ☁️stable economy☁️ again❌❌😬😬❌❌ If you get 0 Back: a deflationary spiral is in your future 📉🌀🚫🚫👿 3 back: you will meet your inflation and employment targets🎯☁️💦 5 back: your economy will be insulated from aggregate demand shocks⚡️👼💦 10+ back: Yellen🤑🤑💕💕📈📈 +Just as a counterpoint... When I was planning to get married, I knew I had substantially higher earning potential and assets, and my spouse-to-be had parents with way more money than mine. We got a prenup at my instance a few months before the wedding, and we both had our own lawyers. I think I spent about $3000. While married, we kept mostly separate finances. Unfortunately, though we'd been together quite some time before getting married, things fell apart after two years. + +The divorce wasn't too painful - some cash exchanged hands for the assets that we'd agreed would be joint that couldn't be split, and legal bills stung a little, but all in all, my goals were set back a few months at most. Without the prenup, it would have probably been a five to ten year setback. Fortunately we didn't have any children. + +Hopefully nobody gets married expecting to get a divorce, but planning ahead for the possibility was well worth it for me. +The more in look into Blackberry and Connected Cars and Unified Endpoint Management the ***more bullish I get on BB***, on top of that Reddit is filled with CONSTANT confirmation bias. To ground myself I wrote a bear case, please help me add to it, ***the stronger we can make the bear case, the more clear we will see the potential opportunity*****.** + +# Macro: + +Ivy will not be released till 2023, developers are not expected to get access till 2022 **Far too early to expect Ivy to benefit BB’s bottom line.** Without it, stock price will not moon. + +**Collaboration/partnerships** with 3rd parties (AWS, Biadu, IBM, Hyundai via Motional, Microsoft (crisis management/Microsoft Teams)) to develop technologies, products and services **may not result in ROI** + +Some OEMS and tier 1 customer have accelerated **internal development of embedded solutions** could result in fewer customer orders, loss of market share, pressure to reduce prices, etc + +COVID-19 Impact, Chip storage hitting the automobile sector resulting in revenue decrease of 16% in Q3 FY21, **could continue into the future** + +**Market is highly competitive**: IBM, Microsoft, VMware, Mobile Iron, CrowdStrike to name a few + +Technology landscape: **evolving customer requirements, high frequency of product introductions by competitors** could leave BB behind + +Maintaining key personal: success is dependent on ability to develop/retain skilled employees (executive team, R&amp;D team, experience sales people with specialized knowledge). Competition is intense, has resulted in **solicitation** resulting in higher compensation costs not offset by higher prices + +Changes in endpoints, operating systems and applications, security threats and industry standards + +Must obtain/maintain certain product approvals and certifications from government bodies and regulated enterprise customers, although BB is already ISO26262 certified (auto industry) + +BBs software runs on \*3rd party operating systems\* (Apple, Google, Microsoft, OEM op systems). **Updates to these op system with limited notice can disrupt operations**, forcing company to divert resources from preexisting product roadmap to accommodate changes + +Meeting debenture covenants + +# Financials + +Revenues have stalled, **growth is challenged** based on current financials + +**BB** (4%) **trails the average revenue when compared to competitors** **in each space** in Enterprise Software (5%) , Licensing &amp; IP (10%), Cybersecurity (10%), Canadian Enterprise Software (9%) per TD Securities equity research + +Normalized operating expenses have fluctuated although below average for last 8 qtrs + +**Hasn’t reported a profitable qtr since Q4 FY19** (Feb 2019) + +Let me know if I missed anything. + +Currently holding ~400 shares @ $12, I started buying last week, before WSB happened + +**Edit** +New points added from the discussion below and my observation.. + +**Perception: Many retail investors still consider BB a smartphone maker**, John Chen and the BB marketing team need to rebrand to change this perception. Other than their PR releases and twitter, I don’t see much else..i could be wrong.. **Although BB deals with B2B not B2C**, specifically they are niche with OEMs, governments, banks and healthcare. One could argue no marketing is needed as a result, the security industry is well aware of the best products. + +WSBs: I’ve been active in the BB community for 2 weeks now, and **ALOT of people are bag holding, ALOT, which is why I believe your seeing so many pumps**, granted BB has been killing it with their constant updates with partnerships..not sure what came first but someone had posted a chart showing the correlation between BB, GME, AMC, and they are moving in sync! + +BB Cylance (AI and machine learning-based cybersecurity solutions) **was trending down from 20% of revenue in FY20 Q1 to 10% by the end of the FY. Since then, BB stopped breaking out revenue between IoT and Cylance and now present it as one (Software &amp; Service)** +Let me start off by first saying that I know smear campaigns are a real thing and I am not trying to run one here, I am just pointing out some pretty obvious red flags about this dude which don't add up. + +What the fuck superstonk, either the shills are pushing this Steve Haas stuff to distract, or the confirmation bias is driving this weekend's madness. You cannot take this to the bank. This dude borders on mentally unwell and Dr. T seems to have made a mistake by retweeting an uncorroborated medium article. + +So much of what he has written is factually incorrect, but I don't want to spend all Saturday reading his stuff and trying to poke holes in it. I will therefore just briefly share what I have turned up in a 5 minute search of HIM and how I interpret that based on my legal and military intel background. + +&#x200B; + +**Main Points** + +1. Anyone can post on medium. There is no proof this guy is who he says he is, that he was raided, anything. His post is rambling with a photo of a raid. Which raid, who was filming, how do we already have a photo, this is thinking 101. WHAT THE FUCK SUPERSTONK!!? THINK! +2. Whistleblower numbers are awarded when they accept your filing. This does not mean that they have awarded you for effectively whistleblowing. He spent years trying to blow his whistle and then he finally got his number? That sounds like he finally figured out what they required or he finally filed one which wasn't frivolous. +3. As a former legal professional the enormous amount of pro se cases he has brought is a huge red flag. "I was former CEO of a company that had an IPO and had a desk at 1 wall street" does NOT JIVE WITH PRO SE litigation. You know who files pro se? Nuts. Seriously. If he was who he says he was, then he can afford a lawyer. And in his complaints he says he was the head of a company who Bain contracted with to unload of etoys assets. But in other posts he says he was the CEO, previously having a desk at 1 wall st. This guy is all over the map +4. Look at this complaint. [http://petters-fraud.com/3rd\_amended\_complaint\_v10.pdf](http://petters-fraud.com/3rd_amended_complaint_v10.pdf) + +He put his house as the address which is not a nice house by wall st/CEO standards [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/108-E-Jewell-St-Delmar-DE-19940/76312293\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/108-E-Jewell-St-Delmar-DE-19940/76312293_zpid/) maybe it isn't his, still weird to use that as your address in a legal claim. His email address is a yahoo address with laser in it. + +This guy is your classic conspiracy theorist. [https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/5/7/1089576/-Romney-is-Lying-on-Bain-Exit-in-1999-He-was-CEO-of-Bain-in-2001#comment\_46003027](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/5/7/1089576/-Romney-is-Lying-on-Bain-Exit-in-1999-He-was-CEO-of-Bain-in-2001#comment_46003027) + +I skimmed this blog-post from a right wing Christian conspiracy theory site who interviewed him in 2016 [https://newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh282.htm](https://newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh282.htm). In it he talks about the new world order, assassinations ordered by Romney and how his candidate will save us all. + +This guy just screams conspiracy nut to me. + +&#x200B; + +Here's the rub. A lot of what we are discovering about wall st is not super far off from this kind of stuff, but we must carefully examine our sources. Conspiracies exist, hell, we're in one. + +&#x200B; + +**Lastly** + +Idk about you guys but Dr. T retweeting this is a pretty significant blow to my trust in her. This is an uncorroborated Medium article and if you look the dude up briefly, he's at the very least weird. + +&#x200B; + +Edit: OOF, either the shills really don't like this or I am harshing the confirmation bias buzz of genuine apes. + +Also, to avoid stolen valor shit, I was never directly in the intel world but was raised in it and spent my early 20s working with a man who was pushed out of the intel world for exactly this type of "inconvenient whistle blowing." So I know what the real deal looks like. +https://www.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/4lrrux/the_sad_truth_about_all_these_early/ + +Interesting take on the FI crowd from disillusioned millenials +My partner works for a start up, and therefore has concerns about job security. Whenever I talk about budgeting, and paying off our debt, he responds with “cash is king.“ He’d rather continue accruing credit card debt (while cutting down our spending) than pay it off and diminish our cash at hand, basically so that we will have money for things like mortgage payment if things go south. I honestly don’t even know how much that he has on his credit cards. We are married and share finances though, so this is obviously a big concern. But he avoids discussing our finances at all costs. Any advice for us? +Rule SR-FINRA-2020-041 - Another rule squeezing those bad actors + +Rule SR-FINRA-2020-041 has been approved after being proposed in Nov 2020. I have not gone through the detail including the letters and comments submitted as part of the review process. The process has taken a while and there was a predetermined deadline of July 30, 2021 to approve or disapprove....hey presto its approved. + +Just my own quick interruption....It appears that some 'firms' are consistently and willingly recruiting rogue employees with a history of misconduct, who then go on continuing to break the rules. Firms who employ these people will now either have to get rid of those rogues or pay financial deposit that is not accessible by the firm who pays it, the amount reflects the risk of employing such people. Firms will also be publicly displayed as a 'RESTRICTED FIRM' to give investors more transparency about the risk associated with a firm relating to the people it employs. + +If I was to read between the lines, Firms are pro-actively employing rogue traders who have breached the rules previously because they are EXACTLY the type of people who will happily comply with their new employers request to break more rules, commit crimes, manipulate systems, cover evidence, turn a blind eye to fraud, lie to regulators, mis record data etc etc. Why are these rogue new employees also attractive.......................... THEY ARE LESS LIKELY TO WHISTLE BLOW OR SQUEAL. These firms are rogues, who are employing rogues, who make money for more rogues!! + +I've not read through the entire document or response letters from firms. I'm sure more juicy info to find! + +Full rule link below and extract from opening page + +[https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/finra/2021/34-92525.pdf](https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/finra/2021/34-92525.pdf) + +"This proposal is designed to address persistent compliance issues that arise at some FINRA member firms that generally do not carry out their supervisory obligations to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations and FINRA rules, and act in ways that could harm their customers and erode confidence in the brokerage industry.19 According to FINRA, recent academic studies have found that some firms persistently employ registered representatives who engage in misconduct, and that misconduct can be concentrated at these firms.20 FINRA states that these studies also provide evidence that the past disciplinary history and other regulatory events associated with a firm or individual can be predictive of future events.21 While these firms may eventually be forced out of the industry through FINRA action or otherwise, FINRA observed that these compliance issues include a persistent, if limited, population of firms with a history of misconduct that may not be acting appropriately as a first line of defence to prevent customer harm" +So I got obsessed with bitcoin back in October 2017. Was really bummed I found it so late and it was too late to have any sizeable amount of bitcoin anymore. Decided to buy as much as possible and tightened the budget to buy maximum amount every month. Been doing that for 56 months and gonna continue until my stack gives me freedom/security enough to quit the fiat hamster wheel. Decided to document my journey in a blog. Enjoy! + +[https://er-bybitcoin.com/stacking-em-volume-22-may-2022/](https://er-bybitcoin.com/stacking-em-volume-22-may-2022/) +Hi everyone + +Noticed that there are lots of student style studios, like this one [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64801272.html](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64801272.html) on Rightmove. They're all advertised by YieldIt and regularly talk about guaranteed rent and the likes. I'm just wondering what the catch is with them all? I'm of the opinion if something is too good to be true, it probably is so I'm wondering what I'm missing with these +I am a noob. I've messed around before, but I finally started putting real money in stocks last November. + +Since then I have bought stocks, panic sold, and watched them go to the moon without me. I've jumped on memes and been burned. I even held weed stocks too long and got out green, but half as green as I could have. + +Today, HIPH hit +100% of my investment in 5k shares. I just sold half my shares, insuring that I make my money back. Everything is gravy past this. + +I got the HIPH tip from this sub. Got advice from other investors here. Learned a lot (like selling at 100%). Of everything I've read, watched, and heard, I've learned the most from you guys. + +I may not have made a lot of money selling 2500 shares of a penny stock, but I did it RIGHT. And I feel confident that I can repeat this to success with other future positions. + +So thank you for all your advice! I will be spending a lot of time here to keep learning! +I have been following the Gamestop saga since around November 2020. This is pure speculation based on events that I have witnessed. + +The SEC knows it all: + +* They know the colossal scope of the naked short positions. +* They know all the media entities that are helping short sellers manipulate the market. +* Gary Gensler knows every single illegal naked short seller and could put them behind bars right now if he wanted. + +So what has SEC done? + +* They prevented whales from forcing the short squeeze. Michael Burry was subpoenaed by SEC over GameStop. He was most likely forced to exit his position shortly before the January FOMO. +* They have possibly placed a gag order on Gamestop regarding this situation. +* They have allowed the naked short selling and media manipulation to continue in order to suppress the price. + +The only thing that can put an end to this is direct registering your shares. + +It does a couple of important things: + +* Those shares are completely out of the slimy hands of DTCC. The same DTCC that is mingling with Citadel and co. +* Once the float is locked, it gives irrefutable evidence of naked short positions and Gamestop can take legal action. Remember they have 1B in cash laying around? +* It also makes SEC look complicit. +We know foreign equity MFs like MOMF Nasdaq 100 et all are treated as debt funds, but I am wondering if there are any other tax disadvantages with investing in this. + +Such as +- Do foreign govt do any tax withholdings before release any gains to these MFs. +- How does these compare to holding foreign equity through Vested etc +I was looking at how much Small Cap funds invest in mid-cap stocks. But I am confused with the statistics available on various sites. For example, for *Nippon Small Cap* fund, its portfolio has following breakdown: + +* [ValueResearch](https://www.valueresearchonline.com/funds/16182/nippon-india-small-cap-fund-direct-plan): Mid: **45.93%**, Small: 44.68% +* [MorningStar](https://www.morningstar.in/mutualfunds/f00000pd8f/nippon-india-small-cap-fund-direct-plan-growth-plan/portfolio.aspx): Mid: **53%**, Small: 28% +* [MoneyControl](https://www.moneycontrol.com/mutual-funds/nippon-india-small-cap-fund/portfolio-overview/MRC587): Mid: **6.2%**, Small: 73.44% +* [MutualFundIndia](https://www.mutualfundindia.com/MF/Portfolio/Details?id=11533): Mid: **18.2%**, Small: 69.76% + +I decided to do some calculation myself. I looked at the [top 60 stocks (.xls)](https://mf.nipponindiaim.com/InvestorServices/FactsheetsDocuments/NIMF-Monthly-Portfolio-Dec-21-With-Riskometer.xls) in Nippon Small Cap Fund (they are about 73% of total allocation). Out of these, Mid caps contribute about 15.89% (I used categorization provided by [AMFI](https://www.amfiindia.com/research-information/other-data/categorization-of-stocks)). If we extrapolate this, total contribution of Mid caps would come out to less than 25%. + +Does anyone know why there is so much difference between these sources? Which one can be considered as reliable? Is it just a matter of using a different criterion for defining what's Large/Mid/Small cap? + +Why is this important? I am trying to check how much of my equity fund portfolio is allocated to Large/Mid/Small caps. For example, I want to make sure that the allocation is something like: Large-70%, Mid-20%, Small-10%. But based on which site I use, the allocation comes out to be wildly different. +So the CNX Smallcap fell 20 percent in September month alone. + +To put things in perspective. The 10 year return on Cnx smallcap is now at 0% + +Returns are negative for 2 and 3 years. And for 5 years returns are 5.75 percent. + +Another pointer, this is the biggest monthly crash in CNX Smallcap in last 10 years. + +Now the long and painful journey of NIL returns will get extended to 15 or even more years. +It's that time of the month. Some of us just received cash from salary or business income. What are you planning to invest in? What did you sell, and why? If you are continuing to hold onto existing investments, what are they and why do you hold them? Are you avoiding anything? Again, why? + +The discussion is not just for individual stocks of companies, but also for mutual funds and other investments. Feel free to share your investment rationale. This thread does not exist not only for disseminating knowledge on investment decisions (the why?). Others are free to assess your rationale. + +Be aware that these answers are just opinions of Redditors and should be used as a starting point for your research. None of this is investment advice or a stock recommendation. Kindly do your due diligence and/or consider seeing a registered investment advisor before making any financial decisions! + +Previous [Links](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=monthly+discussion+thread+&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) + +PS: Be friendly. Be civil. + +Newbie investor here, so please be kind! + + +I was looking at ETF returns and found that the SBI Nifty 50 ETF [**gave returns of 6.8%**](https://www.sbimf.com/en-us/other-schemes/sbi-etf-nifty-50#PerofrmanceNew) since inception (2015). + +Inflation in India over the last 20 years is **6.42%** with a standard deviation of **2.78%** ([Data source](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=IN)) + +I think that as India develops, the trend of interest rates, and thus inflation, will trend downwards. So, in the long run, ETFs will provide 1 - 2% return over inflation, relatively risk-free as compared to actively managed funds. Please poke holes in this logic and tell me why I'm wrong? +Hey everyone. I have been investing for about a few months now (dividends and growth). What are some of your guys' current favorite long term undervalued dividend stocks? + +Here are some of mine in my humble opinion: T, O, and PG + +Drop some tickers below!!! +With all the noise in the markets and in the world where are you guys finding safety and long term divided growth! Over the past couple months I have moved more cash into RTX, O, KO, MCD, SBUX and DIS! Theses were my top 5 to watch and take advantage when the market started to go down. Whats your top 5 or top sector you guys have been watching! Some sector's are still down and I am looking for new opportunities as prices have increased quite a bit lol +Hi everyone, + +About a year ago I put together a dividend plan for myself and the significant other with the goal of eventually being able to pay our rent + utilities completely from dividends within 3-4 years. The plan is to eventually buy a house and pay the mortgage with dividends as well. I've been reading r/dividends for a while and I think getting some opinions on our dividend income plan from the community could only make it stronger, so I really appreciate you guys reading through this and poking holes or giving advice. + +A little bit about us: We're two young professionals in our mid to late twenties. I make 110,000 +20,000 variable bonus / year, and the partner makes 90,000 + a variable amount of RSUs a year. I am debt free and my partner only has 1600 left on their student loans. Our rent combined is 1800/month and our utilities are usually 100-200 a month depending on the season (winter heating bills are high). + +Basically our total rent + utilities expenses are essentially 2000/month max, or 24,000 a year. + +I tried to diversify our dividend plan by industry and weight towards stocks I felt more comfortable with based on their history and price volatility. I assumed that everything we buy will be put on a DRIP for the next 3-4 years so our number of shares that we own should snowball over time. I included some stocks we already owned in the plan (like $AAPL and $ADI) since they do pay some dividend, even though its kind of low. I also tried to include stocks that had cheaper prices (prices lower than 100) so we could buy more shares every month. We're planning on investing 3000-4000 dollars a month in the below plan: + +&#x200B; + +|Ticker|Industry|Price (as of mid dayish 6/5/2020)|% Dividend|Goal # of Shares to Own|Goal Annual Profit from Dividends|Cost of Goal # of Shares| +|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| +|$VZ|Telecom|57.74|4.30|3000|$7,448.46|$173,220.00| +|$O|Real Estate|62.21|4.65|2200|$6,364.08|$136,862.00| +|$KO|Beverage|49.09|3.42|2200|$3,693.53|$107,998.00| +|$ADM|Food|42.52|3.5|1000|$1,488.20|$42,520.00| +|$PAYX|HR Products|80.05|3.34|800|$2,138.94|$64,040.00| +|$POR|Utility|47.56|3.28|800|$1,247.97|$38,048.00| +|$ADI|Semiconductors|124.59|2.03|300|$758.75|$37,377.00| +|$AAPL|Technology |331.5|1.02|30|$101.44|$9,945.00| +|||||Totals:|$23,241.38|$610,010.00| + +&#x200B; + +Are there ways we can lower the cost or balance this better so we can make more in a smarter way? I'm still falling a bit short of 24,000 and the cost is very expensive. Thanks +My 2 highest are as follows: +1. PSEC - 14%+ +2. SDIV - 10.4% + +I hold very little as my total portfolio but I do it as the payout could be huge in the long run. +Growing up my parents haven't been very open with talking about money. I know its a tricky subject but I feel that because it was never spoken about in the house, it contributed to me being financially illiterate way longer than I should have been. Only in the past fews years (early 20s) have I begun to self-teach this stuff. What's your view on how open parents should be with their kids around finances? I suppose it is a difficult balance between letting them enjoy their childhood without 'real world' concerns VS preparing them for future adulthood? +# Daily Wrinkle Brain Think Tank + +Please keep this daily discussion limited to the stocks and $GME - i.e. stock movements, sharing information, peer review, news sharing, asking/answering questions, and so on. + +# 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) + +If you see mistakes in the wiki, or need to contact moderators, [please send us a Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Superstonk). + +Please review the [**Superstonk Rules**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) before commenting or posting on r/Superstonk. + +*Daily discussion threads are created at 4:00 a.m. EDT* +With the increases in mortgage rates 5-6-7% now, I put a figure into a mortgage calculator and am truly astounded at the results of this. + +A 25 year mortgage for £200,000 for 30 years at 6% is £1190.10/month. + +But my rent (which was considered very expensive when I signed for it 4 months ago is £850. + +That tells me, if the landlord is mortgaging at 6% for 25 years - they would make a loss of £340.10 just to service their mortgage. That doesn’t account for the letting agency fees, insurance etc etc. + +I could only assume then that when the tenancy comes to an end the rent will be increased way about £1200/month (an increase of £350 minimum). I won’t be able to afford this major increase in rent, and i’m fairly sure many other people are in similar positions, or worse. + +So, then, peoples homes and rented properties are going to go haywire in the next 1-2 years resulting in so many peoples properties being repossessed or not being able to pay the rent. + +I fear we are going to see something far worse than the 2008 financial crisis. Are people aware how bad it’s going to get? Just one example I thought, how are families with kids in the area going to be able to afford the increases? They simply won’t, and will have to move to a cheaper part of the country upsetting their childrens lives, schooling, and friend circles. + +Just wow. +I thought this would be interesting since I've seen a number of people worried about the current bear market. A short article from Vanguard about "staying the course" and not panicking, for those of you who invest for the long term. Hope this is allowed. + +[Here is the article "Why it's best to stay calm when markets are weak"](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/investing-success/staying-calm-when-markets-are-weak?cmpgn=ET0622UKPICEC0101) + +Here is another about ["Investing in inflationary environment"](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/investing-success/investing-in-an-inflationary-environment?cmpgn=ET0622UKPICEC0104) + +Hope this is of help to those of you who are not completely familiar with long-term investing. +Its because people are stupidly buying cryptocurrencies based on hype with little to no research. Dogecoin?? Really? Downvote me for all i care but dogecoin is a shit coin, it is years behind the majorly developed coins like ethereum. I can name you 10 other coins whos value is shit. So if you made money on it, good for you. But if you want to last in the cryptocurrency investment sphere, you need get the fuck out of that position. Look at every bullrun we had the past 7 years, and check the highest market cap coins during those bullruns. 80% of them failed. + +Remember, emotions are you enemy in any investment sphere. If the coin you hold have little to no development and no good institutional backing. GTFO of that position. Dont hold it cause you think it will "moon" for no apperent reason. + +Take tenx for example, the company ditched everyone and closed shop, yet their coins rose during the bullrun we had the past months. Does that make any sense? A company which does not exist anymore had its tokens rise double their already worthless value? + +Sure, buy some shit coins, just remember that its a gamble. With odds close to winning a lottery. Do you really want to YOLO a majority of your savings on a lottery? + +Why not invest in Crypto market in a way that reduces your risk, increases your return and help reduce the amount of shit coins that keeps killing every novice crypto investor? + +---- + +To make it clear, when you invest, you want to create a diversified protfolio with the highest RISK adjusted return. Does that make sense?? + += So, to all the would be crypto investors. You need to follow the fundamental investing strategies, to help protect your capital while you grow it. If that is not your goal, you should just hit the casino. Some games have better odds than investing in shit coins. + + +1) build a diversified portfolio. Diversified means the lowest correlated assets possible. + +2) choose your portfolio allocation based on your acceptable risk. I personally would not accept to lose more than 40% of my portfolio, even if i stand to gain more than a 100%. Because if i lose my capital, then am out of the whole investment game in the first place. + +Example: 25% crypto with high development rate and high partnership acquisition rate, 25% stable coins generating 8%~, 25% real estate or reits with low mortgage securities generating 4%~, and 25% in dividend aristicrats generating 2%~. +Such a portfolio would cap your drawdawn (expected maximum unrealised loss) risk at 30% or 40%. But will theoretically have unlimited maximum gain. + +3) choose your assets based on real world data. Financials, risk metrics, management team, history, development rate, partnership rate, community engagement, etc etc. Not on hype. + +I can go on and write a huge post explaining how to really invest. Not gamble. And i still wont scratch the surface. BUT, If you dont learn how to invest money, EVEN IF YOU MAKE 10 MILLION, you will lose it as fast as you make it. I need you to understand that. + +So start by investing coins and assets that carry high intrinsic value (read, not dogecoin), as mentioned in point 3, start by doing those. And make sure you apply point 1 if you dont want to lose 70% of your portfolio value by sticking to cryptocurrencies only. +# BlackBerry, AMC and Other Reddit YOLO Favorites That Aren’t GameStop + +## A frenzy from online traders is sending shares of some companies soaring + +On Reddit forums, ordinary investors are swapping stock tips. + +It isn’t just GameStop. + +Shares of the Texas-based videogame retailer [surged as much as 145%](https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestop-shares-surge-toward-fresh-record-ahead-of-opening-bell-11611579224?mod=article_inline) on Monday alone, before giving up most of their gains to end up only 18%. But GameStop Corp. is far from alone in going vertical this year. + +Everything from a hydrogen battery maker to a struggling movie-theater chain have rocketed in the past few weeks. Behind the swings, many see ordinary investors, stuck at home in the pandemic, swapping tips and hatching trading strategies on online forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets—[often buying things Wall Street has bet against](https://www.wsj.com/articles/short-bets-pummel-hot-hedge-fund-melvin-capital-11611349217?mod=article_inline). Many [tout their long-shot wagers](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-day-trading-barbarians-at-the-gate-wont-sack-wall-street-11611660505?mod=article_inline) with the expression “YOLO,” or, “You only live once.” + +Here’s a look at what else has their attention: + +[**AMC Entertainment Holdings**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AMC) [AMC **8.71%** ](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AMC?mod=chiclets)**Inc**. + +Shares of the movie-theater operator have risen more than 30% this week after the company [announced a $917 million financing deal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/amc-nets-917-million-in-financing-to-ward-off-bankruptcy-11611574504?mod=article_inline) to avoid filing for bankruptcy. But day traders’ enthusiasm for the company had already allowed it to sell millions of dollars’ worth of shares last year, helping raise much needed cash. + +[**BlackBerry**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/BB) **Ltd.** [BB **1.50%**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/BB?mod=chiclets) + +Security software and service provider BlackBerry is another stock with a notable short position finding support online from individual investors. Shares have climbed around 25% this week, leaving many analysts scratching their heads. The company said Monday it wasn’t aware of any material developments or change in its business that would account for the recent jump. + +[**NIO**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/NIO) **Inc.** [NIO **-0.43%**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/NIO?mod=chiclets) + +The Chinese electric-vehicle maker [has received enduring interest](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-and-discord-are-the-new-wall-street-trading-desks-11610361004) from individual traders on social media platforms including Discord and Reddit, sending shares of its ADR up more than 1,000% in the past 12 months. NIO now ranks among the world’s [top five auto makers](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-and-falland-rise-againof-chinese-ev-startup-nio-11606732206?mod=article_inline), with a market capitalization around $96 billion. The company [delivered 43,728 vehicles](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/01/03/2152248/0/en/NIO-Inc-Provides-December-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Delivery-Update.html) in total last year. That compares to around 449,000 deliveries by [Tesla](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/TSLA) Inc., [TSLA **0.40%** ](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/TSLA?mod=chiclets)and more than 9 million from [Volkswagen](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/XE/XETR/VOW) AG . + +[**Palantir Technologies**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/PLTR) **Inc.** [PLTR **-1.27%**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/PLTR?mod=chiclets) + +Data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies’ shares have soared over 260% since the company [went public back in September](https://www.wsj.com/articles/palantir-asana-direct-listing-ipo-11601479305?mod=article_inline), making it one of last year’s best performing stock offerings. The company has also become a favorite of individual investors posting online, who like it because of the [exposure to big data and government contracts](https://www.wsj.com/articles/palantir-boosts-its-full-year-revenue-outlook-11605220457?mod=article_inline). Later today, Palantir will show off the latest developments in its software to the public for the first time ever, a move some analysts expect to have positive ramifications for the stock. + +[**Plug Power**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/PLUG)**,** [PLUG **10.82%** ](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/PLUG?mod=chiclets)**Inc.** + +Shares of hydrogen battery maker Plug Power have gained more than 370% in the past three months, powered by investors eager to [cash in on the green economy](https://www.wsj.com/articles/major-energy-companies-bet-big-on-hydrogen-11603392160?mod=article_inline). Individual investors online lauded Plug Power as the next big thing after South Korea-based [SK Holdings](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/KR/XKRX/034730) Co. invested $1.5 billion in the company earlier this month. Others are less optimistic, with hedge funds including Kerrisdale Capital Management betting against the stock, saying hydrogen batteries [face numerous challenges](https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-hydrogen-the-new-wonder-fuel-11593170272?mod=article_inline) including efficiency and safety. + +[**Bed Bath & Beyond**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/BBBY) **Inc.** [BBBY **18.42%**](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/BBBY?mod=chiclets) + +Shares surged as much as 50% Monday before paring gains and are now up around 70% in 2021, even after the home-goods retailer this month [reported third-quarter earnings](https://www.wsj.com/articles/bed-bath-beyond-posts-quarterly-sales-decline-despite-digital-pickup-11610043338?mod=article_inline) per share of 8 cents, short of the 19 cents analysts expected, along with a 5% drop in revenue from the same period last year. Online traders point to an early 2020 change in management and the fact that the company is buying back shares as signs that the share price will continue to increase. +I see a lot of suggestions for saving money on XYZ but I don’t think we ever really talk about what are the best ways to add additional revenue streams to a persons life. Does anyone know of normal things a person can do to add more income to their life? (Hopefully besides “get a new job”) + +I figured I’d ask because you can only save/invest what you are already earning. My parents never took the time to teach us about how you could make money outside of a job/career. +Hey, guys + +&#x200B; + +I'm in an interesting situation where I'll be leaving the Army in the next 2 weeks and have been able to amass $70k over the course of my short career. I'm entirely frugal and debt free. I have no clear cut plan on what to do after I'm out apart from getting a short term job and exploring the options of flight school/college + +&#x200B; + +Some background + +&#x200B; + +I'll be moving in with family for the first few months until I'm in a position where I'm not hemorrhaging money + +&#x200B; + +I have 70k in relatively safe index funds (VTI, VOO), 3k emergency fund, and nearing 10k in my TSP (military 401k). + +&#x200B; + +I'm debt free, I own 2 vehicles that are entirely reliable. + +&#x200B; + +I'm really just looking for some guidance or suggestions on how to manage the transition back into the civilian sector. I'm entirely motivated to get back to earning a decent wage and am open to absolutely any suggestions or ideas on a career path or even things I can do with this sum of cash. + +&#x200B; + +Thanks in advance. +I have personally been using finviz as a screener however I’m looking to see if there is other better options out there that can help me find stocks that are gaping in pre market. +WeWork parent weighs slashing its valuation roughly in half to around $20 billion amid IPO skepticism, say people familiar with the matter + +This is a developing story.... + +https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-parent-weighs-slashing-its-valuation-roughly-in-half-11567689174?mod=BNM&mod=breakingnews +Why do we need to protect our wealth against governments and Banks? + +In 2008 Argentina nationalized $30Billion in private pensions. + +In 2013, Cyprus seized up to 40% of citizens money out of Bank accounts. + +In 2016, Syrian refugees had their wealth confiscated by border guards. + +In 2016, Venezuela had 720% inflation and bolivar lost about 90% of it’s value. + +Why do we need to use Bitcoin? + +~ Bitcoin is not centralized, YOU are in full control of your wealth. + +~ Your Private key is your FREEDOM. {Own it, it is your money} + +http://prntscr.com/hgulfr +My Scottish Power deal runs out at the end of Jan 22. + +A 2 year fixed rate is £180. A 50% rise. + +Is this the way it is going to be for everyone or should I switch provider in Feb 22? +# Firstly, thanks UKPF! + +Hey UKPF. + +This morning I handed my notice in at my current employer, and start my new job in a month. Throughout the application, interview and offer stages of my new role I consulted this forum for advice and guidance, so I'd like to express my gratitude to the community on here. In return I'd like to share my experience with other people who might find information about the process useful. + +**I wondered if it was worth while starting a topic on the UKPF Wiki for applying for new jobs?** + +# Where to start... + +**Setting up job alerts on Indeed and LinkedIn is a great place to start.** You can tailor the search to a specific career and location, and then setup email alerts directly to your phone. If nothing else this will give you a better understanding of what's out there, what salary to expect, and what companies exist in your area. + +I found the job descriptions for the positions I was potentially interested in to be beneficial in shaping my CV. Looking at what employers wanted helped me identify the skills I have that I should include on my CV/application. + +Make sure you have: + +* An up to date CV, that looks the part. Consider looking at [GraphicRiver](https://graphicriver.net/cv-in-graphics) for CV design inspiration. +* Your National Insurance number. +* A valid passport. +* The notice period you are obliged to serve to your current employer, as outlined in your contract. + +# Interviews + +This was the scary part, a fear of the unknown. I applied for around 6 roles before I got an interview. Then like buses, two came at once. **Generally your first interview is to make sure you're not a psychopath.** I was invited in for an "informal chat" and felt like this was a good chance for any potential employer to see if you're a good fit for the team and company. + +An interview is a great chance to talk about yourself, but please remember to let the interviewer talk about their needs as well. Nerves sometimes take over and people can end up waffling. If you start a sentence, make sure you know where it's going before you begin talking. And absolutely **do not talk over your interviewer.** Be sure to talk about all of the positive things you can take from your old job. Talking about your previous employer negatively can sound like "my old job was shit, I'm desperate to move on and you'll do". + +**If you're interviewing for more than one position,** this is a good time to establish trust with either party. A simple **"to be transparent,** I am interviewing for one other position and I have an interview with them on \[date\]" will suffice. + +# Dealing with offers + +Congratulations, your new employer has deemed you not to be a psychopath and has offered you a position within the company. + +**Initially you may receive the offer over the phone.** If you do, thank them for the offer and ask if they can follow it up with a written offer letter via email - this letter should clearly outline the salary expectations and a possible start date. + +In my case I received an offer from Employer A before my second interview with Employer B. I took the advice of [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/bv98qn/juggling_a_job_offer_and_final_interviews/) (thanks [u/corporategiraffe](https://www.reddit.com/u/corporategiraffe/) & [u/SA1996](https://www.reddit.com/u/SA1996/)) and opted for honesty. I told Employer A: + +>I'm very grateful for your offer and value the opportunity, however, I have a final stage interview with which I wish to complete before making a decision. + +It's also courteous at this stage to consider asking when they need confirmation by, and giving them a realistic deadline for when you'd know for definite - this went down really well with Employer A. I sat on this offer for a week before my second interview with Employer B. + +At the end of my final stage interview with Employer B I mentioned "for transparency" that I'd received another offer. They said it'd take a week to hear back on the outcome of my final stage interview. Within an hour I received an offer over the phone from them, followed by a written offer over email. Not only did having the offer from Employer A speed up the process of getting an offer from Employer B, but it also resulted in Employer B offering me a higher salary than I'd anticipated. + +At this stage I called Employer A and outlined why I was taking the offer from Employer B. Remember to leave this on good terms: + +>Thank you for your time, I hope you find the right candidate, I apologise for holding the process up, and I wish the business every success in the future. + +Follow this up with an email reiterating the same points. + +Subsequently I asked for Employer B to send over a copy of my contract before accepting their offer and handing my notice in. At this stage [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/akrjx5/when_to_hand_in_resignation_etc/) was particularly useful (thanks [u/reddithenry](https://www.reddit.com/u/reddithenry/) & [u/edge2528](https://www.reddit.com/u/edge2528/)) + +# Handing your notice in + +Slightly nerve-wracking. I asked for a quick chat - in person - with my respective managers and owners of the business. I told them I was leaving, would serve my notice period, and that I was extremely grateful for the opportunities they'd given me during my time in their business. Remember to leave on good terms. You never know when or where you might meet these people again. + +Speaking to each manager in person first, before going to HR, is not only courteous but in my case was appreciated and respected. A lot can be said for hearing information from the horses mouth. + +Follow this up with an email to HR. I used this template: + +>Please accept this as notice of my resignation from the position of \[position\] at \[company\]. As per the terms of my employment contract, I will continue to work for the company for the next \[notice period\], to assist with the handing-over of responsibilities. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunities that I’ve experienced during my time here, and I’m thankful for all the help and support I’ve received along the way. + +# And finally... + +And finally some words of encouragement. + +I was initially scared to look for new positions - this was after all my first position in a career job post-university. My new employer roughly employs 30 times more people than my previous employer, giving me plenty of room to grow. My salary has increased 25% and I'll be able to use that to pay off credit card debt and save for a house. It's been a bit like ripping a plaster off. Initially it's going to be a shock, but inevitably it’s been for the best. There’s an element of risk involved in starting a new position, but by writing a list of pros and cons it becomes easier to whittle it down. + +I'll leave you with this quote from Warren Buffett, which confirmed my decision to move on: + +>*"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."* + +**Thanks again to the UKPF community, and if anyone has any input on this subject I'll gladly edit and add things to this post. Good luck!** +http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/05/google-will-not-make-a-twitter-bid-apple-bid-unlikely-recode-citing-sources.html + +Disney (which still seems unlikely to me, or at least like a questionable choice) and Salesforce (who has been getting obliterated since they came out in considerable favor of buying Twitter after failing to get LinkedIn.) are left. + +Edited: TWTR now -18% pre-market. The $20 level is not that far South of here. + +Edited 2: Disney also out http://www.recode.net/2016/10/5/13181704/disney-twitter-buy-iger-dorsey + +Also, good article from Bloomberg about Twitter's problems and how it got here: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-twitter-dorsey-strategy/ + + I'm wondering if collecting Social Security at 70 is mandatory in the USA. + +My wife turns 70 this year and I turn 68. I am still working part time so do not collect Social Security yet. + +My wife is eligible for 50% of my Social Security since she does not have the credits to collect her own Social Security. + +It looks like I may be working part time until I turn 70 so I do not want to collect Social Security yet. + +If I and my wife do not start collecting Social Security after she turns 70, does that create any problems? +On September 19th 1999, Adam Back[1], the creator of Hashcash was discussing the semantics of what it means to call something "ecash" on a cypherpunks thread[2]. Things took an interesting turn when an anonymous account replied. This is a paraphrased version of what the replier said. The full reply is provided in the citations[3]. + +Anonymous[1999-09-19]: **"One possibility is to make the double-spending database public. Whenever someone receives a coin they broadcast its value. The DB operates in parallel across a large number of servers so it is intractable to shut it down......another possible form of ecash could be based on Wei Dai's b-money. This is like hashcash, something which represents a measurable amount of computational work to produce. It therefore can't be forged. This could be a very robust payment system and is worth pursuing further."** + +There are several points of significance of the post. 1) It was made in 1999, 2) It was a reply to the author of Hashcash; a cited technology in the Bitcoin white paper, 3) It also made a reference to Wei Dai's b-money; another cited technology in Bitcoin white paper, 4) It refers to a decentralized architecture, popularly regarded as the pivotal jump Bitcoin makes from existing tech, 5) The poster chose to be anonymous while delivering a seminal revelation; consistent with Nakamoto's modus operandi, 6) Has the potential to be the earliest summarization of Bitcoin as a technology, albeit a loose one. The reason I bring this up is because I haven't seen or heard much about this post and am wondering whether it is important from a historical perspective. Adam Back should be given credit for pointing this out after a conversation with Andreas Antonopolous (@aantonop) and myself on twitter[4], I am simply interested in the discussion that ensues, if any. - bitcoinsSG (http://twitter.com/bitcoinsSG) + + +* [1] Dr. Adam Back (@adam3us) is the creator of a widely recognized pre-cursor to Bitcoin, Hashcash. Dr. Back's paper, http://www.hashcash.org/papers/hashcash.pdf, 2002 is cited in Satoshi Nakamoto's seminal whitepaper. +* [2] http://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=95280154629900&w=2 +* [3] http://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=95280154629912&w=2 +* [4] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=205533.msg2149044#msg2149044 +No other subreddit was useful so I need reddit's brightest. The scenario: + +I began a job in June and will probably end the year with around 35,000-37,000 in taxable income. I have a Roth IRA and 401k so I don't get any big deductions there. What I do have is ~56k in net LT capital gains unrealized and a friend. I think I can get a few thousand at the 0% rate. But if I got married now and sold the stock and then filed jointly, would I be able to claim more under the 0% bracket? My friend probably made around 10k. We would also not stay married - so whatever happens in a divorce would also have to be considered. Thanks, any other ideas to reap 0% are appreciated as well. + +Of course my friend and I are both male. + +EDIT: What is wrong with tax fraud? +I'm done with DD (unless as something interestening to read or to learn something new). + +I'm done with predictions. + +I'm done with dates. + +Done with media. + +Bring on the memes and shitposting for me. +That is all I'm here for now. + +After yesterday I don't believe there is some mythical catalyst, some trigger we must hit. It's not needed anymore. + +They are bleeding, we need no further proof of that. Let them bleed, we know where we'll end up. I cannot see this ending any other way than MOASS. We knew it for a long time, every new clue points that we were right. There is nothing more to prove or verify until bankruptcies start. Till then price will just simply be on the steady climb, SHF will do what they can to postpone inevitable and someday they will fail for the last time. And then things will speed up. + +Look were we are after 6 months, price has been climbing for three or four weeks at least. + +We are always above exponential floor for fucks sake. + +And yet everybody seems to be waiting for some catalyst. Why? The price is on the steady climb already! It's just slower than some expected. + +From now on for me it's: + +NO DD +NO PREDICTIONS +NO DATES +NO TRIGGERS +NO CATALYST + +From now on it's + +ONLY UP + +(with dips of course, we all know how you like those dips) + +Buckle up! +I personally realized on week 1 of working that I just didn't enjoy having to spend so much time away from home and my girlfriend. I searched on Reddit for ways to retire early and found this subreddit and I've been healthily obsessed since. How about you guys? +Figured I'd get around to posting our spending ever since the $500k income post several months ago garnered a lot of curiosity. We're DINK (for now), mid 30s in a very HCOL city. Throwawy so friends don't find my account. + +&#x200B; + +Assets: + +•\~$1.5m cash (mostly committed) + +•\~$500k credit funds / loans + +•\~$300k retirement accounts (index funds) + +•\~$1m private real estate funds + +•\~$1m private equity funds + +•\~$1.5m startup investments + +•\~$500k ​taxable index funds + +•\~$2.4m condo + +•\~$1.4m land + +&#x200B; + +Liabilities: + +•\~$2m mortgage @ 3.875% + +&#x200B; + +Income: + +•\~$400k salaries + +•\~$200k-300k investment income + +&#x200B; + +Expenses: + +•\~$200k income / payroll taxes + +•\~$50k property taxes + +•\~$120k mortgage + +•\~$15k HOA fees + +•\~$2.5k auto / condo / umbrella insurance policies + +•\~$1.5k electric / Internet / streaming + +•\~$5k Ubers / Lyfts + +•\~$40k groceries / eating out / alcohol + +•\~$15k-20k vacations + +•\~$3k sports + +•\~$3k public transit + +•\~$1k gas + +•\~$5k clothes + +&#x200B; + +We put the rest ($100k-$200k) into retirement accounts, taxable accounts and private funds, as well as make charitable contributions. Goals are to increase net worth to pass on to future children and to build a forever house. + +&#x200B; +I have always tried to get my head around how much house I can safely afford. I have RE at this point and would plan on paying all cash for my house, or perhaps a small $600k loan since money is cheap and after taxes and inflation, essentially free. The houses I have been looking at are $2-2.5M price range. What overall net worth would you think would support such a large expenditure and why? +I work in Tech and have a decent role with a smaller company where I'm currently building my practice and report directly to the CEO. Less than 100 Million a year in business. I see the opportunity to move into a VP role. Owner is likely looking to sell in the next 5 years. + +Question: At what point does an increase in salary matter less? + + +I'm getting offers for around 300k (100k increase over current role) at much larger companies for roughly the same role, but likely more narrow in scope, bigger projects, and a full team to work with. + + +I might be able to convince the Owner into some kind of profit sharing in addition to 200k salary, which if things were rolling well put me into the 300k or above range. + + +My main worry is taking a role with a higher comp and hating life. Life is pretty good at my current place and unlikely to be much better at a large company. One of the two offers known to be kind of crap, but its also offering the most. That being said its hard to think about turning down offers with those kinds of numbers. + +Any and all feedback is most welcome. + +&#x200B; + +No kids and no desire to have any. Have significate other and they are cool with whatever I pick. +We're an American (her) British (me) couple based in California. Considering flying to London when wife is 6 months pregnant so that she gives birth in UK, baby gets British passport etc. (it's a long story, but I'm British by descent and even if baby is born in US, I cannot pass my British citizenship down to my child, as discovered with first baby). What are the options for best possible hospital treatment? What is the insurance situation? We expect to pay for private treatment but wanted to know what the best options are. I've read the Portland is the best hospital? In my mind, we AirBnB near the best hospital and enjoy London for a few months. Would love to know the costs for giving birth privately in the UK. Thanks +Y2011, a buddy of mine with a serious gambling addition to Poker was trying to sell me 100BTC for some petty money. +Those days worth around 100$ overall. +I refused to buy it since hey I care of you mate! Quit that gambling s**t! + +Y2021, my fiancé still complains to hearing me crying some nights. +Not me, just another example of crazy Australian speculation: + +https://www.propertychat.com.au/community/threads/significant-debt-on-ip-do-we-wait-it-out-or-offload.32301/ + +Here's the post: + +>Hi All, new member and would be interested in peoples opinions on the best course of action moving forward - below is a summary of our situation: + +>Current situation + +>1 investment unit $180/w rent, $5600/yr body corporate, owe $167 000 (interest only) + +>1 investment house $220/w rent owe $294 000 (interest only) + +>1 investment house $240/w rent owe $275 000 (interest only) + +>Multiple other Lines of Credit (borrowed against above houses plus owner occupied), owe $350 000 + +>Total debt $1.05M + +>Rough values of assets + +>Unit $170 000 + +>*House 1 $280 000 (see * at end) + +>*House 2 $280 000 (see * at end) + +>Owner Occupied $500 000 + +>Shares $ 20 000 + +>Properties were purchased approx. 10 years ago, with 2 incomes before kids. Now we have 4 kids and 1 income. + +>The 2 houses are beside each other in Townsville on large blocks, with one on a corner block, with ability to subdivide off an extra 2 and possibly 3 lots from the rear of the 2 properties (ie total would be 2 houses plus 2 vacant lots or 2 houses plus 3 vacant lots). Very rough estimate cost would be around $150 000 to subdivide, with blocks worth $120 000 to $170 000. + + +>Current difference between living expenses (ie, not including any investment costs) and salary is approx. $2150/month or $26 000/yr. IE – we have potential to ‘save’ $26 000/yr in our favour. + +>Current difference between rental income and loan repayment and ongoing investment costs of 2 houses is $22 000 – ie:, we need to find and extra $22k to cover the shortfall. We also have an additional $16 500 of interest/yr to pay other lines of credit. + +>**So in summary, we are losing approx. $20 500/yr ($26k -$22k - $16.5k).** This can be covered by other cash income from hobbies/odd jobs. + +>Our net position (ie, owing $1.05M) has remained for about the last 8 years. + +>**If house prices go down and/or interest rates go up – we will be in serious trouble** + +>If house prices go up, it makes things a lot easier, and could potentially offload properties (would have to be within 3-5 yrs) and be close to debt free on owner occupied. + +>If we were to sell both *houses (at 2 x $280k), we would be left with a debt of around $350 000, which could be put against our owner occupied. This leaves us P&I repayments of approx. $2300/month which is $150/month more than our current ‘savings’ – so achievable and pay off debt in 20 years. + +>If we were to sell both *houses plus unit (2 x $280k plus $170k), we would be left with a debt of around $230 000, which could be put against our owner occupied. This leaves us P&I repayments of approx. $1200/month which is $900/month less than our current ‘savings’ – so achievable and pay off debt in 17years, and allow some $$$ to save/invest elsewhere. + + +>*In terms of sell price of the 2 houses, it is hard to judge – since the 2 properties have potential to subdivide, logic suggests selling together should be worth more than the sum of the 2 individual properties to the right buyer. +Ok the title says it all. + +Just a quick preface, my portfolio consists of just 5 stocks, AMD, JPM, BA, AAPL, and CRSR. I'm about 9% cash right now after liquidating my ETSY position and I'm looking for a great company with potential in the next 5-10 years but I'm having a little bit of trouble. + +Almost every stock I want to own is trading at too high of a multiple for me so now I'm turning to you. + +What are your highest conviction plays in the long term and WHY? +Berkeley offers 4 courses on the subject, all free to access, 2 with certificates. Berkeley has been involved with blockchain for quite a while, and having taken the classes myself I can confirm that they are quite informative on both the cryptocurrency and the blockchain side of things. + +[https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/courses/](https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/courses/) + +2 are courses are offered through edX that have optional paid certificates available. + +2 are courses they offer through University that have publicly accessible course materials on their decal page. +I'm a beginner myself but the absolute best piece of advice I can offer new traders can be highlighted via one of my favorite quotes. "sometimes you learn the most by closing your mouth and opening your ears". Especially on this sub, I see a lot of people trying to be like somebody else. ex: "yo I read about someone who got into TSLA at $200 and now they're 21 years old with $100,000. I'm gonna do the same and bet on NIO or some other up-and-comer". I get it, we're all looking for short cuts, it's only human to be looking for the most efficient route. After all, one can argue the only reason we are trading stocks is for a short cut (personally, financially, etc) . I have a roughly $5,000 portfolio and half of that is in REITs and stable low yield dividend stocks. Sure, I have a couple "risky" positions - - but if you put all your eggs into one basket (whether it's a single stock or single market), you're bound to have some rough days. So having ~ $200 a year come from dividends helps me balance out some of those bad trades and for the future ones I may or may not make. And in the grand scheme of things, I am truly just getting started. I like to call it breathing room. + + +Edit: + + Long story short: + + Q: a genie asks, would you rather be guaranteed $1,000 a week for the rest of your life, or $1,800 a week at a coin flip every week. + +I'd take the guaranteed $1,000. + +Then the next time a genie, houdini, or even Jesus christ comes to me, I know that I can be a lil risky and maybe roll the dice. (or flip the coin) + +---- + +RemindME! 1 year "reply to this thread" +I’ve been a stock market guy for years. Like most people it’s what I was taught and it’s what I knew. Invest in stocks and some day you might be able to retire. + +That all completely changed this past year when most of the world was inevitably stuck at home. Now I had heard about Bitcoin but I never really read into it or really even gave it that much thought. + +Living alone I had a whole lot of time on my hands and to pass that time I like to get high sometimes. Well one night I decided to toke up and found myself reading some article on cryptocurrency, the technology and uses surrounding it. + +At the time I wasn’t sure if it was the weed making me think this was the coolest thing ever or if the technology actual was this incredible. + +Woke up the next day and started reading more and more. Turns out it’s pretty damn incredible. It’s been a few months now and I’m still learning more every day. + +To be able to invest in something like this at what looks like it’s beginning stages, something that can truly change the world, I’m in. I’m all in. + +I’ll leave my stock portfolios as they are but any money going forward will be invested in projects I like long term. + +My goal is to retire by the age of 40, that gives me 9 years to make it happen. + +This is all because I decided to smoke one night and stumbled upon a great article. Thanks weed!! + +TLDR: Crypto and weed are tight. +Hi so basically I got a car from a used car dealership (Larry h Miller in Utah) and the car I chose was about 12,000 dollars and I could pay it off in like a year and a half or so with how much I was making and if I made double payments. No problem I thought, but I called the bank recently that gave me the money for the loan and they said I still owed 16,789 dollars and the original loan was something like 18,000 dollars! I flipped, I was literally going to have a heart attack. Now, I work 4 jobs for the summer to pay off this car, I want to move out and transfer to a new school but will be working even more than I already do just to live and pay for the car and idk what to do about that extra 6,000 like idk what it’s for, where it came from, or why it was taken out. I’m going to be speaking to the dealership but does anyone know why dealerships take out more money? As well, how can I get out of this massive hole I got shoved into? Any help is appreciated, when I transfer schools I don’t want to be working 40 hours a week just to make the payment on the car on top of rent. Ya’ll are great + +Edit: whoa went to bed and this blew up. Sorry for the lack of information all, it was late. I’ll be going over the contract in a bit and replying to all the comments, giving all the information I can. Thanks for all your replies +Hello all - I have roughly $10M in assets, mostly in crypto. I'm looking to diversify my portfolio and take a more serious look at what to do with everything, how to reduce taxes etc. I'm looking for someone to help with the strategy of the big picture. My questions: + +\- How do you go about finding a good financial advisor (in Canada)? + +\- What should I be looking for? + +\- Someone suggested a family office. I'm single with no plans to have kids. Does that matter? + +\- What kind of fee structure should I have? What's a reasonable price? + +Thanks for your help <3 +Hi- question to the group- how often do you check the balance or accounts of your stock investments? I’ve been noticing that I’ve been checking more and more - and my mood is actually impacted by the ups and downs. The swings can be kinda dramatic, with daily changes if +/- $500K. Has anyone been successful not looking on a frequent (Ie daily) basis? I try to tell myself that looking at the accounts won’t change anything- but I don’t seem able to stop. Anyone have success on this front? +Warning: I'm clueless to most of the lingo and I'm really just looking for a starting point. If you were 18 what tips and tricks did you wish you knew? What are some pieces of information on investing and saving that you didn't know until later that would've been crucial at a younger age? + +I just turned 18 and I would like to start investing some of my money. I really have no idea where to start or what I should be focusing on. I have a Robinhood account with a few hundred dollars on it, my only intentions were to learn some of the basics and start trading. + +I hear mutual funds are a good starting point and some long term stocks are, but what are things that you wish you would've known when you were 18? + +Any good books I should look into reading? + +Thank you for all the help. Just scrolling through these forums has made a big difference for me. + +[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-bankruptcy-lampert/sears-chairman-prevails-in-bankruptcy-auction-for-retailer-with-5-2-billion-bid-sources-idUSKCN1PA0SW](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-bankruptcy-lampert/sears-chairman-prevails-in-bankruptcy-auction-for-retailer-with-5-2-billion-bid-sources-idUSKCN1PA0SW) +I know this isn't /r/relationships, I'm not expecting relationship advices. We communicate very well and respect each other's goals. He knows of my FIRE goal and is excited for me, but it's not his thing. + +At first we will definitely have only one bank account in the US, since I'll be the one employed and he will still be looking for work in a new country. + +But after we're established, what are the best options? Has anyone go through FIRE with an SO that didn't have the same goals? + +Should we keep our investments together, or is it better to keep it separate? + +Edit: some great responses, but mostly a lot of relationship advice and a lot of negativity. Just one remainder: someone not actively pursing FIRE is not the same as a spender who is not considerate of someone else's money. + +In my particulate situation, both of us live frugal lives and save a lot of money. Both are considerate of a comfortable retirement. But I want to do it early, adjust my career accordingly. +Not sure where to post this, in /r/investing or here, but check this out: + +*In a land where feudalism is the way of life, you have two cows. Your Lord is entitled to and takes only some of the milk.* + +*Where fascism reigns, you might have two cows as well. Under a fascist regime, the government will seize both of your animals and hire you to take care of them. then it has the audacity of selling you your own milk.* + +*Those same two cows, owned by a farmer who lives in a communist state, the animals are yours to tend. The government in this case simply owns all of the milk.* + +*Under capitalism, the law of the land here in the United States, if you have two cows, you could sell one and buy a bull. You would breed the animals and then watch as your herd grew in size. You could then sell out of the business you created, take the profits and invest them, and eventually retire on the income.* + +*With Enron, you have two cows.* + +*You borrow 80% of the forward value of the two cows from your bank, then buy another cow with 5% down and the rest financed by the seller on a note. This note would bear interest of twice prime. This note would also be callable, which means that the lender could call the note due, in this case, if the value of your publicly listed company falls below $20 billion. You have put up your stock as collateral so this calculation is very important.* + +*You sell the three cows to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at a different bank. You then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated unit so that you get four cows back, plus, as an added bonus, you get a tax exemption for a fifth cow.* + +*There's more.* + +*The milk rights of six cows are transferred via intermediary to a Cayman Island firm secretly owned by a majority shareholder, who sells the rights to seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report now tells the shareholders and analysts that you have eight cows with an option on one more. Your auditors say it's okay because they were in on the transactions and acted as consultants . . . after the fact.* + +*Now you are all set to disclose, via press release and conference call with analysts, that Enron, a major owner of cows, will begin trading cows over the Web. Analysts call you the new economy, talk up your shares into the stratosphere and you sell huge amounts of stock.* + +*This you use to buy the most expensive shredding machine available.* + +- Written by anonymous, published by *Barron's* on January 28, 2001. + +Anyone want to explain this to me like I'm 5? What's/was the big deal? +Here's a snippet from a podcast I've listened to (by Peter Schiff) a week or so ago, thought I'd share it here: + +>Doesn't the stock market reflect the earnings of the economy? Well, no, it reflects the earnings of the companies that are part of the stock market. The vast majority of businesses in America are not publicly traded. They're not in the Dow 30; they're not even in the S&P 500 or the Wilshire 5000. They're privately held companies, so they're not part of it. +> +>So, if you look at the makeup of the publicly traded companies especially on a market cap basis, which companies are doing the best? Amazon, Netflix, those type of companies. \[...\] What's happening today is heavily impacting smaller companies, mom-and-pop type companies. These are the ones that are struggling, and so, since these big companies now have less competition from smaller companies, that benefits the stock market. +> +>So to say, oh look, the stock market is booming, that means we have a strong economy. We don't. It is the weakness in the economy that is benefiting the stock market, and the weaker the economy gets, the better it's going to be for the stock market. Because what happens when the economy is weak? The Fed prints even more money, we get bigger stimulus. It does nothing for Main Street, it *sedates* Main Street, but it continues to pump air into the stock market bubble. + +**TL;DR** Most companies are not listed on any major stock exchange. When you see the S&P 500 up on the year, it's not the economy that's roaring. It's the mega cap FANG stocks, large-cap multinational retailers like Walmart and Target, big pharma, fintech, etc. None of the stock indexes reflect small businesses or even the overall economy. Don't look at the stock market to gauge the health of the economy, look at the economic indexes. +If someone posts an nft giveaway that requires you to click links or sign up for something, DO NOT DO IT! This can be an easy way to phish for your personal info or even gain access to your wallets. + + +Any giveaways that require this kind of stuff is against the rules and should be reported immediately so it gets removed. + +Love ya apes +Buy, hodl, DRS +Pic: http://imgur.com/a/GXfWyZJ + +Link: [you can't make this shit up]( https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/wolf-of-wall-street-riza-aziz-1mdb-arrested-money-laundering-1203259723/) + +Thoughts: lmao! Leo is probably hiding rn. +I read all these posts about buying a property for $20,000 and renting it out for $950/mo. +Where? Where is that happening? +Who’s a good property manager there? +Brand new baby investor here. + +The moon and the stars and planets all aligned perfectly, and somehow, some way, my offer was accepted for a private transaction for the sale of a property before it was publicly listed in the market. + +Now the only thing getting in the way is my lender. + +He was recommended to me by investor friends. He has a condescending tone and outright talks down to me, and I don’t appreciate it. He repeats himself to me as if I’m too stupid to comprehend him. I have asked him multiple times what documentation I need to submit to finalize the details of the loan, and he gives it to me in installments. For instance, last week it was verification of assets and income. Once I submitted all of that info, I asked him what more I needed to provide to lock into a rate. He didn’t respond, and my “to do” list he had generated for me was complete. Since I hadn’t heard back, I left him a VM today again asking how to lock into a rate. Now this week, he’s asking for details of my current debt (mortgage and escrow account). This lender is the same lender I used for my loan for my current mortgage, so he readily has these details available, but even if he needed them, I’m a little irritated that he didn’t notify me sooner that he needed these statements - like maybe last week when I submitted all the documentation he requested. My problem with all of this is that this transaction is time sensitive (per the sellers), and it feels like this loan officer is dragging out this process unnecessarily while being kind of a dick. + +How deep into this process is too deep to start over with a different lender? +Hello everyone! + +I'm new to real estate investing. I'm 22 and I own rental properties. I was hoping to grab perspective from all you well-seasoned investors who have lived through numerous market shifts. + +I know a lot has changed in the past 30 years and I feel as though since I haven't lived and experienced previous cycles that I'm lacking the proper wisdom to guide myself. I don't have a mentor. + +What is one piece of advice you'd give to your younger self and why? + +Thans a ton. +I wanna be clear on this, lately I’ve heard this from a few people now but I want to get more insight so I made this thread. + +It doesn’t make sense to me that someone with like 3, 6 or 8 monthly cash-flowing rental properties plus their day job(s) can’t qualify for another loan; I mean I’ve even seen RE investors w/ a few single family homes who are on student or car loan debt still qualifying somehow. Income is income, and if the DTI meets the criteria then they should be good, right? + +But is there something I’m missing completely or is that just some lenders? +I own a few duplexes; all built in the 1970's and 1980's. I've never had a problem with them over the last few years, but recently had a sewer line clog. After the plumber took care of it my buddy sent me a referral for sewer line insurance, which I didn't even know existed. Does anyone recommend this or have it? I just don't want to waste money on it if it's just bs. +Hope everyone is holding up well. + +Purchased my first property back in August (triplex) and used the money I saved in rent to renovate my unit and the other two. Raised rent after the renovations and now have nice cash flows which has allowed me save up quite a bit of money. + +Is it possible to purchase another multi family property as a primary residence and do it again over and over? My lender originally told me back when I bought my first property that I could if I could “prove it’s a necessary upgrade” (for example, if we said we were starting a family and needed more room). Now his story has changed. + +So long story short, is it possible to house hack consecutive multi-family properties without selling the first one or transferring the it to an LLC and deal with all that comes with that? + +Appreciate all the tips and advice I can get. Happy investing everyone! +Before you start going to anti-GME subs, bashing other stocks on other subreddits that are growing in unison, or just being a general jerkoff, remember this. Don't. + +You do not speak for the entire ape family. You may be excited about your gains and may feel the need to kick other stock shareholders in the face or egg on people that want to see us fall flat. Grow up. Stay here. This ape will beat you down to get you to stay in line. You are doing more harm than not. + +Let's be mature, let's celebrate our wins together and let's keep our heads in the game. I don't want you to give anyone a reason to not take us seriously, because I am serious when it comes to this. I and others hold for you. Think about that statement and be better for the rest of us. +At time of writing, GOOG market cap is $1.06T and other tech giants are much higher (AAPL is $2.01T, AMZN is $1.65T, MSFT is $1.61T). That gap feels large to me. Also, FB is valued at $760B with much lower revenue and decelerating growth, so its gap vs GOOG seems small. + +Is GOOG a good buy? Are these other companies just overvalued? Curious what you all think. +Here's my thinking: + +* GOOG has rock-solid fundamentals - excellent gross margins, has maintained \~15%+ YoY revenue growth even at their scale, and search is a steady business with many entrypoints across the Google ecosystem +* GOOG has bets across so many forward-looking industries that I think they will be able to diversify over time and don't have real risk of not continuing to innovate. There's of course the risk of anti-trust and privacy regulations, but that's been true for years now (although things do appear to be ratcheting up). +* It seems their stock hasn't mooned during covid because a meaningful share of search volume (and subsequently search revenue) comes from brick-and-mortar businesses (as opposed to someone like FB, whose ads biz is more of an ecommerce/direct-to-consumer play), which puts a drag on their revenue. This was the main reason for their relatively weak Q2 earnings a couple weeks back. + +Disclaimer: I own shares of every company mentioned here. Thanks for your input - I really enjoy this subreddit and have learned a lot from reading other posts. +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. +Let's say I have $200k available in an IRA. I could diversify that in some index funds, maybe a couple individual stocks, etc etc. Or I could buy 100 shares of GOOGL (or start selling CSPs) then wheel it. Looks like even weeklies will give \~3-5K per week, just keep selling right around ATM and never close, just let them get called away or assigned and rinse and repeat. + +Make fun of me and tell me why this would not be a good idea. +Hello everyone, + +I noticed $CCXI crashed 42% today and there is quite a large IV skew for the may calls/puts (300%) compared to the back months (200-150%). Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to capitalize on this? I was thinking perhaps a bearish diagonal because everyone seems extremely bearish on their upcoming drug approval this Thursday after the FDAs comments. +On an iron condor you get paid on each side (call credit spread and put credit spread), if the sum of these 2 credits is greater than the loss on one side (it’s impossible to lose on both sides), then wouldn’t this be free money? What am I missing if I can find an iron condor situation where both credits combine to be greater than the long leg on on each side? +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. +EDIT: I did open the position! Took me two days. + +* BTO 225 QQQ PUT $360 Dec 2023, $49.48 +* STO 225 QQQ PUT $380 Dec 2023, $59.58 CR +* BTO 45 QQQ CALL $500 Dec 2023, $8.25 +* STO 1 NDX CALL $14775 Aug 2021, $330.60 CR + +I used the NDX equivalent to take advantage of 60/40 taxation and avoid assignment risk. + +ORIGINAL POST: + +Punchline first. I plan to open the following position: + +* BTO 4 QQQ PUT $355 Dec 2023 +* STO 4 QQQ PUT $375 Dec 2023 +* BTO 1 QQQ CALL $500 Dec 2023 +* STO 1 QQQ CALL $360 Aug 2021 + +The puts come to about $10 credit. The calls are about even. Going forward, the short call is to be rolled up and out at the beginning of each month starting with August by the following schedule: 365, 370, 375, 375, 380, 385, 390, 395, 400, 405, 410, 415, 420, 425, 430, 435, 440, 445, 450, 455, 460, 465, 470, 475, 485, 490, 495. To clarify, first roll will be on Aug 2 from CALL $360 Aug 2021 to CALL $365 Sep 2021. And so on. The schedule is an exponential with a 15.12% annual growth rate. The intent is to roll the front month call all the way to the back month call in a way that keeps it just a bit ahead the projected QQQ growth. + +If opportune, the two puts (which form a bull put spread, see below) can be rolled forward to a vertical spread that keeps the ATM break-even point. + +Thesis +==== + +I was looking for a low-risk, low-maintenance position with positive theta. This position reflects two beliefs. + +First belief is "market slowly drifts upwards". It is embodied by the first two trades, which create a 1:2 ATM bull put spread with a long time to expiration. NDX has had negative returns only in [12 of the past 39 years](https://www.macrotrends.net/1320/nasdaq-historical-chart) so a dollar-to-dollar bet that QQQ will be above today's value in Dec 2023 is advantageous. This has been discussed a bit [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/OptionsOnly/comments/oacff5/why_are_spy_vertical_spreads_with_leaps_priced/). + +What you get in this boring position is a small positive delta, a small absolute theta (positive if QQQ moves above $365 and negative otherwise), and a small negative vega. + +The call legs embody the belief "there is uncertainty in the short term and volatility is mean-reverting". That means we want to be delta-neutral (no idea what happens next) and positive vega (given that today's VIX is below its mean of about 19). + +With the strikes and ratio chosen, the trade has a delta of 2.34, theta 7.45, and vega 66.37. + +Worst Case Scenario and Backtesting +==== + +If the position is opened just before a major crash: + +* The calls make very little money because both will be way OTM. They won't lose money because the position was opened for even. All you can do is roll the front month for little credit every month. If you're okay with taking a bit more risk on the upside, you can roll forward and down. +* The puts will be severely underwater, near max loss. In that case, as I verified on a position opened in 2007 just before the crash, you should be able to roll the bull put spread forward for a few cents debit. You'd need to do that 3 times in 2007 and 2008. + +This means in the case of a major crash you don't get to make money. Your position will be down but you don't take any losses. You will start making money again once the market recovers to its former level. + +If the position is opened just before a major meltup: + +* The puts go toward max profit +* The short call is getting tested, and things may get tense. In that case you may need to roll forward earlier than you planned. + +Expected Outcome +=== + +The position works best if the market chugs slowly upward with short-term bouts of volatility. We expect to make money off of the theta of the short call, which tempers the bull put spread. The LEAPS call is expected to expire out of money or moderately in the money. + +The slow-moving bull put spread tempers the short call and is expected to make max profit. However, the spread can be rolled forward in perpetuity, so it never expires, but makes money if the thesis that "markets drift upward" holds. + +Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks! +I realize this sub is about collecting premium off of theta,, but I was thinking of buying a few ATM iron condors on NIO next week since the WSB idiots just finished pumping it into oblivion. + +I'm basically buying the iron condor as a poor man's straddle and trying to get assigned on the short and long legs on either side of freezing? Im only making like pennies on the dollar and just barely breaking positive after the brokerage fees. (Luckily my broker doesn't charge assignment or exercise fees) + +I definitely don't have enough capital in my account to be able to purchase 100 shares of NIO at one strike and sell them at the higher strike. + +Do brokerages get pissed over this? I looked up the definition of "freeriding" which can get your account a 90 day suspension,, and this sounds an awful lot like freeriding, but then isn't this the point of vertical debit spreads? To act as a synthetic alternative to buying a call or put option outright because you don't have the capital to purchase a call or put option without collecting credit on a further otm option? + +Edit: I've learned the answer. + +The answer is, the broker will + +1) usually sell the short option of your position, and/or the long option prior to close, which means you won't realize the theoretical max profit of your position because it likely won't sell for the full width of the long and short legs. The broker doesn't have any obligation to get a good price on your spread when they liquidate it. + +2) if your broker doesn't close it and both legs are in the money and the long leg of your position gets auto exercised and the short leg gets assigned to you, depending on the price of the underlying shares you would gave a MASSIVE margin call and the broker would have the right to liquidate all of the assets in your account in an attempt to cover your margin call, and you would be unable to trade out of any positions or fix any positions in your account until the following trading day. + +The broker can do either of the two above options and doesn't have to warn you, or make any attempt to be nice about it. + +TLDR: even when purchasing vertical spreads or iron condors, don't hold till expiration. Don't abuse TD's policy on $0 assignment and exercise fees to avoid paying commissions to close your multi leg option positions by purchasing hundreds of cheap ITM vertical spreads 5 DTE just because you can. + +Don't be an idiot. + +TD Ameritrade will not thank you for it. + +Edit: + +I heard back from TD and it turns out most of the time it is actually completely fine if both legs of your vertical spread are ITM at expiration and both get exercised. The broker just handles the exercising of the contract automatically and you don't need to have enough capital in your account to handle the exercise. + +HOWEVER whoever bought the short leg of your spread COULD for some reason ask their broker not to exercise the long leg at expiration in which case your account actually would be left with a long/shott stock position which would result in a margin call. + +FURTHERMORE option contract holders can actually still exercise their contracts until 4:30 pm central time so if the underlying moves during after hours trading such that the short leg is ITM at expiration, and the contract holder asks their broker to exercise, and you sold your long leg before market close, you would be left with a short/long stock position and possibly face a margin call. + +BUT having said all of this, the vast majority of the time if both legs of your vertical spread are ITM at expiration, you do not need to worry about liquidating the spread prior to close to avoid a margin call. The broker can handle this in the background. +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. +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 bragging to a minimum; remember every dollar you make is a dollar someone else lost. +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. +Currently paying $0.65 per contract with Schwab + +Edit: went into a Schwab location today and spoke with someone about having the fee lowered to $0.50. They put in the request and said I should hear back in 2-3 days. Fingers crossed... +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. +Hello, I have a lot of MSFT shares with a low cost basis. + +I would like to boost my returns by selling covered calls and rather not to lose my shares. + +My plan is to sell \~30DTE, avoid earnings calls, and roll whenever it is possible. + +I wonder if its safer/better to sell CC on all shares with delta like 15 or on \~33% of shares with delta like 30-35 and use the rest of the shares to sell additional calls when rolling is not possible. + +Both ways give similar amount of initial premium. + +Any suggestions? +Hi, I am trying to find safer stocks to sell CSPs. Do not want much every week - just $100 per week. What are the safest stocks/ETFs for consistent gains. +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 bragging to a minimum; remember every dollar you make is a dollar someone else lost. +In other words, when the treasury sells bonds, theyll have more money to spend on government stuff, and what they spend that money on will likely determine which assets go up. However, when they start repaying those bonds with interest, my intuition tells me that the bond repayment money will most likely end up in real estate or financial assets. So my question is, when does this repayment money end up make its presence known in asset prices? Is it gradual given that bonds themselves are inherently gradual, or do national debt accelerations like over this past year have some sort of immediate kick that reverberates over multiple years in some known or studied pattern? + +thanks! +I'm a big fan of squeezes and I believe TSLA squeeze can be read clear as day using three charts: + +* SPY +* VIX (Volatility index of SPY) +* TSLA + +In figure 1 we have TSLA pre covid high and post covid high marked with yellow circles. https://imgur.com/VbMn8XA + +It's my belief that shorts knowing the pandemic was on its way, shorting the shit out of the market (likely when GME was also shorted into oblivion along with other mall outlets) Post covid, TSLA reached its pre covid high and the price begins to sky rocket up until June. https://imgur.com/6Ek1SHv + +This dance between shorts just keeps getting better and better as the FEDS continue to pump the market for whatever criminal reason they're doing it. Next we see the shorts in TSLA get shaken out again as seen from a pump between June and September https://imgur.com/uVhO3Df + +Then finally we have the last dying breath of major short positions (likely naked) exiting TSLA for good as the market finally begins to freely trade https://imgur.com/DG0lTtt + +Well, how do I know that you ask? Volatility is a helluva drug. Before I show you the chart, lets talk about VIX and SPY. VIX is the volatility index for SPY which means when prices are up, volatility is down and vice versa. Here is an illustration of that. https://imgur.com/ZYURqHQ + +VIX blue, SPY pink. SPY goes up, VIX goes down. VIX goes up, SPY goes down. Now lets talk about the correlation between VIX SPY and TSLA. + +https://imgur.com/hjNeDvi + +Each TSLA price movement in the charts above me can clearly be seen to cause a large spike in volatility and a big dip in SPY. Why is that? Well, you've been an ape for 9 months now and I think you can answer it but I'll explain it if not. As shorts become exposed, they must liquidate long positions to avoid margin calls. When longs are liquidated, SPY price drops as huge sell offs occur; when SPY drops, volatility spikes. When volatility spikes and an underlying security is also exploding, it's most likely, a short squeeze. The level in which volatility rises with the underlying security determines exactly how exposed our short positioned friends are! As you can see with TSLA, shorts were pretty fucking exposed. https://imgur.com/qYP21Fi That's a whole lot of losses! After November, volatility drops despite TSLA continuing to rise at a pretty quick pace. This breaks the cycle of what it was doing before and tells me the major shorts involved in TSLA are gone. + +So, what's this all got to do with GME? Well, lets take a look at this chart. https://imgur.com/LX3zrya + +After the pandemic, every time TSLA ran up between June and Nov 2nd SPY took a dump and volatility sky rocketed. After Nov 2nd, the shorts ACTUALLY exited their position (remember January when they said they exited? yea ok) and TSLA no longer correlates with SPY and VIX. This is what free trading looks like. + +When we look at GME, 1/27 we see **one day** impact volatility half as much as all three TSLA spikes combined. From 20 -> 40. A 20$ jump in a single day. TSLA's volatility impacts were, + +* 27->40 = 13 +* 23->33 = 10 +* 27->40 = 13 a total of 36 + +As you can see, most of TSLA's volatility run ups were spread out over days/weeks. GME was a singular BOOM. Remember what I said about the more the underlying security impacts the volatility the greater the exposure? **YEA**. + +Volatility, SPY and GME correlated 100% together on 1/27. GME was going to tank the market because *someone* was liquidating their longs to close on **some** short positions. What's cool is after that, all of the GME data become "fuckery" and everyone said its over. Look at how SPY and Volatility spike BEFORE GME run ups following 1/27. They're orchestrating control over GME run ups now. They are calculating **exactly** how much money they need to suppress the future run ups of GME. + +I think volatility has reached its previous base and is ready to explode again. + +edit: Ima just say, popcorn and volatility have no correlation. Volatility was 'already' going down before popcorn exploded in May and its explosion did not affect volatility, **at all** +Hello Everyone, + + I figure with turning 30 this month, I may be able to write a bit about my 20s, what was right, wrong, and what I regret not doing. These ideas are not perfect, but they may help some of you about to embark on your third decade. + +**A little about me** - I grew up and reside in the Lower Mainland in BC, one of the most expensive places to live in Canada, and possibly the world. I graduated HS in 2002, and attended and dropped out of college when I was 19. I decided to work instead of school. I bought a house when I was 26, and have only recently decided to attend class again part-time while working full time. I expect to receive my 2-year paper when I'm 32, and my degree when I'm 36. I have a good job, great benefits, and have worked hard to earn a management title, all without any formal post-sec education. Some people do much better than I do, others do much worse. I feel I'm "middle of the road" for someone without post-sec education. I live with my gf of three years, living together 2, and we have no children. We're dual income, but only started this recently, so it has little bearing on the majority of my post. + +**Things I learned in the past 10 years** + +*1) Time flies when you're doing nothing.* - Seriously, I spent about 8 years just working and paying bills. I remember having my 24th birthday like it was yesterday, and that was six years ago. If you're not working towards something (anything), time will literally disappear, and you'll never get it back. Going back to school was the best thing I ever did. I enjoy my free time much more, and time seems to pass slower because I have so many more accomplishments in a short period of time. + +*2) You have lots of time to find work, if you want an education, go for it* - I don't regret dropping out of school when I was 19, but I do regret not finding a new study to replace it with. It is much harder to get a degree when you're carrying a mortgage and working full time. I wish I had used the four years and my savings to work towards a degree as fast as I could. I have done well without school, but it doesn't change the fact I wish I had taken the time to do it when I was younger. Some of you may not want or need it, then good on you! Get earning and get saving. + +*3) Credit and loans are the devil* - I've found there are only a few things worth using credit for (See new edits below on this one). Housing, education, and emergencies. Even with that said, don't pay the minimum down on your mortgage like I did. What a stupid idea that was. If you have the income to afford a house, save up 30% or more down, and pay rent at a small place while doing so. I paid 5% down on my house, and my interest kills me. Don't do it. I wish I had saved up $1000/mo for 5 years, paid someone $500/mo to rent a small suite, and then bought my place. My mortgage would be much easier to manage that way. + +Student loans are worth it too as long as you're not in it for years. I see stories about people being $50k in debt, and that doesn't seem reasonable or manageable. Find a way to subsidize yourself, even if it means living at home and working p/t in order to take out a smaller loan. Education is worth it (unless you're an art history major, sorry if you are). + +*4) Car Loans* - Just don't. I have spent so much time paying for car loans that I can't even believe it. I have 2 years left on my current car loan and then I will never take one again. I'd rather spend $5000 on something I can pay in cash instead of $20000 where I end up forking over another $5k in interest along the way. I would recommend cheap, reliable cars until you're in a position where you can afford something outright. If you do things right, you should be able to buy whatever you want a little later in life, using CASH. **See edits below on this one. + +*5) Investments and properties* - Ok, so I was lucky here. I have an employer who pays dollar-for-dollar RRSP (401k if you're in the US) up to 6% of my gross income. It means that every month I end up with about $500 in savings towards retirement. Combine it with the American equity returns in the last 3 years and it has amounted to a tidy sum of money that continues to grow at 8-10% a year (I had a 26% return in 2011). But you may not be me. So I recommend that once you get your life together, and no matter your job, you always sock away 6-10% of what you earn. When your income is solid and consistent, jack that number up to 15%. If you do have an employer retirement plan, use it or a financial planner to start planning for retirement as soon as your education is done (if you want/have one). Investment is the key, you'll need more than the 1.2% return that your savings account will get you. + +My home - I love it, and I'm glad I have it. But I made mistakes here too. I bought too young, with too little money. I bought when I thought the market was down in 2010 because I was going to "get ahead of it" and hope for a return. NOPE. My home is worth less than I bought it for, and my payments suck. If you're looking to buy a house than you can upgrade in 10 years, speak to an property specialist to see where you should buy to increase your chance of return on sale. I didn't do this. I have a house that will eventually yield a return, but it still might be another 15 years away. Everything I thought I "knew" about buying my house was wrong, and now I see I could have asked and avoided this. That said, I can afford the payments and it is a nice place, it just ain't worth squat. + +**In Summary** + +These are the tips I can give you in point form: + +- If you want an education, get it early + +- Only take out loans you need. If you want toys you can't afford now, you probably can't afford them next month when your payments come up. + +- Set goals for yourself. Doesn't matter the goal, having something to work towards will make time slow down. Time does fly when you're idling and doing nothing. + +- Buy cars with cash, houses with credit, and education 50/50. + +- Invest your savings. Set up a meeting with your bank if you don't know what this means, even low risk is worth far more than just a savings account. + +I hope this helps someone, but it might just be the ramblings of a 30 year old who needed to put his wins and losses on paper. Thanks for reading! + + +**Edits, notes, and additions -** + + - Car loans - a 0% car loan probably isn't a bad thing. Where I live they don't exist, but if you have one, then you're in the same boat as paying in cash. This point continues to be argued throughout the thread, going both ways. I hate interest and that is what I aim to avoid paying, the rest of the interpretation comes down to where you live, and how much you want to take on the liability of a loan, 0% or not. + + - Credit and loans - Several people have PMed me this - You need credit to get credit. I always had balances on my credit card so I earned credit well. Someone pointed out that you should be using a credit card for small things and paying them off in order to build credit. Gas and things like that. Seems like sound advice. My point was to try to avoid interest payments and long term loans that aren't getting you anything. + + - Saving while renting - apparently the math in my wishful plan was flawed. Before you decide how much to save and how much to rent for while saving, speak to a mortgage adviser. You may just actually be better off jumping in to that mortgage and shoving it all in there as quickly as possible. + + - Housing prices - those of you who live in Toronto, LA, DC, and other super-metro areas. I hear you, you are probably paying more than I am to live further away from your down town cores. But as far as general population spread goes, we're all above the average by a huge margin comparative to smaller cities all over the country. + + - General advice - I've received a lot of feedback that some of what I wrote isn't great advice (especially in the loans area). It is all based on personal experience, and definitely doesn't apply to everyone. Take what you need, or none of it! PM me if you have questions, there are too many conversations going on to keep up. + + - /u/marvelousthrowaway has some advice about mortgages in the US for those interested. http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2ctrbz/turning_30_this_month_a_reflection_on_my_20s_what/cjjtblw?context=3 +On 7 December, the Evergrande series rebounded, with EVERGRANDE rising nearly 8% and EVERG VEHICLE and EVERG SERVICES both rising about 2% in the Hong Kong stock market. + + +Yesterday, EVERGRANDE announced that in view of the operational and financial challenges currently faced by the Company, the Board of Directors of the Company resolved to establish **the China Evergrande Group Risk Mitigation Committee**. The members of the Risk Mitigation Committee come from a variety of backgrounds, including the Company's current top executives, executives of certain leading companies and professionals. Among others, **Xu Jiayin is the Chairman of the Risk Mitigation Committee.** + +**Without sufficient funds or decent revenue, How can Evergrande avoid its risks?** +The spreadsheet seems to be right, If I summarize all the assets I have , they are well into the million dollars. +When I was growing up in a working class neighborhood, millioners were the people with the fancy cars, the expensive yachts, flying first class, you get the picture. +How can I be a millionaire? I drive a regular old car, live in a middle class town, don't have expensive toys, kids go to public school etc. I so don't feel like a millionaire. There is no way in the world I tell this to anybody. I would be so scare if somebody knows. + +Moreover, I think that at least I need another 500k to fire and leave reasonably well. +Am I not feeling rich because a million dollar is is not so much nowdays? +How did it feel for you to become a millionaire? +In a securities filing, Twitter noted the restructuring is "part of an overall plan to organize around the company's top product priorities and drive efficiencies." It said it expects to spend the money it saves on "its most important priorities to drive growth." + +In the filing, Twitter also noted that it expects revenue and a measure of its adjusted earnings to come in above the high end of its previously forecast range for the third quarter. + +Shares of Twitter are green premarket. +Just received this via email notification - wonder what prompted the departure from the parent US company.. link to YouTube announcement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lwh1aT_44 + +IMO the old branding/name was nicer and personally we've exited our Acorns position a few months back in favour of more money in offset and a diversified Vanguard fund. Never found the 'invest your change' concept to be that useful. +Hey all. I'm unsure if this is the right place to post, but I thought I'd give it a crack anyway. + + +I've spent the last two years in a protracted legal battle over a property from an abusive relationship which plunged me into a lot of debt. I finally reached an agreement to sell, which allowed me to discharge all of my (significant) debts. + + +I've moved cities as a consequence, where I've got <3k leftover after settling my debts, a decently-paying job, and no significant financial commitments. I'm a single professional with no dependants. + + +I won't go into the minutia, but as a result of said abusive relationship, I had all of my finances controlled for years where I've had zero oversight or understanding of my own money. I want to begin putting some money away, and I'm unsure where to even begin in regards to investing, saving etc. I'm extremely clueless about money, but I'm not dumb, so I'm sure I can figure it out like I've figured lots of other stuff out. My main goal is just a nest egg / security rather than "buy a house" or "buy a car" etc. + + +I don't want a comprehensive plan, but just some pointers or anecdotes from people who've been in the same position would be amazing. Thanks guys. +I know it really depends on income, location, lifestyle... But still curious what is considered reasonable for a single person to spend on food and groceries each month. + +For myself, I live in an inner suburb of Melbourne and spend around A$400 on dining out and A$400 on groceries. + +Edit: A simple summary and statistics after 31 data points (City initial if indicated). + +800M +450S +300M +750 +400 +600 +400 +1600 +500 +290 +545S +450 +700S +600 +900 +1500 +650M +400 +450B +350B +300B +425C +750 +600 +1000M +2000 +560 +350 +400S +400 +600B + +Mean: 646 + +Median: 545 +1. Decentralised network +2. Can't just turn it off and on like other chains +3. Really useful platform to solve real world problems +4. PoS soon +5. Flippening is soon +6. Life changing money and experience +I've made this prediction twice, and was wrong in both cases. + +However, today I'm more convinced than in the previous two occasions that Bitcoin is close to entering its spiral of death. + +For reference, I called it [on the 13th of may 2017](https://np.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/6awf35/eth_daily_discussion_13may2017/dhiz207/?context=3) and **I was wrong** + +But once again, we have entered the scenario that would preface the spiral of death. + +#What is the spiral of death? + + +The Bitcoin transactions / sec stays above the amount the Bitcoin network is capable of processing, causing the queue to become ever-expanding: every 10 minutes, the transaction backlog will increase and will never decrease. Waiting times will grow exponentially. The current waiting time of a couple of hours will grow into days. People can no longer transfer their bitcoins around. + +This in turn will cause 2 huge consequences: + +* 1) In attempts to get around the transaction queue, people will start selling their bitcoins for any altcoin solely to transfer their money around. The markets and trading bots will react on this: expect markets to get wild. + +* ~~2) While the bitcoin community gets confronted with the truth, they will start rushing to push for hardforks to fix the blocksize issues. Exchanges will start to get confused and some won't be prepared for the forks that start to appear: "*Which fork does the btc/xxx pair belong to?*". They will decide to halt all withdrawals for at last 24 - 48 hours to see which fork wins. More people panic, and more people will start to exchange their value for altcoins. Altcoin markets that are already wild due to (1) will now go even wilder (2)~~ Forks are already in place this time, so this consequence wont be as severe as in previous scenario's. + +**Not over though.** + +Out of this, a 3rd consequence will appear: + +* 3) Miners. With Bitcoin value plummeting and the Bitcoin chain forking, some mining farms might shut down temporarily, or move their mining power to other coins. The other miners that stay devoted to Bitcoin, will move their power to one of the different forks they can choose from. The mining power allocated to each one of these chains will be insufficient and out of touch with the **current mining difficulty** that only adjusts **every 2 weeks**. Blocks that are usually mined in the average of 10 minutes, will now get mined in 20, 30, 40 minutes.... causing the unconfirmed transaction backlog to become **far worse**. The problem starts to look like a runaway train now and news sites will start to pick this shit up. + + +Am I going to be wrong a 3rd time? Maybe... + +But I think shit is 'bout to go down. For real now. +I’d like to call myself a Bitcoin veteran who sold at wrong time but after getting back in the game with the recent rise of Eth, I can say I’m not. + + +Coming from an IT background, I learned a little about the blockchain quickly with the emergence of Bitcoin and was convinced and preached it as a technology and its use cases because I truly believed in it. I had an counter argument for every skeptic out there.[Edit: Removed] And suddenly I made a few grand and I started to change. My feeling about everything suddenly changed. $ is fucked up. I listened to too much FUD and long story short, I sold. After a few fetal positions in the bathroom during a high rise, I bought back in, lost a few grand and got out again for good. [Edit: Removed] on a cost average of about 20K USD. + + +[Edit: Removed] I started becoming a degenerate like some of you and started consuming news again and getting hyped. Dumped that 6K in ETH and a few wire transfers later to Gemini all of a sudden, I’m back in the game. + Checking Blockfolio ~~daily~~ hourly, watching my Crypto net worth fluctuating $1,000+ a day. + + +The reason why I say I’m not a Bitcoin veteran is because it feels so much different this time around. I feel there is so much FUD and speculation but looking back it was all there with bitcoin, too (and much, MUCH, worse). I was just too ignorant to it and simply had weak hands when I became aware of it when I had some skin in the game. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. I was consumed by the good news and the idea behind it. Like I said, $ fucks with people. Every time I see someone say something negative about a coin now, I look at their history and they are invested in something else. Then I go on a analytical marathon trying to get my own opinion. + + +Before I got “back in the game” I told myself to not sell and don’t get fucked up by the market and FUD. Just be a robot and keep buying and stop worrying about the dips and the woulda-shoulda’s of timing. Don’t fucking day trade. Use my experience with Bitcoin as a learning lesson and keep cool. That’s much easier said than done. The reason for this post is self serving in that it’s checking myself because I’m getting consumed by all this information and speculation and losing touch with my simple, yet solid point of view. + + This is not a short term investment. Be one of those fucking assholes you read about who just never sold years ago despite the unbelievable bad news, governmental scares, stealing of massive amounts of crypto, massive roller coasters and risk. Be prepared to lose everything even though subconsciously you think you won’t. This should be easy in comparison to current situations. + + +I was planning on putting out massive bullet points on why I think Ethereum will succeed, but it’s just a re-hash of what someone else said which you can and may have already read. Opinions and beliefs have been set, the community and progress will decide. The whole point of this post (other than be therapeutically self-serving), is to say just believe in what you believe, don’t be swayed by some stranger and stay strong. I’ve avoided the term this whole post which will be downvoted, but [Our Friend]( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0) said it much better than me in a much more succinctly way. + +Thanks for reading if you got this far + +Edit: Removed some potentially identifiable info + +Hi /r/ethtrader. In accordance with the rules this post is an AMA and will be the only introduction post to Ethbet made. I’d like to introduce what Ethbet is and talk about what our goals are as well as respond to questions. + +EDIT: Questions seem to have died down after a few hours, I might be able to answer a few more if I see them, if not then thanks for the great questions! You can always email/DM us. + +Ethbet is the first peer-to-peer dicing platform on the Ethereum blockchain. Conventional dicing platforms have users bet against a house (sometimes even a decentralized house). Ethbet is different in that it allows users to bet directly against each other. Think of Ethbet as a decentralized exchange, but instead of posting offers to exchange currencies, users post offers to bet currencies with certain rules. + + +As Ethbet matches users up against each other instead of against a house, the need for a higher house edge is gone, and thus users will be able to bet with lower fees compared to alternatives. Any fees collected in this process are pure profit for Ethbet as there is no bankroll or risk of loss. Users are matched via an off-blockchain relay service, very similar to 0x. Our whitepaper provides more detail on this subject. + + +On initial release Ethbet will allow peer-to-peer dicing on the blockchain. After this, it is possible for us to add support for dicing using any Ethereum-based (ERC20) currency. Additional games may also be added based off of demand, but for now our scope is more concentrated on launching a successful dicing implementation, as this already takes quite a bit of effort to get perfectly. + + +If you’re interested in this project please read our whitepaper at https://ethbet.io/whitepaper.pdf. If you are familiar with 0x and Etheroll, our project can be thought of as a combination of both of these successful technologies. We have a demo on our website that is intended to illustrate the concept of peer-to-peer dicing at https://demo.ethbet.io/. Please keep in mind this demo does not function on the blockchain (yet), and thus is referred to as a demo instead of a beta. + + +We’re holding our crowdsale this Sunday on September 17th at 8PM UTC, with which we hope to raise enough funding to allow the project to prosper over the course of the next year and beyond. It’s a relatively smaller crowdsale with a hard cap of 5,000 ETH, and will be considered a success far below that amount. For more information visit https://crowdsale.ethbet.io/. + + +I’m the project manager and lead developer, I’m available via Reddit if there’s any questions you have about this project. Please read the whitepaper (https://ethbet.io/whitepaper.pdf) and FAQ page (https://ethbet.io/faq.html) before asking questions. + +EDIT: Questions seem to have died down after a few hours, I might be able to answer a few more if I see them, if not then thanks for the great questions! You can always email/DM us. + + +Website: https://ethbet.io/ + +Whitepaper: https://ethbet.io/whitepaper.pdf + +Email : team@ethbet.io + +Github: https://github.com/Ethbet/ethbet + +Twitter: https://twitter.com/EthbetProject + +Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/ethbet + +Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2133120.0 + +Medium: https://medium.com/@ethbet + +When people want to dip their toes into options, so often they start with buying single leg options because it seems simpler to grasp. But what they don't realize is that they're playing a losing game and when the market moves against them, the results can be disastrous. Counter-intuitively, more complicated option strategies are actually safer and provide higher probability of winning. When you create spreads with options, you can achieve what we call "defined outcome investing." + +Institutional investors and the top 1% have been using defined outcome investing products for decades (in the form of structured notes and annuities and more recently unit investment trusts and exchange-traded funds). Retail investors should have access to the same tools to achieve less risk and a defined return on their investments in the market. + +## How Does Defined Outcome Investing Work?  + +First, let’s define some terms that are relevant to defined outcome investing:  + +**Reference asset -** Each defined outcome investment is linked to the performance of a reference stock, ETF, or index. + +**Reference price -** This is the price of the reference stock, ETF, or market index. + +**Outcome period -** A defined outcome investment is not infinite. It is an option contract with a set time period. + +**Cushion -** The cushion is the amount of the underlying asset price can go down before you lose any of your investment. In other words, this is the amount of safety blanket you have for your investment against the market. + +*Example:* If the market index **reference asset** falls by 18%, but your defined outcome investment has a buffer of 15%, then you will only lose 3% overall. The cushion has absorbed most of the decline. Some popular buffers are set to 9%, 15%, or 30%. + +**Ceiling -** The ceiling is a cap on the maximum amount of profit you can receive as the underlying reference asset price goes up. You are cap your upside in exchange for the buffer. + +*Example:* Say that the reference asset price soars by 35% but your upside cap is 30%. You would collect up to the first 30% of the reference asset’s increase, and miss out on 5% of the gain. + + +When you combine these concepts into a defined outcome investment strategy, you can create security for your investment, even during market volatility. The contract of the defined outcome investment is set for the outcome period. You can withdraw early if the value reaches your target profit earlier. + +## What Are the Benefits? + +* **Customizable risk-return profiles** +With defined outcome investing, you can personalize your risk-return profile to align with your long-term strategy. You can be conservative or aggressive. Your buffer can be set to absorb downside volatility while keeping your cap high enough to help you reach your financial goals. Or if you're particularly bullish on an asset you can accelerate the upside in exchange for a ceiling on the profit. + +* **Income Generation** +You can define certain outcomes to provide a fixed return that is superior to bonds and CDs while taking a reasonable level of risk. + +## What kind of Outcomes Can be Achieved? + +There are three main objectives that can be achieved with defined outcome investing:  + + +1. **Income / Preservation** +*Best for investors who want to preserve capital, even in a down market.* +The preservation strategy offers maximum cushion and a fixed return. The drawback to this strategy is that the ceiling is typically lower than with other strategies. Put spreads are commonly used for this objective. +‍ +*Example*: +Buy 1 $120 put +Buy 3 $125 puts + Sell 5 $135 puts +1/20/23 expiration +Nets a fixed **13%** **(13%** **annualized)** unless $AAPL falls below **18%** (**$133.97**) as of 01/20/2023 + +https://preview.redd.it/16b0uwj3xfe81.png?width=1428&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8081f60dde9506784f16a8a6d9a553a699e246f + +1. **Growth** +*Best for bullish investors who want to collect profits earlier* +The growth strategy is on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of risk. There is typically no downside protection, but in exchange for the ceiling you get accelerated profit. +*Example*: +Buy 2 $160 calls +Sell 2 $170 calls +Sell 1 $170 put +9/16/22 expiration +Accelerates gains by **3.2x** and makes up to **20.8% (34.7% annualized)** on $AAPL through 9/16/2022. + +https://preview.redd.it/bdehv87pyfe81.png?width=1426&format=png&auto=webp&s=de7f88d8c9525f6b0c4e34aefcb5369cfc0d42ed + +1. **Hedged / Buffered** +*Best for medium risk, medium reward long term investors* +This is the meeting of the two above strategies and is the most popular for defined outcome investing. You set a ceiling and a cushion that keeps your investment within parameters that match your objectives and outlook on that asset. +*Example*: +Buy 1 $160 call +Sell 1 $185 call +Sell 1 $140 put +11/18/22 expiration +Makes up to **18.3% (23.1% annualized)** unless $AAPL falls below **13%** (**$143.19**) as of 11/18/2022 + +https://preview.redd.it/lqd2zudvzfe81.png?width=1422&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d8fc58716a459ac00a7c1b84381812de6d4b841 + +Would love to see a shift in how beginners approach options trading and even out the playing field. Options are getting a bad rap because when it comes to options the "simple" approach is not the best. +Well even when I was doing good financially I was still depressed. But now that I’m poor I’m even more depressed than ever. The constant threats about being evicted, student loan payments in default, late credit card payments. And even worse is that I’m being rejected from jobs left and right. I am just losing hope and can’t live like this anymore. Every single day is a battle and I can’t do it anymore. +Currently living at home but getting verbally and physically abused by parents to the point where I feel like my life is at risk. + +I don't have a lot of savings and don't think I can afford to rent especially with the cost of living and rise of energy bills. The max I can afford is 600pcm +bills which seems non existent these days. + +I don't have other family members, friends or a partner that I can get help from, the only thing I have is a job that I hate. I'm not the sharpest tool in the box and with the state of my mental health, I'm not sure I can jump jobs. + +What options do I have +In the last year, I have managed to quadruple my salary. Nobody I know is financially literate or earning as much as me and can speak from experience. As a result, I came to this subreddit to check out the flow chart so that I can responsibly manage my new income. + +Aside from the flowchart, is there anything I should be aware of being on that salary, any tricks or tips? Or anything specific that somebody in my situation should be aware of? + +For additional context, I'm 23 and have no children. I live in a rented apartment (£1k/mo) with my partner. Our combined income is around £8k/mo with my salary making up the majority of that. I have <1000 in CC debt which I pay off each month and have about £50k in student loans. We have a Ford Ka which is around £130 per month between us for fuel and insurance. + +Going into 2022 I'd like to make sure I make the correct financial moves. I'd like to take a nice holiday (this year has been 14hr days every day) and show my appreciation to those that have supported me, but other than that I'd like to put as much money to work as possible. +I will argue that the most exciting and relevant project in 2018 will be Ethereum. I predict that this is Ethereum´s year. +There are a number of well known milestones upcoming for the protocol itself but I find the milestones in the Ethereum eco-system even more exiting and game changing. +Ethereum will become the leading and eventually most talked about network outside the crypto world in 2018. It will also remain relatively unchallenged by upcoming tech like EOS, IOTA, Raiblocks because of the huge lead it has on the newer projects. This might change after 2019. + +Here is why: + +* In the coming weeks several major projects that have been in the works since 2015/16 will launch on the Ethereum main net. A lot of them are true game changers like Augur, Melonport and Golem. All of which have huge disruptive potential individually. Augur introduces a whole new concept, a use case that was entirely impossible until now. Melonport has the potential to disrupt the fund industry and make Fidelity as obsolete as your local travel agent. + +* Ethereum currently has 91% market share of all tokens. It might lose some ground on the token front but the vast majority of new projects will still run on Ethereum = further mainstream adoption incoming. + +* Early in the year Ethereum will continue to struggle to keep up with an increasing number of daily transactions especially as more Dapps are launching (already at 1,4 million per day - more than any other network). Major Ethereum network upgrades will remedy that. First the Constantinople Hard fork and hopefully the switch to PoS / Casper will settle TPS issues for the near future. I predict that Casper is launched ahead of schedule (this one is speculation but considering it´s running on the testnet right now I´m calling it) which would certainly be a nice surprise after having been delayed for 2 years. + +* I predict most newcomers in the second half of 2018 will learn about crypto by usind a Dapp - they will not be speculators but users. They will use Dapps and only as a second step learn about the tech that drives it. Since most of Dapps in 2018 will run on Ethereum it is likely that it will be the most talked about tech. + +* Finally, you can already see a shift in how the mainstream media is reporting on crypto. 3 months ago there was only ever a mention of bitcoin. Currently mainstream journalist are all writing "what´s the next bitcoin" pieces that usually include 5 alts - Eth always one of them. It´s easy to see how this will shift when more and more Dapps launch and people learn that most of them run on Ethereum. I predict we will see a shift in the focus of news reports on Ethereum just as we saw with Bitcoin in 2017. +Why does that matter? I will drive the price up like we saw happen with BTC in 2017 and it will make Ethereum the hottest thing to talk about. + +* Last but not least (again speculation coming up) I predict that the flippening will happen before the end of the year and that Ethereum will be the first project to reach a 1 trillion $ market cap and that this will happen before the end of the year. This assumes that we will not get a major black swan event of course. Given the current growth rate (which will of course not continue linearly throughout the year but using 2017 as a sample it´s still a fair prediction) it´s conservative to assume we will 10x again and end up with a $10 trillion market cap at the end of the year. With all of the points above I´d say it´s conservative as well to allocate Ethereum a 20% dominance. + +* Yes, this means a prediction of ETH price of $10.000 by years end. + +Ethereum and all the 1st gen Dapps will be THE showcase for what blockchain is, can do and how it can change the world. Blockchain 3.0 projects might challenge this status eventually but not yet. The delays in projects like Augur, Golem and IPFS have shown that it´s quite complex to build a solid and secure Dapp. It´s safe to extrapolate that Blockchain 3.0 networks and their respective Dapps will face the same hurdles and not be ready to have a significant impact before 2019. + +Ok, done with my rant. Who would like to prove me wrong? + +Edit: Since this is proving popular, is anyone interested in a follow-up post with a best-of listing of references, sources, interviews, opinions of crypto thought leaders that I used to come to my conclusion? If yes, please leave your comment below. + + + + +This was a huge topic of discussion months ago but it has kind of died down. + +With so many apes having transferred brokers, I believe that now is an important time for a reminder to call your broker and be sure that your shares are not being lent out giving ammo to shorts. + +I was originally on Robinhood but made a transfer months ago to Fidelity. My shares came over on margin and I had to call the have them switched to cash. Last week I enabled level 3 options trading on my Fidelity account and they automatically switched my GME to margin. I had to have them manually switch it back to cash. + +Fidelity confirmed to me on the phone that *if you have margin enabled on your account in any way, you’re authorizing them to lend your shares* as well as liquidate your holdings to cover any margin calls you may incur from options trading. *It doesn’t matter if your shares are backed by cash or not.* + + +TLDR; Even if you’ve checked in the past, double check with your broker that your shares are not being lent out. Changes to your account could have enabled margin without you even knowing. +# TLDR; There's a way to find out if there's naked shorting, how much naked shorting is happening, and who is doing it by creating a 'shareholder proposal' and sending it to Gamestop, and it is within the rights of any eligible shareholder to do so. + +&#x200B; + +Dr. T alerted us dumbasses via Twitter that there is an opportunity for shareholders to present a proposal to the board of the company, which could then become part of the yearly proxy statement, and brought to a shareholder vote. [https://twitter.com/SusanneTrimbath/status/1482482528548130818?t=EjkKcVFE7BynWVfd39qmNQ&s=09](https://twitter.com/SusanneTrimbath/status/1482482528548130818?t=EjkKcVFE7BynWVfd39qmNQ&s=09) + +&#x200B; + +The SEC has clearly laid out requirements and parameters for eligibility. Here's a link to the rules: [https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/rule-14a-8.pdf](https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/rule-14a-8.pdf) + +&#x200B; + +As someone who fomo'd in last Jan, I am ineligible to submit this proposal to Gamestop based on the criteria (paraphrasing for simplicity): + +* Continuously held: +* $2,000 worth of $GME stock for 3 years +* $15,000 worth of $GME stock for 2 years +* $25,000 worth of $GME stock for 1 year + +&#x200B; + +# Why are you telling me this? Why should anyone care? Aren't 'calls to action' FUDdy, stupid and even potentially dangerous? + +&#x200B; + +Good questions - but I'm not telling anyone to do anything, and am just putting the facts out there and leaving it up to YOU to be the judge. Do whatever you want with this, I'm just another idiot with broadband internet, and I am posting this at the behest of others in the comment section of another thread [https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s512sj/comment/hsv9d8e/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s512sj/comment/hsv9d8e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) + +&#x200B; + +# Ok, still with me? Go watch this video of Wes Christian interviewing David Wenger, CEO of ShareIntel. Or don't, I'll lay out the key points below anyway. + +[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7cW7UPvmahQ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7cW7UPvmahQ) + +&#x200B; + +# bUt i dOnT hAvE tImE fOr tEh VidJeoS + +VIDEO TLDR: + +* Wes Christian is a lawyer. He has done multiple superstonk AMA's, makes an appearance in Dr. T's Book "Naked Short and Greedy", and his name will show up all over google searches on the subject in financial news articles and television. He is the defacto name in identifying and suing naked short sellers. This dude is beyond the shadow of a doubt - a 'friendly' to apes. Here's one of his interviews [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-JO3g5bm4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-JO3g5bm4) , please note they can also be found on the Superstonk Spotify channel at [https://open.spotify.com/show/0L2YQFf857zHFNuNH4B2As?si=7fd796af8bd54f5e](https://open.spotify.com/show/0L2YQFf857zHFNuNH4B2As?si=7fd796af8bd54f5e) +* Wes Christian has partnered up with a software company called ShareIntel when building a case against naked short sellers. They have software that does what the title of this thread says. It costs about $50k per YEAR for this service to provide court admissable PROOF that can be found literally nowhere else. This is made extremely difficult to prove on purpose, of course, as it was architected by the corruption within the DTCC, SEC and FINRA to make PROVING naked short selling about as easy as PROVING the existance of god. God. Gods. Whatever, you get the point. Here's a link to ShareIntel's site [https://shareintel.com/](https://shareintel.com/) +* Wes Christian has encouraged apes appeal to Gamestop to hire ShareIntel to provide this potentially invaluable service. +* **Bonus TLDR poin**t: You know the software works because Wenger pitched it to the SEC - thinking they'd want to buy it, and use it on a macro level so they could solve all the problems with naked shorting in the markets. Not only did they let the door hit him in the ass on the way out after not buying the software - ***they muzzled him with a fucking NDA***. + +&#x200B; + +# OK, now what? + +&#x200B; + +Well, it's not up to me, it's up to you. Again, I don't meet the criteria to make such a proposal, and unfortunately the majority of people here just got invested this past year and thus probably don't either. BUT, all it takes is ONE APE who does, in order to make it happen. And the SEC guideline document is set up like a Q&A, super easy to read and understand, even for the dumbest of you beautiful idiots. + +&#x200B; + +If we could get Gamestop to contract ShareIntel to provide their services AND publish the results, we could finally get hold of the HARD EVIDENCE needed to show the world that Gamestop investors aren't a bunch of retarded conspiracy theorists, CONFIRM who the culprits are, and bring this whole thing to its' conclusion. Shout out to the conspiracy theorist apes though - analyzing poop tweets, oreos and such - you're truly doing the lort's work. + +&#x200B; + +\#Some items I wanted to touch on before they clog up in the comment section: + +* We don't need to get involved. RC's got this. + +\-I'd like to think he does too, but then again - no one has ever fully 'beaten' the short cabal. Even Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock did not TKO those assholes with his crypto dividend because they're still around doing the same old shit. And even if he doesn't NEED our help to resolve this plague on our investment- just like DRS helps, if this can help - then why WOULDN'T we want help RC perform his fiduciary duty owed to us shareholders? + +&#x200B; + +* This is going to bring the attention of the regulators, which would be bad because maybe they could step in and stop trading, investigate, try and settle blah blah + +\-That was always on the table and could happen no matter what. If the central short thesis is correct, this situation has nuclear capabilities, which would result in an unprecedented situation - which is beyond the scope my magic 8-ball can foretell. + +&#x200B; + +* Why don't we hire them ourselves? $50k is peanuts to a conglomerate of investors this size. + +\-Unfortunately, as you'd hear in this video - we can't. Their proprietary software is only able to be deployed with the company's permission, probably because it requires direct access to non-public trading data. + +&#x200B; + +* But wait, if the info they need to make these determinations is non-public, then wouldn't the results of this software also be non-public information and thus, we'd never find out the results? + +\-Maybe. Honestly, I don't know. The subject matter expert in PROVING naked short selling suggested we do this, so I'd have to think it would be beneficial in some way shape or form, as opposed to being a bad thing. + +&#x200B; + +* Can't we just hire them to go back in time and see what the fuck happened last year? + +\-NOPE. The analogy from the video is, this software works like a security camera. If it's not deployed, and recording as the crime occurs - you got squat. + +&#x200B; + +* Calls to action with urgency are FUD. + +\-Usually true. In this case, there's a reason someone might want to act quickly on this if it is to have a chance to be voted on this June. Excerpt from the SEC link: + +>The proposal must be received at the company's principal executive offices not less than 120 calendar days before the date of the company's proxy statement released to shareholders in connection with the previous year's annual meeting. + +&#x200B; + +* I meet the holding requirements and want to submit a proposal, but I haven't DRS'd, or DRS'd too recently for it to qualify. + +\-According to the SEC guidelines - it's not necessary to DRS in order to submit a proposal. Shares held in brokerages would qualify as proof of eligibility. Even if one transferred to DRS during the course of the required holding time, that can all be substantiated in writing and would meet the prerequisites. + +&#x200B; + +* Dr. T has spoken negatively about a short squeeze. I don't trust her, she is FUD, shill etc. + +\-She's an expert in clearing and settlement, saw this problem coming decades ago - screamed from the rooftops, and was ignored by the entire system AND general public (yeah - you. And me too). She wants failures to deliver to go away; forced delivery at settlement. For the system to work as intended, for the regulators to do their job. She's a professional, is commonly called upon as a key witness in related litigations, has been extremely active in commenting on SEC regulations for decades, taught at the collegiate level, and so on - she is a respected figure in this space. She's not going to openly condone a group of vigilantes (apes) looking to exact street justice on bad actors (MOASS). She wants the system to do its' job. So please, relax with all that hate - the information she's brought to the table is invaluable. Let's just agree to disagree with her on the squeeze and keep it moving, yeah? + +&#x200B; + +* Why hasn't Ryan Cohen done this already? + +\-I'm not Ryan Cohen. Ask him. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Maybe he thinks it's not necessary. Or.... maybe he can't do it without exposing himself, or the company - to potential liabilities. Remember, instigating a short squeeze is considered market manipulation, which is a crime, and could get them dragged into court by the regulators, or even to civil court by the pOoR dEfenSelEss sHoRt sEllErs who were just innocently trying to offer their "value" to the market by adding liquidity and aiding price discovery (/s). This is NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH NAKED SHORT SELLING, which is also market manipulation BUT ITS DIFFERENT. You see - as a naked short seller, the SEC offers you a job, a lifetime supply of delicious ice cream, and tickets to the sporting events of your choosing. So RC and Gamestop both need to be extremely careful here, these are dangerous waters. + +&#x200B; + +# Final thoughts + +Seriously though, I don't think RC did this because in the end - this might win an important battle - but a non-profitable company will lose the war with shorts, period. EPS > all. 'Forget gamestop' and all that other media bullshit only works on a company that isn't making money, and he's well aware. So it is my belief that the transformation of the company - and ultimately moving THAT needle is his #1 priority, and I think he's going to follow his own playbook and let everything else fall into place. So, is this necessary? Maybe, maybe not - if your magic 8-ball works better than mine - let's hear it. Otherwise, I believe we would be wise to consider taking the advise of the subject matter expert: Wes Christian. + +&#x200B; + +If anyone who meets these requirements is serious about submitting a proposal, I am happy to help, so long as we can maintain our anonymity. DM me. Or put your cape on and do it yourself, and I'll provide support as your spirit animal. + +&#x200B; + +***I am not a lawyer, I am not a financial advisor, none of this is financial advice.*** + +&#x200B; + +Edit: formatting changes +…I am taking the written CDL-A exam tomorrow! Start school for driving on Monday - thanks to my state’s retraining program. + +Worked in offices and sales all my life. Decently educated, but after years of struggling to get ahead and playing office politics, I am ready for a career that actually earns. + +Excited and nervous. It’s a huge departure. + +I became unemployed from my last position after a relentlessly hostile work environment basically caused a breakdown. I lost my apartment, was steps away from living in my car. +Unemployment insurance in my state works with WIOA. They provide living costs, and pay for retraining in some fields. +Has anyone got access to the full article please? Please paste in comments if you do. Thanks + + [GameStop’s Most Loyal Shareholders Are in It for the Long Haul, Not the Memes - WSJ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestops-most-loyal-shareholders-are-in-it-for-the-long-haul-not-the-memes-11622971801) +Hey, everyone! + +This is the fastest rising shitcoin on Polygon! It's a charity token dedicated to helping COVID-19 in India through charity funding done directly by Sandeep from Polygon! + +[https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1385968552679727113?s=20](https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1385968552679727113?s=20) + +* Liquidity locked +* \~$400k Marketcap +* Instant yield tokenomics +* 5% of transactions reallocated to holders, 5% to liquidity pool +* 1,000,000,000,000,000 circulating supply + +Fair launch on the Quickswap DEX + +Volume and liquidity are breaking ATH's every day on the Polygon network. The native currency Matic is currently mooning. Binance operates Polygon nodes, and soon enough they'll be enabling withdrawals directly to the Polygon network. This is the new frontier for shitcoins. + +500% INCREASE IN 24 HOUR VOLUME ON MATIC + +[https://twitter.com/Wildernickss/status/1386650585278058496](https://twitter.com/Wildernickss/status/1386650585278058496) + +&#x200B; + +**$SailorMoon links:** + +🌌Telegram: [https://t.me/sailormoontoken/](https://t.me/sailormoontoken/) (HIGHLY recommend this, they're super helpful) + +🌌Website: [https://sailormoon.finance/](https://sailormoon.finance/) + +🌌Chart: [https://info.quickswap.exchange/token/0xd50dc82b44ccb96eb05919faad54a704df91daf0](https://info.quickswap.exchange/token/0xd50dc82b44ccb96eb05919faad54a704df91daf0) + +&#x200B; + +**How to get funds onto the Polygon network:** + +From Binance or Xdai (stablecoins only) [https://www.xpollinate.io/](https://www.xpollinate.io/) (sometimes due to high demand the exit liquidity is low on certain stablecoins, check the list) (free matic dust for your first few txns) + +From Ethereum [https://wallet.matic.network/bridge/](https://wallet.matic.network/bridge/) (best, costs gas fees though) (free matic dust) + +An exchange that withdraws directly to Polygon [https://ramp.network/](https://ramp.network/) (never used it but heard good things) + +&#x200B; + +Don't miss out on this! Polygon is blowing up so fast, if you sit this one out, you're ngmi. +I was thinking of using shapeshift to swap some eth for OMG, but is now the best time? OMG is very low and I feel as if it's a good place to pick up, but a lot of people are also saying ETH could keep climbing to around 640. Any advice or input? +I will make this short, as I am working on a few new projects that deserve a lot more time than writing up something on a project that I am not going to invest in. I just feel a need to make others aware of this , so they can make their decisions with more information. + +From the official Kin white paper ( https://kin.kik.com/papers/Kin_Whitepaper_V1_English.pdf?version=1a9e783a4ccdf9936d1dd7d319fdeac4) + +Section 6 Kin token issuance + +"In order to finance the Kin roadmap, Kik will conduct a token distribution event that will offer for sale one trillion units out of a 10 trillion unit total supply of Kin...." + +"Another three trillion Kin will be preallocated to Kik as the founding member of the Kin +Foundation and subject to a long-term vesting schedule..." + +"The remaining six trillion Kin will be under the purview of the Kin Foundation, locked under the Kin +Rewards Engine schema and used strategically to grow the Kin Ecosystem and fund the operations of the foundation..." + +10 trillion tokens: + +1 trillion sold through the ICO . Unknown at this point how many tokens per ETH you will get. I have asked them many times.. keeps getting delayed. They are probably waiting for last minute to come up with some calculation based on ETH value. +3 trillion going to the founders. +6 trillion going to fund operations, the eco system and so on. + +Way too many things I do not like here. You can spend time with the white paper for the full text, but these numbers do not pass my door. + +They are asking for full KYC info just to register. Seems a lot of information is being given to them for free, information that if you check their terms on their site (I DID!!), is information that is unclear where it is kept, how secure, and unclear what they will use it for. They were unwilling to tell me if the information would be deleted after the ICO or not. I tried to find out more.. and kept being directed to their T&C on their site. + +Though I thought this might be an interesting investment when I first heard of it, I am 100% not going to spend a cent on it.. or give them my personal information just to register. + +Other ICOs out there do not have these issues. + + + + +I will make this short, as I am working on a few new projects that deserve a lot more time than writing up something on a project that I am not going to invest in. I just feel a need to make others aware of this , so they can make their decisions with more information. + +From the official Kin white paper ( https://kin.kik.com/papers/Kin_Whitepaper_V1_English.pdf?version=1a9e783a4ccdf9936d1dd7d319fdeac4) + +Section 6 Kin token issuance + +"In order to finance the Kin roadmap, Kik will conduct a token distribution event that will offer for sale one trillion units out of a 10 trillion unit total supply of Kin...." + +"Another three trillion Kin will be preallocated to Kik as the founding member of the Kin +Foundation and subject to a long-term vesting schedule..." + +"The remaining six trillion Kin will be under the purview of the Kin Foundation, locked under the Kin +Rewards Engine schema and used strategically to grow the Kin Ecosystem and fund the operations of the foundation..." + +10 trillion tokens: + +1 trillion sold through the ICO . Unknown at this point how many tokens per ETH you will get. I have asked them many times.. keeps getting delayed. They are probably waiting for last minute to come up with some calculation based on ETH value. +3 trillion going to the founders. +6 trillion going to fund operations, the eco system and so on. + +Way too many things I do not like here. You can spend time with the white paper for the full text, but these numbers do not pass my door. + +They are asking for full KYC info just to register. Seems a lot of information is being given to them for free, information that if you check their terms on their site (I DID!!), is information that is unclear where it is kept, how secure, and unclear what they will use it for. They were unwilling to tell me if the information would be deleted after the ICO or not. I tried to find out more.. and kept being directed to their T&C on their site. + +Though I thought this might be an interesting investment when I first heard of it, I am 100% not going to spend a cent on it.. or give them my personal information just to register. + +Other ICOs out there do not have these issues. + + + + +The same thing was happening during the beginnings of the internet era. If someone was kidnapped or murdered by someone they met on the internet, media blames the internet. + +Decades later, people are over it because internet it’s a necessary part of their lives. + +The world’s ‘regulated’ banks are laundering more than $2 trillion every year. + +If that was a case of Cryptocurrency, there would be numerous “BREAKING NEWS” topics, posts, titles about how Crypto is ruining whole world financial system, helping the criminals and all kinds of panic stories. + +Will we ever get impartial news? Did you know that terrorists sometimes drive in cars and are drinking bottled water? Wow. +I almost don’t want to post this because as I wrote, this argument is emotional at the core. People who don’t bother to even read the classic DD dismiss us as a cult, but the reason we aren’t is the logic and reason behind the DD. If we’re a cult, we believe in no god other than evidence. + +Yet, I post it. Why? Because I haven’t seen this argument used in the endless debating about whether or not this is the kill shot. I think it’s a good one that came to me while I was taking a dump at work. + +On to it. Think back to October of last year. The quarterly report was about to come out and DRS was being brought up in the subreddit. The truest of apes (I will admit, I was not in this group) did it back then, based on the writings of Queen Kong. Many others ridiculed them for low limit sale potential (ignoring how easy it is to drive to the nearest ComputerShare center and make limit sales to your heart’s content) and the old technology they use. + +Then the quarterly report comes out. One ape notices a line of text, “Direct Registered Shareholders: 5,000,000”. No company has written their DRS numbers in a quarterly report as far as I know, and I used to read lots of quarterly reports because I’m a fucking loser with no life. + +Point being, they took the whispers and put a loudspeaker on them. It legitimized DRS and now most of us have gone that direction. + +Cohen loves to delight shareholders. Matt Furlong ended the previous two reports with a message of thankfulness and togetherness with retail owners. + +They led us to the land of the guaranteed shares, while those at a broker better hope they have a locate for every short they’re lending. If the shorts all have locates, all good, they will get three shares from every short as the DTCC gives them to the short party to give to their lender. If not, their client will default as they try to buy 3 shares for every share they phantom shorted. Then the broker will default as they try to buy what’s left. + +If you’re in this sub as much as I am, you know the number of shorts without a locate may have began 6 years ago with no limit to its maximum. + +So that’s the idea. It’s based on trust of our company’s leaders. +It went great guys! It must be the positivity and love you guys gave me! The manager texted me and told me he will be in touch with me later today. I'm excited!!!! + +Also I know signing up for pro membership helps the company, but it seems like it also helps the employee if you go in and sign up. They get incentives off of it, so if you don't have pro membership, go to the store and sign up!!! + +See you on the moon very soon guys! I will go back to being in my lurker shell...✌ + + +Edit: sorry this was an update to this post! + +https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p7gazc/got_my_hours_cut_at_my_job/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share +Locked thread I guess due to bad advice. + +I’m in the US and I think it’s around 150k. Give or take. + +I’ll see if I can talk to a CPA about it. I have one for taxes. Thank you for the advice and if this gets unlocked I’ll keep an eye out on new comments. + +Thank you everyone for the sound advice. + +—- + +Long story short, just found out after my dad passed away, that my mom is now sitting on a few hundred thousand in cash. Not millions or anything outrageous. Basically their retirement for low property taxes and food. + +They come from a country that has massive bank issues, so they always kept everything liquid. No I’m not happy. I could have bare minimum had it grow with inflation, if I knew. + +Now my mom is looking for help from me to resolve this, because they haven’t worked in over a decade so it’ll look like they were sitting on cash from some unmarked business or something. + +Is there a solution to this other than reporting it a second time and paying tax on it? + +Thank you. Just trying to figure this out without going nuts. +Allow me to explain, BTC has had a major push to 69K on 10Th November, since then we've been slowly bleeding to as low as 42k. + +Sure we had a few pull backs but nothing major, and every time we get a pull back it doesn't really break any resistance points. + +Historically during every dip, we get flash crashes but we can also see a retest to those levels before any significant rallys to the upside. + +BTC crashed to 30k in May, then retested those levels after two months of crab market, leading to a 29.4k drop before rallying to 50k. + +BTC dipped again on launch of El Salvador's wallet, from 52k to 46.8k, which was again retested 13 days later. + +Similar retests can be seen on Jan 2021 and Dec 2017. If you look at the BTC/USDT chart from Binance, we never failed to retest a long wick to the downside, ever. + +And now we have a 42k wick, but haven't retested the level yet, which is why I'm expecting a dip to the downside before any significant rallys. + +History often doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. + +>TL;DR: Bearish on BTC till we retest 42k. +Inspired by the post on the front page, from the dude who has 70k saved because he just can't spend any of his money - + +I have no idea how you do that. I was talking to my partner the other day - we were discussing what we would do if someone handed $15k to do whatever we want with. Even assuming I didn't spend it on smart things, like debt or retirement savings, I could go out and blow $15k in the blink of an eye - hobbies, traveling, lessons/classes, it'd be easy. My girlfriend was the opposite - she was saying "well, maybe traveling for a little bit of it? maybe I'd give some money to my parents, help them out?" + +I'm just so... jealous, honestly, of people who don't feel the constant urge to spend their money. Every day I come up with something new I want to do, or buy, that gets added to the constantly growing list in my head of things I want, and it never ends. How do I change myself? +[https://wallet.gamestop.com/](https://wallet.gamestop.com/) + +Was dinking around on the Gamestop Blockchain Support pages(!!!) and was surprised to see this link existed and was navigable! The downloads aren't ready just yet but wow it's a clean site. + +BULLISH! + +I'll be trying to install ASAP 🚀 (though it's not available just yet. F5 gang wya?) + +&#x200B; + +DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS DRS + +&#x200B; + +e: **Some interesting tidbits/definitions from the Privacy Policy** + +>GameStop Wallet is a software service accessible via web browser for the Ethereum network that enables users to + +>(i) self custody digital assets; + +>(ii) connect to decentralized applications (“dapps”); + +>(iii) view addresses and information that are part of blockchain networks and broadcast transactions; + +>(iv) access to third party services from Wyre and Ramp, respectively, for purchasing Ethereum with certain fiat currencies; + +>(v) swap capabilities that are powered by 0x API and Loopring, respectively; and + +>(v) other features, tools, software or functionalities that may be added to the GameStop Wallet from time to time (collectively, “GameStop Wallet"). + + +>The website and interface located at "nft.gamestop.com” (collectively, the “Site”) facilitate interaction with your self custody digital wallet and certain decentralized cryptographic protocols (“Protocols”); access to third party services from Wyre and Ramp, respectively, for purchasing Ethereum with certain fiat currencies; and access to other features, tools, software or functionalities in connection with the Site, including, but not limited to, viewing non-fungible tokens (“NFTs") and other digital assets associated with your wallet. With respect to the Site, your self custody digital wallet can be your GameStop Wallet or a digital wallet from a third party provider. + + +**And from the Wallet Terms & Conditions we have** + +>The GameStop Wallet will soon be accessible through application program interfaces (“APIs”) and corresponding applications (each, an “App”), such as mobile wallet apps. + +Again we see GME Entertainment LLC + +>GME Entertainment, LLC is referred to as “GME Entertainment”, “we,” “us,” or “our.” + +Does anyone know what the 0x API is? + +>Swap Functionality Powered by 0X API or Loopring. If you elect to swap digital assets using the swap functionality powered by third party 0X API or Loopring, any swap that you engage in will be conducted by 0x API or Loopring and the relevant decentralized exchanges (“DEXs”). We have no control over these swaps, nor do we have the ability to reverse any swaps or fees (including, but not limited to, swap fees, or transaction fees or “gas” fees imposed by the relevant blockchain network(s)). We also have no control over swap transactions that are delayed, canceled, lost or dropped. Accordingly, we will have no liability to you or to any third party for any claims or damages that arises or may arise as a result of any swaps that you engage in through 0X API or Loopring. Further, the digital assets available for swapping through 0X API or Loopring are subject to change by third parties at any time and without notice. +Told the girl to invest in bitcoin.. + +I feel like I used to be so interesting, this is all I talk about now. Anybody else turning into a maximalist? + +EDIT: We haven’t talked since. +Super sad about what happened...he had a heart attack and was only 55 years old. That got me thinking about my family. We just bought a home in Southern California and def need 2 income for us to pay mortgage. I started worry if something awful happened and one of us died, we would be able to pay off the house not even with the insurances we got through our employer. Plus we have a 18 month old toddler to care for and 2 Goldens. Should we be having another life insurance outside of our employer? If so what package should we be buying? How do we ensure that the other will not feel the burden especially our daughter? Many thanks +I was out to dinner with my family for an early mother's day. I don't know how we got into the topic, but I started explaining the GME situation to them. My dad ( a retired day trader) and my brother in-law (an accountant) started ripping me apart and made me feel like a complete fool for investing in GME. My dad even said he might buy some puts on Monday 😑. So anyways, I'm driving home feeling all sorts of FUD. And right at the peak of my self wallowing, a car rockets past me. Not just any car, but a GREEN LAMBO!!! My tits have never been jacked harder. If that's not a sign, then signs don't exist. I feel ashamed to my fellow apes for the amount of FUD that I felt and want you all to know I'll be hodling till the end. Obligatory: 💎👐💎👐🚀🚀 +I have a lot of money saved (20k)for someone my age(17), the problem is I’m paying for college by myself. I’ve worked crazy hours since I got my first job at 15 & saved all my money (should have 30k saved by the time I enter college)but it won’t even cover a year of tuition and boarding. I don’t have contact with my parents & my legal guardian isn’t contributing and says I can’t live with them once I graduate. So I plan to go to a public in-state university & live in a dorm while taking some online community college courses to save money(community colleges near me don't have housing and rent is insane). My current major of choice is nursing and I haven’t yet filled out FASFA. I’m also getting my EMT license & plan to work while attending college, realistically I’ll work at least 24hrs weekly. How do I go and finish debt free, while spending the least amount possible? +You all seem like way more financially literate people than me. So I will try my question here. It’s about foreign currency exchanges. + +Right now I earn income in Swedish Krona (where I live) and pay some bills in USD in which I use a money transfer service. + +I can never tell if the USD is stronger or if Swedish Krona is stronger. In fact, I don't even know what that term means. If one is stronger, what indicates it? Does that mean it stretches further if I transfer accounts? + +For example, would the Swedish Krona be stronger one day and I transfer to my USD account and I can pay a little more off a credit card that month compared to a month before but with the same transfer amount? + +I'm so confused! +hi guys, i’m new to stocks/trading. i’ve been learning a lot the last couple months but now i think i should learn through a mentor and legitimate programs that help?? +[St Louis Fed president says](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/14/bullard-say-the-fed-needs-to-front-load-tightening-because-inflation-is-possibly-accelerating.html) Fed has to front load hikes as inflation is accelerating. Why don't they simply shut up and announce a half point , or 3/4 point hike? Is this system that levered and frail that after months of signalling, the market can't handle .50? That seems way more concerning structurally than inflation, imo. + +&#x200B; + +Edit: Correction to Change "Fed says" in hyperlink due to mistake noticed by a commenter. + +*Disclaimer I own 23 shares of GME at 273 and I’m bull. This is not investment advice.* + +Are you wondering when, how, if this will all be over you’ve come to the right post. This ENDGAME DD is about no stock in particular and shouldn’t be taken as investment advice. + +So your answer? If you haven’t seen this post please check it out. I think it does an ok job at theorizing the point at which a large short has to cover and how we get there. + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/l8t3dm/gme\_endgame\_game\_theory\_best\_scenarios/](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/l8t3dm/gme_endgame_game_theory_best_scenarios/) + +User does a great job explaining that there will be massive volatility if we are to go forward. There’s also a good theory of a pre-squeeze price and post-squeeze price where all holders make value $. No squeeze has happened yet, only a small exit of short positions leveraged back into more shorts. + +Things the user forgot to mention as a strategy for someone bullish other than buy and hold. + +*Other methods can be used to drive up prices.* + +Remove your shares from the available short position!! **DO IT NOW then tell a friend** + +GOOGLE SAYS: Phone your broker and put an order in saying that you wish to place **your shares** for sale at, for argument's sake, double today's price. As they are 'on order' they **cannot** be lent out by your broker and in turn, you are reducing the amount of **'free shares**' out there that can be used for **shorting** purposes. + +Shorts increased their position! [https://financhill.com/most-heavily-shorted-stocks-today](https://financhill.com/most-heavily-shorted-stocks-today) If you have **any** stock you want to increase in value, set a sell limit order for what you think is “fair value”, another thing brokers are limiting. + +Buying accelerates the process way faster! 21 years is the estimate when they will be bust at current $300 value. I think it was an overestimate that can be much faster with buys. Buys with the conviction that the leadership from is now solid. Buys where you trust others to see the company and its stock growing. Buys because you like the stock. Anyone can buy, from almost anywhere! Asia, EU, Canada, US, find out if you can purchase too. + +**Taking away available shares to short and buying could reduce the estimate to an untenable short term position. Period** + +The last thing not mentioned is a margin call. Oh did you invest on margin and over-leverage your position on GME like these hedge funds? Prepare for an unexpected call when the clearing firm calls in and asks you to meet minimum deposit requirements or sells your position. However, this only happens if bulls are **quick and consistent**. Volatility needs to be so insane and price so high that shorts need to clear out and cut losses so quickly that they never have the capacity to short again. + +The reason Robinhood said Fuck You, 1 share a piece was that their DTCC deposit/cash on hand requirements went way up. No speculation, just a fact. They, unlike other brokers, have 56% of 13 million known users who have a stake in heavily shorted Gamer Stock. In theory, if 30% more users bought 1 share of a $312 stock that would add $1,216,800,000 of value. Hedges lose long before that, but 56% is rookie numbers, we can get that to 99%. + +Now read this: [https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-30/gamestop-gme-short-squeeze-who-will-surrender-first](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-30/gamestop-gme-short-squeeze-who-will-surrender-first) + +In theory, just by buying and holding you could force Robinhood and other brokers to call in their investment from leveraged shorts. Ding ding ding. Three shitron lemons just flashed in a row and paid out. + +However, investing isn’t for everyone. Huge volatility for your one allowance of share can be involved. If you buy high and sell low that is as much of a loss as someone who shorted a position that was sound long term. My investment advice has always been only put in what you can lose, never 140%. + +Buy a ticket to the show. They could sell out quickly. DVF bought 55,000 tickets at such a low price, but low is relative to what is the current high. + +Personally, I think $300 for your ticket to the show is a good deal for the ***HEDGIES LOSS PORN but you have to hold it to enter***. + +TLDR; If you have rocket fuel, we will be going to the moon. 🚀 +A few years ago, my dad lent me about 5K to move to a larger city to pursue a career opportunity after I had graduated college. It all worked out and he never mentioned it, until now that I recently got a raise and he brought it up, saying he wants to talk about me paying him back. + +I have no issues with this and believe it is the right to do, but I’m wondering if it makes sense to take the money out of my emergency fund (15K) and pay him back all at once, or if I should take him up on a payment plan that he expressed interest in doing. He’s not charging me any interest or anything, and the only reason I’m considering paying it off at once is so that I can focus on my student loans while settling that debt. What do you all think? + +UPDATE: + +He offered the payment plan, but I insisted on paying him back all in one sum. He absolutely refused any interest, and said that seeing me where I am today was more than enough. I took him out around town instead - we went sightseeing, and hit a fancy steakhouse. + +Thanks to everyone for your advice! feels great to settle that debt +So I was waiting on line at Subway the other day, while talking on the phone to Johnson. (Johnson's a buddy of mine, works in marketing. Good guy, terrible short game.) + +I was trying to tell him that if i didnt get at least a 1% return on my reverse mortgage I wouldn't be able to go to hawaii with a taiwanese escort that year. + +But then it was my turn in line, and as soon as I finished my call I planned to order a 12 inch Steak and Cheese with Southwest Chipotle Sauce. I couldn't just hang up on Johnson because he might tell my boss I wasn't at my desk. So I made eye contact with the sandwich maker and extended my arm above my head while twisting my fingers into an "F" shape so she would know I was a finance guy, and that I would order my sandwich when I was ready. + +But then some Non - FG (non finance guy) started ordering even though it was my turn in line. So I looked at her and I said "Listen Lady, I'm a finance guy, and if I don't get my sandwich first the stocks are gonna crash. Please put extra Southwest Chipotle Sauce on it." + +But they BOTH just IGNORED ME like I was one of those CLOWNS working in the Back Office. (I do work in the back office, but they had no way of knowing that.) I understand why the Subway employee would ignore me, because he technically works in the front office of Subway, but this other customer has no reason to talk to me like this. + +Im seriously so tired of Non - FG's with zero margin calls treating me like I'm nobody, what am I doing wrong?? +http://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-opens-585b-stock-080157584.html + Saudi Arabia's stock market, valued at $585 billion, opened up to direct foreign investment for the first time Monday, as the kingdom seeks an economic boost amid low global oil prices. +I tried to post this at /r/ethereum but it got automod blocked for price discussion. That's unfortunate, as this is a fundamental question about Ethereum and probably won't see the right eyes (developers) that it needs to see in this sub. + +I've been following the updated Casper + Sharding proposal and it's unclear to me if you can actually stake more than 32 ETH. Previously it was worded in a way that sounded like 32 was the minimum, but now it sounds like you have to deposit exactly 32 ETH. + +I can see how limiting the amount theoretically makes Ethereum more decentralized, but there will still be pools like Rocket Pool and Coinbase that will have a large amount of the total staked. + +If that's the case it's a punch in the gut to anyone who has been accumulating ETH over the past few years in anticipation of staking. + +At $500 ETH and a 5% yearly return: + +32 ETH = $800 + +1000 ETH = $25,000 + +10000 ETH = $250,000 + +What incentive does a large holder of ETH have to stake or even continue to hold ETH over other coins/investments if they can only make $800 a year? + +Can anyone clear this up? +We have people chasing doge pumps. + +Pump and dump Telegram groups with 100k users telling people to buy XRP on monday. + +Obviously I'm happy that Ethereum's value has increased. But I really do miss late 2019 - early 2020. The space was quieter and had a lot more interesting conversation. I remember doing a Uniswap trade for $0.06 (FAST transaction) and lending on compound for $0.10 fee, it blew my mind and I really felt like this space had evolved and become something. + +Now it's all 2017 bullshit all over again, nobody gives a shit about anything other than... + +X coin's price * (BTC/ETH marketcap / X coins market cap) +If you're out there ScienceGuy... I miss your TA! Even if folks around here don't agree on whether TA is worthwhile, always great discussions on the ScienceGuy threads. +Science Guy called me this morning and asked me to pass on the message. + +$400 Price Target by Thursday - Tonight we will rise to $360 and taper off near $375. There will not be a crash any time soon, at least until Mid-July/August with the hard fork. I know a lot of you believe Crypto will magically flip overnight with money pouring into ETH, but there will be a lot of losses taken in BTC, so it will not happen as quickly as we'd like. + +HODL brethren, buy now as we will not see these ETH prices again for a very long time. + +Also we are in the process of putting together a GoFundMe for Science Guy to prove his innocence. All proceeds will go towards legal fees involved with avenging his wrongful dismissal. Court hearing will take place August 1. +$7 ETH! Successful HF, heaps of Dapps, clear upgrades coming, smartest minds in the tech world behind us. How can the price be falling so hard and fast? I am buying more here. +Hi everybody, +I'd like to ask for your input on the EthTrader Community Series. If you are new or have been gone for a long time, this series was meant to bring community members closer. Topics were opened where EthTraders submitted and upvoted questions, and I had the privilege to record the conversation. So far, four guests came on: [jtnichol](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/b1i6wy/jeremiah_nichol_ujtnichol_ethtraders_community/), [Ameen Soleimani](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/b3gu0f/an_1h53min_talk_with_ameen_soleimani_on/), [Vitalik Buterin](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/b660l4/vitalik_answers_to_rethtraders_questions/) and [Chaz Schmidt](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/bep2n5/chaz_schmidt_uchazschmidt_answers_rethtraders/). I am currently pinning a date for a fifth guest. ([RSS feed](https://krokodilmannchen.belgianboy.com/feed/podcast/) and [YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I2rDQCF7Fs&list=PLTzbA2lLaEj3O0PiYVP9p-YS3PoF_Le8L).) + +**I would like your input on who you'd like to see next, but before you post, please take into account that this is in no way meant to force any community member to participate. I have reached out to quite a few members here and many preferred to stay anonymous. Please respect that wish.** + +I suggest we follow this format ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/bpbd3a/continuing_the_ehttrader_community_talks_input/enqy8oe/)): + +1. Post a community member's nickname as a comment (it tags and notifies them), ie. "u/krokodilmannchen" if you'd like to see that person on. + +1. Post questions to said member as a reply to the comment that tagged them. That gives us two advantages: the community member can get a sense of what kind of questions they would get, and/or it could lead to a written Q&A in the future. + +edit: whoops @ title +I'm sorry to have to write this, but due to a loved one's emergency, I'm out of money \- dead broke. Nothing to sell or anything. I am in an EU country, where I do not have the legal right to work \- and there's so much unemployment here, finding a job would be next to impossible anyhow. I'm an intelligent, hardworking and capable person. I am currently earning some slight money writing essays, but there is little work at the moment there. I'm also doing Mechanical Turk, which is very low\-paying and has the unfortunate consequence of sucking time away from activities which could be a bit more lucrative. + +Is there any remote work I could do through Skype or online which could help me reach my daily expenses \(again \- $40 \- $50\)? + +Unfortunately, I can't leave where I am for about a year. I own property, which I also cannot sell for a year, nor can I get a home equity loan, for reasons having to do with my temporary residence permit. Ironically, I came over here to help others and have done a lot of hard work doing just that . . . now I'm in dire straits! + +I won't do anything illegal, obviously! But anyone who can help me come up with something would be a great hero to me. I'm bright and able to handle all sorts of projects. And willing \- dying, even \- to work. + +Thanks in advance. +I've created an open-source, highly-secure wallet at + +[https://api.trustedcoin.com/wallet](https://api.trustedcoin.com/wallet) + +The purpose of this wallet is to provide cold storage level security with close to web wallet convenience. + +The way it works is + +* User creates 2 different keys (on 2 different devices, if you want to be extra careful). +* The platform underlying the wallet (TrustedCoin) creates a 2-of-3 multisig P2SH address, where the user owns 2 of the 3 keys. +* When anyone tries to spend coins from this address, TrustedCoin will email and SMS the user with details of the transaction, and give the user 24 hours to cancel before signing and broadcasting it. + +So if your computer gets infected with malware, the worst it can do is spam you with spending attempts. + +If this should happen -- or if TrustedCoin were to disappear -- the wallet also allows you to combine both keys and instantly transfer funds to a new address. + +I'll be online for a while to answer any of your questions. + +Edit: several comments have pointed out (correctly) that you still have to trust the wallet creator. If you like the idea of the security TrustedCoin provides (i.e., notifying you of transactions and giving you time to cancel), I'd like to suggest that you reach out to your favorite wallet provider, and recommend that they integrate with the TrustedCoin APIs. +I am all for investigation into big dirty players, but I’m here to give you some of the down and dirty on deals at GameStop. + +There’s only 9 days left in GameStop’s second quarter. If GME wants to see results for their stock, the best thing people can do is shop! +Don’t have enough money to buy shares? +Well spend some of that cash at the store! +There are some great deals going on now. +GameStop’s DEAL OF THE DAY: +— Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games $32.99 new +SUMMER SALE +—Save $10 when you spend $75+, save $20 when you spend $150+. —Save 20% when you buy 2 pre-owned games $19.99 or less. +OTHER DEALS: +—There are preorders available for Madden, Mario Party, Halo, and more. +PERSONAL DEEP DIVE/DOUBLE DOWN/DUE DILIGENCE FIND OF THE DAY: $19.99 +—Shower Beer Can Holder and Bluetooth Speaker +—— +I’m not good at formatting, but I like the stock, I like the company. I like the deals and the fast shipping. +TLDR: buy, hold, SHOP +I recently had the chance to join one of the new hot IPO companies this past summer after I was laid off at my last job due to COVID. Instead of joining the startup, I opted to join a FANG for job security to ride out the pandemic. + +The equity I would have gotten would be worth \~2m even though the offer only had the equity listed for \~200k. I feel like crap over this missed opportunity, and it's taken a noticeable impact to my personal and professional life. I feel like I can't concentrate on work, and I'm having a difficult time venting this to the people in my life because many can't sympathize. + +The funny part is I'm not even doing poorly in life. I'm in my early/mid 20s and I'm making a comfortable 250k a year, but the lost opportunity to greatly accelerate my fatFIRE/FIRE journey and help my parents out with bills is eating away at me. + +Maybe it's "grass is greener" on the other side syndrome, but how do people aiming for fatFIRE mentally cope with losing out on a missed opportunity. +Read through Dr. Marco Metzler's latest comments on the Evergrande Clusterfuck and needless to say the tits remain ever so firmly jacked. + +The best bits for you below; + +*"An Evergrande bankruptcy is likely to* ***worsen economic problems in China and the world***. *Due to the failure of Evergrande being able to pay its creditors, devastating consequences for the global economy and the banking system could result. Supply chains could be put under even greater strain than they already are today. This, in turn, would then inevitably lead to galloping inflation in the USA and Europe and other countries*. + +*It even has the potential to lead to extreme distortions of the global financial system - with bankruptcies of players that are still considered rock solid today. Triggered by a Chinese financial virus called Evergrande, the world may face a "****Great Reset****" - the* ***final meltdown of the current global financial system***. *However after the old financial system broke down we have to regenerate a new economic system which is build on trust and honor and in balance with the nature and the universe. We need now to team up bringing all the truth to the public as we see the old economic system falling. There will be a great opportunity after the "Great Reset" to rebuild a better world. This should be everybody\`s mission now*." + +[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-marco-metzler-403341163\_insolvency-petition-on-evergrande-will-be-activity-6869615636763418624-jnkP](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-marco-metzler-403341163_insolvency-petition-on-evergrande-will-be-activity-6869615636763418624-jnkP) + +\#APESNOTLEAVING #kengriffinlied #HedgiesAreFucked +As per title really, makes the service a little more compelling to those considering it. + +For those with arrangements already in place, you will also benefit from the reduction. +Following moves by ASIC most of my favourite Australian finance Instagram accounts and bloggers are cleaning up their posts or changing direction completely to more general money saving and budgeting advice. + +I’m not much of a fan of these changes (prefer investing content) and will miss following their investing/portfolio/FIRE progress. I hope they can continue in some way moving forward. +I'm a little disappointed about all these downgrades of Tesla ( [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/calls-of-the-day-tesla-boeing-coca-cola-monster-beverage-eli-lilly.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/calls-of-the-day-tesla-boeing-coca-cola-monster-beverage-eli-lilly.html)). In my mind, stocks controlled by visionary leaders hold premium. Yet, many people are selling the stock now. + +What are your thoughts? Is it a good time to jump and buy Tesla? +I've been using excel for budgeting and moneydance (for mac) to track bank balances. I'm having issues with moneydance every time I update my macos because it uses an old form of Java. Any suggestion for a simple mac compatible software to track bank account balances? +Since I’m not that familiar with the US IRA structure I just (again) watched the Patrick Byrne video and one thing catched my attention even more now. + +He stated that pension funds would have a huge business by lending out shares that are bought for their participants. Now that Ally finance as well as Apex clearing house have fully stopped the direct registration of shares I’m starting to wonder: is it because they just want to attack direct registration at all or is it more because the pension funds were lending out shares they did not own at all? (You know… as our other brokers as well lol) + +I couldn’t find that much numbers about GME according to this but I do actually remember a lot of euphoria within the past months among popcorn stock about more and more pension funds would buy huge chunks of their stock. So after watching his video I guess this was for lending out right from the start. + +Do we have actual numbers about pension funds holding GME shares or is this just another thing that we might look into? I somehow have the feeling the pension funds lending out GME shares for the past months could have been a much bigger issue than we had on the radar. + +Edit: thanks to u/bennysphere for pointing out the video and timestamp! + +[Link to Video with right time](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=COQvMsbb-Cw&t=510s&pp=2AH-A5ACAQ%3D%3D) + +Time is 06:00-13:00 if timestamp is not working +It's just too perfect for him not to. +Crypto is a multi-trillion dollar opportunity upending one of the planet's core industries - rooted in finance, tech, electricity and now has a huge environmental focus . Basically everything Elon does. +These tweets are him gearing up the shareholders. +I mean I know banks are against crypto since it's the biggest threat against them since crypto has much higher interest yields and stuff. But I feel like boomers won't adopt cryptocurrency because they haven't been properly educated about it. I wonder what might be the best approach towards showing them how crypto could benefit them 🤔 +Welcome to the **/r/EthTrader** Daily Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: +*** + +- Discussion topics include but are not limited to general discussion, details related to events of the day, technical analysis, Ethereum Classic, and minor questions. +- Important content should be posted as a separate thread. +- Be excellent to each other. + +*** + +Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! + +I've read through their documentation and this looks like some kind of locked down 401k alternate. I'm concerned and confused and waiting on additional information from the benefits folks. + +Does anyone have any tips or guidance? + +From HR: + +&nbsp; + +Each year, the company’s 401(k) plan must be tested to ensure it does not discriminate in favor of “highly compensated” associates. To help our plan pass the discrimination test, *Our company* limits the contributions of salaried associates with annual base salary earnings of $100,000 or more to 3%. Because your base salary earnings for 2015 are projected to be $100,000 or more, you will be considered a highly compensated associate for 2016, and your 401(k) contributions will be limited to 3% beginning January 1, 2016. + +&nbsp; + +The Supplemental Smart Savings Plan (SSSP) was designed to allow highly compensated associates to save beyond the limits of the 401(k) plan. You are eligible to begin deferring to the SSSP beginning January 1, 2016. + +&nbsp; + +You can defer up to 15% of your 2016 base pay, quarterly bonus compensation, and 2016 annual bonus compensation (payable in 2017) during the open enrollment period, which will run from November 2 through November 18, 2015. The attached “Plan Highlights” brochure provides additional information about the SSSP. + +&nbsp; + +Update: +&nbsp; +Thank you all for your feedback and advice. +Thats it. I thought these complaints/rants against Coinbase were explainable in one way or the other. But no, sorry. Coinbase is seriously crossing the line now. I have had an account with Coinbase for well over 1.5 year. I bought some btc in March, and sent it to a DNM (won't say which one).. and did not purchase anything. I did not. The btc was a trivial amount, and said DNM has been having troubles with their uptime lately. Literally, no crime committed. + +Fast fwd to yesterday. I wasn't home yet from work, but my wife tells me local LE showed up and wanted to have a "chat". Asked if I or anone had ever ordered anything illicit in the mail. Said "nobody's in trouble, we're just following up on something that might be nothing". My wife, bless her heart, answered truthfully "no". She should have told them to GTFO off our porch. + +1) I have **never** ordered any illegal substance to my home address - so I know this "knock and talk" was ridiculous. + +2) I bought bitcoin from Coinbase and sent it to a DNM. That's it. Is that a crime? Is that enough for Coinbase to apparently "report" me? It's ludicrous! Coinbase never even sent me an email or anything of the sort.. it looks like it straight up tattled. The irony is, I never committed anything remotely illegal. + +TL;DR - Coinbase is monitoring everything you do and fast becoming the teachers pet and trying to score points with govt/banks/LE/regulators etc, even if it means just tattling on anyone who even does anything remotely naughty with btc. + +Fuck Coinbase. Cancelling my account today. +So the son of a bitch counterfeiting shares like no tomorrow gets to buy the US Constitution? There's no turning back for us. We MUST finish this and please keep #kengriffinlied trending so his purchase is in vain. + +#kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied +#kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied +#kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied +#kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied #kengriffinlied +My young sister recently died and had an insurance policy which will pay 65k to 2 named people (her mother, and youngest brother - I am the oldest brother). Only 2 people could be named on the policy through her work which is why I was left unnamed on the policy. + +Each of them have agreed to share with me - we will split 3 ways. + +The problem comes in that my Mother is disabled, and as such receives benefits (PIP and others... I can clarify if required). Similarly, my young brother is disabled too and similarly receives benefits. He is in education also. + +I believe the insurance money (note, not inheritance) is tax-free, right? + +However, my ultimate question is, how can we receive this money without ruining their lives? I am not looking to commit fraud, but ideas of how we can work around this. It's a cruel twist that life-changing money comes with a life-destroying penalty for those two people. My mother wont likely work for 5 years at least, and my brother will hopefully be going to university after college. Even if they were to simply live off the money, my mother has fought very hard to receive fair disability benefits and would not want to start again in a few years time. + +Thanks in advance. +I work in finance, and can tell you, it is incredibly frustrating going to /r/personalfinance and giving advice to people that just want to sit around smelling their own farts. That is a place where people are supposed to know what they are talking about, and practically everyone there thinks that finance, means budgeting. + +Financing has been around for thousands of years, and yet people have very little basic knowledge about even the concept of money, let alone the cost of it. + +It gets so bad that I can't help but to sit there and say that it feels like I'm "early" to the concept of interest rates. When in reality, the stupidity of the people are what the central planners are counting on. They aren't hiding their theft from regular people, they are just operating out of another dimension. + +I wonder if Bitcoin will suffer eternally due to the people that it benefits, having no real interest in learning why or how, and the people that do understand it, all have much more to gain from gaming the system. + +Rant over. This will likely be seen by 4 people, but I needed to get it off my chest. +Recently just got car insurance for the first time. I put doctor for me and self employed private tutor for my wife, all true. Cost £1500. + +Using the mse tool, medical practitioner, medical officer and hospital doctor are all cheaper, with the first two being cheaper by around £200. + +Is it worth calling the insurance company to ask if I can change my job title? I was planning to call the company and ask if they would consider making it cheaper as my wife has 1 years NCB as a named driver, which it did when I put that for me (I saw an option for me as the named driver to put this but not the named driver). The car was officially owned by my SIL and my wife was the named driver on the previous policy but my wife is now the owner officially. +To the mods: I apologize for posting this repeatedly as I keep tinkering. This will ^(probably) be my last attempt. Thanks for bearing with me. + +**** + +The tool: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18djzfswDcCBcbTNotGX_17hiR2GDE4L7TpHMqjWAtJE/edit?usp=sharing + +[As I've already tried to establish](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/goilqx/mythbusting_fire_taxes_why_effective_tax_rates/), when deciding between Traditional (pre-tax) or Roth, it's important to compare your current marginal rate to your best estimate of your retirement marginal rate. + +This tool uses the methodology in this Bogleheads wiki page [here.](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Traditional_versus_Roth#Estimating_future_marginal_tax_rate) This tool should accurately estimate your federal marginal tax rate in retirement up to an AGI of around 200-250k (it doesn't account for NIIT, and I assume if you're planning to retire with an income of >200k you can afford a financial planner to do the detailed math). + +I've tried to make the instructions, assumptions, and limitations as clear as possible. + +Below are some examples of how the sheet can be used. + +**** + +A 20-year-old singleton making 85k gross has a 401k with 25k in it and a taxable brokerage account of 5k. They're looking to save 20k this year and want to know whether they should use Trad or Roth. They plan on retiring at age 50. This is what the tool reports as [This Year's Recommendation](https://imgur.com/zGjfNnc). + +In the Outputs, we can see that the current accounts (401k, brokerage) will grow to 108k and 20k, respectively. With a 4% withdrawal from the 401k and a 2% qualified dividend yield from the brokerage account, they're in the 0% bracket because they don't even make enough income to clear the standard deduction. At this point, making a Trad contribution defers 22% (their marginal rate) and gets withdrawn at 0% (their estimated retirement rate if they make no additional savings). + +But what if they do make additional savings? For this, we look at the [Future Year Projections](https://imgur.com/YpOmshy). Here, we look at the case where the singleton continues to make 85k through their career (in real, inflation-adjusted terms) and continues to contribute 20k to pre-tax and 10k to a taxable brokerage. Note a few observations: + +1. At age 20, the projection matches This Year's Recommendation. The current marginal rate is 22% and the expected retirement rate with no additional contributions is 0%. +2. If they keep making these same contributions until age 50 (retirement), their projected retirement marginal rate rises to 22%, matching their current marginal rate. In the later years, they could stop Traditional contributions and have the Trad 401k rise in value until the withdrawals fill up the 0-12% brackets. +3. An awful quirk of the tax system leads to a "[tax bump zone](https://www.kitces.com/blog/long-term-capital-gains-bump-zone-higher-marginal-tax-rate-phase-in-0-rate/)" where the marginal rate in retirement will be 27%. This is because ordinary income in retirement in the 12% bracket is pushing capital gains out of the 0% bracket and into the 15% bracket. Every ordinary dollar earned in the 12% bracket is not only taxed 12%, but also causes another capital gain (or qualified dividend) dollar to be pushed into the 15% bracket, for a net marginal rate of 27%. This effect goes away once all capital gains (or qualified dividends) dollars have been pushed into the 15% bracket. + +Here's an example of what happens when the user switches from Trad to Roth at age 36: https://imgur.com/9n4ncWv. Unless they do something, they are expected to be in the "bump zone" throughout retirement, which is suboptimal. Any extra 401k withdrawals or side gig income sees a marginal rate of 27%. If they instead continue to contribute to Trad until age 43: https://imgur.com/rfaPHS7. The account will now grow large enough that all qualified dividends are "pushed out" into the 15% bracket, dropping their marginal rate back to 22% in retirement. + +**** + +Finally, let's look at the canonical exception to the general wisdom that you should contribute to Trad when your estimated marginal rate is low: the medical resident. This worked example shows why medical residents (and folks in similar income trajectories) are an exception to the conventional wisdom. + +Here, we have a medical resident who makes 55k/yr and can save 5k/yr during residency. Afterwards, they'll earn 300k and be able to save 100k/yr (40k into pre-tax accounts such as a 403b and 457b and 60k into taxable). First, we can see the Warning box has popped up. If they save the entire 5k in Trad, they'll drop into a lower bracket, so they should be mindful of that. We can see that if they follow the conventional wisdom and contribute to Trad in residency, they still end up withdrawing in the 24% bracket in retirement compared to the 22% they were in during residency: https://imgur.com/QNus3ho. We can see that by contributing in Roth during residency ($0 in pre-tax from age 25-29) they can pay 22% and save 24% down the line: https://imgur.com/rfCw5fX. +So I got a job offer that pays more and is closer to my home, I have been going through the process with the new job for the pass couple weeks like paperwork and background check. +I received my official start date, however Hr is not able to give me the signed official offer letter until next week due to ceo not being in. +They are fixed on the start date because the hiring process took a while. +I told them next week won't be enough time to give my old job 2 weeks notice. They offer to send me an unsigned offer letter just to have some assurance. + +However seeing that it's not signed I am still scared and wondering what to.. I really want to give my old job 2 weeks notice. + +Edit: Thank you guys for all your response! I've decided to wait for my signed offer and give less than 2 weeks notice afterall I don't really care about burning the bridge with my old employer i just wanted to do it out of respect. +I'm just looking for some opinions or advice, currently on a 2 year fix till April next year. Tried to look at what we can get if we re mortgaged now and the best we can get is a 2 year at 5.85% or a 5 year at 5.14% + +Last week these were in the 4% but our broker took forever and now we've missed the boat currently we're on a 2.17% + +Do these prices seem obscene to anyone else, is locking in on a 5.85% for a 2 years bad surely rates have to come down soon really unsure if I should lock in for 2 years or just not on a variable God knows what that will be +EDIT: This is just a theory, and I am not advocating anyone to do anything with their BofA accounts. Just some information I found and felt an obligation to share. + +&#x200B; + +Good evening fellow Apes, + +&#x200B; + +Please forgive me as this is my first attempt at any DD. I welcome criticism and anything to support or disprove my hypothesis is also welcome. + +Like most of you fellow apes when I first heard of the scandal that Credit Suisse and its substantial losses due to the margin call of the family office Archegos Capital Management, I thought to myself how the hell could that happen. This led to approximately 4 billion dollars in losses to Credit Suisse. It was at this moment I realized that someone has to be bankrolling Citadel. + +Upon thinking about this long and hard I believe there is a bad smell coming from the direction of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. + +1. My first bit of suspicion was when I saw this post on Superstonk regarding closures of some Bank of America locations. It was definitely sus. To my understanding, some of these locations were being boarded up due to the trial of George Floyd (RIP). This was very strange as some of these banks were being boarded up after the verdict of the trial, and it appeared no riots would happen. + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvu4nc/bofa\_on\_why\_they\_closed\_their\_banks\_today\_nothing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvu4nc/bofa_on_why_they_closed_their_banks_today_nothing/) + +2) The second piece of information that I came across that I thought might support my thesis was the recent hiring of Executive David Kim. David Kim was the head of equity client solutions at Bank of America, and was recently hired by Citadel Securities (link below). Now, this is speculative, but would it be possible that Kim has signed off on some terrible credit/increased risk, and jumped ship on some hidden backdoor deal? + +[https://www.efinancialcareers-canada.com/news/2021/04/david-kim-bank-of-america-citadel](https://www.efinancialcareers-canada.com/news/2021/04/david-kim-bank-of-america-citadel) + +3) I was digging through the 13f's on whalewisdom, and I found that Bank of America does hold decent-sized Put positions on AMC, and GME. As holding these put positions are a legal loophole way of holding a short position, I believe it's possible that they also took short positions against these meme stocks. As both organizations would benefit from colluding an aggressively short position, they could drive the price down and both mutually profit. + +[https://whalewisdom.com/filer/bank-of-america-corp-de#tabform4\_tab\_link](https://whalewisdom.com/filer/bank-of-america-corp-de#tabform4_tab_link) + +4) At this point I felt there is a lot of smoke coming from Bank of America, and that it was worth doing more digging. I decided to look into the X-17A-5 annual financial report for Citadel securities that was recently filed with the SEC. ([https://sec.report/CIK/0001146184](https://sec.report/CIK/0001146184) ,filed Feb 25th 2021) + +**BINGO** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/me71elaxyl171.png?width=813&format=png&auto=webp&s=4d728ab4246b11ad9b076b24d455da4d701a18fe + +**This is found on page 8 under credit risk** + +&#x200B; + +[found on page 8](https://preview.redd.it/0310dcayyl171.png?width=444&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3bfa64d7542df3cfcbff11f9230dba820dc85fb) + +&#x200B; + +Conclusion: Given the evidence supported above, I believe that Bank of America has been put at significant risk of taking gigantic losses (or potentially defaulting). As Credit Suisse is trading at 3/4 of its February value, if Bank of America continued to loan/credit Citadel, I believe it is in serious trouble. + +&#x200B; + +I hope I'm on the right track. There are so many smart people on here, and if I can add even a little bit to this community that would be super fulfilling to me. + +Ape out! + +See you on the Moon! + +&#x200B; + +Bonus: As it turns out last weekend the author of the following asserts they were told Bank of America's computers crashed on the weekend, and they could not withdraw more than $1000. Sounds like someone with liquidity issues. + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/ni81j7/bank\_of\_americas\_computers\_crashed\_worldwide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/ni81j7/bank_of_americas_computers_crashed_worldwide/) +Correct me if I am wrong but the common sentiment, regardless of a person's political belief or economic belief right now is that a person needs to invest in Chinese stocks carefully (take a look at TAL Education group for example, or DIDI; which is the Uber of China)... However, these same people will tell me that China is going to continue to get bigger, better, richer, etc. I will say it is indisputable that the Chinese middle class is booming right now, and the will there is to invest as you go into the middle class. Granted, the Chinese prefer to invest in real estate, but they are beginning to invest in stocks. + +So, with this said - is it not common sense to then invest in say a DIDI, BABA, etc for the long term (5+ years)? It seems that everyone has catch 22 mentality on Chinese stocks - just trying to get a better picture. +Grimace is one of the bigger moonshots in bsc and they are not stopping. They just had staking unlock so the chart dipped, the community ate the dip up quick. These guys have a HUGE marketing wallet and many plans for the future. The dev team is dedicated and-based. They’re doing everything they can, to drive this coin to the top. The number one goal on everybody’s mind, is to create a new blue chip Crypto Project, hence GRIMACE. Marketing is continuously ongoing, there are a few contests almost every day. We recently awarded .0 2BNB to a new Reddit subscriber, we had a random giveaway after we gained nearly 100 members in one night. The core team is dedicated to helping the community. Yesterday operation big Mac began. The charitable actions of grimace, and operation big Mac have helped many hungry homeless. With all this effort, you know we are going to create a coin that is unstoppable. And it won’t stop there, we also have ongoing projects, Here are a few. +Huge Chinese Marketing, listing on Chinese CMC, +3 TikTokers that have 1.5m followers total, +Paid deals with a lot of callers. +The first game release on steam. +Poocoin, brave browser as well as other ads. +CG listing incoming. +Certik audit incoming +https://www.grimacecoinofficial.com/ +https://t.me/GrimaceOfficial +https://discord.gg/rxbhd6h9 +https://twitter.com/BSCGrimaceCoin +Reading the docs, it looks like A lot of services are similar to SHIP chain, with both projects having Offices in California. However Shipchain MC is 210X higher. + +First let's talk about the project fundamentals :- + +EDI is a new smart contract enabled digital freight management platform that provides a 100% legally compliant paperless workflow, From automating detention claims to financing trade shipments and negotiating. From an Industry Exclusive Automated Detention Claims & Same-day Invoicing to Automated Price Quoting and Dispatching, enable a seamless communications platform. + +Offices in USA, with some paying clients already. + +With 135 mil in circulation, it has a ridiculously **low MC of approx 80k only**. + +2 Exchanges are coming up, 1st one next week. The first exchange coming next week is a favorite of many (hint:- Id\*\*) . Currently available on Probit (No KYC) and literally no one is talking about it on Twitter yet. + +**Staking and Nodes going live in few days, which will lock most of the supply.** +Millenials are expected to out spend baby boomer by [2017]( http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131024006116/en/Millennials-Outspend-Baby-Boomer-Catching-Retail-Industry#.VdMjSr3D_qA). + +From and investing standpoint, who's going to benefit as a result of this shift in spending. Here's what I know: + +1) Millennials were trying to start careers in one of the worst economies ina generation. Many started out with either low paying jobs or several jobs just to make ends meat. As a result, a shared economy has begun to bloom. My generation isn't buying movies or CDs, were subscribing to services like Netflix or Spotify. More are moving to cities, driving less and relying on services like Uber or Lyft. Hell, even going on vacation my friends are more likely to use airbnb over getting a hotel. + +The rise of a sharing economy is the result of millenials becoming adults without the money to spend. I firmly believe companies that are gearing toward a shared economy will benefit in the next 5-10 years. + + +2) Once established in their careers, most millenials will want to settle down. But less and less are buying homes. In fact, more millenials are willing to [spend money on a car, and rent their home]( http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/) and millenials are willing to [spend 50% more on car tech than baby boomers]( http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/millennials-willing-to-outspend-boomers-by-50-on-car-tech) + +Companies like Ford see a shift in business model, from a piece in the Wall Street Journal, Bill Ford said “forward-looking companies will redefine themselves and move from just being car and truck manufacturers to become personal-mobility companies.” They're investing in a total ecosystem of interconnectivity. + +I'm also planning to look into firms that supply cities with public transportation. Bus manufacturing for example, or a company like Wabtech for expanded rail use. + +3) Millenials want to spend their money on [brands that are socially responsible]( http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/). From the same article it mentions they're immune to advertising. They cling to brands that do good. Two firms come to mind: 1) SBUX, has given employees countless benefits from stock options to college education. They also seem to be a great indicator of gentrification (the neighborhoods most millenials are moving into). 2) Costco - breaking your teeth in a shitty economy means you want your money to stretch and if I'm going to belong to a discount box chain, I'm not going to sams club. + +4) This ~~segways~~ segues (props to MBGLK) into another area of millenials spending habits. They want to shop around for the best price and are more likely to utilize online retailers. Amazon is an obvious benefactor but I'm also paying close attention to Wayfair. If millenials are saving money by not buying a home, I expect them to indulge in making their apartments nice. + +Where do you see millenials spending money? What publicly traded firms do you think will benefit the most from the millenials economy? + +Edit: My intent for this post wasn't an investment thesis but a conversation starter. I'm sick of this sub being posts about how do I vanguard and what should I do about this. My hope was people would contribute with their own insights instead of nitpicking mine. To those that contributed to the conversation and expanded it with your ideas, thank you! + +I'm not an expert in this area, just curious and was excited to have new jumping off points on things to research. I hope I might have done the same for others. +So I've recently put my daughters savings into premium bonds, over £1000. I previously put away £30/month but from yesterday, I've increased this to £50/month. My question is, do I continue saving up, then every 6 months (example) place it into PB account or do I save up 1 year(£600) and add £50/month for the next 10 years into shares/stocks? I want max returns, even if there's a medium risk. I wasn't blessed with anything from my parents, so really keen on giving my daughter a head start when she turn 18. + +What would you do? + +Best wishes +I'm 18 and in around 6 months once I have saved up enough money I plan to buy an apartment (2 bedroom, £60-75k). I earn £24k yearly on a degree apprenticeship, my rent is currently £450 for a terrible one bedroom apartment, and I can save about £500 per month. + +Currently I have £2800 in a H2B ISA, and £1000 in a Marcus account. Would you recommend buying an apartment as soon as I can afford it, or wait until later in life? What could be the disadvantages of buying now? I ask because I'm mostly sick of paying rent for this place. +Ok guys, I'm not looking for magical advice. I'm fully prepared to do the reading and put in the work to get there. + +But there are so many books written on the topic, it's hard to even know where to begin. What would you recommend? + +As I said, I hate having and going to work everyday. I just want the financial freedom to do with my time as I see fit. I want to have enough coming in each month, or quarter or year, that I can finally be free from the "master/slave" relationship known as employment. +Started on graduate scheme at 35K in 2017. Moved to a different company in 2018 at 45K. Planning to move again in a quarter or so. This would put me at calendar year of 2 years of experience. What should an engineer at an average fintech ask? I am not targeting big boys like hedge funds or googles. I personally feel still somewhat junior and next job could take me to mid-level in a year. What's a good junior worth in the market? I am thinking of asking for 55-60K in the next job. Target companies: fintech. Not banks. Small ones. + Welcome to the /r/CryptoMarkets Weekly Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: + + + +\*\*\* + + + + The thread guidelines are as follows: + + + +\* Discussion topics include, but are not limited to, events of the day, technical analysis, and minor questions. + +\* Breaking news or other important content should be submitted as a separate post. + +\* Cryptocurrency discussion not related to trading should be referred to the r/CryptoCurrency general discussion thread, \[see here\]([https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/62teju/monthly\_general\_discussion\_april\_01\_2017/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/62teju/monthly_general_discussion_april_01_2017/)). + +\* Follow the golden rule and be excellent to each other. + + + +\*\*\* + + + + Resources and Tools: + + + +\* Consider joining one of the r/CryptoMarkets chat groups, \[see here\]([https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets/wiki/chat](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets/wiki/chat)). + +\* If you are using RES, please click the subscribe button below to be notified when new comments are posted. + +\* To view live streaming comments for this thread, \[click here\]([https://reddit-stream.com/comments/auto](https://reddit-stream.com/comments/auto)). Account permissions are required to post comments through [Reddit-Stream.com](https://Reddit-Stream.com). + + + +\*\*\* + + + + Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! +Hypothetically, assume the price is stable and there is no change. High volume means a greater amount of items are valued at a price, while low volume means that the current price is the result of the agreement of potentially less parties for smaller amounts of items. I'm not educated on this by any means, but volume seems hugely important when making trading decisions. + + +Simple example, 100 people agree to exchange items for price 1. + + +Six months later, a single person agrees to exchange an item for a price significantly lower. + + +Now it would be a huge mistake for an outsider to come in and assume the lower price is accurate since it represents a small fraction of the market participants. A volume chart would easily show that the current price is a poor reflection of the consensus of the group because of the low volume. I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around if volume information can accurately help someone make better trading decisions, because at the same time, it seems high volume could indicate greater uncertainty in a market. The interpretation changes if the price is making significant moves I guess. + +This relates to crypto in that the current prices in the market do not reflect the sentiment of many participants because the volume is so low. This could be totally naive. How do you look at volume? +I just sold my house, it settled yesterday. + +We received the sale proceeds into our account (after the mortgage balance was paid out) but it's still showing the loan account open, with the total loan balance as available redraw. What does this mean? What happens if I redraw the total amount again now as it's unsecured? +I don't talk about my investments beyond my anonymity, besides my closest friends. So I was sharing some of the tech and future of ethereum and what it's doing to change the tech landscape and the world, and he said "see all of that makes so much sense to me" and he's entirely not technical. + +"I'm in." he said, and I helped him lock in within the hour. He's up about 12%, with a nice portfolio of some ether and alts. + +But what I thought was most important about his decision was that it was based on grasping the concepts of ethereum and believing in what the developers and projects tied to ethereum are doing. + +That to me, especially from him who really isn't interested in technology generally, or savvy with it, is precisely why I got into ethereum...although i am tech savvy, I got in because of what it's about and who it's about and the strong community, dev teams, focus and really one could say the "movement" that is ethereum. + +Just thought I'd share ✌️😄enjoy the ride today 🍻 + +Take the following hypothetical scenario: + + +ETH price rises back to near ATH levels. As you can imagine, many of the HODLers that were buying near current levels will have a proportionally significant amount of money on the table. Assuming no profits were taken along the way, a 1% move now vs at ATH would be a gut-wrenching difference. As an example, say a trader holds $150k USD worth of ETH at $150USD per ETH (ie a 1% move is worth $1500). If/when price goes 10x and the trader takes no profits on the way up, that same 1% move is now worth $15,000! Everyone knows how volatile crypto can be, and a 1% move is relatively conservative. + +&#x200B; + +My question is, how do you stomach these price swings when so much is on the table? Do you take profits on the way up or do you hold to avoid the FOMO that accompanies these massive market moves? I've already seen my stack grow quite a bit in 2019 and can't imagine what it would feel like if ETHUSD was trading above $1k. +I know it's all conjecture but it seemed Eth was very "comfortable" around 3500 - 4000. I personally don't believe we will see eth at 10k, or at least not for the next 10 years. I may be dead by then, who knows. So if eth gets back to 4k, I'm cashing out all 75 of these bitches. +Welcome to the **/r/EthTrader** Daily Discussion thread. The thread guidelines are as follows: +*** + +- Discussion topics include but are not limited to general discussion, details related to events of the day, technical analysis, Ethereum Classic, and minor questions. +- Important content should be posted as a separate thread. +- Be excellent to each other. + +*** + +Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! + +I am fairly new to Ethereum, I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to understand what it is about. I actually haven't bought any yet. But I'm curious to know if you guys also have an ATH you're expecting Eth to reach (much like btc holders). +Europoor can't get a control number if the shares are stored outside of the US. Best bet is to contact [investorrelations@gamestop.com](mailto:investorrelations@gamestop.com), but noone of us apes got any response from them... + +Now we posted an open letter to the CEO of GameStop Germany to help us out. Maybe he can contact someone from GameStop Corp. and get us a public statement what to do. + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Spielstopp/comments/n8lelt/bitte\_um\_hilfe\_bei\_der\_gesch%C3%A4ftsf%C3%BChrung\_der/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spielstopp/comments/n8lelt/bitte_um_hilfe_bei_der_gesch%C3%A4ftsf%C3%BChrung_der/) + +&#x200B; + +For that we need some visibility on twitter: + +[https://twitter.com/mondrakete1/status/1391473819592937474?s=19](https://twitter.com/mondrakete1/status/1391473819592937474?s=19) + +&#x200B; + +Please retweet and let [@](https://twitter.com/gamestopzingde)gamestopzingde know that there are many apes that need a statement from their CEO. +If you basically renting for life then you don’t have exposure to residential real estate the way a homeowner would. So what are good residential REITs to invest in so you get that exposure and can benefit from property appreciation and income? What if your goal is to have enough REIT income to pay your rent? +I buy the more expensive toilet paper. The Charmin Mega Rolls. I swear by these. They're soft, but not the super soft where they tear apart when they're used. +The EV craze is seeing another ops, the reverse merger of Microvast. **On Nov 13 a letter of intent (LoI) has been signed related to a business combination with Microvast Inc.**, a market leading provider of next-generation **battery technologies for commercial and specialty use electric vehicles** + +This name already came up on WSB gents, so the below it’s more of an in-depth DD before the next bell. Good to credit other DD as well for a sort of empirical work in calling the Company’s Texas HQ (LoL) + +**// What the heck is Microvast?** + +Founded by Yang Wu in 2006, **Microvast is focused on driving mass adoption EVs** and its battery technology boasts best-in-class charging speed, battery life, energy density and safety performance. Key takeaway: + +* **In a nutshell**: headquartered in Houston (TX, USA), 6 locations worldwide and +2,500 employees. Over 700+ R&D staff (30+ PhDs, and 100+ master degree). Over 426 patents and patent applications which covers the whole Li-ion battery chain, including battery material (cathode, anode, separator, and electrolyte), cell, pack, BMS, powertrain, and related equipment +* **10 mins, faster than you**: the Company has been an innovative industry leader for over a decade and has clear visibility to future growth from its existing pipeline across commercial markets including e- buses, vans, trucks, passenger vehicles, automated guided vehicles, forklifts and mining trucks. They have a battery system that enables 10 minute charging times with limited degradation based on lithium-titanate technology (game-changer, Toshiba apparently the only very-close competitor) +* **Vertical Integration**: its strategy extends from core battery chemistry, including cathode and anode materials, electrolyte, and membrane separators, to application technologies including battery management systems (BMS) and other power electronics. Higher quality, lower costs as by integrating the process from raw material to system assembly, Microvast is able to provide customized solutions with reduced project development time and controllable cost +* **Strategic growth**: as of October 2020, the Company had more than 40,000 electric vehicles powered by Microvast battery systems operating in 170+ cities within 19 countries, which have accumulated over 4 billion kilometers driving distance without any operation accidents caused by batteries. Plus, an impressive, growing list of global OEM customers, and a strategic partnership with Fiat Power Train Industrial. Bottom line is: real products with real-world adoptions (E-buses in China, London, Germany Singapore), and strong focus on R&D and diversification in terms of regional coverage which makes it less prone to regulatory risks or investigations (e.g. Chinese Probes). Notably, electric buses during the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea featured Microvast batteries +* **No real financial available** (🚩). Nonetheless, take or leave it, Mr Wu (founder and CEO) stated “Microvast expects to generate over $100 million of revenue this financial year. Our potential transition into a public company will help continue to fuel our design and development of market-leading ultra-fast charging, long-life battery power systems” +* **Real production sites and product dev** (🟢): Microvast started its Li-ion battery production in Huzhou, China since 2009, automatic cell production line (Phase II) and automatic module production with semi-automatic pack production line (Phase II) in place. Phase I and II in operation since 2009, Phase III started its construction since Mar 2017 +* **Clean City Transit project with an ultra-fast charging network**: the CCT plan put forward by Microvast is based on fast charging, long life and safe battery technology, and aims to facilitate the electrification of urban transport systems by progressively introducing battery systems while minimizing disruption to urban infrastructure, first to city buses, then to taxis and finally to passenger cars + +**// Ok so what should I buy? THCB** + +* **THCB** is a blank-check company initially aiming to bring a cannabis company public. Then, they decided to switch to the EV space following the trends we all know. The Chairman and CEO stated “Microvast has a compelling financial profile, with significant historical revenues as well as projected growth and profitability”. Total valuation exceeds $2Bn +* 75 institutional owners and shareholders that have filed 13D/G or 13F forms with the Securities Exchange Commission. These institutions hold a total of 39,345,200 shares. Largest shareholders include BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd, Mizuho Securities Usa Llc, Bank Of Montreal /can/, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP, K2 Principal Fund, L.p., Cnh Partners Llc, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc., Alberta Investment Management Corp, Sage Rock Capital Management LP, and Periscope Capital Inc +* In March 2019, the Company consummated its IPO from which it derived gross proceeds of $276,000,000 (including $36,000,000 from the exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option). Like most blank check companies, the charter provides for the return of the IPO proceeds held in the trust account to the holders of public shares if there is no qualifying business combination(s) consummated on or before a certain date (in this case, December 7, 2020 or above, see below) +* On December 3, **THCB** will vote a proposal to extend the date by which it has to consummate a business combination from December 7, 2020 to April 30, 2021 +* EarlyBirdCapital has been the sole book-running manager and underwriter. The previous merger consumed by EarlyBirdCapital are significant. The latest include TTCF (+59%), VLDR (+55%), BWMX (+204%), AVCT (-42%) and (-16%) + +**// Don't fuck with me, what are the risks?** + +The completion of the transaction is subject to, among other things, the execution of a **definitive agreement** (which has already taken place for //AvePoint instead, see my other post) approval by the two companies' boards, satisfaction of customary closing conditions and approval of the transaction by each company's shareholders. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be entered into or that the proposed transaction will be consummated on the terms currently contemplated or at all. If a legally binding definitive agreement is entered into, a full description of the terms of the transaction will be provided in a registration statement and/or a proxy statement of SPAC to be filled with the SEC + +**// I don't want to read, bottom line? TL;DR** + +* **Microvast considers itself a leader in developing ultra-fast and long-lasting battery power systems for electric vehicles**, around since 2006. Unlike other companies involved in SPAC deals, **Microvast has developed an existing product** (electric buses during the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea, Shanghai, London, Germany, China and Auckland) +* After hours trading on Wednesday 25/11 saw a +12%, while the trading day closed slightly positive with no significant spike. **Business combination hasn’t been approved**, we have just an LoI, which amplifies the risk of a no deal as the two haven’t entered a definite agreement +* \+7.40% on Friday 27/11, **still very manageable price**. I would buy at retracement S1 or R1 for the true autists, monitor the proxy statement vote on Dec 3, forget about it all the way until other rumors about the business combination. Looking at the EV space, after a news I would TP 60% capital invested TP @ +20%. Look at the overall market conditions in Dec/Jan (depending on the business combination) and TP the remaining @ +40% upside + +*Disclaimer: all images should be credited to Microvast Inc. or other sources. This does not constitute and has not to be intended as a financial advice or solicitation of any kind. I hold a long position in* **THCB.** +Bridgewater Associates, which has $150bn (£122bn) in assets under management, has emerged as the biggest short seller of European stocks. + +New disclosures show it has made bets totalling €6.9bn against almost half the EURO STOXX 50 Index, which is dominated by French and German businesses.  + +I'm currently trying to position myself for an oncoming recession and I get drawn into copying these sorts of trades, although I'm aware they take place within a greater strategy which I am also not copying, so could be unwise in isolation. + +Betting against the European economy feels prudent for various reasons, but I'm interested in the general feeling in the room; do you think this is a short due to strong negative sentiment for major European stocks? Or do you think it's part of a wider strategy where the stocks chosen are primarily hedging other assets in their portfolio? + +Thanks +At one time, finance.google.com was a pretty solid finance aggregator, with a lot of the top stories at a glance, good data on companies you were following, nice tools for comparison, etc. But recently it feels completely abandoned. + +Two of the "Top 5 gainers" on the front page, Burger King and Walgreens, have been there for months despite not trading since December. The "top story" is frequently something like "Dow gains on news..." from 10 hours ago, even though the market just closed down 100 points. The mobile experience, especially on iOS, is atrocious and unusable. The news that is aggregated on each company page is just bot-spam, with crap like "insider unloads 139 shares" (actually saw this today), with huge news from just days ago getting buried under it. + +I mean, what the hell? How does this happen to a site that gets 30M+ visitors a month? +Today I took the first step in getting my finances back in order. I lost my dad a year and a half ago and turned to alcohol and gambling because grieving is hard. I lost the man I looked up to. While coping with his loss I turned into a man he wouldn’t be proud of. + +Today I talked to the gambling site I used and told them I have a problem so that they would close my account. They blacklisted me so I can’t email back and say just kidding. + +Today feels like a great day to change my life forever. + +If anyone here is struggling and wants to chat I’m always here. We are never alone even when it feels like it. + +Love you guys in this group. Seriously. +Hey guys, + +You might have seen my post asking whether a flowchart for limited company directors exists. + +Well, it looks like it didn't exist, so I decided to create one. + +This update is a combined effort from feedback received on /r/UKPersonalFinance and /r/FIREUK + +Thanks everyone for being so helpful, I couldn't have done it without all of your wisdom: + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/ekfo23/flowchart\_for\_limited\_company\_director\_followup/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/ekfo23/flowchart_for_limited_company_director_followup/) + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREUK/comments/ekfnb8/flowchart\_for\_limited\_company\_director\_followup/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREUK/comments/ekfnb8/flowchart_for_limited_company_director_followup/) + +It likely still has many **errors** and **inaccuracies** as well as being a **very** **initial and incomplete draft**. + +Let me know what I should change, correct, and improve. +It's still a very initial draft and I'm planning to improve it with your comments and feedback. + +Here the updated version (v.0.0.2 alpha): [https://imgur.com/a/CNpHqZL](https://imgur.com/a/CNpHqZL) + +(also, I've created a new post for this update as I've been recommended to do so, I'm new to reddit so I'm not sure what the correct etiquette is, but please let me know if I should just update the previous post instead and delete this) +My gran passed away last year. Suddenly this week my mum (as the executor of the will) got a call from the council. She expected a battle to explain they already paid all that was owed, but turns out the council owes money to my gran’s estate. + +Something I’d never thought to do, the new buyer successfully challenged the council tax band on the property. The council therefore had to refund years worth of overpayments that my gran had made. Over £6000 was added to her estate. + +Obviously think carefully is there’s a risk your band could go up. But worth looking into if there’s a chance it’s too high. +S&P 500 hits record as Wall Street bets the Fed will lower interest rates, Dow surges 250 points - https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/20/stock-market-dow-futures-higher-after-fed-raises-rate-cut-hopes.html +This is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. When I say “everyone needs to watch it” I don’t mean everyone in this sub, I mean everyone. + +The title of this documentary may lead you to believe that it’s just about GameStop. It’s not. It’s about rampant corruption and the fragility of the market. It helps everyday people understand what’s really happening behind the scenes: how greedy bankers are creating the rules and exploiting the system to massively profit off the general public. This is an incredibly important topic that everyone to understand. + +Just to set expectations, episode 1 does start out with a focus on the GameStop story. But the sole purpose of this is to tell the story of how the general public started to take notice of the blatant corruption, lack of transparency, and illegal activity happening every day in the market. If you stick with it, you’ll see that they interview world renowned experts on these topics - not just Reddit users. The documentary does not try to push conspiracy theories, or persuade you that GameStop is a good investment. It simply tries to search for the truth. + +We need to spread the word about this documentary. We need everyone on Reddit to watch it. What we’re fighting for is so much bigger than making money off one stock, and this documentary can help non-Apes understand why all of this matters so much. + +Edit: credit to u/tobiasdeml, who wrote and directed this incredible work of art! + +Edit 2: I see lots of comments about pirating this movie so you can watch it abroad or without a subscription. Please don’t do that. Don’t fucking do that man. That’s stealing, and stealing from one of our own (u/tobiasdeml). Apes aren’t about that. Use a VPN, or maybe tweet at HBO and ask them to make it available in your country so they know how much demand there is. +Hey guys, + +So I am a new college grad who just got hired on my second job out of college. I'm a multi-media grad and I work at a medium sized animation studio. + +I recently wrote software that did a job that all the entry level employees did by hand. It used to take 24 man-hours to complete one task. But after I wrote my software it only takes 4 man-hours. Saving the company potentially tens of thousands of dollars a year. This wasn't assigned to me, I simply did it because I knew how and didn't want to do the manual work. + +I was asked to "package it and send it off to the other branches of the company" today after I gave it to my fellow college graduates to speed their work. + +What I'm trying ask is, should I ask for a raise? I've only been there a month, but I make minimum wage and live basically pay-check to pay-check. It's stressful as I moved away from home, and a raise would help my situation. But I don't know what the office etiquette is here. + +I wasn't hired to write software nor does anyone at the company write software for them, they often contract out. So I don't know if I should be moved to a different title or something... + +EDIT: Wow this happened, + +Okay, so to answer some questions. Yes, it was written about 75-25 on company vs my time, but my contract does not state (specifically) that all work is work for hire. My old job was like that so I'll have to look into that. + +I still haven't said anything, but my boss today is moving me up the ladder without my asking. Not sure if that means a raise. But it's something. He told my direct supervisor to "find a replacement, cause I'm being bumped up." + +I wrote more of an automation that isn't too fancy, but it is stand alone. And I am just a hobbyist, this isn't my profession though there are worse things to be. + +Thank you everyone for the advice! But it looks like keeping cool and having a good boss (may yet) pay off. + +I'll update if anything else happens! + +P.S. Recession. +You may remember us from the first quarter of 2013, we made a post letting reddit know our intentions to launch a Bitcoin Exchange. Well, things just got real - we are live after vigorous testing on testnet for six long months. Not only are we bringing you a new Bitcoin exchange, but we're bringing a Litecoin Exchange with it to boot!. + +We've ditched the "Toronto Exchange" and totally went Global - we're [Vault of Satoshi](https://vaultofsatoshi.com). Although we are quite the fans of Mother Russia's only BTC-E and those crazy white dudes running Mt. Gox in Japan- we wanted to hop in there and take a load off their backs. + +Been a long road to get here... we've paid Reddit hackers to report bugs over the long six months... in fact we we so busy, we screwed up and forgot a handful of hacker payouts... talk about living dangerously... well, we're paying them out - which always seems to be a good idea! Our bad... but hey, we're making them happy campers. On a side note, we are still interested in bugs and exploits and are setting up a legitimate program with a 3rd party to make this much easier for us. Should have news soon. + +*Anyhow... To celebrate our launch last week, we are going to shower you crazy currency coin traders with some GOOOLD. All you have to do is make us laugh... and perhaps even spread the word* + + +http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1clxws/come_and_hack_toronto_bitcoin_exchange_and_get_btc/ + +http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/181gjb/new_canadian_exchange_coming_soon/ + +Notice: I may swear, curse and even drop a brick of solid gold on your head... I've left my business manners at home and here only to have fun and let Reddit know that we want to be Reddit's #1 choice in buying BTC/LTC. + +***UPDATE: 7:30PM (EST) -- We broke 100 up votes... the shower continues!! I am getting CARPAL TUNNEL... THANKS!!*** +#9/01 Update: Now that these are up over 100% from the time of posting, it's time to start taking some profit. I would sell at least your cost basis, potentially more. Leave one or two for any additional run up/gap fill. To all those who took this play, particularly the ones who reached out to me after the fact, ily <3 + +---- + +Let’s not make this complicated. + +1. $AMZN has been consolidating since its past earnings disappointment and has found solid support at the $3200 level. At $3300, it’s the time to at least initiate a position if you don’t have one already. + +2. $AMZN currently sits at an IV rank of 1%. That means over the past year the IV has been higher 99% of the time. What makes IV swell? Earnings. What happens when IV swells? The price of the underlying option goes up. + +3. The S&P 500 is up 19.26% YTD, 30.66% over the past 365 days. $AMZN is essentially flat in both regards and is the worst-performing FAANG name on a yearly basis. Comparatively, FAANG names like $GOOG and $MSFT have far outperformed the S&P. \[1\] + +4. $AMZN is breaking out of a descending wedge with large gaps to fill in the 3400-3600 range. \[2\] I know a lot of you believe TA is voodoo, but there are people with a lot of money who trade according to fun shapes on a chart, and their trades move price action just as much as anyone else’s. Whether it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy or a crystal ball, we have to pay some attention when the Technical Analysis people start crowing en masse, and that’s what’s happening here. + +5. Antitrust is not a headwind here. One, because the likelihood of any significant antitrust legislation getting by the powerful lobbying force of $AMZN is nil. And two, because if split, $AMZN (and $GOOG)’s businesses would likely each command higher valuations. And on that note: + +6. Barron’s on $AMZN: “Valuing AWS at 15x 2023 sales gives you a market cap of $1.5T, meaning that investors are getting Amazon’s e-commerce business and its nascent advertising business almost for free.” \[3\] Barron’s isn’t the only publication to recently recognize this, but I hesitate to link to anything Motley has done because I have more self-respect than that. + +7. Out of 64 analysts who have covered $AMZN in the past year, all 64 rank the stock as a buy. \[4\] + +8. CEO Andy Jassy lowered upcoming ER expectations considerably in the past ER, which is what caused the sell-off. For those of you who don’t know, doubt is a good thing. Lowered expectations are a good thing. Because the bar for $AMZN’s October quarter has been lowered tremendously, it’ll be that much easier to achieve a strong beat, and a positive surprise. + +9. Amazon-backed Rivian's EV is set to roll out in September, one month before the ER hype begins to build. It isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it's going to give analysts some more fuel to write positive articles about $AMZN's future growth opportunities and maybe bump up a few price targets, all of which are sitting well above $AMZN's current price. + +10. I put this at the end because it is the most speculative point, but the possibility of a split still looms. If they announce a split, forget all this, sell your house, and all-in your life savings, because that would change the game. Not only because $AMZN is literally (on a price basis, not a valuation basis) an expensive stock with even more expensive options (Which Jassy currently owns many, many of), but because it would almost inevitably lead to $AMZN’s Dow inclusion, a forced buying event similar in nature to $TSLA’s SPY inclusion. Tl;dr: It’d be in both the shareholder's and Jassy’s best interest (if he ever wants to be able to sell any of those options, that is) to split the stock. + +Summary: It’s oversold, many HF’s bought in last quarter at a much higher price, Jassy gave himself a low bar for their first quarter under new management (Common among new CEOs), and the IV is at a one year low. Buy November calls near the money for a bounce, or just to hold. Grab some here, double down if we dip to $3200, and at every $100 dip to follow. Those of you who remember me from my last account know that I put my money where my DD is, and this post is no different. + +https://preview.redd.it/g540d63ugij71.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cee99b9da193045b8e8920a612a860df03f15f08 + +https://preview.redd.it/5zd22a3ugij71.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07535da3e15648d775a55f6b94eef57dd010ce89 + +https://preview.redd.it/jxfm2a3ugij71.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cf4d07401b61b8033999ca392942a7667cb919e0 + +https://preview.redd.it/ewolqb3ugij71.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=133dd4dd2b83b698ab77756592a92e252a7c120f + +[Updates to come.](https://preview.redd.it/20c4ie3ugij71.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cab0c4bb80a839357a436d079ccf0e55d2ff7a8a) + +1. https://twitter.com/mukund/status/1429888554742665224/photo/1 + +2. [https://twitter.com/traderstewie/status/1429888383736696833/photo/1](https://twitter.com/traderstewie/status/1429888383736696833/photo/1) + +3. [https://www.barrons.com/articles/big-tech-apple-microsoft-alphabet-amazon-facebook-stock-51629429127](https://www.barrons.com/articles/big-tech-apple-microsoft-alphabet-amazon-facebook-stock-51629429127) + +4. https://twitter.com/TrendSpider/status/1429971720748769300/photo/1 +Like most, when I started investing I couldn’t make money fast enough to satisfy me. Never mind that I was starting with $5k. Like many, I burned my hand trading too large attempting to make more money and it simply set me back. Looking back at it, I failed to appreciate by extending my investing horizon even marginally, it would have a profound impact on my future wealth. I am extremely fortunate in that at 29, I have surpassed my wealth development goal for 35. I say this not as a bragging point - but a very real reminder for the younger crowd starting at 17-20 that if you focus more on developing your wealth for when you’re even 30 vice 23 or 25, you will likely benefit considerably via lower risk trading. Most younger folks can’t fathom waiting until 40, which is why I chose 30 above. Let’s explore a rendition of my experience. + +- Started investing at 17 with $5k that I had saved from birthday gifts and working +- Began with buy and hold, moved to derivatives by mid 18 +- Initially focused on being profitable, then 10% and 15% return per year +- Performed well, but was anxious that although the % return was reasonable, the dollar amount was still small +- I started to focus on $ return, at one point traded an Iron Condor (far OTM and wide) to make $650 over 7 days. A big too large for the account size at the time. +- I experienced an outsized move that took me out of my trade with over a $30k loss +- This occurred at 20 years old + +My CAGR from 2007-2019 is 19.44%. That $30k loss chasing an outsized return because of impatience from 20-29, im out $148k. I continue to share these stories because it is by far one of my biggest regrets starting out. + +Starting young is so great yet many squander it with impatience. Do not set yourself back trying to make a quick buck now. I know it’s difficult, I had the same exact issue but do your best to think of even a slightly longer term game. I talk about it frequently in my small stacks segment - if I were to start over knowing what I do now, I would focus on developing a consistent strategy. The money will grow as you save, earn more from work or business ventures, etc. the most valuable component is the skill set. That’s what will truly pay out longer term. +Pretty straightforward, + +This sub is jaded. It’s becoming a tool to pump stocks (PRPL bullshit/manipulation), TSLA (just retards that’s chill), and idk there seems to be a very minor margin of people supplying solid info. + +It’s shocking how quickly some posts get 50+ likes to the extent that it’s obvious people are manipulating this sub. + +Can we formulate a sound system for this? Otherwise this sub is going to lose its edge and people who supply sound info will have to fight against many unsound posters for relevance when they shouldn’t. + +Edit for positions - $150 put 4/2021 +ZM $150 2/2021 +As it's time for people to be going back to school and new freshmen just starting their college careers everyone needs to be aware of how fast student loans can pile up. John Oliver recently did a special on this subject on his HBO show that I think everyone needs to watch. [Here is the link to the special.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c&list=PLmKbqjSZR8TZa7wyVoVq2XMHxxWREyiFc) +I guess by best I mean the highest pay to low stress ratio - ignoring personal interests and preferences and the specificities of particular organizations. + +I need money but have just been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that flares up when I'm stressed so ideally want one that's challenging but not going to destroy me. + +My qualifications are in marketing and web design but I'm looking for a shift away because the former felt a bit coercive (at least the place I was working at were asking me to greenwash some deplorable things they were doing to the environment) and the latter job got a bit too lonely. +We're in the last few days of the financial year. If you donate to charity now is the optimal time to do it due to getting a tax deduction. + +Be aware it's only a portion of the donation that'll be returned to you. So donate if that's something you'd normally do. It's not a tax dodge. + +I only recently started making a regular large yearly charity donation. I find it gives me a chance to be greatful for the life I have and to be aware of just how though other people have it. +So as title explains i have 64k at the moment. Ive been saving hard since i was a kiddo. I'm a farmhand which doesn't pay spectacularly so i want my cash to go the extra mile. So far I've got it all in a term deposit. Interest rates aren't great, but they seem risk-free to me. I'm a complete newbie and have no much of any clue on how the finance world works. I would like to know how i can gain a little more, without risk if possible. +So, I've finally been offered a job! It's a subsystems engineer position, and the pay starts at 60k, 75k after overtime, and 90k when you add in all the travel reimbursement and $55/diem. The benefits package is quite extensive. + +The job requires 60-80% travel though. I think it's really neat and exciting, but I'm worried how I would get a permanent place to live if I'll be travelling most of the time. They do pay for relocation assistance. + +I'm gonna ask my contact tomorrow about that, but generally speaking, how would I find housing in this situation? Surrounding areas are quite expensive and if I get an apartment in the area, I won't be using it most of the time, so it's a huge waste in rent. + +Thanks! + +Edit: Please stop suggesting me to live in a van or RV lol, at least if I have an apartment, I can have people over occasionally. + +I thought I'd share my simple life hack if you're ever faced with a long quote time on waiting to speak with someone. + +1. Write down the number selections when navigating through menu over the phone +2. Hang up once it puts you in line to speak with someone +3. Redial and select French (Canada) or Spanish (USA) +4. Press the number selections as if you're calling the English side +5. Start speaking English as all agents have to be bilingual + +By doing this I found that wait time lasted anywhere from 5 minutes to 10 minutes in comparison to 3 hours on the English side + +With more new investors entering the market, I believe the queue will become even longer as more people invest and using this will save some time. + +I thought I'd share my simple life hack if you're ever faced with a long quote time on waiting to speak with someone. + +1. Write down the number selections when navigating through menu over the phone +2. Hang up once it puts you in line to speak with someone +3. Redial and select French (Canada) or Spanish (USA) +4. Press the number selections as if you're calling the English side +5. Start speaking English as all agents have to be bilingual + +By doing this I found that wait time lasted anywhere from 5 minutes to 10 minutes in comparison to 3 hours on the English side + +With more new investors entering the market, I believe the queue will become even longer as more people invest and using this will save some time. +The city I live in is flooded with money coming from China and the prices of residential real estate is sky high. I was talking with my neighbor who is from China, she said she owns 8 different apartments that has no one living in them and are just empty, because she believes that prices will ALWAYS go up. + +I asked her, how she can be sure that prices for apartments will never go down, she told me to not worry too much as everyone is buying apartments because it is a good way to make money. + +But I doubt prices WILL ALWAYS go up like she said, all bubbles come to an end. Literally in my building, only 30% of the units have people living in them. The rest are completely empty, and the owners are all living in China. They don't rent them out either, just sits empty. If interest rates goes up or the banks stop lending, then there will be so many apartment on the market, the bubble will burst very quickly. Whatever the appreciation in value is only on paper unless you can convert into real returns. + +It seems like such a waste of Capital, alot of that investment could be going into businesses or more productive parts of the economy. Instead they just put them into steel and concrete. + +Can someone explain to me why Chinese people think this way? Are there cultural reasons to this? Is this just a case of: "everybody does it, so I will to"? I don't see many white folks or other people lining up around the block to purchase apartments from the sales office when a new building is planned. + +Sure, not just Chinese people like investing in real estate, but they seem to take it to the extreme. +The bottom on March 23rd is now more than a month ago. We know from looking at posts from around that time that /r/investing was holding cash, telling everyone who would listen that "the worst is yet to come" and to sell, sell, sell! The few people commenting about holding, or even worse buying, were immediately downvoted. Any post about selling was upvoted as high as possible, clearly indicating /r/investing's views on what the right move was. + +But how wrong the sub was. Now that S&P is up 26% from the bottom, one of the fastest rallies ever seen. + +Have you accepted that you missed the bottom, and are you planning to get back in? Or are you hoping for a new low? +Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! + +Have a look at the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/wiki/faq) for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. + +Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. + +The p/e ratio of the s&p 500 is at a high since 2008. It peaked a few months ago, but I think it is still far to high. A P/E ratio is the ratio of market capitalization to profits. This indicates the average dollar in the stock market only turns a 3.3% profit on the books of companies. Obviously speculation is part of the stock market so one would expect a price to earnings ratio of greater than 12.5 or 8% yearly returns, however, there seems to be too much speculation. I don't think companies are going to become profitable enough to warrant such a high level of speculation. There is definitely a bubble in many tech stocks in my opinion Tesla being the most extreme example in my opinion has a p/e of 365 and a market cap of nearly 700 billion meaning that they are not only a massive company, but also most likely wildly over valued. The feds ability to do market intervention is declining by the day due to the use of qe and near 0 interest rates. I am concerned about this bubble popping causing a significant loss in confidence which the fed would have a limited ability to react against. Thoughts? +So I was curious about taxes and investing and from what I understood long term capital gains are taxed less than short term so it got me thinking + +Say you are investing in a company for the long term but in less than a year the company goes from .00x or .000x to dollar land, lets assume you are still bullish on the company and in it for the long run, do you take some profit or you keep everything in so that you get taxed less and comeback in 1 year? + +I would assume at the very least is to pull your initial investment and let rest ride, not only will the year help you with tax brake, but you will see how the company performs quarter by quarter and see if they have more growth. +- My wife doesn't think I'm crazy +- My friends want to know more +- My mother brags to other people about her son +- General dissenters everywhere are stunned +- I think about how I can take care of the ones I love +- My manhood is 4 inches longer (not really) + +- Most important: I have a lot more confidence in this investment / experiment / experience +[First post](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4m1ln3/resident_physician_with_400k_medschoolgrad_school) + +[Year One update]( https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6tfii3/1_year_update_resident_physician_to_attending) + +Hello everyone, I figured I would do a yearly update and crosspost to both PF and the FIRE subreddit. + +**THE DEBT** + +Down to 362K as of today. + +I ended up refinancing my loans to a private lender. I debated long and hard about continuing with PSLF, but in the end, the risks far outweighed the potential benefit. There was no guarantee that my loans would be forgiven, especially as my employer was not 501c3 certified. Even though it is considered a non-profit and provides public health services (it is an independent physician group and is not technically part of the hospital), there is nothing to prevent the government from denying the forgiveness claim. I ended up refinancing to a 3.8% fixed rate loan for 6 years. However, I have been paying biweekly instead of monthly, and that has shaved off a significant time off of my payoff period. + +Deciding to refinance was one of the toughest financial decisions I made. It may be possible that I could have gotten my loans forgiven had I stuck with it, but I simply wasn’t willing to take the chance of my loans ballooning to a massive amount (my average interest rate for all my loans pre-refinancing was about 6.8%), and then finding out I didn’t qualify for PSLF. Ultimately, I feel better about paying off loans at a regular interval, and watching the total principle decrease. Although it’s easy for me to say I wish I had started paying off in residency, hindsight is 20/20 and what’s done is done. I’ve made the commitment to get rid of my loans, and to be honest, it feels like a dark cloud has started to lift knowing that they are finally being payed off. + +Again, I have no credit card debt, and pay off everything at the end of the month. + +**PERSONAL STUFF AND EXPENSES** + +Still not married and have no children. I did date another physician this past year, but she ended up moving across the country (which was in the works before she met me). We separated amicably, and I although I do feel sad, it was for the best. My car now has 130k miles, but I’m starting to feel the pull of lifestyle creep. I can’t help but constantly look up newer model cars, and think about how much better my 15min commute would be with heated/cooled seats. I follow Doug Demuro on YouTube, and wish I had a car worthy of being reviewed for it’s quirks and features. I'm still leaning hard towards a CPO Tesla! + +I’ve decided to update my wardrobe once a year, but only around great sales. This year, Macy’s had a great deal around Veteran’s day, where they had an extra 20% off coupon. Ended up purchasing a ton of dress shirts, pants, and shoes for less than $300. I’m subscribed to /r/frugalmalefashion which is where I can keep an eye out for these deals. + +I reduced expenses: + +* Again called my ISP and was able to keep my 50/10 internet for $30. My modem and router have paid for themselves, so again, no rental fees :) +* Ended up joining my brother’s family plan. Cost was an extra $18 to his plan, which I pay off. Over the last 2 years, I've reduced my cell phone bill from $75->$55->$20! +* Kept my Costco executive membership and am using their credit card. This combo essentially pays for itself through the combined 4% cash back, as well as 4% off their gas (which is already about 20c cheaper than surrounding gas stations). + +**THE JOB** + +Received a promotion, with a stipend attached to it. It’s a little more administrative than I thought, but it’s providing me with an opportunity to learn leadership skills. + +**THE BENEFITS/INVESTMENTS** + +* 403(b): 18.5k fully maxed out last year. For 2018 and going forward, I’m spreading the investments over the year. +* Non-governmental 457: 18.5k fully maxed out last year. Again, for 2018 going forward, I’m spreading the investments over the year. +* 401(a): employer contributed. Finally qualified this year! +* Roth IRA: $5500 fully funded the beginning of every year. I have basically been setting aside $211 every pay period so that I can fund at the beginning of next year. +* Emergency fund: fully funded. Ended up closing out my Ally CDs early since their savings interest rate was more attractive than the CD. +* Taxable brokerage accounts: I ended up keeping only the Vanguard account open. I haven’t really been contributing as I have been saving up to purchase a home in the area. I do have 2 individual stocks I purchased near the end of last year which have done reasonably well. I’m a fan of index funds, but these 2 were “fun” stocks to play around with. +* Cryptocurrency: I really wish I wasn’t greedy or had FOMO syndrome. I could have made a small profit had I sold at the peak. Instead, I only have about 25% of my original investment left. My only saving grace is that I did not pour too much into this, and can absorb the losses. Do I truly regret it, though? Not really…I was thankfully reserved enough not to invest too heavy, and I can treat it as a lesson learned (albeit a pricey one). + +**NET WORTH** + +* Since I started calculating this in October of last year, my net worth has gone from -$311k to -$170k. Using excel’s trendline tool, I’m expecting to hit net 0 in September 2019. + +Here’s a [visual](https://imgur.com/a/tsD3VUi) of my net worth, debt load, and investment value since I started tracking in October 2017. + + +**THE PLAN FOR THIS COMING YEAR** + +1. Continue to max out 403b, 457, and backdoor Roth IRA. Once I save up 20% for a down payment, I’ll restart m contributions to the taxable brokerage account. +2. Continue to pay off student loans regularly. Currently I have under 5 years left on my loan repayments (I have been paying a little extra every month in addition to making biweekly payments). Having an auto-debit from my banking account has done a lot to ease my mind. Any extra cash I make will be used to pay off loans. +3. Continue contributing to nephew and niece college funds. +4. Since I have started making massive student loan repayments, I have been able to avoid lifestyle creep simply because I don’t have the money to do so. That being said, although I still live like a resident, I don't have to live like a hermit. I was able to afford a vacation abroad this past year, I continue to have dinners and drinks with friends, and am still able to afford the occasional nice bottle of Japanese whiskey once every few months. + +As usual, thank you for reading this long post! Any suggestions, comments, or criticisms you can provide will be much appreciated! + + + +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-15/u-s-recommends-no-jail-time-for-flash-crash-trader-sarao + +Something has been fucky about this narrative from the start. The guy was spoofing something like 300 emini contracts and turned his system off before the bulk of the actual flash crash happened yet I'm to believe it was all some autistic dude and not the massive sell orders cited in the original 2010 report? + +More detail here: + https://www.ft.com/content/027fc1ea-ea60-11e4-96ec-00144feab7de + +> The official report on the flash crash, released in September 2010, highlighted the impact of a rapidly executed $4.1bn sale of stock index futures by a single institutional investor, Waddell & Reed, which began at 2:32pm EST. A trade of that size went well beyond what Mr Sarao could have done. According to the complaints, Mr Sarao switched off his layering program at 2.40pm that day, two minutes before the S&P 500 really started to plummet. He kept trading during the crash and for years after. + +I mean I'm glad they're not locking this poor asshole up I guess? + +E: also here's the SEC report on the crash back from 2010 where they expertly analyzed the HFT activity by examining aggregate **minute by minute** activity and ignoring BATS or any dark pool trading. + +https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2010/marketevents-report.pdf +Opinion/speculation: + +What we saw today was more or less a replay of what happened with the NFT Marketplace (non)announcement a few months ago. Massive stock pump in AH following some big news, tons of overnight hype, volatility at open the next day, then a slow and steady bleed down all day. + +Let's break this down: + +1. **AH pump:** this has to be mostly or solely *them*, as the majority of retail doesn't have access to EH trading, and retail doesn't trade on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars like this (I assume that yall are like me and buying GME constantly when able and not waiting for some announcement to do so.) + +2. **Tons of overnight hype:** obviously we here at Superstonk are pumped about this, and rightly so, but the amount of Top hype on VVSBets had me sus af last night, as we know that sub has been compromised for a long time and is essentially *their* guerilla propaganda arm. Tons of posts emphasizing options plays, 0DTE calls, etc, aka NOT "The Way" + +3. **Volatility at open**: the jumping price appeared to confirm what was suspected and encouraged - that today is the day to win big with FDs and weeklies. BUT, and this is the critical part, **who gets those call premiums and who controls the price?**. ItsTheSamePicture.jpeg. THEY DO. + +4. **Slow and steady bleed down all day**: this has been their MO for a long time, they just run the algos, route buys and sells where they need to go, and drive the price to more or less wherever they want, ideally Max Pain. They succeded (to an extent) today, all the while collecting likely millions and millions in call premiums. + +**I fell for it.** my dumbest bought a 400 0DTE $185c because I'm an idiot. I wish I would have just bought 2 shares instead. + +**THE GOOD NEWS** +This is the neat part: assuming the above is true, and they were out for GME blood today, they threw everything they had at our precious stonk. Fuck movies, fuck blackberries, fuck gold mines, they focused their energy weapons on GME today, and by EOD, -0.95% was the best they could do. Now look at all the other stonks I just mentioned. Movies down 5.44%, blackberries down 9.52%, gold mines down 6.09%. We took the brunt if not all the attack, but the other basketbois were the ones who got hammered. You know why? + +**D R mother fucking S.** + +We had our shields up. We are better at actually owning and holding our shares than anyone, and today it showed. + +As if more proof is needed, today is continued evidence that DRS is The Way, and we need to keep it up. + +Let's not fall for this shit again. Keep buying when you can, DRS ASAP, and hold on for dear life, and get ready to vote your fucking ass off. + +**DRS is The Way. Power to the Owners.** + +TLDR: They tried to play us again, but we are indestructible because DRS. + +Edit: formatting +[https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-could-cost-apple-4-billion-this-quarter-2020-2?utm\_source=dlvr.it&utm\_medium=twitter](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-could-cost-apple-4-billion-this-quarter-2020-2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter) + +4 billion? +I think that is more than a little optimistic. +Consider all apple production has ground to a halt,of anything.Not just phones,but computers and everything they make. +Kind of hard to make money selling something that does not exist because your manufacturing capability was totally shut down. +My grandpa bought stock as the title states and my Mom found them in the safe after my grandpa died leaving g them to my Dad. + +Is there a website out there that I could put this information into to see what this is all worth? + +Edit: thanks all for the advice and info and props to my Grandpa for holding for so long! +He has the bank statement showing that the $1000+ check was withdrawn from his account around 2 months ago. They consistently call asking for him to make this deliquint payment. He has sent them this proof of withdrawal to no avail. He's refused to make any future payments until they resolve this. What are his options? + +Edit/update: I spoke with my dad. I had the wrong information. He does still make on time payments and has since the issue. Because of this unfortunate mishap he ended up paying for June twice (once with the check they "never received" but was cleared on his account, and once to satisfy their calls for the "missed" payment. + +He mails his checks at the post office in the blue recepticals. I realize this isn't the best way anymore and am getting him set up with autopay. + +I appreciate everyone's guidance on resolving this issue! +Hey guys i would really appreciate some help im looking for a little advice for my parents. + +My parents paid off their house a while ago and a few months back asked for the title off the bank. + +2 months of hassles and alot of phone calls they received a title in the mail but it's to a house they have never seen in their life and it has both their names on it. + +After a few phone calls they find out that both houses are definitely in their names. + +The bank wants the title they have received im gussing its a major screw up somewhere and the title to the house they actually own is being sent out again both houses are paid off. + +Where do they go from here ? its scary both the government and banks have screwed up this bad and im gussing technically someone elses house has been taken off of them without them knowing. +One of the main reasons for people in Australia flocking to property/real estate as an investment is due to the "safe as houses" cliche in which houses are seen as a far more guaranteed return than stocks. + +If the government don't want to touch levers directly related to housing investment, would it not then make sense to implement some ways to make buying shares more appealing in comparison? + +Given the money is used to fund companies, which creates jobs, it can be seen as a far more productive use of cash for society than pumping money into investment properties. + +Could some combination of things like: + +* Reducing the length required to hold stocks for the CGT discount +* Reducing/removing the % amount of tax paid on stocks gains entirely? (NZ does this) +* Encourage banks to make wider-spread the availability of programs like NAB's Equity Builder that allows access to some leverage for the markets? +* Incentivise investment in companies under a certain $ market cap size to encourage more innovation? +* Greater education / initiatives about investing in stocks & how to get started (highlighting the financial viability of the rent + invest combo, etc) + +... any other similar ideas? + +That way it could be framed in a more positive light, and stop making residential housing as much of a speculative asset. +Hey guys i would really appreciate some help im looking for a little advice for my parents. + +My parents paid off their house a while ago and a few months back asked for the title off the bank. + +2 months of hassles and alot of phone calls they received a title in the mail but it's to a house they have never seen in their life and it has both their names on it. + +After a few phone calls they find out that both houses are definitely in their names. + +The bank wants the title they have received im gussing its a major screw up somewhere and the title to the house they actually own is being sent out again both houses are paid off. + +Where do they go from here ? its scary both the government and banks have screwed up this bad and im gussing technically someone elses house has been taken off of them without them knowing. +Some time ago we took this sub from a credit card spam site haven at just above 1,000 members, to, what I believe, is an informative subreddit at just under 20,000 members. + +During our explosive growth, the informative content and intelligent conversation grew with the subscriber base; however, along the way we also seemed to spark the interest of people looking to get into finance or wanting to learn more about finance as a career path. We began seeing more posts centered around how to get into finance. It was around this time I created the sub [r/financialcareers](http://www.reddit.com/r/FinancialCareers/) (also listed on our sidebar) and began to redirect all career posts to this sub. We made a post about it and began moderating career posts fairly heavily in an effort to keep r/finance substance based. We received a lot of backlash from the community at the time, saying this wasn't necessary, the sub wasn't big enough to warrant splitting out career content, etc. Over this time we have gotten a lot more lenient with the career types of posts. + +Recently, the community seems to be aggravated at the level of career posts. The Mods have been discussing the issue via the mod chat and we believe it is time to bring this issue back up to the community to decide what you want to do. We honestly try to let the members dictate what content appears on the front page through upvoting and downvoting. We believe we have set pretty good and solid ground rules (on the sidebar) for what this sub is supposed to be. It is up to you guys to take it from there. + +So, let this thread be a place to discuss this issue. If the community wants this career focused content banned, we will ban it and redirect it to r/financialcareers. + + +I'm currently an intern at a small IB/PE shop. I enjoy what I do, but am curious about the future of this industry. + +I've obviously noticed the replacement of humans with robots in many fields of work in different industries, and am wondering if IB firms are on a permanently declining path. + +I understand many firms that engage in regular acquisitions now have their own internal teams, since they find it unnecessary to pay an intermediary such large fees when they can do it themselves. Would you recommend I begin aiming for these positions, as opposed to boutique/middle market IB firms? + +Thank you. +**Intro** + +While I've seen more and more posts about custodianships on this sub, they remain a niche investment strategy and, judged by the low number of comments and awards the posts receive, relatively unpopular here. And that's a shame, because if played correctly, they have the potential to relieve many a sad bagholder of their burdens. Prior to discovering custodianships, my portfolio was a murder's row of popular Reddit stocks, culminating in over \~40% in losses during my first three months trading. After shifting to a custodianship-heavy strategy, **I have reversed my fortunate and, to date, I am up 126%.** + +In this post I will be briefly summarizing custodianships: the process, the players, and the risks and rewards. I will also highlight a few tickers as examples. I'll also be explicit about which tickers I have for the sake of transparency. + +**What are Custodianships?** + +A custodianship is when an entity (usually and individual or small company) legally takes over a defunct publicly trading company. These "dead tickers" are public companies that have a share structure in place, but have been abandoned by their former owners and may are usually found on the OTCM site as "Pink with No Information," due to the fact that they have no recent financials and are, at best, dormant. Many of these dead companies have prices in the dubs ($0.00) or the trips ($0.000) given their limited value as shell companies. **A court appointed custodian "cleans up the shell,"** paying the fees and completing the paperwork to verify the transfer agent, restate the company in its state of incorporation, and bring it current -- **all with the end goal of creating an attractive "clean shell" for a private company that wants to go public to reverse merger into it.** + +Popular custodianships include Moody, Synergy, Lazar, George Sharp (of $TSNP / $HMBL fame), Bauman, Small Cap, and newer players like SSM Monopoly, Omni Corp, Acropolis, and Alpharidge. Nearly all custodianship activity is happening with shell companies incorporated in Nevada, due to their friendly laws and quick courts, though Texas is starting to move a few through. Delaware has a large number of custodianship applications in limbo while a judge takes his time deciding whether or not to continue to allow them. ***Invest in DE custos with extreme caution.*** + +**Why Invest?** + +While some investors invest in custodianships with the hope that they'll land an attractive merger, many more invest to take advantage of the many price-moving catalysts throughout the process. There are many steps required before a shell is ready for merger, and each of the steps represent a potential entry or exit point for investors, based upon their trading style and risk tolerances. These steps include, but aren't limited to (overly simplified list): + +1. The initial application for custodianship (The entity that wants to take over the dead company files an application with the court) +2. Various court processes culminating (hopefully) with appointment/granting of the custodianship (this is the point where custodianships have the highest chance of failure) +3. Settling with the transfer agent and verification (check out a stock's OTC page. See the "Transfer Agent Verified" on the right side of the page? That means the share structure is up to date and can be trusted. $IFAN just had its TA verified over the weekend and will benefit Monday morning) +4. Various milestones associated with filings and status updates (e.g., reinstatement, going current, updating officers and websites, etc.) +5. Announcement of merger partner + +This is a very basic summary. There are additional, smaller steps, and better descriptions to be found on the internet, and even in the comments section below. :) + +**Basic Custodianship pattern:** + +Again, while the ultimate dream of an investor is to see their shell merge with a highly valued company, there are EXCELLENT profits to be found along the way. Take two shells being managed through the process by SSM Monopoly: $AVVH and $FBCD. As you can see below, each enjoyed a similar, steady rise in price from obscurity in the trips thanks to the many predictable catalysts along the way. While there are often sell-offs after each major catalyst as investors shave profits, the long term trend remains upward thanks to the expectation of future catalysts, regular communication from the custodian themselves (usually via Twitter or their website), and optimism around the final merger target. $AVVH, for example recently confirmed new officers associated with private commercial lender Gold Quest Group, exciting investors and causing a recent price jump. + +* **$FBCD price and catalysts chart**, Jan 2020 - June 2021 (June 12th EOD price = $0.0296) + +[FBCD](https://preview.redd.it/l1me8vtms7571.png?width=1439&format=png&auto=webp&s=e3e8f5a6793abffc9e2f32cce44fd0d3d60a8ce5) + +* **$AVVH price and catalysts chart**, Nov 2020 - June 2021 (June 12th EOD price = $0.084) + +[AVVH](https://preview.redd.it/f3u2givos7571.jpg?width=2681&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41b4cef51d2289ccbd51a0a2b21f07c2c06b2cd7) + +I personally am in these two tickers, along with SSM Monopoly custos $AAPT and $IFAN (this one in particular has an excellent share structure and will likely continue to see excellent price movement based on the SS alone). I'm also in the Acropolis play $KATX and Synergy's $SIBE. I was formerly in Alpharidge's $ILST but took profits and exited. + +**Benefits** + +As you can gleam from above, as long as a custodianship is active and has upcoming catalysts, there are generally profits to be hand. Custodianships benefit from predictable events that (generally) have a positive impact on price. This is opposed to your standard penny stock that lives or dies on the promises of a CEO, the oft-delayed launch of a product or website, or myriad other dependencies. Savvy traders play these predictable catalyst ups and downs, shaving profits on the peaks and/or scooping up additional shares in the dips. Ideally, profits and the principle investment will be taken part way through the process so an investor can ride free shares into the merger, which could culminate in additional value.... or disappointment. + +**Risks** + +Not all custodianships succeed. As previously mentioned, many fail in court when the old company's owners suddenly crawl out of the woodwork to contest the custodianship. See for example $MNVN, $RETC, and possibly $TONR (TBD). And even when a custodian gets a dead company, they may find it burdened with debts and other liabilities, making the "clean up" not worth the time and expense. Finally, even once the shell is "clean," the custodian may fail to find an attractive merger candidate, or the new owners of the company could prove disappointing. See $RNWF, which Synergy and Carey Cooley cleaned up and sold to owners who have failed to do anything profitable to date, resulting in a current price of $0.0038, down from a high of $0.01. Also, many critical catalysts occur BEFORE the shell is brought current. Some brokers do not allow trading with "pink limited" and “pink no information" stocks (Vanguard, for example). So check with your broker before diving in. + +**Conclusion** + +While there are no sure bets in the OTC, for my money custodianships have provided the next best thing. There are risks to consider (I remain a $RETC bagholder), and thanks to the upcoming SEC and OTC deadlines regarding companies without current financials, the window to invest in custodianships is closing. After the summer, many of these plays will be relegated to the Expert Markets and unavailable to the standard retail trader. But for now, custodianships represent an exciting, new way to trade and, if you play it right, might just be the type of investment that changes your life. Happy trading!!! + +**UPDATE:** A couple users have asked me how I keep updated on custodianship plays. The easiest way is to follow the companies who have social media accounts. Synergy, George Sharp, Omni, Alpharidge, and SSM are all on Twitter and generally do a decent job sending out updates when catalysts hit. You can also start following people on Twitter who regularly trade custodian plays, as many pay for services like Filing:RE to get filing information in real time, often before it’s announced by the custodian. Getting in before a custodianship application is announced, however, is much harder. It usually involves taking a lotto chance on a dead ticker based on little more than unusual trading volume or social media speculation. I was able to get in early on a few plays by chasing volume, like $ILST, $TONR, and $KATX. At the same time these are risky plays that can often go to the opposite way: I lost over 40% on $JOEY when unusual volume seemingly turned into a pump and dump. :( + +**UPDATE 2:** The helpful custodianship catalyst charts were replaced by broken links, for some reason. I've added the charts back in but if they disappear again, please DM for a link to these awesome visualizations. + +**UPDATE 3:** Thank you for all of the great comments, questions, upvotes and awards. I'm just trying to get the word out about this trading strategy before it changes forever. If you'd like to learn more about custodianship, I encourage you to seek out the Custodianships sub here on Reddit. I can also recommend some good accounts to follow on twitter; users who stay on top of the news and happily share info as soon as they get it, rather than 5-30 minutes AFTER they've already filled their order. (I will not be sharing my user name, as I don't believe in chasing followers) + +DM me for those questions, as I don't want to get the post taken down for adding those links. +I'm nearly sure this is a tactic of HF to distract from GME. Such an action shows us that the take off day is near. + +It makes totally sense from HF perspective. They pump RKT, earn some money and hope to have the chance to jump from the GME hook. + +We can't lose if we just HOLD and BUY, if we can afford. The squeeze is inevitable! + +I smell the fear of HF the nearer March 19th comes. It's a triple witchy day. A lot of options and futures will have their end date. HF have than 2 days to deliver whatever the option holder exercise. + +I HOLD! + +I BUY MORE!!! +Good morning apes. + +As the title says I can’t actually believe we are all trusting/depending on each other to do the right thing and HODL until we have phone numbers in our bank accounts. + +I have zero investing knowledge and got involved in January with 2 shares at $275. Became an instant bag holder and thought that was it. I joined Reddit and was reading a bunch of stuff and managed to learn about averaging down and read loads of DD even though most of it went over my head. I then averaged up and am now all in holding XX shares. + +I’m quite a sceptical person and when I was hearing numbers of 50k, 100k, 1mil, 10mil I just laughed it off because no share will go to them amounts. Being sceptical I thought people with XXX XXXX XXXXX share we’re just hyping them sort of numbers to keep the X XX involved and would cash in at 5k 10k 20k leaving me bag holding again + +3-4 months later with more reading on the various subs. I’m totally convinced that ATLEAST this is going to 100k (I’m not shilling or trying to down play the possibility of going into the millions, this is just the minimum I think it will reach) + +Now onto my scepticism of people actually hodling to these amounts and not bailing out. I genuinely believe you all when you say holding to 1mil, 10mil etc as this is the ONLY way we can have generations of our families to have financial freedom. We have to trust each other that we are going to do the right thing by everyone and do the easiest thing we’ve ever had to do and just HODL + +I actually love all you random people of the interweb + +APES TOGETHER STRONG 💎👐🏻🦍🚀🚀🚀 +For me it was the “picks and shovels” concept. It’s worked out pretty good for me so far. + +What advice would you pass on to someone looking to get started? +Apologies for mobile format. For anybody seeking employment, I work for Amazon and know that they are recruiting heavily at the minute. They are involved in shipping Covid test kits for the government as well as supplying everyday goods to those who can't or don't want to go out. It's just casual work, packing boxes etc but it pays well enough. The notice period is also only a week so it would be really easy to go back to your old job if you've only been furloughed. A lot of people here at the moment are ordinarily self employed and are just waiting for the lockdown to lift, a good way to keep a steady income at this time. ***Edit:*** https://www.amazon.jobs/en/ for all available vacancies. ***Edit 2:*** For all those asking, I can't account for all of the horror stories you hear in the press regarding conditions and treatment of workers, I'm only drawing on my own personal experiences of what I see day to day at my site. I've only posted about vacancies to help those who are out of work currently. + + +https://preview.redd.it/dku7ef1ns3z91.png?width=1169&format=png&auto=webp&s=a45e204909e08ba8f041fae9f8dc400f4a1380f2 + +&#x200B; + + + + +[View Poll](https://www.reddit.com/poll/yrbdll) +In-line with [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/gtvuqh/how_difficult_is_it_now_to_find_a_job_due_to/) it got me thinking of the opposite end of the spectrum for the security of everyone's finances. + +Which industries, jobs, etc will likely experience a boom as a result of the pandemic? + +In other words, if one was to retrain, move industries or jobs, where is the money at? +Hello traders! I have been lurking here for some time, absorbing as much information as possible. At this time, I feel I have enough knowledge to begin to formalize my personal trading strategy. Understanding I have to learn and master each section, this is the road-map I've set for myself moving forward. Thoughts or critiques on this approach are absolutely welcome (and appreciated!). + + +\-Identify target stocks (gappers, catalysts, high volume, social media sentiment, etc) - note them, read up on them, but do not take any action. \*admitting\* I NEED to understand more in this space, what is valid data and what is just noise. + + +\-Observe pre-market and initial market open. Compare overall market sentiment (SPY) to the target stocks and their sectors. Is the stock holding strong on a down day? Strong vs a weak day for the sector? even stock on a strong green market day? These all means something - use this information to eliminate bad setups or move forward with validated plays + +\-Seeing a perceived quality setup, draw some super quick resistance and trend lines. + +\-Map fib retracements/extensions to watch for a good buying opportunity (such as a rally seeing a retracement to 23.6, finds support and resumes rally.) + +\-Compare Fib retracement/extension lines to major support/resistance/trends + +\-Check liquidity via bookmap to confirm all other indicators. (if there is a huge liquidity pool between fib extension 23.6->50, it is likely going to be difficult to breach the fib 50 extension and thus would plan profit closer to @ 23.6). + +\-If ALL this checks out, and increased VOLUME into the desired direction is seen - I can confidently establish a position with a stop loss on the other side of the most recent retracement on a big move. + +From here it would be about monitoring the price action, volume, fib and watch for the best exit point. For this piece, I have really been considering a 3-5% trailing stop loss. I am less concerned about absolutely maxing my profit and just dont want to miss a move and lose out on large chunks of profit. (I do have a very attention-heavy full time 9-5 - so I may not be able to baby sit a position at all times). + +Above all else - this is about learning! Once I move to real (non-paper) trading, I will start with small positions (perhaps 100$ or less) to prove the win ratio/methodology before scaling up. This "checklist" of sorts is quite long, but in reality I hope to do each step pretty quickly with a simple glance/click - once the routine is set. + +Thanks for bearing with me! I am sure I used some terms wrong (if so, PLEASE ruthlessly correct me, so I can be sure to fix that error!!). If you would have anything to add or critique here, please chime in. I'll admit this is 99% a conglomerate of information (I think I'm recalling correctly) that came from y'all anyways. + +&#x200B; + +Again, I sincerely appreciate the feedback that any you guys can provide. If not, hopefully my post at least made you chuckle at how far you've come .... I often provide amusement to those around me (most often not intentional!). Be well and stay safe! +Apologies for any eye rolling that this very beginner question might cause. I haven't begun day trading yet, but have been studying for about a month or so. I've read about all sorts of strategies for how to find good stocks to trade, but I can't help wondering whether or not it would be relatively simple to day trade certain stocks that are consistent performers. Take MSFT for example, it's been steadily increasing in value year over year. It's had some down days here and there, so you'd still need to pay attention to what's going on in the market, but it almost seems like it would be difficult to not make money trading MSFT. Even if you guessed wrong on a particular day trade of MSFT, you could almost guarantee to make up for it by converting to a swing trade. + +I can imagine one response along the lines of, "Sure, you could make money on MSFT most days, but it changes price so slowly that you're better off looking elsewhere if you want to grow you account at a decent rate." + +I also realize that there's no guarantee that MSFT or any other stock that's been a strong performer will continue to do so, but as long as you are managing your risk appropriately, that doesn't seem to be a big concern. + +Okay, so what am I missing? How foolish is this? Thanks! +Since Dogecoin has been talked a lot here on this sub today and many people have come supporting it or attacking it, it is worth noting that one single investor owns more than a quarter of all Dogecoins in existence. + +>A dogecoin "whale" owns 28% of the meme-based token, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. + +>Records reveal that 28% of the cryptocurrency in circulation is owned by a single investor, though the person or entity has not been identified. + +https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/dogecoin-biggest-holder-owns-28-of-the-cryptocurrency-2021-2-1030093749 + +You might have made a lot of money of it, but I think that a single person owning so much it's at the very least a serious redflag. + +EDIT: [This is the address in question](https://dogechain.info/address/DH5yaieqoZN36fDVciNyRueRGvGLR3mr7L). Many have said that it is from Robinhood. While it is possible because of the amount of money it has, **the address has only received 878 transactions and has only sent 21 transactions.** Very unusual for an exchange address. +Just logged into Marcus and it seems their underlying interest rates have gone up from .04% to .05%, so with the bonus rate it’s now a whopping .06%. Obviously piss poor compared with this time two years ago but it’s been a while since we’ve seen interest on savings go up. +You might think an emergency won't happen, I have just experienced what is becoming a more common recent emergency - cancelled flights. + +Whilst the airline will either partially or fully refund (airline dependent) you still need to pay out first before you can claim. + +I have just had to pay an extra £310 (plus late fees for airport parking) for a 1 day delay. + +Please take at least a credit card on holiday for this emergency reason. +IRS has sponsored VITA program across the country since the sixties. VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Nonprofits like United Way, Community Colleges and Public Libraries etc. participate in preparing free taxes. This will save you several hundred dollars compared to a for-profit location or a CPA. Turbo-Tax etc are cheaper but not completely free. VITA is 100% free, you cannot even tip them, not even a candy. For terms, conditions and nearest location please go to https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Free-Tax-Return-Preparation-for-You-by-Volunteers +I am an accounting faculty and the VITA coordinator at our local Community College. +A few weeks ago I wrote [a post about some things it took me a while to figure out when I started investing](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/c2hl0t/a_few_years_ago_i_made_my_first_investments_and/). This was well received, and there were some interesting follow up questions, especially around what to invest in. A commonly recommended strategy on this sub-reddit is to invest in index funds, but that was another thing that it took me a while to figure out, and my first post didn't really get that far, so I present the spiritual successor: **Things I Wish I'd Known Earlier About Index Funds** + +This write-up is intended to broadly answer the question: + +**How do I invest in a way that my returns will track the overall UK, US, or global stock market?** + +*N.B. I've also cross-posted this to a* [*https://reboapp.co.uk/content/index-funds/*](https://reboapp.co.uk/content/index-funds/)*, which is a knowledge base I'm building for UK investors. Let me know if there are any particular topics you'd like me to write about in future.* + +## What is an index? + +An *index* is a calculated value that summarises the performance of some category of assets into a single number which can be tracked over time. For indexes which track stock markets, this is typically the total valuation of the companies in some section of the stock market. For example, the FTSE 100 is an index which tracks the value of the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. + +Market indexes are normally calculated using *capitalisation weighting*, where the companies included in the index are selected based on their market valuation, and the larger the market valuation of a company, the more weight it is given in the index. + +## What is a capitalisation-weighted index? + +In a capitalisation-weighted index, the index is calculated by summing the total market value of all of the companies. This means that if one company is worth £20 billion, and another is worth £10 billion, the former company will contribute twice as much to the index. A 10% increase in the price of the former company would increase the index by twice as much as a 10% rise in the latter company. + +An index is also usually *normalised*, so that it starts at a nice value like 1,000 on the first day it is measured. This normalisation happens by recording the sum of the market values of the companies on the first day, and then dividing later measures by this amount. + +## What is an index fund? + +An index fund (also commonly referred to as a 'tracker') is a wrapper which will hold shares in the various assets in an index, weighted by the same weighting as in the index, so that the value of the index fund should track the underlying index closely over time. If the index goes up by 3%, then so should the index fund. + +For example, an index fund which tracks the FTSE 100 has £1 billion invested in it in total, then that £1 billion will be used by the fund manager to buy £1 billion worth of shares in the FTSE 100 companies, weighted by their market value, so that the fund would hold twice as much of a £20 billion company than a £10 billion company. As the valuations rise and fall, and as companies come in and out of the FTSE 100, the index fund will buy and sell shares to keep their allocation as close to the FTSE 100 weighting as possible. + +## Why use capitalisation weighting for an index? + +By using a capitalisation-weighted index, the index is measuring how the market is choosing to allocate capital. If the market value of one company in the index is £20 billion (the total value of all of the company's shares adds up to £20 billion), and another company has a market value of £10 billion, then the shareholders are valuing the first company at twice as much as the second. If they weren't, then some people would sell shares in the company that they thought was overvalued, and buy shares in the other company that they thought was undervalued, until the prices shifted to match what people think. Of course some people might think this, while others think the opposite, so the market value only represents the average sentiment of the shareholders. There is no correct objective valuation, only the valuation that comes from the average of all the shareholder decisions. This is why we talk about *market value* rather than just *value*. By using a capitalisation-weighted index, the index tracks this market valuation. + +Now we could define loads of different indexes based on completely different criteria. For example, rather than worrying about market capitalisation, we could form an index based upon the value of all companies whose names begin with an 'L'. It's unlikely that this would tell us anything particularly interesting about the market though! + +## Why the market average is the best you can do + +When you invest in an index fund tracking a capitalisation-weighted index, you are delegating your investment decisions to the market. You will be investing in companies in the index in proportion to how much capital everyone else has invested in these companies. This may seem like blindly following the herd, and you might think that you can do better than this, but you almost certainly can't. + +The reason you can't beat the market is that it's a *zero-sum game* \- if you're going to do better than the average, someone else has to do worse than the average. So if you are going to do better than the market average over the long term, you need to make better decisions than at least 50% of the other people making active investment decisions. When the market contains institutional investors, hedge funds, people with PhDs, very fast computers, and significant amounts of money, it's unlikely that you're going to be in the upper half. + +Instead of trying to beat the market average yourself, you might be tempted to invest in an actively managed fund, where the investors try to make strategic picks to beat the market. The managers of such funds certainly have more resources available to them than you, and some even have excellent histories of market beating returns. However, there's no way for you to tell if an actively managed fund is actually better than the market average, or if they've just been lucky in the past. + +To illustrate this, consider the following thought experiment: If I pick 500 people and ask them to flip a coin 10 times in a row, I'd expect one or two of them to get 10 heads in row. If we pick one of those people, and look at their coin flipping record, then this person appears to be very talented at flipping a coin and getting heads. However, if I asked them to flip the coin again, they would have a 50/50 chance, just like everyone else. So in a world where there are many actively managed funds, some will have done better than the market average in the past. But how can we tell whether they were just lucky, or, on the contrary, if they will continue to beat the market? The unfortunate answer is you likely can't. + +## Structure of Index Funds + +So far, we've covered the basics of the index fund concept, but in order to actually get your money invested, you'll need to know a little bit about what real index funds look like in practice. If you haven't already, this might be a good time to review my [original post on getting started with investing](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/c2hl0t/a_few_years_ago_i_made_my_first_investments_and/). + +In the UK there are two common types index funds: + +* **Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs).** An OEIC is essentially a limited company which you can buy shares in. The company then uses the money from the sale of its shares to purchase the underlying assets in the index it is trying to match. OEICs are often referred to simply as 'funds'. +* **Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)**. An ETF is like an OEIC, but it is publicly traded on an exchange. This means you are buying and selling shares in the ETFs from other investors, rather than the fund itself. New shares are created and dissolved as needed to match demand. + +The legal structure of these funds doesn't matter too much to you as a personal investor, but there are some differences between OEICs and ETFs that you should be familiar with: + +* **Liquidity**. ETFs trade on a public exchange, so the price changes frequently, all day. You can buy and sell shares in an ETF quickly, at any point during the day. OEICs on the other hand are priced once per day, and after placing a buy or sell order, it will typically not execute until noon the next working day. +* **Cost**. Brokers typically charge different amounts for trading shares on a public exchange, compared to buying units of an OEIC. It will vary from broker to broker, but brokers often charge significantly less for trading shares in an OEIC, compared to an ETF. On the other hand, there's often an extra ongoing 'custody fee' or 'platform charge' percentage levied upon OEIC holdings by the broker. How much this matters will depend on your broker, the size of your portfolio, and how frequently you plan on trading. +* **Ongoing charges**. Both OEICs and ETFs will have ongoing management charges, which will be an annual percentage of your holdings. These are deducted automatically from your returns. There's no clear distinction between OEICs and ETFs here, but make sure you're aware of the ongoing charge in whichever fund you choose. For straightforward index funds tracking an index like the FTSE 100, expect an ongoing charge of less than 0.1% a year. + +For more information on the differences between OEICs and ETFs, check out [this write up from Monevator](https://monevator.com/etfs-vs-index-funds-differences/), as well as the wiki here in /r/ukpersonalfinance: + +* [https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/fundsfaq1](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/fundsfaq1) +* [https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/fundsfaq2](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/fundsfaq2) +* [https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/globaltracker](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/globaltracker) + +## Company size, geography and other factors + +Hopefully the previous sections have demystified the workings of indexes and index funds to some degree. However, you may still have questions about *which* index funds to invest in. That's worth a whole separate write up, but here is a brief overview of the landscape of some of the different types of index funds that are available: + +## Large cap, mid cap and small cap + +**Large cap** companies are those with the largest capitalisations, and in the UK typically refers to the FTSE 100 companies. That is, the largest 100 companies in the UK. The smallest company in the FTSE 100 has a market capitalisation of around £4 billion. Some example index funds tracking large cap companies are: + +* [Vanguard FTSE 100 Index Unit Trust](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-ftse-100-index-unit-trust-gbp-accumlation-shares/overview) +* [iShares FTSE 100 UCITS ETF](https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/251795/ishares-ftse-100-ucits-etf-inc-fund) + +**Mid cap** companies are those with smaller capitalisations, typically referring to the FTSE 250 companies, which are the 101st-350th companies in the UK by market capitalisation. The market capitalisation of these ranges between around £4 billion to £500 million. Some example index funds: + +* [Vanguard FTSE 250 ETF](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-ftse-250-ucits-etf-gbp-distributing/overview) +* [Legal & General UK Mid Cap Index Fund](https://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/funds/full-fund-range/equities-index-tracking/legal---general-uk-mid-cap-index-fund.html) + +**Small cap** companies are those with smaller market capitalisations still, but it's a less well defined list than large or mid cap companies. An example index fund: + +* [Schroder Institutional UK Smaller Companies ](http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F0GBR050G4) + +## Geography + +Index funds also provide a convenient way to invest in foreign markets, outside the UK. The funds are located in the UK, and priced in GBP, so they are very accessible to a UK investor, but can hold investments in European, US, or global markets. + +The S&P 500 index is similar to the FTSE 100 index in the UK, but tracking the top 500 companies in the US. The [Vanguard S&P 500 ETF](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-s-and-p-500-ucits-etf-usd-distributing) is an index fund tracking the S&P 500. + +Likewise, the EURO STOXX 50 index tracks the largest 50 companies in Europe, and can be invested in through index funds such as the [iShares EURO STOXX 50 UCITS ETF](https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/251781/ishares-euro-stoxx-50-ucits-etf-inc-fund). + +There also exist indexes which aim to track the global market, such as the [MSCI World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSCI_World) index. + +## Other assets + +As well as indexes which track company valuations, there are indexes which track bond valuations. For example the [Vanguard UK Government Bond Index Fund](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-uk-government-bond-index-fund-income-shares) aims to track the Bloomberg Barclays U.K. Government Float Adjusted Bond Index. + +Index funds can also track other asset classes, like [gold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPDR_Gold_Shares), [property](https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/251802/ishares-uk-property-ucits-etf), and even alternative assets like Bitcoin. + +## Funds of funds + +A single index typically represents a narrow cross section of the world, likely tracking only companies of a certain size, in a certain region, or a certain asset class. You may need to hold investments tracking multiple indexes in order to have a diversified portfolio across different assets types, company sizes and geographies. Rather than doing this manually, it is also possible to invest directly in a fund of funds. In this case, the fund holds a number of different underlying funds, tracking different indexes. This allows a single fund to have appropriate diversification. + +Some examples of these funds of funds, particularly those aimed at passive investors are: + +* [The Vanguard Lifestrategy Funds](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-lifestrategy-funds) +* [The Vanguard Target Retirement Date Funds](https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-target-retirement-funds) +* [iShares Core Growth ETF](https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239756/ishares-growth-allocation-etf) + +Hopefully this article has helped to explain what an index fund is, and why you might be interested in investing in index funds. The above examples are certainly not a full list of the available indexes and index funds, and you should definitely do further research into which funds are most appropriate for your investment goals. + +Good luck with your investment journey! +Gotta love an old fashioned bet, putting skin in the game instead of just running your mouth.. + +User AlgodTrading thinks the whole Terra ecosystem is a scam and will unravel quickly, Do Kwon the founder of Terra obviously thinks otherwise. + +What a better way to decide this than by placing a $1m bet on the table? + +[$1m bet, locked & loaded!](https://preview.redd.it/p48j70iqxbn81.jpg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef46a504c1ad6123638198f225b1efc1a34883c5) + +Whatever the price of Luna a year from now, we will certainly appreciate the massive balls on both of them to go through with their bet! + +[The address provided by Cobie has been funded with $2m](https://preview.redd.it/r42om4xeybn81.jpg?width=1340&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2848eba760140d0b52f490eb3eb4524371ee6b6d) + +[https://etherscan.io/address/0x4Cbe68d825d21cB4978F56815613eeD06Cf30152](https://etherscan.io/address/0x4Cbe68d825d21cB4978F56815613eeD06Cf30152) + +Meanwhile after receiving $2m, Cobie has decided to launch AlgodVsDoDAO, to decide on how to maximise the $2m with a 1 year time frame. + +[AlgodVsDoDAO launched!](https://preview.redd.it/ewgjxir1ybn81.jpg?width=1306&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7a8eabc2ce73b00d8ed757def13a8ec5b3f56f8) + +Even in a bear market, this space is full of degeneracy! Gotta love it +So I ended my 12-week summer internship at the end of August to go back to school, and I found out that they are still paying me (I found a bi-weekly deposit of about $2500 after taxes, so it's not really pennies). + +I don't want to steal from them because I'm hoping for a full-time offer. Can they sue me? Does anyone know what to do in these situations? Do I call up my boss and write them a check or something? +[Article link.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-04/a-small-college-s-endowment-manager-beat-harvard-with-index-funds) + +Full Text: + +From his home office in Charlotte, one of the most successful investors in higher education plies his trade in blissful obscurity. Bill Abt employs no stable of hotshot bond traders. He doesn’t dabble in the fanciest Silicon Valley venture capital funds, hedge funds, or the latest computer-driven brainchildren of Ivy League physicists and mathematicians. + +Yet Abt, on behalf of Carthage College, in Kenosha, Wis., has returns that beat Harvard’s $37 billion endowment and most others. In the 10 years through the most recent college fiscal year, ended on June 30, 2017, the former beer company executive racked up a 6.2 percent average annual return, according to the school. That performance is better than 90 percent of his peers, based on data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Harvard’s endowment, the nation’s largest, averaged just 4.4 percent a year in the same period, in part because of heavy losses on investments in timber and farmland. + +At Carthage, Abt’s approach was more pedestrian: mostly low-cost, market-tracking index funds from Vanguard Group Inc., the same funds used by legions of do-it-yourself individual investors. Why isn’t reliance on indexing more common among those who oversee the nation’s half a trillion dollars in college endowments? “Maybe it’s too simple,” Abt says. + +The Vanguard funds charge institutional investors as little as 0.035 percent of assets per year, compared with the 2 percent, plus a share of profits, levied by some private equity and hedge funds. Abt, too, is an inexpensive hire, at least by Wall Street standards. Currently his only job is chief investment officer, but when his administrative duties at Carthage also included everything from personnel to technology to athletics, his compensation was $250,000 a year. (From 2010 through 2014, Harvard paid 11 top investment managers a total of $242 million.) To call Carthage an underdog would do a disservice to little guys everywhere: The college gets by with an endowment of about $120 million, less than a single 2014 gift to Harvard from hedge fund titan and alumnus Kenneth Griffin. + +It’s worth noting that Abt’s strategy has benefited from a long bull market. Through the Vanguard funds, Carthage’s endowment today is about 90 percent in publicly traded stock. The average endowment, which has half its money in alternative investments such as hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital, is more diversified. But that kind of diversification hasn’t always helped soften the blow from stock market slumps—Harvard and Yale each lost about 25 percent in fiscal 2009; Carthage lost 21 percent. Abt says his endowment, which is essentially investing in perpetuity, can wait out the swings of the market. It provides only 3 percent to 5 percent of Carthage’s annual budget, compared with more than a third at Harvard, where the endowment supports star professors, massive research operations, and some of the most generous financial aid in the U.S. + +Some of the world’s sharpest investment thinkers, including Warren Buffett and Nobel laureate economist Eugene Fama, have endorsed the idea that most investors should track the market at the lowest possible cost. Another advocate is the dean of higher education investors, Yale endowment chief David Swensen. Still, Swensen makes an exception for himself and other top endowment investors who have insiders’ access to the best money managers in the world. Yale’s 10-year average annual return of 6.6 percent edges out Abt’s 6.2 percent. Over 20 years, Yale’s annual 12.1 percent still trounces a broad index of U.S. stocks, the result of early successful bets on alternative investments such as venture capital. + +At Harvard, alumni from the class of 1969, fed up with poor performance, wrote a letter in February to the incoming president suggesting the school buy index funds. Its new endowment manager is doing no such thing. N.P. “Narv” Narvekar is shifting to a Yale-like strategy of searching for top managers. Harvard declined to comment. + +Charles Ellis, a former Vanguard board member and onetime chair of Yale’s investment committee, says active managers once had an edge. No more. “Today, everyone knows everything at the same time,” he says. Abt came to that conclusion earlier than most. After business school at Temple University, he worked 25 years in the beer business, rising through the ranks at Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. and its successor, Stroh Brewery Co. He left in 1999 after the brewery he managed was sold. + +A beer industry colleague told him a local college could use help. Carthage was originally founded in Illinois by Lutherans and once had Abraham Lincoln as a trustee. Like many small Midwestern schools, it was struggling in a region with a shrinking college-age population. The school enrolled only 1,200 students when Abt signed on as business chief in 2000. One of his first tasks: set a strategy for its then $30 million endowment. “That was kind of the heyday of hedge funds,” says Ed Smeds, then chairman of Carthage’s board. The former Kraft Foods executive says the board found such investments mystifying. “You could see the puzzlement on their faces,” he says. Abt and Smeds suggested indexing; since then, Carthage’s endowment has quadrupled in size. That’s not only because of strong returns. The school has grown to almost 3,000 students, helping to improve its financial condition. + +After Abt retires in June, he may not be replaced. The board’s investment committee, made up of volunteers, would then take over the CIO duties. In an arrangement that would horrify Wall Street, they’d be managing money for free. + +EDIT: [Vanguard funds in the Carthage Collage endowment.](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/im8_6J.n19O8/v3/-1x-1.png) +My wife ( F55 ) and I ( M55) went and saw a financial advisor and I am hoping to get a sense check of the advice and any alternative views. FYI we have not been very proactive in our financial wellbeing - our strategy has focused on paying off the house and putting the kids through private school. Thus we can be considered financial n00bs or only somewhat educated in this area. The main focus of the advice was retirement planning - ie making sure we have enough to live on in retirement. He also provided some advice / quotes on insurance but I have not included those here. + +I have some specific concerns / questions about the advice provided + +* The fees seem quite high - do they seem appropriate ? +* What is the benefit of using Netwealth platform over having a SMSF ? +* Should I consider having the investments owned by a discretionary trust ? : what are the pro/cons ? +* I am worried that the Financial Advisor is trying to insert himself into our investment process ongoing. He initially was proposing to have read/write access to all the accounts and balked when i asked if there was an option where we could authorise all transactions. He has since confirmed that this is possible on netwealth. +* I am happy to take ( and pay for ) some financial advice in the first year or two but after that i want to be able to run it by myself. What should i be aware of ? + +# Inputs + +*Current Position* + +|Dependents|2 kids - 19,22| +|:-|:-| +|My Income|$220k + super| +|Wife Income|$85k + super ( she works at a not for profit )| + +*Assets* + +|*Savings - offset account*|$185k| +|:-|:-| +|Primary Residence|$3M| +|Home Contents, Cars etc|$60k| + +*Liabilities* + +|*Mortgage*|$85k| +|:-|:-| + + +*Super* + +|Who|Super Fund|Amount|Death|TPD| +|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| +|Me|MLC MasterKey Super Fundamentals|$220k||| +|Me|Commonwealth Bank Group Super Accumulate Plus|$130k|$720k|$720k| +|Wife| AustralianSuper Divisions (Standard Product)|$130k||| +|Wife| Colonial First State FirstChoice Employer Super|$75k|$10k|$10k| + +# Summary Of Advice Received + +***Advice Summary For Me*** + +1. we recommend that you set up a new investment account through NetWealth Wealth Accelerator Plus with an initial investment of $100,000. You should also set up a regular savings plan of $2,500 per month into your new investment portfolio. +2. Rollover your entire MLC MasterKey Super Fundamentals account to a new superannuation portfolio with NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus. +3. Rollover most of your superannuation with Commonwealth Bank Group Super to NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus, however, retain at least $10,000 in this account so that your insurance cover is not cancelled. +4. Invest your new superannuation portfolio in line with your Aggressive risk profile. + +***Advice Summary For Wife*** + +1. Rollover your entire AustralianSuper Divisions account to a new superannuation portfolio with NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus. +2. Rollover most of your superannuation with Colonial First State FirstChoice Employer to NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus, however, retain at least $5,000 in this account so that your insurance cover is not cancelled. +3. Invest your new superannuation portfolio in line with your Balanced risk profile + +***Advice to both*** + +1. You should ensure that fee aggregation is implementing on both of your superannuation account and the recommended investment portfolio to reduce your ongoing fees. +2. we recommend that you each arrange with your employer to Salary Sacrifice up to your concessional contribution cap. We estimate that XX will be able to make Salary Sacrifice contributions of $5,500 per annum, and that YY will make Salary Sacrifice contributions of $19,000 per annum. You should review your salary sacrifice arrangements each financial year. + +***Fees*** + +*Advice Fees* + +|Initial Advice Fee|$4.4k| +|:-|:-| +|Ongoing Advisor Service Fee|$4.5k ( $1.5k / account )| + +*Product Fees* + +|||^(Upfront)|^(Upfront)|^(Ongoing)|^(Ongoing)| +|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| +|**^(Who)**|***^(Investment Product)***|**^(Amount Invested)**|**^(Buy/Sell Spread)**|**^(Admin Fees)**|**^(Investment Fees (ICR))**| +|^(Me)|^(Commonwealth Bank Group Super Accumulate Plus)| ^($10,000)| ^($0 (0.00%))| ^($86 (1.72%))| ^($52 (0.52%))| +|^(Me)| ^(NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus)| ^($339,835)| ^($583 (0.17%))| ^($1,116 (0.32%))| ^($2,325 (0.68%))| +|^(Me)| ^(NetWealth Wealth Accelerator Plus)| ^($100,000)| ^($177 (0.18%))| ^($531 (0.53%))| ^($695 (0.69%))| +|^(Me)|*^(Subtotal)*| *^($449,835)*| *^($760 (0.17%))*| *^($1,733 (0.39%))*| *^($3,072 (0.68%))*| +|^(Wife)|^(Colonial First State FirstChoice Employer Super)| ^($5,000)| ^($70 (1.40%))| ^($75 (1.50%))| ^($25 (0.49%))| +|^(Wife)| ^(NetWealth Super Accelerator Plus)| ^($199,930)| ^($296 (0.15%))| ^($704 (0.35%))| ^($1,344 (0.67%))| +|^(Wife)|*^(Subtotal)*| *^($204,930)*| *^($366 (0.18%))* | *^($779 (0.38%))*| *^($1,369 (0.67%))*| +||**^(TOTAL)**| **^($654,765)**| **^($1,126 (0.17%))** | **^($2,512 (0.38%))**| **^($4,441 (0.68%))**| +About 10-20% of my portfolio at any given time is based on trends/up-tick in comments for certain coins. Usually I'll go through the whole "do your own DD process" reading the white paper, reviewing historical posts, etc. But every once in a while I'll throw a small amount of cash at top 100 coin I start seeing mentioned more often in hopes of the reddit herd mentality causing a surge in price. + +I'm just curious what percentage of your portfolio has been thoroughly researched vs a couple dozen upvotes swaying your investment decisions? +This sucks, I expected another bottom or semi bottom at least but it keeps going up. I can't believe I missed the bottom. You guys were right, we wouldn't be able to time the market. + +There is something extremely divisive going on in this sub and it needs to be addressed. Over the past month there has been a SEVERE uptick in other tickers mentioned in this sub, specifically moviestock. This is what I’ve been noticing, and I don’t think I’m the only one. + +It started with just screenshots being posted that contained “Moviestock” mentions specifically some vague news along with repeated mentions of GME and “Moviestock” together. These FUDshots came as a trickle at first but the tap has been slowly turning to full blast. Back in early July these things were getting called out by watchful apes, it’s now almost impossible due to the sheer volume. I’ve been seeing posts with DD information that solely pertains to GME with #moviestock on it and ALWAYS BEFORE ANY MENTION OF GAMESTOP. This is some sneaky ass FUD. + +THIS IS A GAMESTOP ONLY SUB. MOVIESTOCK DOES NOT BELONG HERE + +These “FUDshots” have became more and more prevelant to the point where the “Ape no fight Ape” narrative has now returned. Now I’m seeing posts about partnerships between the companies with all kind of support. + +THIS IS NOT THE WAY + +There is ONE stonk that is debt free, has an aggregous short position against it, has a low float, and is on a massive turnaround. + + +IVE BEEN HERE QUITE A WHILE NOW. Moviestock was only mentioned on WallSkeetMets until AFTER GameStop started rocketing. In fact the most credible evidence “Moviestock” has going for it as a MOASS candidate is its identical price movement. + +Now let’s get hypothetical for a sec. + +If I’m an institution getting railed by the internet because of an obscene, impossible to cover short position, what’s the first thing you’d want to do? +Convince as many investors to not invest in that stock. Media manipulation just isn’t enough in this situation. Convincing investors that a different, cheaper stock has MOASS potential has proven QUITE SUCCESSFUL. + +This sub knows that the price is constantly wrong and being manipulated every damn day. Would it not benefit these SHF and short Institutions to manipulate the price of a second stock to match the price movement of the one true MOASS stonk??? Pair this with the passion of the REAL investors they’ve duped onto fabricated hype trains and an endless supply of YouTube “influencers” that exclusively shill “Moviestock” and you’ve got the perfect way to funnel as much retail cash away from the one true MOASS stonk. + +Moviestock investors, +I really don’t enjoy shitting on you like this. I just really believe we’re alll getting played HARD by these institutions. I love your company, in fact I saw two movies at a Moviestock they’re this weekend and enjoyed myself immensely. That doesn’t change the fact that there is only one final short squeeze, one short squeeze to end short squeezes, ONE MOASS. + +If I haven’t tickled your suspicion nerve that’s fine, I’ll leave you with one final statement. + +THIS IS A GAMESTOP ONLY SUB. FUCK OFF WITH ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING THAT ISN’T GAMESTOP. + +This is a hill this Knight is prepared to die on and I hope I’m not the only one. + +Edit: formatting +All the above mention companies are reporting a reduction in short interest in GME but do the numbers work out? I understand volume on Friday was ~50M, but could the majority of that volume really be shorts covering? + +I understand short interest is all estimation until the real report comes out on the 9th, but for all the companies to report this individually seems like it might have some weight. + + +Thanks again in advance. + + + +Disclosure: +Not a financial advisor, also long GME. +I'm having a great day today. Everyone around me has gone into full panic mode over the Bitcoin price and I think it's hilarious. + +Last week everyone around me was asking how to buy in and that Bitcoin was the easiest way to make money ever. Today they're all panic selling their portfolios and screaming it was the worth decision ever. + +This is normal! **We're still up 4.6% compared to last week Monday** + +I didn't get worried at 3k, I won't get worried at 20k either. Buy and hold. Take a day away from checking Blockfolio, maybe even een week or a month. The price will recover, it can't go up every single day just because we want it to. +I always thought these assets move with an inverse relationship to each other, so it's kind of strange seeing all of them fall at once. It doesn't feel like a panic sell either like what happened during March. Anyone with more experience knows what typically happens next after these kinds of days? Liquidity crunch => crash, or will it just pass over? +I mean seriously, institutions own GME to more than 100%, retailers might be owning 100% or more and numbers are growing. Then there are also ETFs and unhedged options... This got to be a joke. + +How long do they want to drag out this bullshit? +How long will everyone pretend it's totally fine to copy paste this company on paper over and over again. bUt iTs fOr LiQuiDiTy.. Fuck you?! This is fraud. Nothing else. It's time to sort this shit out and return to reality. There is only one GameStop. Can we stick to the real one and stop trading it as if it would exist multiple times? + +If this shit goes on like this there will be a fair chance people all around the world will lose faith in the (US) stockmarket. And rightfully so. I am totally done with this shit, that's not economy. That's a meme. + +Hodling out of greed and spite, don't get discouraged by the games they are playing. +i see lots of post of a bull trap. Saying that they will surge to dump it again. BEWARE! Dont day trade and dont try to time the dump you will be playing yourself and that is part of hedgefks strategy. HODL is the only way HODL means HODL ALL THE TIME. +Square [$SQ](https://twitter.com/search?q=%24SQ&src=cashtag_click) Q4 2020 Earnings Thread + +Revenue: $3.16 billion +141% YoY + +EPS $0.32 vs $0.24 expected + +Gross Profit: $804 million +52% YoY + +Net Income: $294 million vs $391 million YoY + +Cash App Monthly Active Users: 36 million +50% YoY + +Cash App Gross Profit: $377 million +162% YoY + +Don't own Square. But would like to be invested in fintech. Between Sq and Paypal was always more interested in Sq. With the drop is now a good time to buy and hold? Or is the valuation still too rich? Numbers look solid imo. The bitcoin purchase of 170 million doesn't seem that much in the grand scheme of things. + +I'm Canadian and don't use cashapp or the Paypal version so ppl who use it and their opinions would be nice as well. Or any other recommendations in the fintech space. +Check out Endeavor going public this week. Ticker $EDR. +I'm interested because they own the UFC. I'm a fan of the UFC as a sport and business. +Elon Musk is on the board of EDR. +They are in the entertainment biz and got hit hard by COVID. I'm sure they will recover as they open up. +[https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/ufc-owner-endeavor-aims-over-16-bln-valuation-second-ipo-attempt-2021-04-20/](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/ufc-owner-endeavor-aims-over-16-bln-valuation-second-ipo-attempt-2021-04-20/) +https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/robinhood-gets-fca-approval-to-launch-stock-trading-app-in-the-uk.html?&qsearchterm=robinhood + +Robinhood has been granted broker authorization from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. + +It’s been building out a team in London led by former TransferWise executive Wander Rutgers. + +Recently valued by investors at $7.6 billion, the company claims to have 6 million users in total. +&#x200B; + +Technical Analysis doesn't mean too much to GME, but it certainly tells us something. I think most of us here can agree that something could certainly happen due to the insanely low volume we have been seeing as well as the Earnings Report coming later today. Here are some a few key indicators why GME can and will go up dramatically soon. + +&#x200B; + +[1 Hour Technical Analysis](https://preview.redd.it/007anng09to61.jpg?width=1895&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aff7be90f38ab719c4288d31a1ff33f04b32cd8f) + +&#x200B; + +1. **RSI -** The first point I'd like to touch on is RSI. As you can see, the RSI is extremely overbought in the bottom left of the chart when GME was making it's comeback from the drop to $40. Now look at the RSI **AT THE SAME PRICE** today and you'll see that we are heading towards being oversold. What does this mean? It's simply an indicator that we are oversold and due a huge price increase. + +2. **Trend -** In terms of the month, we have seen insane gains from the $40 price point we were sitting at for weeks. From the start of this chart to the end you can see an upward trend. Now if you look at the first pennant formation indicated by the white lines in the red highlighted area, it's starting to look awful familiar to the current correction we are seeing in the second red highlighted area. The current trend we are in is a Bullish Descending Triangle, much like the Pennant we saw earlier. + +3. **Volume -** With GME, when volume goes up, price goes up. If you look at the volume you can see that whenever it dries up, the price tends to skyrocket. Right now volume is extremely low, a sign that people are holding strong and shorters are having a difficult time dropping the price further. + +4. **Turning Point -** With the RSI, Trend, and Volume all pointing towards future rapid growth, I'm inclined to believe we will see massive gains soon. I do not see the price dropping below $150 at this point, and the only way I see it getting to that area is MASSIVE short selling to artificially drop the price. + +&#x200B; + +**Conclusion -** The technicals point toward GME skyrocketing in the near future. Take this all with a grain of salt though, the price could very well drop below the areas I've mentioned before going up. Above all else **HODL** and the tendies shall come! + +&#x200B; + +**UPDATE - 3/23/2021 - 6:58 ET:** Looks like the price was driven down after a relatively good earnings report, can't say it was totally unexpected but it certainly threw many of us off. The price was starting to break upwards only to be violently thrown downwards. iborrowdesk shows that 50k shares were borrowed and likely contributed to this selling pressure. [https://iborrowdesk.com/report/GME](https://iborrowdesk.com/report/GME) + +The price did bounce off of $150 like previously mentioned after getting down to around 15-20 RSI. They're now in a very oversold territory, but it wouldn't surprise me if they kept trying to artificially lower the price. The shorts aren't going to give up so easily. So **HOOOOODLLLLL** fellow apes. + +https://preview.redd.it/9z6b88q0zuo61.jpg?width=1921&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c87def75591da869bb65cf65a89bf055dd57bf47 +Was all set to propose to the girl of my dreams on Valentine’s Day. Went out, bought a $5,000 ring, a week later the government shut down and I have been working without pay for over a month now with no end in sight. I have about $3400 left in my accounts with monthly bills totaling almost 3k. I’ve had as many companies work with me as I can but it’s still not enough. My options are return my ring and have about another 2 months to work with or a few places are offering interest free loans for 90 days but if it goes longer that 90 days I’m fucked and I really don’t need any more loans on my plate. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. + +Edit: yes I can get full price back for the ring as it’s within the 60 day purchase window. I also had 2 months of emergency money saved up but have already had to use one month due to the shutdown. +I could not be prouder of this subreddit than I was after watching Wes Christian on Fox News today. This movement, this ideal, this belief that an individual person can make a huge difference is truly playing out in front of all of us. It's unbelievable to me that 6 short months ago, hedge funds had free reign to do whatever the hell they pleased, in the dark, without consequence. Now, with every step they take, there's a shrewdness of apes, both wrinkle and smooth brained, banding together to bring to light these very practices. + +Hats off to the mods for being engaged, active, and passionate about the movement. I don't just hodl for tendies, I hold for humanity. +175 million cars currently runs on BlackBerry QNX blah blah yada yada we’ve all read a hundred DDs on why BB is going to dominate the EV software market and IVY is gonna collect harvest boatloads of data which BB can sell for a pretty penny. + +But think about it. + +Like, wrinkly-brain think about it. + +Amazon doesn’t build cars or sell car insurance so what the hell do they really want out of this Blackberry partnership? + +The answer is drones. Lots of drones. Our cities will be swarming with delivery drones in the near future, and Amazon needs a way to: + +1. Control a vast network of drones that can delivery 2+ billion parcels per year + +2. Prevent them from running into other drones/evtols/planes/vehicles + +3. Prevent them from being hijacked by hackers and demonstrate to the government that their millions of drones are safe and secure (Blackberry has highest security rating) + +4. Collect live data from the drones for package tracking, delivery times estimation , route optimization etc (IVY) + +Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon Web Services, will be taking over as CEO of Amazon in Q3. The same Andy Jassy from this article about BlackBerry IVY: + +“AWS and BlackBerry are making it possible for any automaker to continuously reinvent the customer experience and transform vehicles from fixed pieces of technology into systems that can grow and adapt with a user’s needs and preferences,” said Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Through this joint effort with BlackBerry, we will provide automakers with the insights, capabilities, agility, and speed they need to thrive in an increasingly connected world. As automakers seek to race ahead in their digital transformations, BlackBerry IVY empowers them to build their brands and set the standard for connected vehicle services across the automotive industry.” + +Blackberry IVY isn’t just some pet project for Amazon’s incoming CEO. It is quite possibly their MOST important project. Drone Delivery means that your Amazon Orders can get to you in MINUTES rather than days, and that they can come to YOU based on your GPS location instead of just your home or work address. + +Amazon’s plans for drone delivery is no secret, but always seemed like a far-flung future kinda thing. Until now. + +There must be a reason why Jassy of all people was chosen to take the helm at Amazon. What can he bring to Amazon that he isn’t already bringing from his current position as head of AWS? + +TLDR: Drones and Amazon’s domination of urban airspace + +Positions: jacked to the tits on BB shares. (Calls are too expensive due to meme status.) +https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/business/biden-taxes.html + +This article came out more than entire hour before the dip. This is the new York times, not some small puplication. It was coordinated, there were some publications that waited to mention the effect it had on our markets, such as our time traveling friends from market watch. Don't let people tell you it was because of this tax plan. There were certain electronic items that ALSO crashed today, and if they wanted to avoid being taxed it made no sense to sell because until they are sold, they cant have capital gains, so how does that make sense? It doesn't. + + +Edit 1: It is actually worse than I thought at first. Let me post another main stream article link + +https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-capital-gains-tax-increase + +In it bidens press secretary refused to comment on Thursday with any new details regarding the upcoming tax plan. So if all the news we have is old, and there were no new comments, why did the stock market take a shit? + +✋💎🦍🚀 +Found her password book last night. Second page. FIDELITY information. Thought I’d just take a peek…. + $46,387 just chillin. +Half of it in🤮🤮 Starbucks stocks. + +If I would have known I’d have sold that shit back when it was $125 a share. Anyway. What should I yolo into Monday. + +Will have about $20k to play with. The other is going into gme at open. Thanks my fellow retards. +A major event happened March 9th that every investor should remember. On this day in 2000 the NASDAQ Composite closed over 5000 for the first time. + +It's important because the Composite did not close above 6000 until April. April, 2017. Yes, it took 17 years to go from 5000 to a 6000 close. + +I don't bring this up to advocate selling all growth stocks or to predict a long bear market. It would take more than a post to explain why now is different from 2000. The reason I bring this up is to point out that investing is making a lot of decisions based on complex information. There is no one fact or rule that guarantees investing success or failure. + +If you look for one good reason to buy something, you will always find one. If you look for one good reason to sell something, you will always find one. Look at all the information you can get your hands Use it all to manage the risk vs the potential reward. +Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! + +Have a look at the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/wiki/faq) for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. + +Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. + +So having participated in many threads here in recent months, as well as other financial forums going back to before the 2008 crash, and having been at various points in my life a broke college student/graduate student, having net worth at my absolute lowest point somewhere in the neighborhood of -$155,000 (negative number), quickly digging myself out of debt, marrying into more debt and helping my wife pay her debt off, putting my wife through school and teaching her about investing even when she wasn't entirely on board but agreed to get started (and now is saving aggressively), these are some of the general principles I have learned: + + +1) No matter how much of your income you save every month, there is always someone on some message board who will claim to save more and say you aren't doing enough. You save 70%? Well someone else saves 80% and plans to save even more moving forward. It doesn't matter. Comparing yourself to people on this forum in this regard is just as futile as comparing your vehicle to people on the opposite end of the spectrum and wondering why they have a nicer car than you do. They might have more income, more debt, more help from family, an inheritance, a wealthy SO. So don't come here and ask "is saving 20% enough?" any more than you would ask the guy in the BMW 5 series, "is driving a 10 year old toyota enough?" + + +2) There is no shame in enjoying "things" on occasion, even if those "things" cost money. + + +3) Given #1 and #2, it is a worthwhile exercise to sit down and look at exactly how many hours you have to work to pay your fixed monthly expenses. Want a new car? Calculate exactly how many hours you have to work every month to pay for it. Ask yourself if the tradeoff is worth it. If the answer is "yes, it is worth it" don't fret about the fact that some person on a forum tells you it is an expense you should avoid, or how it might delay your retirement in 1-2 decades, or how you could buy a car for $5K and that would be plenty adequate and you should be happy because you have more than people do in third world countries. + + +4) When your entire goal is to stop working as soon as feasible, a negativity creeps in about the value of your work, and what it means to be employed and contribute in some way. I am not in any way rationalizing being in a terrible work environment. I fully recognize the work place can be malignant and unpleasant, depending on your supervisors and the culture of your job. I am just pointing out there is a certain value in doing something to feel like you are contributing to the world and helping others and trying to approach your job with a positive frame of mind. If you are a young person who is a decade or more away from retirement, and you are already approaching work with an attitude of, "I don't want to do this a day more than I have to", you would serve yourself well to find a new line of work or change your attitude/perspective just as much as you would by saving every penny available to get out as soon as possible. And sometimes treating yourself a little bit will make you feel better about your work, more so than watching your account balances go up with the goal being to "get out as soon as possible". If you are too extreme with saving a substantial portion of your earnings, your work immediately feels less rewarding because you are not seeing the fruits of your labor other than on paper, which leads me to #5.... + + +5) Reaching financial milestones is not as gratifying as you may imagine. I have met many of them, including paying off significant CC debt and student loans, building up retirement accounts, etc. I have yet to join the "two comma" net worth club but I am not far away. None of the financial milestones have been nearly as meaningful as I imagined they would be when I was younger and my net worth was a large negative number. The reason for this is I know how much I have sacrificed for each of them. When I reach the "two comma" net worth I suspect that day will be no different than any other day of my life thus far or any other milestone I have met. I thought the six figure net worth would be a big milestone for me. I felt no different than the day before. Same with 250K and 500K. You get there and there is no celebratory moment or major life change other than realizing you put a lot of things on hold to get there. It ain't all bad but it certainly isn't the way I imagined it when I was younger. + + +6) There is a wisdom in pursuing hobbies/outside interests that are inexpensive, but if there is something you feel you need or want to do it might be worth shelling out the money. I have never owned a boat but I would love to and could afford it, could have years ago. I sometimes wonder if I am putting off things that I won't enjoy as much when I am older, whenever I choose it is finally "the right time". You might even find yourself more motivated to work more to support a hobby that makes you happy, if the cheap or free ones don't quite do it for you. + + +What is my point? I am not sure I have one. I still to this day spend a lot of time on financial forums, here and elsewhere. I still spend a lot less than I earn, although I have loosened up a little recently. But I have noticed in forums such as these there is such an extreme point of view in some cases that doesn't sit well with me. It seems as if many are recommending what I would consider extreme measures which in some cases make people less happy. + + +There are people who go through life spending way too much money, more than they have, and they are miserable. There are also people who save every last penny and they are miserable too. Each may have their own regrets later in life. The best balance is somewhere in between and there are some extreme points of view in this forum, which may not always be the best way to proceed. + + +**QLC chain. How it works and why it will be a game changer for the global telecoms industry. (by** **SomeRandomSpecies** thanks for sharing a gold information and undervalued gem) + +Would you invest in a small cap ($20m) **alt coin project that is being sponsored by MEF the leading telecoms digital innovation association** with 110 of the biggest global telecoms businesses as members. + +* A project that just launched its **PoC protocol being road tested by Hutchison Global Communications a $7billion global telecoms business and DCConnect a global telecoms innovation company** and which if successful will be rolled out to and used by the other 110 MEF members including telecoms behemoths like Verizon, AT&T, BT, China telecom, orange, T mobile. +* This protocol in effect creates an integrated telecoms operating system which every telecoms company can plug into and use providing high level integration not currently available exponentially improving efficiency and producing massive savings of $trillions to these companies. NaaS is a game changer for the way the telecoms industry will operate. + +**So what does this mean in lay terms?** + +>Imagine you and your 50 closest friends and colleagues all have a different computer with different operating systems which you have developed and built yourselves. Every time you send an email or document the formatting changes which causes mistakes, leads to misunderstandings and wastes time. You have to employ a team of people just to reset formatting changes which is expensive as well as a team to update your computer and operating system.Now imagine you all decide to buy a Mac and use the same operating system - how much easier, less frustrating and economical would that be? +> +>At the moment every telecoms company builds their own operating system. QLC chain is creating an infrastructure that is shared and integrated, will be simple to plug into and will provide huge economies of scale saving $trillions. + +* To gain a voting node in QLC a telecoms company needs to purchase 3m QLC tokens. There are over 25,000 telecoms companies globally - 200 voting nodes available on QLC. Once this auction kicks off the potential upside for QLC is astronomical. + +How is this under the radar? The dev team are telecoms insiders, **their interest is in developing the tech they have not been interested in marketing this project and the marketing** **is non existent.** So contrary to the usual situation in crypto this project is all substance and zero style. It’s a project that has huge upside potential and imo is the most undervalued project in crypto. + +**Two MEF member service providers—HGC and DCconnect—are collaborating with QLC Chain and MEF, in MEF 3.0 PoC (130)** + +>To create the world’s first Smart Bilateral, based on a working draft of MEF W114. The implementation of a new *Smart Bilateral* with two telecom wholesale partners into thisPoC is planned to be completed within just 7 weeks. The rapidity of the implementation is the result of the extensive preparation by QLC Chain and the infrastructure made available by MEF. Onboarding includes initiation, technical, and commercial setup, through to service operation, process implementation, and completion. + +[https://www.mef.net/billing-at-warpspeed-using-dlt-based-smart-bilaterals/](https://www.mef.net/billing-at-warpspeed-using-dlt-based-smart-bilaterals/) + +**QLC Chain Integrates Chainlink to Bring ICT Data On-Chain and Power New DeFi Products** + +>**Chainlink** is a decentralized oracle network that connects blockchains like QLC Chain to off-chain data and systems. By doing so, QLC Chain can securely and reliably consume off-chain data from external IoT networks and web APIs and use it to automate on-chain settlements. At the same time, QLC Chain can provide some real-world data from ICT infrastructure to the Chainlink network to bring its on-chain data to other smart contract applications. + +[https://medium.com/qlc-chain/qlc-chain-integrates-chainlink-to-bring-ict-data-on-chain-and-power-new-defi-products-3b2adca5c65c](https://medium.com/qlc-chain/qlc-chain-integrates-chainlink-to-bring-ict-data-on-chain-and-power-new-defi-products-3b2adca5c65c) + +**Cross-chain bridge between QLC and ETH / ERC20** + +>QLC Chain has successfully completed the cross-chain staking bridge between [$QLC](https://twitter.com/search?q=%24QLC&src=cashtag_click) and [$ETH](https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&src=cashtag_click) / [\#ERC20](https://twitter.com/hashtag/ERC20?src=hashtag_click) tokens which will allow for the creation of [\#Ethereum](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethereum?src=hashtag_click) based QLC tokens and support QLC AMM yield farming in the [\#DeFi](https://twitter.com/hashtag/DeFi?src=hashtag_click) ecosystem! + +[https://twitter.com/QLCchain/status/1300345131736985601?s=20](https://twitter.com/QLCchain/status/1300345131736985601?s=20) + +**QLC Chain - Where everyone can operate and benefit from network services** QLC Chain is the Next Generation Public Chain for Decentralized Network-as-a-Service + +&#x200B; +Yesterday, CNBC and Market Watch published [articles](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/19/stimulus-checks-unlikely-to-spur-another-gamestop-mania-says-bofa.html) on research concluding that we shouldn't expect people to use stimulus money to buy GameStop stock. One of the main justifications they gave for this conclusion was that “the number of recent conversations \[on Reddit\] including both GME and stimulus is low.” + +As some of you know, I’ve been collecting data on WSB discussion for quite a while now, and can quantitatively show that to be false. + +I'll try to keep this brief, as I know attention spans here are short. Please don't hesitate to ask questions below, and [here's a longer write-up](https://www.reddit.com/user/pdwp90/comments/m8ogb0/the_stimmy_effect/) I did on the "stimmy effect" recently. + +To start with, here is a graph of the total number of comments in my data mentioning "stimulus" or "stimmy" over time: + +[Stimulus Comments](https://preview.redd.it/68304hkrr6o61.png?width=1730&format=png&auto=webp&s=89e506d66c60fcfdb2c7f615e53cf952fa4dd522) + +Here is a graph of the number of comments in my data that mention BOTH stimulus & GME over time: + +[WSB comments discussing stimulus & GME](https://preview.redd.it/f5ubk3hhq6o61.png?width=1730&format=png&auto=webp&s=c3b50e38cb0eafa490bcfeba1bda3b6e023409ce) + +The drop off at the end reflects the fact that it was 3:00pm as I am writing this and the day is only partially completed. One could argue that these numbers should be normalized based on the total of number of comments per day and, while I'd disagree, I'll include that graph below as well: + +[Normalized WSB comments discussing stimulus & GME](https://preview.redd.it/003y7k0mq6o61.png?width=1730&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b4b0762cf396708bdef53f795ce84ad7e0c4847) + +From both of these graphs I see no indication of the number of recent conversations including both GME and stimulus being low, as a matter of fact it has hit all time highs over the last few days Here's a chart of the top 5 days in which stimulus was mentioned the most in my data of WSB daily discussion. + +|**Day**|**Stimulus & GME mention count**| +|:-|:-| +|3/15/21|124| +|3/14/21|103| +|3/16/21|74| +|3/13/21|69| +|1/14/21|67| + +To take it a step further, we can look at what % of comments mentioning different stocks also mention stimulus, as I did recently in the graphic below. A larger proportion of comments mentioning $GME on WSB also mention stimulus than for any other major meme stocks, save for $TSLA. + +[Most-discussed stocks in 2021 w\/ \\"stimmy ratio\\"](https://preview.redd.it/d6gj9vj7r6o61.png?width=1072&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d7f1e3d99059a70494a08da9ea571f2832a2359) + +I don't know how the conclusion was reached that the number of recent conversations on reddit including GME and stimulus is low. Assuming that this is an honest mistake, I'd encourage BofA, Market Watch, CNBC, or any of the other parties involved to get better data. There are a lot of people out there who have started collecting data on WSB, but not many who do it well and with good intentions. I've been doing it for a while now, and I like to think I fit both those criteria which is why I feel qualified to write this post. + +Note: I don’t have stake in $GME and don’t actively trade a portfolio, in order to avoid perceptions of bias in my analysis. This is not financial advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any stock. +18 year old female • Indiana/Illinois area + + +Mom is kicking me out I have $1000 and I don’t know what to do. I’m a small teenager who doesn’t even look like they are 18. Need help urgently. What should I pack? I have a semi large duffel bag, backpack, or a suitcase. + +Please please help I don’t want to die, +I have a job I hate that pays $12 hr and a job that I love but pays trash $9 hr. +I have bipolar disorder and adhd I don’t know how I will afford meds I don’t have a car either. + + +Really don’t know what to do I’ve been crying for like 30 minutes straight because I can’t believe she’d do this to me. We even agreed earlier a few months ago as long as I paid $400 month I could stay and I always did that. +Hello apes of all genders. With the awakening given to us by u/atobitt regarding the rampant corruption that runs up and down the chain I began my due diligence. I ran across an article that I thought had to be shared. + +I would like to say that I didn’t write this article but it’s on a crappy website that wants to spam you with ads. However, it’s written in a mature ape language that’s easy to understand and reads to me who the actual illuminati is. Surprise it isn’t the Rockefeller’s, Rothschilds or Bilderbergs. + +Here is the article: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/secret-trillion-dollar-company-owns-20790205 + +Enjoy 🍌 + +Conspiracy theorists are convinced that a tiny organisation owns all of the wealth in the US. + +Who owns America? That depends who you ask. A growing body of opinion points to an obscure, but immensely powerful organisation called CEDE and Company. + +This small New York based financial institution has a dozen directors and no more than a half dozen employees but holds, according to some reports, some 34 trillion dollars in assets. A complex system of interlocking bodies, such as The Depository Trust &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Clearing Corporation, the National Securities Clearing Corporation and the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation oversee all stock trading in the US. They all come under the umbrella of Cede. + +And, on paper at least, own all the stocks traded. The multi-trillion dollar secret works like this: The Depository Trust Company is a private bank for securities. Every other financial organisation in the US, bankers and brokerage houses, is obliged to secure membership with DTC. +Like the Federal Reserve, DTC is a private company entrusted with national responsibility. It processes all stock and paper securities for every US bank and brokerage house. + +Cede technically owns nearly all of the publicly issued stock in the United States. Private investors don’t own the stock they think they own, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a complex chain of rights ending up at Cede and Company. + +It sounds dry and academic, but it impacts every American. And as long as the USA remains the preeminent economic power on Earth, it affects the rest of us too. + +The Depository Trust Company absolutely controls every paper asset transaction in America and they physically hold the majority of stock and bond certificates in their name. Very few people hold genuine stock ownership certificates. Most trust their brokers to do that for them. + +And many Americans, who unlike Brits depend on private finance for all of their retirement and health needs, are concerned that these precious stocks could at any moment ‘vanish’ overnight to service the country’s staggering national debt. The Depository Trust &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Clearing Corporation is notoriously publicity-shy, but the DTC’s Jim McNeff spoke to financial journalist Anthony Wayne. Explaining to Wayne how infallible the DTC’s governance of the US stock market was, he said ”DTC's first controlled test was 4 or 5 years ago. Do you remember Black Monday? There were 535 million transactions on Monday, and 400 million transactions on Tuesday". "DTC cleared every transaction without a single glitch!". + +Wayne’s conclusion from that interview that Black Monday – a colossal financial downturn that ruined many Americans – was a controlled test. That it was a deliberately manipulated disaster for the benefit of the DTC. + +With the global financial system becoming ever more complex, it’s increasingly hard for even the experts to understand much more than a part of it. + +The 2008 financial crash which led from a crisis in the US subprime mortgage market to a series of massive bailouts that taxpayers are still paying for is just one symptom of a system that’s not only too big to fail. + +As one Reddit user put it: “America has gone bankrupt 4 times. The government has mortgaged the entire country. No one really owns anything...we don't even have our original birth certificates. Titles and deeds have small print telling you the original is with the DTCC. + +“All the people, and their property, are really owned by Cede, which is owned by the private bankers… “It is not a lawful system, but it is legal.” + +EDIT 1: Found this 6Y Reddit user who was deleted and only got like 4 upvotes on his post 🤔 + +And correction it is the damn Rothschilds and fam. + +https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/26xqtg/who_owns_cede_co/?utm_source=share&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=ios_app&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_name=iossmf + +EDIT 2: And we thought England owned us. Larger share holder in this shadowy clan is Australia. DTC is 13th in the club. LETS MAKE THEM LAST PLACE! + +http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/banking/wpac97.html + +This is WWIII. They need us or the game is over. What are they going to do play against themselves? 10 Million floor is still cheap. We want reparations for all of our ancestors you reptilian creatures! + +EDIT 3: +- Owners of all stock certificates. +- Owner of all birth certificates. +- 🤔 +I've been on the FIRE path for several years, and I am approaching the FInish line. Along the way, I have collected a mountain of information about personal finances as well as a lot of lifestyle advice that affects personal finances. And now I want to pay it forward. + +My SO works as a teacher at a local high school, and we are both very integrated into the school and its community. We are both involved in multiple extracurricular clubs and activities. It's a large school and almost all of the students come from underprivileged backgrounds and live in empoverished neighborhoods. + +In a [recent upheaval of the famous marshmallow test](https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/), new data suggests that a person's capacity to delay gratification is largely shaped by the person's social and economic background. And accordingly, my SO and I often hear students saying and doing things that suggest total financial illiteracy. + +I'm not an expert in finance or anything like that. But I do believe that my path to FI has made me financially literate and has been an exercise in delayed gratification. + +I feel like I have something to offer these students that they aren't getting elsewhere. I'm considering starting a financial independence club. Has this been done before? Any ideas about how to go about it? +Elon Musk is planning to disrupt the legacy ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, etc with this business + +This is the first time SpaceX is being opened to public. I can't wait for this IPO. + +What do you think?! + +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/spacex-likely-to-spin-off-starlink-business-and-pursue-an-ipo +I had a couple of family members over on the weekend who were all excited that they’d successfully claimed the governments flood disaster payment. + +Mind you, whilst their area was hit by heavy rains like the rest of us, they live on high ground and were largely unaffected. One member had some minor storm damage which they already had covered by their insurance. + +They said that them and all their friends had claimed $1000-$2000 and none of them, as far as I know have actually had any genuine impact from floods. + +I bit my tongue and went and looked up the scheme and the language seems pretty unambiguous to me ie it’s there for flood victims not anyone who wants a free hand out from Centrelink. + +They tried to encourage us to claim saying it was a no harm / no foul kind of thing but we aren’t comfortable doing so and would rather not see our tax dollars go to anyone but those who have suffered from the floods. + +I guess my question is whether this is just the norm and the government won’t investigate these claims or are they at risk of a claw back or an audit? +I'm googling graduate pay etc and it seems to be much higher and I have experience. I think they lowballed me an offer and I had accepted thinking it was the norm pay at the time. +Hi all, I work in Risk management space for a bank which includes climate risk. I've come across instances where new customers were quoted insurance costs of >$20k per annum and had to opt out of flood or bushfire cover to get the annual cost below $5k. If course this isn't ideal because these properties are at high risk of being damaged which can result in losses to the banks since the collateral value has been destroyed. + +But from a consumer perspective the high insurance costs will have a drag on serviceability but will almost definitely hold back any capital gains especially in regions where risks are so high that insurance cover won't be possible and banks will no longer lend in these areas. + +From a transition risk perspective there are areas like Collie, Latrobe Valley, Mackay where the local economies are heavily reliant on "dirty" industries and from my bank's perspective we also expect there to be downside risk for home values as these industries shut down. + +While I expect not many people think about climate change and the impact on property prices I expect this to shift dramatically over the next 10 years, especially as insurance costs go up exponentially. + +Just out of curiosity, have you considered the impact of climate risk? How has it impacted your decision making? If not, why not? Are you looking to act on it in the future? Have you noticed large jumps in insurance costs? + +I'm really keen to hear from anyone who is willing to provide feedback. + +For anyone who is interested in how high climate risk is in their suburbs here is a link to a great website. For those that live in high risk areas I'd check local council websites for more granular flood/bushfire maps. + +https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/climate-risk-map/ +Sorry couldn’t help posting an irony post about green markets. So much panic over the last week and a bit due to red but you never see any panic posts about green markets (/s). + +I wonder how many of you who panicked during the red have relaxed? How are you feeling now, are you calmer? How are you going to try and handle the next 20-25% “crash/dip” and are you going to try and learn from our recent experience? Genuinely curious because this sub was littered with freak out posts so wondering what people took away from it retrospectively. + +Those that sold in the correction - how are you feeling? +Some tinfoil, some educated guessing based on being around since pre-January 2021 sneeze. The Friday flirt tweet from GameStop, I believe, was a reference to giving nasdaq their 10 days notice to either announce or distribute a dividend because June 2, the shareholder date, is exactly 10 business days from Friday, May 20. Shorts could start closing some positions after the dividend announcement but their goal is to never close. No cell, no sell. + +Happy Saturday. Buy, DRS, HODL, shop. Nothing has changed. GME moons soon! +One of the things that I think a lot of people overlook when planning their retirement costs is what in business we would refer to as capital expenditures or capex. + +Believe it or not, your computer will not last forever, your phone won't last forever, your tv won't last forever, etc. But, the purchase interval on some of these items is so great that it's easy to forget them as part of your budgeting. + +For instance, a smart phone has an estimated useful life of 4 years. After that, either it no longer works or it's no longer supported by the manufacturer and you're no longer getting security updates and all of your apps quit working. What's a decent smart phone run today, $700? That's $14.60 a month you need to set aside. + +I know, $15 a month doesn't seem like it's going to break your bank but, let's take a look at your car. Say you buy a middle of the road vehicle for around $20K. You might expect that car to last 10 years (IHS says 11.6 years in the US). Well, even assuming that in 10 years you can buy another car for $20K, you would need to be setting aside $166 a month if you're going to pay all cash for it. + +Now, $166 a month may be a budget breaker for some people. And that's especially true if you start adding up all of the small items that are going to need replacing like the previously mentioned smart phone. Your $166 plus $15 is $181. + +What about your TV? Kindle? iPad? Laptop? Refrigerator? Washing machine? + +Obviously, some people may not have all of these expenses. Maybe you walk everywhere so you never own a car. Maybe you rent and you don't have to worry about replacing household appliances. + +Great. But when I see some of the budgets people post here and in r/leanfire, it's pretty obvious that people are just looking at current expenses and not really budgeting in longer-term expenses. + +Who knows, maybe you get lucky and get 20 years out of your car. Celebrate, you saved some money. But don't not budget for replacing it. + +Some people claim that this kind of stuff is in their emergency fund. But, an emergency is typically an unexpected event. The fact that your laptop will eventually break down is not only something that can be anticipated, it's almost guaranteed to happen eventually either via physical failure or by becoming obsolete. + +I would estimate, based on things that most people would consider basic necessities, most people have anywhere from $200 - $600 of capex to cover every month. + +That may sound insane, but I challenge you to take an inventory of everything that you own in your house that will eventually break down or become obsolete (power tools, garbage disposal, etc). Then go check the useful life of each of those items and their current replacement value (you should really be estimating future replacement value, but let's keep the exercise relatively simple for now). Divide the number of useful life into the replacement cost and that's the amount of money you should be setting aside every month. + +Another potential area where people could get bit in the ass is subscription costs. Just watching the last 5 or 10 years, how many things that you didn't even know about or used to be free, now are essential and you have to pay for? + +Password manager? $4 a month + +VPN so you can securely connect to public wifi networks? $5 a month + +Cloud storage? $10 a month. + +Microsoft Office 365? $6 a month. + +Amazon Prime? $9 a month. + +Yes, maybe you have that in your budget today, but as we slowly move to an economy where people own things less and less, and rental or subscriptions become more of a norm, what future expenses are you going to have? + +I know, you couldn't predict needing cloud storage 10 years ago, so it's a little difficult to budget for things you don't even know that you will need but, will Goole start charging $5 a month for email? Will Facebook start charging a monthly fee? + +I would take all of the misc subscription fees that you are currently paying and figure that in 10 years, that number will likely be at least double. Both in the fact that existing subscription fees will increase and new "essential" services will become available or one-time purchases will go to a subscription model. + +Of course, you can often find free versions of some of this stuff. You can use Bitwarden or KeePass for password management, you can use Google Docs instead of MS Office, etc. But will these services remain free forever? + +The main point of this is that little things add up if you actually track them. $5 a month here, $10 a month there, and eventually between subscriptions and capex, you're looking at $500 a month or $6K a year in expenses you didn't even know you had. Unbudgeted costs. How many of those costs are hiding in your budget that are going to turn around and bite you years down the road? + +So, it's important to really take a hard look at your budgets. Most people are so focused on the top line number (i.e. their net worth of how much revenue $X will generate at a Y% SWR) that they may be overlooking the more important number, which is your actual costs. Not your cash outlays over the last 12 months, but the actual costs associated with owning any asset that needs to be replaced and anticipating increasing fees for services that are becoming increasingly essential. + +If you have plenty of cushion in your budget, maybe you can absorb $500 a month. Great. Kudos to you. But, anybody under $30K - $40K a year should be taking a good hard look at their FIRE plans and budgets if they haven't been factoring in all of these expenses. + +Given all of the long debates that have been had on the difference between a 3.5% vs a 4% SWR, and the relatively few threads on budgeting and cost estimation, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of people that fail in FIRE will fail on the budgeting side. +Hello, you may know me from DD posts about IVZ and 3DP. I'm still heavily in these. But today I bring you SBW. + +Ok for real, this might be the laziest DD you've read because it was copy pasted direct from hotcopper. But it will also be the best DD you've read (no offence to u/bigjimbeef recent DD on this but he's always drunk and while his DD did get me interested in this, I think maybe some people didn't take his post seriously because the post read like he had a beer in one hand and his dick in the other). + +But I've been thinking lately... wouldn't it be nice if I could, for once, jump on a stock, before it rockets? Like... Every stock I've been in so far has holders who are already 10 bagging. How do they find these stocks and how can I become one of them? + +Well, here is your chance. Full disclosure, I'm in at 26.5c, closing price today is 24.5c. It IPOd at 35c so we are still at bargain prices. No rocket yet. If you can think of a reason not to buy, please say so, before I take a larger position tmw morning, as I am trying to keep myself from getting overly keen on yet another stock but so far I can't find a good reason to put money anywhere else. + + +Copy pasta below: + + + +I thought it was about time that I made the “Ultimate Guide to SBW” and consolidated months of research and analysis into one comprehensive post. Then we can add bits to it from there as more positive news develops. + +Let us start with capital structure. + +Capital Structure and Why This Is Important! + +There are currently 139 million shares on issue, sitting at a price of 32 cents. + +This gives a Market Capitalization of approximately ~45 million AUD. + +Keep this in mind when we discuss partners and peers later - it’s arguably a more important metric than share price. + +The Top 20 shareholders of SBW (which includes key management as the Top 2 holders) have about 90% of the stock on issue. The interests of management are well-aligned with shareholders. + +What does this mean in plain English? It means management are extremely incentivized to perform, and are not just idly sitting by collecting an easy paycheck like so many other ASX companies. They have as much at stake as you do! Probably more. + +The Core Business + +The core business is a profitable operation which has been selling weighing systems to both retail and healthcare sectors – with reliable recurring revenue from customers including, but not limited to, household names like Toshiba and Fujitsu. + +SBW have a combination of weighing + artificial intelligence + advanced mathematics which cannot be easily duplicated. The company was first founded in 1971 and was one of the first to shift from mechanical to digital weighing and ultra-thin IoT load sensors. + + +If you are interested in reading up on some of their patents, please see this link: + +https://patents.justia.com/search?q=Shekel scales + +I found 11 separate patents here, which are probably not an exhaustive list, but ranging from weighing vehicles in motion, to load cell devices (this is the flagship technology), point of sale apparatus and infant weight systems (for their medical customers) + +SBW's three main technology pillars, including patented ultra-thin high precision load sensors, can distinguish between Coke, Fanta & Pepsi - even if they are all in 1.5 litre bottles! + + +The Hitachi Project (Hitachi’s Market Cap = roughly ~33 billion USD at time of writing, SBW = ~45 million AUD) + + +http://hlds.co.jp/product-eng/1079 + +[Translated from Japanese] Hitachi-LG Data Storage. Inc. exhibited in “NRF 2020 Retail’s Big Show” which took place at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York from 1/12-1/14/2020, where Unmanned Store solution using 3D LiDAR(TOF) was jointly exhibited with Hitachi America, Hitachi Vantara, and Shekel Brainweigh (Israel). + + + +Some quotes I found from Hitachi themselves + +“Micro-markets are the fastest growing segment of convenience shopping. We see them exploding in high traffic areas, such as workplaces, campuses, train stations and airports,” said Hideki Hayashi, Sales and Marketing Manager, Hitachi EU Ltd. + +“Deploying the joint Shekel-Hitachi solution enables retailers and micro-market operators to provide the 24/7 frictionless shopping experience consumers demand without sacrificing accuracy, performance or profitability.” + +“As the manager responsible for LiDAR products in EMEA markets, I consider the R&D and commercial collaboration with Shekel Brainweigh to be the perfect partnership as we both bring our respective capabilities to develop a seamless consumer shopping experience. We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Shekel Brainweigh, which we believe is the best digital weighing technology developer globally." + +“The collaboration builds on our expertise in optical motion sensors, together with Shekel’s advanced Product Aware Technology, and further strengthens our commitment to overcome the challenges, and address the significant opportunities, in global retail store automation.” + + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-uxk2Ycoqw + +The Open Retail Initiative + +https://www.lfedge.org/2020/02/13/n...ensor-fusion-for-intelligent-loss-prevention/ + + + +For the one-year anniversary of ORI, six initiative members Edgify, Flooid, Shekel and LF Edge members HP, IOTech and Intel inspired by the initiative, worked together on a demo for the Intel booth that showcased the value of Real Time Sensor Fusion for a loss prevention use case at self-checkout. The retail environment has become incredibly complex. The latest technologies enable data-driven experiences and unlock business value like never before, yet there is still a lack of interoperability making it difficult for retailers to deploy integrated solutions with speed and ease. The demo illustrates how integration roadblocks can be a thing of the past. + +The demo pulls together real time data through the EdgeX middleware from different common systems including POS real-time transaction log, CV-based object detection, scale solution, and RFID, and data fusion—all in a single pane of glass. + +Here are some PowerPoint slides of IBM, Intel & Hewlett-Packard talking about the joint solution + +https://wiki.edgexfoundry.org/downl...amp;modificationDate=1579904283000&api=v2 + +The Fast Track Project + +https://www.edgify.ai/retail/ + +Reduce time at till and selection at self-checkout by up to 98%. Computer vision-based product recognition, that continuously learns directly on the till, so the accuracy of the detection always increases. + +Friction-less stores are great in theory but extremely complicated to scale in practice. Our edge training solution makes autonomous stores scalable, by having all the AI train directly on the camera. No infrastructure costs and no added complications. + +Reduce incorrect selections by up to 90%. Either intentional or unintentional, use computer vision that is trained directly on the SCO itself to reduce loss by more than half! + +No barcodes, no packaging, no worries. Simple USB cameras can detect the produce at close to 100% accuracy. Use as a decision support for cashiers, or to avoid consumers having to go through long and confusing menus. + +https://www.edgify.ai/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Retail_Intro.pdf + + +https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1277859718413930505 + +https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1230534216133332997 + +Shekel’s Visual Recognition Platform embedded with Edgify’s machine-learning training framework is the world’s first cloudless software that automatically recognises products, including fresh produce, at a retail self-checkout. + +This ~45 million AUD Market Cap company allows retailers to potentially bypass expensive cloud services from Microsoft, Google and Amazon. + +Sending data to the cloud is a very costly process with the Google Cloud Platform charging 1,000 stores more than US$7.2 million in cloud computing power per annum. + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrpZ56IdFtg + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqwqQ1tJ4A + +You can see the Shekel system 35 seconds in. + +Patnership with Madix (2nd Largest Retail Shelves Manufacturer in NA) + +https://www.bloomberg.com/press-rel...ade-product-aware-cabinets-to-retail-industry + +NEW YORK -- January 13, 2020 + +Madix Inc., the second largest retail shelves manufacturer in North America, and Shekel Brainweigh Ltd. (ASX: SBW), the leader in advanced weighing technology, today announced the availability of ready-made Product Aware shelves and solutions for the retail industry. + +“By seamlessly integrating Product Aware shelves into our hardware, our customers are armed with accessible data giving them reliable inventory visibility and assisting them in addressing over-stock and out-of-stock problems, as well as better control over shrinkage” said Steve Kramer, VP Sales, Madix. + +“For the retail industry, this is a defined competitive edge that promotes the opportunity to increase profitability.” + +Conclusion + +So, remember - the core scales business is what drives the revenue we see today, but the innovation division is where the real potential resides. That will take a few more months/years to play out. I think most people are buying for the fully autonomous frictionless retail technology which comes with a huge addressable market. That’s still being undervalued in my humble opinion. + +Considering there are quite a few ASX-listed tech companies with no revenue and over 100 million market cap (some even @ 1 billion market cap right now… + + + I don’t see why SBW couldn’t move past ~45m market cap in the near future. + +Now if you read all this - links included- I commend you for your diligence. It should be obvious now that the Capsule (in partnership with Hitachi) is the “crown jewel” or “holy grail” of retail disruption technology plays (look at the success of Amazon GO for example). + +So you are probably thinking: "This sounds great @verce but it’s all just aspirational and hypothetical. When will it be put into operation?" Well I’m glad you asked. The answer might surprise you. And it may be sooner than you think. + +The SBW Half Year Report from 31 August 2020 had a little snippet that I think a lot of people missed. Specifically, the following text: + +“Flagship micro-market project Capsule is in an advanced stage of pilot in Europe, and expected to be open to the public for trial in the second half of 2020.” + +Now you are probably wondering: "That’s great but what if it’s just some obscure insignificant corner store somewhere?" Again, the answer may surprise you, and requires a little digging. + +Enter Groupe Casino. A historic player in French retailing since 1898, the Casino Group is one of the world leaders in food retailing with more than 12,200 stores worldwide, located in France, Latin America and the Indian Ocean and a turnover of 37.8 billion euro. + +In their Annual Report this year, they mentioned an exciting new disruptive project they were working on with a relatively obscure company. + +https://www.groupe-casino.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/RapportActivite_Casino_2019_EN.pdf + +And we have some commentary from SBW featured on Page 42-43 of their Annual Report plugging "the first fully autonomous store in Europe". I'll leave it to readers to determine the significance of being mentioned in the Annual Report of a leading mass-market retail group with billions of Euro in revenue. + +The same group who claim to be the source of many innovations such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948 or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. They are always pushing the boundaries of innovation, and it's an exciting partner to have. + + +It’s also worth keeping in mind that issuing shares are not the only mechanism by which to raise money. And that a placement at a premium to a sophisticated cornerstone investor can yield great results. Kind of like what happened with 3DP and IHR. + +If I was them, I’d be asking Hitachi to chip in.  + +SBW also have the luxury of generating enough revenue (we are talking USD millions) in 2H20 from the core scales division, that a capital raising may not actually be necessary at this point in time. So they can wait for a better outcome. + +Source: “Post 30 June 2020, the business has seen a resurgence of orders for Shekel’s products, resulting in July 2020 sales exceeding July 2019 sales by approximately 18%.” + + +The final thing I would like to add (if you have in fact read my other two posts which are worth reading) is coming to an appropriate valuation. This is the tricky part, especially with microcap stocks which are valued on their future potential. + +We do know that there are medium to high barriers to entry, and that SBW have accumulated a competitive edge with their technology iterated over several decades, with certain patents in place. + +We also know that the opportunity is global in scope with a huge total addressable market (TAM) - and that traditional retail is ripe for disruption. + + + + +Remember when there were more human checkout lanes at supermarkets than self-checkout? Now it's the other way around. We are even starting to see self-checkout in Bunnings. The trend for autonomous and friction-less shopping - what some term "Grab & Go" - was inevitable. And coronavirus has only accelerated this trend. + +https://www.ibtimes.com/5-tech-tren...-end-year-result-coronavirus-pandemic-3011819 + +5 Tech Trends Expected To Shape Retail Through The End Of The Year As Result Of The Coronavirus Pandemic + +“Retailers and brands will need to collaborate more than ever with technology startups to futureproof their businesses and be better equipped to meet fast-changing consumer demand and behavior,” Coresight said. + +Coresight reported the pandemic has piqued consumer interest in cashierless models. + +Technology firm Shekel Brainweigh said 87% of respondents to its global consumer survey indicated they would choose stores with self-checkout over those with only cashier lines. +___________________________ + +So if you ask me, when you consider all the different technology projects SBW are working on - most of which we now know are "close to commercialisation*" - is 45m AUD market cap really fair value for something that has the potential to roll out globally? I personally think it is still undervalued, but the market will eventually decide one way or the other. + +Even at 70 cents per share, the implied market cap with only 139 million shares on issue is about ~97 million AUD. Which is still less than 100m. And still quite low when you compare SBW's proven technology and revenue to a lot of unproven technology companies with no real customers whatsoever. And extremely low when you compare SBW's market cap to their collaborative partner Hitachi (ranked 38th in the 2012 Fortune Global 500). + +Even at 32 cents as it currently stands, we are still below the IPO price when SBW first listed at 35 cents per share. How does that make any sense? +Future in South China Sea looks grim, military is flush with cash and likely to be given more and more over the next few years. However we don't have the option to trade huge primes like LMT, RTX etc here. What's good for exposure to military spending? Per my knowledge + google there's not much aside from the following, most of which are small caps or smaller: + +* QHL (60M cap) - aero materials manufacturer, been declining for a decade, seemingly nothing inherently wrong with it especially at this price but still a poor track record long term. Has Boeing contracts and JSF role which is nice. +* XTE (40M) - makes body armour and creepy drones? not sure the degree to which that scales up / whether they can branch out to other stuff if asked to, but does seem like it'd be coupled with military expenditure +* DRO (26M cap) - gets listed on google searches for asx mil stocks but doesn't exactly seem like it, more of a private security thing for use in unstable zones like Iraq/Afghanistan. Cool concept. +* ASB (1.1B cap) - again not sure of exposure to military vs commercial shipping or the degree to which military contracts would be handed out at short notice in this industry, don't know shit about boats also +* EOS (860M cap) - land weapon parts and space instrumentation, seems reasonably tightly coupled to military expenditure. Big contract in the works at the moment hence a recent jump in price +* TTT (100M cap) - materials for US helicopters, I don't know anything about it +* BIS (50M cap) - materials for ADF trucks, I don't know anything about it +* OEC (100M cap) - electric lawnmower engine drones or something, recently tripled its cap +* AJX (30M cap) - flame retardant fabrics for uniforms, shat itself the past year? + +Most of these as you can tell I haven't researched at all, basically I'm interested in insights others might have about any of these holdings or military spending exposure in general. Something like the HACK etf or Tesserent also seems like a very good long term hold. +Hello, you may know me from DD posts about IVZ and 3DP. I'm still heavily in these. But today I bring you SBW. + +Ok for real, this might be the laziest DD you've read because it was copy pasted direct from hotcopper. But it will also be the best DD you've read (no offence to u/bigjimbeef recent DD on this but he's always drunk and while his DD did get me interested in this, I think maybe some people didn't take his post seriously because the post read like he had a beer in one hand and his dick in the other). + +But I've been thinking lately... wouldn't it be nice if I could, for once, jump on a stock, before it rockets? Like... Every stock I've been in so far has holders who are already 10 bagging. How do they find these stocks and how can I become one of them? + +Well, here is your chance. Full disclosure, I'm in at 26.5c, closing price today is 24.5c. It IPOd at 35c so we are still at bargain prices. No rocket yet. If you can think of a reason not to buy, please say so, before I take a larger position tmw morning, as I am trying to keep myself from getting overly keen on yet another stock but so far I can't find a good reason to put money anywhere else. + + +Copy pasta below: + + + +I thought it was about time that I made the “Ultimate Guide to SBW” and consolidated months of research and analysis into one comprehensive post. Then we can add bits to it from there as more positive news develops. + +Let us start with capital structure. + +Capital Structure and Why This Is Important! + +There are currently 139 million shares on issue, sitting at a price of 32 cents. + +This gives a Market Capitalization of approximately ~45 million AUD. + +Keep this in mind when we discuss partners and peers later - it’s arguably a more important metric than share price. + +The Top 20 shareholders of SBW (which includes key management as the Top 2 holders) have about 90% of the stock on issue. The interests of management are well-aligned with shareholders. + +What does this mean in plain English? It means management are extremely incentivized to perform, and are not just idly sitting by collecting an easy paycheck like so many other ASX companies. They have as much at stake as you do! Probably more. + +The Core Business + +The core business is a profitable operation which has been selling weighing systems to both retail and healthcare sectors – with reliable recurring revenue from customers including, but not limited to, household names like Toshiba and Fujitsu. + +SBW have a combination of weighing + artificial intelligence + advanced mathematics which cannot be easily duplicated. The company was first founded in 1971 and was one of the first to shift from mechanical to digital weighing and ultra-thin IoT load sensors. + + +If you are interested in reading up on some of their patents, please see this link: + +https://patents.justia.com/search?q=Shekel scales + +I found 11 separate patents here, which are probably not an exhaustive list, but ranging from weighing vehicles in motion, to load cell devices (this is the flagship technology), point of sale apparatus and infant weight systems (for their medical customers) + +SBW's three main technology pillars, including patented ultra-thin high precision load sensors, can distinguish between Coke, Fanta & Pepsi - even if they are all in 1.5 litre bottles! + + +The Hitachi Project (Hitachi’s Market Cap = roughly ~33 billion USD at time of writing, SBW = ~45 million AUD) + + +http://hlds.co.jp/product-eng/1079 + +[Translated from Japanese] Hitachi-LG Data Storage. Inc. exhibited in “NRF 2020 Retail’s Big Show” which took place at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York from 1/12-1/14/2020, where Unmanned Store solution using 3D LiDAR(TOF) was jointly exhibited with Hitachi America, Hitachi Vantara, and Shekel Brainweigh (Israel). + + + +Some quotes I found from Hitachi themselves + +“Micro-markets are the fastest growing segment of convenience shopping. We see them exploding in high traffic areas, such as workplaces, campuses, train stations and airports,” said Hideki Hayashi, Sales and Marketing Manager, Hitachi EU Ltd. + +“Deploying the joint Shekel-Hitachi solution enables retailers and micro-market operators to provide the 24/7 frictionless shopping experience consumers demand without sacrificing accuracy, performance or profitability.” + +“As the manager responsible for LiDAR products in EMEA markets, I consider the R&D and commercial collaboration with Shekel Brainweigh to be the perfect partnership as we both bring our respective capabilities to develop a seamless consumer shopping experience. We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Shekel Brainweigh, which we believe is the best digital weighing technology developer globally." + +“The collaboration builds on our expertise in optical motion sensors, together with Shekel’s advanced Product Aware Technology, and further strengthens our commitment to overcome the challenges, and address the significant opportunities, in global retail store automation.” + + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-uxk2Ycoqw + +The Open Retail Initiative + +https://www.lfedge.org/2020/02/13/n...ensor-fusion-for-intelligent-loss-prevention/ + + + +For the one-year anniversary of ORI, six initiative members Edgify, Flooid, Shekel and LF Edge members HP, IOTech and Intel inspired by the initiative, worked together on a demo for the Intel booth that showcased the value of Real Time Sensor Fusion for a loss prevention use case at self-checkout. The retail environment has become incredibly complex. The latest technologies enable data-driven experiences and unlock business value like never before, yet there is still a lack of interoperability making it difficult for retailers to deploy integrated solutions with speed and ease. The demo illustrates how integration roadblocks can be a thing of the past. + +The demo pulls together real time data through the EdgeX middleware from different common systems including POS real-time transaction log, CV-based object detection, scale solution, and RFID, and data fusion—all in a single pane of glass. + +Here are some PowerPoint slides of IBM, Intel & Hewlett-Packard talking about the joint solution + +https://wiki.edgexfoundry.org/downl...amp;modificationDate=1579904283000&api=v2 + +The Fast Track Project + +https://www.edgify.ai/retail/ + +Reduce time at till and selection at self-checkout by up to 98%. Computer vision-based product recognition, that continuously learns directly on the till, so the accuracy of the detection always increases. + +Friction-less stores are great in theory but extremely complicated to scale in practice. Our edge training solution makes autonomous stores scalable, by having all the AI train directly on the camera. No infrastructure costs and no added complications. + +Reduce incorrect selections by up to 90%. Either intentional or unintentional, use computer vision that is trained directly on the SCO itself to reduce loss by more than half! + +No barcodes, no packaging, no worries. Simple USB cameras can detect the produce at close to 100% accuracy. Use as a decision support for cashiers, or to avoid consumers having to go through long and confusing menus. + +https://www.edgify.ai/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Retail_Intro.pdf + + +https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1277859718413930505 + +https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1230534216133332997 + +Shekel’s Visual Recognition Platform embedded with Edgify’s machine-learning training framework is the world’s first cloudless software that automatically recognises products, including fresh produce, at a retail self-checkout. + +This ~45 million AUD Market Cap company allows retailers to potentially bypass expensive cloud services from Microsoft, Google and Amazon. + +Sending data to the cloud is a very costly process with the Google Cloud Platform charging 1,000 stores more than US$7.2 million in cloud computing power per annum. + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrpZ56IdFtg + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqwqQ1tJ4A + +You can see the Shekel system 35 seconds in. + +Patnership with Madix (2nd Largest Retail Shelves Manufacturer in NA) + +https://www.bloomberg.com/press-rel...ade-product-aware-cabinets-to-retail-industry + +NEW YORK -- January 13, 2020 + +Madix Inc., the second largest retail shelves manufacturer in North America, and Shekel Brainweigh Ltd. (ASX: SBW), the leader in advanced weighing technology, today announced the availability of ready-made Product Aware shelves and solutions for the retail industry. + +“By seamlessly integrating Product Aware shelves into our hardware, our customers are armed with accessible data giving them reliable inventory visibility and assisting them in addressing over-stock and out-of-stock problems, as well as better control over shrinkage” said Steve Kramer, VP Sales, Madix. + +“For the retail industry, this is a defined competitive edge that promotes the opportunity to increase profitability.” + +Conclusion + +So, remember - the core scales business is what drives the revenue we see today, but the innovation division is where the real potential resides. That will take a few more months/years to play out. I think most people are buying for the fully autonomous frictionless retail technology which comes with a huge addressable market. That’s still being undervalued in my humble opinion. + +Considering there are quite a few ASX-listed tech companies with no revenue and over 100 million market cap (some even @ 1 billion market cap right now… + + + I don’t see why SBW couldn’t move past ~45m market cap in the near future. + +Now if you read all this - links included- I commend you for your diligence. It should be obvious now that the Capsule (in partnership with Hitachi) is the “crown jewel” or “holy grail” of retail disruption technology plays (look at the success of Amazon GO for example). + +So you are probably thinking: "This sounds great @verce but it’s all just aspirational and hypothetical. When will it be put into operation?" Well I’m glad you asked. The answer might surprise you. And it may be sooner than you think. + +The SBW Half Year Report from 31 August 2020 had a little snippet that I think a lot of people missed. Specifically, the following text: + +“Flagship micro-market project Capsule is in an advanced stage of pilot in Europe, and expected to be open to the public for trial in the second half of 2020.” + +Now you are probably wondering: "That’s great but what if it’s just some obscure insignificant corner store somewhere?" Again, the answer may surprise you, and requires a little digging. + +Enter Groupe Casino. A historic player in French retailing since 1898, the Casino Group is one of the world leaders in food retailing with more than 12,200 stores worldwide, located in France, Latin America and the Indian Ocean and a turnover of 37.8 billion euro. + +In their Annual Report this year, they mentioned an exciting new disruptive project they were working on with a relatively obscure company. + +https://www.groupe-casino.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/RapportActivite_Casino_2019_EN.pdf + +And we have some commentary from SBW featured on Page 42-43 of their Annual Report plugging "the first fully autonomous store in Europe". I'll leave it to readers to determine the significance of being mentioned in the Annual Report of a leading mass-market retail group with billions of Euro in revenue. + +The same group who claim to be the source of many innovations such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948 or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. They are always pushing the boundaries of innovation, and it's an exciting partner to have. + + +It’s also worth keeping in mind that issuing shares are not the only mechanism by which to raise money. And that a placement at a premium to a sophisticated cornerstone investor can yield great results. Kind of like what happened with 3DP and IHR. + +If I was them, I’d be asking Hitachi to chip in.  + +SBW also have the luxury of generating enough revenue (we are talking USD millions) in 2H20 from the core scales division, that a capital raising may not actually be necessary at this point in time. So they can wait for a better outcome. + +Source: “Post 30 June 2020, the business has seen a resurgence of orders for Shekel’s products, resulting in July 2020 sales exceeding July 2019 sales by approximately 18%.” + + +The final thing I would like to add (if you have in fact read my other two posts which are worth reading) is coming to an appropriate valuation. This is the tricky part, especially with microcap stocks which are valued on their future potential. + +We do know that there are medium to high barriers to entry, and that SBW have accumulated a competitive edge with their technology iterated over several decades, with certain patents in place. + +We also know that the opportunity is global in scope with a huge total addressable market (TAM) - and that traditional retail is ripe for disruption. + + + + +Remember when there were more human checkout lanes at supermarkets than self-checkout? Now it's the other way around. We are even starting to see self-checkout in Bunnings. The trend for autonomous and friction-less shopping - what some term "Grab & Go" - was inevitable. And coronavirus has only accelerated this trend. + +https://www.ibtimes.com/5-tech-tren...-end-year-result-coronavirus-pandemic-3011819 + +5 Tech Trends Expected To Shape Retail Through The End Of The Year As Result Of The Coronavirus Pandemic + +“Retailers and brands will need to collaborate more than ever with technology startups to futureproof their businesses and be better equipped to meet fast-changing consumer demand and behavior,” Coresight said. + +Coresight reported the pandemic has piqued consumer interest in cashierless models. + +Technology firm Shekel Brainweigh said 87% of respondents to its global consumer survey indicated they would choose stores with self-checkout over those with only cashier lines. +___________________________ + +So if you ask me, when you consider all the different technology projects SBW are working on - most of which we now know are "close to commercialisation*" - is 45m AUD market cap really fair value for something that has the potential to roll out globally? I personally think it is still undervalued, but the market will eventually decide one way or the other. + +Even at 70 cents per share, the implied market cap with only 139 million shares on issue is about ~97 million AUD. Which is still less than 100m. And still quite low when you compare SBW's proven technology and revenue to a lot of unproven technology companies with no real customers whatsoever. And extremely low when you compare SBW's market cap to their collaborative partner Hitachi (ranked 38th in the 2012 Fortune Global 500). + +Even at 32 cents as it currently stands, we are still below the IPO price when SBW first listed at 35 cents per share. How does that make any sense? +Purchased 1,000 APT shares @ $35 dollars and locked in my genius losses at $9.50 only to see the fucker hit $70 last week. + +Surely, this cannot be toppled. +NVA just released an announcement regarding a buy back of shares up to the value of $5mil. + +"The Buy-back is intended to improve shareholder returns, enhance capital efficiency while maintaining the Company's flexibility to pursue growth and other means of generating shareholder value" + +Thoughts moving forward? + +Disclosure: Currently holding NVA + +Hey everyone, making a post on QPM's future in terms of funding and dilution and what the major dilution imminent will result in for shareholder returns and share price. + + +QPM: + + +SP: 12c + +SOI: ~1.75billion + +Market cap: 201.5mil + + + +QPM share price has been smashed since the release of it's DFS on the 28th of November, the share price going from 18c per share to currently sitting on 12c (a 33% drop in value). It's no big shocker this is due to the stated capex being a massive A$2.1Bil, compared to the A$554mil quoted in the PFS. Which is a huge increase even taking into account the 2.7x increase in wet tonnes per annum of ore produced, requested by offtake partners. + + + +Funding + + + +According to the recent DFS amendment, QPM is currently at the following stage in terms of debt financing: + + + +~A$65mill - General motors + +A$250mill - Export Finance Australia (conditional commitment) + +$???mill - Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (due diligence stage) + +$???mil K-sure (formal expression of interest) + +Letters of interest from 2 other export credit agencies and 9 Australia and international commercial banks + + + +This leaves alot unclear in terms of what percentage of the capex will be funded by debt and how much will be required to raise. I'm going to assume $1 billion is funded via debt (worst case scenario imo) and the rest by cap raises. This is really just an educated guess and the amount actually funded by debt is pretty unpredictable. + + + +So assuming $1 billion that leaves $1.1 billion required by to be funded via equity. Sounds like a scary number, but when you run the calculations, this amount of dilution still has surprisingly good returns. The overall dilution is obviously hugely affected by the price at which the the raises occur. Raising at 10c per share increases SOI far more significantly than raising at 20c per share does. + + + +I'm doing the calculations assuming the shares are raised at 10c (worst case scenario imo), 15c and 20c. + + + +Raising at 10c per share results in a required 11 Billion shares be issued. Increasing the SOI from 1,746,347,922 to 12,746,347,922. The DFS quotes an EBITDA of $1.042 Billion (base case), or $729.4mil after tax. Using this number you get an eps of ~$0.0572. This results in the following valuations: + + + +PE 10: 57c per share + +PE 14: 80c per share + +PE 18: $1.03 per share + + + +Raising at 15c per share using same calculation method: + + + +SOI -> 9.08bil + +EPS -> $0.08 + + + +PE 10: 80c per share + +PE 14: $1.12 per share + +PE 18: $1.45 per share + + + +Raising at 20c: + + + +SOI -> 7.25bil + +EPS -> $0.10 + + + +PE 10: $1.01 + +PE 14: $1.41 + +PE 18: $1.81 + + + +These numbers show big potential for QPM, imo at worst case scenario, despite massive dilution. I still think the capex is a massive obstacle and there is alot of risk in holding QPM, hence why it makes up only a very small portion of my portfolio. Please let me know in the comments anything I have gotten wrong, cheers. +Long story short my wife and I have recently paid off all of our debt, saved a six month emergency fund, saved a down payment for a house we'd like to buy in the next year, and have maxed out our 401ks and HSA's. + +We would now like to start investing. After our fairly comfortable lifestyle we have about $3,000 per month that we could save and/or invest with an additional $10,000 we could use upfront to start our accounts. + +Our question is, as young adults who were in high school/college during the financial crisis of 2008 and on you heard a lot about people "losing their retirements" how exactly did people lose the money they had invested? If the market crashed, couldn't they have just waited until it came back up and by now, twelve years later, would have had even *more* money? + +We understand the power of compounding interest and know that if we buy mutual funds now we would be set when it comes to retirement in 30 or so years. These horror stories are the only things that make us nervous about investing so aggressively. + +Thanks +Historically, the gap between jobs and the labor force has narrowed significantly only during recessions, and as a result, Goldman Sachs believes the Fed's economic soft landing is "on a tough road." + +High-fever inflation in the U.S. is putting increasing pressure on the Fed, and Goldman Sachs sees a 35 percent chance of a recession in the U.S. within the next two years. + +Just this past Sunday, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a research note that it may be difficult for the Fed to achieve a so-called soft landing for the economy. Because the Fed's main challenge now is to close the gap between jobs and the labor force, and by tightening financial policy to slow wage growth to a pace consistent with its 2% inflation target without drastically raising unemployment. + +Historically, such a sharp narrowing of the gap has only occurred during recessions, and as a result, the Fed's economic soft landing "is on a tough road." + +But Jan Hatzius also added that a recession is not inevitable, and the normalization of labor supply and durable goods prices in the post-pandemic era can be a boost for the Fed. Furthermore, many developed countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada, have also embarked on a soft economic landing. + +As for the U.S., of the 14 tightening cycles since World War II, 11 did have recessions within two years, but only 8 of those can be "partly" attributable to Fed tightening. And in recent times, "soft landings" have been more common. Get it right at Jan Hatzius, and the odds of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months are about 15%. + +Before Goldman Sachs, many institutions and well-known investors have expressed the view that the Fed is difficult to complete the economic soft landing. For example, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said after the company's earnings report last week that the risk of the Federal Reserve accidentally pushing the U.S. economy into recession while it is fighting inflation is increasing. Previously, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Summers made another "doomsday prophecy", saying that a U.S. economic recession was inevitable. + +It is also worth mentioning that economists are gradually reaching consensus on the forecast of a recession in the US economy. Relevant survey data show that they predict that the possibility of a recession in the United States in the next 12 months has risen from 20% last month to 27.5% today. +Yes, I know how to trade level 3 options. Yes, I manage my risk effectively. Yes, I make enough to cover my losses without putting my family on the streets. So why is Robinhood taking action? I've filled in the correct information. And why now? I'd appreciate any help. If I were to increase my information, does RH cross reference? + +https://preview.redd.it/6cdf0ju5d0o61.png?width=1486&format=png&auto=webp&s=468af05d9ab914ca638ecc3273cd7b159509c1e8 +I'm sure a lot of us got caught on the wrong end of our wheel because of this crazy run up and are looking at our sold calls like WTF. I mean I thought I was okay with selling for a 50% profit, but looking at that 80% gain I can't bring myself to let it get called away at that discount. I'm sure there will be lot of rolling to a future date hoping price would come down. Any advice in such situations? Wait for theta to eat up the premium before buying back for a lesser loss? +I have 10 short puts @ 21 on PLTR that expire 4/16. I am already slightly over 50% profit. Is there an equation that takes into account volatility and theta to help decide when to take profit or a general thetagang rule of thumb? + +&#x200B; + +edit: should have followed the 50% rule and now I'm living in FOMO land watching my gains vanish before my eyes. I could have bought 10 more at the dip today but now I bag hold. +On Thursday 1/14 I sold 22 Jan $24.50P @ $2.50 x 5. + +Planned on selling it the next day, but didn't. MARA has gone south this week big time. I can be assigned and sell covered calls on the 500 shares. My cost basis at this point would be $22 and I assume it will close tomorrow somewhere close to $17. I know this wasn't such a great idea now but I'm not losing sleep over it, just didn't expect it to crash so quickly. + +Other option is to roll it out. I can roll the CSP to 3/19 and buy it down to $21 and collect an extra $500 in premium. Making my new cost basis $18.50 per share. Not worried about tying up the capital. + +I'm thinking best to be assigned and wait for a green day (assuming one is coming) and then write CC on it. That's just assuming that there are any green days coming and it isn't crashing back to sub $10. + +What would you do? +Hey theta gang, sorry if this has been asked before but the past few months I have not been working (for obvious reasons) and after I made some decent money for the first time ever BUYING options (puts) during the crash, I joined theta gang on March 30th after taking a big loss buying options when the VIX was super high and realized I was on the wrong side of the fence (I bought options for a year, and, I only broke even due to getting very lucky on some early bought SPY puts at the end of Feb) + + At first I did not do much research and thought I was a genius, just selling naked puts and riding them to expiry. Never getting assigned because the market just kept going up. Than, I bought my puts back for a loss to avoid assignement and realized I could have just rolled them and I had some research to do + +I watched tastyworks all day and night and have managed to turn 34k into 66k, just since March 30th. I know this is not typical, the VIX is high and selling puts/put spreads has been like free money with the market going up and up but, + +I have literally been making enough money to pay my bills with this. I recently made a really stupid mistake where I was basically robbed for 7k by (and I say this with some shame) an escort/hooker) + +I was so mad about this I told myself this week I would make it a goal to make it back within two weeks with theta. From Monday to today, I have made over $6200 off put spreads. Now, I still have 3 open that are expiring tomorrow so I could lose some of those gains or I could add about $700 to them. + +I know luck has played a huge role in this and normally option premiums are much cheaper but, I am so happy I joined thetagang and I really feel like this could be a full time gig for me, or, at least a great way to supplement my income. + +I have heard the horror stories about a single trade blowing up someones whole account but I feel like if I stick to spreads where my losses are capped, do my DD and not be greedy such as closing at 40-50% even if I am fairly confident I could ride it to expiry, not playing risky tickers, etc, I can easily add a few grand a month to my income + +Am I delusion because this is just dumb luck? In hindsight, if I dumped that 36k into nearly any stock on March 30th instead of depositing it to my theta account I would be up even more lol so... + +Just want to hear from some experts. I feel like getting 2% a week on a 100k account is very doable even in a low VIX environment +I am a big fan of the Tastytrade team. Their knowledge of options trading is incredible. However, I was blown away when a question came up on how much research do they do on a stock before they take up a position! Mike Butler: "I look at neither of those \[fundamental, TA\] because AMC, GME...." + +[https://youtu.be/isalWRJAX5U?t=1783](https://youtu.be/isalWRJAX5U?t=1783) + +&#x200B; + +What do you guys think? I don't look at fundamentals, but I definitely look at TA to look for support and resistance levels. I'm still a huge fan of them, but wow!, that's crazy. +I sold some covered calls on PLTR Friday morning when the stock was trading for around $18.80. I set the strike $21 for June 18 expiration. PLTR started skyrocketing later on Friday and continues to move up. The current price is $20.46. Of course my CCs are bleeding and already at 73% loss. What would you do? Roll out and up before this becomes ITM? Or wait and hope PLTR will come down again? + +Edit: My cost basis on PLTR is around $25 and so I'd be taking a net loss if I let the stocks called away. +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. +Has anyone tried options on futures. I wonder what happens if naked options expire in the money? Do you get assigned 100 futures contracts. For now I’m just buying selling or shorting /Mes but I can’t find anywhere any information about options on futures? +Just curious, if your account has lots of trades, what do you do? Pull out every 2 weeks? Every 6 months? Every year? What if you’re down money in a 2 week period? + +Thx +Selling options is a concave strategy. If there's an extreme price movement, you can go bust, and extreme movements happen all the time. + +Is it a good idea to buy a long term put when selling puts and a long term call when selling calls? +First of all, sorry for bad english. So, I started investing in stocks in the beginning of last year, but only in Brazilian stocks, since I'm from Brazil. I made about 30% of profit only buying and holding stocks, and I was quite happy with my profits. But when I saw the graphs from the companies I invested converted to dollars, in the long term almost all brazilian companies are trading sideways or dropping in value fast. So I decided to sell all my shares and transfer my money to an USA's broker and only buy american or european stocks. + +Since I started using the american broker, I quickly discovered a thing called """***options***""" that we almost don't trade here in Brazil, so I've been studying it during the last two months. I bought some biweekly calls and lost some money pretty fast and learned the necessary lesson. + +Anyway, that's just some backstory, sorry for the long text. + +I started recently studying the wheel method, but I only have about $250 to "burn" in options (not really burn, I can't just YOLO it on GME for example), so I'm limited to start selling cash covered puts from $2 stocks or cheaper. What do you guys think about this idea? + +And are there $2 stocks worth for doing the wheel? +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. +[(Here's the /r/personalfinance thread.)](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/434ey1/psa_retirement_funds_are_not_locked_up_until_age/) + +I often see people who are interested in early retirement putting most of their retirement savings into taxable accounts because they believe IRAs, 401(k) plans, and other tax-advantaged accounts "lock up" their money until they are 59½. If you are interested in retiring before 59½, this is one of the worst mistakes you can make. + +It's a mistake because the premise isn't true at all. There are many ways you can get access to retirement funds before age 59½ and all without that horrible 10% penalty for early withdrawals. + +(Note that taxable accounts make total sense for some early retirement situations and in many non-retirement situations and this are discussed some more down below.) + +# Some of the ways you can get money out of tax-advantaged accounts to fuel early retirement + +1. **SEPP**: Section 72(t) specifies how you can take distributions received in substantially equal periodic payments (SEPP) without penalties. There are several different methods to calculate how much you can withdraw and stay within the rules (which allow you to decide when you start SEPP if you want less money or more money), but this method is a bit inflexible because you can't modify things until 5 years have passed or you reach the age of 59½ (whichever is longer). Nevertheless, this is often a good choice for early retirees. [Money Crashers has a good article with more information on the topic](http://www.moneycrashers.com/substantially-equal-periodic-payments-sepp-72t-rule/) and there's a [FAQ at the IRS](https://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Retirement-Plans-FAQs-regarding-Substantially-Equal-Periodic-Payments) too. + + SEPP tends to recommended more often for a small number of years prior to age 59½ and it's also a good option when you don't have sufficient Roth IRA or taxable investments to use #2 or #3. It is possible to work around the inflexibility to some extent if you have multiple accounts since SEPP is done (or not done) with each retirement account separately. + + Finally, SEPP from a employer plan requires that you separate from *that* company first, but IRAs do not have that requirement. + +2. **Roth IRA contributions**: If you have a Roth IRA, you can withdraw the portion of your Roth IRA that comes from your contributions without penalty. (Note that you cannot withdraw any earnings penalty-free until 59½, only your own contributions.) + +3. **Set up a Roth IRA ladder**. You set up a series of Traditional IRA to Roth IRA conversions early in your retirement (when you are presumably in a lower tax bracket). After seasoning the money for 5 years, you can withdraw the converted principal from from your Roth IRA without penalty (any earnings from that period of time need to hang out until 59½). [Root of Good](http://rootofgood.com/roth-ira-conversion-ladder-early-retirement/) has a good article on this. + + This is now one of the most popular methods for early retirement. It does require that you have a different method to fund the first 5 years of retirement. A taxable account, Roth accounts, or a 457 would all be good ways to do that. + +4. **Retire after age 55 with a 401(k)**. You can withdraw from a 401(k) if you left that job after age 55 (technically, you just need to be 55 or older in the calendar year in which you leave that job). If most of your money is in IRAs, you can simply move that money into your 401(k) before you leave that job (some 401(k) plans don't allow roll-ins so check first). Note that withdrawal frequency and some other aspects of this are specific to the 401(k) plan. + + If you have self-employment income, you can also use an Individual 401(k) for this, but also make sure that your provider allows roll-ins. + +5. **Be lucky enough to have a 457 plan** with your employer. After leaving a job, there is simply no 10% penalty for early withdrawals. 457 plans are only available for some government and certain non-governmental employers (generally just some non-profits), but they are a great option if you have access. + +6. **An HSA can be used like an IRA** if you keep your receipts (requires actually having medical expenses prior to age 65, of course). Using an HSA like this is discussed more at [Free Money Finance](http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/08/using-your-heal.html) and [Mad Fientist](http://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/). + +# Other exceptions + +The IRS lets you withdraw penalty-free from an IRA for a few reasons unrelated to retirement: + +1. $10,000 can be withdrawn for the purchase of a new home. + +2. You can spend money on qualified education expenses for yourself, your spouse, children, or grandchildren. + +3. Hardship withdrawals: qualifying for these is difficult, but it is possible to withdraw penalty-free for excessive medical costs, medical insurance premiums while unemployed, total and permanent disability, and, well, if you die, your beneficiaries can withdraw without penalty. + +# Additional advantages of tax-advantaged accounts + +1. IRAs, 401(k) accounts, and other qualified accounts are much more protected from creditors in the case of bankruptcies and lawsuits. The protections tend to be strongest for employer 401(k) plans, followed by individual 401(k) plans, and then IRAs. (Protections for individual accounts varies depending on your state.) All are much more protected than taxable accounts. + +2. Rebalancing is a bitch. Want to exchange some of one mutual fund and buy another in a tax-advantaged account? Easy. No capital gains taxes. Do this in a taxable account and you need to worry about capital gains taxes, holding periods, etc. + +# What are some situations in which taxable investing makes sense? + +There are actually times when taxable investing makes more sense than using tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Not everyone wants to retire early and there is more to life than retirement too. + +You *should* be using a taxable account for these situations: + +1. If you've maxed out your tax-advantaged options, taxable is your only option. +2. If you are saving for major expenses that you'll incur before retirement (examples: buying a car or a home), taxable accounts are the way to go! Use savings or CDs if you're only 1-3 years away from a purchase and a conservative mix of stock and bond funds for longer periods of time. +3. If you have no plans to retire early and are on schedule or are ahead of schedule for retirement savings, you can go either way (taxable or tax-advantaged). It's up to you. + +Note: Your emergency fund and short-term savings should generally be kept in checking, savings, or CDs. + +edit: Clarified the SEPP rules and the 457 rules. +[(Here's the /r/personalfinance thread.)](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/434ey1/psa_retirement_funds_are_not_locked_up_until_age/) + +I often see people who are interested in early retirement putting most of their retirement savings into taxable accounts because they believe IRAs, 401(k) plans, and other tax-advantaged accounts "lock up" their money until they are 59½. If you are interested in retiring before 59½, this is one of the worst mistakes you can make. + +It's a mistake because the premise isn't true at all. There are many ways you can get access to retirement funds before age 59½ and all without that horrible 10% penalty for early withdrawals. + +(Note that taxable accounts make total sense for some early retirement situations and in many non-retirement situations and this are discussed some more down below.) + +# Some of the ways you can get money out of tax-advantaged accounts to fuel early retirement + +1. **SEPP**: Section 72(t) specifies how you can take distributions received in substantially equal periodic payments (SEPP) without penalties. There are several different methods to calculate how much you can withdraw and stay within the rules (which allow you to decide when you start SEPP if you want less money or more money), but this method is a bit inflexible because you can't modify things until 5 years have passed or you reach the age of 59½ (whichever is longer). Nevertheless, this is often a good choice for early retirees. [Money Crashers has a good article with more information on the topic](http://www.moneycrashers.com/substantially-equal-periodic-payments-sepp-72t-rule/) and there's a [FAQ at the IRS](https://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Retirement-Plans-FAQs-regarding-Substantially-Equal-Periodic-Payments) too. + + SEPP tends to recommended more often for a small number of years prior to age 59½ and it's also a good option when you don't have sufficient Roth IRA or taxable investments to use #2 or #3. It is possible to work around the inflexibility to some extent if you have multiple accounts since SEPP is done (or not done) with each retirement account separately. + + Finally, SEPP from a employer plan requires that you separate from *that* company first, but IRAs do not have that requirement. + +2. **Roth IRA contributions**: If you have a Roth IRA, you can withdraw the portion of your Roth IRA that comes from your contributions without penalty. (Note that you cannot withdraw any earnings penalty-free until 59½, only your own contributions.) + +3. **Set up a Roth IRA ladder**. You set up a series of Traditional IRA to Roth IRA conversions early in your retirement (when you are presumably in a lower tax bracket). After seasoning the money for 5 years, you can withdraw the converted principal from from your Roth IRA without penalty (any earnings from that period of time need to hang out until 59½). [Root of Good](http://rootofgood.com/roth-ira-conversion-ladder-early-retirement/) has a good article on this. + + This is now one of the most popular methods for early retirement. It does require that you have a different method to fund the first 5 years of retirement. A taxable account, Roth accounts, or a 457 would all be good ways to do that. + +4. **Retire after age 55 with a 401(k)**. You can withdraw from a 401(k) if you left that job after age 55 (technically, you just need to be 55 or older in the calendar year in which you leave that job). If most of your money is in IRAs, you can simply move that money into your 401(k) before you leave that job (some 401(k) plans don't allow roll-ins so check first). Note that withdrawal frequency and some other aspects of this are specific to the 401(k) plan. + + If you have self-employment income, you can also use an Individual 401(k) for this, but also make sure that your provider allows roll-ins. + +5. **Be lucky enough to have a 457 plan** with your employer. After leaving a job, there is simply no 10% penalty for early withdrawals. 457 plans are only available for some government and certain non-governmental employers (generally just some non-profits), but they are a great option if you have access. + +6. **An HSA can be used like an IRA** if you keep your receipts (requires actually having medical expenses prior to age 65, of course). Using an HSA like this is discussed more at [Free Money Finance](http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/08/using-your-heal.html) and [Mad Fientist](http://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/). + +# Other exceptions + +The IRS lets you withdraw penalty-free from an IRA for a few reasons unrelated to retirement: + +1. $10,000 can be withdrawn for the purchase of a new home. + +2. You can spend money on qualified education expenses for yourself, your spouse, children, or grandchildren. + +3. Hardship withdrawals: qualifying for these is difficult, but it is possible to withdraw penalty-free for excessive medical costs, medical insurance premiums while unemployed, total and permanent disability, and, well, if you die, your beneficiaries can withdraw without penalty. + +# Additional advantages of tax-advantaged accounts + +1. IRAs, 401(k) accounts, and other qualified accounts are much more protected from creditors in the case of bankruptcies and lawsuits. The protections tend to be strongest for employer 401(k) plans, followed by individual 401(k) plans, and then IRAs. (Protections for individual accounts varies depending on your state.) All are much more protected than taxable accounts. + +2. Rebalancing is a bitch. Want to exchange some of one mutual fund and buy another in a tax-advantaged account? Easy. No capital gains taxes. Do this in a taxable account and you need to worry about capital gains taxes, holding periods, etc. + +# What are some situations in which taxable investing makes sense? + +There are actually times when taxable investing makes more sense than using tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Not everyone wants to retire early and there is more to life than retirement too. + +You *should* be using a taxable account for these situations: + +1. If you've maxed out your tax-advantaged options, taxable is your only option. +2. If you are saving for major expenses that you'll incur before retirement (examples: buying a car or a home), taxable accounts are the way to go! Use savings or CDs if you're only 1-3 years away from a purchase and a conservative mix of stock and bond funds for longer periods of time. +3. If you have no plans to retire early and are on schedule or are ahead of schedule for retirement savings, you can go either way (taxable or tax-advantaged). It's up to you. + +Note: Your emergency fund and short-term savings should generally be kept in checking, savings, or CDs. + +edit: Clarified the SEPP rules and the 457 rules. +**So if you are here for a lotto jackpot 20x position. downvote this and move along. But if, you are here and looking for a sustainable way to generate cash, keep reading.** + +First, There isn't any good in being perma bears or bulls that is so fucking stupid the only gang that you want to join is **PRINTING GANG**. + +Second, This is what I made today [+1,193.36](https://i.imgur.com/zPHP6fv.jpg), you see how I only make 1 trade? I don't see any entry point so I didn't do anything all day, Sometime BEST POSITION IS NO POSITION and This year so far [+$425,443.23](https://i.imgur.com/AJpVbm1.png) which on average I made 3.42% per trade so **DON'T GET FUCKING GREEDY** and **TAKE THE MOTHERFUCKING PROFIT**. Not every trade is a win, you can't win them all but if you can make 3.5% per trade and you do that 20 times in a day. You will double your initial money. I did that many times [Sample 1](https://i.imgur.com/4bAg7BQ.jpg) [Sample 2] (https://i.imgur.com/4RsOUtZ.jpg). + +Third, During high VIX time. The only 2 ways to make money which either YOU SELL THE OPTIONS or YOU DAY TRADE. If you don't have $25k then I'm sorry this game is not for you. + +Fourth, I have day traded options for about 14 years since I was 22. Right now the market is **ONCE IN A LIFETIME** opportunity. Like my man EMINEM once said *"Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity, To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, Would you capture it, or just let it slip? Yo"* so don't let it fucking slip. + +**DO** + + - Get in and get out don't be fucking greedy. + - Have an entry and exit price in mind before you open the fucking trade. So learn how to cut losses and take the profit. + - If you made a bad trade. Get the fuck out, cut losses and try again, Don't fucking bagholding it and pray. God is not real. Santa is also not real. + - Learn your greeks if you don't know what it is just fucking BING IT. + - Once you have closed your position. Just fucking forget about it. Don't look back. Move on to the next trade. HINDSIGT IS ALWAYS 20/20. + - Keep in your mind that if you trading options without any underlying then you are **GAMBLING**. This is not investing and stop calling your bankroll "portfolio". + - If you are degenerate gambler like me this is what I do with my bankroll. I put whatever I feel comfortable losing in my trading account. The rest I keep in my checking account (separate institution). So when my retard brain tell me to do stupid shit, I don't lost it all. By the time I need to move more money into my bankroll, my head will be cleared (hopefully) and stop doing stupid shit. + +**DON'T** + + - **DON'T GAMBLE MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE** It's sad that I have to say this. Use the fucking money on important first, rent, mortgage, car payment, food, etc. + - DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT be **H**orrified **O**f **M**issing **O**ut. Just remember that it is better making no money than losing money so assess the market before make a fucking trade. + - Don't fucking all in, this is not a world poker series. There is no such a thing as a sure trade. + - Don't take any DD with face vaule. DO YOUR OWN FUCKING RESEARCH. DD on here is just your starting point. It stands for DUE DILIGENCE for christ sake not DONE DEAL. + - If you win on one trade. It is already your money. Don't use your tard brain and think that now you are gambling with a house money. + - Don't be a MONEY HATER person. Let's say your position drop 50%, assess it. Imagine that if you have the money now, Would you get in to this position at this market price. If the answer is no, then cut the loss and exit the position. **IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PAID FOR IT** What matter is what it will be in the future. + - Stop using fucking robinhood and use any real broker. I use Charlie's most of my trading friend use IBKR + - Don't be fucking poor go find $25,000 and day trade if you don't have $25,000 then go live your live until you have it. + + +**THE BS** + + - Yeah you head it before "Scared money don't make no money" but what if I tell you "Stupid money also don't make no money" So please DD before you get in any position. + - **DIAMOND HAND** is fucking **STUPID** concept. Get that out of your system, STAT! If you think your position will loss value and you will just diamond hand through it, don't you dumb fuck. Just sell and buy back when it is cheaper! + - NOONE fucking knows where the market will go. I repeat NOONE! So don't fucking fall for the scam. + - TA is standing for Technical Astrology so if you need a book I recommend [this one](https://www.amazon.com/Only-Astrology-Book-Youll-Ever-ebook/dp/B00578T33K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=L0R6GAADG2J8&dchild=1&keywords=astrology+for+beginners&qid=1586368924&sprefix=astrology+for+beg%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-3). + - What goes up might not come down. What went down might not come up. YES I AM TALKING TO YOU JNUGGER! + +**FAQ** + +Do you use stop loss and profit exit? + + - Yes, Stop at 7% and exit at 5% but most of the time I exit or cut loss before it hits. Except for the position I open at EOD. + +What indicator do you use? + + - Macro economic news and trade from experience (ie just wing it). I DON'T USE TA. Just RSI and Volume. + +Who the fuck use bing? + + - I do because it is free money [BING REWARD MOTHERFUCKER!](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/rewards?rtc=1) + +It easy for you coz you have the money. + + - I immigrated to the US when I was 15 with $100 my uncle gave me. Did not go to highschool and busing tables when I was 17. So everyone starts somewhere. + +What is your next move? + + - Doggy style on your mom. Do you own fucking DD. + +Can I pay you to guide/mentor me? + + - Holy fuck no! I will create a trading group though, $1500/mo and will name it "FALSE TRADING GROUP". + +What should I do with this xxxx positions? + + - Shove it up your ass. + +Ban and Fuck you! + + - Hey, Fuck you too. + +Good fucking luck and Happy Gambling + +ps. make all the $60k joke I lost last year all you want but for all 14 years I only have 3 negative years which are the first two and last year. +I switched to Chase bank several months ago, and when I did I asked to order a few packets of checks. They asked why, I said for rent. They told me about this new auto-bill pay thing they have where they will mail the check for me instead. And to protect my privacy they move the funds into a temporary account, so no bank fraud would be possible. + +Well the first month this was to happen, they check never showed up at the leasing office. But the money left my account to go to the temporary one. We get the money together to make sure our rent is paid, but that money has just vanished into the ether apparently. I've contacted Chase and they assigned a representative to my case, but this was over a month ago and there has been no resolution. How should I approach the bank about getting this kind of issue resolved? I'm a grad student, and kind of poor, so a month of rent money missing is an unwanted hassle. +hi, im in the uk and heating bills went up 54% yesterday for the country and are set to go up again in October. + +every page i look at tells me to get my boiler serviced or change my thermostat, it all seems like a sales pitch and I'm a student living in a rent house, none of these are practical options for me. + +has anyone got any tips on how to keep warm/ keep a house warm for longer without having the heating on all of the time. cheap to implement or DIY tips are appreciated because im really stressing out about this and nowhere I look is being helpful + +thanks in advance +So, my landlord has upped the rent at the end of our last 12 month contract and basically told me that once the new 12 month contract is up he’ll be looking to sell the house. He’s not kicking us out or anything, just giving us a heads up what his plans are. We’ve agreed that he’ll give us first refusal if we want to buy it from him which is absolutely something we’d love to do. + +I completed an IVA around 4 months ago, credit score is 940 on experian. Wife’s credit score is somehow lower than mine at 890. We have zero debts or finance agreements of any kind and currently have £7500(ish) in our savings account. + +I earn £24,000 per year and she earns £22,009 and the house is worth something like £175k based off what other houses on the road have gone for recently. + +I’d love to get a mortgage and buy the house, we’ve lived here 6 years and love it. On top of our savings my in-laws have offered to lend us whatever we need for a deposit, so probably £10k off them that we’d have to pay back in regular instalments. + +Are we likely to be knocked back for a mortgage because of my IVA? Or do we just not earn enough for a £175k house regardless of being able to provide a £17.5k deposit. I’ve got 12 months to improve my chances so any advice would be greatly appreciated. +My friend has been gambling pretty intensely for the past 6 months. He goes through dark periods where he's down by £1000 and is crazy depressed, and bright periods where he is on a high after a £300 win. The guy is only young (21) with his whole life ahead of him and good career prospects, but he constantly lives for the high of the 'next big win' - not understanding he is digging a deeper and deeper hole. + +I can't stand by and watch him spiral into a really bad place - I feel like it can be rescued at the moment and as his close friend I want to try help him. + +Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I've tried talking to him but he just brushes it off. +So i'm a young guy and i've been reading about the huge tax benefits of investing in rental real estate. I know depreciation is a huge tax cut in most developed countries, and if you use debt, you can get passive income, along with these tax cuts, which just recycles more money into your income, then of course you can use the 1031 exchange to move on up to more and more profitable properties. I do have some questions about how this works though. + +&#x200B; + +1: Should you use an LLC to buy the property, or just buy it personally? are there tax benefits to either? + +2: can you start a company with the sole purpose of buying real estate for passive income? + +3: I already own a small local service business, could I buy rental real estate under my current business, or would i have to start a new LLC like the example above? +Hi. I am a single woman, and I am thinking about buying rental properties. The only thing I am worried about with having rental properties is that if something needs fixing, big or small, what do I do? If it's something small like their faucet is leaking, I guess I can find a handy man. But how much do I pay him? for parts and labor? maintenance is the only thing stopping me from going into the landlord business. Does anyone on here have rental properties and do not do any maintenance themselves but hire others to do jobs big and small? Do you have any advice for me? +I have a bad real estate partner, 50/50 LLC ownership who wants to take all the good real estate deals I find for his personal gain and not for our LLC partnership. He’s Always lying, deceiving, greedy and lazy. We own a number of properties together, office with garage, a house and a number of vacant builders lots. Has anyone dissolved an LLC? If so what was the outcome? +Thanks +I recently visited Puerto Vallarta and I love it. I think it's a great place to invest in a vacation home + airbnb pad. The only problem is that I don't really know how to find decent homes. I want to find a single or multi family home but craigslist is rather sparse, zillow is non existent, and all the real estate agencies seem like they're only interested in selling massive upscale resort like homes and condos (I would too if I were them, unfortunately I'm trying to see if I can find a place in a more affordable range of ~200k). + +Everyone seems to recommend going there and talking to people. So I'm doing my best to learn spanish in order to do so, but it's certainly going to take me a while before I'm proficient enough. So I'm looking for alternatives until then. + +Anyone know how to best go about this (outside of saying "you really just gotta talk to people")? +Tl;dr How do I market my rental to investors? Current rent suggests it’s a could be a good investment even at a price much higher than I paid just 2 years ago. + +Thank you for replies to my previous post. In summary, I paid 70k for a house 2 years ago and am renting it now for $978/month. I suspect I could’ve asked for higher rent because I had 100+ inquiries online. + +I understand the limitations of different calculations to evaluate a property, but just using the back of an envelope, this level of rent would suggest house could be worth ~95k to a different investor. + +25k profit right now is appealing to me vs risks/hassles of landlording. Assuming 7% return in stock market, this 25k becomes 50k in 10 years vs 4K/year rental profit=40k (yes, I realize this excludes future sale profits and rent increases, but it also excludes capex, maintenance, vacancies and my time/effort - it also assumes stock market follows non-COVID historical trends). I have already been considering selling in 3 years anyway to avoid capital gains since I previously lived there. + +House is 100 yrs old, only 700 sq ft and 2 bedrooms which is unappealing to new home owners (but seems to be less so to renters). So my question is, how can I market this home to an investor who is looking to take over a lease with an established tenant? Would you post to MLS and include projected capex as a way of attracting attention? Is there a way to avoid paying 6% to agents? + +Thanks for your help - would be interested to hear both suggestions for marketing and if there are any major flaws in my maths (I realize they are filled with assumptions that could sway the benefit/risk in either direction) +Ya on my day off got woken up at 4( just hung up), then again at 7. He apparently spent the night at a coffee shop. + +Either way thank fuck for uber, sent the key and made him pay the uber and make more copies. + +Its not all roses being a landlord. + +This tenant is my more à problem tenant, asked to break his lease ect should I let him go? Renewals are 1 August here would have to find a new tenant or deal with his bs till then. + +He's broken 2 doors, does some sketchy DIY shit, and on some drug I'm guessing meth, but he cleans up better than other tenants. +Hello everyone. Me and my spouse have $200k in cash, located in Metro Atl, GA. We do not currently own any real estate. I want to put $100k down on a small multi family property and $100k down on the primary residence. I have a few questions: + +Which one should I buy first? Primary residence or investment property? I have found potential houses for both. + +Should I only put me on one mortgage and only spouse on the other (both have good income and credit)? In hopes of getting better debt-to-income ratio for each property or does this not matter? + +Should I use the same real estate and mortgage broker on both properties? + +Thank you in advance for your time and answers. +Looking for your opinion if this is a smart move or not based on my current situation please. + +I am 33 and make around 110k-120k per year before taxes in San Diego, CA. I qualify under the cares act to pull out of my 401k & 457b plans without the 10% penalty. + +Current assets are 100k between my three retirement accounts (401k, 457b, and roth ira) and a rental condo that's worth $330,000 that I owe $187,000 on. I also have around 25k in my emergency fund in cash. I'm currently renting a place that only costs me $1000 per month which is why I'm renting out my condo since that cash flows $350 per month. I also have a pension at work that will pay me 3% of my salary per year that I work that I can start drawing from at the age of 50. No debt besides the mortgage on the rental condo and no children. + +The idea is to pull the 65k out of my two accounts and possibly the 35k out of my roth ira as well and buy a rental property either in the San Diego area or somewhere within driving distance. Depending on where the numbers make sense with a 20% down payment. + +I always hear it's dumb to steal from your future but that's only if you cash out your accounts and do something stupid like buy a new car or some other consumption. I would be "stealing" from my future to make a lateral move into something else for my future. I could either buy something now and take advantage of the super low interest rates or simply hold the cash and wait to see if the housing market drops at all in the next few years. + +Also curious if its smart to just pay all the taxes in 2020 that this triggers or spread it out over the 3 years the cares act allows for. + +Thoughts? Other ideas? + +Thank you so much! +After reading a comment in another post, I thought I’d take a proper look into a junior SIPP for my 11 month old daughter. + +With 7% growth, putting £2,800 (topped up to £3,600 by the government) into a junior SIPP for the next 4 years would give a pot of ~£930k by the time my daughter turns 60. + +I’m struggling to see how this is a bad idea? Whilst I understand giving money to her in her twenties (house deposit etc) will be more useful than a lump sum in her 60s, I can’t stop from seeing the benefit of having the security of a large pension pot. With 7% growth, our 4 year investment of £11,520 will either be worth ~£40k in 20 years, or ~£930k in years. + +For context, we are already paying monthly into a junior S&S ISA, and will continue to do so until she becomes an adult. +I think my initial post got removed, so trying again. + + I am currently in the early stages of separating from my wife, which is 100% her decision. Completely blindside so totally lost at the moment. We are now trying to figure out how to do that, seeing as our finances are so intertwined and also really bad. We live month to month. No savings. + +Salaries - £35k (me), £24k (wife) + +I'll try breakdown some figures:- + +Mortgage - £36k left (4 yrs) - both of us - monthly payment £759 + +Unsecured Loan - £24k left (5 yrs) - me monthly payment £518 + +Unsecured Loan £8k (4yrs left) - wife monthly payment £165 + +4 Credit cards - £27k (me) - monthly payment £700 + +2 credit cards - £7k (wife) - monthly payment £125 + +We have a kid who is in further education, so really needs to stay in our current house so I feel selling is not an option.