diff --git "a/reddit_finance_43_250k_403.txt" "b/reddit_finance_43_250k_403.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/reddit_finance_43_250k_403.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,10000 @@ +We’ve all been newbies at one point and in our community it’s important to share the knowledge. Thats why I am wondering what is your best lifehack in crypto that you would like to share with new people and veterans here alike. + +In a year since Ive been here I found out a lot of stuff that made my life in crypto easier. + +The one I want to emphasize is bookmarking the addresses of the exchange you are using or the defi sites that you use. There are a lot of scam sites nowadays and its very easy to mistype coimbase or bibance or whatever. + +What are your lifehacks that youd like to share? +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. +Isaac Newton is known as being one of the biggest smart smarts in history. + +But did you know he secretly wrote about the GME rocket ship in his work "*Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica*", 297 years before Gamestop was founded? + +&#x200B; + +That means ***he was even smarter than we thought***, and here's the proof: + +&#x200B; + +𝕹𝖊𝖜𝖙𝖔𝖓'𝖘 𝕷𝖆𝖜 𝖔𝖋 𝖀𝖓𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖑 𝕲𝖗𝖆𝖛𝖎𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 (𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓐𝓹𝓮 𝓛𝓪𝔀) + +Newton stated that there was a universal law of gravity, and many interpreted his writings as a way to calculate the force of gravity on Earth. + +Looking at his equations, they assumed he was speaking of things like mass, radii, and acceleration: + +>gₑ = GMₑ/Rₑ² + +&#x200B; + +They took this to mean that the gravitational constant of Earth was 9.8 m/s² and thought that they were the equally smart smarts for understanding Newton's work: + +>gₑ = (6.67 \* 10⁻¹¹ N•m²/kg²)(6.0\*10²⁴ kg(/(6.4\*10⁶m)² +> +>gₑ = 9.8 m/s² + +&#x200B; + +However, while this interpretation was heralded as a breakthrough in physics, it was WRONG, and they were actually 𝕭𝖎𝖌 𝕯𝖚𝖒𝖇 𝕯𝖚𝖒𝖇𝖘 who misunderstood what Newton was saying. + +To understand what he really meant by the equation: + +>gₑ = GMₑ/Rₑ² + +&#x200B; + +We have to do a bit of re-arranging, because he didn't want his secret code to be found out too easily: + +>GMₑ= gₑ \* Rₑ² + +&#x200B; + +Next, we have to change the little "ₑ's and g's" to big "E's and G's" since Newton wasn't a small minded hedgie: + +>GME = GE \* RE² + +&#x200B; + +See what that says??? [🤯](https://emojipedia.org/exploding-head/) [🤯](https://emojipedia.org/exploding-head/) [🤯](https://emojipedia.org/exploding-head/) [🤯](https://emojipedia.org/exploding-head/) + +&#x200B; + +Newton's target price for GME was the price of GE, multiplied by the squared price of Everest Re Group Ltd (Ticker: RE). + +&#x200B; + +That gives us a target price for GME of: + +>GME = $13.01 \* $243.29² +> +>***GME = $770,062*** + +&#x200B; + +So there you have it, Newton's secret code has been given to us. + +&#x200B; + +His Law of Universal Gravitation was never about forces that would pull things down to Earth, it was about things that would rocket past the moon [🚀](https://emojipedia.org/rocket/) [🚀](https://emojipedia.org/rocket/) [🚀](https://emojipedia.org/rocket/) + +&#x200B; + +𝓠.𝓔.𝓓 (𝖖𝖚𝖔𝖉 𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖙 𝖉𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖚𝖒𝖇𝖉𝖚𝖒𝖇𝖘) + +&#x200B; + +Sources: + +* [https://www.orange.k12.nj.us/cms/lib/NJ01000601/Centricity/Domain/15/Universal\_Gravitation\_v\_1-1.3.pdf](https://www.orange.k12.nj.us/cms/lib/NJ01000601/Centricity/Domain/15/Universal_Gravitation_v_1-1.3.pdf) +* [https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html) +I need some help I’m 45 with no college degree. I’ve been a cop then desk detective all my life making very low wages ( last years w2 was 35k). Now I have to move for family reasons and due to my age I’m not eligible to continue this line of work in another state. I don’t know what to do and I’m freaking out. + +My wife suggested I get an associates and possibly bachelors degree and work part time to cover the costs but I’m not very book smart. I was in the dumb classes in school but at my job I’m the best with judges and lawyers asking my advice. Is there a degree or job that isn’t manual labor for someone like me? + +I’ve looked into courthouse jobs or county clerk jobs but almost all gov jobs now require a degree (any field). I’ve called to ask about bypassing that with my experience but have had no luck. I hate that I need a piece of paper to get a job I’ve been doing for 25 years. I feel so hopeless and hoped this community had some ideas. +(REUTERS) …Assuming Berkshire hasn’t sold any shares, the value of its 5.3 percent Apple stake fell to about $36 billion on Thursday, from $57.6 billion on Sept. 30. + +https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-apple-stocks-berkshire/apple-plunge-deepens-warren-buffetts-book-value-woes-idUKKCN1OX1MN +I went all in on monday. I sold my $4 $FIT calls that I placed back in august, took all the profit and put in in $TSLA calls 535 1/17. I was living the life tuesday. I could see the future, lots of drugs and escorts, even my own yacht. I was even ready to drop out of college. Then yesterday happened. I went from ordering the highest priced escort in my area to researching what bridge in my area is the highest. This was my first time doing a YOLO and holy shit it feels good. My dad always called me a retard and now I know he’s not wrong. Can’t tell if I love or hate this lifestyle but something about it just feels right. +so my portfolio is up 37% since i started investing in august.... many of my holdings now have increased 80%+. such as ENPH and NET...I dont have a ton of money invested and now i am kinda at a crossroads because i expected and wanted to keep my money invested for at least 2 years. + +&#x200B; + +anyone else? advice? +Title sort of says it all. Wife and I started working at 18 making respectable salaries in a family owned business, both of us contributed max to both our IRAs, 401ks a little in HSAs etc. After the market bull over the past few years we went from "maybe we can retire" to "Oh fuck yeah.... we can retire" BUT logistically speaking we don't know if we've screwed ourselves with these tax advantaged accounts. We have a lot of money, but it is ALL in 401k/IRA accounts. We own a home, a couple shitty hondas and have an emergency fund, but everything else is in a tax advantaged account that is seemingly untouchable without penalty until we're too old to enjoy the wealth we've built. I know we can take out 10k/year from our roth IRAs every year or something like that? But that obviously isn't enough to live off of. We'll NEED 40k/year and WANT 60k/year so we can spend a lot of time vacationing. + +Any advice would be great. This is a last ditch effort before hiring a financial planner or something. I think we fucked up and are going to be working for 5-10 more years. +So my wife and I were doing our budget and then we wanted to calculate our savings rate. But then the question came up of “what do you count as savings?” Do you count the principal on the mortgage? Is it a ratio of your gross or net income? Do you include investments? + +Example: +Household gross income: 120k; +Household net income: 100k; +Mortgage: 25k (15k principal + 10k interest); +Living expenses: 50k; +Stock investments: 15k; +Remaining: 10k; + +What would the savings rate percentage be? +I think we may be about to witness the greatest financial judo move in recorded history: **Musk will make Tesla private and bury the Shorts, using their own money**. It will not cost him a dime. Detailed explanation below: + +Why is this even conceivable? Because Tesla is the most shorted stock ever. There are more shorts to cover than shareholders who would prefer to cash-out at $420. + +[Some TSLA data](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/key-statistics/): + +* Shares outstanding: 171M +* Float: 127M shares, of which: + * Musk: [34M shares](https://www.nasdaq.com/quotes/insiders/musk-elon-831665) + * Institutionals: 81M shares. + + Almost all of them (above 70M shares) are not prohibited from holding shares in a private company. + * Other (incl retail investors): 12M shares. + + + Note there aren't enough of those to significantly change the picture. + +* Short interest: [35M shares](https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/short-interest) + +Now let's *assume*: + +* This is real. Elon actually has someone willing to buy out any shareholder who doesn't want to, or cannot, go private, at $420. +* Most institutional investors will chose to remain with the privatized Tesla and not exit at $420. +* The board approves, and it goes to a shareholder vote, with a guaranteed 2/3rd majority of Musk and almost all the top institutionals. + +What will happen? + +* You have 35M shorts to cover. Less than 35M shares to do that. Nobody will sell for less than the 420 they know they'll get anyway. Result: [Volkswagen-style short squeeze](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen/short-sellers-make-vw-the-worlds-priciest-firm-idUSTRE49R3I920081028). +* Anybody who wants out can sell during the short squeeze. +* If the squeeze goes high enough, some shareholders may change their mind and sell anyway. Probably all the shorts will be covered, but significantly north of 420. +* The only shareholders remaining after the squeeze are those who want to take their stocks into the private stage. + +Result: There are no shareholders left that need to be bought out at $420. The short squeeze took care of those. Tesla goes private. Cost to Musk: ZERO. + +A classic judo move - use your opponent's momentum against them. + +I realize the above scenario sounds insane. But the logic is sound. Even if more institutionals want out, the short squeeze will take care of most of them, and the actual cost of privatization will be a small fraction of TSLA's valuation. + +If you think this is BS, please explain why. +We're all seeing the ads on the front page for various businesses that accept bitcoin, and I'm starting to feel like some smartass is preparing, even as we speak, a post with a link to /r/HailCorporate about it. This post will surely claim that it's blatant advertising and saying we should go back to talking about ASICs and paper wallets and Gox and so on. + +To nip this surely impending post in the bud, I say: **no, let's not stop anything at all**. This is exactly what we need to see: an explosion of new bitcoin-related services cropping up at an exponentially increasing rate out of nowhere. It's insane to see how many new services accept bitcoin of all kinds, and as a musician, I'm particularly glad to have discovered the music downloads on coindl.com. I want to see more stuff like this, and I want to see more about the now-becoming-obvious "Bitcoin-economy boom" that seems to be starting up. + +So to the smartass who's preparing to make that post saying "you know guys, it's cool that there are new services that accept bitcoins and stuff, but do we really need to have them advertising on the front page about it" - **YES!** That's exactly what we need. + +This is the most awesome fucking development of 2013 by a huge margin, and we all would benefit a great deal from getting a handle on exactly what markets are jumping onto bitcoin and which ones aren't. + +My two ฿! + +EDIT: I accidentally grammar +After reading a number of these posts this morning, I felt the need to chime in. + +I've personally known many very wealthy people in my life - Some that made their money all at once, some over time, quite a few that inherited it. The way they made their money range from either being business owners, investors, or just plain luck. + +First off, even if you have $10 million, guess what, you can burn through that very damn fast. So get it out of your head that if you got a major windfall from BTC that magically your done for life. Cashflow is actually way more important than anything when it comes to wealth. Even a number of poorly placed financial decisions can evaporate a great deal of wealth. + +I know, off the top of my head, 2 different couples that both burned through a lot of money, one $10 million, other $8.5 million - one did it in less than 7 years. One couple got divorced over the money. Today, one spouse now working as a bank teller and the other as an insurance agent. They've told me they still find it hard to believe they had so much money and that now they're doing a job that pays $50k/yr. + +I know another person that's worth over $100 million, he says that he envy's the workers in his office with modest means. His wife cares only about the money and his kids are the same way. Holidays and family gatherings he spends alone. + +Are all rich and/or wealthy people this way? No, but I will say, the money will not fix your personal problems or just all of a sudden make you and those around you happier. Why do you think many rich and wealthy continue working and earning? Because it's boring as shit to sit around all day. + +You know what I think is more important than money? Health, purpose, meaningful relationships and just doing good for yourself and your family. It'd be great to taste the sweet rich life that we're told we should want, but life is so much more than that. + +Money does not define who you are. If you don't have regrets in life then you've been sleeping the whole time. Learn to get over it quickly. Don't underestimate yourself and push yourself in life. You may just wake up and find you have the wealth you desired, with the skills necessary to retain it. + +Some more reasonable advice: + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI + + +It seems private equity funds usually have their 5 year horizon in which they get paid at the end after selling off their holdings and returning their money to their partners. In hedge funds though when they charge their 2% management fee and 20% on gains how do they fund these fees? Do they collect these fees at the end of the fund or do they sell some of their holdings at the end of each year to collect their fees? I feel like the latter option would diminish the returns for the clients as it would be taking out capital earlier that could be growing until the end of the fund. I have tried to research this everywhere but the only articles I can find basically explain the 2 and 20 structure that I'm already familiar with. +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? +Better Markets on Twitter: + +https://i.imgur.com/JncyzfZ.jpg + +Link to tweet: + +https://twitter.com/BetterMarkets/status/1589741702054522880 + + + +___ + + Full statement from above tweet by Better Markets, November 7, 2022, linked below. + +> **THE FEDERAL RESERVE’S LATE FRIDAY ADMISSION THAT ITS POLICIES ARE RISKING FINANCIAL STABILITY DOES NOT GO FAR ENOUGH** + +Full statement: + +https://bettermarkets.org/newsroom/the-federal-reserves-late-friday-admission-that-its-policies-are-risking-financial-stability-does-not-go-far-enough/ + + + +___ + +Onto the report… + +**November 2022 Federal Reserve Financial Stability Report (PDF):** + +https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/financial-stability-report-20221104.pdf + + + +___ + +Some highlights below - but this thing is 80 pages, so if any of you all want to dig in, I could sure use your help! + + +The below is from u/dismal-jellyfish (whose post did not gain much traction, as the report was released late Friday). Reposting with the addition of Better Markets comments on this to get some visibility on November’s report! + + + + + +> Central counterparties (CCPs) have maintained a high level of financial resources to cover potential credit exposures in case of default by one or more clearing members, and participants have continued to meet their margin calls to date. + + +___ + + +Against this backdrop, our view of the current level of vulnerabilities is as follows: + + + + + +- (1) **Asset valuations.** Higher interest rates and a weaker outlook for the economy led prices of financial assets to fall amid heightened volatility, but real estate prices remained elevated. Measures of equity prices relative to expected earnings declined. Risk premiums in equity and corporate bond markets were near the middle of their historical distributions. In contrast, property markets still show elevated valuations. Although housing activity weakened and national average price increases slowed sharply year over year, home prices remained historically high relative to rents. Valuations of commercial real estate (CRE) were also elevated + + +___ + +- (2) **Borrowing by businesses and households.** On balance, vulnerabilities arising from borrowing by nonfinancial businesses and households were little changed over the first half of 2022 and remained at moderate levels. Borrowing by businesses remained at high levels relative to gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of 2022, but some measures of their ability to service that debt improved as the effects of rising interest rates were offset by higher business earnings. Household debt remained at modest levels relative to GDP, and most of that debt is owed by households with strong credit histories or considerable home equity. Nonetheless, borrowing costs continue to rise and inflation is reducing real incomes, a combination that may pose risks to the ability of some businesses and households to service their debts, especially in the event of further adverse shocks to income or inflation. + + + +___ + +- (3) **Leverage in the financial sector.** Banks maintained risk-based capital ratios near their post 2010 averages, and broker-dealer leverage remained historically low. Leverage at life insurance companies declined to about the middle of its historical range. In contrast, hedge fund leverage likely remained somewhat above its historical average, though comprehensive data are available only with a lag. Bank lending to nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs), an indicator of NBFI leverage, reached new highs. More generally, monitoring some parts of the nonbank financial sector, where hidden pockets of leverage could amplify adverse shocks, could be enhanced with more comprehensive and timely data. + + + + +___ + + +- (4) **Funding risks.** Short-term funding markets continue to have structural vulnerabilities, as some markets and institutions remain vulnerable to large and unexpected withdrawals, especially considering the highly uncertain outlook. Funding risks at domestic banks are low, given their large holdings of liquid assets and limited reliance on short-term wholesale funding. Prime and tax-exempt money market funds (MMFs), as well as other cash-investment vehicles, remain vulnerable to runs. Many bond and bank-loan mutual funds continue to be susceptible to large redemptions, because they hold assets that can become illiquid amid stress. The market capitalization of stablecoins—which have a set of structural vulnerabilities, including weaknesses in regulatory oversight, opacity, and consumer protection issues—continued to decline after falling sharply earlier in the year. Central counterparties (CCPs) have maintained a high level of financial resources to cover potential credit exposures in case of default by one or more clearing members, and participants have continued to meet their margin calls to date. + + + + +(There’s a lot more in this report. Just a snip above.) +___ + +Edit - tried to fix the formatting…ok that’ll do + + +Edit 2 - Ok, I’m going to try my best to get through some of this today or this week, but I can’t do it alone as it’s 80 pgs. + +I’m hoping to get more eyes on this, and to see if there’s anything else of note or any other useful info in the report that we may have missed. If anyone wants to help have at it! + +But first, coffee… ☕️💜 +Refuting [this post](https://reddit.com/r/investing/comments/seossw/there_have_only_been_four_months_since_2001_where/), if we define a month as 22 trading days, this correction [doesn’t even rank in the top 500 of one month corrections](https://maximumtheta.com/?num_results=500&trading_days=22&start_price=open&end_price=close&next_trading_days=1&next_end_price=close&sort=asc&use_vix=0&vix_limit=100.0&start_vix=open&end_vix=close) (since 1927). +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. +Hi thetagang, say we have another covid-like crash. The goings been good for the past bit, but I can't help but feel like I'm trading all this and building up my portfolio size just to inevitably lose it all. + +This is because although no individual trade will lose a big portion of my portfolio, we do take on pretty big downside at selling. In a market crash, I could be stuck with max losses on everything, whereas if I held shares I would just take it as a buying opportunity. I do weeklies, so I won't have time to recover. I could switch to monthlies, but what if it crashes in the last week? And I won't try to do the fool's errand of predicting crashes. + +How do you think about it? Do you tailor your portfolio in some way that can address these fears? I figured just take X amount of profit out and put it into ETFs instead of putting it all back into more spreads. +Do you ever sell ATM or even ITM puts in this scenario? + +1. You’ve previously made $ with multiple CPSs on a ticker that expiring worthless. +2. You eventually got assigned and made $ on multiple CCs on that same ticker expiring worthless. +3. You have significant profit on that ticker from selling options for the last year. +4. Do you ever sell puts on it at this point ATM or ITM for that extra premium? This takes on more risk here, but my question is, since you’ve already made $$$ on this ticker for a while, is it wise to take on greater assignment risk for that extra $ premium because you can now afford to? + +Or is your rule w the wheel to always sell OTM puts even if you’ve already made lots of $ on it previously? +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. +$5 Strike for April looks okay, selling at 0.35. Key thing I am wondering is what is the revised value of this company now to determine whether i would be comfortable if assigned at $5. + +Any of you following WKHS? + +Thanks +I see posts here talking about opening 30-45 DTE positions, then closing or rolling at 50% profit. + +Has anyone considered just opening new positions to get the total outstanding premium high enough? Either that or adding new positions overall to get to 1.5x the initial position and then let it roll off slowly. + +Reasons: isn't it expensive to roll every position? That means that you're signing yourself up for 2 trades with every position instead of 1. That would double trading costs. If you're selling a $1.50 option, it might be as much as 2.5 or 3 cents of value lost every trade, so double that gets to 4% of the total value of the option, which comes straight out of your edge + +Additionally, closing at 50% and buyback usually translates to some delta. Does this mean that ~15-25 delta options are best to sell, but when do you buy back? at 5-10? Does this mean that we're buying 5 delta options? If yes, then why? Why not sell 5 delta? + +Summary: + +Scenario 1: roll at exp + +Scenario 2: roll at 50% value + +Scenario 3: bring time value up to 100% when it drops to 50% of targeted position size + +Scenario 4: add 1 unit of position when time value drops to 50%, so you're up to 150% of targeted position size +I moved into my girlfriend's tiny 1 bedroom apartment about 8 months ago (we're both early 30s, no kids), and the lack of space is starting to drive us crazy, so we're looking to upsize. Problem is, we live in a very high COL west coast city, rent is crazy expensive. + +She is from an immigrant family and grew up poor, with a lot of struggles to finally get to the point of having a good career and income in the past couple years. She went through a rough patch about 4 years ago and went into debt, missed rent payments, almost got evicted, got her car repossessed. Since then, she's worked hard to get mostly out of debt and now has a solid career. On the other hand, I grew up comfortably and my parents helped me thru college and kept me debt free into my early 20s. My credit is impeccable, never missed a payment of any kind. + +We've been looking at larger places but have now been denied everywhere we apply because of her history. I honestly could afford to pay most of these places myself if I really had to, but she's like a poison pill. I've asked landlords if they'll just let me sign the lease myself, but they all have said she needs to be approved and on the lease in order to live there. Basically, no unofficial subletting. + +Any advice? It's getting to a point where our relationship ~~might be in jeopardy~~ is coming under significant stress due to cramped living quarters and lack of personal space. +VOTING IS IMPORTANT!!!! + +Here is your fidelity voting update: + +Hey apes, so I just called fidelity again. (Fucking class act company and the employees are awesome) + +I chatted with a Mr Bond who was extremely helpful and insightful + + + +GET READY TO PROXY VOTE ON FIDELITY! + +He was GIGGLING at the AMOUNT OF CALLS!!! + + +YOU APES ARE KILLING IT!!!!!!!! + +-“we have had sooooo many calls about transferring from Robinhood” + +-“if you know anyone that’s needs a job we are hiring BECAUSE we have been BUSY!” + + +Apes are transferring, apes are calling about voting. At a fucking ferocious clip. His mind is blown. He said it’s crazy what’s happening and so awesome. + + + +Imagine..... there are so many fucking fidelity users..... so many stocks..... and this guy answers every call and it’s 99% GME 😂😂 + + +The line is being held so fucking strong it really isn’t funny. + + +NOW ABOUT VOTING**** + + +No control #’s yet. Do not worry. He says Wednesday or Thursday they are expecting them. Ways to check? + +You may: + +-chat with virtual assistant and type “proxy materials” + +-check messages in your fidelity account + +-or just simply call + + +Wednesday morning I will be on the lookout. Sadly seems like fidelity is one of the last to get these numbers. But rest assured it’s because they are doing it right and will continue to do it right and they have the backs of our apes. + + +If you haven’t transferred yet do it NOW. + +Voting begins Wednesday for fidelity users. + + +HODL’ing with you all. + +Obligatory : 💎🚀👊🏼💎🚀👊🏼🚀🚀 + +See you on the moon. + + +Edit: I want to make it clear that he made a point to say how MANY people are calling. Multiple times. He almost told me to my face HODL. +I was looking at the historic 401k contribution limits, and the much higher employer contribution column got me thinking. Any companies out there actually do this? The best i've personally seen is a 10% contribution regardless of what the employee puts in. This is still nowhere near the 36k max... at least not for people in my economic class. +24 years old at the moment. Have been wanting to get into investments that can generate somewhat passive income for the last year and I found a condo in my area for around 60-70k. The goal is to rent it out for income + +I store a good amount of my Bitcoin and other cryptos with BlockFi to earn interest….they also offer the ability to get a loan through them. Instead of selling my Bitcoin to buy the property…I put my crypto up as collateral and got a cash loan equivalent (almost) wired straight into my account. Used that to buy the property! No banks involved at all In the process. Best part is after I pay off the loan (which I easily can right now) the collateralized crypto returns back to my account! + +So while I didn’t buy this property with Bitcoin itself. Bitcoin did allow me to retrieve the cash equivalent of my loan through a crypto financial firm. Times are changing and Bitcoin really is the future, I feel bad for those not keeping up with the evolution of money. +I work in construction. The money is good. I make 4K a month and it’s allowed me to buy a lot of GME shares. Problem is I work 12 hour work days from Monday to Saturday. And the more I read up on GME the more I feel like a slave in the current economic system that were in. I’ve felt stronger and more confident in myself because of this community. I’m thinking about getting another job with less hours, less pay, but I’ll atleast be happier. + +I want the squeeze to happen. I need it to happen. I don’t want to do anything other than trade for a living and help out the community. I trust the dd and I trust that something big is coming. Hope y’all have a blessed day, and may the tendies be plentiful + +🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🙌🙌🙌🙌💎💎💎💎🦍🦍🦍🦍🦍🐳🐳🐳🐳 + +(Edit) Holy crap!!! Thank you for all the support!!!! I have faith in the dd. May you all live an amazing life + +(Edit2) 1000k UPBOOTS WHAT TF!!!! Thank you guys and thank you all for sharing your struggles. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER AND KENNY G!!....... I AINT HEARD NO MF BELL 🔔 🙌🙌💎💎🦍🦍🚀🚀 + As you can see, I ended up with an account number of around 500,000. The main DRS wave hit superstonk around July/August 2021 if I remember rightly and, I'll be honest, I wasn't on board from the off. So many questions and concerns... is it easy to sell in computershare, what're the benefits, can I be bothered with the effort, what if MOASS kicks off without me?? + +That last one in particular weighed more heavily on my mind than anything. Fuck this shit. I'm not missing the squeeze. I've been through too much already to miss out on something that's not a guarantee. I'd sat through all sorts of shit like everyone else. Mar 10th was brutal in particular. + +Each and every day felt like tomorrow was finally here. It HAS to be today, there's so much going on, price volatility, hype, corruption uncovered, RC tweets that HAD to mean something, Fidelty being hit with thousands of US apes DRS'ing; I won't risk it I think to myself. Days turned to weeks. Still no squeeze. And finally, I realised the biggest FUD I'd encountered since Feb when I joined in. "MOASS is tomorrow". + +If this mentality is what's stopping you, remove it. **Now**. I said that to myself every day last July, and August, and panicking during September too. Guess what. Nothing happened. Well, SOMETHING happened; I got off my ass and DRS'd to get those shares in MY name. And THAT was the real result. + +Things were WAY harder then from the UK having to first transfer from Degiro, paying 55 euros to do so. Eugh. Fine, I'll do it. + +Then I had to open an IBKR account, deposit funds, piss about with currency and settings, scan my letters in to both parties as pdf, and wait weeks for anything to happen. Finally my XXX shares made it over to IBKR and I immediately initiated a DRS request. Around 7 days later, the action seemed to complete their end and I had to wait for the letter to arrive from the USA. + +And I waited. And waited. + +4 weeks later, this baby arrived on my doorstep. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/s6g0alycfo3a1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=59eaaef08b746bd436631353581b09fa85c8d5dd + +You're nearly home. All the hard work is starting to feel worth it and, guess what, **you missed nothing**. + +One more major hurdle to overcome back then... a call to the USA to receive my security code. Shit, my phone doesn't support international dialling. So I convinced work to give me a VoIP line that I need for 'customer calls'. (more effort) Called at some time late evening here, half an hour, then done. Waiting game was back on. By now I was slightly calmer about that :) + +*ComputerShare have since streamlined this process greatly. Letters come from the UK, the security code can also now be obtained via local number dialling, and the whole thing takes 2 weeks, not 6 or 7.* + +The code came through, I activated my account, and there was my glorious purple circle. All the doubts removed. All the effort rewarded. **I was no longer a bystander, I was a participant**. + +Why is this important? + +I understand it can seem daunting. + +I understand that some of the FUD still lingers in your mind and DRS'ing seems pointless for you, thousands of others have done it and we're not home yet so what difference will you make? + +But here's the thing. The calm. I cannot stress how this changes things. Price movement? Didn't care anymore. MSM FUD? Who gives a shit. Brokers pulling shady fuckery? So what. + +I WILL get a dividend straight to me. I AM a shareholder in name. I DO have the right to communicate with gamestop (investor relations) - and have done so - since they can see who I am. I'm a **legitimate** shareholder. + +Do it, you won't regret it and it isn't so difficult that you cannot achieve this. You've done harder things in your life, right? Please listen: MOASS won't happen without you. + +Actually, let me finish by emphasising that differently... + +&#x200B; + +**MOASS won't happen without YOU.** +My father had $40k in Microsoft stock in the 90’s, worth around $2.7 million by the time I was ready for college. Instead of me or my siblings being able to afford college, he sold it for $20 something thousand after taxes, because he sold it all after hearing about how Y2K would ruin the computer companies. + +We had canned food for ten years after the year 2000, but we couldn’t afford college by the time it came for us to do that. + +The rich today own the mainstream media and social media companies. Don’t trust the F.U.Ð on Bitcoin that you see anywhere today, don’t let them scare you out of your Microsoft, Amazon, or Google(alphabet a&b) stock of the crypto space that they want. + +This is how we tip the scales to our corner. We generate the value, we can eventually channel that financial power to a majority financial control over the decentralized system that is Bitcoin, the HTML of the financial internet, where all others follow its growth and drops. + +As where in the stock market, executives issue themselves more stocks every year to buy their next mansion, yacht, or flight to space, all at the cost of the value of their overall shares, diluting every other shareholders value in the company. + +Don’t let yourself sell your Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix of the crypto space for the pets.com of this space thanks to billionaires trying to distract you from their real blue chip target to remove economic competition. + +Edit: thankfully, I started saving in Bitcoin multiple halving cycles ago, helping my family recoup the value my family lost with the Y2K internet stock fud. It’s still early, you can do the same too. Don’t let yourself be scared out of the next disruptionary tech to come out this decade. The internet of financial data +Are there any financial rules of thumb to use when buying a car? I’ve read some stuff about the 5-year rule, 10% salary and always buy with cash etc. These sort of rules often seem to one persons opinion so really wanted to see if there is perhaps community consensus on some of these rules? +[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/xxh13d) 🎃🐦 + +>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! + +🏴‍☠️ [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/) +Hey everyone, + +I saw this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/9uakio/super_comparison_table/) archived on r/AusFinance from ages ago and thought I'd follow suit and create an updated version for my own research from dozens of PDSs of some popular super funds. Thought I'd post on here for anyone's benefit. + +I've been constantly switching funds across my various jobs during my teenage years without giving it much thought but I started to become a little more observant of the annual fees since I've recently landed a permanent gig. + +Note that there's some 5yr and 10y p.a. return rates that I wasn't able to locate. If anyone stumbles across these please let me know! + +https://preview.redd.it/itvez327xyl61.png?width=2576&format=png&auto=webp&s=60000c82d33a160982887ef17e2b795f97ddd463 +Hi UKPF, + +I was approached about a job by an agency who offered me a similar job to one I am currently in but for significantly more money (I will put the details below). Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of what current issues I am likely to face and what has been their experiences? + +&#x200B; + +Current Salary (Gross): £32,500\~ + +Current Contract: Permanent + +&#x200B; + +Contractor Salary (Gross): £266/day / £69,160/PA (Quoted by agent) + +Proposed Contract: 6 Months with option to extend (Inside IR35) working through umbrella company + +&#x200B; + +My current thoughts were wow, thats a lot of money turn down and even if it was only 6 months it would almost double my current annual take home? I do currently enjoy my job however I am concerned about the lack of possible opportunities in the future and this seems to have appeared coincidentally at the right time. I was also concerned about possible holidays but in a template payslip it showed I could either take my holidays in advance or have them accrued, I am assuming this is a standard option under the new IR35? + +&#x200B; + +Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated!! +Sup, Apes. If you're staring at the ticker all day while work piles up behind you in the "real world" you must have, too, seen the 1mil volume disappear in the after hours for GME. + +I, who must be gaining SOME wrinkles, *shudders* decided instead of waiting for an answer, seek one out. Like the evolved ape suddenly gaining the clarity of sight to tell a yellow banana from a brown banana I am. + +So I hit up TOS support chat. Was like what's up dude? You like the stock too? He didn't confirm. What he did do though is dig into it a little bit for the benefit of all apes. + +First, he noted that the discrepancy surely was present, though disputedly reported across multiple sources. Then he elaborated further that there was in fact a "market wide data issue for some NYSE stocks that didn't have data flowing for about 7-8 minutes from the data provider of NYSE stocks." Which is CTA. The Consolidated Tape Association. + +Which also makes my favorite brand of tape I use to seal my butt when I gotta take number two but can't hold it. + +He offered to dig deeper, I like it. Also, real fucking quick, thank your service people. This guy fucking rocked this entire chat with such a crass and uncouth ape as myself. + +He learned that CTA was suffering "processing issues" in the middle of the trading day and thus needed to reboot their servers. + +Before once again thanking him for doing something that I absolutely could not again, I asked which volume is right? He said he wasn't sure but the 2.7 number was probably correct as that is what was most being reported. + +Moral of the story, my apes and apettes. Use superglue instead of CTA when you gotta do a number 2. Take the initiative to find your answers. And finally, just fucking hodl. I like the stock. + +&#x200B; + +This has been an interpretation of a support chat with a TOS representative. I hope you liked it, and this resolves some of your dismay at the sudden WHERE THE FUCK DID THE VOLUME GO, KEN? + +&#x200B; + +I appreciate y'all. Aph out. + +&#x200B; + +EDIT: He also reported The CTA Data Team was currently working to resolve the issue, and suggested if you would like to find the list, search NYSE stocks and look around 10:30CST you'll see a gap from 10:26-10:32. Go for it. I gotta get back to work. + +EDIT 2: I can't fucking count, or know how to tell time. 5/5 Trading day should be the title. God I'm way too fucking Apeish for myself even sometimes. + +EDIT 3: I said I was going back to work, but I fuckin' lied and have been here the whole time. But I actually gotta get it now. I love you. Be good to everybody. Because you deserve it. + +EDIT 4: I THOUGHT I WAS OUT, BUT YA PULLED ME BACK IN u/RANDOM_SWAMPERT. He provided me a link which I have verified from the CTA site confirming the outage. [https://www.ctaplan.com/alerts#110000353886](https://www.ctaplan.com/alerts#110000353886) In it, and by all means don't trust my link. Google CTA and go to notifications -> Alerts and you'll see posted at 1:17 that there are issues involving " CTS Open/Hi/Low/Non-Listing Market Last Sale and Volume data may not include transactions that occurred prior to the restart. Listing Market and Consolidated Last Sale information is expected to be accurate. CTS/CQS will notify of corrected data sets when available. " in regards to the restart. Thank you. +The last few weeks have been brutal on my family. Great news, my son got a great job. But has 4 weeks before he sees his first check. + +My husband got let go from his job last week. His check covered our groceries. Unemployment won't start until next week. + +This week, due to when my bills were due, I had $16 left after paying all my bills. My next check isn't for 2 weeks. + +So we have no money for groceries and no money for gas for our vehicles. +I'm allowing my son and myself to use one of my nearly maxed out credit cards for the gas so we can go back and forth to work. But for groceries we needed a little help. We stopped by the food bank this morning. + +I filled out the application, I stopped when it asked about the income requirements. I told the attendant what happened over the last couple weeks. She said ignore that part of the application. + +We had come at a good time, they had to clean out a bunch of meat out of the freezer so we ended up with about $50 worth of meat. There is also a bunch of bakery goods that needed to be taken care of as well so we ended up with some sticky rolls. + +I hope I don't have to use them again, but it's nice to know it's there. +(WARNING applies to both Apes and Apettes... my bad) + +[ image credit to u\/Ulfhednar11](https://preview.redd.it/6w8ij7llbtp71.png?width=629&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5585dcb27fc0608128a221b7fb545184bac463d) + +**ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER:** I am not a legal advisor, I do not have any legal training and as such have a pea-sized understanding of the law. (Mainly acquired from watching movies). + +The details in the post discuss an ongoing lawsuit and as such all statements referenced from this case are allegations until proven otherwise. + +All sources referenced in this post are public information and I do not claim the legitimacy of any evidence presented, merely an ape discussing the evidence available to us. + +**DISCLAIMER:** *I am not a financial advisor, and I do not provide financial advice. Many thoughts here are my opinion, and others can be speculative.* + +*Everything I am highlighting here is asking questions about publically available information and not an accusation of any wrongdoing of any parties mentioned.* + +**Also... I'm not financially trained, so feel free to correct me if I miss something or get something wrong!!** + + + +# BBC NAVIGATION + +[BBC Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzkzi5/is_this_the_final_boss_john_petry_and_ken_griffin/) **IS THIS THE FINAL BOSS?** + +[BBC Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzrtsq/billionaires_boys_club_part_2_the_inner_circle/) **The Inner Circle** + +[BBC Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzxjra/billionaires_boys_club_part_3_the_big_boys_i_just/) **THE BIG BOYS** + +[BBC Part 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o0isaz/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_part_4_recess_is_over/) **Recess is over... You didn't think BILL GATES was involved did you?** + +[BBC Part 5](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o16cbm/billionaires_boys_club_part_5_the_foundational/) **The Foundational Strategy** + +[BBC Part 6](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/oa8ynd/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_part_6_smile_for_the/) **SMILE FOR THE CAMERA KENNY...** + +[BBC Part 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/oox1sn/the_billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_7_what_daf/) **What DAF fuck is this???** + +[BBC Part 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ope0w3/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_7_the_chips_are/) **The chips are stacked against us... ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.** + +[BBC Part 9](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/opp09p/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_errr_9_steve/) **Steve Cohen... So HOT right now...** + +[BBC Part 10](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p1ofgr/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_10_allinclusive/) **All-Inclusive Vacation of a Lifetime... to the CAYMANS! -- PART 1** + +[BBC Part 10.2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p3a79x/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_102_cayman_island/) **Cayman Island Getaway - How to hide money from the FBI + Brazilgate!** + +[BBC Part 11](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/p7nl7y/billionaire_boys_clib_episode_11_bbc_billionaire/) **BILLIONAIRE BANK LOANS - Buy Borrow Die** + +[BBC Part 12](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pcp37f/billionaire_boys_club_part_12_bbc_please_prove_me/) **Kenny's WARCHEST - SPECIALIZED PURPOSE ENTITY (SPE) + Leverage** + +[BBC Part 13.1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pv9yon/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_13_part_1_do/) **Do you Swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?** + +[BBC Part 13.2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pvr3gg/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_episode_13_part_2_the/) **Steve Cohen's TRUE form revealed** + +[BBC Part 13.3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/px80o7/vlad_lied_too_is_this_proof_and_proof_that/) **Vlad Lied too - Proof that Citadel Knew** + +[BBC Part 14](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qicm2m/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_14_pop_quiz_whats/) **POP QUIZ - What's Safer than a Bank & The Most Efficient Way to Avoid Paying Taxes? (Onshore)** + +[BBC Part 15](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/rfgriy/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_14_the_deregulation/) **The Deregulation Agenda** + +BBC Part 16: **The Apollo Missions** \- [ Apollo 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s24hxt/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_16_part_1_the_apollo/) + +BBC Part 16: **The Apollo Missions** \- [ Apollo 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s252os/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_16_part_2_the_apollo/) + +BBC Part 16: **The Apollo Missions** \- [ Apollo 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s25i88/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_16_part_3_the_apollo/) + +BBC Part 16: **The Apollo Missions** \- [ Apollo 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/s28x8z/billionaire_boys_club_bbc_ep_16_part_4_the_apollo/) + +&#x200B; + +[A smooth Brain Look at the Housing Market.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qfqiz8/a_smooth_brain_look_at_the_housing_market/) + +[A Smooth Brain Look At the Banks (Part 2)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qg5nxo/a_smooth_brain_look_at_the_banks_part_2/) + +\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +(THIS IS GME RELATED) + +(Shameless PLUG: Follow me on Twitter for more GME fun:[ https://twitter.com/BadassTrader69](https://twitter.com/BadassTrader69) ) + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +So Apes and Apettes, in our continued investigations into the rotten world of Billionaire Bastards... it would seem that once you reach that level of wealth and power, you tend to think that you can do whatever the fuck you want. + +I present to you... + +# Lauren Bonner Vs POINT72 ASSET MANAGEMENT, L.P., STEVEN A. COHEN, in his individual and professional capacity, and DOUGLAS D. HAYNES, in his individual and professional capacity + +**THE PUSSY BOARD AT POINT 72** + +Part 1 of this case against Point 72, starts off with Douglas Haynes writing the word PUSSY on his whiteboard in his office and leaving it there for weeks. Holding meetings in his office with members of all sexes, this, no doubt had the ability to make people uncomfortable. Not exactly a professional workplace environment + +&#x200B; + +[Douglas Haynes \(Right\)](https://preview.redd.it/r6nguegnotp71.png?width=705&format=png&auto=webp&s=6785ccfb3f4b843c475f72fe09a39a5f73c7befc) + +**DO YOU WANT TO FUCK HER** + +Complaint 2, a Point 72 consultant by the name of Dave Black joined a conversation alongside a woman unknown to Ms. Bonner and Justin Lubell, a high-ranking portfolio manager. + +After the woman left, Justin asked innocently about the identity of the woman and Dave Black responded with: + +"Why? Do you want to fuck her? You can, she works for me." + +**NO GIRLS ALLOWED** + +So here are some quick facts about the hiring and promoting of women at Point 72 + +Point 72 has 125 Portfolio Managers. Of these, 124 are Male. + +Point 72 has 32 Managing Directors. Of these, 31 are Male. + +The Investment Professional Hiring Committee is comprised exclusively of men + +Male Executives have openly stated that they "refuse to hire women" disingenuously claiming that their "wives wont let them" + +Less Qualified Male Candidates are hired at a 2:1 ratio over the ore qualified female candidates + +In 2017 only 21% of new hires were women, none were hired as Portfolio Managers or Managing Directors and only one was brought in as a Director. (14 men were hired as Directors) + +Women are routinely denied promotions + +And there are multiple cases of women being forced out of the company for being "too emotional", "too sensitive" or simply "women". + +After Ms. Bonner filed a complaint against one of her colleagues, that colleague was then allowed to sit on the promotion board deciding whether or not she got a promotion, and thus blocked her progress stating that she was "too aggressive" + +COO of Point 72 actually holds meetings which he declares "no girls allowed" + +Women that are hired by Point 72, earn SUBSTANTIALLY less than their counterparts (Often less than 50 cents per dollar earned by men) + +**FUCKING PUPPY BREAK!!!** + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Awww... what do you have there? Is that a ducky? Yes... who's got a ducky? YOU have a ducky!! Good boy! + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/pdhs9ytyntp71.png?width=639&format=png&auto=webp&s=5119d1d608db4b0ae5f8dbdb2659f908827203bf + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +There are **MANY** other examples of the type of environment that Stevey fosters at Point 72 in this Law suit, including but not limited to: + +Men Openly stating that they will not hire women because their wives wont let them, they are too emotional and not team players or would not be good culture fits. + +Female Employee candidates are actually asked questions such as do you have kids, do you plan to have kids, are you married, why are you not married. + +Women are frequently subjected to comments regarding their physical appearance, including whether or not they are attractive, whether they look good, whether they look old, whether they look older than when they started at point 72, or are they too skinny or blonde. + +Reasons, why women don't succeed at Point 72 are openly discussed such as because women want to have children, or are too emotional, or can be hysterical, or care more about work life balance, or do not work as hard as men. + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +All of this is **DESPITE** Steve Cohen's apparent lessons learned from original Asset Management Firm SAC capital being charged with **INSIDER TRADING** and many of his employees being charged with jail sentences. + +While Cohen **ESCAPED** charges, he was banned for 2 years from investing outside of his private family wealth. He achieved this through a deal with the US Attorney's Office (In movies, these deals happen when you rat someone out). + +Part of the deal was that he dismantle SAC, at which point he started Point 72. + +2 years later, he was allowed to manage funds again, and as part of his mission to turn over a new leaf and learn from the mistakes of the past, he setup Point 72 to be a Company of the highest ethics. + +**MISSION** + +● To be the industry’s premier asset management firm through delivering superior risk-adjusted returns, adhering to the highest ethical standards and offering the greatest opportunities to the industry’s brightest talent. + +**VALUES** + +● We are professionals who conduct ourselves ethically and with integrity at all times. + +● We operate as one firm, dedicated to succeeding together, with mutual respect and commitment. + +● We are not satisfied with the status quo and are committed to pursuing innovation and excellence. + +● We work together to advance our professional and personal development. + +● We are exemplary citizens of the world and contribute to the communities in which we live and work. + +Yet... instead of being the exemplary example of how he wants the public to perceive him... we get the company we see today. + +This lawsuit **REALLY** gives a shocking inside view of what it's like to work at point 72. You can check it out in more detail here. + +[SOURCE](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.488388/gov.uscourts.nysd.488388.1.0.pdf) + +AMERICANS... I thought giving Sports Team ownership is how you knight people in the US? (Billiions quote) + +How the fuck is this guy someone people look up to? + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Further... + +When SAC was investigated for Insider Trading... they Plantiffs **PROVED** that Insider trading did occur, they **PROVED** that the inside information was sent from SAC analysts to Steven Cohen and they **PROVED** that the company traded on that information. (Large positions by the way, that would have been outside the norm and likely incur discussions at all levels of the company) + +The **ONLY** reason Cohen didn't get charged, was he that he argued the fact that he never read the Email and no1 could prove otherwise. + +**Any of you Apes actually believe that???** + +And why did his employees go to jail, but he just got a 2 year ban? A ban confirms wrong doing... + +[SOURCE](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca2.15-4067.1.0.pdf) + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +**HELP SHARE THIS POST** \- Retweet here: [https://twitter.com/BadassTrader69/status/1442071290722979842](https://twitter.com/BadassTrader69/status/1442071290722979842) + +\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +&#x200B; + +[Aka... just play dumb](https://preview.redd.it/57dr8timntp71.png?width=850&format=png&auto=webp&s=00d03ddb77ebbed331dae56c24c1615a715c059e) + +&#x200B; + +EDIT: Continued... + +Just stumbled across ANOTHER case against Cohen and Gang. + +The Actual case details were obtained by the NY Times through the Freedom of Information act and can be sourced behind their paywall... which I refuse to pay. HERE: [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/sports/baseball/steven-cohen-mets-gender-discrimination.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytsports](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/sports/baseball/steven-cohen-mets-gender-discrimination.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytsports) + +&#x200B; + +But luckily for us... a yahoo finance article goes into LOTS of detail here. + +[https://www.yahoo.com/now/mets-owner-steve-cohen-accused-using-vulgar-sexist-language-at-hedge-fund-in-discrimination-suit-020202167.html](https://www.yahoo.com/now/mets-owner-steve-cohen-accused-using-vulgar-sexist-language-at-hedge-fund-in-discrimination-suit-020202167.html) + +This case accuses Cohen himself of vulgar and abusive language towards women in addition to FOSTERING the sexism culture at point 72. + +>*“Cohen ridiculed me, calling me an ‘idiot’ and incompetent,” she said in the complaint. “He told me that I was ‘wrong about everything.’” She said he added, “I should fire you because you’re so stupid.”* + +The claim states that this abuse continued over a period of months from Cohen, and that the accuser also witnessed similar behavior by Cohen towards Female assistants. + +The accuser, Sara Vavara was later fired for "Gross Misconduct" + +On top of this... a 3rd complaint was made by a female employee Shannon Gitlin, on the basis of Gender Discrimination but this remains confidential. + +&#x200B; + +1 Could be chance or an isolated incidence... + +2 Could be a coincidence... + +# But 3 Times is a PATTERN + +Writing is on the wall Stevey + +\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Jesus... this shit gets weirder when you look at SAC + +Shout out to u/hope-i-die (I hope you don't die) for linking this shit to me. + +(And [@hingledorfin](https://twitter.com/hingledorfin) on Twitter) + +So apparently... + +Another case exits, where a former employee of SAC was forced to take **female hormone pills** to make him a better trader... in addition to being forced to **wear dresses** AND forced to give his boss **a blow-job**. + +[Source](https://dealbreaker.com/2009/12/blow-jobs-for-trade-approval-sodomy-and-golden-showers-at-sac-capital) + +[Reuters Source](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B31YT20091204) + +&#x200B; + +https://i.redd.it/oskmjv1mbup71.gif + +&#x200B; +My dad(50M) and I(25M) recently got a joint mortgage together. We are the only ones working full-time. We each pay half of the mortgage payment every month. + +Now I want to move out (for personal reasons) and rent a flat in a different city. + +I've thought of some options: + +1. Move out and keep paying the mortgage. But this will make money tighter with paying my new rent. +2. Take my name off the mortgage completely. But no one else is working full-time so I can't put anyone else on the mortgage instead. +3. Wait a few years until a sibling gets a full-time job and replaces me on the mortgage. But I want to move out asap. + +Are any of these options viable or am I stuck with my parents for the next 2 decades? + +Is there an option I'm missing? + +**EDIT 1** Answers to some common questions: + +* My dad wanted a bigger house so he could keep the family together. +* I was encouraged to help my dad to get a mortgage as he couldn't afford it on his own. +* He won't be able to pay the full monthly mortgage payment on his own. +* My mum is a housewife and works part-time (sometimes). +* My dad and I are joints tenants, according to solicitor's paperwork, so we have equal rights to the house and it will become mine if he dies, regardless of his will. +* The mortgage is fixed for 5 years so I will be costly to change it. +* I plan to move to another city and start off by flat/house sharing. I will also have better opportunities to get a higher salary there. + +**EDIT 2** List of suggested options from comments: + +* Talk to my dad (& family), have a calm conversation and plan something together. +* We sell the house, with or without going to court, and I take 50%. Dad then buys a smaller house and my family moves there. I find a new place by myself. +* Switch to interest-only mortgage. So monthly payments will be lower. But I'll have to deal with the house (most likely sell it) after the mortgage ends. +* Increase incomes: + * I could get a job in the new city. They generally pay more. + * Dad could try to get a better job. + * Rent out my room (not the whole house) to a lodger. This will help to pay the mortgage or my new rent. +* Increase dad's payments and decrease mine when I move out. Maybe he can afford the payments. +* Split my new rent 50/50 with dad while keeping the mortgage at 50/50. +* Have family pay me 50% rent for living in my share of the house. +* Don't pass on the problem to my sibling. I don't want to pressure them into making the same mistake I did. Instead help them to open an LISA and have a better future for themselves. + +Finally, I've learnt a lot from my expensive mistake. Please don't make the same one! +A lot of amateur traders have been profiting off of bets/gambles in this bullish market that have paid off. I’m not as experienced as many of you on here. I think we are getting to a point in the bullish market where we should talk about what signs to look for to capitalize on the inevitable turn in the market. + +I assume you have to ignore recent IPOs which are volatile in their own right. + +No one can read the future, but maybe there is something to be gleaned from the tea leaves that give us best guess of things to come. +I bought several call options contracts of an individual stock and I had the thought that since the strike price was less than half of the current price (at the time) that even if it went way down I'd be able to exercise it and just sell it for what the stock price lowered to. I did not realize after you paid for the contracts plus premium that if you wanted to exercise you then had to pay the additional amount of how many contract you purchased. I'm fucking stupid. +Posting here to celebrate really. + +Just opened a Vanguard S&S ISA and have invested the princely sum of £100, with £100 direct debit set up monthly going forwards. Not much but it’s a start. + +Thanks to all of the great advice and discussion on here for pushing me into it, and more importantly giving me the confidence to invest rather than have it languishing in a 0.01% current account. This place also nudged me into moving my emergency fund into Premium Bonds to at least be in with a chance of a better return, plus utilising the Club Lloyds 1.5% Saver - prior to lurking here I was Saving but not really making my money work for me in the best way. + +Still being very cautious but I feel like I’ve definitely hit a milestone by making my first baby steps into proper Investing! +I feel like i spent too much time reading on everything thats happening and I know its coming and most likely be very bad. My job depends on economy being healthy and im pretty sure ill be either making little or no job at all. I work in logistics. I have a mortgage and car loan to pay off. I own a decent number of GME so I hope that helps me be good financially in the future. Last few weeks been feeling depressed like a mf. + +Sorry just needed to vent somewhere +I just saw this site, thought folks would appreciate- + +https://www.theearthawaits.com/ + + +EDIT: To be clear, this is not my website :) i just saw it on fast coexist and thought it was cool +Concept is simple, you input your lifestyle capacity/parameters, and the site returns locales that fit them. I thought it was interesting :) +Much of my frustration has been that I have not cracked the code of secondary income yet ... I've yet to come up with a sustainable side hustle, despite sitting for hours per day trying to brainstorm. + +I've often wandered if I should buy and read financial aide books....but I have heard so much conflicting ideas about them. Especially with Robert Kyasake ...I have heard that these books often function as pyramid schemes ...ie the authors of these books actually become rich by selling the very same book. + +I'm kinda jaded, I don't want to line-up the pockets of con-men without gettting any closer to my goal of financial independence. +This is pretty much a rant but I keep reading the posts here and it seems like no matter what post if someone is in debt or financial stress y’all tell them to get rid of their animals. + +Animals are good for mental health and animals have emotions. I don’t know why all of you think it’s so exceptable to just tell people to get rid of their family as you please. If that’s the advice you want to give. That’s fine but do it with at least some tact. Saying things like “get rid of the cat” That’s rude and demeaning towards someone that’s already struggling. + +If someone doesn’t have animals and is in debt and having a hard time with money. They should not get one. Buying or adopting and animal should be done with the reflection that it’s a 10-20 year commitment. That’s easy advice. Telling someone to get rid of a family member? Taking them to a shelter where that animal will be scared and possibly killed for just being there. All of you are heartless, money is not worth more than an existing companion. +Wife currently has a company car. She’s about to go on maternity for 12 months and has to return car for that period. We can’t car share with me and so she’ll need her own car. Is there a cost effective way to do this, we can buy a crappy used car but with the state of the economy they are expensive and overpriced. Is there a cost effective lease option or any other suggestion? We looked at salary sacrificing (edit: Novated lease) but that would cost about $12,000 and might as well get a loan and sell the car after we done. We will 100% need a second car where we live as public transport, Uber etc. is not an option. +I realize that there will be some additional fees but before I argue with them as I wasn't at the dealership, I'm not sure if anyone has seen these. Besides the price that was in her initial lease contract (plus a couple payments remaining on the lease), there are fees for: +"check and advise" $500 - Per what the dealership told my mom, the check and advise fee is for them to run an inspection on the car to make sure they're not selling her a defective vehicle (kind of like a cover your ass). This sounds unnecessary since she is way under her mileage allotment and has had regular oil changes and inspections. +"dealer docs" $599 - For the dealer to change car's documentation over to her name? Sounds excessive. +"motor vehicle" $250 - For registration. I'm not sure of the usual fee for this. +Has anyone had any experience with these or similar fees? If so were you able to negotiate or eliminate them? I realize it's a sellers market but besides the fact that I absolutely abhor car dealerships with a burning passion, I'd like to avoid having my mom pay extra money unnecessarily. +Edit: Thank you everyone! You all confirmed what I was thinking and I'll sit down with her tonight to check out her original lease paperwork to go directly through them and her bank. I might even post around some (not so) nice reviews on their site and social media after all is said and done. +After getting my taxes done my check was supposed to be mailed to me. Turns out my check was given to another person with the same exact name who lives in the apartments near my house. The mailman delivered it to the wrong address and just so happen a person with the same name lives there. This other person not only cashed the check already but refuses to give it back. What should I do? I called the cops and they told me this is a civil matter and they cannot report it. My name is fairly common by the way. + +Forgot to add that the tax preparer also did the taxes of that lady who stole my check. He spoke with her earlier asking she return the money. She stated she already spent $500. They keep trying to get her to come down to the office but she keeps ignoring their calls. + +I am a woman! Sheesh why is everyone assuming I'm a guy hahah + + +One thing to take in consideration when getting into the stock market, is knowing when to sell and when to buy. Don’t be too greedy, do not waste the chance of selling a stock that has risen to a solid price just because you think it could go higher. What you can do instead is have a clear plan and target price based on your due diligence. If you’re expecting more growth than anticipated, don't get greedy, take your profit and let your initial investment ride. + +Moreover when buying, never use anything other than your “play money” to trade with, especially when you’re just starting out. No job paycheck money, rent money, none of the essential day-to-day needs. Have a certain amount on the side you can trade with that won’t affect the livelihood of yourself or your family if it disappears. +Please just give me advice, I know I'm stupid already, no need to tell me. + +I am 20, bought a brand new car for $18K (came out to $21after taxes and whatnot). I am a first time buyer, my parents don't have good credit and I couldn't get a cosigner. So my dumb ass agreed to an 18% interest rate. Payments are about $450/month, but I am paying $1000 to try and pay it off faster. I live with family and have basically no other payments besides my car insurance and phone bills. + + I have only had this car a couple months And have already paid over $1,000 in interest. FUCK. ME. My old car was 20+ years old, so it's nice to have a reliable car now, but the payments are not worth it. I financed with the dealer. I bought a cheap motorcycle last March and financed it at my CU to build credit, even tho I could've paid with cash. I have all of the money already in a separate account for the motorcycle. I'll have it paid off in March. + +This means I'll have a year of history with my CU and then they'll let me take out an auto loan for a little lower interest rate. It's probably still pretty high seeing as I don't have a cosigner and am still a first time buyer. + +Please help me get out of this mess. Is it worth it to just sell this car and buy a used one? Or did I screw myself and just have to play damage control now? +A question for the group…. I own a business in the online retail space. Annual profit varies some, but has been in excess of 1M/Year without much trouble and during peak years over 2M/Year. + +We operate out of a LCOL area, and my job responsibilities have been dwindling as other staff take on those roles and responsibilities. Median Household income in my area is <60k/Year. + +My Accountant/CPA is pushing back that my wages are insufficient given the business income. I pushed back to them with I am overpaid now that I have gotten efficient and started to ease myself into a lesser role/responsibilities. + +At some point I would like to step back to 12-20 hours/week depending on time of year. But it seems the CPA believes if the business makes a lot, I should have a sizable W2 income to go with it instead of taking distributions. + +If I quit working and put someone in my place doing what I do I would feel I am overpaying them at my W2 wages. That’s hasn’t always been the case, but it sure is now. Others in the business have gotten raises as I dump my workload into them so I can work fewer hours and have less stress. + +What is the rule of thumb other business owners here are using to determine W2:Distribution ratio? If not a ratio how have you determined a “reasonable wage” to avoid other issues. + +This ultimately comes down to the 15% Payroll tax that isn’t paid on distributions if that isn’t implied by the nature of the information above. +My story is a bit different so thought it might be of interest to some. + +I have generally tried to be as private as possible with my wealth, so have decided to share with some internet strangers :) + +I went to University as an average, non gifted 18 year old to study in an arts field, not having a clue what I would do in later life. I ended up stumbling upon some strategies/hustles to make some either risk free or low risk cash from betting. This generated £10k from a £200 start around age 19. + +I got more heavily involved from this point in sports betting as I knew I had a skill and a passion. I have always had an intuition for numbers and logic. By the time I had done 2 years of university I had a net worth of around £100k. + +I made the decision to drop out and focus on gambling full time. By age 24 I had a NW of £500k. Age 25 £1.5m, age 26 £2.6m. + +Things have stalled lately and I am struggling to make the money I did before. Therefore I am going to take it easy and whilst doing some lower risk stuff, basically retire. + +My partner is very career orientated and wants to work full time. Any advice from anyone in a similar position for some solo activities would be appreciated. + +Thanks for reading! +Remember the big news that Visa had completed their first crypto transaction on their network? Did you know it was Crypto.com who was behind that? Probably not, because everyone seemed to ignore that part. They’re currently releasing NFTs with Snoop Dogg, they’re sponsoring F1 race cars, and have the 6th most popular finance app on Android. + +I remember posts on this subreddit getting so much attention that would criticize them for hidden fees which didn’t exist. (It was just people not understanding how spreads and low volume work.) People also gave them so much hate for making changes to their company and tokens without telling the public first. Granted some things they should’ve said before doing, but they’re a startup in a brand new sector with regulations changing by the day. You can’t expect them to divulge everything to the public before it’s ready for the public. + +I’m not saying everything they’ve done is perfect and we can’t criticize anything. Far from it. But I think they deserve a lot more credit than they get for bringing crypto to where it is today. +Hi all! + +This is exciting, isn't it!?!? Given all the commotion lately, I thought I would give some (unsolicited) friendly advice to the board that will hopefully help people make some smarter decisions. These are skills that I've amassed over an 8 year career on a prop desk. I am not an expert in cryptocurrencies by any stretch, but I have a better than average understanding of markets (I hope!) + +Here are some general guidelines to follow. +1. Don't panic! Ever!! Panic is the number 1 source of losses in trading. Always. The key to not panicking isn't to "just don't watch the price" or anything like that. The key is to believe in your trade. If you truly believe in your trade, it will come around. The drops in price don't necessarily mean anything, because... + +2. Traders/Investors/Amateurs LOVE LOVE LOVE taking profits. The "buy and hold and ignore all fluctuations" mentality only exists to a select few. The rest of us love locking in profits! I bet 9 out of every 10 newly minted millionaires or hundred thousandaires will exit their position. And they will do it so swiftly (because what if that's the top and they miss it) they are willing to push the market back down just to exit their positions. This is NATURAL. Those who like to hold for the huuuge rally are merely the vocal majority. Those of us who cover, we stay silent (because we don't want anyone to know that we got out in case it keeps going). + +3. News, not speculation, is the absolute number 1 thing to watch out for. If there is no news, don't concern yourself with the price. All this talk of insider trading and "i wonder if a firm/exchange/country is going to make a big announcement" is all going to lead to bad decisions. The best strategy is to read up as much as you can on ETH and make an informed decision if you want to be invested in it. You guys are focusing way too much on the technicals. "where is it gonna stop" "what does this mean" "our market cap is above $XXX" "we just dropped X%". All of that is garbage, simply because this is a NEW frontier, new market. This isn't XYZ corporation you are trading where technicals could (although still usually don't) matter. These markets are THIN (I've seen the order book). Any small amount of cash can move these markets HUGE. Focus on the news. On today's price drop while everyone was panicking, I was scouring the internet for any news, any announcements, things like that. THAT'S important. Saying stuff like "I'm gonna buy if it hits $2 because that's a cheap price!" is naive if you aren't sure that there wasn't an important announcement. + +4. This is probably a buy and hold trade. The risk/reward is INSANELY asymmetric, meaning the upside is way bigger than the downside (obviously). But that also means, there's no difference between $1, $2, $3, or $10. In the end this will either be at $0 or some insanely high number. So everyone stop freaking out. + +I hope that helps for now. That's just a start. I'm open to answering questions or PMs about how banks/prop shops/hedge funds view these markets. Good luck everyone. To the moon! +I'm stuck in my vehicle in western New York around Buffalo due to the weather last night. Already according to the news several people in the region have died, at least 7, and rescue has been very slow. + +I've been stuck in this spot for **13 hours** and it looks like rescue won't be getting to me anytime soon until tomorrow, or late night at the earliest. + +The problem with that is I can't buy that much time, soon I will not be able to stay in here much longer and will need to abandon the vehicle. It's only 1pm here and it's clear I'll need to leave soon. + +I checked my gps, which already hit my 30% phone battery, and according to google maps there is a hotel about an 11mins walk from me, probably a bit longer with the snow. I called and they are open. + +The Hotel isn't affordable however, so I'm hoping there are last minute Christmas day promotions people can help me find to reduce the cost of the hotel. + +The Hotel is $102 but I need to drop that down. I've only found so far a 10% off promo from Priceline but that isn't anywhere near enough. + +Im hoping someone here can help me find through any of the booking sites, any discounts that can go further than that. I can't look more myself because my phone battery is dying, already as I'm wrapping up this post, it's at 28%. + +I also want to give advice cautioning against buying any old used car. While the storm was still manageable last night before it got really bad, already this baby had started having problems. It ended up breaking down early and I took the hit of the snow dumps that came. + +I would say I'm an example of what happens when you go too cheap. Like many here I could not afford to lease a car and decided to instead by a used car, but instead of buying from a credible dealer, I looked at cars in lots or on people's driveways for sales. + +Sure, the initial investment is much cheaper, but you take on more risk like this. It's better to buy a vetted certified used car even if it's a bit more, from an credible branded dealer than off the street. I made a very biggg mistake. I'm not young either. + +But please, let me know if you can find anything. I have to save my phone battery. I'll have to abandon the car sooner than later. +I have been recently reading James Hughes's "Family Wealth" and also saw [this NY Times article](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/your-money/wealth-100-year-family.html?searchResultPosition=1). They both seemed more geared towards intergenerational wealth in the sense of a shared family business. The whole approach to treating long-term (100+ years) family planning as akin to corporate governance seems a little heavy handed to me. Anyone else out here have any thoughts about formalizing the "la familia" relationship and planning for the long-term success of their families? + +Edit: To bring this question into FatFIRE territory, I would say that most people who achieve FatFIRE will probably have some sort of lasting financial legacy that will have an impact on their long-term relationship with family. I also feel that the ability to devote more time, energy and resources to developing a good and supportive relationship with your family is one of the main things that make FIRE so appealing. That being said, I can also see (and have seen personally) that substantial assets mixed with poor long-term planning can tear a family apart. I am wondering if this community has any good experiences with different approaches to this. +While this post may not seem obviously fatFIRE relevant, I think my predicament may be something that others in this community have experienced. We live outside Seattle. Our current NW is $4.5m, but will likely balloon to around $10m when the company that I work for goes public (I expect this to happen in the next 12 months or so), and my annual income is $320k. My wife and I have very few entanglements and are looking for a new place to live. My position is fully remote. I find that having too many possible options has become a bit stressful. + +I’ve been in search of some type of relocation consultant, but am having a hard time finding such a service… and the online resources are almost entirely useless (sites like Niche prioritize factors that aren’t important to us, most blogs and listicles are geared toward affordable towns or recommend the same places over and over again). + +We’re essentially looking for a small to medium town with a highly walkable idyllic downtown, preferably on the water, with excellent cultural amenities, and good vegan food options. We’re looking for places that are a bit under the radar, more of an iykyk insider spot. Also, unlike just about everyone else I’ve ever met, I like the Stepford / Truman Show / Master Planned Community / New Urbanism vibes. (Bonus points for a zero income tax state.) + +Has anyone found a relocation consultant? Alternatively, if you know of an urbane coastal village with a great museum scene, hit me up. +I understand why one would “buy the dip” on a particular stock or other security they like. What I don’t understand is where the capital is supposed to come from. When you are fully invested you’re not supposed to have much cash laying around from what I’ve been told. So when we are supposed to buy the dip, for the average portfolio, where does that capital come from? + +Is it implied that one should have cash available? Are you supposed to sell something else to make room for buying the dip? + +In other words, what’s the best way to be ready to buy a dip? + +EDIT: lots of helpful responses here. Sounds like there are a number of strategies depending on what style of investing/trading you do. The portfolio I manage is a rollover IRA separate from my 401k through my employer. I do not regularly, if ever, add cash to this account. Sounds like the consensus for that sort of account would be to trim other positions versus keeping cash on hand. +US inflation: May 4.99%, June 5.39%, July 5.37% + +Nothing but stocks come close to keeping your head above water. + +Do you believe it's temporary? How does it change your portfolio or your thinking if its not? What if it goes even higher? +The standard explanation is that people will just wait and not buy, but I dont see that happening. If I want or need a car, even a 5 percent reduction in 2 years would not prevent me from buying a car. If I need a new smartphone, Im buying it now. If I want a flat screen, Im buying it now. In fact, the argument IS disproved with tech items, as most of them DO get cheaper in a few years, yet people still buy them massively. + +If I need food today, Im buying it now - the price in 2 years does not matter. I am a forced buyer + +Also, a lower price point would not matter, because many times that would increase demand, and thereby stabilize the supply/demand. + +It basically just seems like a protection scheme for capital good valuations that is counter to reality. In the real world, depreciation happens. Assets get old and devalue. So we have decreed by law that that depreciation is mitigated by tax writeoffs, again supporting asset valuations unnaturally. + +When I stand back and look at it, this theory seems to be nothing more than a scheme to support capital accumulation unnaturally at the expense of the general welfare. + +Am I missing something? +What are the best video sources for learning technical analysis? + +(I am aware that varsity is a great place to read this stuff from, but I'm looking for a reliable video source that I can refer to). +A little confused about how maturity amount is affected by TDS deductions. + + +e.g. Amount 10,00,000, maturity = 10 years, IR = 6.5% + + +if i use cumulative option, a simple calculation shows maturity amount == 1905557 as per [https://fd-calculator.in/](https://fd-calculator.in/) + + +But if TDS is deducted quartely before interest payout, the maturity amount should be lower than that above right? + + +I booked a 10 yr FD with above terms via HDFC and it claims maturity amount similar to above 1905557. + + +But should i expect lower maturity amount than this, as only 90% quaterly interest will be re-invested every quarter? + + +What am I missing here.? +Right now, this is how you have to report STCG on ITR2. (I'm attaching a screenshot) + +[Link](https://i.imgur.com/TX90Li0.jpg) + +Basically you have to report 3 things + +1. Full value of units redeemed + +2. Actual value of units purchased + +3. Cost incurred + +Actual taxable amount is calculated as = 1-(2+3) + + +Right now you report LTCG simply as an amount (just like dividend). Nothing else is required. But now with taxes in place, you'll have to report it like STCG. + + + +Now imagine doing this for SIPs in case of LTCG: + +1. Full value of units redeemed (easy to calculate if you're selling it all in one go but if you're selling few units at a time, this will be a nightmare) + +2. Actual value of units purchased (If you've altered/modified the amount invested via SIPs over the years, calculating it will be HELL) + +3. Cost incurred (I'm guessing this will be nil, can I add commissions as part of cost incurred in case of a regular plan?) + + +Can you imagine going back 5 years and then calculating everything from then on? +Is looking at a mutual funds long term returns ( for eg last 10 or 15yrs) indicative of their performance in the future ? + +I mean with the market fluctuations completely aside, the actual people managing the funds would change over a long period of time right ? So different people might have different intuitions even if they are all exceptionally brilliant. + +Do long running/generally well performing funds follow some guidelines how to keep their funds returns safe and increasing ? + +Or is it completely based on data so personal differences/opinions dont matter at all ? + +This question might seem like a stretch but I would really appreciate if somebody takes the time to answer ! +Ask your investing related queries here! + +The members of /r/IndiaInvestments are here to answer and educate! + +Alternatively, you could [join our Discord](https://indiainvestments.wiki/discord) and seek answers to your queries + +If you're looking for reviews on any of these following, follow the links: + +- [which bank or brokerage to use](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Reviews%22%20Reviews%20of%20banking%20services%20and%20products&restrict_sr=1&sort=new) +- [which fund house is more capable and trustworthy](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Reviews%22%20Reviews%20of%20mutual%20funds%20and%20asset%20management%20services&restrict_sr=1&sort=new) +- [which investing platform to use](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Reviews%22%20Reviews%20of%20Brokerage%20products%20and%20services&restrict_sr=1&sort=new), +- [which insurance company is reliable](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search/?q=flair_name%3A%22Reviews%22%20%22Reviews%20of%20Insurance%20products%20and%20services%22&restrict_sr=1&sort=new) + +Generally speaking, there is no best stock, or fund, or bank, or brokerage, or investment platform. + +Answers are always subjective to your personal needs, but use those threads a starting point for you to look at what other Redditors have to say about a company, product, fund, or service. + +You can then ask a more specific question about what product or service to buy, once you are able to frame your personal situation. + +**NOTE** If your question is _I got 10k INR, what do I do to get most returns out of it?_, or anything similar; there is no single answer to this question. But we will also need A LOT MORE information if we are to provide some sort of answer: + +- How old are you? +- Are you employed/making income? +- How much? What are your objectives with this money? +- Do you have any loan, or big expense coming up? +- What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know it's 100% safe?) +- What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Have you invested in equity before?) +- Any other assets? House paid off? Cars? Partner pushing you to spend more? +- What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs? +- Any big debts? +- Any other relevant financial information about you, that will be useful to give you an informed response. + +Beware that these answers are just opinions of fellow Redditors and should only be used as a starting point for your research. This is **NOT** financial advice, in legal sense of the term. + +You should strongly consider consulting a registered fee-only financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Ideally, such advisors should be registered with SEBI, and have a registration number. + +[Links to previous threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search/?q=advice%20thread%20personal%20situation&restrict_sr=1). +As the title says, I am looking for opinions on how people here in India manage the stocks granted by their employer. In the past two years, decent amount of stocks have vested for me, and currently they form about 30% of my net worth on paper. + +* I work for one of the FAANGs, and although the stock growth has been tremendous in the past, and currently the company looks great, but, not sure if the same performance can be repeated in the future. +* Another aspect is, although timing the market is not possible, but the general consensus is that after the longest bull run we are nearing the end of cycle, and there will be a major correction soon in the future. +* The concentration is going to increase since the stocks vest regularly and are a major part of my compensation. + +So, just looking for opinions on how people manage this around here? Do you regularly sell your employee stocks? How do you invest the money that from the proceeds? How often do you look at it? +Or does the bank have ways to recover it other than seizing the collateral? + +If real estate is really in a shit position right now, why aren't people using it as a way to recover money? +You can discuss something like these, ITT: + +- Which fund houses are you currently investing with? Why did you invest in the funds? +- Reviews on the funds offered by the fund house? +- Provide your opinion on the investment services offered by the fund house. Do you avail their instant redemption features of the liquid funds? Do you use a "smart" SIP offering? +- How easy it is to navigate & use their app / websites? +- Does the fund house provide periodic communication regarding the markets, fund performance and strategy? +- What PMS scheme / AIFs are you currently invested in, if any? Why did you choose it? +- What does the PMS / AIF fee structure look like? +- Does the PMS manager provide periodic communications regarding portfolio selection and performance? + +--- + +You can ask for general review of a particular product or service that you are researching - _"What is the investing style of fund X? Is it recommended for long-term retirement needs?"_, but **avoid asking for personal advice**. + +The discussion is for consumption by a broader audience, not just specific to you. + +For advice regarding your personal situation (like "I have 25L saved up currently for retirement purposes in 30 years. What fund / PMS / AIF should I choose?"), the bi-weekly advice thread is recommended It's stickied at the top of the subreddit. + +Personal advice queries and comments will be removed to ensure that older threads provide sufficient historical reviews on products and services. + +Reviews posted here can be relied upon by newcomers to evaluate customer experience. Please confine the discussions only to reviews or requests for reviews of products and services. + +[Link to previous threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Reviews%22%20Reviews%20of%20mutual%20funds%20and%20asset%20management%20services&restrict_sr=1&sort=new) +Most analyst’s report consists of valuing a company either via a Discounted Cash Flow Model (DCF) or a Future Price to Earning model (PE) or a combination of both by taking a Discounted Cash Flow Model for a period and entering an exit multiple at the end of the period. Consistent Growth model aims to bridge the gap between valuation models. Let’s understand the merits and flaws of each of the system. + +Discounted Cash Flow Model - + +The most popular model used for valuations where analysts and investors predict future free cash flows across a period and discount it with cost of equity to come up with value. The model is primarily used for a particular period i.e. 5/10 years and than assigned a terminal value based on estimate growth rate after the period till perpetuity. + +Merits - + +It is a very efficient model especially while valuing stable companies and mature. DCF may help in staying out of economic bubbles. DCF focuses on free cash flows which is a better metric to evaluate profitability rather than accounting profit in the long run. + +Demerits - + +There is no standard or correct way of estimating Beta for a stock and contrary views are taken for calculating beta of a stock or industry. + +Cost of Equity = Risk Free Rate + (Market Premium - Risk Free Rate) * Beta + +A change in cost of equity even by 1% can drastically change the valuation and make all companies undervalued or overvalued even if all the other assumptions remain the same. + +It is difficult to estimate perpetual growth rate at the end of the model. + +Discounted Cash Flow model usually does not take into account high growth companies which can grow for at a high rate for a number of years. + +Future Price to Earning Ratio - + +PE ratio is more of a pricing method rather than valuation method. Usually in this model one prices a stock relative to its peers. Usually future PE is calculated by estimated earnings growth in the future and a multiple is assigned to the stock relative to its peers and the stock is valued. Pricing models such as P/BV (Price to Book Value) and EV/EBITDA have a similar approach. + +Merits - + +It is effective in bridging pricing mismatches across similar companies. In modern day and age more often than not using the pricing approach can be more rewarding in a shorter period of time. Majority of the modern day valuations during acquisitions are done using the pricing approach. + +Demerits - + +If the entire asset class or a sector is massively overvalued the pricing model doesn’t take into account and does not have the oversight to ignore bubbles. Usually there is an estimation to assigning current or future multiples to a stock. + +Consistent Growth Model - + +Consistent Growth Model takes elements DCF approach and works on it. In consistent growth model, we take the estimated profit growth rate for a number of years till it reaches the PE it commands. + +Example - A company growing at 10 percent and trading at 20 PE will have to grow at 10 percent for next 11 years to earn back the original investment. + +Alternatively a company growing at 20 percent and trading at a 60 PE will need to grow at 20 percent for next 14 years to earn back the original investment. + +While I understand that estimating growth rate for companies across decades is unlikely to be accurate but when one sees it this valuation model can be useful in relative valuation across multiple companies with different growth rates + +The biggest companies in India and the world (Reliance, HDFC Bank, Amazon, Apple etc.) have given returns of over 20/30 percent CAGR across 2 or more decades which is impossible to comprehend in a traditional DCF and P/E model. + +This model can also be used to capture and understand the potential scale of early growth companies and the growth required by a company across time to justify current valuations. + +Further in sectors like Consumer Goods in India where the valuations on a price to earning basis are incredibly high, these model can act as a normalizer or an indicator of why the market has valued a certain company at a certain valuation. + +In India a handful of companies have managed to grown at a similar range. + +One can also use the model to test alternative investments and compare equity with the same. + +For example - Let's say a FD gives a return of 6% , it should trade at a PE of 16.66, the number of years to grow at 6 % for next 12 years to earn back the entire investment. + +Demerits - + +Like most models there are flaws in the system, one being attempting to estimate growth rate for large periods of time which can be difficult to estimate. + +Here are some examples of some companies and how they fit in a PE v/s DCF v/s Consistent Growth model. + +PE Basis - On a pure term PE basis Avenue SuperMart seems the most expensive with a PE of 178 whereas a risk-free deposit seems the cheapest of the above companies where the risk free rate is considered at 6%. + + +Discounted Cash Flow - + +Here are the assumptions used in the Discounted Cash Flow. + +Growth Rate - Avenue SuperMart - 28% (in line with its 5 year CAGR) + +Asian Paints - 14% - In line with its 10 year CAGR + +HUL - 15% In line with its 10 year CAGR + +TCS - 14% In line with its 10 year CAGR + +Risk Free Rate - 6% + +HCL Tech - 12% slightly lower than the market leader + +ITC - 10% - Growth in line with the companies trajectory + +Risk Free Rate - 6% + +HCL Tech - 12% slightly lower than the market leader + +Market Premium is taken at 12%, the return of Nifty 50 since inception and Beta is taken on a stock specific basis against Nifty 50. Here are the valuation differences the above model shows with Asian Paints being the most expensive investment and ITC being the best investment. + + +Disclosure - I do not use the above DCF model for my valuations, it is only for a demonstrative purpose. + +Consistent Growth Model - After running the same above growth assumptions, in consistent growth model, ITC and HCL Tech are seemingly the best investments and Asian Paints is the most expensive investment from the lot. The number of years above indicate the amount of time the below investments will take to earn back the money if you invest as on 28th May 2021. + + +If you have faith in the above companies to grow for more than the years above at the same rate and you have a longer investment time horizon than the above years, the investment in the above companies would make more sense. You can also tweak the same by changing your growth estimates and making the decision or by using different growth rates for different years to come to a conclusion. + +Conclusion - Different models throw out different conclusions, for a comparison the below chart showcases the best and worst investments across different models. With 1 being the best and 7 being the worst. + + +Based on the above you can see how different valuation model agree and disagree simultaneously even if you take the same metrics in consideration. + +The objective of the model is to understand and evaluate companies over a longer period of time. +Just want to hear opinions and experiences from people who have been investing for some time now. + +Also, what do you wish you had known when you started? +Thanks! +Are there any AMC's that permit investments via a debit card? Until few months back, Motilal Oswal did have an option to use a debit card, Paytm Money had that option until 4-5 months back. Don't seem to find any option now. +Reason why I want to use a debit card only is a very silly one, need to spend an X amount by 31 Dec to earn 10X bonus points. Investing in a liquid fund will help me achieve it. +Line of Business + +GNFC is a state owned fertilizer and chemical company. It's revenues are 70% from chemicals and rest 30% from fertilizers. Chemical catalogue consists of multiple products like weak nitric acid, acetic acid, TDI etc. It is also the only manufacturer of TDI in SEA.[^(\[1\])](https://www.gnfc.in/PDFandWORD/GNFC_ANALYSTS_INVESTORS_PPT_9_7_2018.pdf) + +Financials + +Company is generating consistent net profits of rs. 100 crores plus for every quarter since September 2017. Trailing 12 month profits stands at rs 1039 crores. With an EPS of rs. 66.83 the P/E ratio stands at around 5. The company is also debt free so there's no debt servicing costs and the opportunity of future leveraging if the need be.[^(\[2\])](https://www.screener.in/company/GNFC/) + +&#x200B; + +Credit Ratings + +Crisil ranks GNFC commercial paper at A1+. The rating continues to reflect GNFC's market leadership and established regional presence in the industrial chemicals and fertiliser (urea and ammonium nitro phosphate \[ANP\]) businesses, respectively. The ratings also factor in strong financial risk profile marked by comfortable debt metrics, healthy capital structure in absence of long term debt and ample liquidity, supported by unutilised bank limits. These strengths are partially offset by risks related to price volatility in the chemicals, primarily toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) business, and exposure to risks related to regulated nature of the fertiliser business. CRISIL will continue to monitor sustainability of operations and profitability of the company's TDI plant, the company's overall performance in the fertiliser segment, and any higher than expected debt-funded capital expenditure (capex), which may adversely impact its financial risk profile.[^(\[3\])](https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/Gujarat_Narmada_Valley_Fertilizers_and_Chemicals_Limited_September_27_2018_RR.html) + +&#x200B; + +Valuation + +This has been tricky. The company is predominantly involved in chemicals but the peer comparison available on the internet is mostly against fertilizer companies. This isn't an apples to apples comparison but this is the best I have right now. The P/E and EPS comparison in one of the peer group comparison shows GNFC to have the lowest P/E with highest EPS and profits.[\[4\]](https://www.business-standard.com/company/g-n-f-c-213/peer-group) However, these companies will have very different product portfolie so I am not sure how good the valuations compare. But nonetheless the P/E of 5 seems to reflect the stock is at a discount imo. + +&#x200B; + +Is someone else following this stock? What are your opinions on this one? +What will be the impact of this on the retail investor? + +Was going through the article linked below. Couldn't understand much out of it. Can you help me to understand the same? + +&#x200B; + +URL: [PayTM Money](https://www.paytmmoney.com/blog/important-update-on-liquid-funds/?utm_source=Adv_Newsletter_Vol20_12) +Short Content: + +We would like to inform you that as per a recent SEBI circular, since 30th June, 2020 all money market and debt securities are being valued daily on a marked to market (MTM) basis i.e. as per their current market prices. This changes the way returns are calculated for debt mutual funds and may be more noticeable in liquid funds. Earlier debt securities which would mature in next 30 days, were valued on calculated prices (amortization basis). + +For example: Let's say debt securities maturing in the next 30 days would generate 3% return. So as per amortization, your daily return would be 3%/30 i.e. 0.1% irrespective of the market price of these securities. Thus, these securities generated stable returns every day without experiencing any undue volatility due to market considerations, before 30th June. + +But, in general, market price of debt securities are susceptible to various factors like interest rate action, market uncertainty, debt servicing ability of institutions etc. So, there might be some volatility in returns generated by short maturity debt mutual funds due to prevailing market conditions going forward. + +Liquid funds in general have a greater proportion of their portfolio invested in money market and debt securities with less than 30 day residual maturity. So daily returns on these schemes which used to be stable and positive in general, might end up being a little volatile now. Other debt categories would not be much impacted by these changes as most of these funds have securities with more than 30 day residual maturity which were already being valued on MTM basis. To understand in detail [*read more here.*](https://u9674305.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=VtpQFouaXYfAE7Mi9CFlCO-2FZ56LVU7BKIRSqlRxKkPMrd9099TYnxnGgGYdyxgyk73ww3KY5PsmrywczCjDqo1w-2BU-2BNGqw2fJh5wUspQRV15HjmjLwOr5ZIKaKm-2BYBnTrw6ZKiTjF-2BodxY4lUplR1g-3D-3D7I7E_emEDuEpIf5loTI13KmrvVYoXyKDbAsmELmf0AnJikMojtIo1IUTYTe9SewseV1uNqzxrpE01Ci-2BeZvEcA7CzYThYPmO-2F4CIdT4bHIW1imq6w8M3pIYxbudKxRaOxu8gRcOdmWYBoegbiW-2BF5kACTq2J3ykVTArtcGcb1QvDJOLbW-2Fxq6IrabI44LXOdt8lGF10TgGegXJRN0TxVrixnp5gc0lwZTo1MSsFO9y-2BeL-2B4NcmCMUaLEOOAa9Eqiq1vswTXpL08fEBqiLJVGHKS1oF-2BN-2FHZCSrQKYA6mqhNxAN2qeHP0q6UPG-2FleoI11Y3ZBswURkx4qwmQBbaQuRUX4k3KoScqSv1jI0W9uKmviHMval3M-2FDjJnBbObU8Vl9B-2FfbrU2Rmnwf6t2J4FOFu4vqy8vMAMxzoy7It4jPztIdUTKcl7K-2BRKHSb874EIVb1ifHACm-2BWFlp04R82BysIMQXKQ-3D-3D) + +To reduce the impact of this move, try to match your holding period with the maturity of the debt fund. Returns earned in such cases should be similar to fund's yield to maturity. Typically, park your money in liquid funds for at least 30-40 days. If you want to park your surplus for less than a month then consider doing it in overnight funds as they have zero exit load and no mark to market implication. +So I keep on reading this on various posts about choosing health insurance without co-pay, however I’m not sure why co-pay is bad choice. + +I saw plan from care health (religare) where if we opt for co-pay premium amount goes down significantly Also co-pay is not for each claim but overall yearly limit So if co-pay is 35k we have to pay till yearly claim amount passes 35k, once we cross limit on top of that everything will be paid by insurer +Sorry apes, I have to say it, but my biggest enemy right now is not Citadel, or Melvin, or the limp-dick SEC; it's YOUR EMOTIONS. They will be what ruins this party if we're all not careful. + +&#x200B; + +IMPATIENCE. Anxiety takes over, you should have seen something happen by now, surely? Maybe it's time to make a move, after all, doing nothing is not working, right? WRONG. Your predictability right now is allowing larger parties to act with knowledge that apes are unmoving, the plan is clear. HODL. + +EXCITEMENT. Apes should be scared of this like they are the great banana shortage of yore; the worst of all emotions as it betrays you time and time again. The day this goes above $450 it's going to be fever pitch. STOP THINKING LIKE A POOR PERSON. Get some class. Act like you're rich even if you're not yet. We don't blink at anything less than 10k and you need to be sure that you're not one of the spamming morons who will come here full of fidgets like a fat kid at McDonalds. Making decisions when filled with excitement leads to bad decisions; practice Zen now! + +FEAR. When that price goes up, tendies will start to smell real. They're in the room if only you press the sell button now and to hell with sensible advice anyone gave you beforehand; this situation is too dangerous and you have to get out now. Wrong. **Sell on the way down, not the way up.** THIS WILL BE AN AUCTION FOR YOUR GOLDEN TICKET - DO NOT PISS IT UP THE WALL FOR PEANUTS. + +REGRET. You sold on the way up, not on the way down, like trying to peel a banana from the bottom this was a bad choice. You **will** be pissed at selling a once in a lifetime opportunity for small change. **Stop thinking like a poor person**! The regret we can't live with here is seeing how far this *could* have gone. Please, anything but that. + +ELATION. Still apes, if this all works out, be wary of elation for it is unique to you, others may not share your joy for they did not earn it. Do not dance except with those closest to you. *Maybe squee a little when you do get behind the wheel of that lambo.* + +&#x200B; + +The job is far from done. Apes who show patience, contain their excitement, are ice calm in the face of emotion, and who know no fear will sit on a pile of bananas greater than they ever imagined. **Your brothers and sisters will tell this story for decades; do not give that away cheaply.** +Hey folks! I am looking into putting some money on the market via eTorro. I like its friendly user interface. However, it's the first time I have opened a brokerage account and have some noob questions: + +1. is it safe? I am planning to invest about 20-25k in the next year pretty much my full savings +2. What happens for example if they went bankrupt? what will happen with my investment? I've seen in some videos that if this happens your shares will be moved to another broker, but how can I know who that broker is +3. when I buy some shares / ETFs from them is there a way to check if I actually own that shares. For example, is there a site where I can check if I own 0.0.....1 of Apple so that I can know that eTorro is truly purchasing those shares for me +4. I am planning to put approx 60% into Vanguard ETF's and 40% into a dividend based portfolio. Is eTorro a decent platform for this> + +Thanks so much for your help and answers +They asked me for proof of funds and 2 days later they close my account and freeze funds. + +I exchange several messages with their customer support which is probably outsourced so they really can not help. Sent emails to founders, put complain to BaFin....anything else I can do? + +They are holding my funds due to some AI AML detection system which is not really working, been their client for 5 years, got my salary there, savings etc... + +I really hope N26 is not another Theranos or FTX but after reading what problems they are having maybe it can happen here to. + +I can not imagine what agony and suffering are going through for example refugees, students etc. where all funds are on this account... + +From googling I could find some investors in N26, most of them are using nice words about corporate governance systems which I really dont know if that is just mambo jumbo for PR... Third Point LLC Earlybird Venture Capital Dragoneer Investment Group Allianz X Tencent SEGNALITA Ventures GmbH Valar Ventures LLC GIC Greyhound Capital + +This is their supervisory board Barbara Roth, Joerg Gerbig, Robert Kilian, Marcus W. Mosen + +Email from Valentin Stalf [valentin.stalf@number26.de](mailto:valentin.stalf@number26.de) and Maximilian Tayenthal [maximilian.tayenthal@number26.de](mailto:maximilian.tayenthal@number26.de) if this helps someone to get their funds back faster... + +&#x200B; + +While this is happening to me I start to realize how vulnerable we are today. + +Imagine one click away someone closes your bank account, maybe tomorrow Google or Apple will do that to someone...No password recovery, nothing.... +While a convinced Boglehead, I can't help feeling that most of the advice in forums and books is dedicated to a US audience, where healthcare costs can ruin you and many are a few missed paychecks away from financial disaster. This is more rare in Europe, where most states have subsidized healthcare, a much larger percentage of people own their homes, and many people can count on better job security and a decent pension at retirement. + +At least to me it doesn't feel like it's that critical to follow the usual advice to the letter, i.e. to have an emergency fund, increase bond allocation dramatically when nearing retirement etc. What do you think? + +As a nice resource, here's the Vanguard allocation slope for their target retirement accounts. https://www.vanguard.com/pdf/s167.pdf +Hi everyone, I relied on an accountant to calculate my gains/losses from dealing with US stocks and to file an Income Tax Return 2021 for me. This year I don't want to rely on an accountant as these calculations would be provided to me by the brokerage app (Interactive Brokers). I understand everything I need to do, except for what exchange rate to apply when converting gains/losses from USD to EUR. In [this file](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yFo6VNvWJliWevJ9goZ_PITH2tkJUymy/view?usp=sharing) you'll be able to see the totals and also a fixed exchange rate of 1.1827. + +What confuses me is that if this exchange rate is based on the current rate for today, I will have bigger losses as USD and EUR are nearly equal right now. Can somebody enlighten me what is the correct exchange rate to use here and would it be worth amending the Income Tax Return filing for 2021 that I delegated to my accountant in May of this year? Doing so will give me more credits for losses that I can carry forward and apply to future gains. +So I am currently residing in the Middle East as a EU citizen on an international assignment for a German company. I am still making contributions to the company's pension scheme, as well as to the state pension contributions. + +It's been a little under 5 years of contributions and I have read there's a bit of a controversy as to whether EU citizens can claim back these contributions. Would it be worth it to give this a try? According to this: [https://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/Pension\_refunds\_on\_leaving\_Germany](https://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/Pension_refunds_on_leaving_Germany) you need to be at least unregistered in Germany for 24months, which is the case for me. + +Would anybody know where one finds out how much can be claimed back and whether this is also possible for private (company) pension funds? +Firstly, thank you in advance for your answers + +I wish to buy Commodities such as Lithium, Copper and Cobalt, or mining companies that extract those minerals. Do you have any suggestions? + +Is there a way to buy physical Lithium, Copper and Cobalt through Degiro? + +Thanks +Hi Community! + +I am out of the market and holding almost 80% cash at the moment. I know about time in the market but I just will wait until the next dip to go all in (1-2 years). Where can I keep this money with a 1%-5% yearly return for the next 1-2 years with low exposure to stock markets? + +I looked at European bonds and ETF/mutual funds but nothing seems interesting considering current rates and future raises. US seems interesting but I would be gambling with FX. + +Any suggestions? + +Thank you all! +Hello everyone. + +I am 18 and first time posting here. + +Goal: + +To reach FI, not RE particularly. + +Plan: + +Plan is to invest into 2 ETFs. One having 100% of holdings in US market and the other one including all of the world. At the end to have exposure of 70-80% to US market and the rest to the whole world. + +For example: + +For income - HDLG/HDLV for US market and VHYL for whole market. + +For growth - SXR8 for US and VWCE/VWRL for whole market. + +&#x200B; + +Does it even matter if I have dividend income since I should withdraw 4% for yearly living expenses? + +Any critics/piece of advice is welcomed since I am new to FI and have a lot of questions. + +&#x200B; + +Cheers! +They asked me for proof of funds and 2 days later they close my account and freeze funds. + +I exchange several messages with their customer support which is probably outsourced so they really can not help. Sent emails to founders, put complain to BaFin....anything else I can do? + +They are holding my funds due to some AI AML detection system which is not really working, been their client for 5 years, got my salary there, savings etc... + +I really hope N26 is not another Theranos or FTX but after reading what problems they are having maybe it can happen here to. + +I can not imagine what agony and suffering are going through for example refugees, students etc. where all funds are on this account... + +From googling I could find some investors in N26, most of them are using nice words about corporate governance systems which I really dont know if that is just mambo jumbo for PR... Third Point LLC Earlybird Venture Capital Dragoneer Investment Group Allianz X Tencent SEGNALITA Ventures GmbH Valar Ventures LLC GIC Greyhound Capital + +This is their supervisory board Barbara Roth, Joerg Gerbig, Robert Kilian, Marcus W. Mosen + +Email from Valentin Stalf [valentin.stalf@number26.de](mailto:valentin.stalf@number26.de) and Maximilian Tayenthal [maximilian.tayenthal@number26.de](mailto:maximilian.tayenthal@number26.de) if this helps someone to get their funds back faster... + +&#x200B; + +While this is happening to me I start to realize how vulnerable we are today. + +Imagine one click away someone closes your bank account, maybe tomorrow Google or Apple will do that to someone...No password recovery, nothing.... +Hi guys + +I'm looking into which S&P500 to invest from Degiro free ETFs. I'm still wondering which one I should choose but something the caught my eye is the insane amount of S&P500 ETFs that have a lot of words in the name which I don't understand what they mean. +Let me give some examples: + +iShares S&P 500 Inf Tech Sector UCITS ETF USD +iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (Acc) + +What exactly does it mean the "Inf Tech Sector" and the other without any wording? Is there any difference between them? +hi! I'm looking to start making my way into credit cards. I'm from Malta, and honestly, they're kind of crap. The most you get is free travel insurance, and that's if I put 3.5k as a security and would still have to pay an annual fee. I recently heard that someone managed to get an Amex card from Italy, without having Italian residency. Was wondering if anybody has any ideas on how to get one? Thanks! + Hi everyone, + +I am currently writing my Master's thesis on the topic "Why do people use or do not use Robo-Advisors?" and I am looking for people with interests in finance and investments to fill out my survey. I figure this is the perfect place for that 😊 + +This would be the survey: [Why do people use or do not use Robo-Advisors.](https://forms.gle/7Faz4F1T9DiXtRJF8) + +This study assesses the technology adoption of Robo-Advisors. For that, this study identifies potential investors' personal characteristics and their perceptions towards this technology and investigates the correlation between the characteristics found and investors' attitudes and behavioral intention to use Robo-Advisors. + +I am happy about every response +I am not relying on state pension at all for any FIRE/financial planning (call me cynical) but I am interested in understanding 2 things: one, mandatory length for pension contribution, and two, what is the penalty for accessing pension before retirement age? + +Correct me if I am wrong but from what I understand, there is a minimum period of contribution that is required before you can access your pension. For instance, in the UK, it is 35 years of contribution will result in receiving a state pension. Additionally, you have to pay a penalty to receive pension before retirement age - earliest you can receive it is when you're 55. How does it work in your country? + +- Germany +- Netherlands +- Spain +- France +- Poland +- Switzerland +- UK +etc. +I live in Belgium and I would like to set up a core-satellite (70% and 30%) portfolio of only ETFs with exposure to USA and EU markets. I don't want to actively manage the portfolio and my plan is to add some money every month for the next 30 years. So, I am looking for a brought exposure that is relatively safe. + +Portfolio: + +- USA core (35%) - CSPX + +- USA satellite (15%) - QDVA + +- EU core (35%) - DX2X + +- EU satellite (15%) - CEMR + + +Questions I have: + +- Would you consider this a good strategy for my goals? (brought exposure + relatively safe) + +- Are the ETFs I have chosen ok, or are there better options? + +- All 4 ETFs are traded on EU stock exchanges. This seems the best option tax wise. Is this correct or are there other factors to take into account? +Hi, + +I am 20 and I got a gap year before going to the college. The thing is, that I got quite a well paid job (~2k eur), but it’s paid in PLN, my native currency. I have very low expenses since I live with my parents so I decided that I’ll use that money to cover most of my college spendings in the next academic year (I want to leave the work by that time). My goal is to be able to cover all variable spendings on my own. + +The question is, should I do something with the money that I don’t want lose in such a short term? I put it in the savings account, yet I am not sure if it’s a good idea to keep it in PLN. + +Edit: Some of that money I already put in ETFs, so I don’t really need an investment strategy, just a way to preserve value of my money for year or two. +Have been searching a while but I am not able to find anything interesting enough as Robinhood. + +All free brokers either are free and intuitive but doesn’t offer options - or, offer options but are either not user friendly or imply plenty of fees for market data, market access, etc... + +What do you guys advise for someone with a financial background but quite new to option trading and preferably low cost broker for someone resident in Luxembourg? + +Thanks people 😃 +In the last week with corona, the euro is performing very well against some currencies (USD and CAD for example) + +1 week ago: 1 euro = 1.425 CAD or 1.08 USD + +Today: 1 euro = 1.495 CAD or 1.12 USD + +Why is the euro doing well right now? +Hey personal finance experts, + +Canadian expat here, been living in Germany for a couple years now. + +I have around 10K EUR in savings in an account at Commerzbank that I never withdraw from. I add about 600 EUR a month to that account. (I have another account at Cortal Consors which I use for everyday expenses and joint savings with my partner.) + +Right now the 10,000 (and counting) EUR is just sitting in the Commerzbank account and collecting dust and I feel like I could do something more productive with it. What would be the best place for it to grow? + +Thanks for your help! +Hey personal finance experts, + +Canadian expat here, been living in Germany for a couple years now. + +I have around 10K EUR in savings in an account at Commerzbank that I never withdraw from. I add about 600 EUR a month to that account. (I have another account at Cortal Consors which I use for everyday expenses and joint savings with my partner.) + +Right now the 10,000 (and counting) EUR is just sitting in the Commerzbank account and collecting dust and I feel like I could do something more productive with it. What would be the best place for it to grow? + +Thanks for your help! +Hi I am a Student (M19). Wanted to start investing. You can assume I know nothing. Was wondering how to start. Only watch youtube videos about investing. What are the first steps? Where to invest from? +I am a US citizen with permanent residency in Germany. I recently sold a small apartment and now have 60,000€ sitting in my bank account. At this point, I really understand the German real-estate market works and part of me want to continue investing in what I know. but on the other hand, I already own the apartment that I live in and it seems wiser not to put everything in real-estate. I have betriebliche Altersvorsorge (bAV) through work, so this is does not need to be invested as long-term retirement. Particularly, since my understanding is that German retirement funds are complicated for US citizens, who don't retire in Germany. My plan was to invest in a portfolio of accumulating ETFs and not touch it for 10 years (as long as I stay in Germany). + +Questions: + +\#1 My bank (Sparkasse only because they offered me the best interest rate on my apartment) offers "free" access to their depot. Is there any advantage to using this? + +\#2 Would I be better off opening an account with Ing, DKB or Degiro? + +\#3 Sparkasse pushed UCITS and Immobilienfonds, I assume because of commission fees. Is there there any argument for UCITS and Immobilienfonds rather than accumulating ETFs over 10 years? + +\#4 I've seen a few posts suggesting to "seek a professional, all the "free investment portfolio" have shitty terms & conditions, like saying "no initial sales charge" but they actually take 5% (also for ETFs) when you take money out. ". Would I be better off looking for a Honorarberator? + +&#x200B; + +This is new territory for me, so thanks in advance for your thoughts +Will the US government step up and do what’s right by protecting the people or will they side with Wall Street? + +I find it interesting that Melvin and Citadel are now included. There must be some evidence linking the three companies for congress to warrant the hearing? + +[https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/robinhood-melvin-capital-citadel-execs-expected-to-testify-in-congress-on-gamestop-turmoil](https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/robinhood-melvin-capital-citadel-execs-expected-to-testify-in-congress-on-gamestop-turmoil) + +Robinhood, Melvin Capital, Citadel execs expected to testify in Congress on GameStop turmoil -sources +So I just realized they banned GME from another thread. At first I assumed it's because they were sick of GME spam. I went to see what's being pushed over there since I haven't visited in ages. I clicked on a few posters on the front page, and low and behold: bots and REALLY suspect accounts spamming the same links everywhere on Reddit. It's literally the same 5 stocks being spammed. Don't just blindly believe me, go look yourself. I also noticed a lot posts have really little activity. Yet there are 10 million subscribers... It's scary how an uninformed person can visit WSB after watching something like CNBC and just lose all their money. Is this their new way of ensuring retail always gets cheated since they know the younger generation doesn't follow boomer news? These guys are really scum of the Earth. +Just coming off Scotties announcement, generally the difference from Sunday's announcement is: +As per midnight tomorrow, the following will not be allowed: + +Auction houses, including open houses + +Personal services including beauticians, tanning, tattoos, massage parlours +(Barber/ hairdressers still on) + +Arcades and amusement parks + +Community and recreational centres including barres?, Saunas, bath houses, galleries, museums, libraries, community halls, clubs, PCYC, RSL, and places of worship + +Weddings - limited to 5 people + +Funerals - limited to 10 people + +What does everyone think? + +Edit:formatting +The biggest Ethereum Dev Conference in the world is just around the corner. The agenda is on point, the speakers are legit and the media buzz is slowly kicking into overdrive. + +What are your expectations? +(I had ambitions to put this in a blog or something, but ran out of time - think I was able to get points across, please excuse the choppiness.) + +For the past few years, I’ve contemplated the idea of a “meta exchange” to help provide liquidity across multiple exchanges. Since the market has become more liquid that interest has wained. Nonetheless, I’ve stayed in the fintech and continued to explore new opportunities. + +Last year, an angel investor shared an investment they made in a new app with me and I was instantly intrigued. The app was called Revolute. As many of you have found, it has become an amazing way to seamlessly normalize your “native”, on-hand currency, regardless of the country you are in — eliminating costly exchange rates in the process. After stumbling on Revolute again recently it occurred to me what Vitalik Buterin’s interest in OMG may be. What if the Revolute notion could be incorporated into virtual currencies? + +If you think about Vitalik Buterin’s background and what he has said regarding openness and his socialistic tendencies, I think he very much wants to create a co-operative platform where everyone can seamlessly trade units of value. And given his proclivity for strategic planning in an almost Bezos fashion (yet to be seen at his twenty odd years of age), these efforts may also help protect Ethereum (and maybe crypto in general) from external global regulatory confrontations. Whether a game of chess, civil disobedience, or just his Kantian beliefs he seems to be determined make Ethereum a long term success. + +Currently, shuffling fiat to fiat is a pain and it’s not much different for crypto - with reliance on old-school, fee-driven intermediaries, so it makes sense to facilitate any to any transactions between stores of value as transparently as possible within a coin. The fact that this happens to provide fuel for ETH only hardens the underlying Ethereum platform. + +I think OMG is going to help the “greater good” and by effectively providing liquidity between anything to anything will help assure coins always have a way to be spent. I believe OMG in this regard is a bit of a trojan horse in that any regulatory challenges will be mitigated by this liquidity. For example if China wanted to “ban” Ethereum (e.g. by making ETH <> CNY pairs illegal), users could seamlessly exchange ETH -> BCH -> CNY. + +Further, with the release of Metropolis, it’s my belief that any to any transactions using Ethereum network will be as personal and private as giving your 10 year old their weekly 15 USD allowance in your living room. Metropolis will include a ZNSnarks which is purported to provide unmatched transactional anonymity. So if you have BTC and your son only has an ETH account you can seamlessly and privately send the funds. + +To speculate further - I would guess that tying in Golem with OmiseGo may be a protective measure to further harden this framework. In that having OMG code resident in Golem could dynamically scale for demand and also to protect against DDOS-like attacks or intervention. + +Basic OMG network with GNT node diagram: https://pasteboard.co/GJ8saL8.png + +If all this plays out, OMG could indeed be OMG! Welcome thoughts, corrections, etc. This is just a dump of why I think OMG is making so much traction. Nothing here is validated and is just speculation and what I'd like to see happen. +Mateys, I be a shark upon the high seas. True, me own leg was carried off 4 years ago, when a Spanish galleon blew off our main mast. Now I have all but this oaken stump to show for the action. + +Now I see behind, an English frigate bearing down hard upon us. We've taken on water, and she's steering heavy. DAMN THE ENGLISH! We'll not be run aground by the beef-eating landlubbers and their lobster-coated marines. + +There remains but one question I must have answered, before we meet their guns in the smoke and death of naval battle. What means the Ethereum Hardfork? Speak! and be plain, for I am but a salty sailor and not a backend software engineer with 19 years experience in the technology sector. +Should we end on-going weekly subsidies for bridge development (currently valued at 300K Donuts per week being paid to the developer working on it), and instead offer a 500K Donut reward for successful delivery of a bridge? + +1 - Yes + +2 - No + +EDIT: To clarify, this is not an actual vote. The voting poll will launch in approximately 2 days. +A million people asking me about Ethereum and where to learn about it. The getting started guide on /r/Ethereum is okay but if there was a more in-depth easy to follow guide with basics, videos, and important articles that anyone could understand, it would REALLY help on boarding new investors. I'm not knowledgeable enough to make such a guide but I know some of you are. Something like: + +NewToEthereum.com +EthereumIntroduction.com + +Would be awesome to be able to lead people to. + +EDIT: People are posting a lot of good stuff. Now someone just needs to consolidate it. Maybe this can be the thread people post the most valuable pieces of information they think should be added. + +Also another idea. Could make beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections. +Reading through Lubin's comments from a while a go: + +http://np.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/5m6z5u/what_is_enterprise_ethereum/ + +If you cherry pick (and even if you don't), the writing is on the wall + +> In broad strokes, it is a bunch of companies, large and small **that are using and building on Ethereum, both in the public blockchain context and private permissioned contexts**, who are organizing to build architectures that they need in their work, at the protocol level and application layer + + +&nbsp; + + +> **The public blockchain is primary for many in that group**. Private permissioned versions are necessary for various uses cases and especially necessary while Ethereum grows more scalable and configurably private/confidential and this group will also assist in that regard + + +&nbsp; + + + +> It is possible, in the next 6 months, **that we will demonstrate an application that makes use of both private and public blockchain. The future will see many, many of these.** + +&nbsp; + +> businesses can start where they are comfortable, and **then migrate all or parts of their applications to take advantage of characteristics of the public blockchain** + + +&nbsp; + + +> **Tue, February 28, 2017** +> +> **8:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST** + +What do you suppose can take an entire day about this simple announcement? + +And its at JP Morgan's offices: + +> JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. +> +> **4 Chase Metrotech Center / 5th Floor** + +&nbsp; + +Plus we have the collapse R3 which no doubt has been festering for sometime and only announced now. Leaving some quite disgruntled payors into this consortium, when we can do both permissioned and public as above? For free? + +And last but not least - Bob's even more telling prediction ( and he works at Consensys.. ) + +https://twitter.com/BobSummerwill/status/835294528336637954 + +Bundle up all the above together and what can one expect on Tuesday the 28th? + +https://s9.postimg.org/r2pkwyj0v/moohaha.jpg + +That's right :-) + + + + +This has happened multiple times in the past few months, and every time its the same outcome. Every single time XRP has surpassed ETH as of late, it never holds for more than a few hours at best. + +That is the absolute best time to open and start loading up your XRP shorts, because in just a short while, you're going to walk away with profit as ETH always regains the number 2 spot sooner than later. + +Easy money at its best. Thanks Ripple! +Bought at 314$ sold at $1132 now I'm back in with all profits made at $390. I'm no experienced trader I was lucky and I feel my 2nd burst of luck is coming now ;). Thanks to whoever sold the dip. +The egregious overstepping of power these companies are taking on behalf of the government to override personal anatomy is quite shocking. + +what would i have to do to get a phone set up that isn't at risk to this sort of thing? how much power is enough for them? + +does apple already have the ability and they're just looking for permission? + +is google already doing this? + +&#x200B; + +edit: i don't mean from a picture i mean from them stealing your screen when you're writing down the phrase from the phone. + +the solution is to create the seed from a device that will never go online again i've found + +but how do you get the money out in that case? +Has gone up! This has been a good week! I'm actually seeing news about adoption, innovation, and concrete reasons to be optimistic about Bitcoin without just being an echo chamber! There's starting to finally be real discussion about what happened at Mt. Gox, and how we should realistically continue from here (for the most part). Good job guys, and keep posting good stuff. I'll keep upvoting it! +Last month I asked you guys what you're biggest fck-up was. This was such an interesting read that I asked you for your biggest 'dodged-a-bullet' moment. This thread was also really cool to see. + +So in the hopes to learn something from you guys I am curious what your biggest WIN is within the crypto space. Did you win big on a hidden gem, did some awesome yield farming that delivered on it's promise, was there an awesome leveraged trade you did at the exact right time? + +I'll start: +\- I bought Matic right before the name change. It went on to pull a 20x within half a year. Unfortunatly it was my smallest bag because it was a gamble and I didnt sell all of it before the bears took over. But still my biggest win. + +\- I did some yield farming using Anchor and Mirror. This almost doubled my UST stack...which I did sell in time. +Hi everyone, I'm a 24 year old guy looking for advice, anything helps! + +&#x200B; + +I've been learning everything I can about Real Estate for about a year, saving up money, have an approved loan with a great rate, and an agent. I'm an Analyst in my day job so I know a thing or two about doing my due diligence and research. However, now I'm starting to get cold feet. I have a couple of properties that I'm interested in and would like to flip one of them this year, but I have questions. I'm currently living with family but I want to take one of the rooms in the property for myself and rent out the rest while I slowly make upgrades. + +&#x200B; + +1. I have about $9,000 in cash, assuming I use $3-4k in closing and as a down payment, would $6,000 realistically be enough to make a significant upgrade to a home? +2. As a Financial Analyst, everything tells me that we are heading towards a recession fairly soon, should I bail on this idea? +3. I still have a good amount of student loans, should I focus on that instead? + +&#x200B; + +I'm understandably nervous but excited, accepting all tips! +Sorry for the length - TLDR @ bottom + +Bought a townhome 7 years ago using a low down payment (3% with no PMI) first time home loan that I did purchase for myself with intent to live in long term. I was in my mid 20's and pretty oblivious to the loan stipulations and occupancy requirements. It was a new build in 2012 and took nearly a year and a half from signing contract to closing after construction, which was much longer than anticipated (\~6 mo.) While I purchased the home to live in at least 5 years, a lot had changed at my job (lay offs, restructuring, etc) and I had an opportunity to move from NC to CA for a once in a life time dream job. This was 9 months after moving in and making it my own. + +With all of the craziness of accepting a job in CA and a short notice move I didn't even think that keeping the townhome and renting it out would be an issue, as long as the bank gets their check. I hired a property manager, changed my insurance to non-owners, updated my mailing address with the lender and quickly found a tenant. The area in NC didn't really allow for my rent to cover all of my costs so was actually slightly cash flow negative, but I assumed at some point I'd have enough equity where it wouldn't be a loss to sell... + +Now, 7 years later I have decent equity in it - purchased @ 168k, owe 141k @ 4.25% and could easily sell for $240k. I've spent the past few months immersed in REI research and learning as I hope to use the equity to kick start other investments. Never missed a payment or heard a peep from the bank about renting it out. + +I've been planning on either doing a cash out refi, sale, or 1031 (if decide to be ambitious), but just realized that my original closing documents had 2 places with occupancy stipulations (the note and the borrow certification). I wasn't aware that I needed to notify the bank when this happened, so I didn't. + +Now I'm not exactly sure what to do, I feel like as I've been doing this for so long now that notifying the bank of my actions will stir up more than just ditching the townhome and moving on. Would any of these options raise more flags to the bank to have them dig into my history more than others? If I 1031 I'd be going into a loan for another investment property, I'm not sure if this would be a riskier option. If I cash-out refi I'd be moving to a conventional loan and maintain 20% while continuing to rent out to my current tenant, with a different lender I assume... + +Any advice or experience is appreciated, I'm usually an above board type and feel in a bit of a pickle. + +TLRD; purchased low down payment towhome with full intent to live in, life changed and moved away 9 months later and rented it out not knowing anything about occupancy requirements. Rented it out for 7 years without hiccup, and want to sell/refi to pull equity and get into REI. What do? +My wife and I just closed on an investment property. It includes 2 houses, one that was the previous owner’s residence and a second that is occupied by a long term tenant. +The tenant and the owner had a great relationship and he speaks highly of her as his landlord. On her passing her son inherited the property and the 2 did not get along. Therefore there is no transfer of security or lease in place. We agreed to this condition as part of the purchase. +The rent is well below market and has not been increased in years. During our closing process, we spoke with him and discussed a $200 monthly increase which he agreed to and told us that it was a generous offer. He is very happy with his living situation. He is aware of our intention to gradually increase the rent. +This price is still much below the market price. +Today he offered to sign a 3 year lease for that price. I offered an additional increase of $150 monthly after year one if we were to do so. Again, still below market. +( he also gave us a list of neglected repairs) +Is the good tenant vs. market rate scenario in effect here? +Hey all, + +I want to purchase a house fully cash in my area (house prices around $150k>) and I have 50k in cash. The area is competitive and I keep getting beat by cash buyers. + +I’m thinking of applying for a sofi personal loan to get $100k and purchase something and refi it out right after. + +Has anyone done this before? Is it possible / are there risks I might not be thinking of? +I found a pond property in my town that's around 10 acres, with the pond taking up about 2 acres. + +There's one main pond, and a slightly smaller one. + +Right now it's undeveloped land, but it's connected to a road and has a driveway. + +My plan was to build a house to use as an airbnb for most of the year, but also stay in it myself occasionally as I really like the location. + +A friend of mine has some horror story about DHEC making his friend do $60k worth of maintenance to his pond, which makes me a bit nervous. + +This property used to be a swimming hole in the 50's but the family that owns it has no interest in doing anything with it. It's gone under contract 2 times in the past 4 years but no one closed. + +I've walked the property and other than an old bathhouse that needs to be torn down, it seems pretty nice and the pond doesn't look like it's in bad shape. + +**Does anyone have any experience/tips on buying a property with a pond?** +On a rental home, would you go all out on countertops, appliances lights fixtures and all of that stuff and making it look like a home you’d sell? I have a home that I could paint and re-do floors and put a for rent sign up. But I was wondering if I should worry about making it look like the other homes that are selling. I will paint it Gray like the rest and have an open floor layout, but not sure how else to add value without me spending money on things tenants might break or damage; if that makes sense. +My home is on a noisy road. The largest bedroom upstairs facing the street has it the worst. Instead of just replacing the windows with sound rated windows, I am planning to build a "room within a room" - basically construct a second studded wall around the perimeter of the room. The new windows are STC 37 and would be installed parallel to the existing windows (two sets of windows). + +I'm planning to rent this home out in 6 months. Eventually when it comes time to sell, would doing this extra work add a stigma to the home? My fear is that potential buyers will realize why the effort was put forth, and be turned off. + +I hate the road noise, but somehow there are 100's of homes lining this road that people chose to live in. It doesn't bother my wife - but ambience, peace, and quiet in my home is a major requirement for me. Up there with running water and heat. At least after 9pm it gets relatively peaceful. + +Should I just replace the windows and have it look normal, or do the double wall - and potentially advertise to everyone that this home is in a terrible location? +I’ve watched a few videos and have started a S&D book and there’s really no consensus way to draw the zones. I’m sure the right answer is “it depends”, but is there a general way you guys like to draw zones? I like the idea of covering the whole basing period in order to not miss out on trades, but I plan to start with a small account and do not love the idea of such a wide SL. + +Just wondering where you guys put your proximal and distal lines ya know ? +I will probably get destroyed here for this but oh well. + +&#x200B; + +I started my account with $47,000.00 CAD. I brought it up to $55,000.00 CAD swing trading and day trading. I made $35,000.00 CAD on BPTH last Thursday. I was scalping the stock and selling every few dollar profit buying 3000 shares at a time. At this point my account was at $92,000.00 roughly, however, I got greedy trying to make even more on BPTH and bought the top at like $73 something and everyone knows what happened from there. I ended up selling at $35.00 dollars and some change a share as I couldn't stomach watching it drop from $73 to $35 within a span of less than 5 minutes. I lost all my profit plus some of my account.... went from $92,000.00 to $35,000.000. In my defense I am new at trading and i had no idea how certain things worked. Like the stock got halted some many times I didn't realize that the price would drop that much that fast. My trading goal was to not hold for more than a few minutes before selling, however, around 11:30 the stock got halted like 3 times within the hour each time for 15 minutes. I definitely learned my lesson with this shit. I also learned how hard it is to deal with a financial loss because I was depressed for days after this shit happened and too embarrassed to tell anyone. Any advice from fellow traders would be great. + +&#x200B; + +P.S: I have been actively trying to trade for the last 3 months or so, however, I also have a full time job. +Hey there Reddit community. As the title explains I am turning 18 and plan on experiencing the highs and lows of the stock market. Fear not for I am not entering with a “ get rich quick mentality “. Nor am I coming in with the mindset to double or triple my money. I am simply just amazed at some of the communities formed from the stock market such as this one. If I make an extra $20 or $30 from NKE or DIS then hey guess who’s treating themselves to ice creme :). I plan on becoming somewhat active to the best of my ability and would love for any advice from the veterans to the intermediates. I plan on starting off by using Robinhood but am willing to try different sites. Please fill free to comment any extra stuff I should know.... again I repeat I am not here with a get rich quick mentality nor do I expect to double or triple my money. I just want to be able to say been there done that. Thanks in advance! +Hey there Reddit community. As the title explains I am turning 18 and plan on experiencing the highs and lows of the stock market. Fear not for I am not entering with a “ get rich quick mentality “. Nor am I coming in with the mindset to double or triple my money. I am simply just amazed at some of the communities formed from the stock market such as this one. If I make an extra $20 or $30 from NKE or DIS then hey guess who’s treating themselves to ice creme :). I plan on becoming somewhat active to the best of my ability and would love for any advice from the veterans to the intermediates. I plan on starting off by using Robinhood but am willing to try different sites. Please fill free to comment any extra stuff I should know.... again I repeat I am not here with a get rich quick mentality nor do I expect to double or triple my money. I just want to be able to say been there done that. Thanks in advance! +I mean, I want either job security or at least short term profit. The focus for the company for the last year has been to maximise share price at the expense of the workforce (Where previously the workforce were treated really well) in order for the major shareholder/s to sell off all their shares before breaking the company up. + +I have this all as semi-reliable (yeah) insider information. I work at a mid-tier level at the company and also own a not insignificant amount of stock, but I have no idea when the "dump" will come. + +The story told to the shareholders in general is still hunky-dory so that they don't start selling off and lowering the price before the big guy gets the chance, but I really don't know what my options are, both share-wise and employment wise. +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. + +Would you separate it into functions like IB, AM, WM, Corporate, Accounting etc. or by just techniques like Valuation, Accounting or by some other metric? Would you include even things like Financial News as a separate category? Or soft skills? + +Just curious on your thoughts (second year analyst here). +[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/xxh13d) 🎃🐦 + +>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! + +🏴‍☠️ [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/) +Basically my girlfriend owed 70 quid in council tax arrears which she was exempt from in the first place due to the fact she’s a student and attends university but by the time she got this sorted with the council it had already been passed on to a debt collections agency and the local council told her its out of their hands now so she has no choice but to settle this with the collections agency. + + +They visited her home address the first time to deliver the letter (she wasn’t in) at which point the 75 quid was bumped up to 170 quid, the second time they visited to collect payment (she wasn’t in again as she stays at my house most of the time) it was bumped up to 415 quid and on the letter it states that it’s now a removal notice, she has spoken to citizens advice and all they’ve really said is they can help her figure out a repayment plan, if it was me in this situation I personally wouldn’t pay anything but the original sum owed and I’ve told her that. + + +I don’t know the law regarding this kind of stuff very well and I was just wondering if you guys could tell me anything that might help her out, what her rights are etc. Because it doesn’t sit right with me for them to add so much on to a debt that she shouldn’t of even been paying in the first place, as far as I know the guy they have sent isn’t a high court enforcement agent and he’s just your run of the mill bailiff, the letter also states he can enter the house without her being at home to remove her goods whether this is scare tactics or not I don’t know I thought they could only use these shady methods when it was a debt to the crown, but either way I think this kind of practice should be illegal. +Any advice and help is appreciated. + +I have received an incredibly good job offer with a tech firm and will soon be earning £75k + 10K bonus. I was originally going to be buying a property up North to rent out whilst I progress my career in London. However, now that I will be earning well, looking on Rightmove it looks like I can afford a 2 bed flat in London/Outer London for 300-350k which is within my budget. I'm not fussed on area at all having grown up on a council estate up North myself, so as long as the flat is close to a train station/tube station (with less than 1 hour journey) to central London I will be happy. However, I'm worried that I am missing something here, whenever property prices are discussed in London there is the overwhelming consensus that it is completely unaffordable, even for those on a salary similar to mine, am I missing something here? Is it because those on my salary wouldn't want to live in an area they deem rough? Or is there something wrong with a flat/house that isn't at least 500k plus? + +For example, these are 2 flats that I have seen that look great and exactly what I am looking for but I can't seem to tell what the issue is...if there is anything?: + +[https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-93397040.html](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-93397040.html) + +[https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82230997.html](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82230997.html) + +After tax, pension, student loan etc... I will be taking home £3741 and so I am willing to pay a maximum of £2000 on mortgage/service charges/ground rent and bills (electricity, gas, water and internet). I'm fortunate that I will be able to pay off all of my student loans (plan 1) on my salary, I have approx £20,000 left to pay and will be paying approx £5,000 a year so when I am 31 in 4 years time it will be paid off and that will mean an extra £400 in my paycheque every month. Hopefully by then I will have received some sort of promotion aswell if I stick with my current company. I currently have £20k saved as a deposit with view in the next year to add another £30k, so will have a £50k deposit. + +Please could you advise if I'm missing something when it comes to buying a £300-350k property in London on my budget? or is there anything that could add significant charges that I am missing? +I've been scoping out growth stocks that have been demolished recently to try to find hidden gems, so I decided to look into Robinhood. As bad as their earnings report was recently, there's an even worse badness hiding in their numbers. + +Even though their revenue for the year was 1.8 billion. Their share-based compensation was almost 1.6 billion. Based on their current market cap, that's about a 14% dilution. Also they're projecting this upcoming year to have a share-based comp of between 0.93B and 1B. This is palantir level dilution with a shaky business model. If you're buying this right now, you should hope they get bought by a larger brokerage firm. Buyer beware. + +Edit: For those interested in the source, go to page 4 of their earnings release for their 2022 projections. "Additionally, we expect share-based compensation to decline 35-40% year-over-year. " That decline is coming from a share comp of 1.6B. + +&#x200B; +It's common knowledge here that the SOL network goes down frequently, gets hacked, doesn't work etc yet people still continue to invest in it. And yet again it was attacked recently! If traditional banking was this flakey the government would haul it over the coals and watch it burn. + +Yet people still invest in this centralized chain. + +Litecoin for example (and I am sure there are many other examples that people can name) has had 100 percent uptime with literally no hacks or exploits, yet people instantly dismiss. + +It brings me to the conclusion that we don't really care about fundamentals in the crypto space, only juicy profits. + +So it brings me back to the original point of this post, why an earth are people investing in SOL when it is the least secure and reliable chain in crypto? +I don't want to switch to Monzo but one feature I've heard about that interests me is the 'pots' where you can separate money in one account into virtual pots - e.g. a pot for your bills and direct debits, a pot for your disposable income, so you can easily see how much you have to spend and how much is pre-committed. + +Not sure if any other mainstream banks do this but mine (Santander) doesn't. So currently I have to do some quite manual sums to work out, at any given time, how much of my money is my own. + +Just seems like it would be a great feature to offer people especially right now for more help with budgeting. Or is it that banks don't want people budgeting too well because they need them to take out credit products... + + +[This is the official $GME Megathread for r\/Superstonk.](https://preview.redd.it/gzy9yfftoov71.png?width=778&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ce125aa2d7455f994d74a4192f1a04b7d14448c) + +**Please keep ALL conversations contained to Gamestop and directly related topics.** + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +# Brand new to the sub? Start here! + +***You must read the*** [***Superstonk Rules***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) ***before commenting or posting on*** [***r/Superstonk***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/)*.* + +https://preview.redd.it/u7nzd0m0pov71.png?width=1651&format=png&auto=webp&s=df5232178c4035ba1c069f9306b30453b42946cd + +The extremely talented and dedicated [u/zedinstead](https://www.reddit.com/u/zedinstead/) has created this beautiful collection of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence in PDF format that can be easily accessed and shared. If you're looking to familiarize yourself with the GME bull thesis or the underhanded tactics of the short sellers involved in this trade-- then this is for you: + +# [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg) + +[r/Superstonk](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/) employs strict posting requirements to ensure our community stays moderately free from trolls and other such bad actors. As such you may find you have trouble posting if you haven't fully read and understood our rules. + +**Posts keep getting removed?** [Find out why.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) + +**Not enough** [**karma**](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204511829-What-is-karma-)**?** Here's a [quick guide](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-get-karma-on-reddit/) on how to get it. + +**Want to learn more?** [Check out our extensive Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) and [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq) + +**Eager for more even more GameStop info?** [gmedd.com](https://gmedd.com/) is a spectacular resource. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +# Flair Links + +[📚 Due Diligence](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Due+Diligence%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📚 Possible DD](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Possible+DD%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💡 Education](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%A1+Education%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) |[📈 Technical Analysis](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%88+Technical+Analysis%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🗣 Discussion / Question](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%97%A3+Discussion+%2F+Question%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🤔 Speculation / Opinion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%94+Speculation+%2F+Opinion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💻 Computershare](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB+Computershare%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📰 News](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B0+News%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🤡 Meme](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%A1+Meme%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [👽 Shitpost](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%91%BD+Shitpost%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📳 Social Media](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B3Social+Media%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [☁ Hype fluff](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%98%81+Hype%2F+Fluff%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [HODL 💎🙌](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22HODL+%F0%9F%92%8E%F0%9F%99%8C%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) + +You can also find the main flairs in the sidebar on New Reddit and under the "About" page on mobile. + +**Mod Flairs** + +[📣 Community Post](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%A3+Community+Post%22&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=relevance) | [📆 Daily Discussion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%86+Daily+Discussion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🏆 AMA](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%8F%86+AMA%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🚨 Debunked](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%9A%A8+Debunked%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📖 Partial Debunk](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%96+Partial+Debunk%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🔔 Inconclusive](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%94%94+Inconclusive%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [⌚ Pending Review](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%8C%9A+Pending+Review%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🥴 Misleading Title](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A5%B4+Misleading+Title%22) + +**No CS/DRS Mode** + +[New Reddit Filter](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) | [Old Reddit/Mobile Filter](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) + +To filter out CS/DRS posts, click the links above or type `-flair_text:"💻 Computershare"` into the search bar. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +***What's This Post All About?*** + +The first thing you'll notice is a stickied comment right at the top. We call this the "Front Desk". Every day a moderator will create a new sticky comment that includes links to community announcements, fantastic posts that deserve more attention, and generally the simplest and easiest way to interact with the moderators of this community. The rest of the post is designed for general discussion and content/questions that might not need their own post. + +If you are new please mention that when you comment. There are no stupid questions but "shills" (paid accounts with the intent to disrupt the sub) are real. This community sees a lot of trolls. If you do not distinguish yourself as someone with genuine questions it is likely that members of our community will assume you are just spreading "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). I hate that I have to give you this warning but it is just the nature of the beast at this point. + +Please have fun, play nice and be civil. Many of our rules are heavily enforced. Debate is welcome but if it devolves into personal insults please report the comment. *Ape no fight ape!* +Took out a loan for $300K and put up 600K worth of BTC as collateral. Market kept going down so I kept posting collateral as needed to keep the loan healthy. + +&#x200B; + +I got an email saying that the loan was being called back because of "indirect exposure to a mixing service" + +&#x200B; + +I appealed the decision because I bought the BTC back in May of 2020 and kept it on my Trezor the entire time. However, since I didn't buy it on an exchange and the person before me mixed it (BISQ) I get absolutely screwed. + +&#x200B; + +In summary I took out a loan when BTC was 65,000, Cost me over $6000 in origination fees, paid two months of loan payments ($2500+), got liquidated at $37,000 a few MINUTES before a pump to $42,000 today because of "indirect mixing exposure" and now I lost more than half of my BTC holdings, have a huge tax bill, and was screwed out of a fortune. + +&#x200B; + +DO NOT USE BLOCKFI LOANS. Worst experience I have ever had in Bitcoin + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +EDIT: Since everybody keeps saying "Dont take loans to buy crypto" I am adding this comment to the main post + +"My bank did not consider BTC as an asset. I took out the loan with the intention of showing the balance in my bank account so I can get the mortgage and was planning on paying off the loans to get my BTC back. + +Didnt work out......" + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +EDIT 2: Most importantly the main problem for me was the P2P nature of the transaction. They literally do not allow you to buy your BTC from any private source that does not perform KYC. This is the biggest piece of fuckery of the entire situation that people need to pay very close attention to. I didnt, and it cost me 100s of thousands + +&#x200B; + +[https://blockfi.com/prohibited-uses/](https://blockfi.com/prohibited-uses/) +[DTCC Twitter](https://twitter.com/The_DTCC) + +[Today I ask:](https://twitter.com/Jabarumba/status/1560258344014991363) .@The_DTCC Retail has DRSed ~55% of $GME #GME free float. Canada outlawed naked shorting. Is #DTCC ready to confront the insane volume of naked shorts in GME now, or are you waiting for 100% DRS? What exactly will people be trading after 100% DRS? Is @MikeBodson still the patsy? +My eventually goal is to bring an algo live and have it trade on IB. It's my understanding that you can use the Quantopian language on Zipline-live and connect it to IB to do live trading. I am also aware that Quantconnect supports live trading already. So my question is, which platform would you recommend? Is one platform necessarily better? Does one platform have better or more data to backtest on? If it makes a difference, I want to develop an algo using python. +In the Ethereum ecosystem, MATIC/Polygon operates to provide scalability and cross chain communications. Competitors, which operate either via plasma, state channels, Truebit or rollups, include: Groundhog, OpenFinance, Sablier, StablePay, zkSync, Celer, OMG network, xDai Stake, Request, NEufund, Polymath, Securitize and Connext. + +Of these, the MATIC/Polygon network is by far the most well-known and high transacted service on the Ethereum blockchain. It has a validator layer that is highly incentivized to make sure things work as intended. Polygon aims at creating an ecosystem that makes it easy to connect multiple different scaling solutions – everything from sidechains with different consensus mechanisms to Layer 2 options such as Plasma, Optimistic Rollups and ZK rollups. + +It is clear that Matic’s ethos is scaling. In the coming iterations of the MATIC/Polygon network, we can look forward to optimistic rolls ups and zk Roll-ups. From March to May, the number of transactions on the Polygon network increased by a factor of 10. Daily volume is increasing as well at an expodential rate as demonstrated by the most recent blockchain data from the MATIC explorer. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/akjtgpwgipx61.png?width=1262&format=png&auto=webp&s=007e5bed19387ee231b410d13142bd479cf625fe + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/qxebtespipx61.png?width=1248&format=png&auto=webp&s=22f2f7e2b8fe49811813480fc63c780690e70037 + +The rapidly increasing transaction count on MATIC/Polygon suggests that its use in level 2 scaling, most specifically for defi applications, is accelerating. As growth continues on the Ethereum block chain, increased transactions are going to bog down the network without the aid of Level 2 scaling solutions like MATIC/Polygon. + +The current price of MATIC/Polygon is in consolidation. It peaked to 94c recently and has now been trading sideways. As further evidence of growth on the network, I’ve been following the daily transaction history of the blockchain on the MATIC explorer. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/46ydanlpjpx61.png?width=895&format=png&auto=webp&s=a65057e9016f84aeac97a1a4abe3381891c02c9b + +The most recent ETH developer meeting has prioritized merge over sharding. Given this, the need for level 2 scaling solutions is absolutely essential. The rise of defi has put excessive strain on the Ethereum network, and until sharding can be implemented (likely Q3/4 2022), scalability solutions like MATIC will be essential to growth of the blockchain. + +&#x200B; + +Anyone who is interested in following along can see this data on a daily basis for themseles at: + +[https://explorer-mainnet.maticvigil.com/](https://explorer-mainnet.maticvigil.com/) + +Likewise, anyone interested in learning more about how MATIC/Polygon should watch the Coin Bureau's summary of the project at: + +[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wQaNSvi10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wQaNSvi10) +We now have Adam Black, Bitcoin core dev, saying is comfortable with $100/tx. For Bitcoin, the only real solution to fix it is so contentious it will likely result in a Bitcoin split. Bitcoin has been burdened by this for years now, time to let go. Let it fall so it can rise better later, with Ethereum's help. + +Ethereum is already the leader for innovation, global use cases, developer mindshare (by a fuck ton), and highly productive, active, scaling plan, all wrapped up in a philosophy of decentralize "all the things", giving you more liberty and security. Or if you don't care about that crap, just making everything from voting to financial transactions more secure, streamlined, better. + +How will Bitcoin rise after? Ethereum is destine to become the new poster child for revolutionary blockchain tech. People will begin to know it as much as Bitcoin, and eventually more. We're already beginning to see this on /r/ethtrader, with so many new people coming in with Ethereum as their first introduction. **But with Ethereum we also create a more productive tone for the entire blockchain space.** We celebrate interoperating blockchains, such as what's currently active with Ethereum's public chain and ZCash. We accept both public and enterprise use cases. We are actually doing the stuff that Bitcoin thought it would do, but hasn't adapted enough to pull it off. With a ecology of interoperation, Bitcoin can assume a productive role, I'm sure. It will find it's new momentum now that its position as "leader" is formally put to rest, and it can instead focus on relevancy again. **The best thing we can do to move this along is accept what's happening and rip the band aid off now rather than drag this along over another two years. Help bring in the era of Ethereum ASAP and let us see how much further and farther we can reach!** +I know some folks think centralized stable coins are the devil, and yes, they sort of suck. The owner of the smart contract can basically do whatever they want to your coins. They sort of take the "decentralized" out of "decentralized finance." But consider that most people aren't going to use stable coins as an actual Store of Value (SoV)- especially with those kinds of characteristics. They're going to buy just enough to perform an economic transaction on Ethereum in stable value, and then exit it back out to their bank account, or perhaps keep some available as a Medium of Exchange (MoE). + +&#x200B; + +But to me, what's important is that *these stable coins will help to bring more commerce to Ethereum, and more value collateralized on the network.* The confidence of real USD backing these coins is going to be what is needed to get some legacy types off of the sidelines and into the game. + +&#x200B; + +So are these centralized stablecoins going to kill alternatives that are actually decentralized, like Maker Dai? I don't think so. There is going to be plenty of demand for a stablecoin that can't be frozen at will by a third party. Separately, what I find fascinating about Dai is that it can do exceptionally well even if it is never used as the stable coin of choice- simply because of the ability to borrow against your ETH. + +&#x200B; + +Now could stable coins (including Dai) usurp economic activity that might have otherwise been denominated in ETH-terms? I think the answer here is *yes*; however, I don't think we should view this as a binary situation (i.e., it's all got to be stable coins or it's all got to be ETH). I think ETH will continue to be a very popular MoE, and will become an even more popular SoV over time (especially under Proof of Stake with reduced or negative inflation). And remember: stable coins are going to bring more economic activity to Ethereum, which is a very good thing for Ethereum and ETH overall. Also, I do think you'll start to see vendors / dapps on Ethereum price things in floating ETH terms though (allowing for ETH prices of say a digital good to float, based upon the current USD value). Why? Because this movement is global, and everyone needs some ETH to participate. You can be pretty sure your users will have ETH, but you can't necessarily be sure they'll have any other token in their wallet. + +&#x200B; + +In short, I'm not worried about stable coins centralizing all economic activity and taking over the banking / money layer on Ethereum. They're just another way to participate, with substantial drawbacks that are not going to be attractive to many people. Many will prefer to transact in Ethereum, or other properly decentralized currencies. + +&#x200B; + +I don't know if we'll see the deprecation of the USD from its status as the world's de facto currency during my lifetime, but given geopolitical trends, I think we can expect to see major shifts here in the next 20 years. These shifts could potentially make it less important to transact in USD-terms globally, and open the door for thinking about the prices of goods in IMF SDR-terms, or perhaps even ETH-terms or BTC-terms. +Check out what these email offers look like here: + +https://twitter.com/DisguisedToast/status/1482117771177517056 + +Of all the #ads and #sponsorships deals out there, NFTs and Crypto pays very high thanks to how much growth its gotten over the year. + +So if you see shit like this, + +https://twitter.com/MikeTyson/status/481347409087057921 + +https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg/status/1482894942322106368 + +https://twitter.com/LoganPaul/status/1481422609170542597 + +They are all getting paid to shill. Don't listen to any of those tweets. +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! + +So with cost of living spiraling out of control and wages not going up, things are getting pretty desperate for most of us and I've been brainstorming ways of saving money so each paycheck stretches a bit further. + +I know there are a few places e.g. JB Hifi or the gym that you can theoretically haggle with on prices, but I've never successfully managed to pull it off because of not knowing where to start or what's even considered a fair discount. + +Wondering if anyone here is good at haggling, what your practical tips are and what kind of discounts you've managed to score. + +Thanks! +Hi everyone, + +I would like to ask you which is the formula to find the value of 1 pip on CFDs and Metals. + +For example, on Oanda with Brent Crude Oil (BCO/USD), why 1 lot (1.000 barrels) equals to 8,21€ per PIP, supposing a price of 48.454$ per unit? + + +I'm aware that we're talking about the unit price in $ and the pip value in €, I know that the conversion from $ to € is made according to the current change, but I don't know how to calculate the pip value of 1 lot. + +&#x200B; + +Forgive my ignorance, I appreciate your support! +Evening all, + +Dabbled ever so slightly in FX around 2015, but was too young to really grasp the concept etc. + +As I’m older now I’m taking a second interest and really enjoying learning and actually understanding the concepts of trading, chart patterns and analysis. + +I know mastering trading is a long and emotionally draining path (if you don’t have the right mindset), so I know this won’t be easy, but whilst I’m working from home and the whole worlds in lockdown I thought this is the best chance to really give it a stab. + +I’ve started ploughing my way through babypips, and am loving it. My dad also purchased Infinite Prosperity’s trading course a few years ago which he used when he got into trading and did so successfully. + +Most of their content is surrounding swing trading. Right now as I’m still learning I’m having a little go in that area and it seems the most feasible as I do have a 9-5 so can’t day trade on a normal day. + +Is it possible (at the end) to be profitable enough just from swing trading to potentially move into day trading full time? Just after some realistic insight if I’m honest, any comments appreciated! Thank you + +Also spare me the abuse for using a pre-bought FX trading course, the strategies seem to be explained easily in their over babypips however I will continue BP and complete it. 🙏🏻 +Okay so, here’s a backstory to my journey so far with trading. I’ve been trading forex on and off for the past 3 years, mainly day trading and scalping but have caught some big swings aswell through the years. + +I’ve never traded the right way as far as risk management goes… Because I’m starting with 100€ and trying to build up quickly due to not having patience for such little money ( I know this is a bad habit and not sustainable ) I’ve always started from very little and flipped my account 5x 10x sometimes ect and even once flipped 100€ into 5000€ in about 3 weeks which was my personal best. + +I’ve been doing this by going near full margin on my account when trading which I know is wrong, and I’ve been trading like this for a few years, but I also feel trading like this has made me extremely precise in catching entry’s and closing trades instinctively ( due to having very little room for error ) which I guess is a plus side to this as I feel this has made me extremely accurate on the market 70 - 80% of the time. + +In the last year my win rate has increased massively, and the likelihood of me being able to flip my 100€ account is more common to happen than not. + +Okay so there’s the back story. + +————————————- + +I know this way is completely gambling, and I admit I am a bit of a gambler, but I am becoming what I believe to be really good at this now from my experience of trading through the years, especially being under the full margin pressure for majority of my trading. + +Chasing loses is a big thing for me and I think if I can sort my impulses out with it I can be successful long term , I remember with my 5000€ account ( my personal best I flipped from 100€) I lost 1000€ of it bringing my balance down to 4300€ or something roughly, and after that I just freaked out… + +Shortly after that I hit 2.5k, probably only about 2 hours later, and then I deleted the app off my phone for a few hours, but the damage was done, I didn’t care about that 2.5k as all I could think about was the 5k, I downloaded the app again a few hours later and as you can predict … impulsive , and excessive trading lead me down to 0€ before the next night. + +I know I probably should’ve took a longer break , I’ve heard people say they have rules to counteract chasing loses such as not allowing any more trading for the day after a loss or certain percentage loses for the week etc, but I’d love to know if anyone here went through this , had bad gambling tendencies , and still managed to come out on the other side successful and how did yous beat it? + +I feel now that I have a really good skill and knack for this, and it would be real a talent gone to waste if I cant get over this step. + +Btw I know risk management is also a problem, but I just trade heavy at the start to build a decent account from my 100€ and once successful at that I do drop the position sizing down and don’t risk it all every trade , I just risk my 100€ at the start to flip myself up to an account worth trading with and putting in the hours with. + +Id love to flip an account to a sizeable amount that I could then start playing more slowly and safely using proper risk management and be able to earn myself a nice side income every week safely, but then there’s also the fear that my old habit of chasing loses will come back, they say it takes years to build an empire and one bad day to ruin it all in this and that saying describes my trading very well, and until I kick my habit of chasing losses, I will never stay ahead for long. + +Did anyone overcome this? + + +Did anyone start out like me inpatient with the money they had? + +Just taught I’d put this out there to see if I could learn from someone else’s experience + +Thanks for reading👌 +**Day 1: June-27-2019** + +**USDCAD: BUY $0.01 Lot @ $1.31009** + +**AUDUSD: SELL $0.01 Lot @ $0.70029** + +Screenshot Proof: https://imgur.com/a/Jo9ST0Q + +My Take Profit will be the closest resistance on the H4 Chart for each Pair being traded. If my pair hits $1.00 i will sell the trade and open a new trade the NEXT day. + + +Not sure if you guys have seen or used the **"Market Trends App"** on the app store or on google play, but im gonna be trading on a small account to see if trading the opposite of the market recommendations that it gives actually works. + +If this app does follow the "trends" then im going to see if im profitable over the month + +Will be using Oanda to trade and will hold trades for a day or until i hit 100x the investment lot. + +Example: Lot size $0.01 = Out at minimum $1.00 + +i will only be trading penny lots for testing purposes. + +I have about $150 on the account so i dont care if i lose it or not. I just want to test, + +The way i see it, its a win win. If for a month i test and I win over 90% of trades, i know the app is bogus BUT now i know that trading the complete opposite will work. + +or + +If i lose ALL of my money, we know the app works. +I’ve heard online and on reddit that big banks have access to liquidity/sentiment data for forex trades. From what I’ve heard, if sentiment is severely lopsided they take the opposite position and stop out a lot of traders to create a short/long squeeze. + +Can someone explain to me how exactly they do this? Im specifically interested in the strategy big forex desks use to make money based off level 3 DOB data. +Anyone here live through 2008? There’s warnings of an impending super bubble (and it’s not hard to believe considering the shit economy right now). I think this year I might finally have the credit score and savings to *finally* get into a house, but I have this fear that as soon as I do the markets will have a major correction. Is it better to buy now and get in while I can or wait until after? Or will it not even matter because we’ll all be moving in with the in-laws and standing in bread lines anyway? + +I feel like we’re supposed to pretend this isn’t happening but it’s pretty hard to ignore. + +EDIT: Thank you for not calling me an idiot, just needed to get it out there. +Back again with my colleagues derived SI, after it generated so much discussion last week (even ihor mentioned it) despite you fucks not being able to read. His replies to various feedback are below the data. + +**Short Volume Today (Friday 12th): 5,793,090** + +**SV%: 58.91%** + +**His SI%$ range: 690.8% - 1038.8%** + +**Daily Notes:** Oddly Slow day as fat call options expire as they were being boughten by the thousands minutes before market closed. Extremely low Long volume, retail just holding. Off Market trades, bull instituations still carried us possible. Sizeable Shorts were place today. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/vjdi2gnf6um61.png?width=1739&format=png&auto=webp&s=63064c5be8ceb4ee478af9640913eb3e6026b800 + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/5kcbrseg6um61.png?width=1749&format=png&auto=webp&s=a48ad514665ab0775845982c28274acadc558f64 + +**New notes for data:** It's getting to the point where Short Sellers would litterally need to be 80% of all off-market and long volume trades to be under 100%. + +I changed the formula for the cost of OM volume to match the lowest price of the days as the off market is mainly Darkpool trades. + +**New Conclusions** We can conclude that the % of volume used for covering is far less than their average of 30.75% since the 15th of january as a result of a big ol' FOMO rally from retail and a bull effort from institutions hogging up that volume Therefore, it is not crazy to derive that ***SI% IS OVER 700%***, with a cost well over 5 billion $ to do so. + +**IMPORTANT NOTES:** What I found was a tendency for these Short Sellers to get cocky and not cover on weeks when you would have expected them to. This means some weaks with low SV% had HUGE net gains in shorts. This never worked in reverse in the data. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/1j1f094h6um61.png?width=1031&format=png&auto=webp&s=c000f8086573c128e653722ed86117985e43b4cb + +**PROOF THAT FINRA DATA IS IMPOSSIBLE** If you were to take the FINRA DATA from the 15th of january to the 24th of February, you would find that they would've needed to Cover using 30-32% of all transfers for the entire month and a half. + +*Proof 1: It would have been impossible for them to comprise that portion of the covering with the FOMO wave and GAMMA squeeze that was hogging the data at the time.* This 30-32% is notable. There was a considerable boost in daily volume in that period. So, you are talking about a MINIMAL COST OF **34.46 BILLION DOLLARS** using my formulas from my previous data. That being the bare minimum amount... just to lower it to the SI% they said it was at.... + +*Proof 2: We have not witnessed a loss of* ***22.65 Billion USD or more*** *from institutions in that time. That would have been a net loss btw, no bankruptcies were seen either* I said above that I noticed that Short Sellers did not cover when the data suggested they had the opportunity. That this trend never reversed, a High weekly SV% yielded a net gain in short positions. + +*Proof 3: SV% has remained over 50% throughout the 15th to 24th period, which provides evidence of a net gain in shorts... not a complete dip of the SI.* Lastly, if all this was the way they say it did, then... + +*Proof 4: The stock price would not have dropped during the period if they had covered. The data* ***HEAVILY*** *implies that shorts are used and held to stop upwards momentum* + +&#x200B; + +**His Reposnse to feedback:** + +&#x200B; + +>Short volume % of total volume can't reliably tell you how many new shorts have entered or covered that day because below:A market maker selling you a share that they haven't yet matched up with an actual seller but do a few seconds later will get counted as a short position momentarily. This apparently can and does happen and gets counted in the short volume. Meaning exactly no new short positions were taken but the short volume went up anyway. (I believe this is actually explained on FINRA's website -[https://www.finra.org/rules-guidance/notices/information-notice-051019](https://www.finra.org/rules-guidance/notices/information-notice-051019)) On the flip side, it does tell you the absolute highest number of short positions that could have been taken that day so new short positions could be anywhere between 0 and the high short volume amount, but due to the above as well as shorts entering and the covering in the same day means you can't really gleam anything from it reliably. Sorry + +1: What you are describing would create a net neutral movement on the share price, which was not seen. + +More importantly, the data I aquired clearly shows that there was a net gain of shorts when compared to the long volume (which is where they could have covered) day after day after day. It is possible, but the data says that they have been creating more shares than they can possibly cover even if they were 100% of the long volume everyday (which, as we know, is 90% algos and day traders) + +I look at things from a scientific lens. All I aimed to do was to show that it is financially and numerically ***IMPOSSIBLE FOR SI% TO HAVE LOWERED SINCE THE 15TH OF JANUARY***. It was the running assumption that everyone who believed in this had, and I provided damning evidence for it being the case. + +&#x200B; + +>This is not how it works Not saying that GME short interest is X or Y. But literally this is not how it works you really can’t use short volume to determine short interest. INTERPRETING DAILY FINRA SHORT SALE REPORTS Mods please don’t delete 📷 I’ve seen a lot of posts about FINRA daily short sale reports and what it means. Importantly it doesn’t mean what you think. This isn’t FUD it’s just how market making works. TL;DR a lot of the short volume is market makers shorting to facilitate buy orders and they immediately cover with the next trade. -High short volume in the FINRA report actually often reflects net BUYING. This is why trying to interpret these reports is pretty much useless. -That sounds crazy but that’s how market making works. -FINRA report is only for off exchange trades (dark pools). It’s a myth that dark pools are all institutional, your retail broker is sending trades to dark pools like Citadel, Virtu, etc.***\[14:02\]***\-A MM makes money on the spread between buying and selling (obviously). What happens is - your order to buy 100 shares of GME at market gets sent to a dark pool. The MM (a computer) SHORTS you those shares at $108.793 and then BUYS those shares back at $108.791. A short of 100 shares is recorded. This also explains how you see ridiculous volumes and ridiculous # of shorts every day for a stock that has a 50M float. The MM isn’t “going short” GME. They short it for a millisecond then buy a fraction of a penny lower a millisecond later. -So high short volume in the FINRA report (which is ONLY reflecting off exchange trades (dark pools) does NOT necessarily reflect high levels of actual shorting. It often reflects high levels of buying! Um. Like we just saw this week. Repeat that It does also does NOT reflect exchange trades. You don’t have to believe me you can read this super interesting piece here. Generally speaking, the idea that large short volume in the report is good news for holders seems true! It’s just not for the reasons you think. + +&#x200B; + +I didnt assume you were FUD, but it's a little sus when you open like that hahahahh same as my answer for the last one, my data clearly shows that financially and data wise, there are more shorts being taken on most days, where the only way for them to even be below what they were on the 15th would be for them to litterally bankrupt themselves in the process. What you describe there would have a net neutral effect on the share price. Share price plummetted as Short Volume exceeded long volume. That is the fact. The data disagrees with your rebuttal. + +&#x200B; + +>No, this post is misinformation. You cannot gauge short interest from short volume. Because a majority of short volume is closed in seconds. I keep telling people this. You should really make a wiki or sidebar notice about short volume. So much misinformation and misplaced hype because of short volume. High short volume does NOT mean high short interest. To be clear, i believe short interest is super high for GME, but not due to short volume. There has been lots of legit DD done on this. But focusing on short volume is straight misinformation propagated by people who don't know what they're talking about. + +&#x200B; + +3. Same as the top two. Maybe try and actually take the time to read my the data I took hours transcribing and making palletable before waving it off and calling me "Fake News" K? In conclusion: the data proves that SI% has gone up. The only argument Ive heard is the "they cover instantly" one which isnt whats shown in the data at all (its litterally the entire point of me showing Short Volume Overflow, to show how many more shorts there are compared to longs daily). If it were true, we'd have risen consistently as this theory would have 0 effect on the share price. What actually happened is they shorted it to 40$. + +\------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +&#x200B; + +Personally, as in u/moonski 's opinion, the feedback from you all is excellent and whilst I am still sceptical of the high %s, and the *total accuracy* of the derived info, I still think it is very valuable in at least showing that reported SI is esesntially, total horseshit. + +All we really have is S3 & FINRA delayed self reported data telling us SI is constantly dropping yet price action does not suppport such a low liquidity stock being covered from over 200% SI in January... + +Also very weirdly the data goblin himself Ihor of S3 aka the iHorse (hes @ ihors3 on twitter ffs) tweeted yesterday that GME is a 10/10 on his new squeeze score aka the "squeezeometer." How this is derived is "a secret." So it's 10/10 squeeze potential yet SI is plumetting, at a mere 15% according to himself... mhm + +Thus I am still totally convinced that SI is >100%, and this data shows that there is no way it is what is being report by the likes of S3 or FINRA is accurate. What we are doing here, if not proving to you what the magical SI number definitely is, is showing that SI is *substantially* higher than what reports are claiming. + +I am also certain GME has a significant issue with synthetic shares due to the volume of trading being a significant % of the total free float size of 50m (more like 24m in reality). AMC, a popular meme stock trades at 30% float, and most non meme popular stocks trade far, far, far lower than this in terms of volume / float. + +Interestingly I did come across this - SI was at **132% on Feb 8th**, according to S&Pglobal (you know, the guys whos name is in the S&P500) in an article posted on Feb 18 - [https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/short-interest-in-us-stocks-declines-in-aftermath-of-gamestop-saga-data-shows-62699063](https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/short-interest-in-us-stocks-declines-in-aftermath-of-gamestop-saga-data-shows-62699063). They later claimed on March 2nd that SI had dropped to 24% "in mid february" which makes absolutely no sense given price action - 132% to 24% as the stock hoves around $40. Ok then. + +So yeah, enjoy your saturday evening assigned reading even though you can't fucking read. +I love how my college educates. I hate how it exploits freshmen. + +Freshmen are forced to live on campus and sign up for a meal plan with at least 14 meals per week. With the dorms being priced at $900/month (there aren’t enough dorms, so we get inflated prices... even though we have no other choice), and the meal plans being a whopping $2200ish a semester, living expenses came out to be like $5000/semester. Now that’s a hefty convenience fee. To get the education I wanted, I had to live well above my means, and it was just driving me into the dirt financially. + +But now I’m a sophomore, so I have escaped!!! I can do what I want with my money, such as actually implement the advice of this subreddit. I feel so free!! It’s a success story ladies and gentleman!! + +Now that I shop at Aldi’s, my food is better quality, healthier, and SO much cheaper than the mass produced nonsense they served us at school. Like I said, $10/meal on the meal plan to $2/meal on my own. + +I also moved off campus into a WHOLE HOUSE that I’m sharing with three other girls for hundreds of dollars cheaper than that tiny dorm. And the best part is, it’s so cheap that I can cover rent & utilities with just 20 hrs of work a week! + +Lastly, I worked as a Sonic carhop all summer (did you know they only make $4 an hour? Please give them your spare change!! Especially in super hot areas) and saved all my tips for an $800 used moped. 70mpg? Sign me up. + +In conclusion, shout out to my dad for raising me on store brand food, home cooked meals, and savings over convenience. Now I’ve got manageable food, shelter, and transportation, and I actually feel in control... and extremely lucky. +I've always been a fan of sleep. I am far from FI, but I currently sleep 7-9 hours a night. Since I'm working 12+ hour days running a few businesses, I need every minute of that to be effective. Whenever I have a day or days that I'm off, or don't have an early morning appointment, or am on vacation, I will sleep 10-12 hours every single night and then usually take a nap too. Last time I properly "caught up" on sleep was after I graduated college 6 years ago, and it took about 3 months to stop needing 10+ hours of sleep a night and I finally started feeling good on about 8 hours a night. My wife is the same way, so we always wonder how long it will take to adjust once we don't have to be up early in the morning. + +For those of you that have hit FI and felt perpetually sleep deprived before you did, how long did you spend sleeping in before you were able to get on a more reasonable sleep schedule? +I got carried away today and bought a lot of SPY puts although they aren’t as autistic as u/WSB_Autism. They are 🏳️‍🌈 and for May 1st, but OTM. + +https://imgur.com/a/0fKvNTb + +11:18 am Edit: current profit on day $233k, current remaining positions, screenshot of max profit at open which I didn’t take https://imgur.com/a/PiYxNWY + +11:58 am edit: chilling out before trump speaks ready to plunge again https://imgur.com/a/dqcOJtm + +1:41 am edit: closed out for the day about $273k so $200k+/- net. https://imgur.com/a/SYNQwjJ +Before you say "Just ask!", here's the tricky part - I'm not supposed to know and found out completely by accident. + +I'll keep it short. I work at a bank. I'm a senior (open personal and business accts., CD's, sales, etc.) CSA. Been there a little under a year. Coworker has been there a month, cannot open accounts or anything, CSA. I picked up a printed pay stub I thought was mine since I had just printed it. Look at it, see their name, making $13/hr. I make $13.13/hr. I'm livid because I've been busting ass to make sales and push my way up in the company so I can earn more to make more contributions to 401k and my emergency fund. + +I'm terrified of going to my boss and asking for a raise with this information, because I could risk losing what I've worked for. But I'm still furious that I literally earn $1 a DAY more than someone whose been struggling in the job. + +So how can I go about asking without risking everything? + +EDIT: I really didn't expect this to blow up as much as it did! I'm taking a lot of the advice here and planning carefully what to do from here, as well as out reaching in my connections to get all my options. Thank you everyone! +I've recently received a few messages asking for an update in regards to a response to a post that I made a handful of years ago, found here: + +[Best Way To Increase Income](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2dyxie/what_is_your_favoritemost_successful_way_to/cjulgi5) + +TL;DR - I've advanced my career quite quickly by working hard, being good at what I do, volunteering for special projects and moving companies every 2-4 years. While your results may vary, my personal experience is that much like free agency in sports, outside hires get paid more than sticking it out at the same place for years on end. It does not pay to stay! + +&#x200B; + +Most of the inquiries from people have been of a similar nature - "Hey, are you still jumping around to different companies?" "Have you settled into a more permanent employment stay?" "Have you found a career home yet?" + + + +And the answer to those questions is a resounding "NO!". I have made yet another move with resulted in another good salary jump, so the process continues! These days I am at a Director level with 4 direct reports on my team. I also work 100% from home these days. And I recently got married to the girlfriend I mentioned in the original post. + +&#x200B; + +So the main story is the same - get out there in the job marketplace and see what you're worth! In 14 years since graduating college, I've quintupled my salary and held 5 different positions. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +|Date|Age|Position|Salary|Raise|Description| +|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| +|Aug04|22|Company 1, entry level|$32,000|Starting salary, first job out of college|| +|Mar05|22|Company 1, entry level|$33,000|3%|Yearly raise| +|Mar06|23|Company 1, mid level|$45,000|36%|Promotion & salaries adjusted to be in-line with parent company| +|Mar07|24|Company 1, mid level|$47,000|4%|Yearly raise| +|Mar08|25|Company 1, senior level|$52,000|11%|Promotion| +|Oct08|26|Company 1, senior level|$56,000|8%|Off-cycle raise (initiated by me)| +|Jan09|26|Company 2, senior level|$68,000|21%|Moved to another company| +|Mar10|27|Company 2, senior level|$71,000|4%|Yearly raise| +|Nov10|28|Company 2, team lead|$82,000|15%|Promotion| +|Apr12|30|Company 3, senior level|$100,000|22%|Moved to another company| +|Oct13|31|Company 3, senior level|$105,000|5%|Yearly raise| +|May14|31|Company 4, specialist|$125,000|19%|Moved to another company| +|Apr15|32|Company 4, specialist|$130,000|4%|Yearly raise| +|Apr16|33|Company 4, specialist|$134,000|3%|Yearly raise| +|Oct17|35|Company 5, Director|$160,000|19%|Moved to another company| + +&#x200B; +Hey guys you might know me as the guy that drove to Manassas,VA to leave a Gupta shrine at Micron’s plant. In the following months I proceeded to lose everything on Micron calls. + +I decided trading wasn’t for me and left to follow my dreams investing in real estate. Wholesaling houses to flippers and investing in my own single family +homes and multifamily properties. + +I am happy to report that I am failing at this also. Carry on. +* CNBC’s Jim Cramer said the only stocks investors should be buying the dip on are oil names. +* “I want to be kind to this market and tell you it’s the same old buy the dips game plan. But in reality, the only dip that can be bought right now, at least, is the dip in oil,” the “Mad Money” host said. + +Read full article: [https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/06/cramer-buy-the-dip-in-oil-stocks-stay-away-from-everything-else.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/06/cramer-buy-the-dip-in-oil-stocks-stay-away-from-everything-else.html) + +**CNBC’s Jim Cramer has said to buy the dip in oil stocks, stay away from everything else. Oil stocks have been rallying for most of 2022 due to supply constraints induced by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.** + +**The inverse cramer ETF is up 7.42% YTD, do you agree with him?** +We are experiencing a mega rally for Bitcoin and several ALTs right now, everybody wants to join the party and ride the hype train. Big newspapers have headlines with Bitcoin reaching new highs. + +The total CryptoCurrency market capitalization DOUBLED in one month. + +As an investor, this should be a sell signal because it shows signs of a bubble (see 1d BTC charts) + +Furthermore people are selling their ETH for Tokens which are mere weeks old to ride up the waves of success and to gain "free money". + +But everybody in here should be aware that for every $$$ you make, somebody else is losing their money. + +And at some point, Goldman sachs estimated it at $4900 BTC, there WILL be a correction. + +And it will be brutal, just like the correction we had in late june / july for ETH. + +When BItcoin bleeds, every ALT will bleed. + +Stay safe and don't bee too greedy + +Cheers + + +I am genuinely confused here, as looking at the most probable scenarios it doesn't seem likely on just about any count, in fact it may go up. + +These are the most likely scenarios I have thought up: + +1. BTC activates Segwit, miners fork, chaos reigns as 2 chains appear- while this is the biggest case for ETH rising due to the uncertainty of BTC, don't know how much it will cause it to rise either as there are quite a number of other alts that BTC users could easily go into if they don't like the way BTC is going. LTC seems like the most likely coin BTC users may go into due to similarity to BTC and implementation/development of many of the improvements already that the BTC network would benefit from, like SegWit, Lightning and Atomic Swaps. Don't get me wrong, I think ETH as a whole would still benefit in this scenario as there is a strong community and its response the ETH-ETC fork would show ppl they do have the vision and leadership to navigate uncertain times and this alone would encourage further investment. The ETH-ETC split also gives us an example of a split where both are still around at this point, and while one is doing remarkably better than the other at this point, that has more to do with the innovation done after the split than anything we can predict now. + + 2. BTC activates Segwit. miners don't fork, disaster averted, everyone goes about their business. Since this is seeming to be the most likely scenario, I don't get why ETH would go down. There is a large enough number of different projects that brought to fruition could have a disrupting influence on some major industries we use daily, so I don't see ETH tanking as some are predicting. Yes, there may be a short term drop as more ppl buy or buy back their BTC, but in the long term more of those projects will prove their worth and the viability of ETH as a whole. + +3. BTC activates, cryptocurrency universe as a whole crashes. Well, in this scenario I don't know what to do, and would guess a lot of ppl would not either, as don't know how many are willing to wait another 4 years for the market to recover like BTC. However, since ETH is independent from BTC, the hypothetical crash of BTC wouldn't be as catastrophic for ETH as for BTC (see reason #2). + +That's my take on it, anyone have any other scenarios? +I bought a handful back at .03$ and now looking at buying a bucket full based on market cap, visibility and latest surge...is that a gamble or am I being logical and strategic? +EDIT - I think it’s been pretty thoroughly answered at this point, going to talk to them and sort out what we want to do if anything. + +Myself and a parent's name are on my mortgage from when they first helped me get the loan many years ago, now I have about \~5 years left to pay it off and they would like to take their name off. They're suggesting I need to refi in order to do this, but rates are currently worse than what I have and I don't want to extend it. Is there another way to go about this that won't require refinancing or incur those costs? + +I understand this might affect how the bank views the risk, which I guess is why it's possible that refinancing is necessary, but I've had it for \~15 years and my income is much higher than when first getting the loan. +‘Tis the season to be thankful and I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to this sub. Apologies in advance for the length. + +One year ago today I made a resolution to get my finances in order, devise a plan to payoff my student loans, and ultimately track every single dollar I spend in 2017. + +I wanted to share my financial journey as so many others here have motivated me with their own stories. + +A bit of context: Spending decisions were always dictated by the balance in my checking account. If I had the money, I bought it. Throughout my twenties I made marginal efforts to save. I had a fair emergency fund and took my employer match on my 401k but that was about it. At this point last year I had 36K in student loan debt spread across 4 different loans. I had resigned to just paying the minimum for so long I kind of forgot I even had them. It wasn’t until I told my partner about the debt that I realized this was something I needed to prioritize and knock out. + +That’s when I stumbled upon r/personalfinance. After a bit of research and a fair amount of vicariously living through other peoples’ success stories, I devised a plan and got to work: + +1 Create a budget. +I found YNAB and within a week I gameified my budgeting and was completely addicted. How far in advance could I budget with the money I’m making today? + +2 Control spending. +My partner and I agreed to control our spending and set soft limits on things like dining out and other forms of entertainment. She had recently quit her job to start her own photography and coaching businesses too so controlling our spending was all the more important. The discipline was tough at first but this sub encouraged us to stick to our plan and simply spend more quality time with each other. + +3 Cut unnecessary costs. +We also moved into a cheaper apartment saving $800/month. + +4 Take advantage of what life gives you. +We were in a car accident and our car was totaled. We could have gotten a new car but chose to see that as an unnecessary expense since we live in a city with ample public transportation. + +5 Get a new job. +A touchy subject in this sub when you read success stories. I worked hard to land an interview for my dream job and was lucky enough to get a little boost my pay. + +6 Change health insurance. +I’ve always been a PPO guy but with the new job I switched to a high-deductible plan. It comes with an HSA to which my employer contributes every month. Free. Money. + +7 Follow the money (Lester Freeman voice). +I followed the money flow in this sub religiously and confirmed paying off my moderately high-interest debt was going to be my main priority. I created a budget category to payoff my student loans and put in $1200 a month. Any extra income each month went here as well. My goal was to pay off the loans by February 2019. + +8 Maintain the momentum. +Eventually the balance on a single loan would be low enough for me to completely pay off if I borrowed from the money I had budgeted for future months. I had a decent emergency fund saved so out of sheer excitement I’d occasionally drop in a payment for a few thousand just to scratch it off my list. The feeling of paying off these loans was contagious and what was once a dream was becoming reality. + +By September I had paid off 3 of my loans and was staring at a $10K balance on the remaining loan. I took all of my future-budgeted money and dropped the final loan payment. Wells Fargo even said they’d pay the interest that would accumulate until the payment posted. Okay it was $14 but I’ll take it. + +I’m now sitting here in December looking back and completely dumbfounded at what I was able to accomplish in a single year thanks to the guidance and support of this community. Now that all my debt is paid off I’m saving for a max IRA contribution come April. I’m now also trying to take out the max (15%) for an ESPP - a personal challenge that until this year I would have thought was a financial impossibility. + +And whatever strategy and discipline I managed over the course of this year is COMPLETELY owed to this community. The questions, challenges, guides, resources, and success stories were an inspiration and motivated us to keep going even when things got tough. To think just a year ago today I had no idea where to start. + +Thank you to everyone in this sub. You’ve truly changed our lives for the better and I only hope that my story can help just as so many others have done for us. Thank you. + +EDIT: Grammar. It’s always the grammar. +I think a lot of apes are hoping for some sort of announcement on March 17th, I think it would be a big lift to the GME community if there were one…but I’m being realistic that RC and team will stay true to the long term plan of creating shareholder value, and if that means not sharing any information with Wallstreet then so be it. + +It just seems that things might be different with the Towel investment and RC becoming more active on the Twittersphere. + +I’m going to be conservatively optimistic, but wanted to hear what fellow apes were anticipating. +I was reading some articles today and went down a bit of a rabbit hole that has made me more passionate about crypto than ever before. Ever since I was young I've heard stories of child labor in places like China for toy/clothing companies; but I was shocked to hear that the mining industry is the largest source of child labor in the world; approx. 1 million children in 22 countries worldwide work in gold mines and somehow I've never heard about it once in my life. Its also one of the most dangerous industries that still “employs” children, most are small scale operations with little to no regulations, and quite frankly, they don't give a shit about them. These children are exposed to toxic gases/dust and are at risk of tunnels collapsing on top of them, explosions, etc. Many end up severely injured or **dead**. All for some awesome shiny bricks. I'll leave it at that for the details of what goes on in the mining industry, but I encourage you all to read about it as well. + +Its pretty heartbreaking to find out shit like this but I can’t say I’m that surprised. The reason I thought I’d share this here is because Bitcoin is often compared to gold nowadays, and after I discovered this, I can’t even believe I had never heard anyone bring this up in debate. Like really? Industry powered by millions of computers worldwide v.s industry powered by millions of children being exploited worldwide. Its surreal honestly. Is this actually what we've collectively decided is the most valuable asset in human history? + +Obviously its more nuanced than this and horrible stuff like this goes on all the time but this really struck me since a huge part of the philosophy in crypto is rebuilding a system that doesn't allow for the injustice the world has become so accustomed to. + +Putting all the other technical/philosophical reasons I love bitcoin aside, it feels pretty damn good to know we're challenging industries like this. I doubt this will ever be addressed by the media/politicians, especially considering how much money is in gold mining, but this reminded me of just how important this all really is and I felt obligated to share and hopefully some of you feel the same. To me, this is a metaphor for what Bitcoin is all about; disrupting and taking down systems built on taking from those they're meant to serve, and creating one that empowers them instead. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +\*some key stats/points I gathered from the articles + +https://preview.redd.it/5070c1m7a6k71.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a8525be3c9f20a92331ed22dbbb9d709d999553 + +https://preview.redd.it/qvyym1m7a6k71.png?width=921&format=png&auto=webp&s=d4d39ca4332ef345f834a01c517475221afb62af + +https://preview.redd.it/bjge32m7a6k71.png?width=1176&format=png&auto=webp&s=a73208c2cf34988f619e592ab1abd71d0368f99b +I've been with my partner for many years but we keep our finances separate. I'm expecting to reach FIRE in the next 1-2 years but she is much further off. We're both in our late 30s. I'm wondering how that works when one person retires and the other has to keep working. Do they start to resent the retired partner? + +For those REs, have you retired before your partner or at the same time? How did it go? +Tonix Pharmaceuticals Licenses Technology for Treating Prader-Willi Syndrome, a Rare Genetic Eating Disorder, from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) + +Expands Proprietary Uses of Tonix’s Potentiated Oxytocin for Intranasal Administration + +Disorder Stunts Growth of Newborns and, Paradoxically, Can Cause Excessive Hunger During Childhood and Beyond + +[source ](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tonix-pharmaceuticals-licenses-technology-treating-120000684.html) +For yield chasing conservatives investors, it would seem preferred shares are a golden ticket for the higher yields of bonds in the past but with virtually no risk or volatility. +Yet it seems most preferred shares are owned by institutional investors rather than retail ones, even though they seem to be highly attractive and make for a favourable safe investment + + + +JPM has a 6.15% yielding preferred share https://www.preferredstockchannel.com/symbol/jpm.prf/ + + +Am I missing something here? + + +[This is the official $GME Megathread for r\/Superstonk.](https://preview.redd.it/gzy9yfftoov71.png?width=778&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ce125aa2d7455f994d74a4192f1a04b7d14448c) + +**Please keep ALL conversations contained to Gamestop and directly related topics.** + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +# Brand new to the sub? Start here! + +***You must read the*** [***Superstonk Rules***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) ***before commenting or posting on*** [***r/Superstonk***](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/)*.* + +https://preview.redd.it/u7nzd0m0pov71.png?width=1651&format=png&auto=webp&s=df5232178c4035ba1c069f9306b30453b42946cd + +The extremely talented and dedicated [u/zedinstead](https://www.reddit.com/u/zedinstead/) has created this beautiful collection of the most important, groundbreaking **D**ue **D**iligence in PDF format that can be easily accessed and shared. If you're looking to familiarize yourself with the GME bull thesis or the underhanded tactics of the short sellers involved in this trade-- then this is for you: + +# [GME.fyi](https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg) + +[r/Superstonk](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/) employs strict posting requirements to ensure our community stays moderately free from trolls and other such bad actors. As such you may find you have trouble posting if you haven't fully read and understood our rules. + +**Posts keep getting removed?** [Find out why.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/rules) + +**Not enough** [**karma**](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204511829-What-is-karma-)**?** Here's a [quick guide](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-get-karma-on-reddit/) on how to get it. + +**Want to learn more?** [Check out our extensive Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index) and [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/wiki/index/faq) + +**Eager for more even more GameStop info?** [gmedd.com](https://gmedd.com/) is a spectacular resource. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +# Flair Links + +[📚 Due Diligence](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Due+Diligence%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📚 Possible DD](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%9A+Possible+DD%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💡 Education](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%A1+Education%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) |[📈 Technical Analysis](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%88+Technical+Analysis%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🗣 Discussion / Question](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%97%A3+Discussion+%2F+Question%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🤔 Speculation / Opinion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%94+Speculation+%2F+Opinion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [💻 Computershare](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB+Computershare%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📰 News](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B0+News%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🤡 Meme](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A4%A1+Meme%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [👽 Shitpost](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%91%BD+Shitpost%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📳 Social Media](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%B3Social+Media%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [☁ Hype fluff](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%98%81+Hype%2F+Fluff%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [HODL 💎🙌](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22HODL+%F0%9F%92%8E%F0%9F%99%8C%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) + +You can also find the main flairs in the sidebar on New Reddit and under the "About" page on mobile. + +**Mod Flairs** + +[📣 Community Post](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%A3+Community+Post%22&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=relevance) | [📆 Daily Discussion](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%86+Daily+Discussion%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🏆 AMA](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%8F%86+AMA%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🚨 Debunked](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%9A%A8+Debunked%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [📖 Partial Debunk](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%93%96+Partial+Debunk%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on) | [🔔 Inconclusive](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%94%94+Inconclusive%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [⌚ Pending Review](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%E2%8C%9A+Pending+Review%22&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all) | [🥴 Misleading Title](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair%3A%22%F0%9F%A5%B4+Misleading+Title%22) + +**No CS/DRS Mode** + +[New Reddit Filter](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) | [Old Reddit/Mobile Filter](https://old.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search/?q=-flair_text%3A%22%F0%9F%92%BB%20Computershare%22&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=) + +To filter out CS/DRS posts, click the links above or type `-flair_text:"💻 Computershare"` into the search bar. + +\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ + +***What's This Post All About?*** + +The first thing you'll notice is a stickied comment right at the top. We call this the "Front Desk". Every day a moderator will create a new sticky comment that includes links to community announcements, fantastic posts that deserve more attention, and generally the simplest and easiest way to interact with the moderators of this community. The rest of the post is designed for general discussion and content/questions that might not need their own post. + +If you are new please mention that when you comment. There are no stupid questions but "shills" (paid accounts with the intent to disrupt the sub) are real. This community sees a lot of trolls. If you do not distinguish yourself as someone with genuine questions it is likely that members of our community will assume you are just spreading "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). I hate that I have to give you this warning but it is just the nature of the beast at this point. + +Please have fun, play nice and be civil. Many of our rules are heavily enforced. Debate is welcome but if it devolves into personal insults please report the comment. *Ape no fight ape!* +So i'm in my early 20s and about 3 separate times I saw my portfolio drop down to that lovely $0. + +Overall I lost about 5-6k (rip corona checks) + +I'm not really seeking out advice bcuz I mainly know why it happened. Greed and all inning on weeklies. + +I came from sportsbetting(mainly esports) and I usually would all in every once in awhile when I knew a lock. + +For some reason it's not translating well into stocks lol. I actually find trading is much easier than sportsbetting but I've never made a penny off it lol. + +The last straw was when I did $AMD puts after ATH and made like 2-3 racks. + +Did the same with $T (AT&T) and made like 2-3k. + +DID it again with $T and lost it all pretty much. Unless it drops below $29 by tmrw!. + +rn my contracts are .08 away from being worthless and I think im just going to let it die out lmao. + +&#x200B; + +Now I don't know if I should quit or not. However I did learn quiet alot about options by taking these L's 🤣 but I'm still confused about a few things. + +1. What forces the contract's value to go up? T is actually down as I type this ( $0.15 (-0.53%) but my options barely moved. Is this theta or delta gang? +2. How can you determine how fast the options devalue and breakeven for your exit date? + +Anyways I finally got a job that's over $25/hr and I don't know if I should try options again or just put it all in ETFs. + +thanks for reading my rant btw what are some good ETFs I heard the becky ETF has solid returns 🤣 +I think it’s probably the fact I’m stuck inside watching American flip shows tv.. but I really don’t think that it’s possible in Australia. +The biggest component wound have to be tax. + +Would love to hear if anyone has any experience in renovating houses for a profit. +The observation so far concludes that majority of the retail investors do not invest in bonds. + +Let's forget about the corporate bonds. Maybe they are risky! However, we do not even invest in government bonds, except the SGB. + +So I have the question for quite some time as to why are we not investing in the bond market? Is it risky? + +To answer my own question, I checked onto the ratings of Indian Government Bonds on a website and found them to be BBB- rated by S&P and other rating agencies. + +Is it true? Are the GOI bonds of bad quality? Are they risky? If not, why do we stay away from the bond market? +Since there were a lot of questions on SGB , here is a simple thread to understand it . I find the author has written it simply and lucidly . This is by no means any advise , just my opinion . Please do your own math / consult your own advisor . + +https://profitsolo.com/sovereign-gold-bond-calculator-sovereign-gold-bond-sbi-calculator/ +"If due to flood, fire, earthquake, tempest or any other acts of god, or any other force majeure reasons or for any reason beyond the reasonable control of human beings, PREMISES or any part thereof cannot be used and, or, occupied by LESSEE or if PREMISES or any part thereof is sealed or is rendered unfit for use and occupation by any statutory authority and, or, municipality, LESSEE shall not be liable to pay any Rent or any other amount, whatsoever, to LESSOR or the maintenance agency of COMPLEX, or any government authority or anybody, for such period." + +Our tenant is invoking the above 'Force Majeure' clause present in the rental agreement ( agreement carried over from previous owners to us ). The property is in Gurgaon and the tenant is gulf-based mid-level IT firm with multiple offices across India. Tenant claims 40% reduction in revenues and wants a full waiver for 'x' months. We have not had a particularly nice experience with the tenant ; tenant already breached the agreement by not paying the appreciated rent amount since last 18 months (we let it go since rentals in that area have significantly reduced) + + +TL;DR + +Should this pandemic be construed as an act of god in context of rental payments? + +If the lessee is justified to invoke Force Majeure, for how long can they defer payment? Lock-down has technically been lifted. + +Would really appreciate if anyone dealing with similar situation or has knowledge of, can share their thoughts and wisdom. +This is just a rant. + +Market is making all time highs yet the only portfolio am in loss is with goalwise. + +They also abandoned the last year funds and asked me to rebalance and keep asking to rebalance every year which basically moves the funds to other MFs. What kind of philosophy is that? + +I am tired of this and thinking of moving to safer bets as per kuvera. + +These are the funds of the wealth goal by Goalwise : + +https://imgur.com/a/Fq6iGM0 +Critics argue that stock splits are non-events, that splitting a $400 stock 4:1 results in 4 shares trading at $100 each. Research shows splits add value. An Aug 2003 study at the Univ Illinois found that stocks that split beat the market by 8% in Yr 1, and by 12% in Yr 3. + +Why do stock splits work? +- Draws attention to the stock’s past success (momentum) +- Tend to be followed by increased earnings and dividends (signaling) +- Attracts new investors who couldn’t afford (broadens base) + +I continue to buy AAPL in front of its 4:1 split on August 31, up to $480. +Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it added three million new members to its Amazon Prime service in the third week of December, boosting what was already a record holiday season for the online giant. + +Prime members made the company’s “The Man in the High Castle” television series the most watched on Prime Video this season, and helped double the total viewing hours of Prime Video titles compared with 2014, the company said in a statement. +Private Bitcoin keys aren't the only valuable things people are putting on their computers. They're putting bank logins, everything necessary to steal their identity, all their private thoughts, incriminating evidence, trade secrets, dirty pictures, everything. They need secure computers not just to use Bitcoin securely but to be secure in living any modern life. +Hello WSB. It's been awhile. + +I'm asking us to stay united on these 2 fronts. DO NOT SELL ANY OF THEM. Simply buy more GME and BB. Do not let the bots divide us. We can work together and make big profits. The plan has always been GME -> BB. + +Disproportionately selling any one of these 2 can cause one of the shares to suddenly collapse and can lead to an influx in the other one. This can lead to a lot of innocent WSBers losing out on gains during the pandemic. We need this rise to be stable. If you want to buy either of these shares, DO NOT SELL THE OTHER ONE. Sell your Yugioh cards, your kids, your body...but DO NOT SELL EITHER GME OR BB. + +Thanks. :) + +EDIT: Just kidding, there was never a plan. WE JUST LIKE THE STOCK. +So, + +I want you all to think about the stocks you invested in when you first started investing + + +When was the last time some rando work associate has asked you “hEy HaVe yoU hEaRD aBoUT GAMESTOP???” Probably this morning. I want you all to know that all those people who have had absolutely no insight on investing will want to put their GME (to da moon) winnings into solid Stonks just like we all did when we started investing. You all started with the FAANG MT. So will all these new degenerates who have just gotten into things. + +Remember Stonks only go up :) + + +Gme: 2/5 310c +Aapl: 7/16 130c +Welcome to the Daily Altcoin Discussion thread of /r/EthTrader. + +*** + +The thread guidelines are as follows: + +- All sub rules apply here so please review our **[rules page](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/about/rules/)** to become familiar with them. The rules page is also linked in the announcement bar above. +- This thread is intended as a welcome place for discussion of all non-Ethereum related crypto. + +*** + + Resources and other information: + +* Newcomers who have basic questions about Ethereum can find answers by visiting /r/EthereumNoobies or our Ethereum Education wiki page, [see here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/wiki/education). + +* To view live streaming comments for this thread, [click here](https://reddit-stream.com/comments/auto). Account permissions are required to post comments through Reddit-Stream.com. + +*** + +Enjoy! + +This lesson is going to be painful for a lot of Chinese, when etc comes back down to earth. + +Here's my thought: Is this a secondary play? To poison the reputation of Ethereum in China, by performing a pump and dump of etc and ripping off a bunch of Chinese investors? Because they might not have the sophistication to understand there is a difference between the two. + +"Don't buy ethereum, I did a little while ago and I lose everything" + +That's some machiavellian shit right there. Get rich with a PnD, and damage Ethereum's reputation in china, in one single move. + +This is why the EF should have taken trademark action against etc immediately. +I've been a long-time lurker of this sub, and a large FIRE proponent for the last 3-4 years of my professional life. This past winter, things took a bit of a turn as I was diagnosed with lymphoma. I just recently completed my treatment and am now in complete remission, but the past 6 months have been less than stellar. I'm currently looking forward to slowly returning to normalcy and getting my life back on track. + +I was curious if others on here have experienced similar life-threatening medical issues during their quest for FIRE, and how that, if at all, changed their financial motivations. As for me, I'm probably more eager than before to jump back on the horse (and maybe shave a few years off my previous FIRE date). + +Cheers! +Hello! + +I am in my mid-20's, am still doing my undergrad and will likely be doing so for the next two years due to me wanting to change my degree, and work a part time job on the side. Eventually I want to go to grad school post-grad and own my own living space, etc. Do not have much debt aside from student loans. + +I started investing in June and bought XEQT since it was a decent bet considering my risk tolerance. I am still interested in XEQT and still trying to learn more about personal finance and stocks in my free time. I guess because I am young, I am not sure if I am making the right choice by putting it all into XEQT? I see some people allocating larger portions for more speculative and growth stocks, but I feel like not many younger people are talking about dividend stocks. + +I have XEQT and some blue chip stocks that I consider to be staples (ie ENB, BAM, etc). I am wondering if my entire portfolio ends up being: 60%: XEQT, 15%: TEC, 25%: Dividend stocks and growth stocks ... is this a horribly bad allocation? I am not sure? I want a higher risk tolerance since I am still young, but am not sure if I am going down a decent track. +When I saw this dip today morning, I was shocked. I think many companies such as FB, GOOGL, TJX, AMZN are too good to be failed in the long term. GS said GDP will contract by 5% in next quarter but thats more or less a short term contraction. Even if this coronavirus spreads a lot, eventually everyone will be immune to it. Yes we will lose a lot of innocent lives, but the percentage of work force isn't going affected too much. Am I missing something? I am thinking about buying more now? What do you guys think? +I’m excited to say I have finally gotten almost all the way caught up on my bills. I payed most of my light bill up and after next week, I’ll be caught all the way up! I’m unfortunately down to my last few dollars for the week but I am just proud of myself for slowly digging myself out the hole I created. +Hello fellow investors, + +over the past few weeks I have read a lot of posts and comments that suggested some investment model along the lines of "just DCA into the S&P 500 and you'll be rich in a few years!". I find statements like this extremely unsettling as they suggest to me a lackluster understanding of the concept behind passive/index investing and the long-term focussed mindset it requires. + +It is true, 2021 was an exceptional year for the S&P500. According to this wonderful tool for calculating DCA returns ([https://dqydj.com/sp-500-periodic-reinvestment-calculator-dividends/](https://dqydj.com/sp-500-periodic-reinvestment-calculator-dividends/)), DCA'ing into the S&P500 last year with a monthly investment of $1,000 would have netted you a juicy 23.37% after tax and fees according to the site. That's pretty damn impressive and actually an amount I'd be very happy with even in indivual stock picking, no less for just a passive approach. Awesome! + +However, things cannot be this easy about indexing, can they? Just buy an index and make an easy 10+% year by year? Of course they are not. If they were, everyone would be doing it and everyone would be rich. So what's the catch? Let me attempt to illustrate: + +Imagine we are in a similar market it was January 1998. The S&P500 has ran quite amazingly for the last few years (returning 19% YoY since 1990!) and we happily decide that we are going to DCA from now on for a fixed $1,000 every single month. Please make an educated guess what your yearly returns would have been over the next ten years. + +The answer: + +Four percent. 4,147% CAGR, to be precise. Not exactly retirement money, is it? And it gets worse. Until 2012, your yearly returns would have dropped even below 3%. A measly 3% CAGR over 15 years and that after a decade of almost 20% yearly returns. Ouch. + +However, there is also reason for hope: If you held strong even after those years of mediocre to bad returns and kept on DCA'ing even to this date, now you would be sitting at a juicy 10% return over 30 years - a much more comforting number and actually life-changing kinds of money thanks to the power of compounding. + +So what is my message here? + +**1)** Indexing is a proven method and may be the easiest and safest way to make a person rich. + +**2)** It takes an insane amount of patience, guts and savvy. + +**3)** If you decide to index, please do not do it with the expectation of getting rich quick. You may end up getting burnt, and getting burnt badly. Patience is key, and confidence even in dark times is mandatory. + +I wish you all the best of luck and hope this will come in handy when markets inevitably cool down one day. Have a great day! + +&#x200B; + +**PS:** I chose the time window above for illustrative purposes without wanting things to look too grim. 1998-2003 was -10% YoY for example, and this will inevitably happen along the indexing journey. If you want to go through more examples, just try the calculating tool on this site, it's lit: [https://dqydj.com/sp-500-periodic-reinvestment-calculator-dividends/](https://dqydj.com/sp-500-periodic-reinvestment-calculator-dividends/) + +&#x200B; + +Thanks for your attention! + +&#x200B; + +edited for clarity: we're talking yearly returns of 4% for 1998-2008 of course, not 4% total. +Good Morning Everyone, + +With the flurry of tweets today, I thought this was worth pointing out as not seen it brought up yet. + +9 months ago today GameStop made this announcement: + +&#x200B; + +[https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2021\/01\/11\/2156168\/0\/en\/GameStop-Announces-Additional-Board-Refreshment-to-Accelerate-Transformation.html](https://preview.redd.it/epai1x07oss71.png?width=2594&format=png&auto=webp&s=a8b275e513b3ec784d56af9e8ef8690dd3b6f3f8) + +&#x200B; + +Yesterday, on the eve of the 9 month anniversary of the above announcement, Jordan Holberg posted this to twitter: + +&#x200B; + +[Buckle up, we about to deliver?](https://preview.redd.it/41yi07qfoss71.png?width=954&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0d42f5c7248f0097676efa1df895e9de025fd84) + +&#x200B; + +Tits = Jacked. + +Buy, hold, DRS. + +Hedgies r fuk. +I am a founder of a venture funded series B startup in California. Most of my net worth is tied up in my company equity. + +The company seems to be on a good track and I want to start planning for taxes and estate. + +Are there any tax strategies that I should consider such as gifting common stock to my kids or others to minimize eventual tax impact? +I've recently started to transition from a senior level to exec level roles (e.g. Sr Director, VP) within tech and I'm struggling to understand what expectation I should have of my value. I'm unsure if my current compensation is competitive or low (been in this role a few years), so I'm not confident in using this as a benchmark for other roles. + +Most compensation summaries I've seen are either for lower wage workers (Glassdoor, Indeed, Comparably) or for high earners but topping out around IC/Manager (blind, [levels.fyi](https://levels.fyi)) so these are not helpful. The logical answer I've come up with is to keep interviewing and hear what companies are willing to offer, but with relatively limited openings at these levels and/or not having them publicly posted often, I don't have a decent dataset to put my few data points in perspective. + +How do other execs go about determining their fair market value and knowing if they are under or competitively compensated? Are there resources out there I should be using? +I've an opportunity to invest into a Seed to Series A fund in India with a low ticket size (150k USD). 10+1+1 year fund. It's their 4th fund and the last two from a current holdings perspective is 43-60% XIRR. Fund is over subscribed already, so they have increased the size a bit and there is almost 2/3rd participation from International pension funds etc. Considering it is an investment winter at present, I'm hoping they get some good deals on their investments in the next couple of years. It's a low single digit percentage of my NW and I'm currently heavy on equity and real estate (hospitality). + +Minus the 10-12 year no-liquidity window, is there something else I should look out for? + + + +Edit: Thanks for a lot of inputs. Adding some info here (some of which have come up in my replies to comments). + +- I'm in India, entrepreneur, had raised from an earlier fund of this same VC (they were not the lead) and they got an exit recently. Portfolio founder turning LP is something they love to see. I'm sure there are other big ones already committed. + +- First close was north of 100M, happened late last year. They have already started writing cheques for this fund 4 as of a couple of quarters back. + +- If you commit X, 20-25% goes in now, the remaining gets called in over 3-4 years. Basically every 8 months (very rough) odd intervals. + +- Hurdle rate is 12% for carry to kick in. + +- Yes I value their network, something that could come handy for my future ventures. + +- In the past, when exits hadn't completed by the end of fund duration, they moved the residual ones to a new sub fund and let LPs opt to either sell out at a slight discount to private valuations or continue the journey by being part of the new sub fund. +The salty, highly upvoted post mocking dogecoin being accepted at Tesla for some items - the sixth largest company in the world in market cap, and undoubtedly one of the most visible companies in the world, accepting the purchase of items with cryptocurrency - priced in cryptocurrency and not fiat - is absolutely disgraceful. It shows what this sub is - not an advocate for cryptocurrency, but a thinly veiled place to be tribal and act salty when other people’s bags do well. + +That’s pathetic. + +This is a win for cryptocurrency in general. I’ve been around this space since 2013. Back then, Bitcoiners were screaming for companies to accept cryptocurrency and price things in cryptocurrency. Then when it happens 8 years later, the primary attitude about it is salt just because the cryptocurrency of choice isn’t in the bag of certain people in the sub. + +Grow up, take a step back, and recognize this as a win for cryptocurrency. We are in this together. + +If it was your cryptocurrency of preference being accepted, you’d magically consider it a good thing. That’s the truth. + +Note: My bad, this is a remade post - the original was closed as I shared it on my Twitter, which I have found is against this subreddit’s rules. +Working on researching some strategies using the options calculator. What are some stocks $25-$50ish price, that have consistently high IV? Some of the websites out there that I find have lists populated with stocks that ran fairly flat except for the past week when they had a bad news event. I am looking for consistently high volitility. +I remember I saw this here a while ago and that some people have been able to lower the options commission from the standard $0.65 per contract. For some context, I have been on this account for about 7 months and have probably paid like at least $60 in commissions so far (rough estimate). What price have you been able to get it to? Any tips for me? Also, to even begin the negotiation, do I just call the customer service number? +As we all know, markets move. Conditions, technology, alternative investments, taxes, rates, etc. As traders, we MUST develop a rock solid approach and devise strategies that can withstand the movement we experience. There are two key inputs we must balance. + +Being able to develop near mastery of a strategy takes a tremendous amount of time but is pertinent to long term profitability. Conversely, taking the time to explore different strategies is also extremely important to be able to maintain positions in different market conditions. + +When I started investing, I traded a ton of different strategies and just scratched the surface on approach. As I took the time to review my strategies, I decided to pick 3-5 strategies and truly dedicate myself to learning the ins and outs. This has proven to be one of the best returns on my time to date. My approach was simple - papertrade dozens of strategies and record results. Narrow down those interesting to me, begin to tinker with management, and further narrow down the list of strategies. I now have a small list of commonly used strategies that I frequent. Most importantly, I learned which strategies work in different markets and rather than forcing a single strategy, I am able to select what best fits the current scenario. Below is a quick list of what I like to use: +\-Short puts (naked) +\-Short puts (cash secured) -> Covered call w/ additional short puts. Covered Strangle +\-Covered calls +\-Short strangle +\-Short calls +\-Long calls +\-Long/short diagonals + +This make look like a wider array of strategies, but in reality there is a ton of overlap between them. Short puts are largely the same approach with minor adjustments whether they are margin or cash secured. Same goes for the short calls. The long call/diagonals mirror one another and are managed very similarly to covered calls. + +What are some of your favorite strategies? +Hey all, pretty new here with a relatively small account. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have a CC sold ~ a month ago, that expires in two weeks. It's been eaten away at enough that even though the underlying has moved up considerably, my P/L is still near even. + +My question is now that the underlying has moved up, do I roll the call out to April for almost double the premium/higher strike, or let it ride now that Theta is really starting to take its toll? + +I'm guessing the answer depends on risk tolerance but figured I'd see what the more seasoned traders prefer. Thanks all! + +Edit: Thanks for all the replies. I guess the short answer is "it depends", which is kinda what I figured, but some really good info here, so I appreciate it! +I can no longer carry a mental picture of the entire position. I am trusting my algo {queue both queasy feeling and song}. How's this for laughs: delta -8; gamma -1.7; theta +615; vega 669? + +Jan 28 P&L: +1,070 + +Jan 28 Edit: The "Holy Grail Strategy" made four trades. {cue Monty Python} + +SPY 31 JAN 22 444 CALL -1 {closed todays expiring calls} + +SPY 31 JAN 22 440 CALL -1 + +SPY 31 JAN 22 435 PUT -1 + +SPY 31 JAN 22 438 PUT -1 {this a roll of today's expiring put} + +&#x200B; +My shares are soon to be all long term. + +I was wondering, if i see covered calls against them, regardless of DTE, will the shares still be long term capital gains whether i get assigned to sell or not? +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. +Another Edit - So this whole thread is a waste of time, sorry everyone. I misunderstood how options get exercised. I was under the impression that if a contract owner exercised an option that the sale of the underlying stock took place at the time that it was exercised. It turns out that it's settled after market close, so as the seller you'll only find out later. The information I was receiving was clouded by a personal experience where an option was exercised and it appeared it happened in the middle of the day. While it was the middle of "my" day, I'm on the west coast and so it was after market. The time stamps on my email and brokerage were misleading me. Thanks to everyone for your help. I'm new to selling options, but I've bought stock and purchased options before, which is why I was so confused. + +Final update - I ended up closing the positions at $0.90 for a \~$5K loss. Obviously not what I wanted but it's not the end of the world. I'm glad I was able to salvage something (the stock went down from it's overnight position, which I figured it would, it was way oversold). Now I understand the exercise functionality better from the seller's perspective. + +&#x200B; + +ORIGINAL POST================= + +So I did something dumb, and I'm freaking out this morning. + +&#x200B; + +I have a CCS at 357/358 on SPY expiring today. It's currently trading pre-market at 364. + +&#x200B; + +Generally when this happens during the day I will buy my way out of the option that I wrote and hang on to the option that I bought to try and limit my losses (and a couple times I've turned this into a gain). + +My problem is that the stock has jumped $15 since after market on Friday and I'm now deep in the money. I'm really worried about ~~getting assigned~~ *the contract(s) getting exercised*, because if ~~I get assigned~~ *that happens* it will automatically trigger the sale/exercise of the other leg, which is not what I want to do. I've only ~~been assigned~~ *had a contact exercised* early one time before on a penny-stock option, but I've also never been this deep in the money before. I'd like to watch the market today to see what's going to happen for at least an hour or so before I decide what to do. Pre-market isn't always the same as market. + +What are the odds all 60 of my contracts will get ~~assigned~~ *exercised* at market open? I'd like to think this is probably not likely, but I'm also freaking out about it. I could take a 50%(ish) loss right at market open to avoid this, or risk a 100% loss to watch the market + +&#x200B; + +Edit - The reason I was freaking out was because this has never happened before where I went from 7 points ITM to 15 points OTM from previous close to the day's open. The number of options, the amount of money, all of that I'm okay with. + +&#x200B; + +Edit 2 - Lots of people pointing out that assignment happens at the end of the day. I meant to say exercised, and I've edited the post as such. At this point (11:21 EST) the stock has dropped to 359, and I think it's going to fall even further so I'm hodling. It seems that my exercise anxiety was unfounded, but I'm going to update this post at the end of the day for posterity sake, with the results of what happened. +Seeing a lot of popular posts lately with large monthly/yearly returns, crediting heavy use of vertical put credit spreads. I'm sure this has been posted before however this needs to be repeated (and often is in the comments of these types of posts). + +**Put credit spreads, when used for leverage, are** ***exponentially riskier*** **than selling cash secured puts.** + +\- The tendency to think spreads are safer is strong with new options traders. "But risk is defined with a a spread!" I see a lot. Yes, risk is defined with *both* CSPs and spreads, however the chances of max loss in a spread are *substantially higher with the spread.* The probability of a ticker going to 0 are near 0 for max loss with a CSP, however the probability of a 5%-25% drop to wipe out your spread are orders of magnitude greater. Spreads are only less risky if you take the capital you would have otherwise used for the CSP and just sit on it. This is a spread used as for hedging and is the *actual* safer scenario you're thinking of. + +\- You can easily defend CSPs by rolling horizontally for credit, and even rolling diagonally to lower your collateral, costing you nothing but time. You can't do the same with a spread, if you're below the theta neutral point of the spread you can only roll for a debit or be forced to increase your collateral to roll for credit. + +\- Even if you're forced to take assignment with a CSP, you have time to recover because you now own shares. If you drop below the long leg of your spread, sorry you're S.O.L. unless you add more collateral/premium - which you can't do if you've already tied up the majority of your buying power in spreads. + +\- The market post-COVID has been... I don't want to say easy... but atypical? Everything is shooting through the roof, especially since the election. Don't take your recent performance as confirmation bias when you have bad positioning. + +\- All this said, spreads are great. I use them frequently in a variety of positions. You just need to be aware that you could be leveraging and spreads should be used to enhance a position and hedge, ***not*** to use the entire buying power of your account on tickers you can't afford. Leveraging via gratuitous use of spreads is ***not*** thetagang, it's exactly the type of degenerate/risky behavior we're trying to avoid here. Sorry if this is gatekeeping or whatever, I just hope I can help some new folks not blow their account chasing 50% monthly returns. + +If you're doing anything with options, you need to be thinking in terms of the greeks and blocks of 100 shares. If you can't afford 100 shares of a ticker, it's not that you can't play them with spreads but you need to be extra careful and limit your risk to a small portion of your account. Create a goal to reduce your cost basis of a long term spread position (by rolling) below 0 as quickly as possible so that when it inevitably does get blown, your max loss is less than your realized profit. Then sit on the realized profit, or buy shares with it. Don't just turn around and re-leverage your profit. I also suggest getting accustomed to using CSPs on smaller $ tickers that you can afford the collateral. Once you get the experience of using CSPs and see the advantages in action, you'll use spreads sparingly. +I thought DWAC would be a good long term short play. I checked out the Jan 2023 options today. $85 strike put $57.63. $85 strike call $17.18. I understand IV, call 49IV put is 210IV. I may be stupid, but I have never seen this wide a spread on the same strike price. And volume and liquidity did not create weird numbers, all other strikes had similar spreads. + +The obvious answer if you think the stock is going down is to just short the stock. I am trying to convince myself not to sell a CSP on a stock I hate. The $57 premium looks to good. + +&#x200B; + +Thoughts. +I have been tracking most of my information in a spreadsheet, but never got it to a point where I REALLY liked it. I looked around and I found one that seems to fit mostly what I need. It doesn't cover spreads, strangles, etc...but I am sure you could make it work. I wanted to pass the link along in case anyone else wanted to use it for their options. + +This isn't my link and you will have to update the years, etc. to make it work with yours but overall I really like it. + +&#x200B; + +[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SeDTO8a4RTgJyGXC8MrRnKNrEJrRFuugwRYReA8L97s/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SeDTO8a4RTgJyGXC8MrRnKNrEJrRFuugwRYReA8L97s/edit?usp=sharing) +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. +The suggested best practice, as identified on TastyTrade, is different than that used when rolling. + +So, I don't understand why I shouldn't just close out a losing position, instead of rolling it, then opening a new position that uses their 'best practices'. + +Can anyone offer insight? + +===Edit to clear up question=== + +Sorry I wasn't more clear. I'm talking about closing the existing trade instead of doing their suggested roll. Instead, searching for a totally new underlying stock/ETF/Futures, and opening it using their best criteria. If the scan criteria shows that existing position's underlying still presents the best return/risk, then roll that one, otherwise, close it, scan for better reward/risk, and open new. + +&#x200B; + +Thanks! +Wondering if ratios stayed fairly consistent (given both house price and rent would have dropped) or if there was some crazy edge to be had. + +&#x200B; + +I'm bearish on the stock market over next few years and cautious about making my first property purchase on the eve of a recession. However if cap rates stay fairly consistent even during a crash then that'd do a lot to assuage my concern. +Meeting tomorrow to check out the trailers. + +16-18 space park + +We own 8 trailers +5 homes @ $400 monthly with one empty right now +3 homes @ $450 monthly all rented with one being evicted (one of these homes is a 3 bedroom and the other two have heat pumps) + +Total monthly trailer rent is $3,350 + +Tenants own 3 trailers +3 @ $150 monthly + +Total monthly on lot rent is $450 + +Expenses for park +Real estate and personal property taxes: $632.04 per year +ODP for sewer pumps system is $37 monthly +My partner and I bought a six unit rental property for $72k. The person who sold it was a flipper who ran out of money. The property is divided into two buildings and the back building needs a lot of work, floor to ceiling gut job. + +I received a contractor initial estimate to redo the back building for $177k, which seems insane considering the value of the property wouldn’t be that much! Any advice if I should sub contract the-work myself vs. hiring a contractor? +The facts we know: + +1) Ryan Cohen likes Dr. Ruth Sex (DRS) + +2) The shareholder call reported out the % of the float that was locked by Computershare; not any single fact about the options chain. + +3) The price is wrong, and completely determined by marketmakers via synthetic shorting + +4) Daily price at close is miraculously near max pain day after day - the point at which options holders lose maximal money. + +5) Citadel and its alleged criminal leader, Ken Griffin, are known to be short on capital and in "live one more day mode". + +6) Options expert apes who trade them frequently and know what they are doing don't benefit from recruiting new options users... they stay silent and buy options. + +So let's live and let live, but keep the pitch for "more options" off the front page by downvoting them. I *highly* suspect that there are malevolent actors trying to influence our behavior. + +Buy. HODL. DRS. + +And if you already buy options then continue to, but keep this as a focus off the front page so that we can focus on the central DD and +the importance of DRSing shares. It's one guaranteed way that counterfeit shares that will be uncovered (the other being an NFT dividedend). +We've discovered this all today after a lot of BS and getting old emails. We moved house and on the 17th June 2019 we got the final bill, due to expenses with moving plus issues with our two year old, it got missed. Emails sent to an old email account. On the 11th July they sent it to a collection agency. + +Both our phone numbers stayed the same. No effort to call was made. No letters to our new address. (We updated them and asked for final bill in the mail) + +13 July origin sent an email asking for payment again. + +August comes around and it was transfered to a new debt collection agency. This one never even sends an email. + +5 September. Email comes and they've sent the entire bill to default on credit reports. + +November comes, we contact origin, as we've had no phone calls, no letters, nothing. And it slipped our minds. They don't inform us of the default. + +We have now paid it off and saved to buy a home. And it's come up as defaulted, Origin won't remove it. + +Where can I go from here? +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. +Looking between websites like Robinhood, Marketwatch, and Yahoo Finance, I've noticed that for certain metrics like P/E ratio, Dividend Yield, P/B ratio, beta, net assets, market cap, etc can sometimes differ. + +For Example: Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) + +Robinhood says it's P/E is 17.04 with a DY of 3.35%. Marketwatch has it's P/E at 20.17 with a DY of 2.95%. + +This kind of example goes for lots of ETFs I've been interested in, so how do I determine which source is more trustworthy for these metrics? +It's amazing how heavily some 2X supporters lean on that nonsensical argument. My tendency is to think it's an extension of the endless "social contracts" the government forces onto everyone. We get so entrenched into thinking that if the "authority" decides something, everyone else *has* to follow. + +In the Bitcoin network, at first glance, miners and large businesses *appear* to fill the role of "authority," and they have been absolutely *furious* that we didn't just roll over and install the client they said we were going to install. + +**It makes them all look like fools. As they should for thinking they can hold us to their agreements.** + +Again, I really don't want to throw salt here, and I would love to argue *any* **legitimate** points regarding a HF. But the accusation that we somehow have collectively "failed to keep our word" because someone "promised on our behalf" is some statist crap if I've ever heard it. + +No core developers signed the agreement, therefore none are breaking promises. + +None of this community signed the agreement. Therefore none of us are breaking any promise. + +TL;DR +The very reason I'm so unwaveringly against 2X is because of how *aghast* so many 2X supporters are that I have the audacity to disagree with what "The Almighty Miners" chose for me. I think it's far more important for those people to understand that they can't hold me to anything, and I'm here *specifically* for that feature. + +My node runs 0.15 + + +Hello Everyone, + +I was an engineering technician with my former employer and I was on my way out because it turned out to be a corrosive engineering mill that was stressing me out. I was even threatened by my now ex-boss as well. There's a lot more to this too. + +I have a 401k, FSA, Health Insurance, and Vacation time with the company. The company was in the midst of switching between health insurers as well. + +I was making about $42,000 a year or gross $800 a week. +My 401k has about 1k in it. +My Savings/Checking have approximately 3.5k in them together. I almost had completed my Efund of $6000 before a few emergencies had popped up and I had to deplete it. I generally have good financial practices. +I owe 7k on my Car and 26k in Student Loans. + +I have questions about what I should be doing with my 401k as well as questions about my unemployment and more. + +1) My current health insurance will end on 7/1/17. I never signed onto the new insurer and since I'm laid off that's when my current plan will end anyway. I haven't received anything from COBRA yet. I was told it'll be 10-14 days from my lay off which will be after my health insurance ends. Does this mean I won't be eligible for COBRA? I'm not sure if I'd be able to afford it. I finally got accepted by a hospital and assigned a PCP as well, I haven't had a doctor's appointment in about 5 years because I was uninsured or my insurance provided through the ACA kept changing. + +2) I filed for unemployment and I've been approved for $217 a week. That's about 25% of my old income and will barely cover rent. Does this seem low? + +3) How long can my 401k remain with my old employer before I have to roll it over into an IRA or a 401k with another company? I'm currently interviewing for engineering positions right now but I'm unsure if it would be wiser to rollover the 401k into an IRA or wait until I get into a new company and roll it into a 401k there? + +4) As I mentioned in (3), I'm currently interviewing with several engineering companies. I'll be receiving offers from three different companies but I don't know how long it will be until I receive them. I've been applying to more jobs since I think I need to actively be searching for jobs if I filed for unemployment. Should I sit tight and ride it out for an engineering job or pick up some random crappy job in the meantime? + +5) I was told by my employer that my FSA is moot now. I never had the opportunity to use any of it either. Is this true? Since I've been laid off, the $100 or so in there is just gone? + +I'm happy to answer any questions and I'm thankful for any advice. + + +EDIT: Thank you for everyone who took the time to share helpful information with me. I'm thankful for all the encouragement and I'll be reading through all of the comments to figure out the best path forward. +whats up apes! + +I’m here on a sunday afternoon chilin w my baby apes. we are nsavoring these future tendies. anyways back to the topic. i came across some information regarding Citigroup that could be crucial information that needs more eyes. if they are short GME then this could be interesting in regards the current US financial economy. + +some basic info froom 2008 - Citigroup was the largest bailout from the feds. THE LARGEST. + +heres an article about it: + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/m60aix3cvwe81.png?width=1368&format=png&auto=webp&s=73d2b8ebee849eef31b44139d880e0d78f0455c8 + +&#x200B; + +[https://money.cnn.com/2008/11/23/news/companies/citigroup/index.htm](https://money.cnn.com/2008/11/23/news/companies/citigroup/index.htm) + +before the bailout, they unloaded more than 400B in assets to “get fit”. here is an article about it: + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/403rlpelvwe81.png?width=1346&format=png&auto=webp&s=3779d45455869628985f6a23a01736865b6c1c53 + +[https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/news/companies/citigroup/](https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/news/companies/citigroup/) + +crazy how they escaped bankruptcy. they got bailed out, stock plummeted and guess who shows up to save the day? duh Feds. + +which comes back to the Plunge Protection Team. they were created to stop the market from failing. previous post i shared goes a bit more into detail (mods censored my post due to “monetizing” not my video first off, was just sharing cause i believed the info within it needed more eyes and wrinkles) + +there are more apes doing more research on the plunge protection team ( i would hope) + +back to Citigroup. they were at the verge of collapse back in the 2008 crisis. is the same thing might be happening now? + +looks like Citigroup might be on to selling assets again to “get fit” but i haven’t seen much information about it on SuperStawnk. + +&#x200B; + +[looks like theyre preparing a sell out](https://preview.redd.it/g7zfklxrvwe81.png?width=2536&format=png&auto=webp&s=011a12025526d6176e55b5a714d03e0bb5c5a925) + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/mim7plwzvwe81.png?width=1086&format=png&auto=webp&s=d18289e95c7a318944d2c0351572d4cee7e84086 + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/shl4edj2wwe81.png?width=1106&format=png&auto=webp&s=7003c6f3551591710529ec1273e7e0e9d5a97bc8 + +sources: wawll stweet on pawade (couldnt directly link the sources as mods prohibit info from there but i thought this was pretty interesting if anyone wants to chime in ) + +THE same douchebag who almost bankrupted citigroup IS STILL IN CHARGE LMAO + +CANT TEACH A OLD DOG NEW TRICKSS LMAO + +what i dont know is if Citigroup is short GME? + +seeing that the feds are growing tired of this goon, would the Feds this time around not bail them out? could it be possible they say FUCK EM and let them go under? or will the Plunge protection team once again save this POS. this mf has sold more derivatives than a mf. + +&#x200B; + +[january 2020 they started selling CDS ](https://preview.redd.it/ngtb6jqaxwe81.png?width=1050&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ca2d8fecc80e565d908d2445be4e700b155f00b) + +the real question which correlates to GME is if they are short and the feds do NOT bail them out, could they get triggered to a margin call and set off more dominoes??? + +currently looking into more banks, apes feel free to discuss and criticize if it doesnt belong belong in this sub mods free to delete + +need more eyes on these banks that hold our money!!!!!!!!! + +TLDR + +citigroup is selling their shit again just like in 2008 . could them cashing out mean their end is coming? if theyre short GME would it help trigger the moass?? +Hello everybody! + +I'm a 27 year old Oil Painter ([Website](https://www.michaelsydneymoore.com)) who has had great career success but the job itself (as the cliche goes) is very poorly paid and unstable. + +I was happy to maintain this cliched struggle until my mothers death last month. My dad left when I was 5 and I have no other family so I've found myself completely alone at 27 in the middle of a poorly paying incredibly unstable career. Going through her finances made me realise just how important financial stability is; she's left me with a lot of debt in the forms of credit cards that she took out in my name unbeknownst to me, her house is also being taken by the bank as she conducted some kind of mortgage fraud. + +I've been painting with side jobs for the last 7 or 8 years and would like to now focus on a more stable career path. I started a degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins but dropped out after two years when my mum got sick (uterine cancer). I have the typical part time roles on my CV (sales, bar work etc.) other than that I've had no real legitimate work experience. + +I understand that no one can recommend a career based on what I have said, but I was looking for advice on what career options there are out there for someone with my lack of experience etc. I'm not reluctant to do anything (including getting a degree if that's a possibility?) so all suggestions are welcome, I see enjoying my job as a luxury I simply cannot afford at the moment and so I'm open to anything at all. + +&#x200B; + +\*\*\*I've included my website so you didn't presume I was some idiot trying to make it with no viable talent + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; +I am a banker in the Nashville, TN area. So far, I've had multiple customers come in where Comcast check payments have double posted due to their processing errors. It seems to me that their processing centers have switched to a new system that is causing them to run the check electronically, and then also sending it down. The item is posting as an electronic payment as well as a check. This makes it pretty difficult (in my opinion) to file a claim against the transaction and the process isn't quick or easy. I would suggest finding an alternative payment method. Or sending the check in (if they run it differently on a mailed-in check). + +Cross post to wherever this is beneficial. I hope I save you some heartache. +If you are European this is what you can do! + +Write to your European Parliament representative. Also, [EFECC](https://www.europol.europa.eu/about-europol/european-financial-and-economic-crime-centre-efecc) (European Financial and Economic Crime Center) which is part of the Europol is a good place to submit some tips and DD. I don’t know much about them but if I would take a guess they actually would do something because it’s a whole European organization not just the organization of one country like FED or SEC so I’m assuming there is less corruption. + +THEY NEED TO BE EDUCATED! + +All those boomers sitting in the European Parliament collecting a fat check doing nothing have no idea about finance or economic issues so when this issue is brought to the table and they say it will bring more money into Europe they will vote to pass it because they are clueless about what it means. So again, THEY NEED TO BE EDUCATED so write to them and educate them! + +Also, if they hear it from multiple sources even better especially if they hear it from the EFECC. + +The beauty of this is the variety of Europeans in this sub so if their European Parliament representative hears from them and they start talking amongst each other they will realize how big of impact this is and it doesn’t concern just one country, it concerns the whole of Europe! + +Edit: Power to the Players! +Is it me or is something wrong here? It’s a blockchain with a wallet nothing more. There is no staking, no other features other than only transfering funds, apart from that you can’t do anything. Is it the 40 papers of research that make it the 8th biggest crypto? Please tell me what makes cardano worth 2.5 billion dollars. It had ico 4 years ago, it might be low key a scamcoin. +**TLDR**: as you can see, based on what is happening now within this subreddit and publicly, sadly we are already being recognized as a single notion - radio silence for a couple of days, diamond handing/ignoring outside noise, removing your voices from youtube, twitter, other news portals is HIGHLY advised - **STOP mentioning WSB outside this subreddit - you and I, we are falling into a coordinated trap.** + +To begin with, I am truly impressed with all the hard-work you guys put in whilst creating quality memes, due diligence posts, twitter messages and online presence. + +But all being said, in the past couple of days we can notice the mentioning of /r/wallstreetbets come up in various ways within the social media - like twitter and benzinga, CNBC, youtube. The fact that we created a twitter account and collectively try and display our voice as an individual plays a huge downside to us. Now we are one, now we are acting as an institution, as a fund, as a united society - keep in mind guys that these notions are easily manipulated in the social media and it is way easier to target a single unified voice than it is to target a bunch of random individuals. When it comes to our beloved stocks like $BB, $PLTR, $GME it is important to highlight the fact of our **individual purchases**, **individual subscriptions** to their services, individual DDs and so much more. By silently increasing our positions as separate human beings, by silently promoting companies we are able to dish out more fire power which cannot be harassed online as we are under a cloak of shadow. + +Pardon my broken English, but I hope you get the notch - WSB should not be a team or a gang - it should be all different individuals just sharing the same vision. **We must not respond to online media callouts**, we must not pay too much attention to news portals and videos calling us out. It only gives a negative outcome and makes us more vulnerable, thus allowing bears and other dipshit analysts to use WSB against their own stocks - detract other individuals/entities that may be interested in the stock by displaying us as a gang of monkeys. + +I hope this message reaches some of you out, I have seen similar messages already hanging, but wanted to share my voice and remind you all - **we achieved such astounding results by acting separately** and based on a solid DD, **not by acting as a single unit**. Thank you and god bless this community. + +**EDIT**: a very nice way to put it is to compare us to a beehive. It is way easier to eliminate a whole group of bees when they are in a single unit, however it is way more difficult to act against bees that are roaming free within the nature and may sting from various angles. **The unseen weapon is the deadliest.** + +EDIT: I am just enjoying the community and by no means am I rallying someone, just wanted to share my thoughts and god bless everyone! + +Hello everyone, + + + + +I recently went from making $12/hr, working 25 hours a week, to $30/hr / 50-52 hours a week with OT. +My weekly paychecks have more than quadrupled, as my take home pay every week (after deductions) is around $1100, compared to the ~$230 I was looking at before. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit, but I’ve gotten used to living on next to nothing. I’m still a bit floored to see a comma on my paychecks. Having said that, I only spend $200 a week or so. + + + +I have 18% going to a traditional 401(k) and 4% to Roth. No employer match. Current 401(k) balance is just over $3,000. I do, also, have a pension plan... + + + +Car: Paid off. Not in the best condition, 186k miles... will need to be replaced within the next few months. + + +Car insurance: $80 a month. Minimal coverage. + + +Gas: Probably $180 a month. I commute 60 miles every day. + + +Food: $300 a month? Maybe. + + +Health insurance: Fully covered through work. No deductible, excellent coverage. + + +Rent: None. Boyfriend owns home. + + + +I jacked up my credit when I was young, and I’ve been actively trying to repair it for over a year. My credit scores on transunion and equifax are in the 640s, but experian is showing 586. I’ve paid all of my collection accounts, opened 3 credit cards and maintained 100% payment history. I have a secured credit card (now $3,000) that I’ve been putting $500 a week on, as a way of saving... +I have $3,500 in a savings account, $3,000 on the secured card, and no officlal debt. + + + +Should I put more into my 401k while i have such minimal expenses, or a normal savings account for emergencies? +Hi all, I've been looking for a house to buy for three months, and had an offer accepted recently. Last Friday, my solicitor informs me that the property's solar panels are not owned by the seller. They're leased, owned by a third party that gets a cut from the profit from the electricity generated by those panels. Because the paperwork on the lease looks dodgy, my solicitor is advising me not to buy that property and there will be additional legal costs. +I'm thinking of renegotiating the price down with the sellers, first because there was no mention that the panels didn't come as part of the property, second because I might have to pay for additional legal costs. Additionally, I don't want to inherit any leasing contract, so I would like for the seller to deal with that issue. Since this is the real world, I know I won't get all of what I'll ask for, so I'm asking this sub what you think of my thought process and if you've faced a similar situation when you bought a house. This is also allowing me to vent and I already feel better for just writing this. + +Tl;dr: found out the solar panels on a house I'm buying are leased. What should I do? + +EDIT: Thanks for all your comments. This was really helpful. I think I'm ready to give up on this one. This is too big a purchase to have buyers remorse later. +Anyone interested in making a group chat and discussing day to day stocks and investment opportunities? I know Reddit is pretty much samething but it be much easier/quicker in a group chat to discuss and pick the brains of all the smart people out there. We can share our experiences and knowledge with one another. Let me know and I can get something started! +Hi Guys, + +Since I'm in the Canadian investor sub for the past few years and it is the closest group that would be in a similar setting (In canada, personal finance / investments) I thought I'd post this here. + +My wallet was stolen from my truck last night and in it were : + +* 1x Company Credit Card (VISA) provided by my job for gas expenses on the company vehicle +* 1x Personal BMO Credit Card +* 1x Personal BMO Debit Card +* Driver's license and healthcare card (PITA to retrieve new copies specially during COVID) +* 100$ in cash + +As a wrap-up, this morning at 5:45 AM the bank sent me an E-mail message alerting me of suspicious activity which I only saw at 9AM when I got up. Curious I logged into my bank account to find money was spent on my personal credit card AND on my debit card at two local corner stores that are within 5km of where I live. This made me automatically slip a coat on to confirm my wallet was removed from the truck and that a mess was made of other papers in the storage compartments. I had all cards confirmed cancelled and new cards posted to me. + +Since I don't get direct alerts for the company VISA, I called and was able to confirm 6 transactions were made also at local corner stores, some purchases were made TWICE at the same corner store on the same card. + +All the purchases are between 85$ and 98$ (PAYPASS probably trying to keep the limit below 100$) + +I have personally called some of these corner stores to inform them that purchases were made there with stolen cards and have made an official file and declaration with the police. + +It seems rather peculiar that someone can spend over 800$ at different gas stations / corner stores within an hour or so what type of purchases are most likely made? Gas? 800 Liters of gas? I'm looking to pick you guy's smart brains and see if I can help these stores and the police with any clues to look for, I especially would like these types of people to get caught and not get away with it. + +Since all these transactions (Total of 8) were made within stores(5-6 stores) that probably all have camera surveillance and I have most of the "timestamps" on the transctions + the police is involved, has anyone ever had any luck catching thieves by going through this process? + +Way to start 2021 ! Happy New Years to all and thanks for reading! +I've had this thought for a couple of weeks and I'm not sure if it makes sense, but I wanted to share it with you. + +I'm currently 27 and my goal is to reach financial independance at 50, which gives me a 23 years timeframe. For such a time horizon, and being young, I will usually get the advice that, if I can handle it, I should go for "riskier" investments. + +But life expectancy being now close to 80 years old for males in Canada (and we can expect it to grow more in the next 23 years), I would have an even bigger timeframe when I reach 50 (at least 30 years). I'm obviously not taking into account any disease or bad luck regarding health. + +So my question/reflexion is this : at 50, taking into account growing life expectancy, should you still go for riskier investments? Even if you aim to withdraw most of it by the time you're 65, it's still a 15 years timeframe. + +Maybe it's just the fact that if you stop working, you wouldn't want to loose 30% of your investments in the event of a crash, but then again, there's every change you'll recover in the 10-15 years after that. + +Thanks! +"**We hosted a call on Friday, October 2nd with Erin Meyer, author of No Rules Rules – Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, a recent book Erin co-authored with CEO Reed Hastings.** We delved into the philosophy behind Netflix’s Culture Deck, drawing on Erin’s inside look with interviews from over 200 current and past employees globally at Netflix, and sought to answer what made Netflix’s culture so radically unique, how sustainable it is as Netflix expands its reach globally, and whether the magic can continue without its current leadership. A replay is available upon request. Please contact your RBC sales representative for details. Key takeaways:" + +"**What is the Netflix Culture?:** Netflix published its famous Culture Deck back in 2009. Among its key concepts were the Keeper Test (keep those you would fight to keep, adequate performance gets a generous severance package), and Freedom & Responsibility (“F&R”, which Reed sometimes referred to as “operating on the edge of chaos,” offering employees the ability to operate with maximum flexibility and very few rules. What makes such radical concepts work? Erin noted the foundational premise of the **Netflix culture is that Freedom Breeds Innovation, Process Kills Flexibility**. And to get to this level of freedom requires first achieving talent density by hiring the very best talent with pay at the top of the market. It also requires employees to give each other (including Reed) feedback frequently and candidly. Coupling that with the Keeper Test ensures those who don’t make the cut get a generous severance, while the “stunning colleagues” are retained with a continuously adjusted top of the market pay. Erin pointed out that while many corporate cultures tend to be filled with generalized positive terms, Netflix seeks to identify the key dilemmas (e.g. job security vs. talent density) and set guidelines on how employees should make decisions." + +"**Will Netflix Work Without Reed?** Erin believes the corporate culture makes the success of the company, and the exceptional quality of Reed is that he not only preaches the ethos, but actively lives it by incorporating culture discussions in every leadership meeting, frequently soliciting feedback and more importantly celebrating feedback received from employees up and down the company. Erin saw the same candor and transparency with new co-CEO Ted Sarandos and across the organization. But is Reed the tent pole that Netflix couldn’t run without? While Erin acknowledged F&R couldn’t be implemented without a leadership’s full support and commitment, she also saw the same principle fully embodied in Sarandos’s leadership as well as that of many other executives. Would the Netflix Culture disintegrate if Reed hops on a sailboat tomorrow? No, though Erin believes sustaining this secret sauce of Netflix’s success requires the next CEO to be fully committed to the same principles that made Netflix what it is today. As for the newly announced co-CEO structure, Erin believes it should be business-as-usual for Netflix save for a title change given the company’s unique F&R principles." + +"**How does the Culture Translate Overseas?** We believe in the next decade, Netflix’ game plan in international markets will be the key driver of its 500x30 (our estimate of 500MM subs by 2030). Erin was a skeptic when Reed asked if F&R and the culture of candor can be applied to Netflix’s global offices as the company prepared its big 130-country expansion in 2016. Some regions like the Netherlands work particularly well with this culture – which Reed believed was foundational to its Freedom principle, while other regions like Japan, Singapore, and Brazil initially struggled. To crack the culture code, Netflix introduced a focus on relationship building that provided the context for amicable candor, as well as more formal feedback sessions that seem to have done the trick for its Japan office, though Erin believes this will be an ongoing learning experience as Netflix continues to expand its global footprint." + +"**On the Edge of Chaos**: Erin believes the emphasis on candor and feedback is in fact not unique to Netflix, and is becoming a wave embraced by a growing number of corporates beyond Silicon Valley. The notion of talent density is also not unique. But where Erin thinks Netflix truly differentiates is in radically minimizing policies and processes – no vacation & expenses policy, no decision-making approvals, and no management by objectives like KPIs. Perhaps part of what drove Netflix’s impressive cadence of putting out hit content across genres (from The Crown to Tiger King) lies in the magic of what Reed calls “operating on the edge of chaos” or as Netflix’s Head of HR Jessica Neal puts it – “Don’t control your stunning employees, let them run free.” +I work at a bank in a large metropolitan area. Recently we've seen a couple clients fall victim to a scam that has caused us to modify our standard procedure a little. + +Basically, through a handful of potential channels, the scammer finds a mark about to purchase a home through a title company. A couple days before the closing date the scammer will send the buyer a very professional looking email with wire closing instructions. The mark will then go into their bank, send the money, and not find out for a few days that the money did not go to the correct place. + +When sending a wire the bank has no way of verifying the information that you provide outside of basic routing number information. Additionally, wires by nature are not returnable. There is a very short window when they can be reversed and even then it is not a guarantee. + +We've started calling title companies and closing agents before sending closing wires to verify that the information that the client received is legitimate and thankfully at this point we've prevented one client from losing a 30k down payment. + +TL;DR - Call your title company directly to confirm your wire instructions before sending money for a new home purchase. +[DTCC Twitter](https://twitter.com/The_DTCC) + +[Today I ask:](https://twitter.com/Jabarumba/status/1598302669609013248) .@The_DTCC Dec 7th $GME #GME will give retail/Wall St updated DRS numbers giving multiple hard data points for one simple fact, we are going to DRS the float. It's what gamers do: grind to 100%. Is #DTCC ready? Do members know? First one to cover naked shorts gets out cheapest. +A quick Google search shows that 142 billion gallons of gas was used in the US last year. So that means a 50 cent drop in prices at the pump puts over 70 billion dollars back in consumers pockets that they can now spend. Not to mention the costs of transportation of goods goes down, which should raise profits for consumer goods companies. + +Yet Monday's falling stocks was partly blamed on the drop in oil prices (in addition to the virus). Also a few years ago when gas was $3 - $4 a gallon, then it fell to around $2, I would have expected an uptick in the economy then but it didn't seem to materialize. +Hello everyone, + +I just wanted to share some of my financial situation and get some advice on what the best choices would be for me moving forward. + +I'm pretty inexperienced with finances (grew up in poverty, and this is the first time I'm living on my own and actually bringing in comfortable money). I worked in minimum wage retail and food service through my school and college years to make ends meet, but had to take a lot of student loans out to pay for an overpriced film school. Kind of regret it, but can't do anything about it now... + +I'm 26 years old and am working a job in the film industry bringing home around 64k a year after taxes, health insurance, etc. + +I moved to the LA area last year with a roommate and my rent is $1500 a month. I am required to live here for my job, so unfortunately moving to a cheaper area isn't an option. + +I have 90k in student debt (It is what it is, can't go back on it now), 6k in credit card debt. I have paid off one of my loans in full for 20k already and paid off a medical bill of 4k. I'm in the process of refinancing my student loans, which will cut my payments in half to around $600 a month. + +No car payment, no kids. No retirement set up, $10k in savings, no investments. + +I guess here are my main questions. + +1. My living space is very small and I work from home, so it's been frustrating. It's smaller than my dorm bedroom. Part of me wants to look for a new place, and my roommate would split that place with me as well, but anything bigger and nicer will probably cost around $2000 per person now. Rent has already been raised and might be raised again by the time we're ready to move. But, I'm just not sure if this is wise. Not sure if I should stick it out in a small living space and focus on other financial things first. +2. Should I just throw everything I have at my student loans? Or should I get rid of credit card debt, and deplete my savings? Or should I make a retirement fund? Kind of unsure what my next focus should be. +3. What is the best option for someone who wants to get into investing? I figured maybe I could put $100 here and there into it and see if I can get a small return on it. Or should that be something I think about later? + +Thank you for reading! +#0. Preface + +If you haven't seen it already, go ahead and check out /u/automatedcharterer's [post with the SEC's initial response to his FOIA request for the raw vote total numbers from earlier today.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qwvy1i/foia_requests_to_the_sec_for_the_real_vote_total/) It's pretty interesting. + +When I started writing this, I was determined to prove that a FOIA request wouldn't cover this information, but I've fallen down the rabbit-hole and think that there's some reading between the lines that can be done here based on verbiage in the response that's consistent with the SEC's FOIA policy. + +If I'm right about this it goes a long, long way to proving that the shorts never covered AND that we own the float++. Not trying to overhype this, but I think we've stumbled onto something huge. So follow me down the rabbit-hole and join me in Wonderland, let's get weird. + +#1. What information "should" the SEC have? + +Let's start with the basics. FOIAs are for requesting documents held by the government. The shareholder vote was conducted by Gamestop (not the government) and tabulated by an independent inspector of elections (not the government). They then report the election results in an 8-K filing to the SEC [as tabulated by the independent inspector of elections.](https://news.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gamestop-reports-preliminary-voting-results-annual-meeting) + +Oh, and that 8-K filing is also readily available on Gamestop's Investor Relations page. At no point is the raw vote total ever reported to the SEC under normal circumstances. If the raw vote total *was* reported to the SEC in a standard filing, we would already have access to it because all SEC filings can be viewed by anyone within their [EDGAR tool](https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1326380&owner=exclude). As far as the SEC is concerned, the vote total is already publicly available. So then why would these be "unusual circumstances" as stated in their response to the request? Only if the SEC is privy to information pertaining to the vote total that is not already publicly available AND they believe it would normally be subject to a FOIA request AND they have reason to believe it might be a record that falls under one of [nine FOIA exemptions or three additional exclusions that are specific to FOIA requests to the SEC](https://www.sec.gov/Article/foia-reference-guide.html#exclusions). + +Here's what the SEC's FOIA Reference Guide says about what's covered and what they'll release: + +>A FOIA request is required to obtain non-public records, such as records compiled in investigations, consumer complaints, and staff comment letters. We will release non-public records, unless the record is protected by one of nine FOIA exemptions. If we can reasonably segregate or delete exempt information from a requested record, we will release to you the rest of the record. In addition to FOIA exemptions, there are three special protection provisions, referred to as record "exclusions." The FOIA exclusions are reserved for certain specified circumstances. + +So because they've been unable to release the information, we can reasonably conclude that this information is non-public (i.e. furnished as part of an investigation), falls under one of those provisions, and was provided by Gamestop or the independent inspector since they're the only parties who would naturally have access to it. We know that Gamestop cooperated in the SEC's investigation, so it was almost definitely provided by them but which one of the two provided it is fairly immaterial. + +#2. "Consultation with one or more other offices..." + +Though "exemptions" and "exclusions" sound pretty much the same, they are treated very differently by the SEC, and that difference is why I believe we can narrow down the reason for this response to be due to a possible exclusion rather than an exemption. Essentially, if the SEC believes the information being requested falls under an exemption they'll just deny the request and move on since they're allowed to determine that internally. This would not take them any additional time. However, there is a special process in place for exclusions: + +>Under three exceptional circumstances, the SEC is authorized to treat records as not subject to the requirements of the FOIA. When the SEC applies an exclusion, the FOIA requester will receive a response indicating that the Office of FOIA Services was unable to locate or identify any responsive records. + +and + +>The SEC Office of FOIA Services will: (1) consult with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Information Policy (OIP) prior to using an exclusion to ensure that the exclusion is warranted and that exclusions are consistently applied, and (2) publicly report each year on the number of times, if any, that an exclusion was used. + +This is also the only place in the SEC's FOIA guide where consultation with other offices is mentioned and the verbiage used is eerily consistent with that which was used in the FOIA response. While this doesn't provide 100% confirmation of anything, I think the pieces fit together too well for it to be coincidence and it looks very likely that they're asking the DOJ whether using an exclusion is warranted in this case. + +So what does the picture look like so far? The SEC was given the raw vote total as part of an investigation, and that information is now maintained by the DOJ, which means the SEC found evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the course of their investigation and passed it off to the DOJ for prosecution. That seems pretty big already. + +#3. We Three Exclusions of Orient Are + +So let's look at what these exclusions actually are. There's one we can pretty much eliminate as being a factor right off the bat: + +>(c)(3) Exclusion: Where there are classified FBI records pertaining to foreign intelligence, counterintelligence or international terrorism records. + +Not particularly relevant: As accurate as it is to call this all "financial terrorism", it's unlikely the SEC views it this way. What's the next one? + +>(c)(2) Exclusion: Where there are informant records maintained by a criminal law enforcement agency and the individual's status as an informant is not known. + +Assuming Gamestop is the informant in this case, which is the most likely scenario as discussed above, it's already public knowledge that they were cooperating with the investigation, so this one is also likely out. Which leaves us with: + +>(c)(1) Exclusion: Where the subject of a criminal investigation or proceeding is unaware of the existence of records concerning a pending investigation and disclosure of such records would interfere with the investigation. + +Bingo. + +#4. Conclusion/TL;DR + +We've been putting it together piece by piece, but now it looks like the whole picture has come into perspective: + +Gamestop handed over the raw vote data to the SEC as part of their regulatory investigation, found evidence of criminal wrongdoing and handed the investigation over to the DOJ who currently maintains the record as a material piece of evidence in that investigation. And whomever they're investigating (*cough* Kenny *cough*) is not aware of the existence of this evidence. + +Logically it would only be material evidence in a criminal case if the vote total is greater than the total number of shares outstanding, which would prove that illegal naked shorting occurred on Gamestop. If we accept that the vote total in JUNE was greater than the number of shares outstanding, it also effectively confirms that we own the float and then some and that shorts hadn't closed their positions at that point. Boom. + +**I do want to emphasize that this is all circumstantial and doesn't prove anything** but it does all fit together pretty damn well. What's more, the SEC has basically already given us the roadmap to confirm my thesis above. If /u/automatedcharterer receives a response "indicating that the Office of FOIA Services was unable to locate or identify any responsive records", we know they used an exclusion which would basically prove this entire thesis. Until then, I'll be anxiously waiting to see what verbiage they use to close his request. + +Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Never forget that hedgies r fuk. + +Edit: As pointed out by /u/1amazingday, the second exclusion could still also be in play if there are informants other than GameStop such as a Citadel whistleblower. Doesn’t necessarily negate any of the conclusions but it is an interesting thought. +I've been digging through the FAQ and a few FI blogs for a couple of months now, and something just isn't making sense to me: How are people getting the seed for this growth *so quickly*? + +I've just recently hit $100k ~~in investments~~ net worth. To be honest, it's been hard as hell, has taken a few years, and has been utterly disheartening almost every time I look at the data. Despite seeing gains, it *feels* like I'm not making any progress. Obviously, the numbers go up, but... A lifetime of ignorance and bad habits haven't helped much. FFS, I'm 40, and unless I can add more to investments, it's gonna be a long time before I hit FI. (I feel like I'm doing as much as I can with the situation I'm in at the moment -- but that probably belongs more in /r/relationships than here.) + +It feels like a total slog until investment returns start contributing >= what you contribute. I keep looking around, and so much of what I see is along the lines of, "I hit FI in 4 years!", but when I read more, I find that they started with $500k in investments. (i.e., 1500 Days to Freedom) + +I'm not trying to disparage their efforts in any way, but it seems like I'm just completely missing major aspects of the bootstrap phase. How do people get through this so quickly? What am I missing? Once you've got the means to generate significant returns, sure, that makes sense... But how do people quickly generate that first chunk? +I have been a long time reader of financial independence and personal finance. It seems that there are disproportionate number of engineers that are passionate about financial independence. +As an engineer myself it might just be that I am more inclined to read more posts from engineer. + +Or could it be that engineers in general tend to enjoy crunching numbers and thinking in terms of financial efficiency? Or we are just so freaking stressed at our jobs that we are always looking for a way out of the rat race. + +For me personally it's the joy I get in crunching numbers and creating my own calculators and planning. Luckily living in a low cost area and decent salary makes saving a lot easier and to envision a future of FIRE. +Reddit as a whole seems to think the Warren-McCain proposal to separate investment banking from consumer deposits is a great idea, so I'm interested in hearing some opposing perspectives, and thought this subreddit might be a good place to find them. +I asked this in another subreddit but there wasn't enough knowledge on this subject there to fully answer my question. I thought you guys would be more informed. + +I'm still confused as to how what they were doing was illegal in the movie. It seemed to me like they were just being sleazy salesman selling shitty stocks to people. I'm curious as to when this crossed the line into illegal territory. +I feel like they must have left things out in the film to make the lifestyle seem cooler. +looking to make a career change and would love to pick up a really solid text that will give me the fundamentals and a better shot and landing a junior-level gig. + +thank you all! +If they are above 50% accurate what is the incentive for them to provide their numbers rather than just bet on the stock themselves or charge for it? + +In the same theme... why do research firms release information about sales predictions (ie number of iphones sold). +i got an interview tomorrow and i am kind of scared. Please ask me some interview questions so i can make you all proud. new grad/economics major/passed the CFAlevel 1. + +EDIT:These questions are really good, I love you all. please continue to be awesome and correct my responses if you think it's bad. +I asked this in another subreddit but there wasn't enough knowledge on this subject there to fully answer my question. I thought you guys would be more informed. + +I'm still confused as to how what they were doing was illegal in the movie. It seemed to me like they were just being sleazy salesman selling shitty stocks to people. I'm curious as to when this crossed the line into illegal territory. +I feel like they must have left things out in the film to make the lifestyle seem cooler. +[non-paywalled link](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theage.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fcompanies%2Fretailers-bet-on-big-boxing-day-sales-as-shoppers-delay-belt-tightening-20221223-p5c8ic.html) + +Looks like the rate rises haven't begun to flow through just yet... + +...the crowds will probably still be there tomorrow. +This is a follow-up to the infographic I posted last week showing how I get a satisfying amount of detail about my personal spending habits from a simple routine I set up for myself: + +http://imgur.com/BY9AxSg + +Hundreds of people asked for a copy of my spreadsheet which I have now sanitized and provided below. Hopefully it can inspire you to make your own. + +https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwJYOZaa5I8AVEN5MTB2aVdNSGs/view?usp=sharing + +Thanks for the outstanding feedback. Here’s my reply to the most common comments: + +1 - Manually penciling in my bills helps me retain the information and allows me to write down the data I need without having to open excel or make a big deal about it. The only way tracking spending can work is if you can maintain the personal motivation to stay consistent over time. For whatever reason, writing it down with a pencil helps me stay consistent. + +2 - I understand there is already software available to track spending (NYAB & mint were frequently namedropped), but I have never felt I needed it. My opinion is that all the random software updates and network connection issues and update failures associated with a 3rd party app can interfere with your motivation to consistently track your spending habits each month. Case in point, here's what happens when I open up my accounts today: + +http://imgur.com/6ac3yAM + +Also, I think building your own tracking system designed exactly how you want it can make the routine far more pleasant once you get everything set up. And I'm still convinced it’s impossible for 3rd party budgeting software to give me the autonomy that I want. Excel is an extremely powerful program that I can use to make multi-layered budgets that will give me detailed info about hand-chosen investment strategies decades into the future. I can fiddle with different options on the fly and completely redesign things however I want. + +3 - It means a lot to me to know that I have inspired others to practice good personal finance habits as we enter 2016. I struggled with debt for a long time and I don't consider myself to be any more capable than anyone else. If I can do it, you can too. Shoot me any questions you have. + +I'm about 40k down. At first I couldn't sleep. Then I constantly woke up at 3:59am without an alarm and kept constant tabs on my popcorn, gme and bb.. + +Then came my constant YouTube binges. Then I came back to where it all started, reddit. Suddenly a sense of peace and serenity took over. Its been about a year for me but coming back here I realized we've already won. + +You see. We've all learned so much over the last year. Millions of us. +We're stronger cus we're better informed. We've exposed the system and it's big players for what it is. The system, A scheme rigged to favor the select few. The big players, fraudulent, manipulating thugs. The enforcers, exposed as mere puppets. + +Like I said We've already won. + +The only thing left for us to do is hodl and wait. + +P.S. I still wake up and check out the market like clockwork, but much calmer. +I always see people on reddit posting DD or their gains on stocks that no one has ever heard of. I know it is some sort of analysis but how do you find the stock in the first place and how would I go about learning to analyze stocks? + **TA:DR; (too Ape: didn't read);** *Germany man do thing on island with law-yers, him not ape, do hoo-man things, with shiny rocks, ape confuse. But. maybe banana boat get loaded, maybe not, ape hold, drs, keep precious banana forever, not fling poo or fear man doing hoo-man things.* + +Wow, so that's a doozy huh? [This](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/r9vswu/dr_marco_metzlers_post_an_hour_ago/) is what I'm talking about if you haven't seen it yet. Dr. Metzler's planning to force a bankruptcy in a Chinese property giant so his market puts print and then he wants to use the profits from those to buy a bunch of real gold metal, store it in Lichtenstein (you know, where Heath Ledger's fake patent of nobility in "A Knight's Tale" is from) and use it to back a new stablecoin on the blockchain to save the world economy. + +That is the craziest goldarned thing I've ever heard since some idiot in a cat shirt yolo'd his life savings onto a failing video game brick and mortar company on the Dubya Ess Beee Reddit forum on these hear internets. + +I mention DFV's original yolo specifically because just like DFVs yolo, it's a relatively simple concept (in his case that GME is undervalued and will rebound) that's getting an inordinate amount of hate for no reason. I'm going to break down Metzler's actual position here like Frank Baum broke down the housing market play in "The Big Short" (is there a bubble? if so, are the banks exposed?) here's Metzler's Theory: + +1. There will be a global economic crash. +2. Put options on overvalued companies and markets will pay out. +3. Starting a stablecoin transparently backed by gold is a good use of my profits. + +Like, that's it. That's Metzler's entire conceit right there. Most of us agree on the first point, but we largely prefer buying GME shares to capitalize. And the stablecoin concept has already been fully proven by Tether, except Metzler is planning to be transparent with his backing assets and use gold instead of (potentially since we don't actually know what's backing Tether) shitty Chinese property bonds and commercial paper. + +Metzler, is not now, never has been, and never will be an Ape. He's an individual investor with a history in the finance markets making his own play who's been shown some love by this community and in turn is showing us a little love back. We're making our play, he's making his. Let the man work, if he's successful in forcing the world to acknowledge that the Chinese debt is bad, that only helps us, but it's not required for the MOASS. And if he's successful in his longer term goal of creating a transparently backed stablecoin, that will only help digital assets - like say, NFTs for example - in the long run. + +Look, I have no idea if that's how things will play out. Or even if Metzler will be successful in pushing Evergrande into bankruptcy this week. What I DO know for sure though, is that the Chinese property market is in full on collapse, and will take the world down with it when it goes. The big market volatility that started on Thanksgiving didn't start with the Omicron variant news, it started with the wind-up petition being filed against Kaisa Group. And it's not just Kaisa and Evergrande. There's Sinic and Modern Land and Country Garden and Fantasia and Hopson and... well, it's a really long list, depending on which fake CCP economic numbers you use, the domestic aspect is 20-30% of China's GDP. + +Honestly the bankruptcy bit for Evergrande or for any of the others isn't the key event we're looking for, what we want to see here is the cross default provisions on the various bonds and commercial paper get triggered and liquidations start. This causes everyone who's been using these bonds and loans and commercial paper (they sound similar but they're all actually different debt mechanisms) as capital at face value for say, margin position collateral to have to re-assess their value, in what's called "mark to market". Basically this means instead of valuing those debt instruments (the bonds and whatnot) at their nominal, face value, they have to be assessed at their real, current market value. + +For example. Let's say you're a HF and you need collateral for a loan, like a leveraged margin position on another security. The prime broker bank will give you 8 to 1 leverage. Now, you could post $100m of Treasuries or cash or Amazon or Apple or something as security to get $800m to invest, but that's boring and expensive. Instead, if you're a clever HF, you go out and you buy a bunch of distressed debt that pays a high yield for pennies on the dollar, then mark it in your books at face value and leverage against the marked amount on your books. So you buy $1b of bonds in EG that pay 9.5% interest for $100m (they're cheaper than their book value because most people think they're going to default), now, the prime broker gives you $8b to invest, or 10x as much money as you would have gotten to play with using boring Treasuries, and you get paid a fat 9.5% interest on your $100m capital that you've put up as collateral too! (whereas treasuries would only pay 0.05%) And you don't have to worry about the loans going bad because the government will bail them out when they fail. + +But here's the problem with what's happening with China right now. It turns out the CCP decided to wage war against the capitalists that were getting so rich and powerful that they might actually be able to challenge the govt. Put another way, this is basically an internal power struggle between the merchants and the ministers (whatever the CCP's ideology, functionally, they're just a continuation of the corrupt imperial bureaucrats that have ruled and administered China under various emporers, warlords, and now party chairmen, for thousands of years now). + +And if you've read my previous DD (which I can't link to because it's on a different GME subreddit) about the "Two Debts" of Evergrande, you'll understand that from the CCP's perspective, the problem debt with EG and the other property developers isn't the money, it's the millions of apartments that people have paid for, but that haven't been built yet. That is a threat to social stability, and it's what's been behind the unusually public protests we've been seeing in leaked videos. All of the official CCP communication about EG and other property developers being bailed out or having managed restructurings or whatever - it's about their DOMESTIC BUILDING OPERATIONS, it has fuck all to do with the money they owe to foreign creditors. + +And let me be absolutely clear, that is in NO WAY unique to China. Every single government on Earth will bail out domestic constituencies/companies/organizations. None of them will bail out foreigners, well, at least not without some absolutely ridiculous bribes and an exit plan. OK, there are some specific counter-examples like the Peso bailout or similar, but they usually involve heavy politics and close allies, just in general, and in the case of a communist party that's at war with its own capitalists, and has already repeatedly screwed over foreign investors, it ain't happening. + +So, to go back to my previous example, you're a HF and you've got a $1b of Chinese property bonds that you paid $100m for, and have an $8b loan against. What happens when the cross default provisions on those bonds trigger and you're left with whatever the collateral on the bonds was? Well, you've now got to mark that $1b of collateral you had on your books down to whatever the collateral backing those bonds is worth, which in this case, is basically nothing since EG has sold off everything it owns already, including most of the founders personal wealth. So the prime broker realizes your collateral to their money just went to shit, so they ask for more margin. You fail to deliver it (FTD, get it?) and they start liquidating your ass to cover their liabilities. + +In the next few weeks this is going to happen to a bunch of HFs, family offices, and banks. As it does, and they get liquidated, other HFs, family offices, and banks are going to get caught up in the same death spiral of insufficient collateral and liquidations. Remember, in a liquidation, all positions must be closed or absorbed by the liquidator. If it happens to any that are short GME... well, you get the idea. + +So, to be clear, Metzler isn't an Ape. And that's ok. But what he's doing **MIGHT**, and I stress **might,** benefit apes greatly. Remember, the market crash is not a pre-requisite for MOASS, but MOASS will cause a market crash as HFs are liquidated, even if there has already been a crash, it will just cause another one or accelerate the current one. + +Buy, hodl, drs. CS #507XXX + +Finally as a side note, please try to remember, ape no fight ape, that's how we spot the shilly-birds, because they want to fight people doing their own thing, get apes all riled up and flinging poo everywhere. The SHF's psych teams have completely failed at their primary goals of getting apes to sell shares, all they've got left is getting people angry and at each others throats. This includes various clout chasers, outside actors, other investors, and other apes. Trust the DD, and follow the path of the diamond hand. Yoda warned us, **F**ear(**UD**) leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the dark side. +I hope this is an okay place to talk about this. Also, this is a throwaway account because I don’t want this on my real account. I don’t want people to know I’m actually an idiot. + +So last night, I got a call from what I thought was my bank. It even showed up as “Bank Name” because I have their number saved in my phone in case I need it. + +A man told me my card had been used at a Walmart states away and the transaction was flagged, so he asked if I had tried to use my card there. I immediately got freaked out because I’ve had money actually taken from me that way before. So I said no and he said he would block it and get rid of the transaction. Then he told me I needed to change my online account number to keep anyone from accessing it if they have my information. + +Now, this is where I should have realized something was wrong. But I was freaking out and as stated before, I’m an idiot. He had me change my password to a password he gave me (I know, I know). I wasn’t thinking clearly. + +He also kept having me give him verification codes that were being sent to my phone from the bank. I didn’t notice right off that it said “No one from the bank will ask for this on the phone”. BECAUSE IM AN IDIOT. + +I logged into my account and saw all $297 in my checking account had been transferred to a “Ryan C”. When I asked about it, he said he was working on stopping it. I closed out of it, like an idiot, and when I went back in, $1600 had been transferred to my checking account and then to “Ryan C” and then $600 more was transferred to my checking. That’s when it hit me that something was wrong and I gave this person hell. + +He kept trying to get me to log back out of my account because he was “working on getting my money back”. I don’t think he could do anything while I was in it. But I didn’t log out and hung up on them. They never got my last $600. Thank god. + +I’m thinking I’m probably out $1897. Which is HEARTBREAKING. I feel like an idiot. I’m 27 and totally fell for this scam and they took almost all of my savings and I was so proud of those savings. I haven’t told anyone about this. I’m embarrassed and I know people will just call me stupid. Looking back, it should have seemed wrong from the start. But I was so freaked out about having another fraudulent charge on a bank account and they played it off very well. I like to think I’m a pretty smart person usually. But this has proved me wrong. I’ve been oddly calm about the situation but definitely beating myself up about it. + +I’ve filed a dispute with my bank, reported it to the IC3, turned off my debit card and requested a new one, and moved that $600 back to my savings account. So now I wait for my bank to “investigate” this. Is there anything else I should do or can do? +I've been following the FIRE mindset fairly conservatively, building my portfolio largely with index funds and, indeed, that has served me very well. In the past few years, I've also branched out into real estate syndicates, but even then I only pull the trigger on the deals that seem like pretty safe bets. As a result, I haven't lost any money on any of them (not even during this pandemic) but I also don't see the huge returns. After all, risk and return tend to be pretty closely tied. + +Lately, though, I've been wondering if I should have a portion of my portfolio dedicated to very high risk investments that have the possibility of mega returns. These might be "win big or lose everything" style deals. The deal that really triggered this thought process was one where I _could_ make a staggering return but could just as easily wipe out my principal. I would normally not even give such a "lottery style" investment a second glance... but should I? + +These Wall Street Bets fights with the hedge funds is another example. The idea of investing in a meme stock would normally be ludicrous to me, but I'm no longer so certain it should be. + +For the record, I have already surpassed my original FIRE target of $1.5M (just passed $2.1M last month) if that matters. + +What about you? Do you have a portion of your portfolio allocated to hail mary bets? If so, what's your rationale behind how much? +Intel has slacked so bad in the semi conductor chip markets. Is there any hope of the company reviving? both in terms of growth as well as product? + +The P/E ratio says its a buy buy buy, but the market says its a 'stay the hell away'. + +&#x200B; + +Whats going on in your minds? + + +This is going to look like a lot of complaining and maybe it is. I'm exhausted and a little emotional about the situation so please bear with me. I'll put a tl;dr at the end for those who don't want to read all of this but for those of you who do i appreciate the opportunity to vent a little about it. + +I'm 28, and i currently work two jobs, i dont do drugs, or drink, or smoke, i total around 72\~ish hours per week. Thankfully things line up to give me a day off because that gives me a chance to help my parents out with their heavy labor as they're getting old and maintaining their property is sometimes quite a lot of effort. my first job, which i work at for 48 hours a week (more if i get lucky with some overtime) i can usually expect to pull in around 500-650$ per week paid out in 2 week [intervals.](https://intervals.my/) my second job i work for my stepdads contracting company in exchange for a place to stay. in utility bills i wind up paying around 300$-400$ per month. + +My current expenses just eat up every dollar i have and im struggling to figure out what to do about it. Its absolutely devastating to spend ALL of your time working, in often extremely high heat (i live in texas) and still have no money and make no progress. I dont have a vehicle, but i have one paid for. I was very stupid and i allowed my phobias about vehicles and driving to control me for too long. unfortunately my mother, who i bought the vehicle from was going to give it to me contingent upon her getting her new vehicle, but shes run into her own financial trouble so the date of my actually receiving it from her keeps getting moved and moved and moved. + +My partner is a diabetic and has fibromyalgia, and we dont have insurance. a lot of my money is eaten up on insulin, doctors visits, lab work, other medications, vitimins etc. they are always at least vaguely kind of sick and were doing our best to try and get on some sort of public insurance plan. The bills wouldn't be so bad if they would just bill us for them and let us make payments but here in my area if you dont have insurance they will only take cash up front or let you die basically. they would work if they could but they have no license and we have no vehicle either way. + +I know i have some bad habits, like for just the two of us basically i spend about 350$ a month on groceries but it feels like we run through them so fast. i dont buy anything fancy or silly, pretty much just budget dinner food, rice, tilapia, hamburger meat, etc i could probably cut this expense down significantly if i started spending more time on coupons and bargain hunting but when im not at work i have a tendency to be a little lazy when it comes to detailed things like that. on top of that, sometimes ill buy fast food multiple times a month, just because i forget to or have no time to prepare something to bring for lunch to work. + +My goal is to get a loan from the bank for a few thousand dollars, so i could secure our living situation for one, but also because i believe i can feasibly make money as an online retailer just reselling from distributors. i have a small amount of experience in online marketing (nothing serious but enough i think to get started) but i have literally 0 spare income for inventory, or other expenses. the problem with getting the loan though is that my credit is awful. I do not currently owe any money but when i was a teenager my mother took some credit cards out in my name and never paid them off and then on top of that i was diagnosed with an at the time, terminal illness, and it generated a dramatic amount of medical debt and caused me to drop out of college, which turned my grants into even more debt. thankfully thats all fallen off now but my credit score remains horrible. I know i should apply for a credit card to fix it but it feels wrong to me, to take one out when i have no money to begin with - what if i wind up spending on it expecting to be able to pay it off but then i cant? it will only exacerbate the issue, then id go from having no money to having \*negative\* money. + +I\`m also hoping to be able to find some kind of online work that i can schedule flexibly to fill out some extra hours with extra income, since my schedule is so packed though - but that is easier said than done. any online job ive been able to find has been a very fixed time schedule full attention thing that pays less than what im currently making. if i can do this i might be able to grab a few extra hundred dollars here and there to start putting towards something thats going to improve our financial situation. + +I'm fairly embarrassed posting all of this here, and I'm sorry if its inappropriate for this subreddit. Honestly i felt the need to seek some advice because i was looking at myself in the mirror and im beginning to look a bit haggard, and ive not been spending the proper amount of time on personal care and i thought to myself that i was starting to *look homeless.* I've never in my life felt or seen so clearly how easily it could happen to me. my stepfather is already constantly talking about kicking me out (he strongly dislikes my partner and my relationship with them) much like my actual parents did (for the same reason)(my partner is trans and my parents are deep southern texas low income types). i mean thankfully the free labour I give him along with my financial contribution seems to be enough to keep me under his roof but it doesn't feel sustainable, nothing does, especially because the threats of evicting us have become daily and more energetic lately. Sometimes i feel like the only way to keep my partner safe from actual homelessness is to end our relationship and send them home - but I would be sending them to a family which they are outcasted from and and be significantly reducing their quality of life. Please feel free to dm me if you have any advice that you dont feel comfortable giving publicly. + +tl;dr: medical, grocery, and utility expenses are keeping me living check to check, and im looking for advice on how to better organize my money, cut down on expenses, or find some side work to do on my laptop to help secure some financial stability for me and my partner, before things get irreversibly desperate. +Ive been bere since this sub opened. I was here for the migration from the old site. Ive been here through it all. Things are WAY DIFFERENT today than they were long ago. I want to bring everyone back to Fall of '21. + +Was anybody here for that? The days when we had real DD writers? Criand was a god, people thought he was RC in disguise....enough of the reminiscing. Fall of last year this ENTIRE SUB was in a rush to DRS. Our legendary DD writers brought us proof about DRS. We went through all of the same questions and fears that we are today. + +In the end after all the discussion, this sub came to a conclusion. That conclusion was DRS is the way. The ONLY way. Has everyone forgotten? We thought then that MOASS was tomorrow, people were scared of NOT DRSING! After the Terms of Service agreements were posted and discussed, it was a general consensus that if you did not DRS your shares, your broker could freeze you out in THEIR best interest. + +There were people then that claimed that they couldn't DRS. It was discussed, DD was written about it and we concluded that THERE IS A WAY FOR EVERYONE TO DRS THEIR SHARES. Anybody who wants to can. I cant remember the specifics, but it IS IN OUR ARCHIVES! + +If you newer guys choose to not believe me, at least look into it for yourselves, it is there. DRS your shares guys, don't think that you know the answers on your own. Respect what came before you. This entire movement would not be possible if not for those who came before you. You would not have this opportunity if not for those who came before you. Do what they did, DRS YOUR SHARES! +If you accept that bitcoin is an efficient way to transfer money quickly between two parties, the end game has already been decided. + +We currently fly plane fulls of shiny rocks across oceans to each other to transfer value... And it's supposed to be the *future*. + +The network grows stronger by the day, adoption is increasing... And yet if you want to transfer a realistic mega sum of money in today's world using crypto (like on the order of billions of dollars), you can't. + +Why? Because bitcoins, the ink to the system, are only worth $320ish each. The entire bitcoin universe is only worth 4 billion dollars. + +Because humans don't have enough faith in them yet. The secret to money is the same as the secret of the Matrix: it doesn't exist. It's all made up, from dollars to stocks to cryptos... It's a way to to prove that society owes you something, because naturally, they want the instrument of faith as well. So they will perform or sell to you for it. + +Money was invented as a medium of exchange, and it's not real. People are real, as are the things they create. Money is just a way to control and regulate that system. + +In this moment, we are all finally cognizant of the true nature of things. Bitcoin is a better form of money, and like a virus or meme, it is spreading out of control. + +In the future, governments or corporations will need to transfer billions of dollars of wealth to each other through strict and controlled crypto protocol, and they will need a crypto instrument that is valued highly enough to allow this to happen. Bitcoins ledger is already too well established to uproot, and it's too widely adopted to replace. We can improve upon the methods, but the ledger must stay in place. + +**Bitcoin must increase in value, and sharply. Hyper-growth is coming.** + +We called the last bubble the 'tipping point'. That was a bump on the road. When the real tipping point happens, you'll know it because the idea of owning an entire bitcoin will become absurd for most of the world. + +Chunks of bitcoins will belong to powerful corporations and governments, not individuals. The bitcoin universe will have to be worth **trillions** of dollars to facilitate the easy transfer of billions. + +The black swan event of a lifetime is coming. And I'm building my bunker, one bit at a time. + +I've got seven coins. How many more can I collect before 'the wall'? +EDIT: Thanks for all your feedback for my noob-ness as a trader! Got all I need! + + I need some advice. This is my second year trading options. I’ve been using Robinhood ( rookie mistake I know) and sometimes on expiration dates Robinhood will close my options whether I’m profitable or not an hour before the market closes. This is really infuriating because I know I would have won some trades if they expired worthless at the end of the day but no, Robinhood just closes them. SO, my question is, what brokerages do you guys use that do not close options early! +[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/14/jp-morgan-is-set-to-report-fourth-quarter-earnings--heres-what-the-street-expects.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/14/jp-morgan-is-set-to-report-fourth-quarter-earnings--heres-what-the-street-expects.html) + +&#x200B; + +[J.P. Morgan Chase](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=JPM) posted quarterly profit below analysts' expectations for the first time in 15 quarters on weaker-than-expected bond-trading revenue. + + + +The bank generated $1.98 per share in profit for the fourth quarter of 2018, below the $2.20 per share average estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The biggest shortfall appeared to come from the New York-based bank's trading division, where fixed-income trading produced $1.86 billion in revenue, compared to the $2.2 billion estimate. + +The lender's shares dropped 2.7 percent to $98.23 in pre-market trading Tuesday. + +&#x200B; + +J.P. Morgan, the biggest U.S. bank, is closely watched as a bellwether for the financial industry. So analysts may inquire about how the bank sees loan losses developing in 2019: The firm set aside $1.55 billion for credit losses, an 18 percent increase from a year earlier and $250 million more than analysts' $1.3 billion estimate. The bank said it was preparing for rising losses in retail credit cards and commercial and industrial loans. + +"Despite a challenging quarter, we grew markets revenue in the investment bank for the year with record performance in equities and solid performance in fixed income," CEO Jamie Dimon said in the earnings release. + + + +In his remarks, Dimon also addressed the U.S. political dysfunction that is now threatening to slow economic growth: In 2019, "we urge our country's leaders to strike a collaborative, constructive tone, which would reinforce already-strong consumer and business sentiment. Businesses, government and communities need to work together to solve problems and help strengthen the economy for the benefit of everyone." + +Still, the bank noted that its $7.1 billion in profit, a nearly 70 percent increase from the year earlier, was a fourth-quarter record. Company-wide revenue rose 4 percent to $26.8 billion, just under analysts' $26.84 billion estimate. Across the firm's core lending operations, businesses were strong: The firm posted a 9 percent increase to $14.5 billion in net interest income on loan growth and rising interest rates. + + + +The lender posted net interest margin, a key profitability figure, of 2.54 percent, an improvement of 3 basis points from the previous quarter that matched analysts' expectations. + +Non-interest expenses rose 6 percent to $15.7 billion, slightly higher than analysts' $15.6 billion estimate, as the firm invested in technology and high-level hires. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +Bank stocks were pummeled last year, particularly in the fourth quarter, on fears that a worsening U.S.-China trade war and global recession could be on the horizon, meaning rising losses across consumer and corporate loans. It was a comedown after the U.S. tax overhaul meant banks would produce billions of dollars more in profit in 2018, setting expectations for a rally in bank shares. + +Still, under Dimon, J.P Morgan has exceeded analysts' profit expectations for 15 straight quarters -- up until the fourth quarter of 2018. The bank has leading market share in retail, corporate and investment banking lines, giving it a diverse set of businesses to lean on when a particular area suffers. + + + +Choppy markets in December probably crimped trading and investment banking fees at J.P. Morgan, according to Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg. Trading and investment banking revenue for the biggest U.S. banks probably fell up to 10 percent in the fourth quarter, driven by weakness in fixed income trading and debt and equity issuance. + +On Monday, rival bank Citigroup [posted](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/citigroup-earnings-q4-2018.html) profit that beat analysts' estimates on cost cutting and a revenue shortfall triggered by a 21 percent decline in fixed income trading. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley report later this week. + + Shares of J.P. Morgan fell 8.7 percent last year, the smallest decline among the six biggest banks and a better showing than the 20 percent decline of the KBW Bank Index. As a result, J.P. Morgan has the highest price-to-book value among its peers. + +&#x200B; + + Here's what Wall Street expected: + + +Earnings: $2.20 a share, a 25 percent increase from a year earlier, according to Refinitiv. + + +Revenue: $26.8 billion, a 5.4 percent increase from a year earlier. + + +Net Interest Margin: 2.54 percent, according to FactSet + + +Trading Revenue: Equities $1.29 billion, Fixed Income $2.20 billion + +&#x200B; +Does anyone here generate income with selling covered calls only? Is that the most safest way without much risk. I’m talking holding on to shares but not being called and just taking small profits weekly or monthly. +A little about me, I want to become a Martial Arts instructor as a job. I hate school and no subjects interest me at all so I don't want to go to college or University. I want to devote my time learning how to trade instead of continuing education. I was thinking of educating myself for 2 years in the forex or stock market before putting in 10k to trade with and I was thinking of investing 40k into bitcoin or another asset. + +Have you got any advice for me? and should I educate myself on stocks or forex? + +thanks :) +My parents have usually kept their finances to themselves, but we started talking about their retirement recently and my dad shared some details with me. His original purpose was just to ask about the investments he currently has his 401k in, but then we started to go over the actual amount in his account. He has less than $70,000 in his 401k, no pension with his current job, and he's hoping to retire within the next couple years. My mom is already semi-retired and only working a few hours per week. Between the two of them they expect about $2k per month in Social Security. My dad also has a Roth IRA with a small amount of money in it, but it's not invested in anything and he's just using it like a savings account. + +I have an okay grasp on my own finances, but this is way beyond my expertise. Are they in trouble? What can they do to make sure they actually have enough for retirement this late in the game? And what can I do to help them out? + +Edit: Forgot to add, their home is fully paid off and they have no serious debts. They also have a small piece of property they are prepared to sell off for extra money. +Hi guys! I really couldn't find a savings calculator that fit the plan that my wife and I are working towards. We want to aggressively save, then back off and CoastFIRE while we spend time traveling and working remotely. Most retirement calculators I've found either make you pop in a fixed savings amount per year, or have some % increment per year number. There just wasn't enough flexibility. And sometimes they just don't give you enough numbers to go along with it. + +[So I created my own spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h4euUifOWF63JuU5dDkJlWThcQuoqIKzBL1UakRdPcA/edit#gid=0). You can enter in an initial value for this year (since it's almost over), and then enter a savings amount (or withdrawal amount) for each year and it will calculate your total account balance, interest earnings, 4/3/2% safe withdraw, and then 4/3/2 adjusted for inflation (with an inflation modifier at the bottom if you want to change it, currently 2%/yr). + +Feel free to use it, share it, steal it and put it on your blog. But I was hoping some of you fancier excel folk could give me some feedback and let me know if there's anything else that should be added that might help some people. + +It's nothing fancy, but I hope it helps someone! + +**Edit**: I added some instructions, and I updated some column names and formatting. I also updated my "demo scenario" to better illustrate the reasoning behind the worksheet. You can see that "Demo Guy" has $100k balance this year, saves aggressively until he's 40 and then STOPS for 20 years. By the time Demo Guy is 60, he can safely withdraw $110k that year, which would be like having a $60k/yr income in today's money. + +# Instructions + +* Open the **Second tab named "Variables"** and set your current starting balance. You can also adjust your starting age and starting year. **If you're starting in 2020, I suggest lowering your contribution amount and expected return since we're most of the way through this year.**. + +* Switch back to main tab. Enter a contribution for each year you are saving along with an expected yearly return %. You can enter a $0 for years you save nothing (coastFIRE) and a negative number for when you start making withdrawals (FIRE). + +* Play with scenarios like: What if I saved $50k/yr for 5 years, dropped that to $20k/yr for 5 years, and then coasted for 10 years? Now you can see how much money you would have at every point along the way! + +* The right 3 columns show safe withdrawal rates in "Present Value," which is the adjusted dollar amount to show what your spending power would be like in today's money. If you're not retiring for 30 years you definitely want to keep an eye on these columns. $100k sounds like a lot of money today, but it might be the equivalent of $50k today. + +**2nd Edit:** I moved all the variables into a second tab named "variables." Easier to manage. You can now set your start year, starting age, and starting balance. +**TL;DR:** + +* **ESG = Environmental Social Governance. ESG ratings provided by ratings agencies help determine whether a mutual fund or ETF does well by ratings of metrics including environmental concerns, slavery use in supply chain issues, animal cruelty and more. ESG ratings have grown more popular and have been performing well in recent markets.** +* **However, ESG scores have been horribly inconsistent across different companies. Most notably, Tesla was at one point ranked an #1 and dead last across different agencies. Currently, Musk has criticized S&P for removing Tesla from a sustainability index but keeping oil giant Exxon Mobil. Even ESG scores among ratings agencies in the same company (Morgan Stanley's MSCI in one study) do not correlate often with one another's ESG ratings.** +* **ESG ratings might be seen as a proxy for risk, so good ESG score is seen as good risk management. This might not be true, as not only are ratings often inconsistent, many companies hide their methodology from researchers, but many banks and firms (Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon) have been investigated over ESG ratings issues or outright fraud. Most notably, Deutsche had its ESG arm for DWS raided by 50 men in Frankfurt in recent weeks.** +* **Many current and future issues exist for ESG ratings, such as the fact that short positions do not need to be reported in ESG ratings for hedge funds and there are worries of "double counting" emissions during securities lending. ESG ratings--and their wide range of potential risk--have also come under pressure to a growing number of derivates that exist, including "green" collateralized debt obligations and "blue bonds" or "ocean-related sovereign ESG debt swaps". 2 researchers for the Bank of International Settlements compared the risk of ESG ratings/products as parallel to the rise of MBS products pre-2008.** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/icfm8ax8g7791.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=40637c48ca298b869331b96a24c99cfbfed21ec9 + +**Sections** +**1. What is ESG?** +**2. How It Goes Wrong** +**3. ESG Scoring** +**4. Scandal** +**5. One Bank's Trash is Another Bank's Treasure** +**6. Me vs. the ESG Company in the Mirror** +**7. You Need More People** +**8. Under the Hood** +**9. Protect Me bby** +**10. Lawyer Up Assholes** +**11. I'm Ya Pusha** +**12. Credit Risk Proxy** +**13. It Happened Already** +**14. Criticizing the Critics** +**15. "Sooooo…what’s this gotta do with GME?"** +**16. Double or Nothing** +**17. Post-MOASS Investing** + +For the culture: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xZx1lf2tvs&t=28s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xZx1lf2tvs&t=28s) + + + + + +&#x200B; + +# 1. What is ESG? + +ESG = Environmental Social Governance. + + +&#x200B; + +[Unless your Lindsay apparently](https://preview.redd.it/0gkx4glkh7791.png?width=1342&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe1f1540b2aada85c8c76047026f035e77a1c2f2) + +ESG, despite its weird abbreviation, has been growing in popularity for some time. In fact, as of 2020, one report said 1/3rd of all capital under management in the US was managed by ESG funds. + +**Growing demand means increased interest in ESG rankings has led to increased pulls for ESG data. For example, the US Dept. of Labor pushed a new rule in 2020 keeps ERISA plans from selecting unrelated ESG stocks not related to plan participants. And in Europe, even though some form of ESG investing/ranking has been around for 2 decades, it’s only ramped up more now especially in the wake of the EU Commission’s new sustainable finance strategy that got launched in 2021.** + +&#x200B; + +\*\*\* + +&#x200B; + +ESG investing CAN have material effects on stocks: long-term risk management adjustment. These, ahem “sustainability-related financial products” seem to give people more than just a feel-good post-masturbatory sense of calm. Here’s one such plus: a 2020 study found that ESG products that perform as well, if not better than traditional market-weighted investments. What’s not to love! + +**The real-term impact of ESG metrics is not to be undervalued. This includes everything from making sure the chocolate that your young’ns nibble on wasn’t harvested by the hands of slave laborers in West Africa (cough cough Nestle), or that your construction doesn’t fuck the water supply in the Midwest. ESG companies with strong scores mean that they might be doing right by the climate, or that they might even be avoiding animal abuse in terms of how their products are made or sourced.** + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +If it is to be believed that not only are you doing good with your money, but also making returns, this is why many look to the bigs in the ESG ratings world, including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Morgan Stanley’s (ahem) MSCI Research, Thomson Reuters & Sustainalytics, etc. to help them navigate the waters of happiness, sunshine, and eco-friendly tendies for all. + +What could go wrong? + +# 2. How It Goes Wrong + +​ + +**In short, ESG is a feelgood sticker slapped on your mutual fund or ETF.**  + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/5ed3rimyh7791.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=6ca22b56b7695df87a1bf86ca204b775f70f704c + +ESG investing–sometimes called sUsTaInAbLe fInAnCe–is so self-masturbatory you might as well bring out the jumper cables and nipple balm. Institutional investors and mutual funds have taken notice more and more of how iffy these scores end up being. The OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) found frameworks vary A LOT between different ratings agencies. And I mean A LOT. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**ESG ratings methodology remains inconsistent among providers, with less than robust data to back up any claims; in fact, back in 2017 a BNP Paribas study said 55% of institutional funds said there was SO LITTLE DATA on how the ESG scores were even made up that that’s what kept them from jumping into more ESG investments.** + +**Because surprise surprise, a lot of ESG–like literally fucking everything in the stock market–relies on self-reported data.** (We examined ourselves and found nothing wrong.) + +# 3. ESG Scoring + +ESG scores can rank on everything from carbon score to gender diversity. But like most credit agency work, ESG scoring is a black box and some even wonder if they are even necessary being so hidden. **At their heart, ESG scores are like any rating system: arbitrary.** GreenBiz’s Joel Makower threw the literary version of a bedpost at ESG scoring when he said this: + +&#x200B; + +>**“ESG ratings are first and foremost an independent opinion about the environmental, social and governance risks facing a company and its shareholders, not the risks to people and the planet.”** + +Sometimes, the issue of ESG ratings differences come down due to its methodology (“commensurability problem”) or defining what an ESG construct is (“theorisation problem”). Agencies are NOT transparent, remaining opaque about many of these ESG rankings. + +&#x200B; + +**This is also important since this is helpful for data research for academics and hurts actual research that can even be done to see whether 3rd-party sources can confirm how accurate ESG scoring is, what it means for the environment, animal rights, etc.** + + +[this is prob way more transparent than any ESG agency rn](https://preview.redd.it/j3y3bpwei7791.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=14ba3d331f54996295794303212b29b3a45c875a) + +But at it’s heart and per Makower, these ratings really often don’t give a shit about people and the planet. Often, there is confusion between ESG and another old-school metric: impact investing: + +&#x200B; + +>“In principle, the concept of an ESG rating might seem simple: A ratings provider generates a rating, say on a scale from AAA to D, of how well a business incorporates ESG practices and considerations.  +> +>The reality is more complicated. There is no agreement on what to measure, how to measure it or for what purpose. Most fundamentally, there has been pervasive confusion between ESG and impact investing. **This can result in the false impression that ESG ratings measure a company’s impact on the environment or social wellbeing.**  +> +>**This is typically not the case. Most ESG ratings measure the risks and opportunities to the rated company of ESG-related factors, not the impact the company has on the environment or society.”** + +&#x200B; + +# 4. Scandal + +So it’s the company itself is who benefits or is hurt by these ratings. Not the earth, not its people like you and me, not its animals, etc. etc. + +&#x200B; + +[nothing says green like installing \\"emissions cheating devices\\" in your cars](https://preview.redd.it/3rckynvpi7791.png?width=1330&format=png&auto=webp&s=c581a672e450990b7b231e9ed755ad423a7071c9) + +Remember, ESG matters when you consider corporate scandals in the mix. Although we all know Volkswagen for the VW squeeze back in 2008, there was a huge uproar over falsified data on green reports. **Wells Fargo was also recently in the news for lying about how many minorities even show up on their goddamn interviews.**  + +Another famous example includes fast fashion company Boohoo. Boohoo was an ESG ratings darling for some time by many agencies, receiving nonstop outstanding ratings…only to be caught in a major forced laubour scandal (i.e. slavery) which made many question those ratings. (Quelle surprise!) + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**You start to see then really quickly why these ratings might matter if for example, you buy into Volkswagen hoping their as green as they say they are only to find out they’ve been fraudulently lying about their pollution metrics the entire goddamn time.** + +# 5. One Bank’s Trash is Another Bank’s Treasure + +&#x200B; + +What makes it worse is that the wide range of scoring only shows just how arbitrary the process is, perhaps only proving furthermore how much its more for the companies than the world. Two researchers found after poring through the 70 ratings providers, they honed in on examining 2 ESG ratings providers. From those 2, they found that there was “large performance dispersion and low correlation of returns” on 2 pairs of ESG portfolios and individual picks were even MORE out of wack.   + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/tvw7cr6tg7791.png?width=1540&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ce0bdced123c1af510fe8a10f3526bbf361e50a + +So it’s seen that despite what should soon like a great thing, ESG ranking are literally ALL OVER THE FUCKING MAP.  + +I**n 2018, FTSE said Teslas was dead last in ESG performance but Morgan Stanley’s MSCI–the current larger provider of ESG ratings– said it was #1, with Sustainanalytics putting it in the middle. For another car you get the same idea: “Unlike credit ratings, ESG ratings can be wildly inconsistent between different providers. For example, MSCI gives one vehicle manufacturer a very low rating of CCC, whereas Standard & Poor’s gives it a score of 61, roughly equal to an MSCI rating of A.”** + +&#x200B; + +[regardless of your view of Musk, his criticism of S&P is spot on](https://preview.redd.it/als2osg0j7791.png?width=1590&format=png&auto=webp&s=43ed03841009ed11c2567c6147034b21ceb6617d) + +**If you want even more Tesla tomfuckery, hell just THIS MONTH, S&P Global removed Tesla from its ESG 500 index..but fucking kept oil giant EXXON MOBIL who has been in the news for multiple scandals. Just last year, Exxon was even suspended from the Climate Leadership Council after an Exxon lobbyist was caught on camera openly saying they were only for faking saying they were for a “carbon tax” because they actually knew it would never pass or be implemented.**  + +The (dis)similarities don’t stop there. In fact, for 2 of the biggest rankers–Reuters’ ASSET 4 and MSCI–their ratings don’t even seem to converge to other rankings like AT ALL. After a statistical study, they connect anywhere between 0.05 (!) to 0.39 in terms of their correlation coefficients after academic research studies. Which puts their likelihood to be in the same ballpark as other ranking systems as less than 40%...AT BEST. + +# 6. Me vs. the ESG Company in the Mirror + +So you might say “Ok, but that’s Reuters vs. Morgan Stanley. These are 2 different companies, so that’s different!” + +&#x200B; + +**Great point! But just to show how much of a shitshow it is, researchers at Schroeder’s compared ESG scoring WITHIN the same company (Morgan Stanley/MSCI) and showed EVEN THEN it didn’t fucking line up.** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/awej2hlng7791.png?width=1540&format=png&auto=webp&s=31eaf2c9cb2fb33d93b594c608374ca96b174274 + +**Last year, Schroeder’s mentioned that the 6 Morgan Stanley’s MSCI indices tracking ESG scores, BARELY correlated WITH EACH OTHER even inside the same parent company over 5 years.** Only 2 of the funds correlated in a pairing greater than 0.5 (0.6, or 60%), just barely better than randomly flipping a coin. + +&#x200B; + +# 7. You Need More People + +As you quickly see, this leads to some confusing shit. For example, as of early 2021, Reuters’ ESG rankings is the ONLY major ranker to cover animal testing, while Bloomberg & KLD were the ONLY ones to comply with environmental regualtions.  + +And look, I understand that this shit can be tough to keep consistent and other shit is tougher to quantify, so fair enough. One Invesco fund manager Clive Emery talked about how metrics used in ESG scores like implied temperature rise (ITR) are hard to distill as one number; this is especially tough as the FCA (the UK’s version of the SEC) has been pushing for firms to include that ITR number in their metrics. Emery summed it up pretty neatly: + + +> **The funds industry has only JUST  learned how to forecast quarterly earnings, let alone reduction of carbon emissions over a 30-year time horizon.’** + +&#x200B; + +And tough as fuck it is. But regardless, if ESG scoring is so difficult, then why the fuck have banks dragged their feet on adding more staff to support these “tough jobs”. **In fact, Funds Europe had one fund manager tell them it was JUST hiring its FIRST full-time employee to double check climate-risk modelling. And they only did that, because–to their credit–they said that the info and models were simply too advanced or difficult to be able to confirm whether the ESG scores were anything more than a “false sense of security” otherwise.**  + + +\*\*\*\* + + +So unless you have a FT employee running the numbers (mind you, even if that’s just ONE person) that’s still not enough to keep ahead of risk. For those of you that remember 2008, some have even compared the “false sense of security” that ESG scoring as similar to the VaR scoring (value at risk). (I wrote in the past about one such example or poor VaR, and how Societe Generale’s fucked VaR positions on their naked/unhedged positions cost them billions during 2008 and created Jerome Kerviel, the world’s poorest man who owes billions due to his poor bets as a “rogue trader” for the French bank.) + +**So why the worry? Well, these new Climar VaR models might not mean much to a smaller public firm, but mean a shit ton if a giant polluter is also fucking with their implied temperature rise number (while banks are willing to rate them as such as look the other way).**  + +# 8. Under the Hood + +So fine, we know there are problems with ESG scoring. What are the biggest ones then? + +&#x200B; + +**One is that because agency ratings literally often are based on PUBLIC reporting which often comes through annual reporting cycles, it often might not line up in terms of having a more regular up-to-date ranking. You could hugeeee months’ worth of gaps between a company updating you on how its ESG stuff is doing, and from when a ratings agency decides to update their rankings. All the while, investors aren't privy to accurate ratings, much less the "special sauce" of how its been calculated and if that metric changed.** + +&#x200B; + +[pictured: ESG ratings agencies](https://preview.redd.it/t14o0fchj7791.png?width=386&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d698cfc347b9693ecd2c6d7fb2d31518626acb1) + +Also, raters often don’t distinguish between disclosure vs. performance (“how much carbon do you emit” VS “what did you do to fix this?”), making it easier to hide this info. Because many of these methodologies are viewed like KFC special recipe and pRoPriEtARy, it gets even harder to justify. One transparency report went mask off on this issue: + +> +“It has been argued that an increasing amount of capital is misallocated due to the inadequacy of ESG criteria and the ESG services market’s lack of transparency. The rankings produced by ESG rating agencies create a false sense of security *(there it is again!)*, and investors who buy into ESG funds with dubious credibility need protection.” + +&#x200B; + +# 9. Protect Me bby + +Protection might be what investors need most.  + +&#x200B; + +[Pictured: not the SEC](https://preview.redd.it/us0twejtj7791.png?width=339&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd88eeabae943086d195714e579e9b9bdf768bea) + +**In 2019, the UK’s FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) published a letter saying that as far as companies applying for ESG labeling, they were “concerned by the number of poor-quality fund applications we have seen and the impact this may have on consumers”. These potential lies also open these funds for–if they’re caught fucking lying–lawsuits from shareholders under section 90/90A of FSMA for false or misleading statements.**  + +Let’s all appreciate this quote on that argument…for…reason: + +&#x200B; + +>“Conversely, fixation on sustainability at the cost of financial performance could also be a catalyst for disputes. Terry Smith, founder of Fundsmith, in an annual letter to investors noted that *"Unilever seems to be labouring under the weight of a management which is obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials at the expense of focusing on the fundamentals of the business****…a company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmann's mayonnaise has in our view clearly lost the plot"*** + +&#x200B; + +[we all thought it](https://preview.redd.it/otmrj0kwj7791.png?width=1181&format=png&auto=webp&s=f10ebc55099b7f917f83679e5411879d923d220b) + +It’s completely different when the firm might go under because of a giant extramarital orgy upon a bed of clubbed baby seals. **And remember, this is problematic because if you might be BUYING ratings, then the pension fund that buys in and says “yay this seems good!” might get fucked.**  + +# 10. Lawyer Up Assholes + +In June 2021, the Internaional Organization of Securities Commissions’ Sustainable Taskforce said there needs to be a “global corporate sustainability reporting architecture” that doesn’t rely on a patchwork quilt of what the fuck someone ate for breakfast that morning to drive their decision making. Big banks (like hm, let’s say I don’t know…Deustche and Goldman as examples) have now opened themselves up to liability over these “imprecise” ratings.  + +&#x200B; + +**Linklaters report on “Banking Litigation” for 2022 identified ESG as 1 key area that might open up big banks to lawsuits, both in the UK and abroad. This report came out months after the UK government’s ‘Roadmap’ to sustainable investing published in Oct. 2021.** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/x5xp37hzj7791.png?width=990&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ea201a6b3b4acf431159a8f60602509bb5dc6bf + +For example, in the UK, mandatory climate reporting (as of Jan. 2021 periods going forward) means pushed climate disclosure rules for asset managers, pension providers, & equity share issuers. It also means “premium listed companies” must include statements in their annual report as to whether they reported against the UK’s climate task force (or at least why they didn’t). This comes as the UK looks to accelerate its economy-wide Sustainability Disclosure Requirements by the end of 2022. Greenwashing worries continue. + +&#x200B; + +>“outside the UK, formal complaints have been brought against banks under OECD soft law standards, alleging failures by banks to adhere to policies concerning the environment.” + +&#x200B; + +Litigation risk will now have to be brought into new projects financed by big banks or others. In particular, the United Nations UNHCR (UN’s Commissioner for Human Rights) has stated that these new “soft laws” imply EVEN custodian banks (BNY Mellon anyone?) or nominee shareholder services (beneficiary and not DRS level?) would be on the hook for avoiding averse human rights impact. + +# 11. I’m Ya Pusha + +All this talk of lawsuits and crime..."Have any banks got in trouble yet throwawaylurker012 you might say?" + +Oh, I got you fam.  + +The UK has been one of the BIGGEST battlegrounds for this. Alan Miller called ESG “Extra Strong Greenwashing” in the wake of Legal & General’s ESG China CNY Bonds UCITS ETF (long ass-fucking name I know). **Miller said that China’s background for what was included in this ETF in no fucking way met ESG standards**, and was warped through a process called “tilting” ("applies JESG issuer scores to adjust the market value of index constituents from the baseline J.P. Morgan China Aggregate Index"). (Fun fact: Legal & General also holds GME. Who knows if they are loaning it...) +  + +[shoutout to u\/pdwp90 on this one!](https://preview.redd.it/qy4coouak7791.png?width=1630&format=png&auto=webp&s=f24caf555ef63d9db15990e5a7f5adc0cee188e3) + +Deutsche Bank’s asset management branch DWS Group was caught overstating its ESG credentials. **It was so bad that they weren’t just called out, they were FUCKING RAIDED.** + +&#x200B; + +>“German law enforcement officials raided the offices of Deutsche Bank on suspicion of the fraudulent advertising of sustainable investment funds at its DWS unit, dealing yet another setback to CEO Christian Sewing's attempts to move on from years of corruption scandals. +> +>The investigation revolves around allegations—leveled by a former DWS manager—that the retail money management business engaged in "greenwashing," in which environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments are sold under false claims. +> +> +> +>“**The allegations are that DWS has been advertising so-called ESG financial products for sale as being particularly green and sustainable when they actually weren't," a spokesman for the public prosecutor told** ***Fortune*****, which has been looking into the claims since January. "In the course of our investigations we've found evidence that could support allegations of prospectus fraud.”** + +&#x200B; + +**German securities regulator BaFin sent 50 pissed off German regulators to turn drawers upside down and figure out just how the fuck this prospectus lie passed through. I mean, it’s not like there was any warning including THEIR OWN former head of sustainability Desiree Fixler said there were misleading statements in their 2020 annual report, misleading investors about their $900 billion in assets saying that half were ESG.** + +&#x200B; + +This even caused the departure of a chief executive from DWS, even while the ESG branch of Deutsche doubles down that it did nothing wrong and will continue its committed “ESG focus”. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/h3fzfejhk7791.png?width=1054&format=png&auto=webp&s=9b3309cbe543329b77fed3ae7ead308ef7421f67 + +**This was raiding not under the pretense of “oh your ESG scores were iffy there buddy”, but instead–in their own terms–what they called “capital investment fraud”.** + +&#x200B; + +And of course, they aren’t the only one. Goldman (Ball) Sachs is caught in the crosshairs right now too on ESG bullshit. Goldman is caught in US’ regulators’ cross-hairs that it’s been fucking LYING on mutual fund prospectuses regarding ESG holdings. (Of note, Goldman changed the name of its “Blue Chip Fund” to the “US Equity ESG Fund”, perhaps running the risk of changing absolutely nothing bu the title.”) And the Goldman digging only followed AFTER finding BNY Mellon guilty of its own ESG bullshit for which the SEC paid them a handslap fine of $1.5 million and then be on their merry way. + +# 12. Credit Risk Proxy + +So remember: why lie? Once again, what is a big reason to lie about ESG scores? +**Well apart from the fact that good ESG scores are jacked up marketing materials, one recurring statement offers this: good ESG scores = proxy for low risk/good risk management skills.** + +Meaning many find that investors are willing to see strong ESG scores as meaning that they have their risk management hats on while they slap these ESG stickers on with a discerning eye. In reality, these ESG scores often end up being anything but that, as they are used to paper over major gaps in risk, as well as cram questionable holdings into portfolios that they can then more easily sell to mutual funds, pensions, 401ks, etc. + +&#x200B; + +\*\*\*\*\* + +&#x200B; + +In these cases, ESG scoring is something seen as equal to credit risk. +So then it ends up being tough if you are pricing certain metrics–like climate risk–which are veryyyy long-term issues. If earnings projections barely ever go as far as 5 fiscal years down the road, then how can ESG scores cover that time frame, accurately without the elemental bullshit that seems so heavy-handed by so many banks? + + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/ije2v2jmk7791.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=079a89c7ba268d184ffc4d58e54d8fd9dc4e3d4e + +**For example, Morningstar–whom we might hear more about in the near future ourselves ahem–puts up an ESG screener to filter out low scores.**  + +**Now what if Morningstar says “don’t worry about those 1 and 2-star ESG-rated companies, they’re not great” and then we find out later that their ESG scoring metrics were shit or–just like the Volkswagen example–they flat out lied about the upper end of the curve, and every 5-star ESG score is just free-range organic dogshit wrapped in greenwashed catshit?** + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**It gets more problematic when you might determine the near future: John Quinn, founder of the world’s largest business litigation law firm, worries about ESG-pegged pricing mechanism that might trigger in a credit agreement (perhaps credit default swaps?) Does that credit default swap or equivalent item trigger when the score drops, but what if its based on a different methodology/way the score is calculated rather than a palpable change to the company’s work?** + +You see quickly how if credit default swaps ever enter the world how this could be problematic. Let’s hope that never happens. + +# 13. It Happened Already + +Unfortunately, these already exist. Even last year, one report sounded the warning on how the next wave of danger could from ESG derivatives: + +&#x200B; + +>One potential effect of this trend could be to accelerate a pace of growth…that is already worrying regulators. **On September 20 two economists from the Bank for International Settlements drew an explicit parallel between the growth in ESG products and the increase in private mortgage-backed securities in the approach to the global financial crisis of 2008.”** + +Wow, yet more 2008 warning signs. FUCKING FUN. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/6kjbuo0dm7791.png?width=1248&format=png&auto=webp&s=fbc41e86b162865c9ebd0dbe75eee86988ff4c82 + +**Even more fun, Bloomberg reported just 2 weeks ago that they’ve even been slapping these ESG symbols onto collateralized debt obligations. Remember what I said about hiding credit risk? I mean, how could you be made at this little baby CDO it comes in “green”!**  + +&#x200B; + +**Even more fun fact, any ocean based ESG derivatives are called “blue”**. (Fucking gag.) + +&#x200B; + + **In fact, many of these so-called “blue bonds” which are linked to ocean conservation projects have come under fire as they might be linked to countries with severe amounts of sovereign debt such as Belize.**  + +**These instruments are then linked to OTHER INSTRUMENTS called (I shit you not) “ocean-related sovereign ESG debt swaps”, so think of it as a way to make bets on a country going tits up or not as to whether it can clean up the ocean surrounding it.** (If you thought CDO squareds were bad, then wtf is this shit) + +# 14. Criticizing the Critics + +Now look: legit criticisms DO exist. For everyone who says Rolling Stone can’t boil down the new Kendrick or new to a single number, yeah the same tough titties show up in ESG scoring. And ESG scoring can still be seen as a necessary evil: yeah, it’s imperfect as fuck but maybe these metrics do matter especially as we view their relevance in securities related to risk management.  + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +But it also means that asset allocation can go wrong for both mom-and-pop investors as well as institutional investors. **Especially when you have the same companies pushing these products being fucking raided in banks like Deutsche in Frankfurt, ranking Exxon Mobil as climate friendly, and creating fucking credit default swaps on the goddamn ocean.** + +# 15. "Sooooo…what’s this gotta do with GME?" + +There’s not much that I can directly tie but some general problems do show up again due to this issue.  + +Recently, ESG scoring powerhouse MSCI admitted: + +> +“This topic came to prominence 15 years ago owing to concerns over ‘empty voting’, under which hedge funds could use long positions combined with short equity swaps to give them voting rights without any economic interest, or vice versa.” + +A lot of the same fucking problems that show up in past DD on governance relate to ESG. If you push more ESG products that people eat up, you might have these funds then be able to loan these shares.  + +&#x200B; + +**For example, MSCI could lie and rate a company like GME as 5-stars so that then pension funds and mutual funds eat that shit up. Then those funds are then incentivized to loan those shares which are then used to dump it into the market. You can then theoretically switch back the rating at the last moment and have had the funds being unintentionally complicit in your scheme.** + +Tinfoil much? Yeah, sure. But there have already been a number of ESG stories over governance issues. **Most recently, tiny hedge fund Engine No. 1 held Exxon’s feet to the fire in a 2021 shareholder proxy contest, which pushed it to report it would aim for netzero emissions by 2050.**  + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/iflfc8zsm7791.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f9c00c94bb8f75f75163bf2a408e571be5011c5 + +And MORE IMPORTANTLY, Morgan Stanley’s MSCI–linked to a number of total return swaps I’ve seen myself in my GME research–discussed ESG reporting in long-short portfolios 2 months back: + + +> +“ESG reporting frameworks to date have mainly focused on long-only portfolios, which allows for straightforward portfolio ESG aggregation that is easy to understand and interpret. **Short positions have typically been excluded from ESG analysis to date.”** + +&#x200B; + +In the past, I’ve talked extensively about how hedge fund (Irish ICAV sub-fund, to be exact) Cooper Creek Partners–which includes an ex-Citadel Surveyor douche–was short GME during the sneeze. (Fun fact, Morgan Stanley of MSCI fame was their counterparty.) However, they also feature prominently-along side many other big banks and hedge funds I might add–on lists of companies that support war. + +MSCI’s report said carbon emissions may be the biggest push going forward into the future. Why might this matter? + +# 16. Double or Nothing + +One thing that I’ve addressed in the GME saga that is time-intensive but could be another way of determining positions is looking backwards. I will hope to address this in a future post, but I’m researching over funds in the past that have held GME either as (1) contract for difference, (2) securities lending, or (3) total return swaps. And I’ve mainly been focusing on funds that are either alternative funds, ICAV sub-funds, or–an idea I’ve tried pushing–long-short equity funds. + +Long-short equity funds are exactly what they sound like. They are hedge funds that might invest in a few stocks here, a few stocks there, some they go long (bet for), some they go short (bet against), and some get through into total return swaps.  + +&#x200B; + +But this is where it gets more complex. Because, as we’ve seen with GME, sticky floor and other stocks, some of these funds engage in securities lending (especially for shorting, as might be seen in long-short funds) which is what happens in long-equity short funds. Why is this a problem? Tell us MSCI! + +&#x200B; + +> +**“Complexity can arise when portfolios engage in securities lending leading to potential double counting of the same emissions between portfolios.** Carbon accounting in this regard will be addressed in more detail in a subsequent analysis….**Some hedge funds ascribed double counting of emissions as a rationale for netting.**  +> +>**Double counting can arise in different scenarios, for example when long only investors engage in securities lending, the stocks and their ESG metrics can be counted in multiple portfolios. It was acknowledged however that current regulations across jurisdictions do not stipulate that emissions of a given company held across portfolios globally require summing to the total company level emissions.** Further analysis on the topic of carbon accounting may be required in follow up research.” + +https://preview.redd.it/j73l9iy6n7791.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=415a92f59f3ac89afda9fff5e00553aa5645daae + +&#x200B; + +*(First off, how fucked is it that hedge funds will now go up in arms over double counting emissions, but not rehypothecated treasuries or short stocks being lent? Anyways…)* + +We see that MSCI is aware that in the future, one issue that might come up for hedge funds is how emissions are double counted–or not double counted–among portfolios. This then overcomplicates our future of hedge funds as they garner more and more ESG holdings.  + +&#x200B; + +**If good ESG scores are a metric for risk and netting kicks in, then maybe certain hedge funds might engage in certain levels of securities lending to either boost the profile (prop up hedge fund) or drop the profile (create a bagholding hedge fund) on who they lend to.** + +And it still does leave an issue that we apes will have to contend with as we read into short hedge funds’ portfolios in the future: + +&#x200B; + +>“Asset owners generally preferred the grossing approach on the basis that the business involvement exposure of all sources of return should be made transparent. For example, an investor may short a company that engages in child labor, but this still implies a portfolio exposure to child labor, regardless of the position’s directionality. +> +> +> +> **It certainly would not imply that shorting that company ‘removes’ child labor associated with a long exposure to another company in the portfolio that is implicated in child labor. Asset owners’ views illustrated that the concern for business involvement is about association, and whether the investor is benefitting from the price performance of a firm engaging in specified negative business activities. “** + +&#x200B; + +# 17. Post-MOASS Investing + +Despite in one report MSCI slobbing knob over SHFs, it did provide one comment in another ESG report to a different tune. MSCI was examining whether it was better to divest (remove your investment) from a company or short it:  + +&#x200B; + +>**“The above indicates that while shorting may be perceived as a similar or a better to divesting owing to the potential to influence the cost of capital, we could not find any economically significant evidence to support this hypothesis.** We repeated this exercise and found similar results during 2021 and between 2020 and 2021, in a period of media spotlight on several cases of activist investor campaigns for large scale coordinated shorting of certain companies.” + +&#x200B; + +And in case you’re wondering which companies they mention, yes they do mention GameStop. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**And the story of GameStop, whether MSCI was right that maybe some SHFs should have divested vs. shorted in their own way, is still not the biggest worry for a firm locked in inconsistent ESG scoring, all while it worries about how the next generation of short hedge funds will deal with those inconsistent ESG scores affecting their portfolio.** + +**Because the story of lies, damned lies, and ESG scores is just as much as story of pre-MOASS times, as it is post-MOASS times.**  + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/fo31p8mjm7791.png?width=1242&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d904e6166c29492e360cd94f026c3dbd52f5f28 + +When MOASS happens, and we get our tendies, I am sure many of us wil have a keen eye on what good we can in the world. But just as we are to be ever vigilant in other parts of our lives, we must remain ever vigilant about these post-MOASS times. + +&#x200B; + +**It would seriously not surprise me if the same banks & hedge funds that caused MOASS due to their fucking crime would engage in pushing both regular investors and apes towards highly ESG-rated items to wash the “stink” of the utter fraud the world will all be witness to.** + +&#x200B; + +“Let’s make the world better now, to get away from just happened!” is something I guess we’ll all say (I’m too lazy to make a more accurate thing I’d say but too lazy at this point lol) all the while these banks and SHFs are herding us as cattle to the next round of lies and deceit, circling us down and further round the drain into the next crisis in part through these kaleidoscopes of fuckery that are ESG funds and their derivatives, too busy to look at the green and blue sunshine being sold to us while the water path smells less of hope, and more of sewage. + +&#x200B; + +Pt. 2: ??? + + +https://preview.redd.it/q9tva6wzg7791.png?width=798&format=png&auto=webp&s=29ecd12bac90bcd8220d977e9b5294c32c58a0e6 +It would be cool if I could get advice from someone wether it be from email, Instagram etc. I want to invest long term, so someone that isn't a penny stock trader. + +And before one of you comments this. No, I'm not going to buy whatever stocks they tell me to. I just was some suggestions/advice. + +Thanks in advance +Suncor has now gone down [SU.TO](https://SU.TO) from January 2, 2020 $42 per share to a mere $16. Long term it might be dangerous as I'm not sure about oil as a slowing industry as a whole, but you hold this short or medium term and one or two years after we are clear of the coronavirus this seems like a decent return clip. It is now over 60% down for the year overall. One of the oldest companies and a decent dividend still. +A portion of TFSA is stocks, and i made trades, took an L and then changed strategy made more L. (Rinse and repeat few times) + +Right now, I’m recovering from the Ls I held until break even, after which I’m getting out and changing the portfolio structure to heavily be dividend focused: + +VFV 30.0% + +RY 15.0% + +BCE 15.0% + +TEC 10.0% + +TD 10.0% + +BNS 10.0% + +ENB 10.0% + +Apart from TEC, all others are Fractional on WST which allows me to buy more with each dividend payout. + +They are CND focused as to not pay commission or conversion fee. + +Not sure if I’ll be contributing to this portfolio so want to get it self sustaining. + +Thought on what’s good and what can be better? +Other than the obvious volatility, for a long term buy and hold strategy, are the ETFS that give multiple returns of a broad market, like for example tracking the S&P500, a good idea? It seems like on a 10+ year time horizon, when the market has always been up, they would consistently yield better returns. Am I missing something? + +Thanks in advance. +Laurentian Bank of Canada is a cheap stock. And it will likely stay that way. + +If you buy into management’s spin, the bank is nearing the end of a costly restructuring that has been weighing on its financial results for the past few years. +The Montreal-based lender, Canada’s seventh-largest bank, has completed fraught labour contract negotiations, it has revamped its traditional branches into advice-only “financial clinics” and it has introduced new technology to improve online banking. + +Management expects to complete the “heavy lifting” – a term that executives used more than once in a conference call with analysts to describe the transformation – next year, making the bank more profitable and efficient. + +The medium-term targets are enticing. By 2022, Laurentian Bank expects to narrow its return on equity gap with bigger banks by 2.5 percentage points. It expects that its efficiency ratio, which compares expenses with profits (lower is better), will fall below 63 per cent from 72.3 per cent today. +As for the bottom line, the bank believes that its adjusted earnings will rise between 5 per cent and 10 per cent annually, reversing the current shrinking trend. For the 2019 fiscal year ended Oct. 31, net income fell 23 per cent compared with 2018. + +These targets suggest that Laurentian Bank’s stock is a bargain right now. It trades at just 10.3 times trailing earnings and has a dividend yield of 6.1 per cent. What’s more, its price-to-book valuation implies a 48 per cent discount relative to the shares of the Big Six banks, according to Canaccord Genuity. + +The problem: Observers aren’t exactly embracing Laurentian Bank’s targets, given that management has already pushed back the date for various improvements by a year and they’ve demurred on any near-term progress reports. +“Our repeated mantra with respect to Laurentian Bank over the past two years has been that the stock cannot work until there is some semblance of stability in earnings power; this is clearly not yet the case,” Sumit Malhotra, an analyst at Bank of Nova Scotia, said in a note. +Laurentian Bank’s share price is up 14.6 per cent this year, outperforming Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. + +But the rally follows a severe 40-per-cent downturn between 2017 and 2018, which had driven Laurentian’s share price toward 10-year lows. This year’s gains may be more of a bounce than an indication of a sustainable trend, given the dearth of encouraging upbeat developments. + +In the bank’s fiscal fourth-quarter financial results, released on Wednesday, quarterly net income fell 19 per cent, year over year, revenue fell 7 per cent, the mortgage and personal loan book shrank and the efficiency ratio deteriorated. Return on equity was just 7.9 per cent, compared with an average of 15 per cent for the Big Six. +These dismal results – much worse than the generally disappointing earnings season for the biggest banks – come at a time when the bank should be performing well given the strong economic performance of Quebec, its home province and the base of its retail banking operations. National Bank of Canada, also based in Quebec, is this year’s shining star among Canada’s biggest banks: Its shares are up 29.2 per cent. + +The Street is bearish. There are no “buy” recommendations among the 11 analysts covering Laurentian Bank, but four “sell” recommendations and seven “holds,” according to Bloomberg. + +Laurentian Bank is also a popular target among short-sellers, who profit when share prices fall: 6.8 per cent of the bank’s outstanding shares are sold short, according to Bloomberg, compared with an average of 2.6 per cent for the Big Six. + +Given the poor sentiment toward the stock, bargain hunters might see considerable upside should Laurentian Bank’s fortunes start to improve. One key hope: The bank resolved its labour conflict with unionized employees in March, and stability should spur growth in mortgages and personal loans. + +But the bigger, more diversified Big Six look like a safer bet until Laurentian Bank can prove that its stock no longer deserves to be cheap. + +https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/inside-the-market/article-laurentian-banks-heavy-lifting-isnt-enough/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Globe%20Investor&utm_type=text&utm_content=GlobeInvestor&utm_campaign=2019-12-6_18&cu_id=bi/LlPZfzMHcp3NeHSBlp8kDLDva8t%2Bl +Am I in some weird parallel universe for not being ridiculously stressed out with this current market? Most of my portfolio I'm in it for the long run, I'm 27 y/o and completely on board with holding long and continuing to buy in when stocks are ' on sale' + +Yes I have some forsure losers in my portfolio that I'm not holding my breath on but my other 85% I still hold regard with their value and #s YOY + +Advice? Ignore the noise from right now and consider it a buying opportunity or am I being naive to the fact that two years of volatility and manipulation is normal in a market given current circumstances + +Thanks so much!!! +I know Burry does his research very well, so been keeping an eye on his portfolio changes. I noticed the fund he runs (Scion) bought heavily into GEO and CXW recently: + +[http://www.j3sg.com/Reports/Stock-Insider/Generate-Institution-Portfolio.php?DV=yes&institutionid=13923](http://www.j3sg.com/Reports/Stock-Insider/Generate-Institution-Portfolio.php?DV=yes&institutionid=13923) + +GEO jumped 7% yesterday, but price of both still looks cheap historically. I think it is still severely undervalued (analysts are saying it’s worth 3X its current value). It looks poised for a big run up. Michael Burry usually doesn’t do big investments unless he’s done his homework and knows potential is massive. I’m considering buying GEO, any thoughts? + +Any thoughts on investing in them? +I am a full stack dev with a couple of years experience now and wondering if there is anyone else in software who is making some extra money in evenings / weekends doing some kind of freelance work? + +Whether is doing small personal side projects that generate passive income, or build sites for small businesses etc keen to hear how it's going for you and if it's a worthwhile venture :) + +I've always been into making some side hustle money just for splurging and spending and am looking to use my skills to try to hopefully scale it up a bit bigger than I'm used to (flipping stuff on marketplace, some ecommerce stuff) +I just want to work all day every day doesn’t matter if it’s two jobs or what but would rather put everything down and just work, what courses, what companies, what sort of jobs should I be looking at to make consistent $$ for the next 10 years +So basically when I graduate from uni I'll be in a financial position to pay off my HECS. I estimate it to be around 30% of my net worth at that time. So, it wouldn't wreck me but I'd still be a big chunk. + +I realise the opportunity cost of not putting that money in an ETF like VDHG. But am I crazy to want to pay it off? I know it's not the most mathematically optimal play, but I can't shake the idea of not having that debt looming over me and just having a clean slate to start my career with. + +Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Cheers. +We recently sold our larger house and are in the process of downsizing as we will be empty nesting soon. I’m (mid-40’s) curious what other folks experiences have been in downsizing. How did your cost saving plans work out? How much did it cost you to make the transition? What was your experience in adapting to a “smaller” lifestyle? Did you pay off the smaller house right away or did you invest? + +Currently I figure it will add about $1k more a month in cash flow to our bottom line, with most of it going to savings and some funding additional travel. However the transition costs are not insignificant in terms of moving, storage, time. + +House wise, we are going from ~$600k house and ~3200 sq ft to something like $350k and 2400 sq ft. Most of the money from the sale will be rolled into the down payment, however we are looking hard at pulling some out to invest elsewhere. We are in MCOL. +Hi folks, + +I'm 38. My wife is 44. We have a 3.5 yo daughter. I have a really good job as a software engineer at huge company. My wife makes \~50k a year as an artist. 4 years ago I was making 90k a year, in the last few years I've increased my income to over 300k a year through promotions and job changes. + +&#x200B; + +Unfortunately this is where the good fortune ends. My wife and I sold our house 2 years ago in a low cost of living area (1600/mo mortgage) so I could take this job. We broke even on the house, became renters again in a HCOL area, and the house we are renting ($3400/month) has appreciated from 1.2 to 2.0 million dollars in the last two years (Seattle area). + +&#x200B; + +The real problem though is, seeing the stock market bull run during covid and following stupid youtubers, etc, I made a lot of IDIOTIC plays (call options, speculative stocks), and didn't protect the downside. + +I've lost *several hundred thousand dollars* in the last year. In October last year, our net worth (savings, 401k, brokerage), was $805,000. Currently, it is $525,000. + +&#x200B; + +My fidelity taxable brokerage account went from \~350 to \~120k today. My roth IRA went from 60k to 18k. Thankfully, my 401k doesn't allow trading and my wife runs the savings account. + +&#x200B; + +The problem is, I still have this feeling like I need to make the money back through trading, margin, or leveraged ETFs. I don't know how to shake this feeling that I can beat the market and get at least some of this back. + +&#x200B; + +Most of my stocks I bough just a few months ago when the market started dipping, but they have continued to slide and most are down 25-50%. I'm in all tech stocks basically . My options are down 95-99%. + +&#x200B; + +I feel like totally cutting losses at this point would be stupid, that I just hold these stocks and stop putting any more money into my brokerage account for a while. + +&#x200B; + +The triple whammy of selling my house, the housing market going insane, and me losing tons of money just has me really depressed. I'm looking at the market every day and seeing my money dwindle thousands of dollars a day most days, I'm unfocused on my family, my work, and losing sleep. + +&#x200B; + +I feel like I need someone else to mange my money so I don't have to worry about it. +just drsed for the first time this week. how will I know what my computershare account info will be? just drsed for the first time this week. how will I know what my computershare account info will be? just drsed for the first time this week. how will I know what my computershare account info will be? +She has said this repeatedly in her investor calls. I feel like I'm misunderstanding something because how can the price of an asset class rise if *net* capital is flowing out of it? Here is the latest [call](https://ark-invest.com/webinars/january-21-market-update-webinar/?utm_content=151711903&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-2398137084) where she says it at 1:11:00 and she said the same in her December [call](https://youtu.be/WCBUhQ6jJoM?t=817) (I thought she misspoke the first time I heard). +Hello, + +I recently had a consultation for going solar since my home is a good candidate ( south facing, simple roof full sun ). They offer 0 down and 25 years financing which would lower my current electric bill to a certain amount each month and then after the 25 years I own the system. The salesman’s said that in 25 years, monthly electric bills will go up and at the end of the 25 years they would be in the $500 range a month for electric. My normal bill is around 120, but in summer months it’s around 150. If I went solar, the monthly bill will be 116 for 25 years. Everything seems legit and sounds right, the only thing I don’t like is financing for 25 years at 1.49 interest rate. Also even if I don’t use my normal electric company, I still have to pay around $15 a month just to have it. Has anyone else gone solar and really seen the benefits the guy was talking about or was it a regret? Would like to know. I can answer anymore questions in the comments. The total cost is around 38k for the system for my home. + +Edit: thanks everyone for answering. It does seem like a to good to be true kind of thing. I do think outright buying the system would be a better idea overall as well. Also selling the home potentially with this attached to it really does sound like a nightmare. I think I’ll hold off and look at some other quotes as well. +I have no wrinkles in my brain but I thought about this today. As the Market Makers are providing infinite liquidity, we are buying more and more GME. We don't care too much about the price. Maybe some people are setting lower limit buys to get more shares for their hard-earned dollars and that would explain the price dropping a bit here and there... but that's not what I'm getting at. + +So, I started to wonder. Are we mostly somehow controlling the price of GME by buying it at whatever the MMs are selling it to us for? Sure, most of us are DRSing but I'm sure there's still a decent about of 'soon-to-be Gmericans' still purchasing shares through their broker. + +The MMs want to crash the price but we just keep on buying it at any price, so the price just is currently what it is. + +Here's perhaps a shit example but imagine you have a candy fairy and he (Doug let's call him) tells you the candy is $1 each. You're like, fuck yeah that's a good price, I'll buy 10. Then he's like oh now it's $0.5 each and you're like, that's fucking awesome, I can buy double the amount. Then he's like look at me go, I'm infinite liquidity, have more at $0.25 and you're like, you're fucking weird, but ok let's get 4 times the amount. At a certain point, you ask yourself... Does this fairy ever run out of candy? Well, in this dumb ass example, he doesn't, so he doesn't give a fuck what the price is, he's always making money off of you. But, let's say a fucking CANDYMASTER comes around and says there's only a finite amount of candy available and that candy fairy owes me for all that candy he sold to you. You bet that candy fairy would be trying to buy all the candy from you for pennies on the dollar because of how badly he fucked up. And you bet the price would squeeze. I don't know, I'm five years old. + +Now moving on, the beauty of price discovery is when we have officially locked the float through DRS. That's when MMs and Brokers will start to look around with that 'uhhh oh shit' look in their eyes as they realize the shares are all locked and they need to deliver the shares their 'clients' are supposed to be holding in their accounts. + +So until we lock the float, GME will just trade at whatever we buy it at. + +As we approach locking the float completely, I think that's when small players will be rushing to get their shares before they get blown up. + +TLDR: I believe that as MMs provide infinite liquidity and some APES are still buying through Brokers, the price of GME will be whatever we buy it at until the inevitable moment where the entire float is locked and MMs/Brokers need to somehow bid for the real shares on the lit markets. BOOM! +Read article: [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/only-5-cheq-study-shows-up-to-12-of-all-traffic-originating-from-twitter-is-made-up-of-bots-301556023.html](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/only-5-cheq-study-shows-up-to-12-of-all-traffic-originating-from-twitter-is-made-up-of-bots-301556023.html) + +Cybersecurity company, CHEQ, found that 12% of all traffic originating from Twitter is made up of bots. Elon Musk had put his Twitter buyout on hold, pending confirmation that bots made up less than 5% of TWTR users. + +Do you think Musk is still going to buy Twitter at $54.20/share? +It is again very frustrating to see reddit's uneducated masses in r/technology and r/Futurology bash Bitcoin for a non-existing problem, claiming unhealty energy consumption. + +When in doubt, please remember that Bitcoin has great potential to promote green energy through making waste energy from e.g. solar usable and thus promoting the build up of green infrastructure. Bitcoin is good for our path to reduce CO2 emissions (and already consumes mostly green energy). No need even into comparing it to e.g. Christmas lights, who consume roughly the same energy or vs. the banking sector or virtually (almost) any other established industry consuming more. + +Valuable source here: [https://assets.ctfassets.net/2d5q1td6cyxq/5mRjc9X5LTXFFihIlTt7QK/e7bcba47217b60423a01a357e036105e/BCEI\_White\_Paper.pdf](https://assets.ctfassets.net/2d5q1td6cyxq/5mRjc9X5LTXFFihIlTt7QK/e7bcba47217b60423a01a357e036105e/BCEI_White_Paper.pdf) +**2007-2008 14-15 Y/O $1,000 NW** + +From the time I was a kid I’ve always had really strange and interesting ways of making money. I’m starting my story here, at 14 years old, because I consider this the first time that I “made” (and saved) a significant amount of money. To someone this age, having four figures feels like an accomplishment. In 2007 I was like any other high school freshman, addicted to the Xbox 360. My games of choice were FPS games (Call of Duty to be specific). One late night I was tinkering around with the 360 controller and figured out a nifty way to create a [“modded rapid-fire” controller](https://imgur.com/a/X61sFjD) by connecting the player LED to the right trigger contact and sticking a momentary push button in between. With the button mounted on the back of the controller, these controllers simulated extremely quick rapid fire in FPS games giving the user a significant advantage with certain guns. The parts to build one of these cost \~$2 and I started selling the “modding” service on Craigslist for $40 per controller. This was before I could drive so I used to bike down to the local gas station to meet people and upgrade their controllers. This is how I saved my first $1,000. (Fun fact: this got so bad that Microsoft actually changed the logic board design of their 360 controllers out-of-band and the new board didn’t use pulse-width modulation for the player LED, fixing this vulnerability.) + +&#x200B; + +**2009-2010 16-17 Y/O $2,000 NW** + +Now that I could drive I bought myself a cheap car and got my first job. I worked at Chuck E Cheese as an Arcade Technician (and occasionally had to be the mouse) for minimum wage which I think was $7.25/hr. The job was pretty fun and I became really good at fixing the machines and beating the games. There are people called advantage players who use their ability to beat the games to profit from playing – at the time I wanted to try and do this to make some additional money. However, my employment there ended swiftly one day. Inside Chuck E Cheese we had one of those [large indoor playsets](https://imgur.com/a/6KrK6cX) with tubes you could crawl around, slides, etc… A young kid had climbed into a section of the skytubes which was a rope enclosure suspended up high in the air. To try and describe it further, the area the kid was in was a ceiling-suspended “sky-netting” (think like a bird cage up in the air but made out of rope and completely enclosed). The kid took a shit and it fell right through the netting and landed right in the middle of a family sitting at the table below. The shit was wet, went splat, and they wanted me to clean it up. I walked out never to be seen again, but not before having built up a net worth of $2,000. + +&#x200B; + +**2011-2012 18-19 Y/O $10,000 NW** + +These were my first few years in college. In my time between classes I would play Runescape. Today it’s known as Old School Runescape but back then it was just the main game, it is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game with hundreds of thousands of players, an active economy, and gold that is worth real money on the black market. I started and ran the largest gambling clans on world 65. This wasn’t a main world so I didn’t make the $100K+ that the big guys made on world 2 but my clan still did well. I hosted a game where you had to guess the color of a flower. Players had a 3/7 chance of winning and I had a 4/7 chance of winning – which gave the house (me) a 14% edge vs the player. The city of Las Vegas was built on a 1% house edge, so my game was literally just printing money. I had about a dozen "hosts" in my clan who made similar amounts of money from the venture as I did. It's probably fair to estimate that my clan had ~$100k of revenue over the course of its existence. Soon Jagex would release Evolution of Combat which really hurt player numbers and started cracking down hard on all "games of chance" - this ended most of the gambling clans in the game, including mine. I actually just looked at my disbursement total after pulling the records from PlayerAuctions and I made [$10,814 from selling the RS gold](https://imgur.com/a/p5Y52Ej) I made running the gambling clan. Minus a bit of expenses it’s fair to approximate a $10k net worth at this time. This was a pretty big accomplishment for me, crossing into the five figures and running my first successful business managing other people. + +&#x200B; + +**2014-2016 21-23 Y/O $20,000 NW** + +These were the wrapping up of my college years and like most others I had student loans which I estimated to be about $15k by the time I would graduate. While in the midst of getting my degree in Engineering I took up playing poker and very involved in the poker community in our college town. I spent a good amount of time studying game theory and became a really solid poker shark. I would play in multiple home games every week at various stakes. Students would run $0.25/$0.50 games multiple times a week and the professors and locals would run $1/$2 games every week as well. I would play with one of my engineering professors and I was amazed at how he could be so good at math but suck so much at poker. Most of the money I made was playing live poker but I did play a significant amount of online poker as well. [During this time I managed to make approximately $17k from playing poker.](https://imgur.com/a/MJHCfMv) When I look back at this I think the game theory and statistical knowledge that I gained during this time was more valuable than the money I actually made – if you calculate my hourly it was only $6-$7/hour. I also made some great friends and we always had really fun trips to various casinos to play poker live. I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer in Dec 2016. At the end of college I had managed to make and save enough to come out of college with a positive net worth of approximately $20,000. + +&#x200B; + +**2017-2019 24-26 Y/O $100,000 NW** + +After graduating, I got my first job in the same area where my college was which was, a low cost-of-living area, making $55k/year. The job I got was actually in the field of cyber security as opposed to what I had gone to school for. I guess I knew enough about computers, having grown up in front of them for my whole life, to impress some people at my interview. This job was relatively chill and I had a great team and boss. The day job wasn’t too intense so I dedicated my time outside work to try and start up a business. I managed to set up a 3D printing business which sold a single product, which at the time, was incredibly popular. I registered a LLC, set up my website, [converted my office into a 3D printing lab](https://imgur.com/a/gbF3dFl), and had 8 Creality CR-10 printers at my peak. Things ramped up quickly and 6 months in I was doing $20k revenue per month. Costs were low because I was a one man show but I was literally working like 90+ hours a week between the main job and this side hustle. I would wake up in the middle of the night to restart my 3D printers because I couldn’t afford them being idle. My work lunch breaks consisted of me driving to the post office to drop off the outgoing shipments. + +This business was short lived. About a year into it I got a cease and desist letter from a really large company. This company supposedly owned the intellectual property of the items that I was creating. Looking at previous court records, this company had successfully won cases against other individuals creating the same items. I hired a lawyer, sent the company a really expensive letter, and they agreed to not pursue me as long as I stopped making the item. I considered that a win from my perspective so I shut everything down and was happy to take the profit and move on. From this business I had $120k+ of revenue and after paying taxes and taking into account expenses I had $70k profit over the course of a year. This was also the time that I really discovered FIRE and /r/financialindependence. I set up an Individual 401k and ROTH IRA and maxed them out, hoping that this would set me up on the path to FIRE. I also started tracking my budget and savings with both Mint and a personal spreadsheet. With the money I made from my day job along with this side hustle I had a new worth of approximately $100,000. + +&#x200B; + +**2019-2021 26-28 Y/O $400,000 NW** + +After shutting down my business I knew I was in need of a change. The only reason I really stayed at my first job was because it was allowing enough flexibility for me to run my business. In 2019 I started applying for jobs because I knew I could make more somewhere else. Additionally, the best way to increase your salary is, without a doubt, to job hop. I was in a niche field within the cyber security community – I specialized in critical infrastructure. I managed to secure a new job (in a LCOL area) working in cyber security and I continue to work at this company to this day. I started at $90k base salary but after bonuses and profit sharing my total compensation was approximately $112k. I also get to tax shelter a lot of this compensation because my company does a 16% (effective) 401k match after one takes into account the 401k match, safe harbor, and profit sharing. The amount of money I have in tax advantaged accounts is pretty insane for my age – and this may affect my withdrawal strategy. + +I also bought a house at the end of 2019. Looking back, it was great timing, right before markets started to go insane following the pandemic. I bought the cheapest place in the nicest area that I could afford. I bought a 1600 square foot 2 bedroom ranch on 1.5 acres of land in a low cost-of-living area for $160,000. Over the past two years I have been fixing the place up with the help of YouTube DIY videos. I’ve done a lot: electrical, lighting, masonry, drainage, floors, complete bathroom remodel, landscaping, smart home stuff, HVAC, and more. I refinanced at the beginning of the year at a 2.625% 30-year fixed rate with no points. We had the place appraised as a part of the refinance and it’s worth slightly over $200k when you take into account the appreciation and the upgrades – might be slightly more now, 7 months later. + +For the past few years I’ve been working my day job which is pretty chill, trying to expand into real estate, and have been investing as much as I possibly can. I invested $42k into the market in 2019, $73k in 2020 and am on track to invest $75,000+ for 2021. I’m normally a really frugal person but being able to work from home during the pandemic really took my frugality up a notch. The only thing that I do spend money on are tools (I consider computer equipment a tool too) and I see it as a good use of money because tools, for the most part, help me make more money. I actually got a promotion at the beginning of this month at my job and they bumped my pay pretty significantly. I now have a $113k base salary and $148k total compensation. I’ve been maxing all of the tax advantaged accounts so I’m starting to funnel money into a taxable brokerage. + +The crazy increase in the stock market and housing market have really helped accelerate my NW growth these past few years. I have my ROTH accounts are invested in the HedgeFundie strategy, I hold some TQQQ, individual stocks, and cryptocurrency, but most of my investments are in FXAIX and SCHB. I just checked Mint and I’m currently sitting at a [NW of $422,000](https://imgur.com/a/TQJkKke). I currently spend about $30-35k per year. I am targeting a spend of about $50k/year in “retirement” so my FIRE number is \~$1.25m. I would consider taking a break when I reach around the $1m mark because I do so many things outside of work to try and make money. I hope to reach my FIRE number sometime before I reach 35. My parents are also quite frugal and own quite a bit of real estate in VHCOL locations and have a pension as guaranteed income. While it’s not guaranteed, and I’m not relying on it in any way, it’s fair to expect that I will inherit high six to low seven figures one day. + +&#x200B; + +**What’s Next?** + +I work at a pretty great, small company that offers quite a bit of flexibility (and gives us things like half-day Fridays all summer). The work is not terrible and the stress levels are quite low. I also am in the unique circumstance where a lot of retirements are happening so there is a lot of room to move up. If I were to stay at this company I could very well end up a manager or higher (making $200k+). I have also considered going into consulting after I get a little more experience. As independent and fast learning as I am I think I would be a good at marketing myself as a consultant. There is also a very large demand for consultants in my industry. + +I’m continuing to try and gain traction in real estate. I’ve built up quite the DIY skillset over the past few years which really lends it’s self well to buying below-market/fixer-upper real estate and either becoming a land lord or flipping. The home prices around here are also really great for that since it’s quite a low barrier to entry. I’m not completely sure if real estate will be my next money making side hustle but it definitely could be. + +I honestly don’t think I will ever necessarily “retire”, as I seem to always have some sort of money-making side hustle but I really like the idea of financial independence. The reason I really want to become financially independent is so that I can spend more time and energy pursuing my own business ventures. The things I pursue very well may not work out, but if they don’t it’s not like I need the income. + +Thanks for reading and I really appreciate you all as a part of this community. +Hi All, + +I'm currently on a salary of just over £16k and my title is "IT Lead" for a doctors surgery who employs around 40 employees. I was on 14k this time last year so to even get to this was a struggle. To cut a long story short everyone here is underpaid by the going rate. Even the reception/admin team are paid £1 less than everywhere else for doing the same job. + +Anyway more to the point, i have a job interview next week and they asked for my current salary along with some other questions via email. I told them the truth about my salary but im wondering whether that was the right thing to do. I'm aiming for 22-25k a year which i know i'm worth with my skill set and the things i know. How do i anchor this in the interview? I have a feeling they are going to low ball me because they know what little salary i am on at the moment. + +How do i go about this? + +Thank You +Hi - I'm a freelance business journalist who's written for the The Guardian, The New York Times, the Economist and a bunch of geeky trade titles you haven't heard of. + +My trade sector is a dead horse nowadays so my career is totally unviable unless I diversify. Its not difficult to work out how: I've held bitcoin since 2013 and my financial security is 90% built on crypto anyway. I'm in a great position to write about bitcoin & how it can democratise global finance. + +Here's the problem: I've been furiously pitching commentaries about the El Salvador news - which I believe will sweep across Latin America first, then Africa - and the wall of silence is deafening. + +The exact same pitching style that landed me commissions for a decade is suddenly ineffective. Commissioning editors, senior editors and publishers in mainstream media outlets *do not want stories about bitcoin changing the world*. They're embarrassed by their poor commentaries on bitcoin in years gone by; they're beholden to financial advertisers who rightly see bitcoin as the enemy; and they're too mentally lazy to think about the big picture. FT Group is by far the worst offender. + +Freelance journalism is a brutal existence, but with persistence it has good days where you feel like your voice matters. I have a comment piece inside me that I know that can create one of those days. + +I'm sure many, many other freelancers & staffers feel the same way, but are powerless to act. + +What the fuck do I do? Don't just bitch about journalists - one is reaching out sincerely, so engage with him and help him get to work. +The original post was taken down on r/GME because the paper I linked to was hosted on an alt-right website. I DO NOT ENDORSE THESE POLITICS. The paper is legitimate and is now hosted in a new location on this post and in r/gme. + +The paper referenced in this post is old and I note that the current situation has likely changed since 2008. However another loophole for a profitable scheme is quite likely to have been found. Any suggestions for how new rules could be bent to facilitate this type of scheme in 2021 would be appreciated. + +**TLDR**: Naked short selling privileges could be being illegally lent to short hedge funds by market makers. The married put trade and the even sneakier reverse conversion modification of the trade are described. These types of trade explain: + +* how short interest has been manipulated in official reporting numbers +* how naked short selling has become so widespread +* why borrow fees can still be so ridiculously low +* that the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) might be due to naked short selling +* how short shares are 'washed' and able to be dumped on the market even during SSR +* why such a large number of way out of the money calls have been seen recently (actually part of a naked short trick, not long whales or gamma ramps) + +Looking at open put interest *naked shorts sold might be at least 150-200%* of float! + +With patience key options used for the manipulation will expire and the house of cards will collapse. Every time we hit max pain the shorts' pain increases. HODL!! + +🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀��🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 + +*Note: this is not financial advice. I am not a cat. I read some papers and made some interpretations. Any number of these could be flawed and wrong. Make your own mind up.* + +**Introduction** + +One of the big questions surrounding GME has been about the reported short interest (SI) since Jan: *How is it possible that reported SI is so low when all other evidence suggests that SI is astronomical in GME?* + +Another question we all have is: *Why the fuck is the borrow rate so low when there are no shares available to borrow?!* + +Here I will try to answer these questions and how they relate to GME and the options market. + +While looking into naked short selling I discovered a few great resources that I will use here. The main one can be found here: [2007.10.09-J-Welborn-Married-Puts-and-Reverse-Conversions.pdf](https://wetransfer.com/downloads/d2c6318f7953ae019390eddfd65b213820210330221314/51f103) + +Here's a little bit of background from the paper: + +>“failures-to-deliver” (FTDs) are, in effect, phantom shares that circulate in the stock market as real shares; just as counterfeit currency destroys the value of a currency, phantom shares deflate the price of a company’s shares. FTDs are generated using a variety of mechanisms. One is through abuse of the options market maker exception, which allows options market makers to short shares they have neither borrowed nor located in order to hedge. Abusive short sellers or hedge funds are illegally “renting” the options market maker exception to obtain phantom shares which can be sold into the market. + +These phantom shares have flooded the GME market. In January reported SI was 140% meaning without any doubt massive naked shorting was happening in GME. Now we see that institutions own anywhere from 130-200% of available float once again showing that naked shorting is rife. Finally if we look at retail ownership of GME it could easily be 100%+ of free float. Estimates are difficult but many other great DDs suggest huge retail ownership. + +Here is a quote from a [letter](https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/sonecon010504.txt) former Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Shapiro forwarded to the SEC based on his own research into naked short selling: + +>When the number of uncovered short sales in a stock exceeds its public float-or even the total number of shares issued or outstanding--the only plausible explanation is a concerted and illegal effort by short sellers to flood the marketplace with counterfeit or fictitious shares, in order to artificially drive down the stock's price and increase the value of the shorts. Massive naked short sales turn the equity market into a form of monopoly pricing for the firms that fall victim to such sales, in which the short seller sets the price at a level guaranteed to provide a quasi-monopoly return. These actions, in effect, destroy the integrity of the market system for firms targeted by naked short sellers and create a direct transfer of wealth from existing shareholders to the illegal short sellers. The firms targeted for such manipulation are generally smaller, younger public firms - the type of company which has generated many of the techno logical and organizational innovations that have contributed so much to the increases in business investment and productivity of recent years. As relatively small and young companies with much fewer shares in their public floats than their older and larger counterparts, their individual decline or destruction also generally attracts little public attention. + +Fuck these fraudulent fucks who sell phantom shares to put companies out of business. This time they have fucked with the wrong company because GME HAS A FUCKING SHIT-TON OF GLOBAL ATTENTION! + +The shorts have never been faced with a horde of artistic apes who only know how to HODL, buy the dip and 💎🙌 till moon. + +**How a hedge fund can fake SI numbers and sell naked** + +One of the perks of being a market maker (MM) is that you don't need to play by the normal rules of FTDs and selling short. In the process of making markets, which requires hedging positions, market makers theoretically may need to sell stock they temporarily do not have. For this reason, Regulation SHO allowed market makers, “…\[an\] exception from the uniform ‘‘locate’’ requirement, as Rule 203(b)(2)(iii), for short sales executed by market makers, as defined in Section 3(a)(38) of the Exchange Act, including specialists and options market makers, but *only in connection with bonafide market making activities*.” + +Although only MMs should have the ability to sell stock naked *it is possible to loan their privileges' to other hedgefunds to play short*. This image is taken from the linked paper and gives an example of naked selling for Overstock shares using a *married put* trade: + +[ Example of a married put for Overstock shares ](https://preview.redd.it/mwmf4rxuz7q61.png?width=896&format=png&auto=webp&s=3dc49db83737283a0821f874c94f22b6ccedc36a) + +Example of a married put for Overstock shares + +This could be, *and almost certainly is*, being done with GME shares to hide SI and avoid massive borrowing fees. + +The option market maker obtains a market neutral position. Selling puts, alone, would create a net long position. Thus, in theory, the option market maker’s naked short sale hedges against downward price moves. The option market maker receives a premium for the puts. In the example above, most of the $5 is the fee the market maker charges for “renting” his short sale locate exception allowed under Regulation SHO. + +After the married put is executed, the short seller then sells the “shares” into the market. Every time the short seller sells a share, his net short position increases due to the decreasing long position in the GME stock. The end result is that he is long puts on GME, which is equivalent to being short. + +So it is possible to short sell using MM privileges with an options trick and avoid massive borrowing fees for hard to borrow stock. THIS IS ILLEGAL AND CLEAR MANIPULATION OF THE MM RULES! + +In a 2003 SEC Interpretive Release, the Commission expressed concern about “*the manipulative sale of securities underlying a married put as part of a scheme to drive the market price down and later profit by purchasing the securities at a depressed price*.” With increased scrutiny on married puts, anecdotal evidence suggests that they are being masked within market neutral trades known as reverse conversions. + +**How to hide your illegal married put: the** ***reverse conversion***\*\*!\*\* + +Here is another example of naked selling for Overstock shares, now using a reverse conversion trade: + +[ Example of a reverse conversion version of the married put for Overstock shares ](https://preview.redd.it/byyqzeqxz7q61.png?width=899&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8342600932db92cba6212ae04923218845d43b6) + +Example of a reverse conversion version of the married put for Overstock shares + +The addition of the the call sales masks the trade and attempts to hide it's illegality. However, a key point from the paper states that: + +>Regulation SHO stocks with large, unsettled trades often exhibit a similar characteristic: ***“short selling” hedge funds with significant put holdings in 13F filings*** + +Now to take a look at Puts in GME using some other great ape DD. + +**Options trading in GME** + +We see a MASSIVE amount of PUTs sold for GME expiring on April 16: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mfw3u4/huge\_number\_of\_puts\_expiring\_april\_16\_382k\_open/](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mfw3u4/huge_number_of_puts_expiring_april_16_382k_open/) + +That is a possible 70% of hidden short interest that will expires in the options in a couple of weeks!! + +Many of the PUT trades are likely to be the hedge funds' short positions from married puts. If they can expire worthless the hedge funds lose their bet and the MMs are left with a massive shit-ton of short sold IOUs to deal with. + +If we look into all the put option interest for future months we might see the full scale of the married put naked shorting scam. + +[u/Cuttingwater\_](https://www.reddit.com/u/Cuttingwater_/) took a look for me and found that if you tally up all puts <25$ (which just seem like write offs and would never be used) purchased for all available options dates, we are looking at > 150% of the float. That could be at least 150% of float sold naked! This number could be significantly higher as some options traded as part of the scam might have already expired. + +208% if you include all puts OTM + +In the case of the reverse conversion scam an extra call option is involved. For this version of the hidden naked short, the short hedgies are actually left with a way out of the money call. MAYBE THIS IS WHY WE SAW SUCH HIGH OPEN INTEREST FOR 800c CALLS IN RECENT WEEKS!!! + +Every week we end around max pain we inflict more damage on the shorts: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mejp0k/the\_concept\_of\_max\_pain\_and\_why\_this\_is\_probably/](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mejp0k/the_concept_of_max_pain_and_why_this_is_probably/) + +Potentially the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) in GME could have been created as part of a naked shorting privilege scam. Therefore the longer we inflict max pain on the GME options, and the more patiently we HODL the more chance we have to ensure these fraudulent fucks are left with nothing. + +All the recent DTCC filings suggest that they are covering their ass and looking into this bullshit before it explodes in their faces. Recent filings also mention that their aware of and ready to deal with option trading shenanigans by the MMs: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mecfwi/too\_ape\_didnt\_read\_sec\_filings\_part\_two\_fuck/](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mecfwi/too_ape_didnt_read_sec_filings_part_two_fuck/) + +**Conclusion** + +GME short interest is likely hidden in the options using manipulative trades that illegally allow hedge funds to borrow market maker privileges and avoid paying large borrow fees. Every week that we allow options contracts to finish out of the money the illegal naked short trades become more unsustainable. DTCC filings show that they are scrambling to avoid holding the bag. A larger hand (or whale flipper?) seems to almost always set us down perfectly around the max pain each Friday to drain the shorts... + +A storm is brewing around GME. I'm just gonna keep HODLin' and buyin' that dip. + +🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 + +Edit 1: What if the Dark Pools are largely being used for the married put trades. To sell naked shares directly to the shorts along with their puts!!! + +Edit 2: [u/Cuttingwater\_](https://www.reddit.com/u/Cuttingwater_/) helped look into the options and found this: + +>[@broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa) if you tally up all puts <25$ (which just seem like write offs and would never be used) purchased for all available options dates, we are looking at > 150% of the float +208% if you include all puts OTM + +I will add this to the main text. Could suggest that at least 150% is naked short sold. Other options as part of the scam could've already expired meaning this is a lower bound. + +Edit 3: This also explains why SSR doesn't do much!! When MMs sell short to hedgies it 'washes' the short tag away. The hedges just have 'normal' phantom shares to dump at will! +(Originally written on Friday) We are a week out of attorney review and have already done the home inspection. Our attorney got an email from the sellers attorney this morning inquiring if we would terminate the contract and have them reimburse us for the inspection. We said no and our attorney sent them a letter back saying we would not cancel. Now the seller is requesting to speak to me directly, obviously to try and sway me and drop the contract. + + +Im looking at this as a business transaction. I'm not trying to get feelings involved. So I said no I dont really want to speak to them. Who knows what is going to happen next? Is there a way they can back out of this? As long as i meet all of our deadlines am i good to go? I dont want to lose the house just because they changed their mind and then maybe end up relisting or something in a month. What can I do to make sure the deal goes through? + + +*************************** + + +UPDATE for Saturday morning - We told them through our realtor that we don't want any contact directly with them. They had their realtor ask our realtor if we would accept $1500 and end the deal. We said no, that kind of money isnt worth us ending the deal. We told them that anything they want to say to us should be sent to our attorney, not our realtor at this point. They pretty much ignored that and asked our realtor again if we would take $2000. We didnt even answer, just said send these things to our attorney. Truthfully its still not worth backing out for that money, I want the house. Oh and the reason they want to cancel? Just because they CHANGED THEIR MIND and like the place. It was listed for almost 2 months and a week in attorney review for them to decide that. Sorry but a week after review is too late. + +We feel like they are avoiding the attorney, even their own attorney, because he probably let them know they are pretty screwed. At least i hope thats what their attorney is telling them. Im looking at all this as a business deal. If i backed out "just because i changed my mind" then i would have lost my deposit. Whats the point of a contract if they can just walk away?! + +Also someone asked if we can afford to stay where we currently are if it ends up in court for 6+ months. Yes actually we can. We have a good situation right now living with family. We dont have our own property to sell and can wait out the process of they keep delaying things. + +I guess we are waiting until Monday to see if they actually send something thru their attorney. But really i dont want to accept anything close to their current offer. Im talking like 10-15k if you want me to just turn around and forget about the house that my SO and i love. I think if they send anything we might just give them a super high buyout number or let them know we have no problem taking them to court since we have the time and current living situation to deal with that. + +(Sorry for typos or grammar, I'm doing this from a phone) + +*************** + +UPDATE - to let everyone know a little backstory, they bought the house last year and the wife decided that she wants to move because its too far from her family. They have almost no furniture there and are rarely home. That would lead me to believe there is little attachment. + +The reason the want to end the contract is because they changed their mind and like the house. I guess all the sudden wife doesnt care about the distance to her family. + +I knew that not everyone would agree with me but I'd like to just say I'm not heartless, I'm not a dick. If there was a life altering event that took place than i wouldnt put up a fight. A death, a job loss, a disease are all reasons that i wouldnt be hard on anyone. I have dealt with loss as most everyone has and know it can significantly impact living situations. But all i have to go on right now is then saying just just decided the like the house and changed their mind about selling. That, to me, is not reasonable at this point. + +*************** + +UPDATE (Sat @ 1pm) - Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions. Many of you are in agreement that i should pursue the house or be substantially reimbursed. Many others think I'm a dick lol. At the moment i feel like reimbursement is our best bet but their current offer isnt worth me giving up a lovely home. Either way I'm going to try and clear my head for a while. There is nothing that will be done until Monday anyway. Thanks again for the comments, good and bad, and I'll update Monday. +For various reasons I didn't pay anything into a pension pot until the age of about 31. For three years afterwards I was enrolled in my work scheme and got up to about £10k or so. I then (again for various reasons) decided to quit work, sell my house and my car and go back to university. + +Four years later and I still probably have another year before I'm going to start working as a post-doc. In that time I have (obviously) not made any pension contributions (including NI) and have spent probably a third of my house equity (I have about £57k left). I'm not planning to spend any more of it. + +So I appreciate that i'm in a very poor position pension-wise - but I'm telling myself that it doesn't matter for a number of reasons: + +1. My 'career' is only going to properly start at 40. But my expectation is that it's going to be something that I enjoy doing and find fulfilling. Basically something that I will only retire from when it's absolutely medically necessary. If I work for a university I believe that I could make something like 30-35 years of pension contributions into their scheme still. +2. I don't have any dependents. I might receive 1/4 of a large house in inheritance one day. +3. Economically/politically - it seems almost impossible to predict what the world will look like for retired people in 30 years time. + +What do people think? +I would love to hear everyone’s life story about how they got to where they are today. How wealthy were you growing up? What did you do in college? What was your great break into FatFire? I would love to know :) +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. +Stock market people always made fun of crypto about how volatile it is. They were right until recently. The most popular growth stocks have been more volatile than Bitcoin. This proves that Bitcoin is more stable than some of the most popular stocks. + +Here is the charts + +**Bitcoin price, past 6 months; (down 43%)** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/ax1j5lk6h3y81.png?width=603&format=png&auto=webp&s=867b29d9075eca60e6c4345971feac212e50e7a4 + +Bitcoin's price has dropped 43% over 6 months. + +Here are the some most popular growth stocks + +**Netflix (down 72%)** + +&#x200B; + +[Netflix's share price is down 72&#37; in last 6 months](https://preview.redd.it/8b4xzineh3y81.png?width=628&format=png&auto=webp&s=c83c6f07305d5ec733e34bfd2ec85daf2018f586) + +**Spotify (down 63%)** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/rfss0x5mh3y81.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=61f76baf145131eedaeb2a42546488e9e801edaa + +**Here are the other growth stocks;** + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/uws4e0dzh3y81.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=984f2166746b910b27300fbe6b2c3a67dcc14bf8 + +**Tl;dr** Bitcoin has been more stable than stocks recently. For example; Netflix is down 72% in past 6 months meanwhile Bitcoin is down 43%. + +Of course that doesn't make Bitcoin a stable asset but it's clear that Bitcoin has been more stable than stocks recently. +Yea yea drug = bad , crypto = good + +But have you guys ever wondered about the dude who was locked up for 10 years and came back to his wallet that he had tucked away for a decade only to find out he’s a multi millionaire! Well if he’s(or she)out there , it’s funny how things turn out huh ? + +Update: wow this really blew up , i was just sitting here stoned day trading when i thought of this +I can't seem to feel regret for constantly holding cash and being risk adverse because of the economic climate. If I had put my money in absolutely any asset it would have increased significantly more than cash. What's your thoughts? + +Edit : thanks everyone for your comments and your thoughts, really helps with my investment process moving forward. Yes the title is meant to say worst not worth! +https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/592wl6/newscorp_article_from_6_weeks_ago_australia_six/ + +Was reading top ranked posts, thought this needed reevaluation. +I am returning to Australia from overseas soon. As we all know, car prices are ridiculous at the moment and could remain so for another year or two. I sold my car a couple of years ago for obvious reasons (not being in the country) and now have to consider my transport options going forward. + +I currently own a decent Giant bike that I really need to use more often, so I thought it might be a good idea converting it into an electric bike for commuting to work daily among other things. + +Has anyone done this and is it a viable solution? What are the advantages and what are the drawbacks? + +At this stage I don't exactly need a car for daily use and would like to at least wait out the current supply shortage issues that have driven the market prices up. Also I could use the savings to go towards future outright car purchase. Plus fitness is a bonus. + +Would love to hear from anyone that has done or is doing this. + +Public transport and Uber would comprise the remainder of my transport needs. +As a newbie investor, I'm trying to calculate the intrinsic value of multiple businness. Issue is I don't know how to calculate the predicted PE ratio of the company in 5 or 10 years. How could I calculate somewhat of a reasonable value? +I know small caps are typically risky but I’ve started developing a google sheet that tracks small caps in each sector/industry (based on price, cash per share, P/E, Short Float, etc) and noticed a lot have strong balance sheets, little to no debt and quarterly improvements in operating income. What are things you look for when investing in a company? +Hey, I'm having difficulties understanding what my boy Ben means by "estimating future earnings and then multiplying these by a factor appropriate to the particular issue" on page 166 in the intelligent investor (full passage posted below). + +Is he talking about multiplying the earnings **per share**? Because otherwise why would you multiply the future earnings by "a factor"? + +"There are two tests by which a bargain common stock is detected. The first is by the method of appraisal. This relies largely on estimating future earnings and then multiplying these by a factor appropriate to the particular issue. If the resultant value is sufficiently above the market price—and if the investor has confidence in the technique employed—he can tag the stock as a bargain." + +Thanks for the help! +Bank of America research reports have valuation tables where they list the P/E, EV/EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow Yield for recent years, the current year, and the next few years (forecasts). How do you decide how much weight to give these three measures when deciding whether a stock is cheap? +I'm still new at this so I'm trying to find good stocks to hold for at least 3-5 years. I know there's more to it than looking at the p/e ratio or PEG. What else does everyone check? Thanks in advance! +The Shiller PE ratio is very high and I’d like to shuffle my holdings to split of stocks and inflation securities like TIPS. Any suggestions? I’m on Fidelity. +I'm curious about Finviz's fundamental company data. In your experience, how accurate is all the historical numbers, ratios, fwd est's etc? + +Any strong opinions one way or the other? +I’ve been looking for value in small and micro cap stocks after reading Joel Greenblatt’s “The BIG SECRET for the Small Investor.” Spoiler: the secret is that small investors can find value more easily in small and micro cap stocks because they’re too small for large investors to spend time analyzing since they can’t invest a large amount without buying the company. + +I’m curious to see what others think of CrownCrafts. + +Market Cap: 76.987M +Price: ~7.70 +P/E: 10.92 +Div Yield: 4.01% +P/B: 1.91 +ROI: 15.70% +Debt to Equity: 0.16 + +They design, market, and distribute baby products, and their products are sold in Walmart, Target, Amazon. It’s got a good dividend, great P/E ratio, low debt, and a solid ROI. Am I missing something? What do y’all think? +Through the value investing journey we all make mistakes, let's share, so we can learn. + +My rookie mistake was to buy FKWL, I bought at first place just by looking the metrics but without reading the 10k. After reading the 10k (I read it when the price was going down) I realized that their major client was Verizon and it was difficult to replace. And also they have a commodity product (5g routers) easy to replace. After their product had function mistakes their stock when down more than 50% and never recovered. They still can't solve the issue. I had to sale with a big lost, since I bought a big position. I learned I have to read in detail several years 10k and analyze other competitors and also the sector before I rush into an investment. What experiences you have? +I've been researching heavily over the last few days. The most interesting plays I have found (using a very very conservative margin of safety) are the following: + +* HEAR +* KOF +* KL +* KGC +* SBS +* KEP +* PFE +* CVS + +I'm curious if anyone has encountered any of these listings during their own research. If you are interested in dividend plays, I think KOF and PFE are especially interesting with annual dividend yields (as of today) greater than 4%. + +Attached is a link to a screenshot of some of my research regarding intrinsic values (low and high) using different (mainly DCF) methods and projections. It also lists the current price and distance the current price is (as a %) from both the low end intrinsic value and high end intrinsic value. Please let me know if you have any feedback on the securities. + +[https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-0/p403x403/172601491\_861728824685158\_771044153449882751\_n.png?\_nc\_cat=101&ccb=1-3&\_nc\_sid=f79d6e&\_nc\_ohc=ZsO7O8LMgsQAX-DKrKz&\_nc\_ad=z-m&\_nc\_cid=0&\_nc\_ht=scontent.xx&\_nc\_tp=30&oh=d5545a91a1587e3881d55e6717e1943b&oe=6099301F](https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-0/p403x403/172601491_861728824685158_771044153449882751_n.png?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=f79d6e&_nc_ohc=ZsO7O8LMgsQAX-DKrKz&_nc_ad=z-m&_nc_cid=0&_nc_ht=scontent.xx&_nc_tp=30&oh=d5545a91a1587e3881d55e6717e1943b&oe=6099301F) + +&#x200B; +Example: Treasury bills yield 3.2%, so that is my risk free rate. I have a hurdle rate of 15% - because this is relatively high, there is only one stock in my portfolio that cleared this. Since then it has run up and the expected yield is closer to 8%. + +I haven’t been able to find any other companies since then that are undervalued relative to my hurdle rate. I was thinking of parking cash in Microsoft, as I anticipate a safe 6% long term yield which is higher than t-bills. However, if there is a drawdown in the market there may be new buying opportunities that clear my hurdle rate, but I will have lost money on Microsoft (assuming it goes down with the market). T-bills would have preserved my buying power. + +Would anyone talk through how they view this problem - in particular, do you lower your hurdle rate if you can’t find good opportunities, or do you stick to t-bills in the meantime? +I posted some of this yesterday and didn't get much traction in daily questions of [r/investing](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/). Today I meant to post it here and accidentally post it in [r/investing](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/). (facepalm) I thought about deleting it, but what the hell, I'm going to cross-post and see the disparity in the comments. + +tldr, I'm having a crisis of confidence in buy-and-hold index investing strategy + +**Backstory:** + +I'm 38 and live in the USA. I'm employed, and I make the median national income. I want to accrue wealth over the long term. I don't know that I have an accurate understanding of my risk tolerance. I think generally I am very cautious. Before yesterday I was about 70% equities, 15 bonds, 15 cash. I just sold off a lot of my stock. I'm waiting for the account to settle to see my new allocation, but I'm certainly under 50% stocks at this time. I have no debts. + +I have been a buy & hold index fund investor for the 20 years of my adult life. It always sort of bothered me that I didn't understand the underlying mechanisms of the markets I was investing in. At some point in the last decade I learned about the Schiller p/e index and thought "hmm, this doesn't seem good..." I read *Random Walk,* and I think I understood most of it. + +**The Bug Out:** + +Recently, I heard a Grantham interview and read some Hussman, and their gloomy prognostication really struck a chord with my natural inclination towards pessimism. They say current prices are unthethered from the underlying assets and and that this is true across all sectors of the market. My friends and the forums are full people throwing money at speculative investments (currency, SPAC, etc). My elders are telling me to blindly invest in an index fund and forget about it, because 'historic returns, don't miss the market's big days, it worked for them, etc.' + +My armchair diagnosis is that there are a lot of people like me that are blindly investing in broad index funds that could care less about the underlying value of the assets as long as the price keeps going up. I suspect at some time in the future we'll look back and see that index funds were a craze like any other and laugh at the certainly we currently feel that these assets will return 6-8% on average until the end of time. Looking at you Vanguard (who recently told me that a 'normal asset allocation' was 90-95% stocks...hmm). I also think we'll look back and see that the last trick the boomers played on us was propping up their asset valuations with Fed policy and leaving us to hold the bag. + +Worst of all, it doesn't seem like anyone I speak these concerns to (friends, family, investment advisors) is really taking them seriously or even hearing them. Am I turning into a flat-earther? Is the king wearing any clothes? + +**What Now?** + +I've been told you shouldn't try to time the market, and I've read the explainers about how I'm likely to mistime by selling below the peak, buying before the trough, and missing out on gains while out of the market. Frankly, I'm at a point where I don't believe in the market at all. Is not believing in the market at all the same as timing it? + +I've heard that market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. I've also read that by definition there is never greater certainty in the market than the day before the bubble pops. + +I'm not sure I can just put all of my money in an index fund and sleep at night. I have the following questions. Have some of you had a bug-out like I'm having now and that led you to value investing? Do you still believe in index funds in this current market? The knowledge requirements to be a value investor seem much higher than for an index-fund investor. It's crazy intimidating. Do I just start reading your investment bibles and leave my money on the sidelines until I understand how make investment decisions in individual companies? + +tldr2; I am questioning the fundamentals of my buy-and-hold index fund approach to investing. What the hell do I do? + +EDIT: typos and clarifications. +I’ve been looking for value in small and micro cap stocks after reading Joel Greenblatt’s “The BIG SECRET for the Small Investor.” Spoiler: the secret is that small investors can find value more easily in small and micro cap stocks because they’re too small for large investors to spend time analyzing since they can’t invest a large amount without buying the company. + +I’m curious to see what others think of CrownCrafts. + +Market Cap: 76.987M +Price: ~7.70 +P/E: 10.92 +Div Yield: 4.01% +P/B: 1.91 +ROI: 15.70% +Debt to Equity: 0.16 + +They design, market, and distribute baby products, and their products are sold in Walmart, Target, Amazon. It’s got a good dividend, great P/E ratio, low debt, and a solid ROI. Am I missing something? What do y’all think? +Do you have some process that you go through when analyzing a new stock? Or how do you make decision to buy a stock? Do you always take very similar steps? What are they? + +I remember reading about Buffet when he worked for Graham. They had some sheets they were filling in with numbers for each company and were making buying decisions based on that. + +From what I saw many people do a DCF for the stock to estimate value. This takes a bit of a time. Do you always do a DCF, do you you do something else as well? I read that you can do earnings \* (8.5 + 2 \* growth rate) to estimate value. + +Many people also read the annual reports / letters to investors, but I would start with that once numbers look good, right? + +Also how does a stock get to you? Do you go through some list of all stocks, or do you get some stock ideas from somewhere, like this forum? +Sup, + +I’ve been looking at NextEra for a year now. + +I’ve written a pretty extensive study about its operations and have made decent money trading it last year. + +However, I exited the position last December. + +I revisited the investment to see what was going on with it and saw some facts that I just can’t wrap my head around. + +Can someone that knows the energy industry (preferable renewables) explain the logic of NEE valuation. + +Is the multiple at an absurd level simply because of the greener energy mix? + +I must be missing something because that can’t explain the premium of this magnitude. + +a Few Facts: + +Per Deloitte Study, EV EBITDA for: + +* Electricity: is around 6-8 +* Oil&Gas: is around 6-8 +* TSO: is around 10-12 + +Example for EV/EBITDA + +* Duke energy is 13 +* Chevron is 8 +* Exxon is 8 +* Brookfield RenewablePartners: 13 +* First Loar 14 + +Right, almost forgot,EV/EBITDA for NEE is \~ 20... +I compared the filing dates of the previous year with the ones of earnings whispers but they don’t match so they must get it some other way. + +I’d like to get this information in an automated fashion! + +Obviously the dates can be found on a companies IR website but parsing this page for thousands of companies is not a solution that can be implemented easily + +Thanks a lot! +I’ve heard many people talk about different valuation methods, but I’m only familiar with relative and DCF. What others do you use and is there a time when one is more appropriate than another? +The issue seems that its difficult to quantify yourself. Especially difficult because present investments may have an intended return that is many years down the line. +Also what is a good method for finding stocks hidden in the dirt? I’m trying to go through large lists of traded stocks from A to Z and it feels like a tremendous tedious task. +While doing fundamental analysis and looking into company's website and statements, they write very promising and luring stuff such as " we are leading manufacturers and thrusted brand for 20 over yrs " and stuff like that. + + +Pls someone help me how to not get lured by these statements and make a fairly rational decision. 🙂 +&#x200B; + +**Business Overview** + +ZipRecruiter is a Marketplace for both Job Seekers and Employers, to either find their next dream job or their next dream employee. ZipRecruiter acts as a matchmaker to fit job seekers into their new job. They utilize AI-driven Algorithms to further improve the matchmaking on their site. + +**Growth Engine** + +What allowed ZipRecruiter to grow their revenues this strongly over the last year and will underline further growth, is the current job market situation. In western countries birthrates are slowing down and people get older, thanks to advanced medicine. This leads to a shift in demographic, where more people leave the workforce, than enter it. Employers are desperately looking for new employees fitting their job requirements and here is where ZipRecruiter jumps in and helps them. The number of unemployed people per job opening is at an all time low, so there are a lot of Employers searching for qualified workers. + +The Job-Market is still mostly offline and only 6% of staffing is done online. So, there is still huge potential for market growth in the online staffing and I believe we will slowly transfer to more online solutions, like ZipRecruiter. + +**Financials** + +By the very nature of their business model, being a marketplace, ZipRecruiter has a Gross-Margin of up to 90%, which rivels some SAAS-Business. Revenues are growing steadily, and their YoY-growth was 77% from 2020 to 2021. In 2021 for most Quarters, they have been profitable and generated a positive net income. + +They are cashflow positive and have an operating cashflow-margin of \~20% for 2021. Which results in a Rule of 40 of 97% being above 100% for the last three quarters. At 3x Sales they seem to be relatively cheap for their strong growth and solid cash generating ability. + +Using a simple DCF-Model gives me a market cap of about 4 billion USD, making it quite cheap. This is under the circumstance, that they can keep growing strongly with over 20% for the next year and slowly decline year growth. This is in line with their own guidance for the next year. They have been hitting their guidance targets consistent over the last quarters, so this seems realistic to happen. + +**Chances** + +Expanding into new countries. They mostly operate in the US, but have operations in the UK, Israel, and Canada. Expanding into more western countries could allow them to keep their strong growth. + +The demographic isn’t changing, and employers will still have it hard, to find new employees on their own, since less enter the job market every year. + +**Risks** + +The Job market is cyclical. A recession will slow down the job market immensely and will hinder ZipRecruiter from growing. This is a real concern, especially with the war raging in the Ukraine and oil and gas imports uncertain, which western countries need to power their economies. + +Loss of Employers on their Marketplace + +Loss of Job Seeker on their marketplace, which will heavily hurt their network effects +Western Union currently has a $7 Billion market cap, yet it has been producing over a billion dollars in quarterly revenue with an average quarterly net income of $200 million. It’s currently trading at $17.30 per share, which is below its March 2020 levels during the pandemic. Despite putting up consistent earnings, and beating Q3 estimates, WU is down 20% since the beginning of September. This surprises me given how well they adapted to covid with customers mainly using the WU website and online. WU has also been experimenting with blockchain technology and believes that they easily compete and adapt with the rise of cryptocurrency. Not to mention, they give a beautiful 5% annual dividend. In conclusion, although there hasn’t been much growth, WU’s earnings have seemed to match it pre-pandemic numbers yet is trading at 40% less. I just wanted to ask around and see if I am missing anything before I buy some shares. +I am drawn to 30% net margins, 45% ROA, low net debt, 20% FCF margins, very low PE, P/FCF and EV/EBITDA. Share count is shrinking. + +I like diversification efforts away from pure dependence on their ugly clogs. Stock is down a lot YTD. Upside to Street and Value Line targets seems attractive. + +I worry about the world's consumers waking up tomorrow and saying "Damn, these things are ugly. What was I thinking ?'" I do worry a bit about non clog products distracting management or being less profitable than rheir base biz. + +I welcome your thoughts. Thanks. +I am drawn to 30% net margins, 45% ROA, low net debt, 20% FCF margins, very low PE, P/FCF and EV/EBITDA. Share count is shrinking. + +I like diversification efforts away from pure dependence on their ugly clogs. Stock is down a lot YTD. Upside to Street and Value Line targets seems attractive. + +I worry about the world's consumers waking up tomorrow and saying "Damn, these things are ugly. What was I thinking ?'" I do worry a bit about non clog products distracting management or being less profitable than rheir base biz. + +I welcome your thoughts. Thanks. +Moats. You all probably know them by now…But can you spot any hidden ones? + +Some companies have economies of scale, others utilize network effects while yet others have powerful brands and so on… + +Problem is that in the vast majority of cases it tends to be quite obvious, and all semi-monopolistic characteristics of that kind are usually widely recognized by investors (which is also why I don’t mention any specific companies here as I want to avoid discussions about the effectiveness of a well-known moat). + +The consequence is that while those companies that have these characteristics are truly great businesses, they do not necessarily translate into being an excellent investment. All the aforementioned competitive advantages are after all being reflected in the price of the stock. So shouldn’t we be looking for hidden moats instead? + +One moat that strikes me as kind of overlooked and rarely mentioned (at least I haven’t heard of it in this context) is something as plain and simple as consumer convenience (?) + +Whenever I ask someone why they keep buying the same phone each year, the answer is oftentimes identical. Something along the lines of ”*I know how it works and how to find my way around whilst using it*”. They do not really care about which product is the best one. Is this “laziness”-factor of our time-constrained lives being considered enough? + +Can you think of similar phenomena? Any unsung moat-types or maybe "traditional" ones in some sort of overlooked setting? Ultimately moats with water in them aren’t that interesting – we want to find those quicksand-moats in which competitors and analyst drown without even noticing it. +Hey everyone, + +I was thinking of getting into Visa as I see the recent significant drop in price as an opportunity. + +I was wandering what are your thoughts regarding the future of the company and If in your opinion now is a good time to buy at the current price. +If not, I’ll gladly make one and add anyone who wants to be there. I don’t have any friends that are obsessed with money like I am, so I find myself on this sub more and more. +I have been considering Allstate for quite some time. They have shown insane stability over the past decade. + +First looking at their ROE, there has been one year where it was negative in 2008. Apart from that, they have shown good values for ROE between 5-20%. The payout ratio has been hovering around 18% on average but is around 12% currently. This is higher than a desired 10-12% but is slowly approaching the more ideal values. The recent growth in ROE is attributable to the increasing net income. + +Their profit margin is widening over time, and they have kept an attractive D/E over time. They have had a slow growth in revenue over the past 15 years. + +I could go on but most people here can interpret financial statements fairly well from what I have seen. They are not necessarily a growth company and the market does not perceive them as one as reflected in their consistently low P/E. But because they are trading below their intrinsic value (as per their DCF model) and their inherent and relative stability, I believe that they are a true value company. + +It would be nice to get some second opinions on this matter! +Hey friends! + +I run a growing online platform for DIY stock traders and am launching a new partnered tool that helps value investors discover new stocks based on strategy, factors, and even your favourite legendary investors like Warren Buffett and Ben Graham. Looking for some people to beta test the tool. Anyone interested? + +[**Click here to create beta test account**](https://www.hashtaginvesting.com/beta-access) + +**Plain text:** [**https://www.hashtaginvesting.com/beta-access**](https://www.hashtaginvesting.com/beta-access) + +​ + +Thanks and let me know what you think :) +[https://youtu.be/qZD9prqipFc](https://youtu.be/qZD9prqipFc) + +Third Point/Dan Loeb have recently purchased a stake in Intel & very shortly after issued a letter to Intel's Chairman, asking them to explore Strategic Alternatives to their business operations. + +The stake is reported to be worth around $1bn, which would make it their Largest Equity Holding and 10% of the Third Point Portfolio. + +In the Video I analyse Why he may of bought Intel and Create a DCF Valuation to see if Intel is Undervalued! + +Let me know what you think. +Not sure if this discussion happened before, but I am currently thinking about shifting my portfolio quite a bit. + +Next to 33% stocks (mainly SPY), 25% of my portfolio is in local real estate. I consider selling that since it only returns about 3% and ist just a pain to deal with. + +I get so frustrated sometimes that I wake up thinking of just selling everything, putting it in SPY and forgetting about it for 10 years. + +However, since I am already heavily invested in SPY, I am considering the fact that the real estate seems to be a good hedge against a lot of stuff that is happening right now. + +Are REIT's/Dividend focused ETF's closer to real estate or closer to the SPY? + +I've found a bunch of REIT's that return the same I get with my real estate in dividends with zero effort and even less taxes, plus the added volatility. What are your thoughts on swapping real estate for broad REIT's/Dividend ETF's? Or just yank everything I don't need for a living into something like SPY? + + +I've been offered a new job and have 17 unused annual leave days left. I've got a 3 month notice period and due to lockdown could easily not take any annual leave until I start my new role. + +My new company has said I can start early if I want and my current employer has informed me I will be paid for any unused annual leave. + +I currently earn 39k in my current role and will earn 45k in my new role. + +What's better from a tax point of view? Getting a larger final paycheck from my current role (17 days worth) or starting my new job 3 weeks early and having a crossover?. + +I'm not too sure about the tax ect.. + +Thanks in advance. :) +Just downloaded the WealthSimple Trade app and before dropping some funds in and going to town I thought it would be interesting to see what existing client experiences were like. + +&#x200B; + +How can we maximize our experiences with WealthSimple Trade? Where does it excel compared to TD or Qtrade? What use cases does it handle better than other services? What is your strategy in using the service? +Ive been thinking, with all thats going on in Ukraine do you think nuclear energy could gain renewed interest? Im thinking maybe countries may see it as a viable alterative in the long term to replace russian oil/gaz...many ppl such as Bill Gates also advocate for nuclear energy to fight climate change. thoughts? +New investor here in my mid 20s with 40-45 years left until retirement. I currently started a growth portfolio with Wealthsimple with 90% Equity and 10% Fixed Income. I have a decent lump sum that I’m ready to invest though I’m wondering if it’s better to DCA my contributions to my TFSA at the cost of profits to minimize my risk in the current market? + +I realize that, historically, Lump Sum > DCA but does that still apply in today’s market? +I understood why they were trading at such a low p/e when bankruptcy was a real possibility, but now they've emerged from the proceedings, why is the stock price still so low relative to earnings? + +&#x200B; + +[https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/RET-A.V?p=RET-A.V&.tsrc=fin-srch](https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/RET-A.V?p=RET-A.V&.tsrc=fin-srch) +If you already have a job, do you trade as a supplement with the intention to supplement your sallary and keep working? + +If so, do you manage the stress of having to focus on work and trade positions simultaneously? + +Or is your motivation to one day become independent of a 9-5 job and/or start buisness when you have enough capital? + +And if you were to become able to quit you job and only trade, won't it eventually become boring and lonely? + +What are your reasons and/or long term motivations for trading? +California + +Millions of Californians will receive inflation relief checks, with married couples with children getting as much as $1,050. The payments, coming out of California's $97 billion budget surplus, are going out as direct deposits or debit cards, with the first payments going out as soon as October. + +Colorado + +State residents who have filed their 2021 return by June 30 will get a check for $750 by September 30, while joint filers will get $1,500. + +Filers who received an extension and filed by the Oct. 17 deadline will receive their refund by Jan. 31, 2023. + +&#x200B; + +For the full list: + +[https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/taxes/more-stimulus-checks-in-2022-these-states-are-sending-out-payments-in-august/](https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/taxes/more-stimulus-checks-in-2022-these-states-are-sending-out-payments-in-august/) +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. +BB's climb today hit $20 before slowing down and dropping back to $15, this is only natural when paper handed baka's sell off their positions for a measly profit. + +BlackBerry is only beginning its journey, and the fundamentals back this up. + +QNX Software - is already being tested out by automakers like Volvo, for use in their industrial vehicles. Where self driving tech is expensive for civilian cars, it could pay for itself when applied to truck convoys and public transport. + +IVY - linked in with BlackBerrys autonomous vehicle software, IVY is a way of collecting driver data to further help consumers even after buying their vehicle. Information on thing like acceleration and braking, safe lane merging etc; drivers that drive safely could be offered discounted insurance prices. This data is also highly promising to help with accident insurance claims proving what driver is to fault. + +Cylance + Cyber Sevices - basically SkyNet, proven to be extremely effective in the field, and constantly evolves to prevent threats before they strike. + +2021 5G Phone - Not talked about much, but a new BlackBerry mobile phone is slated for a late 2021 release. Only phone releasing with a physical keyboard, runs Android and boasts decent specs at a $500 price point. + +**-- TLDR --** + +**BB's price is no where near its potential value; and in a market based on prospective sales and market reach, its 3x under its deserved price.** + +Edit I - added in IVY potential. +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. +Due to the lack of seasonal workers (they can't travel here), farms need help with the upcoming harvests. + +A central scheme is being set up to try and get this organised. It was written about in Farmers Weekly magazine. The website is here: +[Farm harvest jobs](https://hopslaboursolutions.com/seasonal-work/) +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. +Guys, I have come up with a plan we can all follow and we will all be rich. + +First, we all make new Spotify accounts and do not upgrade to premium, so we will get ads. Then, we change the settings on our computers to never fall asleep while we leave Spotify running random music 24/7 (probably with headphones plugged in or just the sound muted). Since Spotify will be making a ton of money off of this, we buy calls before their next earnings report. As a bonus, we can stop running Spotify 24/7 and then buy puts for the next earnings report. There is literally no scenario where we don't make a ton of money. +Throwaway. + +Hello everyone I'll make this short. I recently moved in with a friend who's parents own a second home that they rent out. Housemate made a joke in passing before I moved in that they want a dog. I made it very clear that it would be a deal breaker for me and that I cannot live with a dog. My lease makes no mention of a dog. Lease started on the 15th, today housemate sends a picture of the Dog saying that they got it and that they want to talk with me about it. How fucked am I, is this a large enough change to living conditions that I can get out of the lease? +[What I learned from losing $200 million](https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-i-learned-from-losing-200-million) + +A professional derivatives trader lost over $200 million during the ‘08 financial crisis. This is his story. + +Edit: tl;dr He insured 2/3 of Mexico’s oil for Mexico. It didn’t go well. + +“What I didn’t say was that that fraction was two-thirds: two-thirds of the world’s sixth largest oil exporter’s product, 220 million barrels, or around $17 billion worth, enough to fill 100 supertankers and then some. That meant I had to sell a lot of fuel. More, as I quickly and painfully found out, than the market could bear.” + +Edit 2: via u/ballgobbler96 +“TL;DR didn’t include that he negotiated a new deal that recouped those losses for his bank, while Mexico still ended up with a profit from the whole situation. All worked out in the end. + +Can’t believe I actually read it, markets closed make me gay enough to spend time reading other shit” +Studies show passive investing in low cost index funds beats active investing far more often than not. Add in the fact the most of this subreddit likely are not professionals and the number of winners surely drops even lower. So why not just go into some low cost index fund? I can see the appeal in the fun of the game, is that all it is? +# 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* +I have been tracking house prices since the start of the year. An obvious question for today - How does COVID-19 affect our House Prices? + +One way to answer this is to look at how vendors are changing their listing prices. You can see a general downwards trend across suburbs, with the occasional property dropping 10% of their listing price within only a few weeks - At least for prices in my area (Melb Inner North). This data is all online and interesting what your take is on Property Price Changes: [https://pricedata.properties/pricechanges](https://pricedata.properties/pricechanges) +I try to look past the anecdotal evidence or alarmist headlines that are often shared on this forum and I look for sources of information that provide a more accurate reflection of economic health. + +With that said Bendigo Bank has provided a trading update this morning which is suggesting that things aren't as bad for mortgage holders as is often spruiked on this forum. + +"Credit expenses positively contributed with arrears rates remaining at low levels across all portfolios. Greater than 90 days residential arrears for the month of November 2022 of 41 basis points were down 8 basis points as compared to 30 June 2022." + +I've said not long ago that I was in a credit-related APRA meeting a few weeks ago and while I can't provide details of the discussions, the sentiment mirrored Bendigo's trading update. The sentiment is that things are fine for now, but expectations is for things to get worse (noting there is only one way to move from record low arrears and default rates). + +Also interesting to note that BEN'S outlook is for a terminal cash rate of 3.5%-4%. My personal view is that it'll be closer to 3.5% or lower but I'm just an armchair economist so what I think has little meaning. + +Edit: fat-fingered typo +They put an Ad on realestate/domain. But sometimes they don't tell the price range so you don't know the if your budget fits. Sometimes no floor plan so you don't know how much light you can get. Most of the cases they don't let you know the strata. + +Why would they do this? Don't they want to save both parties troubles of phone calls/meaningless inspections? +### UNITED STATES + +* **Futures** are indicating some relief at the opening bell with the S&P, NASDAQ, and DOW all up slightly   +* **Trump** said he would intervene in the criminal case against **Huawei's** CFO if it would help get a better trade deal with China +* The *NFIB Business Outlook for General Business Conditions* fell to its lowest level since the morning of Trumps election  +* The *NFIB Compensation Plans Index* rose to its highest level in twenty years, a sign of rising pay +* Analysts are reeling back their Q4 and 2019 **earnings forecasts**   + +### OTHER + +* **Theresa May** could be fired tonight. A confidence vote is being held - if she gets less than half of the votes, she gon' +* The European Parliament is expected to ratify the **EU-Japan Economic Partnership** Agreement - one of the world’s largest trade deals + * Japan would ditch duties on 90% of EU exports. The EU would drop its levies of 10% on Japanese cars to zero + +### CHINA + +* China was responsible for the **Marriott** **data** **breach** that collected personal details of 500 million guests + * The Chinese intelligence-gathering effort that also hacked health insurers and the security clearance files of millions more Americans +* **Car sales** have been falling rapidly over the past few months, tumbling 18% in November  +* China agreed to **reduce tariffs** on U.S. autos to 15% from 40% during a phone call with U.S. officials +Ethics aside, are there any effective strategies to manipulate income, by purposefully depressing it in certain years to take advantage of tax benefits or perhaps even welfare type programs? + +For example, if I withdrew a full year of income on Dec. 31, I could have no/limited income the following year. This could make me eligible for welfare programs, this could allow my kids to be eligible for more college financial aid, etc. + +My assumption is that opportunity cost of taking a years salary out of the market a year early would outweigh the benefits. Curious if there's been any research around this. +>Promotion of client software which attempts to alter the Bitcoin protocol without overwhelming consensus is not permitted. + +Is this really necessary? Is this good for bitcoin? + +There are many interesting and spirited discussions of bitcoin that are censored here because they fall under this definition. This might not be obvious to many readers. + +>Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. + +IMO /r/bitcoin does not operate in the same spirit, and that the censorship exercised here is detrimental for bitcoin in general. +I just started a new job at a fintech company and I'm required to disclose all my financial holdings. The recruiter asked me "So what cryptos do you have BTC, ETH, LTC" and I had to say "no, All my crypto is in Dogecoin" + + +edit: for all those doubting Doge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=000al7ru3ms +I'm 36yo and plan to semi-retire at 40ish -- my wife and I will work ~1/4 time and ramp down until we fully retire at 65yo. I'm just starting to realize how lonely it may be. Literally no one else I know has similar plans. While there are many stay at home wives in the area that my wife can hang out with, I know of zero young dads at home. Our kids will be in school and while I love spending time with my wife, I'm thinking I'm really going to miss the friends at work. + +Do any of you FIRE'd folks have this issue? Friends your age all working while you're off? +I thought I may as well join in the fun! I'd like some feedback on my portfolio please. My time horizon is "this will hopefully be a down payment on a condo someday". Risk tolerance is moderate. Heavily invested in tech, because that's what I know, but am looking to expand into other sectors. + +This is all in my TFSA along with a little bit of cash. + +* AMD 4.18% +* ARTX 4.90% +* BAC 17.78% +* BNS.TO 1.18% +* BOX 3.94% +* CBS 3.22% +* CSCO 11.98% +* F 7.21% +* INTC 6.79% +* KAT.TO 7.06% +* MU 7.64% +* NVDA 15.67% +* SNE 8.03% +I’ve had my TFSA and RRSP maxed this year. I have been direct investing my TFSA through several ETFs, and have been doing well. +I have $20k savings sitting in a HISA, which is more than I need liquid. Not so high interest these days obviously, which has got me wondering if I should open a non registered account and invest some of it in there. + +I’ve done some reading on this off the Canadian Couch Potato, and learnt that if you invest in a nonregistered, you should keep it simple, stick to Canadian funds (so you don’t have to track USD conversions for every transaction). I was planning on putting a portion of this cash into a single Vanguard ETF. Canadian Couch Potato says that it’s easier to invest in mutual funds as they track adjusted cost base at the fund level, so they are less work bookkeeping-wise come tax season. Does this make mutual funds worth it, even considering the high management fees? I am a good saver and these savings would only keep growing, even after contributing into my TFSA next year. Because of my steady savings, I wouldn’t need this money for at least 2-5 years, probably longer. I would only perform a single transaction (unless I decided to continue contributing to this account over the years, then a single transaction per year in attempt to keep it simple). + +Any advice on this? Absolutely not worth it yet? I have been filing my own taxes myself, and I’m aware that it would be up to me to file this properly. +Hi guys, do you think holding ETFs like HEU ^(( BetaPro S&P TSX Capped Energy 2x Daily Bull )) or HSD ^(( BetaPro S&P 500 2x Daily Bear)) considered day trading? + + I bought HEU at 1.15 before the market close yesterday, woke up in the morning, it's sold at 1.8 when the market opens, made $2800 (57% profit). Now I'm worried. + +And it has 1.5% MER, but I didn't pay for any MER fee. How does MER fee work? Can someone pls explain this to me? + +I think the market is going down. wanna buy and hold HSD. Is this a legit strategy other than buying SPY puts? HSD went up to almost 700 in 2009 (12.88 right now), is this real? Can it really go that high in a recession? + +Thanks in advance +I know I know, XEQT and chill, but does anyone add XAW to decrease the CAD exposure a bit? I know a home turf tilt is good, but I'm bullish on the rest of the world enough to decrease the Canadian exposure a little. + +Anyone blend this way? I was thinking of adding XAW until my TSX exposure was down to like 15-20% instead of the current 24.25% in XEQT. I wouldn't care about rebalancing or anything complicated like you would when creating your own XEQT from holding the underlying themselves, I'd just buy both XAW and XEQT as I see fit. + +Happy Saturday y'all! +I'm a relatively new investor and was watching a youtube video last night which was a compilation of news clips from the day in the 2008 when the markets crashed. The crash happened so suddenly and quickly. It got me thinking about how I can protect my investments in the event of a sudden market crash like that one. + +I am invested mostly in ETFs. Should I be setting alerts for a 10% price drop and/or placing a sell limit order for a 10% drop? Do you guys do anything like this? +edit: **opinion** + +SOL has seen a huge pump and I'm happy for everyone that made good gains on SOL, however I think many people will get burned on SOL as it's still a pretty incomplete project + +&#x200B; + +* Unreasonable validator requirements(128GB ram, high end cpu, 100K SOL) - [https://docs.solana.com/running-validator/validator-reqs](https://docs.solana.com/running-validator/validator-reqs) +* Solana Foundation selling heaps of tokens below market price to VCs +* Insane bandwith requirements for nodes +* Low fees don't require much SOL to be used +* Slashing isn't done + +I'm not against Solana or anyone investing/holding SOL. I just personally think the project got hyped up now that ETH fees are ridiculously high. Thoughts? +I just wanted to give a gentle reminder to folks in the sub that are having a hard time getting by. I wanted to remind you that you will make it through, you will find a way, you will get by because you always have. You can do it, don’t give up! + +I was pretty down a few years ago and wanted to give up. I read a random post of encouragement and it was the tiny poke that I needed to get up and keep going! +People are referring to new chipsets, product lines, etc in order to explain the tremendous growth here. However, I've *never* seen "simple" events such as new product lines drive growth on this level except for extremely young, emerging industries. However, these companies have been around for years and years. + +For BOTH of these companies (which are essentially the only players) to each increase over 250% in a year, IMO, signifies a fundamental market shift, or arguably the GPU giants were severely undervalued. We would be shocked if Coke and Pepsi **both** doubled their stock prices without one cannabalizing the other's growth. Yet these two are both on fire. I think gaming and especially VR are huge drivers of growth, but gaming/computing has been around for a while and VR is not yet mature. Thoughts? +So my uncle recently approached me and asked me a favor. He wants me to help my cousin out by putting my name with hers for the mortgage of the house they just bought (850k house). + +I am not too familiar with anything related to real estate or housing. So my main concern is what does this mean for me exactly? I have no debt at the moment and a pretty decent credit score (720). What negative effects COULD I expect from helping her out with this? + +Note: She doesn't expect me to help pay her bills or anything like that, just wants my name on the papers. Which I have no idea why. + +Thanks in advance for any light you guys can shed on this issue! + +Edit: Typo in the title, ugh. no first "me". + +Edit: Thanks for all the responses! I did have a feeling it was a bit weird. Now I just gotta figure out the best way to say no. :t + +Edit #3: Thanks again guys. I get it! I'll let em know. I really don't understand why they're asking me either. I'm going back to school soon and won't even have income of any significance for the near future. All I got was a really vague "it'll help us take out more money so we can pay off some other bills.", which again I have no idea how that would even work. + +Edit #4: Just wondering, is there like an easy to understand website I can visit that explains mortgages and cosigning and all this stuff without giving me a headache? Mostly I'm just at the point where I guess I'm financially stable and independent enough that I often get requests to help out with stuff from the family and I don't want to get into something I'll regret. This scenario being one of the bigger "favors" I was asked. + +Results of phase 3 will be out by June 25th-July 9th as per the last conference call. + +https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/citius-pharmaceuticals-achieves-next-interim-analysis-milestone-in-its-mino-lok-phase-3-trial-301307760.html + + +FDA Fast Track with QIDP designation and patent protection until June 2024. Formulation patent protection until November 2036. + +Being the only player in the game. This has huge upside potential especially once they have the manufacture in place and the product is in production we should see massive amounts of cash flow. +Hypothesis: Historically the SP500 does not continue such a severe downtrend without have a brief pop of 3-10%. The number of down days and the depth of the drop (when compared to historical cases where the market has been in a bear market and received new, bad news) suggest that we are due for a brief respite. + +Thoughts? + +Possible actions to take: + +1. Go long some 0-5 DTE ITM calls on SPY. Pros: highly leveraged. Cons: lose everything if wrong. +2. Go long some 30-45 DTE ITM calls on SPY. Pros: less leveraged but longer horizon to be right. Cons: theta decay, risking more capital. +3. Go long 6 month - 1 year LEAP calls on SPY. +4. Strategy 1,2, or 3 but constructed as a calendar debit spread to reduce risk. +5. Sell 0-5DTE CSP on SPY way out of the money +6. Sell 30-45 DTE CSP on SPY way out of the money. +7. strategy 5 or 6 but constructed as calendar credit spreads to reduce risk. +Hi AusFinance,Like many of you here, I have some personal savings/investment goals for myself. It means I've had to make some personal sacrifices in order to keep to these plans (i.e. less dinners out, limiting impulse purchases - not giving up everything by any means). + +The issue is one of my friend circles loves a bit of the bougie lifestyle. Lots of long lunches, ticketed events etc. I do love that sort of thing occasionally, but dropping $500 in a weekend a few times a month is just not compatible with my goals. + +I've tried offering alternatives (walks or something a bit cheaper like coffees or ice-cream) but I end up feeling guilted into going or just not seeing these friends for a while. They're all lovely people I love hanging out with, but I just can't justify paying that much all the time - everything they do seems to . + +Part of the issue is I have a pretty comfortable wage so I "can" afford these types of events, but my future goals don't really fit this. I'm finding it hard to explain this. + +Is this just a natural development of friendships ebbing and flowing and life stages? Any advice from people who have been through something similar would be appreciated? How do you guys balance your social life and finance goals? +Based on u/Isthiswittyenough92's [earlier post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/kr98ym/gme_gang_we_need_to_complain_about_naked_short/), I just delivered a similar message via Tor/SecureDrop to several news agencies' tip line: The New York Times, WSJ, Financial Times, Reuters, Forbes, Bloomberg, and...BuzzFeed. + +I made it clear in the message that the SEC adopted the rules on naked short selling after the GFC of 2008, hopefully to get some journalist wet with click-baity anticipation, drawing a direct line of Wall Street incompetence from then to now. I'll either edit this post or create a new one if I get any replies back (depends on the reply). Will it makes a difference? I dunno, but I had to try. + +If we see any of these news sites posting something about this...you're welcome. + +Edit 1: no one has replied to my hot tips on illegal activity yet :/ +What's everyone's take on RIOT? Specifically being "tied" to BC? I've been getting in and out of RIOT shares nicely by watching the dips on bitcoin. On a whim I grabbed a RIOT 4/23 48 strike last week. I assume RIOT and other block chains will be hot next week . + +Anyone making similar plays? +The author creates a number of time series features based on the returns data and then applies a clasification model to predict the direction of tomorrows stock price. It would be interesting to hear your opinions on the strategy. + + [https://lf0.com/post/xgboost-time-series-classification-trading-strategy/xgboost-time-series-quant-trading-strategy/](https://lf0.com/post/xgboost-time-series-classification-trading-strategy/xgboost-time-series-quant-trading-strategy/) +Recently I've been studying binomial and trinomial tree option pricing with the goal of developing an open-source option valuation library in Rust. I'm still in my undergrad, but I have a solid background in both finance and computer science. In my research with binomial trees, it seems as though I should take a dynamic programming approach in order to maximize runtime efficiency. Thing is, I can't seem to find many clear examples in other languages. The best one so far has been [this](https://reindeereffect.github.io/2018/03/08/options-valuation/#dynamic-programming), but his variable names aren't very clear. If anyone recognizes the function `optval3(underlying, strike, t_exp, t=0, put=False)` and can explain what the `t_exp` and `t` inputs mean, along with the function overall, I'd really appreciate it. +I have had my fair share of attempts at making the ideal trading algorithm, but something relatively new to me is the volume on puts and calls, and making trades based on them. After a while I have witnessed this is an extremely profitable strategy. Now, implementing it on an algo and automatically daytrading high volume options might be a nice spot. I would love to hear your opinions and recommendations. +Reinforcement learning for trading has a problem with overfitting. A way around this is to give an agent many experiences that are close to the real thing without look-ahead bias, then training on various kinds of real data. Training 100s to 1000s of episodes in an event driven manner can become very slow. [I wrote a blog post about how I sped it up for my agents tests](https://medium.com/@kevinhill_96608/how-to-create-a-concurrent-and-parallel-stochastic-reinforcement-learning-environment-for-crypto-3756d78b7a8e?source=friends_link&sk=f1b3321cbee3f42004eee87285eae27a). + +&#x200B; + +https://i.redd.it/keg9yd0n4hd31.png +I want to create an automatic live market data collection service on aws using interactive brokers, I was wandering if you could direct me to a full guide on how to do it, I am quite new to IB and most guides assume some knowledge with IB gateway/IB controller/ IBAutomater . + +I have found dimitrys GREAT [guide](https://dimon.ca/how-to-setup-ibc-and-tws-on-headless-ubuntu-in-10-minutes/) however it seems like using dokcer would much more strait forward. Any recommendations of how to setup a IB gateway that a python app can interact with? preferably a production level guide. + +Even a full Guide that describes How to run IB automatically using docker would be (as once it runs normally on docker the aws part can be found on other resources), in particular the daily re-authentications concerns me. +My Father is going to pay the house in full (760k) by using the funds in his 401k account through some kind of process through "theentrustgroup(dot)com". They have 1 personal house, 2 rentals and this additional house they are planning on buying. Though this sub it has been embedded in me that a 401k should never be use to buy a house...especially all of it. + +&#x200B; + +Their reasoning: + +* No Mortgage and renting the vacation rental house will bring profit. +* 2 other rental properties is giving them profit +* vacation rental house will be my dad's source of income for retirement. +* My mom has a pension/SSS/ 401k (900k), she states that when retirement comes around, she will be recieving 7k monthly +* My dad has his SSS and the new rental house + +I tried explaining the possible worst case scenario of slow business..possible natural disasters.. but it did not convince them.. + +&#x200B; + +Can you guys give me some advice to convince my folks otherwise? + +Are they truly making a wise decision? +Hi all, hoping you can provide some insight. + +So my provisional understanding from this sub is that it is recommended to contribute "half your age" expressed as a percentage of salary. + +My employer pays in 7%, matches up to 3%, which I take full advantage of. Therefore, at the age of 20, 13% is being contributed (meaning that if my understanding is correct my contribution levels are considered "acceptable" until the age of 26). I could contribute more to make more use of my annual allowance, and will likely do so once my outgoings can be appropriately measured and I am sure that contributions for 35 years away (at the very earliest, I don't expect to be FIRE) will not impact short term needs. + +I'm imagining this is an old notion peddled pre Auto-Enrolment, where many would have been put in Stakeholders (where the employer has no contribution requirement). Thus, does the "half your age" account for employer contributions? Does it assume that contributions are being made under a net pay arrangement or relief at source (where my contributions would be grossed up to receive the benefit of 20% tax relief, instead of reducing the income tax on my take home pay?) + +It's a fully Defined Contribution arrangement (as are most Schemes outside of the public sector!) so I appreciate the important of investment growth over a long period of time; not to mention the onus played on the employee to ensure adequate provision through contributions. + +Where I have money left at the end of the month, it is spread between my Cash ISA and LISA (leaving enough to benefit from interest in my current account). I know a Cash ISA isn't preferable, but as I intend to move out in the not too distant future I don't want to tie up the bulk of my savings and suffer capital loss (assuming not enough time to recover from potential downturn). I am considering, however, opening a low-moderate risk S&S ISA so the money isn't entirely stagnant. I like to think i'm doing something right here, with some reference to the flowchart! + +The movie opens with a shot of a bustling Australian town, where we see our protagonist, a smooth-brained koala named Timmy, sitting on a tree branch looking dejected. We learn that Timmy's wife, a beautiful koala named Sarah, has left him for another male koala named Jack, who is slick and successful. + +Timmy is heartbroken and decides to do something drastic to win Sarah back. He turns to the stock market, seeking advice from his friend and local stockbroker, a wise old wallaby named Walter. Walter tells Timmy to "buy high and sell low" and "buy the dip," hoping that Timmy will take the advice as a joke and move on with his life. + +But Timmy is determined to succeed and follows Walter's advice to the letter. + +Timmy spends all of his savings on risky stocks. He becomes obsessed with the stock market, spending all of his time researching and analyzing the market. + +Feeling bold, Timmy challenges Jack to a bet: if Timmy can make more money in the stock market than Jack can in a month, then Sarah will leave Jack and return to Timmy. Jack, confident in his own financial prowess, accepts the challenge. + +The two rivals spend the next month locked in a fierce competition, each trying to outdo the other. In the end, Timmy emerges victorious, having made a fortune with a hot tip from ASX_BETS. + +Sarah, impressed by Timmy's determination and success, decides to leave Jack and return to Timmy + +Timmy and Sarah drive off into the sunset in Timmy's newly acquired Lamborghini, ready to start a new chapter in their lives together. + +The movie ends with Timmy waking up next to Sarah and checking his phone to see that he has lost it all on a speccy miner who mistook the gas readings for someone farting into the equipment. + +The End. + +John J Murphy’s TA as misconstrued by u/Phlanoe + +Post 5: ???? + +This post was going to continue as I have been, ploughing through JJ’s book and summarising as I go to cement it in my mind and share with others to assist with our trading/investing/gambling journey. However we are at a bit of a crossroads so I need your feedback. + +There have been a significant number of our valued brethren over the past little while who have had a rough run – whether at their own hand due to bad decisions or simple bad luck. Many have left us, either short-term or for good. Working on the frontline in the disability sector, I see the outcomes of adverse events in people’s mental health journey and it’s fucked. I don’t want any of my brothers, sisters, cousins, pets and others here to experience that. + +I wonder if some quick, practical advice from JJ on trading more effectively would be more valuable? + +I’ve done a shitload of reading this week and can clearly see that as this book goes on, it gets deeper and deeper into arcana that may be of little use to people – stuff like bullish pennants, flags etc, ad nauseum. Realistically, we’d be looking at around 15 more posts, many of which would cover things with very narrow practical application in our gambling. + +Having said all that, there are some pearls in there that cover the computer-based trading oscillators, indicators and strategies that we all have easy, free or cheap access to but just don’t know how to use or cannot yet recognise the value in. + +He also has a bit to say about trading strategies and systems one can develop to aid in a more mentally heathy experience by reducing stress and exposure to losses. Combining these with the fundamentals I’ve already covered COULD make the ride a bit more enjoyable. + +I can leave out all the stuff that doesn’t have a whole lot of application in day-to-day trading and focus on the things that will make a real difference to people right away. Getting a quick handle on the tools available to us in platforms like Tradingview have to potential to indicate far better entries, and more importantly, exits, so we can all get that bread. There is also very sage advice on setting up a routine so that you have rigid self-imposed rules on what to do when. E.g. take profit at a given percentage no matter what. + +Anyway, over to you lot. What do you say? 20/20 happy gains or test match? I am more than happy to pursue either. It all comes down to where people see the most value. + +And disclaimer: I don't profess to be any kind of expert, it's the same as before: learning stuff and sharing the interesting bits. +I don’t want you to tell you how to spend your money but as an IVZ bag holder, I really like this .125 - .135 entry point if you’re looking to pick up some shares. + +Seems to be finalising the complete white wash of purchases from that insto cap raise & options exercised. Those dumps at market have pushed the price right down once again after it rose to its ATH 2 weeks ago but we could be nearing completion. + +Seismic due within the next few weeks to further define recourses & drilling targets could be a very solid announcement for the share price. + +Edit, I think the opportunity might be gone now but if you can snag some at .135 that’s a solid pick up. +"Take your underpants off and put these on" - Let's just say it wasn't a typical Monday. I found myself in EMU "Emergency Medical Unit" at St Vinnies after rushing into the hospital with not one, but two 4mm calcium kidney stones. The pain was so great that morphine barely did anything at all - this is the stuff they administer on battlefields to the wound created when someone's limb has become suddenly semi autonomous. Lots of screaming later and I was ready for surgery to remove the beasts from my urinary tract. + +As I got my stylish surgery whites, I realised that NVX had announced a trading halt for...wait for it, a "strategic" capital raise. Strategic is what I put in front of anything work related to make it sound way more impressive than it actually is. Needless to say, I was now in a position on a Monday morning where: + +1. NVX would possibly make an announcement whilst I was under General Anaesthesia +2. The surgeons may or may not find both my kidney stones for removal +3. My private health may or may not fully cover the operation depending on their weak definition of pre-existing *(edit, they did not and thankfully Medicare jumped in to save the day, fuck private heath insurance in Australia)* + +Now that my wonderful capital gains tax dollars (or yours) have fully covered my procedure and I'm somewhat recovered at home, I can digest the announcement and make some wild and laughable speculative predictions about who NVX's strategic CR raise is going to be with. + +Before we go forth, some disclosure. *I hold 9539 or $28,800 worth of NVX stock. With my current average on NVX my capital gains if I were to sell today would be just north of $30K. I've held for over a year so I get them sweet sweet CGT discounts at this point too.* + +# "Strategic" CR Candidates: + +**Tesla:** + +Yeah let's get this one out the door first. Tesla has some bitter lemons when it comes to outright MnA's and Maxwell is just one example of that. They bought Maxwell, re-developed their dry battery electrode process for their 4860 cells and then promptly sold the company back to the market. They didn't want the company, just a patent for a technology they needed and Novonix has about a billion battery tech patents that Tesla want, along with their main man, Jeff Dahn. There's a bunch of links between the company which, I'm not going down the battery hole and holders have been burnt before dreaming up a link between Tesla and Novonix. + + **I'm giving this one a solid 2/10 probability**. In fact, I'll take a month's ban if Tesla is the strategic CR partner. + +&#x200B; + +**Voltswagen:** + +A cheeky name change joke that got the full blown ire of the SEC, for a company that lied about how clean it could be, they're certainly foraging ahead with plans for that sweet green tea future. My predictions around this revolve around the Chattanooga HQ of VW's US EV car efforts and of course, the HQ of Novonix and their Synthetic Graphite plant residing practically across the road from each other. VW had a nice little slide on their Power Day showcasing that they would be using Synthetic Graphite and oh, everyone wants a US battery supply chain partner so they can get some of Biden's EV moola. + +**I think this one has legs. Let's go for 5/10 probability.** + +&#x200B; + +**Sanyo/Panasonic or Samsung:** + +I guess this wouldn't surprise me seeing as Panasonic is doubling down on their battery investments and have an MOU for battery materials with Novonix. Samsung already have an order with Novonix so again, either of these 3 wouldn't surprise me in the least. + +**6.5/10 probability.** + +&#x200B; + +**Lucid Motors:** + +Andrew Liveris sits as the Chairman of the board of Directors on Lucid and he also sits on the board of another little known company. Novonix. Lucid have just gone public and they need some good ol' Murican battery supply chains and possibly a few battery patents too. The connection is there, or at least it's there in my head. + +**7/10 probability.** + +&#x200B; + +**Novonix** will likely open up tomorrow with some random partner we've never heard of and we'll all be scratching our heads as to why a company with $178m AUD cash at bank after doing a CR for $2.90 would....\*checks notes\* do another cap raise. + +If it's a major strategic partner as per above then great! If it's a random company that will help them accelerate production, also great but c'mon! Give us that household name hook up, we've all been waiting for it. +Last week in a daily thread somebody asked about this and I was able to give a solution – figure it’s worth its own post because I’m sure a heap on here could find it useful. + +Anyone using google finance functions to track their stocks in google sheets will know that they have the serious shortcoming of not giving stock prices to the third decimal – which isn’t much use to most in this community who trade exclusively in penny stocks. BUT it is possible to bypass google finance functions and instead create your own custom function that captures data from the ASX web pages and bring it into your workbook. + +The pages are these stripped back ones that exist for each stock (ixr for example): + +[https://www.asx.com.au/asx/1/share/ixr](https://www.asx.com.au/asx/1/share/ixr) + +To bring the data on this page into your sheet, you need to set up a custom function with Apps Script - go ‘Tools’ then ’Script Editor’. Create a new script file, then use this code: + +`function ASXLASTPRICE(asx_stock) {` + +`var tickervar = asx_stock.substring(asx_stock.indexOf(":")+1);` + +`var url = "`[`https://www.asx.com.au/asx/1/share/`](https://www.asx.com.au/asx/1/share/)`" +tickervar;` + +`var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);` + +`var content = response.getContentText();` + +`Logger.log(content);` + +`var json = JSON.parse(content);` + +`var last_price = json["last_price"];` + +`return last_price;` + +`}` + +Once saved, you can use this custom function in your workbook. Say I have **ASX:IXR** in cell A10. If in B10 I enter **=ASXLASTPRICE(A10)**, it will bring in whatever number is listed as last price on the ASX’s IXR web page, with all the glorious decimals. + +You can create different variations for whatever variable you want that’s listed on the webpage – just change last\_price to whatever you’re after (eg previous\_close\_price). +Hi PF, + +Long time lurker, first time poster. Please let me know if this is better suited for another sub, or if my flair is wrong. + +A few months ago, my wife and I had a healthy baby girl. My wife is a medical professional, and she had strong opinions about what she wanted the nurses in the hospital to do/not do. One of those things was to not take our baby to the nursery. I don't have an explanation here, but it's what my wife wanted, and we explicitly declined every time it was suggested. + +When we received our medical bills, we were charged \~$6000 for "nursery care" and after talking with the billing department and explaining that we had declined the nursery, we filed a dispute according to the hospital's policy. We were told that the charge could not be removed, because they had to reserve a spot for our baby in the nursery, even though we declined. + +Is there anything we can do to avoid this charge? It seems outrageous that we're being asked to pay such an obscene amount for what amounts to empty space. + +EDIT: Just want to say thanks to everyone that helped me out. People who worked in hospital billing commented on this and explained it properly. What is amounts to is the hospital billing department doing an absolutely terrible job of answering our questions. We're still going to talk to insurance because our OOP for a person is still less than $6k, but I do sincerely appreciate everyone's help and patience in answering questions from someone who has never faced these kinds of medical bills before. +Why has Bitcoin septupled in only half a year? Because if it works as promised, it's decentralized and free of the meddling of any government, especially our own government. Notice the financiers all hate it. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon called it a "fraud," and all of the media repeated it. Bitcoin's value skyrocketed after that. + +It's because the entire corporate media was unanimous about invading Iraq even though it was based on a lie. That can't be understated - the government knowing and willingly lied to everyone. It wasn't a "strategical blunder." Thousands of Americans died, millions of Iraqis dead, leaving it wide open to the worst extremist groups imaginable. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children are being born with defects because of the leftovers of our weapons. No prosecutions, no arrests, no one is punished, nothing changes. We're still at war with even more countries now, and we would be at war with more if not for the protests of citizens. + +It's because we now know that Saudi Arabia was involved in 9/11, and because the US govt flew out Saudi royalty right after the attacks, and because that country is our "ally" even though they finance Islamic terrorism and have horrendous human rights records. While we're having our own Crucible going on about sexual harassment, Saudi Arabia which treats woman like second class citizens is just okie dokie with us. + +http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/09/politics/house-9-11-sue-saudi-arabia/ + +It's because financial institutions and banks, who receive billions of taxpayer dollars from the Fed for free and then get to turn around and loan it out to people at interest before inflation has devalued one cent of it, while we are trillions in debt, who deliberately defrauded MILLIONS of hardworking people out of their pensions, got slapped with fines the equivalent of a traffic fine compared to how much money they make. No prosecutions, nothing happened, nothing changed, and now members of the government during that time are right back working for Wall Street as consultants. While savings accounts pay less than 1% annual return. + +It's because corporations who enjoy record profits have all the power pay hardly anything in taxes and stash all their profits overseas, while the life of the average working American gets shittier and shittier. + +It's because grads with student loans were preyed upon with high interest loans because the government let them, and because public university raised their tuition to extortionate higts because the government let them, and sold a bill of goods about how everyone needs a college education only to enter the worst job market in generations with debt so high just to get a B.A. you'd think they just finished medical school. and its one of the only if not the only types of debts that wont go away with declaring bankruptcy, interestingly enough. + +It's because while the GOP is trying to push through a tax bill that's going to cheat even more Americans out of their wealth, including teachers deducting classroom supplies that they have to buy themselves because public budgets already dont pay for it, all the "liberal" media can talk about is some BS conspiracy theory about Russia that is shown again and again to be [completely baseless](https://theintercept.com/2017/12/09/the-u-s-media-yesterday-suffered-its-most-humiliating-debacle-in-ages-now-refuses-all-transparency-over-what-happened/), and polls have shown that only 6% of Americans consider it a top priority, yet thats all you see on the news every single day. + +It's because our government of our so-called free country decided that they can decide what substances people can put in their bodies, and therefore created the largest gulag state known to man, where we imprison more people per capita than any other country in the world - more than China, more than Russia, more than North Korea - with 4.4% of the world's population we imprison 22% of the world's prisoners. Nearly one out of 100 Americans are behind bars at any given time. + +It's because the only politician in our lifetimes that actually seems like he gives a crap about people and not just money was betrayed, cheated and railroaded by our own "liberal" media and our own "liberal" political party, and those who supported him were bullied and manipulated and lied to and insulted and discredited, and are still are, and no one seems to care. + +It's because we're supposed to praise the gods for having been delivered crappy, byzantine and overpriced insurance, because even though we're the wealthiest country in the world, and even though the vast majority of voters want single-payer, both political parties have infinite numbers of reasons and excuses of why we can never have that. + +yeah...go bitcoin... +Im at a loss. Currently sat in the dark. My electric company will not help due to self isolation. Ive no money in my bank until next week. Whatever food i do have is defrosting and fridge is already going warm even when closed. +Let me preface that I do not want money, as I wouldn't feel comfortable taking someone's money that they have worked for and which they might need in the future. An user kindly transferred me some and I will return it with interest once my salary comes this month as I do not feel comfortable at all and if anything, I feel extremely guilty. + +I posted about my situation yesterday, both on here and on the BPSO subreddit (my ex has Bipolar type II) where I went into detail about the abuse that I endured during our relationship. Early last month, while he was on a trip to Birmingham with his brother, I packed what I could in a small cabin carrier, put my belongings into storage and escaped the relationship. As a consequence of the financial abuse I was subjected during our relationship, plus having to spend 4k on my temporary accommodation and my new lease and one month deposit, I have burnt through my savings. + +The problem now is the storage cost. I took an offer whereby I'd just have to pay a small deposit and then this month I'd have to pay the first two months of storage. The deposit was paid when I booked the storage, however come this month I do not have the means to pay. + +The storage has now charged me late fee cost of £120, as seen below (I have screen captured and cut my personal details) on top of the £74 for the two months of storage: + +https://i.imgur.com/CQCtENi.jpg + +I spoke with them by phone and email, and I explained my situation too but as I am two months late now + have the late charge fees, their process is to close my account to avoid charging me more. I asked if we could do a payment plan, but unfortunately they would not take it. The staff have been anything but lovely and I cannot fault them at all. + +The options that they have now given two options: + +a) They close my account, I need to collect my belongings and I pay them the overdue fee. This would mean having to look for alternative storage + +b) They close my account, but to reopen it and keep my things in storage they will need one month +one month deposit upfront + clearing all outstanding balances + +I am at a crossroads here because, either way it is going to be a lot of money to afford both. I have some jewellery I can pawn but I don't know if the value will be enough. I have liaised with my mental health team, but they can only do so much and despite being on storage company's records as a "vulnerable" person, they still need to follow processes. +I'm too smooth to understand and dig into this... but I wonder if this has anything to do with the Archegos fiasco and the positions that they're unable to close? Speculation: It would absolutely be a pity if the Archegos positions involved GME shorts that they're unable to close now. + +https://preview.redd.it/666u0zyqh0r91.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6528984203c5ba8459f959d2bcd845294d8fff9 +It's entrance into the agricultural and food sectors. + +When people think of farmers they usually think of migrant workers, hillbilly’s, dirt and the smell of manure. + +What is often overlooked is industrial-scale farming is very scientific, and very technological. Everything is measured out precisely. + +From the genetically modified seeds to the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used – today more than ever, advancements in technology are crucial to making sure the population can sustain itself. + +Technology is most apparent in the agricultural industry through controlled atmosphere cold storage and temperature controlled shipping. To ensure maximum freshness and longevity of fruits and vegetables, temperatures and relative humidity are kept at very specific levels depending on the crop being stored. The ethylene levels are also measured and in many cases artificially lowered or “sucked out”. Temperature monitoring systems have also been developed to ensure the cold-chain is being kept every step of the way. All of this allows temperature sensitive fruits and vegetables to travel across continents and oceans while maintaining their quality and freshness. Because of these breakthroughs and meticulous handling, consumers around the world can enjoy nearly any fruit or vegetable at any time of the year. + +VeChain is breaking into this industry, and dare I say have the potential be as big a breakthrough and emerging technology as cold-storage and cooling systems were? So how can VeChain impact the agricultural sector? + +Unlike a lot of other industries and sectors, the agricultural sector is one that has been waiting for blockchain to come to their aid for years. They welcome blockchain not with skepticism but with open arms and a welcome gift – a way for blockchain technology to prove itself in the real world. A world full of doubt and critics. + +One of the biggest problems in the agricultural supply chain is transparency. And blockchain solves this. + +1. Total visibility. With blockchain, every event that occurs in the supply chain can be a recorded transaction, chronologically logged and visible to every participant. Each timestamped transaction—from activity in the field to delivery at the store—is linked to a previous block and can be viewed or added to, but the data that’s already recorded cannot be changed. +2. Security. Blockchain uses cryptography that ensures records and transactions can’t be changed or counterfeited, so no party can cheat the system—there’s one source of truth. And, because blockchain is decentralized and distributed, with millions of personal computers holding the record blocks submitted by other users, it’s difficult for a hacker to take down or corrupt the system. +3. Traceability. Blockchain’s unshakable record of every transaction makes it a natural support system for food safety and traceability. This visibility to a commodity’s movement through all stages of processing and distribution can play an important role in preventing contaminated food from reaching consumers. +Blockchain creates universally transparent transactions, but what does that mean for fresh produce and the cold chain? With blockchain technology, all parties involved can see all events in the supply chain, from field to consumer. Consider, for example, the clarity, planning power, and product knowledge you’d have if you could see everything that has to do with the produce you need in your store. With blockchain, you could see which seed varieties were used, planting times and conditions, yield forecasts, harvest information, packing updates, and shipment details. + +VeChain will change the world. In the future people may or may not use crypto as a currency. They may or may not play Tron Dogs. They may or may not gamble on the blockchain. But what WILL happen, is implementation into the supply chain - in particular perishables and highly temperature sensitive commodities. + +The fact that VeChain is one of the few projects out there that have even bothered to tackle this issue is mindblowing, and at the same time a vote of confidence into their vision and knowledge. +I'm sure most of you have heard about what's been going on in crypto the last few days. If you haven't already, [here's how it went down](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2022/05/25/from-hero-to-zero-how-terra-was-toppled-in-cryptos-darkest-hour/?sh=685a29e389e2): Luna plummeted 100% after its stable coin depegged from $1. + +It appears that UST/LUNA was attacked, but how did this happen? Well… maybe if you hadn't declared to the world how to precisely implode your coin and told billionaires to "try it", then maybe this wouldn't have happened LOL. + +But here’s the interesting part… + +Immediately after LUNA's downfall, there was a [post](https://i.redd.it/f1rvti5wury81.jpg) claiming that Blackrock and Citadel had borrowed 100k BTC and exchanged 25k for UST which dried up most of its liquidity. After that, it's thought they threw the remaining 75k on the market, causing Luna to implode. + +This was a pure profit play if a short was opened at the top. Do Kwon (CEO) (probably) fell for the 25k BTC trade bait and accidentally was responsible for his currency's fate. Again this is just theory. +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.** +The one thing I haven't been able to get my head around with the weird "chain" system in the UK: what is the sequence of events when you're ready top buy your next home. Do you put your existing home on the market first, wait for an offer, and then start looking for your next property? Or do you do the house hunting first, make an offer on your next property, and then put your existing property on the market? Either way feels like a gamble, either you have to hope you find a great property in a short amount of time, or you have to hope you find a buyer in a short amount of time. How come bridge loans are not a thing in the UK property market? +What are this groups' thoughts on how Bay Area real estate will progress through this year and next year? Are you bullish or bearish? + +What signals are you getting from the market? + +(I'm considering buying a property in the near future) +I want to start buying investment properties. Ideally I’d put them under my LLC and not my name. Will I still be able to get a mortgage? If so, how much would they want down? I heard that a lot of banks won’t give a mortgage if it’s an LLC +So I’ve been doing a lot of research on real estate recently and all I see everywhere are people claiming that cash on cash returns are the best way to determine how good of a deal you’re getting. This makes zero sense to me. + +Say I have $20k and i’m looking to invest in something long term. I have the choice of stocks, real estate, art, fine wine, etc. The S&P500 historically has averaged 9.85% a year before inflation. That’s an incredibly passive investment and is known as the benchmark of investments. Why would I even consider any of the other options unless I expect them to beat that average return on my investment? + +CoC returns leaves out such a huge part of the deal that it doesn’t even make sense to compare it. I feel like as an investor the whole goal is to grow your net worth. If you’re looking to quit your job and only rely on this I understand why you’d want it liquid but there are so many people who only say they’ll buy a property if it cash flows $100/door or something and they’re working full jobs still. You could be above that and underperforming the market and also below it and outperforming the market. + +Idk maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places but I feel like most people saying that just wanna quit their jobs and have passive income (when it’s nowhere near passive). This seams like bad advice for people early in their real estate careers. As an investor I want to compound my gains and not touch them until I’m ready to retire. +If you take a look at long term appreciation rates on home they are about 3%. Long term inflation is also about 3%. + +Looking at Shillers housing index he estates houses real appreciation is positive but it is less than 1%. + +If we then factor that we may have to pay 2% per year in property taxes to own the property, on a real basis are homes depreciating assets? +My friend and I are purchasing 2 properties, one in each of our names with an FHA loan. We do want to own 50% of the others property but you can only have one FHA loan in your name at a time. What's the best way to have a side agreement so that we each own 50% of the others' property? I can't find a good template online for something like this. + +Any suggestions? Has anyone done this before? +Basically I’m realizing more and more that I don’t see a way for me to climb up the social mobility ladder enough to not be in survival mode and I don’t want to be struggling with kids. This pains me deeply. +I've been looking at Vanguard and iShares smart beta offerings and they all seem lackluster and with much higher MER. In most cases they failed to even match vanilla index ETFs. Has anyone found any exceptions? +Looking for people opinions if I should jump on buying some air canada stock with the coronavirus still rampaging. I under stand the recovery is going to be a long road but the profit could be good. +What's the play here & is it too late? + +I've held cenovus in that past & it was a disaster. Enbridge I hold indirectly but I'm dumb & don't know if they just distribute or also produce. + +Will LNG ships be sailing to Europe in the fall & how to get onboard with that? +I’m looking for a Canadian dividend index that has the following criteria: + +1. Decent enough dividend to draw an income from in retirement +2. It *must* increase payout every year by at least 3% to beat inflation - yes inflation is more than 2 now but this will eventually go back to normal +3. Preferably monthly payout +4. Should have a sustainable payout ratio + +Anyone with said index care to share the name? +I am wondering what the taxes are for Canadians. If someone has a good explanation or a website link that is helpful. A few questions: + +1. When investing in American stocks on American markets such as NYSE, do we Canadians have to pay a tax on the stock when we sell it? How is this calculated, does Questrade do it automatically ? + +2. On Canadian markets, are the taxes done automatically on Questrade? + +3. Do we need to claim anything when doing income tax in April, besides our Questrade report? + + +Thanks in advance, much appreciated! +So I have 600 shares of cineplex with an average price of 10.12 per share, I was leaning toward holding it for a bit longer but with the recent news of the deal with Cineworld falling apart I’m thinking the company won’t last and maybe I should be happy with my 900 dollar profit and get out now. + +My main question is, considering cineplex is basically the biggest chain in Canada, if they do declare bankruptcy what happens to the employees and the actual physical business? Surely Canada will need theatres right? Does bankruptcy just mean the stock gets wiped out but the physical business resumes as normal? + +Thanks for your time. +I currently have a good amount in savings and checking accounts. I have zero debt. I have a 401K at work, but there's not much in it yet. I opened a Roth IRA last year, but I've only contributed a little so far. I have no idea what I'm doing and need help on what to do and how I can invest some of my savings or checking. + +Should I hire a financial advisors? I really lack basic education on how to invest and what in. I feel I need a lot of guidance. I have no idea what's good or bad advice. +If this $4 range between 156-160 is their sweet spot how many sessions can they keep it pinned there? When will all those people with limit buys at 155 decide 156 or 157 are just as good of a deal and pull the trigger? What will happen on Wednesday when gme gets added to s&p 400? If you’re bored right now you’re not paying attention to the actual state of play. +Just wanted to shout-out some support for this exchange and see if others agree with me or not. (not sponsored in any way by Kraken 😁) + +I have read a lot of comments about them on this sub for some time now and not once have I heard something bad about them, that's crazy! + +For me Kraken since the start has been probably the only exchange that hasn't being involved in some kind of shady activity against its users, that has a working and active customer support, that doesn't indulge in questionable corporate policies, that doesn't rob you with fees and that I personally consider safe using, even in turbulent times like these. + +I think they make the standard of how CEXes should act in crypto space and without them this crypto sector would not be the one we know today, so again, thanks Kraken! +They brought him on to talk about Bitcoin and he just spent the entire time pumping BCash and trashing Bitcoin. It was cringeworthy. He's going to cost a lot of people a lot of money. Not sure why CNBC gets people like Ver or old codgers like economists who have no idea why this fancy new money has any value. + +How do we get Andreas on CNBC? Does anyone here know someone at CNBC? Does anyone know Brian Kelly? +There a lot of talk about Reddit severely restricting or eliminating NSFW content after they IPO to satisfy skittish investors and the religious right. We all know what happened after once mighty Tumblr banned adult content - their user base evaporated by almost 50% practically overnight and they are no longer a household name. Even bringing back limited amounts of adult content didn’t help them. + +If Reddit pulls the same stunt, how long so you think that it will take their stock to tumble and what way would be the best way to capitalize on it? + +Reddit was invented by young libertarian types but has slowly acquiesced to demands of the government and special interest groups. There is a long line of failed social media sires before Reddit came on the scene and Reddit’s technology could be easily replicated. + +I only see corporate board types and shareholders destroying the formula that makes Reddit special. + +Thoughts? +I recently ordered my free consumer report from LexisNexis (mainly to check on my auto insurance claim history information) and thought I would share the vast types of information the report contains. + +From the LexisNexis report itself: + +>LexisNexis Risk Solutions provides consumer reports to customers who have a permissible purpose to access your information. Our customers include companies in various industries, such as financial services, insurance, government and healthcare. +> +>Included with this letter, may be some, or all, of the following: +> +>Consumer statements that you requested be placed on your file; +> +>Alerts or flags indicating the existence of a security freeze, identity theft alert or security fraud alert that you requested; +> +>Data that is currently under dispute by you, with an indicator of the dispute; +> +>Information pertaining to the source of the data contained on the report; +> +>Identification of the entities whom have requested your information in the prior 12 months (or longer if requested for an employment eligibility purpose); +> +>6. Copies of actual reports ordered by and provided to companies with a permissible purpose to access your information, if any exist in our system; +> +>7. "How to Read" documentation, explaining information that may be contained In your file; and +> +>8. Applicable Federal and State Summary of Rights + +Things the report also contains: + +* Every name and address you have likely ever had +* Details of every place you have lived (address, type of place--apartment, house, etc, dates you lived there) +* Every phone number ever associated with you +* Education records (post-secondary school) +* Business you owned in whole or part, or businesses where your name was part of registration documents +* Boats you have owned +* Deed information for real estate owned +* Tax assessment records associated with real estate owned +* Home and auto insurance records +* Automobile insurance claims (also includes your C.L.U.E. report used by auto insurers) +* Motor Vehicle records, including a list of moving violations +* Credit inquiries (hard and soft) + +In short, there is a TON of information on you that LexisNexis has access to. Mine was 102 pages long. + +Included are directions on how to dispute any incorrect information, along with the ways in which your information is used. + +Go to [https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/request](https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/request) to request your free copy. They verify your identity and then send you a letter in the mail with a personalized link to download a copy of your report. As far as I know, there is no way to get a report online only (without getting the mailed letter). + +Hopefully, some of you here at PF will find this useful. + +ETA: Typos. Thanks for the awards! Glad this info was helpful. +I don't know about you, but I haven't bought pizza hut in about 10 years, and I don't know anyone who has. I am not saying they have zero sales, clearly they still have some buyers, but my general sense is this is a poorly performing business. + +Pizza Hut is currently owned by Allegra Capital, who are "mulling" an IPO, see [https://qsrmedia.com.au/legal/news/pizza-hut-australia-owners-mull-ipo-report](https://qsrmedia.com.au/legal/news/pizza-hut-australia-owners-mull-ipo-report) + +I would say it's likely they have already decided to IPO, the question is when. + +So far so good, a mediocre business, that would perhaps IPO for a mediocre price. + +However, over the past 6 months pizza hut have been running a series of dubious promotional offers, effectively giving away large volumes of free or half price pizza, a tactic which is generally considered self-defeating and economically pointless, e.g. + +[https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/625927](https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/625927) + +I am suspect this is a classic case of cooking the books. You redirect your marketing budget away from longer term brand building activity, e.g. stop running tv ads, and into short term, loss making promotional offers, which drives immediate sales growth, inflating that quarter's sales in an unsustainable way. + +This is pretty similar to what happened at Dick Smith prior to IPO, with stock dumped at lower than cost price to inflate sales, depleting inventory, but boosting their sales and apparent cashflow, and we all know how that turned out. + +I am not saying this is certainly what is happening with Pizza Hut, but I would suggest a great deal of caution if they do IPO and tout their great digital sales trajectory. +Up to 50 per cent of the stamp duty cost on homes valued up to $1 million will be waived. + +No sign of the bubble easing for houses in Vic. + +Given the government will tip $500m into property themselves, I'm sure they won't want their investment to decrease. + +Land transfer duty waiver + +Tax relief on stamp duty for residential property transactions of up to $1 million will also be provided. A waiver of 50% for new residential properties, and 25% for existing residential properties, will be available for purchases of up to $1 million for contracts entered into between the day after announcement and 30 June 2021. + + +https://www.budget.vic.gov.au/place-call-home-victorias-big-housing-build +**What is IEX ?** link below, by u/Rs_Spacers 🚀🚀🚀 + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mqb42g/i\_know\_a\_lot\_about\_iex\_let\_me\_explain\_to\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mqb42g/i_know_a_lot_about_iex_let_me_explain_to_you/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) + +&#x200B; + +**IEX seeking to overhaul and improve fairness... 🚀🚀🚀** + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mqtid5/new\_sec\_filing\_from\_iex\_seeking\_to\_overhaul\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mqtid5/new_sec_filing_from_iex_seeking_to_overhaul_and/) + +&#x200B; + +**How to IEX with TDA** Easy 2 steps **🚀🚀🚀** + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mw65tt/instructions\_on\_tda\_switching\_to\_iex\_investors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mw65tt/instructions_on_tda_switching_to_iex_investors/) + +&#x200B; + +**Fidelity, trying order through IEX** u/Tone-loc27 **🚀🚀🚀** + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/n0hgvs/fidelity\_order\_routing\_through\_iex/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/n0hgvs/fidelity_order_routing_through_iex/) + +&#x200B; + +**Fidelity users with no IEX, other choices** by u/lucioghosty **🚀🚀🚀** + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mq7l4h/fidelity\_users\_you\_can\_manually\_route\_your\_trades/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mq7l4h/fidelity_users_you_can_manually_route_your_trades/) + +&#x200B; + +**Use IEX, why this topic die,** link to more links u/dunkaroo55 **🚀🚀🚀** + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvpahp/read\_before\_buying\_more\_gme\_use\_iex\_to\_execute/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvpahp/read_before_buying_more_gme_use_iex_to_execute/) + +&#x200B; + +**🚀🦍🚀🦍🚀🦍🚀🦍🚀** + +Hey everyone, + +I have been in the US for 8 years. I come from a country where you work to make it through the day and there is not much retirement planning since savings is not doable. Coming to the US has been a culture shock and I have had to learn so much throughout the years. + +Although I don’t make a lot of money right now, in 2020 I want to work on my finances and planning for my future.I want to start making smarter choices and start working towards financial stability. + +I’m 32y/o. I have a stable job, I’ve been working there for about 4 years. Here is info about my current financial situation. I’m listing just my income. I’m married and we do split mortgage payment, and bills. We combine both our incomes, but I wanted to list just mine to see what I can adjust to prepare for the future. My wife has a lot more in her 401k since she’s from here. I only got a 401k since I started working at my current job. + +Annual Salary: $41,000 +401k: Current balance $5150 (contributing 2%) +Pension: I don’t know exactly how pension works, but on my paperwork it says that based on 3% annual increase at age 65 I should have $32,294. +Savings: $6000 and starting to put about $800 away per month. + +Debt: +Mortgage: $101,500 with a 4.65% interest for 30 years +Car loan $1500 balance. I’ll probably be done by sept 2020 + +I would like some feedback on what I should work on. I know I should contribute more on my 401k, but I don’t think I can increase it until next year. I was also thinking about paying extra $200 on my mortgage. My current principal and interest payment is about $544.99. According to Ramsey mortgage calculator, if I were to pay extra $200 a month I could be done paying my mortgage in 12 years. Should I do this or refinance my mortgage for a lower interest rate? (My credit score 780, my wife’s about 810) + +Any feedback is very appreciated! +I often hear that people can afford to lose money when they are young. People tend to invest in very high risk investments like individual stocks or crypto currency when they are young. This needs to stop. Money is far more valuable invested while you’re young than when you are old and you cannot afford to lose it. + +For example, every $1,000 saved and invested in a broad market index earning on average 7% a year over 40 years is $15,000. + +Every $1,000 invested when you’re older, compounding for only 10 years, results in only $2,000. + +Every dollar you invest in your twenties is far more valuable than what you invest later on in life and when you are young your investments should be diversified and “normal.” You can afford to take large risks later in life after compounding has worked its magic. + +Time for me to stop ranting. Just wanted to make sure people here have enough in retirement. +If one changes a job during mid of the year, and each company has 401(k) plan that allows mega backdoor contribution, can he or she have separate mega backdoor contribution for each of the companies? + +For example, in 2020, the limit is $57,000. The person has $19,500 pre-tax contribution, their company (company A) matches $7500, so they have $30,000 after-tax contribution, which is then rolled to a Roth IRA account via mega backdoor. + +Later, the person changes job to company B. They are not able to make any pre-tax contribution anymore (as they already reached the $19,500 limit in company A), but they are still able to contribute $57,000 after-tax contribution, which is then again rolled to the same or another Roth IRA account via mega backdoor. + +Is the mega backdoor contribution for company B allowed? +While I have been thinking about FIRE for sometimes, it's always been a someday type of goal. It's only in the last few months, with the combination of what's happening in my real life and discovering this subreddit, I have really sat down and putting together a concrete plan around FatFIRE. After much analysis and number crunching, I'm happy to say we are a year or two away from FIRE. Yeahh!! + +A little bit of about me, married with a husband and two kids in VHCOL area. Both hubby and I are in our mid forties. I'm an executive at a tech company making good income (1million+/year). Hubby is tinkering with startup, high risk so we are not counting on his income for FatFIRE. Kids are in elementary and middle school, a ways to go till they are in college. + +As I'm preparing of the FIRE, here are the list of preparation I'm thinking through, love to get feedback from others on what else we need to be thinking about. + +**1. Work transition: Full time -> part time -> FIRE** + +* a. Rather than retiring completely right away, my plan is to shift into part time work in a year time and do the part time for one year, and then FIRE completely. The reasons are several folds: + + * i. Test Run FIRE, during this part time year, I'm plan to put away all of our w-2 income and see if we can live off our passive income from our investments (index funds and real estate income) + + * ii. I have a large chunk of unvested RSU, part time would allow to capture some of these upsides. + + * iii. Going from a very high stress, high demand work to FIRE might be too drastic, using this year as a transitional year and ease my way into worklife. Getting more involved kids life and school. In addition, I have a lot of hobbies and interests (tennis, ballroom dancing, photography, travel) that have been taking a back seat all these years, I want to start picking them up and find communities around these hobbies during this transition year, so when I finally FIRE, it'll be a smooth transition. + + * iv. Lastly, in case this trial run doesn't work out either financially or personally, I can move back into a full time role. Very unlikely scenario, but I like to have options. + +* b. Question: I haven't seen others on this sub trying out this route, curious to hear if others have experience with full time to part time to FIRE transition. + +**2. Financial preparation** + +* a. Rebalance our investment portfolio and shift towards more dividends/interest generating investments + + * i. Pretty heavy on stocks (85%), and need to shift more into dividend generating index funds, bonds and treasury bills to cover the expenses. + + * ii. Question: The three funds portfolio is paying out 2% in dividends, how do other do the actual 3-4% withdraw? Are you drawing into your principles? + + * iii. Our investments are also spread over many accounts across multiple brokerage firms, need to consolidate for ease of management. + +* b. HELOC for primary and investment properties + + * i. As our earned income would reduce drastically, plan to get maximum HELOC for our primary and investment properties. This would give us flexibility down the line as I do plan to do more real estate investment once I have more time. + +* c. Continue to look for income generating real estate properties + + * i. I know many people on this subreddit don't like real estate, but in my experience, it's been a good investment tool and I have decent property managers to deal with day to day operations. + +* d. Fully fund kids 529 plan ($120k per kid) + + * i. I have been putting some money into kids 529, plan to contribute to $120k per kid. With the growth of the portfolio, while it may not cover the full expense of a four year private university, it'll be close enough. + +**3. Healthcare** +* We will be on cobra for as long as we can and then shift to Obamacare silver or gold package. + +**4. Life post fire** + +* Family and friends - spend a lot more time with them +* Health - with my job, fitness and health have definitely taken backseat, it’ll be a priority post fire. +* Hobbies I mentioned under bullet 1. +* Professional life: haven’t figured it out, after some time (don’t know how long), I’ll probably get bored and want to get involved in something in tech. Won’t be a operating role, I would consider advising role as a way to give back. + +Feels great to have an end in sight. Appreciate you taking the time to read my plan and suggestions are welcome! + + + + +I loved reading this quick article on John Urschel, a published Mathematician and 303 lb NFL guard. + +http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/post/_/id/20934/ravens-guard-john-urschel-is-living-big-in-a-tiny-car + +Received a $144K signing bonus when he was drafted and decided to buy a $9,000 Nissan Versa with 30,000 miles because it was a "good deal". + +Goes to show that no matter how successful you are, the right mindset on money, budgeting, and knowing where to spend your money that gives you the most enjoyment is what matters. + +P.S. there's a funny picture of his car next to this teammates in the article. +I just want to start by saying I know I am far more fortunate than others in my situation, so please don't think I'm not grateful. However, I have to say....this sucks! I'm not sure how, as a country (US), we have allowed this to continue for so long, but I feel like we have to be at a breaking point. Something has to give! + +I am currently on maternity leave (unpaid) for 4 months until I begin student teaching August-December (unpaid). And yet during student teaching I need to pay for daycare ($1200 per month) and hope to all hell I get a decent job in January because student loans ($800 per month) are about to become due. I also have a $7,000 bill from the hospital from giving birth that we're on a payment plan for and this is WITH good insurance. + +We have the savings to cover daycare for the 6 months, my husband has a pretty good job with benefits, and we moved in with his parents to pay $500 per month in rent (in an area with $1500+ for 1BR). We did all this so I could have ANY maternity leave and fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher. However, I just can't help but think that we're doing both us and our child(ren?) a disservice by not moving to another country. I'm not sure of all the intricacies of universal healthcare/preschool/college, but it's mind boggling that in the wealthiest country on the planet, we are having such a tough time figuring it out. + +My husband and I have taken a pretty substantial financial hit this year...and for what?! For me graduating from college? For us having a child? For me wanting to be a teacher? For him choosing to manage a nonprofit, when he would probably be able to make more money at another job? I feel like we're living our lives the same way people in other countries do...and yet I have a mountain of debt, while they're able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. + +I'm frustrated. + +The End. + +Thanks for reading my rant... :) +Here is a link to my Due Diligence sheet where I keep all my notes. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XQlAGIDPjDoQNHtzEWGdbO9i8MUkc4lZFKYLTZzMpYU/edit?usp=sharing + +Civic Summary Review: +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_F0O-LdYo +Civic Due Digilence over 4 hours long: +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36JTsX9ScEI + +LiveEdu Summary Review (ICO just ended) +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bjEcjs8LI +LiveEDU Due digilence: (Combined with ECC due digilence so about 2 hours long) +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428vBSzet_s + +TheKey: Summary Review +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_yN6m-IhEY +TheKey Due Digilience over 3 Hours Long +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MloFP5NIwV4 + +Aigang: Summary Review +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRmbIGX5jeM +Aigang Due Digilance about 3 hours long +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aols494RpLU + +Po.et (POE) Summary Review: +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqxRB7idMoQ +About 6 hours long!!! Long because I started to review Neo then decided to hold off for now. +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6rRnPHD9bQ + +Feel free to comment on my Due Digilence sheet. + 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! +I’ve lost so much money caring I think it’s time to do the opposite. So many times I sell at a loss cus “I care” to stop the bleeding but f that cus literally every time it comes back up. I’m all in now. F the fud and my impulsive emotions. +Is there a day of the week that trends best for a weekly DCA auto purchase? I’ve had heard that Friday is best because bad economic news is usually put out before the end of the day Friday’s and the markets react negatively sparking good times to buy. How do you have your auto buys setup for DCA? +Hello, "Apes". it is I...also....ape. Yes, ape. Here to bless you with lots of rocket emojis and bananas as I am clearly one of you. Or something. We still say on fleek, right? I mean, I totally know, but I'm not sure if you, too, are...you know, fellow ape.... + +&#x200B; + +Hmm, it seems as though my emoji keyboard has been replaced with a regular Boomer keyboard. This makes fellow ape very angry, and I will certainly go out in seek of a real keyboard after this, ape honor. + +&#x200B; + +Anyhow, I've seen an enormous amount of confusion from the, you know, "non-apes", about what $CLNE's contract with $AMZN is. So this will all be review to you because you guys CLEARLY are savvy and intelligent investors who don't get led by the nose by bots, but for the non-apes, this will be good information. So let's talk about it: + +&#x200B; + +# What's the deal: + +&#x200B; + +In late April, $CLNE entered into an agreement with $AMZN to provide their carbon-negative RNG fuel to $AMZN trucks nationwide. This deal called for $CLNE to construct an additional 19 Clean Energy fueling stations in addition to the 27 stations $CLNE had astutely built right next to $AMZN's warehouse as part of the long game to get out of the friend zone with them. In exchange for this consideration, $AMZN will be buying a fleet of RNG capable vehicles and purchasing, at a minimum to complete the arrangement, over 200 million gallons of RNG as part of their goal to become carbon neutral by 2025 - and as the most green fuel in the world, RNG represents a big chunk of being able to fudge some carbon footprint in other areas by overcompensating in fuel. To make this deal attractive to Bezos, ape-in-training Andrew Littlefair worked a deal to issue up to 53,141,755 shares of $CLNE stock via warrants at a cost basis of $13.49, to be executed at various gates over the next 10 years. That represents about 27% of the company. But you smart and intellectual apes already knew that. I mean, obviously. + +&#x200B; + +The first 13,283,445 shares are fully vested upon the execution of the agreement and an affirmative vote by the shareholders, many of which are you apes because you were so smart as to buy $CLNE without having to be beaten over the head with picking a decent company for once. That happened today. The remaining 39,858,310 are only able to be executed by Amazon if they buy fuel - a lot of it. Half a billion dollars of it by today's value, which most people estimate will be worth 1.5 billion over the next 10 years as prices rise. Again, you smart apes already knew this and know that, with a present market cap of only 2.23 billion dollars, this 1.5 billion represents almost the entire value of the company as it sits today. I don't know why I keep telling you things you clearly already know. It must be because I am not a smart ape like you. Amazon, of course, only signed this deal because they figure that 13.49 they'll pay per share is a bargain compared to what the company will be worth as they stepdaughter swap $CLNE out to all their buddies for corporate porn. + +&#x200B; + +# Now, the part the less intelligent "non-apes" don't seem to grasp, but the most important part: + +&#x200B; + +Less discussed is the fact that $AMZN, under terms of the deal, will never be permitted to own more than 5% of the company at any given point. If they ever go over, they've got to give up some shares of the company. This is the most important part of that entire deal, and it's the part most people don't seem to understand or one they disregard as irrelevant. Basically, no more situations like CLNE is in with $TOT right now where that company owned 20% of $CLNE at one-fucking-penny per share, and has been fucking the stock price for almost 2 months as they de-leveraged with their 800 baggers. Obviously, $AMZN is going to want more than the $13.49 a share they're paying, which means it's in their best interests to see to it that $CLNE is worth as much as possible. Which very likely means buying more fuel than required as well as "gently nudging" their distribution partners to go RNG, as well. And by gently nudging, obviously I mean "waterboarding until they comply". You're already starting to see some of the results of this, with a deal being worked out between $UPS and $CLNE, completely of their own free will of course, to partner up for RNG contracts. + +&#x200B; + +# Why does any of this matter? + +&#x200B; + +Again, all you apes that are clearly more smart than me, "fellow ape", but clearly not as clever as the ape collective, you know this, but it's this: If $AMZN's "win" in this deal is acquisition of diluted shares which they will not be able to actually keep, then in order for $AMZN to "win", they have to be able to sell those shares for more than $13.49 as they keep at their 5% ownership ceiling. The floor on $CLNE's price should not be 13.49 because that's what $AMZN is paying, that's wrong, and everybody who's been saying that has had it backwards. The floor should be 13.49 because that's what $AMZN's cost basis for compulsory SELLING is. And I guarantee you $AMZN didn't agree to pay $13.49 a share on top of 3-something a gallon for cow farts to break even or lose money. Confusing, I know. I mean, my 6 year old would probably figure it out if she had an extra chromosome, but I failed as a genetic donor and she only has the standard 46. + +&#x200B; + +So there the "non apes" have it, because I know all you real apes not only already had this figured out, but definitely didn't get suckered into buying $WOOF because a botnet told you to today or paperhanded shares in $CLNE when it dipped 10 cents rather than shooting straight up during the investor meeting after all the non-apes got distracted and FOMO'd into some losses and started creating confusion about what this $AMZN deal actually was by displaying they didn't understand it. Damn non-apes, am I right, um...fellow...ape? + +&#x200B; + +TL:DR: Bezos is smart ape. And you are clearly smart ape. Smart apes hang out with each other. This is just like being Bezos. Except better than Bezos, because you smart apes can keep buying more shares. Poor Jeff can't. Jeff's not as wise an ape as a WSB ape. + +&#x200B; + +Fear and Loathing, + +&#x200B; + +\-CD +This is a followup to the following post and related topic: +> https://np.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/on7xpv/national_emergency_by_monday_cant_close_loans/ + +I wanted to know the scope of the ransomware attack on the nation's largest regulated industry cloud provider which is preventing any transactions in entire sectors of the economy. You can read their own report here: https://www.mycloudstar.com/ + + +*** + + +####**What is Cloudstar? Well boy howdy we're fucked because this affects the general Financial Services industry and publicly traded companies:** +(from the about page) + +> At Cloudstar, we believe first and foremost in the principle of partnership. We seek clients with an active, passionate, and vested interest in taking their organizations to the next level by partnering with Cloudstar for our people, process, technology and infrastructure. + +> If your company is in the Real Estate, Land Title, Legal, Insurance, Financial Services, Petrochemical or Oil & Gas industries, our team of experts would like to learn more about your organization and how Cloudstar can help. + +> Every service Cloudstar offers is designed to increase your organization’s productivity, up-time, business continuity, reliability, cyber-security, and profitability. + +> Cloudstar started in 2009 as Cloudstar Consulting Corporation and was created to meet the unique needs of the land title industry. As the company grew from a consulting and IT infrastructure design firm, Cloudstar Consulting Corporation re-branded as simply “Cloudstar”, a DBA of the newly formed holdings company, Keystone Management Group, LLC. In 2014, Cloudstar purchased a 50% interest in U.S. Telecommunications firm, Teletonix Communications in addition to adding Diologix, an electronic medical records encryption company and Notary Transfer to its portfolio of brands. As of 2017, Cloudstar has expanded to provide services to the entirety of the United States, Canada and Mexico with offices in three states and privately held infrastructure co-located at five U.S data centers. In 2019, Cloudstar added Mortgage Phish and CloudBunny to the it’s list of holdings. + +> **Today, Cloudstar services the needs of tens of thousands of end users from small firms to publicly traded companies.** + +&nbsp; + +*** + + +###**This is just too ironic to be a coincidence, we really do live in a simulation:** https://np.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/on9wgs/cloudstar_posted_this_on_thursday_on_friday_they/ +**Charts** + +[Financial Overview "Dashboard", with 2017 stats and Pretty Charts](https://i.imgur.com/IQC8LTL.png) + +[Additional Charts](https://i.imgur.com/Jhh51ku.png) + +I'm really proud of my financial tracking spreadsheet and its pretty charts, but can't really show them to anyone IRL so this sub is my only outlet. Let me know if there are any questions for my inner excel junkie to answer! + +EDIT: Download link to a scrubbed version of the spreadsheet [in the comments](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/7nglui/2017_yearend_review_and_pretty_charts/ds1q1j3/). + +---- + +**Major 2017 Events** + +* Completed 2nd full year at MegaCorp, received in-line promotion +* Completed 2 semesters of grad school +* Found girlfriend, going on 9 months now +* Travelled for 2 weddings, 1 funeral, 2 holidays, 3 fun friend visits, the solar eclipse, and a week-long sailing trip in the Caribbean with some friends +* Win: Got top-tier performance rating for this work year (feels good man!) +* Win: Great year for investments, with a +24% internal rate of return +* Win: Grad school scholarship renewed for the 2017-2018 school year +* Win: Maxed both 401k and IRA for the first time +* Loss: Gained about 15 pounds, currently 10 pounds over healthy weight and 20 over goal weight +* Loss: Investment contributions decreased by $600 even with $7k increase in income +* Loss: Low grades (B/B-) in the spring semester, killing chances of adding a *magna* in front of *cum laude* when I graduate. Fall semester went well thankfully. + +**Goals for 2018** + +* Keep doing well at MegaCorp, with an eye at a diagonal move or change in companies in early 2019 +* Complete last semester of grad school and graduate with honors in May +* Purchase used car (looking to spend ~$7k) +* Use said car to do a lot more hiking, camping, and skiing +* Move out of apartment in August to somewhere closer to work and with a garage or hard-floor room that I can turn into a workshop. Going to either move in with girlfriend of find another roommate +* Get back to goal weight +* Cut back on bars / drinking +* Contribute at least $30k to investments (down from current year to account for car purchase) + +---- + +**Financial Retrospective** + +Overall 2017 was an incredible, full year in my life. Total spending was about $38.5k (up from 2016 $33.0k), and total saving was $34.4k (down slightly from 2016 $35.0k). Where spending categories were higher than last year, they were tied to girlfriend activities (restaurants, uber/lyft, gifts), hobbies that I think will pay dividends down the road, some really fun trips (airfare), and starting to give to charity (~1% of income which is still low IMO). I feel like I have been going at full pace, and feel very fortunate to be living such a full life. This next year I think I will try pare down the long distance travel and use my weekends to do a lot more day trips to explore the local outdoors, which should help with both spending and personal health. + +I am incredibly grateful that I found this community, since having these long term financial goals has really forced me to focus my spending and consumption habits to the areas where I actually find pleasure. It would have been easy to spend loosely without that framework. To a prosperous 2018! +Greetings fellow apes, + +https://preview.redd.it/wrslj8pybo981.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=3485e8bb1b8323cb22141df953cf0a648663d90c + +*TL;DR: Wall street has broken the law and their own rules multiple times without so much as a slap on the wrist. There is no reason for them to stop breaking the law, so there's no reason for them to keep fucking up the market just to prevent moass from happening. Should it happen, the government is most likely to do what they've always done in the past: bail them out and give the apes a token prize for their efforts and tell them to fuck off.* + +This is part speculation part fact, not sure what to flair it as. The first part is fact, the second part is speculation based on previous actions taken in previous market crashes. Take it as you will. + +I've expressed this view in a different thread but since the whole sub keeps asking about "Counter-DD" maybe the sub is ready to hear me out for once without downvoting me into oblivion? + +For reference, I am a XX ape trying really hard to get my shares DRSed, but I have to take the eToro sell-buy route due to being europoor + +https://preview.redd.it/hsndln0cco981.png?width=483&format=png&auto=webp&s=693d60d637acd592f0d7af80fd23b58546cc2fde + +What we've learned over the past year is that Wall Street has zero problem breaking their own rules and not facing any consequences, so far we've had: + +* We thought we had them with the Jan squeeze. They turned off the buy button and shorted it back down. +* Then we thought we had them with a class-action lawsuit against robing hood because they literally participated in market manipulation. It got thrown out. +* Then we thought we had them with a vote-count for the board elections. Yet that got suppressed somehow. +* Then the DTCC FCC SEC and other acronyms started making all sorts of margin rules and stuff which looked like things were going in the right way. But then the rules don't look like they get enforced so nothing changed. +* Then the SEC said "we'll make a report!" And nothing came of it. +* Then some other American department (DOJ?) Said they are looking into naked shorting and that's been quiet since. +* Now its coming to light that "naked shorting" itself is 100% illegal (again). Nothing is being done + +This clearly shows that the rules don't apply. They are just there to fool the masses into thinking there is some sort of structure and order but clearly there's no such thing. + +\---------- WARNING, SPECULATION PAST THIS POINT ---------- + +So let's fast forward into the future. MOASS starts, doesn't matter how, and the price starts climbing. Apes hold fast, nobody is selling, because we've seen in the past that nobody is interested in selling and with all the DRSed shares it's pretty much a guarantee. Turning off the buy button will stop buying pressure, but it doesn't fix the underlying problem of being unable to close shorts. + +Trading halts are the new norm, the economy (US and potentially world) is on the brink of collapse, the government is loosing its bananas, what do? Well what have they done in the past to fix a total economic annihilation? Bail out Wall St of course! So here's the conversation + +GOV: "Fine, we'll buy back all the fake shares to reset the GameStop madness" + +APES: "$69,420,420 per share silver plates". + +GOV: "Ah u wot fam?" + +APES: "No, for real, I'm sick of your BS, my ma' is in the hospital and we can't afford the bills, my da' is working 14 hours a day, nana's got cancer, as soon as the student loan vacation is over i'll have to default, I need this money to get out of poverty!" + +GOV: "Thoughts and prayers, don't worry we goch you" + +And the following announcement is made + +"In the interest of protecting every individual from financial ruin and saving this great nation, proving our strength as the best, freest, most fair country in the world, we will be bailing out all GameStop shareholders! A unfortunate technical flaw in our system has cause there to be MANY MANY more GameStop shares in circulation than there exists. This isn't anybody's fault, but it is a consequence for which the government will bare responsibility. As such every GameStop shareholder will receive xxx dollars per each share owned through their broker, tax-free. This will unlock all of them to meet their financial commitments going forward and liberate them from their burdens. Secondly, we will be dissolving all existing GameStop shares direct registered or held at the DTCC and we'll direct GameStop Company to hold a new initial public offering in order to re-integrate them into the market" + +Past this point, there's really only two things that can happen:- People get pissed and actually set fire to a gov building- People take what's offered because they are desperate / greedy and system churns over like nothing happened + +I'm happy to debate this and have constructive counter-arguments, but only if they are logical and civil. + +EDIT: Knew it lol + +https://preview.redd.it/upp4e5kyko981.png?width=325&format=png&auto=webp&s=e83e2db3409de9926ceadce0560bbb3b0065e9cb + +EDIT 2: To all those who have engaged into constructive conversation, thank you, it's been cool. I want to summarise the general counterpoints from the comments. + +- *There are other HFs that are long (Like BlackRock) that wouldn't want to loose out on profits so they wouldn't be happy if governments intervene* - The problem with this argument is that if gov would erase everything they'd stand to make billions of dollars from the government payout and would keep the shitty system alive that benefits them greatly, so I don't see them opposing this outcome. + +- *The govt won't intervene because it would ruin international trust in the system* - And the system collapsing all together from naked shorting and it cannibalizing itself wouldn't cause the same thing? If you're not into GME, which is the vast majority of the investors, especially international ones, you'd actually want the government to intervene and not make all of your investments go belly up. So that theory doesn't work + +- *They can't erase my DRS'ed shares because they are MY shares and are MY property and I own them* - I take it authority has never seized anything off of you or invaded your privacy. Just ask yourself why the minorities in the US are so pissed off. Your property means nothing if you lack any ability to defend it and these shares, DRSed or not, are stored electronically. Why do you think so many fear keeping their money in the bank? It's their money no? Well yes, but actually, no. + +- *It's not just GME that's in this situation, thus it's unfeasible to have every single "meme stock" redo their IPO just to fix naked shorting* - This is a solid argument. Depending on how widespread the problem is and how much of it is surfaced in the case of a collapse, it may be unfeasible to actually do a bail-out, so that's a pretty good argument which I don't know how to counter. +I do have a question though.. + +1) where is the $30 worth of Bitcoin (0.00058) for each citizen coming from? Is the government really going to open a wallet for every citizen and deposit that much into each account? + +2) In other words... is this opt-in.. or opt-out, for citizens of El Salvador? + +3) Have they already purchased the coin or are we going to see a MASSIVE in-flow of buy orders tomorrow? + +4) How are they giving citizens the keys to their wallets? + +I'm just scratching my head over the logistics here... + +\----------- + +Population of El Salvador: 6.45 million + +Price of one bitcoin: $51,700 + +Each resident gets: 0.00058 btc + +Total number of Bitcoin needed: 3,741 + +Cost of that much Bitcoin: $193 million +Nov 5 (Reuters) - + +Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Saturday posted a third-quarter loss, as falling stock investments and a big loss from Hurricane Ian offset improvement in many of its industrial businesses. Berkshire also took advantage of declining equity markets to buy more stocks, purchasing a net $3.7 billion in the quarter and building a now 20.9% stake in Occidental Petroleum Corp. It also repurchased $1.05 billion of its own stock. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate nonetheless said it still sees "significant disruptions" in supply chains, while rising inflation hurt results at two of its best-known businesses, the BNSF railroad and Geico auto insurer. + +Berkshire posted a quarterly net loss of $2.69 billion, or $1,832 per Class A share, compared with a profit of $10.34 billion, or $6,882 per share, a year earlier. + +Operating profit rose 20% to $7.76 billion, or about $5,294 per Class A share, from $6.47 billion, or about $4,331 per share, a year earlier. + +Results were bolstered by the strengthening U.S. dollar, which added $858 million to the value of Berkshire's non-dollar denominated debt, and higher revenue from energy, manufacturing and building products businesses. That helped offset a $2.7 billion after-tax loss from Ian, a strong Category 4 hurricane that slammed into Florida on Sept. 28, causing damages estimated by insurance modelers and executives that could far exceed $50 billion. Profit at BNSF fell 6% as expenses jumped by one-third, including an 80% surge in fuel costs. Geico, meanwhile, suffered its fifth straight quarterly underwriting loss, reflecting "significant cost inflation" from damages claims, used car prices and shortages of car parts. Net results included $10.45 billion of losses from investments and derivatives, as the stock prices of many large Berkshire investments fell. Accounting rules require Berkshire to report the changes even if it buys and sells nothing. This causes large quarterly swings in results that Buffett says are usually meaningless. +I've made a post about it before but I have to keep making posts until this is put in to the public. There needs to be an audit of tether. They claim to back up each USDT with USD. Who here actually thinks tether has 1.6 billion of USD lying around backing their claims on the exchanges? There is nothing at all backing their claims. People are playing a game of hot potato and just hoping that when Tether crashes that it's not them that's caught holding it last. Tether needs to release a public audit. +https://medium.com/@wokesalaryman/all-the-things-i-had-to-do-to-save-100-000-before-i-turned-30-cfd21a0006d2?fbclid=IwAR2_cll9QMOZgEE5QyTL2jrlVvadEpBsE3LZakbZzzLF1WprB7qlev12lq0 +I know there's many, many different fields of automation, so I'm trying to get a foothold on where to begin researching what companies to invest in during the rise of our machine overlords. + +What are your long-term investments in the world of automation? + +Bonus points if you've got a good automation centric index fund +[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/restaurants-rebel-against-delivery-apps-cities-crack-down-fees-n1211456](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/restaurants-rebel-against-delivery-apps-cities-crack-down-fees-n1211456) + +&#x200B; + +Also relevant: [https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/gm28ln/the\_meal\_delivery\_service\_business\_model\_doesnt/](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/gm28ln/the_meal_delivery_service_business_model_doesnt/) + +&#x200B; + +Personally I think that all these services are too expensive, and calling restaurants and picking up is the most cost-effective for consumers (EDIT: and for restaurants). I don't think all the food delivery services will last for too long. + +&#x200B; + +EDIT: People are not reading the article and just saying "Well, it works for me". The point of the articles is that the fees are too high for the restaurants. To add a third party (the apps) make this an unsustainable business model. +A book is being published in the middle of the story. Tries to dictate it’s already over. We should boycott / ignore + +A non-ape author is publishing a book on the GME saga. I feel it’s completely the wrong time to publish a book as we’re not even at the end of the story. + +As a pre-superstonk ape, it just feels like this guy is trying to cash in on a story (already optioned by MGM for a movie) to create the facade as if we won already. + +The truth is this story isn’t over. It may be far from over (though latest DD shows we’re closer than ever). + +I think we should all boycott and disavow any book or story until post-MOASS. +Inflation has been high, the dollar has been devalued, and asset prices have soared. This is reasonable to me. + +Further inflation should not result in a market crash...but rather higher asset prices. + +Inflation is being be combatted by raising interest rates. Sure, this will stagnate economic growth, but it is very unlikely to lead to deflation (and I don't think anyone is talking about this). Even after all of the rate hikes, the currency depreciation is still present, and asset prices should still be worth more than pre-inflation asset prices. + +So what exactly is the problem here? Am I missing a piece of the puzzle? +Does bullish sentiment on social media give you confidence? Maybe it shouldn't + +https://np.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7jle54/be_careful_out_there/ + +https://np.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets/comments/7jla1s/be_careful_out_there/ + +This was posted at $16,500. 4 days later bitcoin's price would spike to its final peak and crypto winter began. It wouldn't see a price of $16,500 again for 3 years. I'd like to highlight the bullishness, confidence, and even hostility of some of the replies. This encapsulates the mania phase perfectly. Keep in mind your biases and don't trade on emotion. FOMO is well known but there is also [optimism bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias) which was paraphrased in The Big Short as "people tend to underestimate the chances of bad things happening". Don't be caught having to catch a falling knife. + + +> be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful + +-Warren Buffett + + +This is the [market bubble cycle](https://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2018/1/23/48558512-15167626365862508_origin.png) that was referenced. It describes very generally what a bubble looks like and what factors are part of it. A market bubble describes short term price increase and then a significant correction. It is not saying crypto will fail or will not continue to go up in the long term. + +As the chart and past bull runs have shown, there are certain participants and driving forces of a bubble that may help you identify when you're in one. Media attention? Check. Public enthusiasm of course follows. I'm sure we all have people talking to us about crypto who never have before (or only during a bubble). One of the replies in 2017 was "We are in the Awareness phase. Grandma Betty just learned what Bitcoin was last week." Grandma Betty is NOT the awareness phase and that is not a bullish signal. As the saying goes "[When even shoeshine boys are giving you stock tips, it’s time to sell](https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/when_even_shoeshine_boys_are_giving_you_stock_tips_its_time_to_sell_joseph)" + +Now for the greed and delusion, I see lots of new, dumb money pouring in every time, often with celebrities leading them with market manipulation. It happened in 2017 with ICOs led by celebs and low-cap, low unit-price coins led by McAfee. It's happening again with elon and meme coins. This new money is the weak hands who throw their money at trash and are easily panicked, so people try to manipulate them into holding. Most of these people are not strong supporters who will weather a multi-year bear market. + +You also see the same patterns in crypto. Bitcoin leads the market in gains first, then it's dominance drops as ETH catches up and alt season begins. Alt season includes every alt, including scams and dead projects, mooning. The gains attract more and more new money until it runs out and momentum stops. Once alts even plateau too much, let alone drop, weak hands panic and flee the market and things begin crashing + +Other signals leading up to the peak historically: + +* Crypto social media engagement goes parabolic +* Crypto search engine activity hits new ATH +* Exchanges hit the top of the app store +* FUD ramps up (environmentalism currently, which is valid in my view) +* Scams increase exponentially to prey on the new investors + + +So are we at the peak? I don't know, but we've got every ingredient for a correction. It could go up another 50k before the correction or we could already be on the way down. Be aware of your emotions, bias, and tax responsibilities. Be careful and don't be afraid to take profits. It's not anti-crypto to sell high and buy more when it's low +Ten automakers accounting for more than half of U.S. auto sales have committed to make automatic emergency braking standard on new U.S. vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation announces. +The automakers are Audi (OTCPK:AUDVF), BMW (OTCPK:BAMXY), Ford (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM), Mazda (OTCPK:MZDAY), Mercedes Benz (OTCPK:DDAIF), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Toyota (NYSE:TM), Volkswagen (OTCQX:VLKAY) and Volvo (OTCPK:VOLVY). +The systems could prevent or mitigate 80% of the ~1.7M rear-end collisions that cause ~1,700 deaths and 500K injuries annually in the U.S., according to the National Transportation Safety Board. +Her departure isn't good news for Twitter investors. The firm has spent the past year-plus fighting the notion that it can't control its own narrative, a factor that some believe to be responsible for its slumping stock price. +It just seems rediculous to me that over half of the U.S. is on welfare and i do not believe them. i googled the statistics and they showed 4.1 percent for the year of 2012. + +Edit: thank you for all of the responses, i have learned a great deal on this subject. +Have been doing some updates to [apeboard.xyz](https://apeboard.xyz) today. + +Have added the breakdown by exchange, this should enable you to dig a bit into where trades are coming from. Guess what, 42% of trades today are from off exchange! + +Really, WTF only 9.94% is done on NYSE with 13.65% on Nasdaq. + +In the coming weeks I will add a chart once I have collected a decent chunk of data, which should show whether the venue that trades are being executed has an effect on price. + +https://preview.redd.it/sxnvnede6u671.png?width=904&format=png&auto=webp&s=1879c912e8a2cd5ba625d437a8b8bfd8fadd9d10 + +On another note, sorry for the downtime today, got called into the office and missed that the L2 provider had changed some of their endpoints. +I am a big skeptic on anyone who sells a mindset course and see it online a lot. Common trading psychology stuff I see for trading is meditation and journaling. But my problem has been mental blocks such as fear of failure and fear of losing money. Anyone have that struggle and got over that? + +I also have no clue on how to build my “trading psychology” any other actionable tips are greatly appreciated. +I just learned about the ZEBRA strategy (buy two 0.7 delta calls, sell one 0.5 delta call) and am confused about how it achieves stock replacement. I checked the profit/loss on the way up, and it’s very similar to buying 100 shares (1.0 delta). Yet, when adding up the deltas of the calls (0.7 + 0.7 - 0.5) I get 0.9 delta. + +Can someone more experienced than me explain how the ZEBRA achieves a 1.0 delta? + +For reference, I was looking at buying 2 $F 13C ($1.27) and selling 1 $F 14C ($0.68). +Just started trading options this year. Already thinking about taxes. +Do you guys try to do the taxes yourself? Or take them somewhere to get them done? +Doing mostly weekly cc/csp +2021 was my first year trading options (butterflies, calendars, verticals, etc.) Mostly traded SPX but there were a few RUT, SPY and GLD trades. The account isn't large (\~$12K) and the gain was on the order of $1k (but it appears there would be a fairly large loss if using mark-to-market rules). I believe I need to file form 6781 and possibly make a Section 1256 election. Looking for some general guidance and best-practices from those who have experience trading these and similar strategies. From what I've gathered, making a 1256 election should not be done lightly as it can have implications into the future and can be difficult to change. One specific question, do I need to make an election or, is it best to defer that decision to the future given that the dollar amounts I'm dealing with currently are relatively small? Some other possibly relevant facts: broker is TDA and I'm using TurboTax for tax prep. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance! + I have searched high and low and tried to create one myself but I'm just a dumb engineer and can't seem to find a good tracker/spreadsheet for monitoring positions I take on for the wheel. If someone can help me out I'll buy you a beer. +OK, let's say I have a covered call. If it's deep ITM the delta of the short call will be close to one. Further out strikes will have lower delta. If the underlying dips, I would expect the value of the short leg to decrease more than the value of a further out expiry. Same thing goes with strikes closer/further from the money. + +Would it be reasonable/possible to roll the short call out to a more distant/higher one then wait for a pump and roll it back, and expect a profit on each transaction (and maybe even raise my final strike in the bargain)? +If I understand this correctly, then the wheel is never buying options but always selling puts then calls until assignment. + +Assignment is, generally, to be avoided except for when it becomes unreasonable to roll the position or you just want to own the shares. + +Red days are best ones for selling puts; green days are the best ones for selling calls. + +Positions are to be closed early if 50-75% of the profit is gained within a quick turnaround. + +Here is where I get confused: + +Once I write “Call 1” on a green day, then reach profit targets and close it on a red day - do I wait for another green day to write “Call 2” or do I write “Call 2” within the same red day I closed “Call 1?” + +Also, what do you do if the underlying drops for weeks? + +Thanks for reading this long. I appreciate the time and any help. + +Edit: +There’s a lot of great comments that helped me change my outlook on how I’m running this strategy. Thanks again for all the help. +Got lucky with some WSB YOLO bets and made six figures earlier on in the year and after that, I've kept it simple and have just sold CSPs on airlines with my entire portfolio. My portfolio has enough capital to qualify for a portfolio margin account and after reading about it, man, it sounds very advantageous (5-6x leverage). + +I'd like to continue doing what I did, but with a little bit of more leverage (1.5-2), but I know the max leverage does vary on how risky your portfolio is and given that I'm just throwing it in one ticker, I'd be up there. But with the leverage, I'd be able to sell further OTM strikes, so decreasing risk and making a bit more capital. Right now I've been selling at .3 delta, but that could be decreased. I know with selling puts, you aren't charged any interest unless you get assigned, which is another benefit. +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. +Wheel strategy has you selling puts, then selling calls, then going back to selling puts, etc. + +Isnt this creating a ton of wash sales? I'm not sure I understand the tax consequence of this? + +I know if you are super strict with the wheel, you wont have losses, but I have a real life example. + +Bought XLF at 26.50... I sell weekly calls. Now that XLF dropped to ~$23, I've decided to lower the strike on my wheel. So if exersized, I will be at a loss. Then when I go to sell put, I create a wash sale? + +Two weeks ago I opened twelve 3350-3340 credit put spreads for 2.5, keeping in mind the ER date of 10/23. + +Meant to close or roll them out yesterday, missed because I broke a glass on the floor under the desk. Cleaned it fast to get back to it, apparently not well enough as I got a piece stuck in my foot and then the market closed. But I digress... + +Had a chance to close them for a decent profit - about 1.6 this morning. But then I saw the SPY block prints, the premarket activity, call:put ratios etc. Of course I ignored the postponing of ER and the negative talk about prime day and GEX. Thought I was smart and concluded this looks like a green day, so why lose out on $160*12, right? + +... Wrong. Well it was indeed green, until 11am, I reckon. Then sideways, then hell. +It just didn't make sense to me so I kept holding, even though I had another opportunity to close it at 2:55pm, which I skipped due to similar reasoning - seems like it's going up, power hour, pump before market close, hubris. + +Eventually ended up rolling them out before the final smackdown, when $AMZN was around $3300. Silver lining, I guess. + + +**TL;DR:** So to avoid losing $1000 for each 10/16 3350-3340, I ended up having to pay $140 for the great privilege of owning 10/23 **3500-3490**. Idk what I'm gonna do with it next week if we start with multiple red days in a row. + +At the point in which $AMZN was already at $3300, was there anything I could've done better other than to roll it out to a terrible position like that? +Any other tips on how to be not stupid? + + + +I'm at work during market hours and I got so caught up rolling out certain tickers while still trying to look busy at work that I left one behind. + +I'm wondering if some of you here have specific strategies for keeping track of all your theta trades along with expiration dates and whatnot. + + +**edit: I'm a moron! My CC doesn't expire till the 14th!** +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. +Hey, I was wondering if anyone could poke some holes in my long term strategy to ride out this bear market and build my portfolio. + + + +1. Sell a cash secured put on a stock I want to own at a price I'm willing to buy at (planning on getting exercised and lowering my basis) + + + +2. Sell a covered calls on the shares. + + + + + + +3. Use the premiums to buy more shares for eventually another wheel. + + + + +4. Sell covered calls and use the premiums to buy more shares, essentially DCA'ing all the way down to the bottom. + + +Is the main flaw that if the stock price goes down enough the premiums eventually won't be big enough to make a dent in my average cost per share? +Say account is $100k - how much do you allocate to each position/trade? + +Optionalpha recommends no more than 5% - which implies we need to have 20 positions running in parallel at all times to maximize utilization of capital. + +“Utilization” can be the capital at risk - the amount needed to hold the full security if assigned. + +How do you manage position size? How do you keep track of the different positions running in parallel? +I apologize if this is not the right place, but I hope this post will help others as well, as I read a few other times of similar events happening. + +**TLDR: I live in the UK. I returned an expensive (£1000) item to Amazon. They claim that the item is "incorrect" while on the phone their support confirmed that they received the correct one. The return center refused to explain the issue and they refuse to refund it or return it. I don't know what to do.** + +Hi all. For reference, I live in the UK. I have been an Amazon customer for years, I have hundreds of orders with them, as we all know, they offer the comfort of next day delivery and 24/7 support, so I always preferred to go with them, as many times when I would purchase from other websites, if the item(s) would have issues, it would always be a pain to solve them. + +I never really had an issue with Amazon. I happened to return some items here and there from time to time, especially since I buy everything related to my work from them. Returns always went without any trouble, even for a few high-value items, until today. + +I returned an incompatible camera lens worth £1000 ($1250) I recently purchased. Its conditions were barely opened and without any sign of usage. I do take full responsibility for making the mistake of purchasing it, when only after I received it, I realized that didn't have the features I needed, hence, unfortunately, I had to return it. + +While it originally seemed that everything was going as usual, I contacted the Amazon support as I knew from the tracking that they received it, only to receive an automated answer that "It appears we received incorrect item instead of the correct item". + +I kindly answered the email and asked what was going on and if they could provide a picture of the "incorrect item". They promptly replied with another automated message stating the above mentioned. + +As you may understand, I panicked. I thought that maybe I made a mistake, or I accidentally packaged the wrong item, or any other eventual mistake, even though I was sure that I didn't do anything wrong as it was a high-value item and I would always pay attention to something like that. + +After triple checking and making sure that nothing was left in my house, I called the Amazon support, and a lady informed me that they have indeed received the correct item, but it wasn't in the right condition. I was still not very sure about what she meant and what the issue truly is. This went against what the previous support informed me of, fully contradicting themselves. + +After the call, I contacted them again in the live chat, where I respectfully told them that they were contradicting themselves and that either the lady or the return support, were lying and being dishonest. The operator got visibly angry by the way he was typing even though he was being professional, and I was just dismissed in a polite but arrogant way.  + +Currently, their return center has a £1,000 item that I was confirmed by their phone support, but not by the return center itself, that they received it, while they refuse to issue the arranged refund for it or to at least return the item to me. + +I do have the proof of the tracking number that I indeed returned it, plus the lady on the phone confirmed that it was correct. + +&#x200B; + +While browsing online, I read that I could make a claim through my bank, but the problem is that about £650 of the £1000 of the product, was through Amazon gift cards that I previously purchased. Only about £350 was through my card. + +&#x200B; + +I would really appreciate some insights as this is not cheap by any means, and Amazon refused to act on it and just sends me the automated message. They do not even want to return the item, all while not providing pictures of the "incorrect item". + +Thank you to anyone who will read this long text. +On his last scam NFTs project which is currently worth nothing he made almost $5 Million on it. Now he has deleted all the previous scams tweets. + + +He recently launched another NFTs project looks like the millions he's making from fights aren't enough, I don't know why this multi millionaires want to scam their own fan following by promoting these. + + +[https://twitter.com/FloydMayweather/status/1506035079784456192](https://twitter.com/FloydMayweather/status/1506035079784456192) + + +This is last NFTs project almost 9.9k NFTs each worth at least 0.01 ETH. + + +&#x200B; + +[Currently worth nothing](https://preview.redd.it/ltpjwyy940p81.jpg?width=1283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f842c945e9987eab17e026ee06ca726993fe56c3) + +All of his recent promotion tweets are deleted now but here's the screenshots. + + +&#x200B; + +[Deleted Tweet](https://preview.redd.it/g1lume3j40p81.jpg?width=1283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3439141af9b58063eff2f2dc9830792dce2795c8) + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +[Deleted Tweet](https://preview.redd.it/car0bq4k40p81.jpg?width=1283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dc6fb21f48afc105a47c6e7758c1c64e21e5dff) + +As everyone know he also promoted ETH Max token along with Kim Kardashian which is currently down 98% from ATH. Please stay away from these celebrities they aren't your friends. + + +Source: [https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1506044782426079233](https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1506044782426079233) +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-02-03/sec-s-meme-stock-response-coming-next-week-gensler-says-video + +SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, spoke on the 'plumbing' of the markets, explaining a majority of retail orders are not met with buy-sale matches. Instead, they are completed in 'dark pools' as brokerages handle a Payment for Order Flow system. +I’ve been lurking here for a couple months and trying to learn fundamentals. I think the best advice I’ve read so far is ‘No one ever went broke taking profits’. I still struggle with potential gains greed but it helps. + +I bought 5 SE $250 calls on 3/24 for 4/9 expiry. Was down all last week but held. Yesterday I sold 3 and retrieved my stake and today sold the other 2 for a nice $555 profit. + +Thanks for teaching me to take easy, do my DD, and take my time. +### The Broader Markets + +**Last Week –** Following a volatile week of large moves in both directions the SPY ended the week down 2.9% following two weekly declines near 5%. The 2.9% decline was about in line with what options were pricing. + +**This Week –** SPY options are again pricing about a 2.8% move for the upcoming week. + +**Implied Volatility / VIX –** The VIX closed the week near 32, up from 30 the week before. It is near some of its highest closing levels of 2022. + +**Expected Moves for This Week** (via Options AI) + +* SPY **2.8%** (+/- $11) +* QQQ **3.4%** (+/- $10) +* IWM **3.5%** (+/- $6) +* DIA **2.4%** (+/- $8) + +**Economic Calendar** + +* Monday – ISM Manufacturing +* Tuesday – Fed speeches: Williams, Mester, Daly +* Wednesday – ADP Employment, ISM Services +* Friday – Non farm payrolls + +## + +## In the News + +Last week I looked at how high vol was in the FAANG+ names and detailed some Iron Condors in Amazon. AMZN stock closed last week about where it ended the week before, however, overall market IV was higher. So a scorecard on high IV neutral trades would look like this so far. Stock not moving: yes, IV going lower: no. + +Most of these names begin to report in late October with some reporting before Oct 21st expiry, like TSLA, and others after, like AMZN and GOOGL. With that in mind, and with IV even higher let’s look at another high IV strategy for those that may be looking to turn bullish in a stock. We’ll use GOOGL, as an example, using Oct 21st expiry, as earnings don’t come into play until the week after. And we’ll compare two credit put spreads, one at the money, the other out of the money: + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/lj9t0zoejer91.png?width=498&format=png&auto=webp&s=5fe2ac758c23c94bad4a83411afa6174485e531c + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/sqs7itrfjer91.png?width=495&format=png&auto=webp&s=da22cbc31d24db489f667c11d13290ed83f5482b + +The first put spread sells the at the money put and buys the expected move put, risking 3, to make 2, if GOOGL is above $94 on Oct 21st. With the way stocks are whipping around this type of trade can be thought of as a fairly straightforward bullish play, with a little but of wiggle room below where the stock is trading (but not much). The more important factor is with IV this high, this trade doesn’t need a big snapback rally. It just needs a small one, or even one that starts from lower and just gets back to this point in the stock. In other words it doesn’t necessarily need to have its timing exactly right, nor its magnitude of move exactly right. Playing for a reversal with calls or debit call spreads kind of needs to have those things perfect at this point, with IV so high. + +The second trade is an out-of-the-money put spread, risking about 75 to make 25 with its strikes set at the expected move. This is the type of trade someone does when they just think IV is beginning to overprice downside risk, and often at levels where they’d psychologically be a buyer of the stock. The advantage with a credit put spread vs a cash-secured put is that if the market crashes, it’s just a $75 loss rather than unlimited risk below. + +GOOGL is simply an example here. There are a ton of similar stocks with similarly high IV at the moment. Eventually, there will be a snapback rally where calls work, but until then it’s interesting to look at some credit spreads and the defined risk associated with selling moves rather than trying to time them for a reversal. + +## + +## Earnings + +*Links* below go to the Options AI calendar where you can see the other companies each day and click through to see charts (free to use). Recent earnings moves (actual) start with the most recent: + +[Wednesday](https://tools.optionsai.com/earnings-calendar/this-week?day=2022-10-05) + +* **Lam Weston** LW / **Expected Move: 7.3%** / Recent moves: +3%, +8%, +8% + +[Thursday](https://tools.optionsai.com/earnings-calendar/this-week?day=2022-10-06) + +* **Constellation Brands** STZ / **Expected Move: 4.4%** / Recent moves: -4%, +5%, -3% +* **Conagra** CAG / **Expected Move: 4.2%** / Recent moves: -3%, -4%, +5% + +[Friday](https://tools.optionsai.com/earnings-calendar/this-week?day=2022-10-07) + +* **Tilray** TLRY / **Expected Move: 14.6%** / Recent moves: +12%, +3%, +13% +The title kinda sums everything up. My tooth broke off a while ago but the root is still in there. It wasn’t so bad but the past few days it has been killing me and I haven’t been able to sleep last night. I really can’t afford the dentist and I don’t qualify for the free treatment stuff as I work. Anyone got any advice??? +I'm not really good at talking about money but it has been depressing me for a while. + +I pay almost £500 a month for rent. + +Let's say £100 a month goes to food, takeaway and groceries. + +Another £100 a month on travelling in and out of city. + +And more money for other stuff... + +I can't save. I don't know how. All I know is that a temp, part-time job, student loan or as a very last result, my aunt, will keep me afloat. But I never make enough money to live overdraft free. + +I want to be wealthy enough to be able to afford a car. I'm surrounded by cars so I feel as though more people have it all together than I do. I want to rely on nobody financially as that will make me feel more accomplished and mature. But I feel trapped with my life right now as uni is a struggle and I'm suffocating. I feel I can't balance my life properly. I am a failure. + +I'm overdrawn by £2500. +Does anyone feel like this? + +I feel incompatible in values towards money compared to my friends. My friends spend as their heart wishes, rarely save whereas I am driven to save to buy a house, for rainy day etc. I feel boring and disconnected because of this. + +For the record I am in my mid-30s and my friends circles seems to be shrinking as I get older. +While I didn't know FIRE was a thing until recently, I actually came up with the idea just one month into my first job. I realized that with enough money, I can basically live off of investment profits forever. With some quick calculations, I found $1 million to be the sweet spot, which I can reach in 10-15 years. I thought it was crazy that I barely begun working and am already thinking about early retiring at the age of 40. I never told anybody about my plans. But apparently I'm not alone. Nice to meet you all. +Hi all, + + + +I don't know if this has ever been asked (or if this is the right place to ask it), but could we do a career fair of sorts like they do on AskReddit every so often? Here's my idea: people from the r/finance community with backgrounds/careers in any and all types of finance tell us a little bit about their job, educational background, and what they like/dislike about it. + + + +I ask this because I'm an Econ/Finance undergrad, and it's difficult to understand just what kind of jobs are out there (even though I frequent career fairs on campus, resume workshops, club meetings, etc.) + + + +What do you think? +Weird question but I'm curious. I for the longest time did not realize I was well... poor. It is like in my mind I was just adapting to my financial situation without really realizing how bad it got. + +For me it was one sunny wednesday I realized I just got payed and could get medication for the heartburn I had been suffering from for atleast 2 weeks. Buying it and realizing I had been unable to afford that 2 buck package really got to me. +Just a quick question in terms of Raiz. I have been religiously investing in Raiz and have now a substantial amount there (excess of $25K, don't want to say the exact amount). It has been working well for me with me religiously pumping in more whenever I save some money here/there or when I get a bonus at work etc. + +Should I now move this out of Riaz into ETF or similar? + +* Downside = I have to pay capital gains tax, but looks like I'm stuck in a difficult place because I cannot now move to investing in ETFs directly because of the entry cost +* Dangers of Raiz? = Is my money safe? (Not from market movements, but from the company itself shutting down etc.?) + +Any other reasons why people say move out of Raiz after building up a bulk amount? Have people considered the capital gains that needs to be paid with such a move and does it make it worth it in the long run? +Given how primitive their application form was for this account I'm not surprised they need a 2% offer to attract people, but I thought I would have heard about this by now given how big it was with ING a few years ago. + +Is anyone using the Everyday Global Account? Any thoughts on it? + +[https://www.hsbc.com.au/accounts/products/everyday-global/#apply-today](https://www.hsbc.com.au/accounts/products/everyday-global/#apply-today) +Somebody just hacked Bored Ape Yacht Club's instagram account and made a post trying to get people to connect their wallet to a malicious DAPP. A lot of people did so and now the attacker is stealing their valuable NFTs. + +The attacker has so far stolen 4 BAYC and 6 MAYC NFTs, worth millions of dollars. + +The scam was related to BAYC upcoming metaverse launch, which is set to be this saturday. There will be a landsale for the metaverse probably sometime this week, and the attacker used to situtation to make an announcement on the hacked instagram account to get people to connect their wallets. + +You can follow the hackers wallet yourself on [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/address/0x8c7934611b6ad70fbea13a1593de167a4689b9a9#tokentxnsErc721). +Sub seems to have been infiltrated way too much cynical Anti-Crypto sentiment these days.. so some positive for balance. + +Good or bad crypto is now as big a part of the mainstream conversation as its ever been. These days it's hard to find someone who hasn't heard of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. + +Its a bit like the birth of the internet.. many just assumed it was only for the youth of society.. wasting their time on it playing games.These days if the WiFi drops out for 5mins people lose their shit. + +When manufacturers dropped physical buttons from cellphones and replaced them with touch screens.. many rubbished the concept and clung on to any phone they with physical buttons they could press.. these days any form of of too many physical buttons seems to unstylish and an annoyance to many. + +Crypto/ blockchain tech is currently in that same transitional phase where it's now the labels tagged to it are now mainstream but many are still cynical and don't fully realise that that it will become a another future technology that wasn't fully understood and underrated that civilisations just won't be able to live without. + +**Edit (as requests for reasoning)** + +The internet and today's centralised apps are powerful but adding blockchain tech can significantly improve latency, scalability, computational power, storage, decentralisation, accountability, transparency, automation, collaboration, governance., integration and efficiency. + +Centralised or decentralised... blockchain technology enhances software and the reason why governments and corporations are all looking to implement it as well as the decentralised projects we are aware of today. + +Appears to be many in the comments section that are skeptical/ disbelieving of crypto and blockchain technology. I'm not really sure what's motivating you to join/ post in a crypto sub in the first place however would suggest now your here you take a closer look at the merits and potential of the tech. Note I'm not shilling any specific project here. I just believe everyone centralised, decentralised, consumer, corporation, governments will ultimately benefit from blockchain in the future. +Woke up this morning to YNAB alerting me to a new purchase at a fast food restaurant i haven't been to in months. I check my credit card's app, and there's no purchase on the date YNAB indicated. Confused, i try the apps transaction search function and it pulls up a transaction from literally six months ago ("Transaction date: September x, 2021") with a "Posted date" of March 22, 2022. + +It seems to be a charge that showed up as pending when i made the purchase but then disappeared. I totally forgot about it until now. My question is, can they do this?? It's been SIX months! + +The most annoying part though is that i think i had a cash back offer on my card for this place at the time, but naturally that long since expired. +I will soon hit 30 or “the age of wisdom” as my mother used to say. On the surface, I’m doing quite well: a sales person working in a fair company, always exceeding my objectives. They pay me £35k in fixed salary and about the same amount in commissions. Some people think it’s easy money, but believe me, it never is. I work extremely hard to close every single deal. Partly because I like when a job is well done, partly because I know I’m going to be fairly paid for my effort. + +I know that my sales commissions aren’t guaranteed and therefore should be wise enough to save and invest it. But for reasons that I don’t really understand, I’ve never done it. + +So I’ve always convinced myself that if I needed money, I would just work harder. I knew deep inside this was not wise, but so far it never was an issue. + +My mother was recently diagnosed with renal failure causing further complications. I’ll spare you the details, but she needs me both emotionally and financially because she’s not able to work anymore. + +She always assumed that I’m financially well-off and… I never told her that I’m actually in debt. It has always been a weight that I carried within myself. My personal shame that no-one knows about or could even suspect. + +No matter how stupid I feel for living the way I do, I never managed to live differently. I know I should budget (I do it at work all the time) and live below my means, but I’ve always been too proud to accept that despite working 80h/week, I would still need to check my bank accounts before making a purchase. It would be like admitting my own failure, which I feel forced to do now. + +I need to take care of my mother and cannot put up with the same amount of hours at work. I’m silently going deeper into debt to support her, and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. + +I feel like I’m a real-life idiot sandwich... If only I could undo all these years. Why do we have to fall so low in order to realise what’s important in life? + +NB: Sorry for the rant, I’m feeling really down. +I bought my first property about 4.5 years ago. Being a little timid and brand new to REI, I bought cheap ($60k) with the intent to repair and grow over time. + +This particular building is in a bad part of town. The street level has 2 commercial spots. Upstairs there's 3 apartments. + +When I started this building, it was not habitable. I have invested a lot of time and money into bringing it up to code. I now have the building fully rented and am passing the keys off to a property manager next month to handle the day-to-day management. The building now has just under $2700/month in gross rents. + +I've looked at a lot of other deals and read about what you guys have done with your properties in this sub. I know my property is insane in terms of ROI, and it seems like ROI is commonly much higher on lower-priced properties. I'm guessing this is because lower-priced properties have more headaches/repairs, worse tenants, and the properties will not appreciate as much (or even depreciate) over time. + +In some of the properties I'm looking at now, because of much higher mortgages on more expensive properties, I would actually make less profit than buying older, run-down properties in worse parts of town. + +By letting the PM deal with the tenant headaches, and by writing off appreciation of the property and instead just focusing on the additional income, what am I missing about these low-priced units? What benefits am I missing vs. buying newer/more expensive units in better neighborhoods? + AP News Article on trying to expand reporting requirements for all cash deals. + +[https://apnews.com/article/business-0881a307f2e672859cd9c31d764ad7ff](https://apnews.com/article/business-0881a307f2e672859cd9c31d764ad7ff) + +I remember when I heard about NYC implementing these policies, I assumed people would move to some sort of cryptocurrency method of moving funds into real estate, or just shifting investments to markets that didn't require the reporting of identities behind shell corporations. + +However, if this anti-corruption vision is successfully executed. The reporting requirements could become national while at the same time limiting the ability to use cryptocurrency to circumvent that reporting. + +I've included the full document and the text from the document that refers to cryptocurreny. + +Any thoughts? + +Link to the full Document + +[https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/United-States-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption.pdf](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/United-States-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption.pdf) + +Reference to Cryptocurrency within the document. + +"Cryptocurrency and corruption: DOJ +will utilize a newly established task force, the +National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, to +focus specifically on complex investigations and +prosecutions of criminal misuses of +cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by +virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling +services, and money laundering infrastructure +actors." +I match my employer's pention, max a Roth, max a 403b, and carry no debt except my primary residence mortgage (@4.25%). I'm interested in branching out to rental real estate, and would like to purchase a single family home sometime in the next 3 years. + + Please tell me, from your perspective, where should I begin if i want to achieve this goal from this far out ? + + How much should I save up in cash (assume a 130k home in the Midwest, preferably Ohio)? + +What other considerations are there for getting my first rental up and running 3 yrs from now? + +Thanks for all your help and advice . +Just saw a 3-flat in the HighestCOL city in the Midwest. Tenants are gone. Up and coming neighborhood. Going to get it for $475,000. I'm going to put $400,000 in it to fully rehab. It's going to rent at \~$800/bedroom (11 bedrooms) and appraise \~$1,250,000. I'm going to hold it long-term with my partners. + +I haven't done a deal here in \~2years but I've been steadily looking. This one presented itself and should be a home-run. Moral of the story is - Lots of negative posts around here - but there are diamonds in the rough. You need to be consistent and persistent in this market and this city. The low barrier of entry to this world means you've got to be a bulldog to be successful. + +Good luck to everyone looking! +**TLDR:** + +[F.U.D. Courtesy of The Fed](https://i.redd.it/lnne0752iwe81.gif) + +A LOT has changed since NOV ATHs.... + +We sit on the edge of a Bear Market in many assets, and have a new 8000lb Gorilla in the room, (a hawkish FED that um, day trades). + +Meanwhile, crypto has recently correlated with the VIX (-94% on Friday), so now the SPX and Crypto are joined at the hip: + +[ATHs in VIX Correlation](https://preview.redd.it/dyrvahorewe81.png?width=722&format=png&auto=webp&s=74c66bf65f603426cfd18723b4e169d7a6c91006) + +What's interesting here is how much the order book has dried up. The book is running very thin (that trend is ongoing), which means that prices can bounce a lot more then would otherwise be the case. It also means that prices will likely come under even more pressure (high volatility does not support price increases in the average asset), in the short term. + +Additionally, this set up may create some extra wild price swings that may whack the over leveraged margin & futures traders. How that will affect Exchange Operability remains to be seen-but let's just say it won't help them stay more stable. ***;)*** + +Here are some charts that help illustrate the problem, they look like Rorschach (ink blot) Tests: + +[S&P Book Depth Is Shrinking...see that flash crash point in DEC Week 1?](https://preview.redd.it/2322juyfewe81.png?width=925&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6deb7aa59f8cde5abc8249b93b7a51836556e5e) + +[Nasdaq Book Depth Is Shrinking...](https://preview.redd.it/18u5bnxhfwe81.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=c185674b9ffbcb996c7d8b516ff4e4a11e2b351c) + +[Bid\/Ask Spread is HUGE here.....](https://preview.redd.it/o6npfgawfwe81.png?width=929&format=png&auto=webp&s=aaad2c1a72e6971e9823ad5ea853510216f968f8) + +These are indications that volatility is likely to remain significantly elevated in the days ahead-atop a level that is already very high. ***This also suggests that the price declines we have seen in the cryptoverse correction are not over.*** What's more, January is usually one of the most chill months for volatility-so the fact that we are already running high in a normally chill month-is note worthy here: + +[January is supposed to be chill bro'......but ain't!](https://preview.redd.it/119pzsqogwe81.png?width=946&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e4c3e50abe9504ee6c7d6a7d1229d95a079cdae) + +Here is a chart of Volatility, and Volatility of Volatility, overlaid: + +[The VIX is Now Trending Up, Up, Up and away......](https://preview.redd.it/yzuib1g1qwe81.png?width=1150&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f83eee07ec3b8e4261700eb6921d814bf17c711) + +At present, volatility is retreating off its highs, but the trend is clear-and that trend is UP. + +Volatility is now bullish trend, where for all of 2021 it was not. That is a huge sea change. As long as the correlation to the VIX remains as titanium strong as it is at present, *this suggests that prices will remain under pressure for quite some time.* (No Virginia, Coin #1 will not be hitting $100k any time soon-as in this year dear.) + +Meanwhile the book is thinning to where it was at the December Flash crash.....ruh roh! + +**I am not a chicken little, and I am not given to fear. That said, the set up here is ripe for whaler whack-a-mole, Skynet's favorite game of chance.** + +*The takeaway?:* + +*Traders: be on the margin watch!* + +*HODLr's: buckle up for more roller coa$ter action.....* + +Good Luck! +The whole market is in the red today, and the blue-chip stocks in the broader market fell sharply. + +Tesla fell 8% + +Amazon fell 3.8% + +Google fell 2.7% + +Apple shares fell 2.11% + +Microsoft shares fell 2% + +FB fell 3.2% + +Nvidia fell 5% + +AMD fell 4.5% + +Next week, the Fed will raise interest rates for the second time. It is rumored that it will raise interest rates by 50 basis points, and some even say that they will raise interest rates by 75 basis points. And more, with an ominous foreboding. + +Some analysts pointed out that the 5-year Treasury bond yield was 2.84%, and the 10-year Treasury bond yield was 2.81%. + +Thank myself, though, I've closed most of my stocks before, leaving only a few short-term ones. + +&#x200B; + +What stock do you have? Or express your own opinion? +They were in shock, outraged, in disbelief, but not once were they shown to have doubted themselves. + +Why? Because they did the research. They looked at the numbers, they read the files, and they knew they were right. They also faced FUD, when banks blatantly lied to them about the price of their positions and credit agencies refused to change their ratings. Yet they didn't doubt themselves. + +We did the research. We looked at the numbers, read the files, and we know we're right. So don't panic, don't feel stressed. Just sit back, relax, and watch it unfold. + +Gamestop has not tried to do anything to ignite a short squeeze yet. This may be due to several reasons, such as SEC investigation, the MOASS being too big a consequence for the company to handle, prioritizing long term success, etc. This may go on for another half a year, or even a year. The banks delayed in 2008, they're delaying again, but just be patient and trust the research. + +"Every lie incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid." + It’s a dream to live off interest, and not something I will ever achieve, but just to sate my curiosity, what does it take to generate £2,000 per month in interest? + +How much would you need in your pot? + +Where would you put your pot? + +Then, what sort of interest rate would you have to have? + +Plus, how do you deal with inflation? Including when £2,000 is no longer £2,000, eg 10 years when rent / house prices have doubled and a loaf of bread costs a fiver and a pint is £10? + +Are there better ways to generate £2,000 per month “passively”? + +Thanks for humouring me! +I would like to take advantage of the stock buying option Costco offers for employees, I have been here two years and am making $14.00 an hour in Ontario. I live at home and gas is my biggest expense. They take a set amount off the paycheck every month that gets put towards shares automatically. + +I have looked at a TFSA and HISA's, but I have also read that while I am young it's okay to have a bit more risk in investments as I have time to rebound in my youth. + +Ideally in the future I would like to expand my investment portfolio (currently nothing). I don't think it would be good to put 60% of my paycheck towards shares, then I couldn't diversify, but I also think if I put like $150 a paycheck towards it, it will not add up to much. +Hi, I'm a 19 year old with 6000$ in my TFSA (Will be maxing as my paychecks continue rolling in) + +And about 12,500 in a personal account with WealthSimple Trade + +I've made some profit in my personal account and some in my TFSA, but I've mostly been buying whatever in both. I'm wondering if it makes more sense to have a conservative investing approach in a TFSA or a personal and/or if it makes more sense to be riskier in one or the other. + +Can anyone weigh in on this? What do you guys do? +I just migrated all my accounts (RRSP, TFSA, LIRA) over to Questrade. I’ve filled out the questionaire from Vanguard and it said I should do 80% equities, which is exactly what I had in mind and where I had my money previously invested before switching. + +Just wanted to get some opinions here on whether it’s a smart or dumb idea to just make one giant lump sum investment into VGRO for all 3 accounts. It’s about ~$200k worth altogether. + +I have friends and family trying to convince me to hold out for this upcoming recession (aka timing the market). I can see merits to dollar cost averaging in, at the very least. But I won’t be touching this money for at least another 20+ years (I am 33M/married) so I don’t see how it will matter much in the long run. +* 29 male single in BC +* Net worth: 67k. No debt +* Salary 60k/year pre tax. Take home roughly 3.8k/month. Not much growth prospects +* **Currently investing 2.5k/month: 500 into XGRO TFSA, 1000 into motive HISA 2.8%, 1000 into mostly btc and minor eth** +* TFSA maxed. RRSP with XGRO maxed only around 1.2k because I'm new to Canada and my 2018 income is low +* Portfolio is 55k total with around half in btc, 12k hisa, 11k tfsa, 5.5k rrsp (over contribute for 5 months so $110 ish penalty) +* No immediate goal of any large purchases. House is very long down the line may be 10 years. + +&#x200B; + +1. I'm not sure if keep putting money into the HISA is a good idea? I think 12k sitting at 2.8% for emergency fund is already a lot so moving forward I want to put the monthly 1k into something else but not sure what? The argument of keep putting money into HISA is to wait for a dip to buy? +2. Is there a better option than maxing my RRSP again this year using a portion of the 1k went into crypto before? Like another investing instrument that's not crypto? (Whatever left of that 1k probably going crypto still) +3. **So monthly I have 1.5-2k that I'm willing to diversify (the 500 to TFSA is fixed). Is my next option limited to non-registered trading accounts?** +I am a relatively new, young investor and I am very interested in learning what this community things of my 40k TFSA portfolio thus far. Certainly could be a learning experience for me and for many others! I think it takes a sort of indecisive yield/growth/defensive stance but is quite global. Couldn't handle keeping my money in a mutual fund with relatively large fees and a mere 3% annual return over 3 years. + + +2.11% - Alaris ([AD.TO](https://AD.TO)) - High yield, done very well for me so far +5.31% - Algonquin Power and Utilities (AQN[.TO](https://AD.TO)) - American exposure and yield, defensive +7.49% -Alimentation Couch-Tarde (ATD[.TO](https://AD.TO)) - Relatively recession proof, good growth. +6.18% - Brookfield Asset Man. (BAM.A.[TO](https://AD.TO)) - Long term growth, could take a recession or interest rate hike hit, global +5.33% - Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN[.TO](https://AD.TO)) - High yield, I love renewables, defensive, good company, global +5.48% - Brookfield Infrastructure ([BIP.UN.TO](https://AD.TO)) - High yield, I also like the idea of hard assets, global +1.59% - Scotiabank ([BNS.TO](https://BNS.TO)) - Half south america, good yield and growth prospects +1.56% - Drone Delivery Canada ([FLT.VN](https://FLT.VN)) - Speculative, would sell on a short/medium term upswing +10.7% - Harvest covered call equal weight global utilities income ETF (HUTL.TO) - High yield, global, defensive, diversified +5.6% - Xebec Adsorbtion ([XBC.VN](https://XBC.VN)) - Speculative, want to hold long term, I believe in their growth, global +15.83% - BMO Aggregate bond ETF ([ZAG.TO](https://ZAG.TO)) - Held to wait for other opportunities I might want, not certain on outlook +32.76% - Cash - Remains unallocated after 40k lump sum TFSA contribution + + +Portfolio yields 2.29% +Holdings yield 3.41% + + +I am in a sort of pivot strategy with conservative holdings so that I might realize a combination of growth and be defensive until great opportunities arise and I pivot into those for cheaper. Things like index etfs, canadian banks, more BAM etc. + + +Thank you for any and all comments and concerns! They are most welcome. +If your investing or plan on investing in the near future and your a young person with little or no bills to pay my advice would be to throw as much extra cash you have into your investment account. Say your 18/19 with a part time job (assuming your in school) GROW YOUR MONEY. I am 100% not saying gamble in stocks like GME, AMC, etc. but really invest your money in strong fundamentally stable stocks, or ETF’s if you want to play it more safe, because in the next 3, 4, 5 years of your life your not going to have that money to play with. Bills will eventually start to pile up so get started sooner then later! If you are this audience you really have an amazing opportunity that most people don’t have, you have the ability to a leg up over the next person in regards to your finances, and to jump start the growth of your money substantially. +Okay. Let's see if I can explain things somewhat succinctly. + +I am not young. Hitting 50 next week. I do have some investments through a financial advisor but due to a divorce a number of years ago i am a bit behind with it all. + +I am in a position to want to do some self directed TFSA investing. +I just want to really keep it simple. + +So. WealthTrade or QuestTrade? Or something else? + +And I would love some specific advice on what to actually invest in. If I want to do $500 a month for example. + +ETF's? + +Individual stocks? + +Both? + +OR if I had $6000 to put in SHOULD I do that all at once?? + +Anyway, hopefully I don't get laughed at too badly :) + + +Thanks in advance. +🐶 Fluffy Coin - SHIBA/DOGE Killer, 5150 holders, 2 weeks old, 11M MC - launched by Biaheza 👑 (963k subs YT). + +🔥 Introducing Fluffy Coin, A DECENTRALIZED TOKEN FOCUSED ON REVOLUTIONIZING WEB 3.0 + +Fluffy is the next generation BSC token that combines the best of both worlds; meme coin hype but also has utility for steady and long-lasting growth. Biaheza, 963k subs on Youtube made this coin in his video. He announced that he will do a full on marketing campaign in his next video, back up by his multi million followers. + +✅ CERTIK AUDIT PAID FOR; DONE IN 1/2 WEEKS + +Official video: https://youtu.be/6dYc966_o4I + +Follow up video: https://youtu.be/-l-ba69P_Sc + +Released a Tiktok yesterday (930K views): https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8n6j3Us/ + +📊 Biaheza, 963k subs on YouTube quoted: +"..yes, I will be building a real cryptocurrency meme greater full theory ponzi scheme type token, next video I will probably start marketing and let this thing fly". + +😱 Possible third follow up video 21:00 UTC. + + 🐶 The FLUFFY token is our foundational currency that allows buyers to hold millions of it in their wallets. + +🎨 The first Official Fluffy NFT collection that will help us gather funds to get us to the moon. +100% of the mint profits will be redirected to marketing, funds will be used wisely (receipts available as well) + +25 unique pieces got released 2 hours ago they can be found here 👇🏻👇🏻 + +https://www.bakeryswap.org/#/usercenter/0x2510166Be00BE768F9cdF4965E42984865381Bd5?type=CREATED + +📣 Fluffy Army will launch a community owned NFT collection❕ + +Stay tuned, keep fluffin'! + +📲 Telegram: https://t.me/fluffycoinofficial + + 💬 Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/flufcoin + +📈 chart: https://charts.bogged.finance/0xa3abe68db1b8467b44715eb94542b20dc134f005 + +📎 Boggedswap: https://app.bogged.finance/swap?tokenIn=BNB&tokenOut=0xA3aBE68db1B8467B44715eb94542B20DC134f005 + +🌎Website: https://fluffycoin.org + +💎CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fluffy-coin/ + +🦎 CG: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/fluffy-coin +(Mods: hope it's okay to post this which I found illuminating.) + +[Guardian article](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jul/07/heres-how-scammers-get-away-with-it). +Happy Sunday, Apes... + +&#x200B; + +It's been a while, but the Options chain is starting to fall into a trackable pattern again. + +&#x200B; + +Do we all remember the Battle of $40 last 19 February 2021? Remember how it was figured out that the shock drop in price was due to the max strike of the option chain from when they rolled their bets the previous year in 2020 after the buyback? + +&#x200B; + +Well, roll outs are back on the menu, boys... + +&#x200B; + +\------- + +&#x200B; + +After the battles in Feb/March of 2021... the only two long dates on the options chain to roll a bad bet was Jan 2022 and Jan 2023. Monthlies and Weeklies had not been added to the chain for 2022 yet. + +&#x200B; + +New chain dates for 2022 weren't added until June of 2021, and the contract that was added was the 17 June 2022 contract. + +&#x200B; + +No new contracts were added (other than the 17 June contract) until Sept 2021, and the contract that was added was the 14 April 2022 contract. (Everyone thinks we smoked the Max Pain this week because of FOMO, but I think it's because the max pain of the 14 April options date is over $130 and pushing higher, dragging last weeks price up.) + +&#x200B; + +Exactly one year after the Feb 2021 battle for $40... in Feb 2022... they added a new monthly contract to the 2022 chain: The 20 May 2022. + +&#x200B; + +Now, if you look at the Put/Call Ratio for any contract on the chain, you will see a decimal number representing the sentiment of the options. The lower the number, the better. Throughout March and April, we are around 0.5-0.6... which is largely Bullish AF. + +&#x200B; + +On 20 May 2022, that PCR jumps up to 1.42... which is Bearish AF. + +&#x200B; + +On 17 June 2022, the PCR drops straight back down to 0.52... + +&#x200B; + +On 15 July 2022, the PCR rockets back up to 1.60... + +&#x200B; + +On 21 Oct 2022, it drops back to 0.64... + +&#x200B; + +And 20 Jan 2023 (the yearly) rockets to 2.45 (this is to be expected, as this was the only contract available to roll all those 2020/21 puts at the time.) + +\------------ + +&#x200B; + +So, for some reason, we have a large Put position on 20 May 2022 at the $90 strike. + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/nytxlf1dhzp81.png?width=1343&format=png&auto=webp&s=d4924ebe5f8cddbcfc01820a7a29a6f30abd1c12 + +&#x200B; + +On 17 June 2022, the largest Put position shifts back to $10 (the lowest Put strike possible). This was the result of them rolling Puts back when it first hit the chain... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/w572ob17qzp81.png?width=1333&format=png&auto=webp&s=f786e915f2fbfdc77df1db50b31763a38234ed9e + +On 15 July 2022, the highest Put interest jumps back up to a $60 strike... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/wxf1otocqzp81.png?width=1333&format=png&auto=webp&s=691080ba16a36d595326d9b901b5a850f652f04b + +And lastly on the Jan 2023 yearly, it moves back to its normal $10 strike again. + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +**We need to figure out why the Put Interest is so damn high, at $90, in May.** + +&#x200B; + +GME q1 ends April and is expected to report early June. It almost seems like they lined up a new Put attack surrounding the upcoming earnings date. + +&#x200B; + +(As in, they aren't exactly sure of the reporting date, so they bought the closest pre-date contract and the first post-date contract) + +&#x200B; + +Also, strangely enough, the highest analyst price estimate is, you guessed it... $90... + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/zsrbwg32hzp81.png?width=361&format=png&auto=webp&s=0edada0c953d874aa676fb94035306758321fdd0 + +\----- + +&#x200B; + +We locked them into the rolling cycle by keeping it above $40 last year... I think this time they are setting it up to try and keep their rolling price under $90. + +&#x200B; + +The threshold list needs a stock to have over 0.5% of its outstanding shares fail to deliver (for five days) to qualify to be added to the list. For GME, that is around \~381,000... + +&#x200B; + +There are 3,639 Open Put contracts at the $90 strike for 20 May 2022, or 363,390 shares worth of contracts. + +&#x200B; + +I'm not entirely sure that the numbers being that close is a Cohencidence... + +&#x200B; + +17 Jun 2022 was added to the options chain in June 2021... and the 14 April 2022 wasn't added until Sept 2021... + +Yet the 14 April 2022 date has twice the open interest (105,500 contracts) of the 17 June 2022 (67,000 contracts)... and the 20 May 2022 chain only has a quarter of the OI (26,600 contracts). + +&#x200B; + +It's obvious that they rolled a large portion of those <$10 Puts to the first contract to hit the chain (The Jun 2022) back in Jun 2021 as soon as it became available. It's the only Monthly contract with a huge OI at the $10 strike. + +&#x200B; + +We need to figure out: + +&#x200B; + +a) What is so popular about the 14 April 2022 option date (and why so many $500 strike Calls)? + +b) Why is there a huge Put OI at $90 on 20 May 2022? + +c) Why ISN'T there a huge Put OI in June (the reporting month)? Did the $10 Puts they rolled out make this contract off-limits somehow? + +d) Why does the Put OI return 15 July 2022 at $60? + +e) Why does it once again disappear in October, and why is the October Monthly the only monthly contract with near-zero Open Interest, for any strike, at all? + +\----- + +&#x200B; + +Did they decide to not add any Higher Strike Put Interest to the June 2022 Monthly because that is the one they loaded up back in 2021 (when it was the first contract to be added to the chain) with a portion of their Puts? + +&#x200B; + +It almost feels like the rules of engagement have largely changed; from once trying to wait us out and getting bored, to now what appears to be an active attack upcoming surrounding the next Earnings date. + +&#x200B; + +They broke the rolling Puts into two holdings: 6,000 contracts for the $10 Put strike on 17 June 2022... and of course the gargantuan amount on January 2023. + +&#x200B; + +There is currently $1,675,000 worth of Put Premium on the line for that 20 May $90 strike price. That isn't a lot of money, and just like last time, I don't think the shorts bought these Puts. I think they Sold these Puts to collect the premium, and are planning/hoping to collect some shares from them. + +&#x200B; + +The question is: are they really planning to attack it back down under $90 to collect some of those shares? + +&#x200B; + +The options chain is talking to us... we just need to figure out what it's trying to tell us. + +&#x200B; + +Oh... + +&#x200B; + +Heg R Stil Fuk... +I drive a 2005 VW Jetta that I bought from a family friend 4 years ago. At the time, my ‘94 Protege died suddenly and I didn’t want to go through a dealer because their used cars were around $10k and I couldn’t afford that. So I bought the Jetta for $6500 which made bi-weekly payments around $82.00. + +I thought 4 years would take forever to get here, but next Friday I make my last payment! I will have about an extra $160/ month and I’m excited to pay down my credit card, and also put some into a savings account. + +I’ll never own another VW, they cost waaaay too much to repair but I do a lot of the general upkeep by myself. I’m glad I got the car when I did and that she still runs well. + +So if it seems like a payment will never end, hang in there! Have a good rest of the weekend, friends. (It’s Sunday AM on the east coast) +Hi there! I’m starting to take more of an interest in pensions, and as I understand it, a pension is not going to pay out tons of money each month compared to the salary you received when working. I expect that this isn’t so much of a problem if own a house and have paid off your mortgage - your outgoings will be far less without mortgage repayments to worry about, and you can always sell your house, downsize to somewhere cheaper and live off some of the equity. + +My question is, what do you do if you don’t own your own house? I’m concerned because my ageing mum doesn’t own her own house, and I’m wondering how she will manage if she’s still paying extortionate rent on a reduced income. I’m also part of ‘generation rent’ so it’s possible I won’t ever own my own house, either. + +I know that if you don’t own your own house or have much money the government will subsidise your care for you, but I don’t know if there’s any similar help for elderly people when it comes to housing and living costs generally. Thanks! + +Edit: Wow, I didn't expect to get so many responses! I think the next step will be to investigate my mother's existing pension as it sounds like public sector pensions are fairly generous. Thanks so much for your help, everyone. +I won't get love for this one... but anyway! + +Out of the top twelve coins by market cap, 5 or 6 are ran 100% centrally by the founding organizations: + +3) Ripple (Ripple company decides who is the validator - the so called UNL) + +6) NEO (7 trusted nodes controlled by a single party) + +7) Cardano (in the "Bootstrap Era" before target dPoS) + +~~8) Stellar~~ (edited multiple times; this one needs more research as there is no striking evidence of centralization; Stellar evolved significantly and changed it's consensus algo along the way; it now feels like a Web-of-Trust with the trust firmly anchored in Stellar Development Foundation; Stellar documentation underlines legal compliance and not censorship resistance; the Stellar Whitepaper states: "In practice, the top tier could consist of anywhere from four to dozens of widely known and trusted financial institutions") - so it is basically based on trusted parties cooperating + +11) IOTA (the "Coordinator") + +12) NEM (the Network Infrastructure Server (NIS) is not open source) + +**Want to Avoid the Small Print (Condensed version of the trade is pretty straight forward it is-Short Vol via short front dated options and a short Gamma Profile) End Goal make 2,000 Dollars This week :) \*Potential 2,000 in profit - (Exposure of 1.3M for a week)** + +***Volatility Expectation =*** I expect the market to move less than 5% +/- this week. Vix expectation is 2.76% to 1.5% (40 to 44) +/- and Volga (VVIX) 7 to 10 points +/- (this week) = Range on S&P 500 via VIX is between 35 to 50 (this week) + +**Full Summary & Rational For Trade** The end of quarter passive fund re-balancing along with slight or no substantial changes in market positioning will give the market a chance to remain relatively range-bound during the week starting 4/6/2020 ending 4/9/2020. This re-balancing post-quarter-end will provide traders structural opportunities to profit from selling elevated convexity into the market via Put Write/ Call Write Strangles, which are 5% out of the money. Traders will assume the role of Insurance Companies for a week selling premium writing policies and keeping the profit at the end of the week. Profit from it + +**Brief on Trading Suggestion**; We will temporarily be in a period of reduced swings up and down, but there is more delayed selling likely to restart after April 17th. + +**The rationale for the Trade;** The market will remain relatively range-bound this week in comparison to the 5 previous weeks. This will present traders with the perfect opportunity to profit from selling volatility back into the market. A low return environment and possible negative curve (with Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Expansion as a useful backstop) invite investors to reengage temporarily in seeking to exploit timely carry trades by selling volatility back into the market. + +**The Risk for the Trade**; The risk is any large increase in realized volatility, which causes the equity market to move up or down greater than 5% to 7% this week. This would create substantial problems to the right or left side of the distribution curve. What we would like to happen is the movement of >4% and <(-4)% for the full week. + +Naked Options Level 3 Required + +To Write Strangles on GOOG & AMZN (2 Contracts) + +[ 4\/6\/202011:31am Sell 5&#37; OTM Strangles on Tickers ](https://preview.redd.it/dhlimguz18r41.jpg?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a8e98d4be343741e99cdab025016dc80789457f) + +Answering a question in the Post; What is the worst that could happen in a Zombie Apocalypse in 72 hours. How much do you owe under a large move to the Left Side of the Distribution Curve? What would happen in a market meltdown selling these strangles and how much would traders using level 3 puts/writes owe - (I don't think this is likely but a good question to highlight risk) + +[Zombie Apocalypse Market Falls 30&#37; in 72 hours ](https://preview.redd.it/wmk2g99b39r41.jpg?width=1123&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ab1cfb2716375d2df2e6e3fbb360e1ce446c4b4) + +The News First - Traders would collect all the Call/Write premium a whopping $653 Dollars goes into their brokerage account at the close of business on Thursday + +The Bad News - First, it's a zombie apocalypse and zombies do exist. Two, a trader would need about 170k dollars to cover the Naked Short Puts if the market fell 30% in the course of 72 hours - Anything is possible, but you would need to see VVIX spike upwards of 400, you would need to see the VIX implied move spike closer towards 350 - which based on current market pricing is not something anyone is imaging happens (Why? Well, circuit breakers would kick in at a different point and the market would likely close for the rest of the week prior to a 30% drop in 3 days (72 hours) +This is my first year investing money and as I look over my Q4/yearly numbers, I'm happy to report that for the first time in my life, my money made money! It's small fries for now, but I made 10,000 that I would not have made otherwise, so it's big for me! + +I feel like my money is all grown up and it has it's own job! +Long story short my wife can't work anymore due to severe Endometriosis and my anxiety is killing me so I've missed some work. I have about 20 bucks left after paying rent late tomorrow and I need some good recipes. + + I have some food left like beans and rice but I can make only so many bean tacos with a side of rice. There's a 99cent store down the street that has a pretty decent grocery section. Is there something I can make with cheap vegetables? It needs to be filling enough for her to go through the pain since that takes a lot out of her. + +Any suggestions? + +Edit: It also has to be healthy enough since she's doing lupron and radiation treatment. Sorry for being demanding. +TL;DR: My autistic sibling lives with my parents and the situation isn’t healthy or hopeful. How can I plan to be her future caretaker in the next 10-20 years? + +To begin, my parents [60s] don’t seem to have any long-term plans for my sister [24]. She’s not in school or on any career path. I don’t know if she’ll be independent or will be living in a group home or how long she will live with my parents. For many reasons me living with her is not a good solution for either of us. My parents are in a really exhausting living situation and they live on the day-by-day. + +Either way I want to be able to financially support her to live either in community living or an apartment. I also want for her to have a social worker, have access to assistance and therapy. Basically I want to afford for her what she needs to live a good life. + +Here’s my financial breakdown: + +I’m single, 27F, make $54K and get a 10% raise each year. That may slow down around the $60K mark. I hope to make $75K in the next 3-5 years. I’m a web designer living in an affordable city in the Midwest. + +$25K in liquid cash savings +$44K in retirement (Roth and 401k) +$8K in stocks + +My personal goals are to get married, buy a house and a car in 3-5 years. I want to be child-free. The $33K is what I want to grow to save for those upcoming years. + +I don’t have the numbers on my parents’ end, but they should comfortably live out their retirement. But caring for my sister may interfere with their prosperity. My dad retired from the US government and gets a pension and lifetime insurance, I believe. I expect my sister and I will get a modest inheritance from my grandparents and parents at their passing. + +My parents are in the process of getting social security benefits for her this year. Not sure where they are on that. + +I don’t talk to my parents about this since they view my sister as their responsibility and they want me to live my life as I wish. But I know that there will be a day when they can no longer care for her and I want to start planning for it. I know I need to have this conversation with them soon. + +Where should I get started? + +——— + +*EDIT* +Thanks for your replies. It means a lot. Here are a few more thoughts and details about the situation: + +I live in the Midwestern US. I live 300 miles away from my sister and I’ve been removed from the day-to-day for 8 years. + +My sister is high functioning but hasn’t been growing or thriving living with my parents. She is often depressed, anxious and emotionally abusive toward my parents, especially my mother. Her quality of life is very grim and my parents are exhausted. + +I go to therapy. I have a therapist that specializes in autism so she’s helped me deal with my family. I hope one day my family will get into therapy or find help. + +She’s involved in volunteering, vocational groups, affinity groups, some services... but I haven’t noticed any significant growth or opportunities. Ups and downs. + +There are so many challenges she is facing that it makes it difficult for me to imagine her living a normal independent life. I have seriously questioned her capabilities and have always known she would need support; to what extent is uncertain. + +Lots of people here have mentioned group homes and it’s a taboo topic with my parents. The idea of separating her from the people and home she’s always known sounds so traumatic and heartbreaking to me. I don’t know what it will take to make that transition if it becomes necessary. That’s really difficult and distressing to think about, to be honest. + +On the other hand group homes is a possibility I’ve considered very recently. I don’t know if that will be her future but I will be spending some time researching community living and breaking down my own stigma and bias that I have about the topic. + +Fear and denial is a huge problem in my family. Denial prevented her from getting help early on. She still doesn’t fully acknowledge or accept her autism. My parents and I have always imagined she’d eventually become independent. But reflecting on the 10 years since her diagnosis doesn’t allude to a very promising future. And that sucks. And I don’t know what to do. So that’s why I reached out here. + +Again thank you all for your kindness, encouragement and practical advice. +Here's some insight into Warren Buffett's selloff of Delta Airlines (DAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). The backing away from airline stocks marks something of a reversal for Warren Buffett. The investor bought more Delta stock several weeks ago. Buffett told Yahoo Finance less than a month ago that "I won't be selling airline stocks." Why did Buffett sell so many shares of DAL and LUV yesterday? Thoughts below: + +1. Warren Buffett reduced his ownership of DAL and LUV to under 10%, so he does not need to report every trade he makes. Prior to this sale, Buffett owned over 10% of DAL and LUV. Because of his significant ownership in the companies, he needs to report every move he makes to the SEC. With his ownership reduced to <10%, Buffett can buy and sell DAL and LUV without needing to report it until the end of the quarter. Now his airline stakes are all <10%. + +2. Buffett is NOT selling DAL for cash to invest elsewhere. Berkshire Hathaway is currently sitting on $128B in cash. Buffett has plenty of ammunition to buy any stock he likes. Therefore, his move to sell DAL and LUV is NOT to free up money to purchase other stocks. + +3. Buffett may be about to make a dramatic move as airlines have ~3 months without government aid until it runs out of cash. We will use DAL as a representation of the airline industry. Accounting for cash and cash equivalents and credit withdrawal only, DAL only has 3 months of cash left given its CEO reported the company is burning through $60M per day. Of course, this is not accounting for government support, other current assets, and cost cutting (e.g., furloughing employees). With these measures, DAL may have a few months above water. Given the situation that DAL is in, Buffett is likely about to make a dramatic move - either sell off his remaining airline positions or purchase 100% shares of an airline company. + +Here are three things Buffett may be doing in order of likelihood: + +1. High Likelihood: Buffett is simply trimming his positions so they are under 10% stake. Buffett has mentioned several times that he likes to own less than 10% stake for reporting reasons, specifically in regards to airline stocks. He may have just trimmed his stake to <10% and plan on holding there. + +2. Moderate Likelihood: Buffett is reducing stakes in DAL and LUV as it plans to acquire and competitor airline. Prior to Buffett's acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railway, he scaled down his position in Union Pacific (UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NSC) railways about a year before his purchase of BNSF. If Buffett is thinking about purchasing an airline, which he has contemplated in the past, he may be targeting American Airlines, which he currently owns the largest stake in (10%). Keep in mind that before he extended a tender offer to BNSF, he owned 17% of the company. Finally, Buffett already owns NetJets, the world's largest private jet company. + +3. Low Likelihood: Buffett reduced his shares to <10% so he does not need to report his complete exit from airlines. There is speculation that Buffett is reducing his stake to under 10% so he can exit airlines completely without needing to report his trades. We believe this is unlikely because Buffett's mantra is "be greedy when others are fearful". Airlines are not going anywhere as the U.S. is one of the most globalized nations. The only reason why Buffett may be selling is if he fears the government stake in airlines will be at a significantly reduced price. With this said, he may as well just buy the airline at that point to not sell at a complete loss. +With the option of a 401k , IRA, HSA there is a substantial amount you can save (tax advantaged ) a year. As the title says at what salary can you realistically max them out and live a decent life style. And what ~$ left do you have as disposable income? + +I know there are a lot of unknowns and assumptions that can be made, but assuming "regular/frugal" expenses. + +Bonus- 2 people married/couple whatever. Is it simply double or can you get away with less? + +Thanks ! +I've been trying to figure this out for a few months, and depending on who I ask, I get opposite suggestions. I found some answers in [my previous post](https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/9roo74/what_to_think_about_when_hiring/), but the diverse answers also left me somewhat confused. + +I'm having a hard time finding a hourly-fee financial adviser where I live (Europe). And it seems AUM-based financial advisers tend to be full-on independent asset managers. The ones I've asked seem (very) happy to have me as a customer. They're asking 0.5-1% in fees. Some use funds as investments, other use plain shares (and funds for e.g. alternative investments). Custodial banking fees of 0.2-0.5% would be added on top. To me that doesn't sound too bad. I want to learn more about investing from a pro, but also not care about my long-term investments more than quarterly. I'd like someone independent from the banks, so I could change banks and not lose the relationship. + +"Can't beat the market," sure, but they would already be out of business if they were much worse than index funds, right? What are your opinions about using independent asset managers on an AUM-basis? +I work in hospitality as a casual, my employer pays us $23/hr, no payslips. When I brought up that I'd like to get proper penalties for evening work, Saturdays or public holidays, I was told they cannot afford it. So I did some calculations over the weekend and found out I am owed over $3000 since I started working for them last September. I am kind of hesitant asking for that money, as I hate confrontation of any kind, and they otherwise treat me nice-ish... What would be my chances of getting that money, if employer refuses to pay me and I made a complaint through FairWork? +For this week's edition of DDDD (Data-Driven DD), we're going to look in-depth at some of the interesting things that have been doing on in the market over the past few weeks; I've had a lot more free time this week to write something new up, so you'll want to sit down and grab a cup of coffee for this because it will be a long one. We'll be looking into bankruptcies, how they work, and what some companies currently going through bankruptcies are doing. We'll also be looking at some data on retail and institutional investors, and take a closer look at how retail investors in particular are affecting the markets. Finally, we'll look at some data and magic markers to figure out what the market sentiment, the thing that's currently driving the market, looks like to help figure out if you should be buying calls or puts, as well as my personal strategy. + +*Disclaimer - This is not financial advice, and a lot of the content below is my personal opinion. In fact, the numbers, facts, or explanations presented below could be wrong and be made up. Don't buy random options because some person on the internet says so; look at what happened to all the SPY 220p 4/17 bag holders. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions on what you should do with your own money, and how levered you want to be based on your personal risk tolerance.* + +# How Bankruptcies Work + +First, what is a bankruptcy? In a broad sense, a bankruptcy is a legal process an individual or corporation (debtor) who owes money to some other entity (creditor) can use to seek relief from the debt owed to their creditors if they’re unable to pay back this debt. In the United States, they are defined by Title 11 of the United States Code, with 9 different Chapters that govern different processes of bankruptcies depending on the circumstances, and the entity declaring bankruptcy. + +For most publicly traded companies, they have two options - Chapter 11 (Reorganization), and Chapter 7 (Liquidation). Let’s start with Chapter 11 since it’s the most common form of bankruptcy for them. + +A Chapter 11 case begins with a petition to the local Bankruptcy court, usually voluntarily by the debtor, although sometimes it can also be initiated by the creditors involuntarily. Once the process has been initiated, the corporation may continue their regular operations, overseen by a trustee, but with certain restrictions on what can be done with their assets during the process without court approval. Once a company has declared bankruptcy, an automatic stay is invoked to all creditors to stop any attempts for them to collect on their debt. + +The trustee would then appoint a Creditor’s Committee, consisting of the largest unsecured creditors to the company, which would represent the interests creditors in the bankruptcy case. The debtor will then have a 120 day exclusive right after the petition date to file a Plan of Reorganization, which details how the corporation’s assets will be reorganized after the bankruptcy which they think the creditors may agree to; this is usually some sort of restructuring of the capital structure such that the creditors will forgive the corporation’s debt in exchange for some or all of the re-organized entity’s equity, wiping out the existing stockholders. In general, there’s a capital structure pecking order on who gets first dibs on a company’s assets - secured creditors, unsecured senior bond holders, unsecured general bond holders, priority / preferred equity holders, and then finally common equity holders - these are the classes of claims on the company’s assets. After the exclusive period expires, the Creditor’s Committee or an individual creditor can themselves propose their own, possibly competing, Restructuring Plan, to the court. + +A Restructuring Plan will also be accompanied by a Disclosure Statement, which will contain all the financial information about the bankrupt company’s state of affairs needed for creditors and equity holders to make an informed decision about how to proceed. The court will then hold a hearing to approve the Restructuring Plan and Disclosure Statement before the plan can be voted on by creditors and equity holders. In some cases, these are prepared and negotiated with creditors before bankruptcy is even declared to speed things up and have more favorable terms - a prepackaged bankruptcy. + +Once the Restructuring Plan and Disclosure Statement receives court approval, the plan is voted on by the classes of impaired (i.e. debt will not be paid back) creditors to be confirmed. The legal requirement for a bankruptcy court to confirm a Restructuring Plan is to have at least one entire class of impaired creditors vote to accept the plan. A class of creditors is deemed to have accepted a Restructuring Plan when creditors that hold at least 2/3 of the dollar amount and at least half of the number of creditors vote to accept the plan. After another hearing, and listening to any potential objections to the proposed Restructuring Plan, such as other impaired classes that don't like the plan, the court may then confirm the plan, putting it to effect. + +This is one potential ending to a Chapter 11 case. A case can also end with a conversion to a Chapter 7 (Liquidation) case, if one of the parties involved file a motion to do so for a cause that is deemed by the courts to be in the best interest of the creditors. In Chapter 7, the company ceases operating and a trustee is appointed to begin liquidating (i.e. selling) the company’s assets. The proceeds from the liquidation process are then paid out to creditors, with the most senior levels of the capital structure being paid out first, and the equity holders are usually left with nothing. Finally, a party can file a motion to dismiss the case for some cause deemed to be in the best interest of the creditors. + +# The Tale of Two Bankruptcies - WLL and HTZ + +Hertz (HTZ) has come into news recently, with the stock surging up to $6, or 1500% off its lows, for no apparent fundamental reason, despite the fact that they’re currently in bankruptcy and their stock is likely worthless. We’ll get around to what might have caused this later, for now, we’ll go over what’s going on with Hertz in its bankruptcy proceedings. To get a clearer picture, let’s start with a stock that I’ve been following since April - Whiting Petroleum (WLL). + +WLL is a [stock I’ve covered pretty extensively](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/g8v4m5/wll_retail_bulls_pumping_an_already_bankrupt/), especially with it’s complete price dislocation between the implied value of the restructured company by their old, currently trading, stock being over 10x the implied value of the bonds, which are entitled to 97% of the new equity. Usually, capital structure arbitrage, a strategy to profit off this spread by going long on bonds and shorting the equity, prevents this, but retail investors have started pumping the stock a few days after WLL’s bankruptcy to “buy the dip” and make a quick buck. Institutions, seeing this irrational behavior, are probably avoiding touching at risk of being blown out by some unpredictable and irrational retail investor pump for no apparent reason. We’re now seeing this exact thing play out a few months later, but at a much larger scale with Hertz. + +So, how is WLL's bankruptcy process going? For anyone curious, you can follow the court case in [Stretto](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cases.stretto.com/whitingpetroleum&sa=D&ust=1592178959514000). Luckily for Whiting, they’ve entered into a prepackaged bankruptcy process and filed their case with a Restructuring Plan already in mind to be able to have existing equity holders receive a mere 3% of new equity to be distributed among them, with creditors receiving 97% of new equity. For the past few months, they’ve quickly gone through all the hearings and motions and [now have a hearing](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cases.stretto.com/public/X059/10187/PLEADINGS/1018706122080000000089.pdf&sa=D&ust=1592178959514000) to receive approval of the Disclosure Statement scheduled for June 22nd. This hearing has been pushed back a few times, so this may not be the actual date. Another pretty significant document was just filed by the Committee of Creditors on Friday - an [objection to the Disclosure Statement’s approval](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cases.stretto.com/public/X059/10187/PLEADINGS/1018706122080000000117.pdf&sa=D&ust=1592178959514000). Among other arguments about omissions and errors the creditor’s found in the Disclosure Statement, the most significant thing here is that Litigation and Rejection Damage claims holders were treated in the same class as a bond holders, and hence would be receiving part of their class’ share of the 97% of new equity. The creditors claim that this was misleading as the Restructuring Plan originally led them to believe that the 97% would be distributed exclusively to bond holders, and the claims for Litigation and Rejection Damage would be paid in full and hence be unimpaired. This objection argues that the debtors did this gerrymandering to prevent the Litigation and Rejection Damage claims be represented as their own class and able to reject the Restructuring Plan, requiring either payment in full of the claims or existing equity holders not receiving 3% of new equity, and be completely wiped out to respect the capital structure. I’d recommend people read this document if they have time because whoever wrote this sounds legitimately salty on behalf of the bond holders; here’s some interesting excerpts: + +*Moreover, despite the holders of Litigation and Rejection Damage Claims being impaired, existing equity holders will still receive 3% of the reorganized company’s new equity, without having to contribute any new value. The only way for the Debtors to achieve this remarkable outcome was to engage in blatant classification gerrymandering. If the Debtors had classified the Litigation and Rejection Damage Claims separately from the Noteholder claims and the go-forward Trade Claims – as they should have – then presumably that class would reject a plan that provides Litigation and Rejection Damage Claims with a pro rata share of minority equity.* + +*The Debtors have placed the Rejection Damage and Litigation Claims in the same class as Noteholder Claims to achieve a particular result, namely the disenfranchisement of the Rejection Damage and Litigation Claimants who, if separately classified, may likely vote to reject the Plan. In that event, the Debtor would be required to comply with the cramdown requirements, including compliance with the absolute priority rule, which in turn would require payment of those claims in full, or else old equity would not be entitled to receive 3% of the new equity. Without their inclusion in a consenting impaired class, the Debtors cannot give 3% of the reorganized equity to existing equity holders without such holders having to contribute any new value or without paying the holders of Litigation and Rejection Damage Claims in full.* + +*The Committee submits that the Plan was not proposed in good faith. As discussed herein, the Debtors have proposed an unconfirmable Plan – flawed in various important respects. Under the circumstances discussed above, in the Committee’s view, the Debtors will not be able to demonstrate that they acted with “honesty and good intentions” and that the Plan’s results will not be consistent with the Bankruptcy Code’s goal of ratable distribution to creditors.* + +They’re even trying to have the court stop the debtor from paying the lawyers who wrote the restructuring agreement. + +*However, as discussed herein, the value and benefit of the Consenting Creditors’ agreements with the Debtors –set forth in the RSA– to the Estates is illusory, and authorizing the payment of the Consenting Creditor Professionals would be tantamount to approving the RSA, something this Court has stated that it refuses to do.20 The RSA -- which has not been approved by the Court, and indeed no such approval has been sought -- is the predicate for a defective Plan that was not proposed in good faith, and that gives existing equity holders an equity stake in the reorganized enterprise even though Litigation and Rejection Damage Creditors will (presumably) not be made whole under the Plan and the existing interest holders will not be contributing requisite new value.* + +**As a disclaimer, I have absolutely zero knowledge nor experience in law, let alone bankruptcy law.** However, from reading this document, if what the objection indicates to be true, could mean that we end up having the court force the Restructuring agreement to completely wipe out the current equity holders. Even worse, entering a prepackaged bankruptcy in bad faith, which the objection argues, might be grounds to convert the bankruptcy to Chapter 7; again, I’m no lawyer so I’m not sure if this is true, but this is my best understanding from my research. + +So what’s going on with Hertz? Most analysts expect that based on Hertz’s current balance sheet, existing equity holders will most likely be completely wiped out in the restructuring. You can keep track of Hertz’s bankruptcy process [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/hertz/&sa=D&ust=1592178959516000), but it looks like this is going to take a few months, with the first meeting of creditors scheduled for July 1. An [interesting 8-K](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc%3D/Archives/edgar/data/47129/000110465920073000/tm2022223-2_8k.htm&sa=D&ust=1592178959516000) got filed today for HTZ, and it looks like they’re trying to throw a hail Mary for their case by taking advantage of dumb retail investors pumping up their stock. They’ve just been approved by the bankruptcy court to issue and sell up to $1B (double their current market cap) of new shares in the stock market. If they somehow pull this off, they might have enough money raised to dismiss the bankruptcy case and remain in business, or at very least pay off their creditors even more at the expense of Robinhood users. + +# The Rise of Retail Investors - An Update + +[A few weeks ago, I talked about data that suggested a sudden surge in retail investor money flooding the market](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/gd1t2g/dddd_the_rise_of_buy_the_dip_retail_investors_and/), based on Google Trends and broker data. Although this wasn’t a big topic back when I wrote about it, it’s now one of the most popular topics in mainstream finance news, like CNBC, since it’s now the only rational explanation for the stock market to have pumped this far, and for bankrupt stocks like HTZ and WLL to have surges far above their pre-bankruptcy prices. Let’s look at some interesting Google Trends that I found that illustrates what retail investors are doing. + +&#x200B; + +[Google Trends - Margin Calls](https://preview.redd.it/1ksu4y77jy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b12c7b1997d5e72f3e54a4aeb0f85869866fdad) + +[Google Trends - Robinhood](https://preview.redd.it/uy0gpwk9jy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=1866a453b3debe9cdd0d3770e92787ea05ec5cc7) + +[Google Trends - What stock should I buy](https://preview.redd.it/c0js5kvajy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=9fbc5379c5458b4cf317633bfd900ebb1a127b3b) + +[Google Trends - How to day trade](https://preview.redd.it/2jikvwtcjy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f86ed836ccc72957ee985d9de006787c17bd72d) + +[Google Trends - Pattern Day Trader](https://preview.redd.it/vgktlrlejy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c4ec2a6e29e63a88f1bfd2b195a4fe3d0a98999) + +[Google Trends - Penny Stock](https://preview.redd.it/9qumb69gjy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=11b2650fd101aefa6a45019cb16cbfc49f5de2b2) + +The conclusion that can be drawn from this data is that in the past two weeks, we are seeing a second wave of new retail investor interest, similar to the first influx we saw in March. In particular, these new retail investors seem to be particularly interested in day trading penny stocks, including bankrupt stocks. In fact, data from Citadel shows that penny stocks have [surged on average 80%](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/market-gone-wild-penny-stocks-are-up-nearly-80percent-on-average-in-the-last-week.html&sa=D&ust=1592178959517000) in the previous week. + +**Why Retail Investors Matter** + +A common question that’s usually brought up when retail investors are brought up is how much they really matter. The portfolio size of retail investors are extremely small compared to institutional investors. Anecdotally and historically, retail investors don’t move the market, outside of some select stocks like TSLA and cannabis stocks in the past few years. However when they do, shit gets crazy; the last time retail investors drove the stock market was in the dot com bubble. There’s a few papers that look into this with similar conclusions, I’ll go briefly into [this one](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/odean/Papers%2520current%2520versions/DoRetailTradesMoveMarkets_RFS_2009.pdf?abstract_id%3D869827&sa=D&ust=1592178959517000), which looks at almost 20 years of data to look for correlations between retail investor behavior and stock market movements. The conclusion was that behaviors of individual retail investors tend to be correlated and are not random and independent of each other. The aggregate effect of retail investors can then drive prices of equities far away from fundamentals (bubbles), which risk-averse smart money will then stay away from rather than try taking advantage of the mispricing (i.e. never short a bubble). The movement in the prices are typically short-term, and usually see some sort of reversal back to fundamentals in the long-term, for small (i.e. < $5000) trades. Apparently, the opposite is true for large trades; here’s an excerpt from the paper to explain. + +*Stocks recently sold by small traders perform poorly (−64 bps per month, t = −5.16), while stocks recently bought by small traders perform well (73 bps per month, t = 5.22). Note this return predictability represents a short-run continuation rather than reversal of returns; stocks with a high weekly proportion of buys perform well both in the week of strong buying and the subsequent week. This runs counter to the well-documented presence of short-term reversals in weekly returns.14,15 Portfolios based on the proportion of buys using large trades yield precisely the opposite result. Stocks bought by large traders perform poorly in the subsequent week (−36 bps per month, t = −3.96), while those sold perform well (42 bps per month, t = 3.57). We find a positive relationship between the weekly proportion of buyers initiated small trades in a stock and contemporaneous returns. Kaniel, Saar, and Titman (forthcoming) find retail investors to be contrarians over one-week horizons, tending to sell more than buy stocks with strong performance. Like us, they find that stocks bought by individual investors one week outperform the subsequent week. They suggest that individual investors profit in the short run by supplying liquidity to institutional investors whose aggressive trades drive prices away from fundamental value and benefiting when prices bounce back. Barber et al. (2005) document that individual investors can earn short term profits by supplying liquidity. This story is consistent with the one-week reversals we see in stocks bought and sold with large trades. Aggressive large purchases may drive prices temporarily too high while aggressive large sells drive them too low both leading to reversals the subsequent week.* + +Thus, using a one-week time horizon, following the trend can make you tendies for a few days, as long as you don’t play the game for too long, and end up being the bag holder when the music stops. + +# The Keynesian Beauty Contest + +The economic basis for what’s going on in the stock market recently - retail investors driving up stocks, especially bankrupt stocks, past fundamental levels can be explained by the Keynesian Beauty Contest, a concept developed by Keynes himself to help rationalize price movements in the stock market, especially during the 1920s stock market bubble. A quote by him on the topic of this concept, that “the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”, is possibly the most famous finance quote of all time. + +The idea is to imagine a fictional newspaper beauty contest that asks the reader to pick the six most attractive faces of 100 photos, and you win if you pick the most popular face. The naive strategy would be to pick the faces that you think are the most attractive. A smarter strategy is to figure out what the most common public perception of attractiveness would be, and to select based on that. Or better yet, figure out what most people believe is the most common public perception of what’s attractive. You end up having the winners not actually be the faces people think are the prettiest, but the average opinion of what people think the average opinion would be on the prettiest faces. Now, replace pretty faces with fundamental values, and you have the stock market. + +What we have today is the extreme of this. We’re seeing a sudden influx of dumb retail money into the market, who don’t know or care about fundamentals, like trading penny stocks, and are buying beaten down stocks (i.e. “buy the dip”). The stocks that best fit all three of these are in fact companies that have just gone bankrupt, like HTZ and WLL. This slowly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as people start seeing bankrupt stocks go up 100% in one day, they stop caring about what stocks have the best fundamentals and instead buy the stocks that people think will shoot up, which are apparently bankrupt stocks. Now, it gets to the point where even if a trader knows a stock is bankrupt, and understands what bankruptcy means, they’ll buy the stock regardless expecting it to skyrocket and hope that they’ll be able to sell the stock at a 100% profit in a few days to an even greater fool. The phenomenon is well known in finance, and it even has a name - The Greater Fool Theory. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next stock to go bankrupt now has their stock price go up 100% the next day because of this. + +# What is the smart money doing - DIX & GEX + +Alright that’s enough talk about dumb money. What’s all the smart money (institutions) been doing all this time? For that, you’ll want to look at what’s been going on with dark pools. These are private exchanges for institutions to make trades. Why? Because if you’re about to buy a $1B block of SPY, you’re going to cause a sudden spike in prices on a normal, public exchange, and probably end up paying a much higher cost basis because of it. These off-exchange trades account for about one third of all stock volume. You can then use data of market maker activity in these dark pools to figure out what institutions have been doing, the most notable indicators being [DIX](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://squeezemetrics.com/monitor/download/pdf/short_is_long.pdf?&sa=D&ust=1592178959519000) by SqueezeMetrics. + +Another metric they offer is [GEX](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://squeezemetrics.com/download/white_paper.pdf&sa=D&ust=1592178959519000), or gamma exposure. The idea behind this is that market markets who sell option contracts, typically don’t want to (or can’t legally) take an actual position in the market; they can only provide liquidity. Hence, they have to hedge their exposure from the contracts they wrote by going long or short on the stocks they wrote contracts to. This is called delta-hedging, with delta representing exposure to the movement of a stock. With options, there’s gamma, which represents the change in delta as the stock price moves. So as stock prices move, the market maker needs to re-hedge their positions by buying or selling more shares to remain delta-neutral. GEX is a way to show the total exposure these market makers have to gamma from contracts to predict stock price movements based on what market makers must do to re-hedge their positions. + +Now, let’s look at what these indicators have been doing the past week or so. + +[DIX & GEX](https://preview.redd.it/jk6j56bijy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e7a7edb113965f93e64fb5a4cd28a48a6d769e7) + +In the graph above, an increasing DIX means that institutions are buying stocks in the S&P500, and an increasing GEX means that market makers have increasing gamma exposure. The DIX whitepaper, it has shown that a high DIX is often correlated with increased near-term returns, and in the GEX whitepaper, it shows that a decreased GEX is correlated with increased volatility due to re-hedging. It looks like from last week’s crash, we had institutions buy the dip and add to their current positions. There was also a sudden drop in GEX, but it looks like it’s quickly recovered, and we’ll see volatility decreased next week. Overall, we’re getting bullish signals from institutional activity. + +# Bubbles and Market Sentiment + +I’ve long held that the stock market and the economy has been in a [decade-long bubble](https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/ghcfn5/dddd_the_20102020_liquidityfueled_asset_bubble/) caused by liquidity pumping from the Fed. Recently, the bubble has been accelerated and it’s becoming clearer to people that we are in a bubble. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t short the bubble, but play along with it until it bursts. Bubbles are driven by pure sentiment, and this can be a great contrarian indicator to what stage of the bubble we are in. You want to be a bear when the market is overly greedy and a bull when the market is overly bearish. One of the best tools to measure this is the equity put / call ratio. + +[Put \/ Call Ratio](https://preview.redd.it/wtprhzmjjy451.png?width=1446&format=png&auto=webp&s=4f4f58964d6232be00a8b05748245f23939b18fb) + +The put/call ratio dropped below 0.4 last week, something that’s almost never happened and has almost always been immediately followed up by a correction - which it did this time as well. A low put / call ratio is usually indicative of an overly-greedy market, and a contrarian indicator that a drop is imminent. However, right after the crash, the put/call ratio absolutely skyrocketed, closing right above 0.71 on Friday, above the mean put / call ratio for the entire rally since March’s lows. In other words, a ton of money has just been poured into SPY puts expecting to profit off of a downtrend. In fact, it’s possible that the Wednesday correction itself has been exasperated by delta hedging from SPY put writers. However, this sudden spike above the mean for put/call ratio is a contrarian indicator that we will now see a continued rally. + +# Technicals + +[Magic Markers on SPY, Daily](https://preview.redd.it/xdwxv1qkjy451.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=801d0425ffa2fd28ca7afdcf312968778094d494) + +With Technical Indicators, there’s a few things to note + +* 1D RSI on SPY was definitely overbought last week, and I should have taken this as a sign to GTFO from all my long positions. The correction has since brought it back down, and now SPY has even more room to go further up before it becomes overbought again +* 1D MACD crossed over on Wednesday to bearish - a very strong bearish indicator, however 1W MACD is still bullish +* For the bulls, there’s very little price levels above 300, with a small possible resistance at 313, which is the 79% fib retracement. SPY has never actually hit this price level, and has gapped up and down past this price. Below 300, there’s plenty of levels of support, especially between 274 and 293, which is the range where SPY consolidated and traded at for April and May. This means that a movement up will be met with very little resistance, while a movement down will be met with plenty of support +* The candles above 313 form an island top pattern, a pretty rare and strong bearish indicator. + +The first line of defense of the bulls is 300, which has historically been a key support / resistance level, and is also the 200D SMA. So far, this price level has held up as a solid support last week and is where all downwards price action in SPY stopped. Overall, there’s very mixed signals coming from technical indicators, although there’s more bearish signals than bullish. + +**My Strategy for Next Week** + +While technicals are pretty bearish, retail and institutional activity and market sentiment is indicating that the market still continue to rally. My strategy for next week will depend on whether or not the market opens above or below 300. I’m currently mostly holding long volatility positions, that I’ve started existing on Friday. + +**The Bullish case** + +If 300 proves to be a strong support level, I’ll start entering bullish positions, following my previous strategy of going long on weak sectors such as airlines, cruises, retail, and financials, once they break above the 24% retracement and exit at the 50% retracement. This is because there’s very little price levels and resistance above 300, so any movements above this level will be very parabolic up to ATHs, as we saw in the beginning of 2020 and again the past two weeks. If SPY moves parabolic, the biggest winners will likely be the weakest stocks since they have the most room to go up, with most of the strongest stocks already near or above their ATHs. During this time, I’ll be rolling over half of my profits to VIX calls of various expiry dates as a hedge, and in anticipation of any sort of rug pull for when this bubble does eventually pop. + +**The Bearish case** + +For me to start taking bearish positions, I’ll need to see SPY open below 300, re-test 300 and fail to break above it, proving it to be a resistance level. If this happens, I’ll start entering short positions against SPY to play the price levels. There’s a lot of price levels between 300 and 274, and we’d likely see a lot of consolidation instead of a big crash in this region, similar to the way up through this area. Key levels will be 300, 293, 285, 278, and finally 274, which is the levels I’d be entering and exiting my short positions in. + +I’ve also been playing with WLL for the past few months, but that has been a losing trade - I forgot that a market can remain irrational longer than I can remain solvent. I’ll probably keep a small position on WLL puts in anticipation of the court hearing for the disclosure statement, but I’ve sold most of my existing positions. + +# Live Updates + +As always, I'll be posting live thoughts related to my personal strategy here for people asking. + +6/15 2AM - /ES looking like SPY is going to gap down tomorrow. Unless there's some overnight pump, we'll probably see a trading range of 293-300. + +6/15 10AM - Exited any remaining long positions I've had and entered short positions on SPY @ 299.50, stop loss at 301. Bearish case looking like it's going to play out + +6/15 10:15AM - Stopped out of 50% of my short positions @ 301. Will stop out of the rest @ 302. Hoping this wasn't a stop loss raid. Also closed out more VIX longer-dated (Sept / Oct) calls. + +6/15 Noon - No longer holding any short positions. Gap down today might be a fake out, and 300 is starting to look like solid support again, and 1H MACD is crossing over, with 15M remaining bullish. Starting to slowly add to long positions throughout the day, starting with CCL, since technicals look nice on it. Also profit-took most of my VIX calls that I bought two weeks ago + +6/15 2:30PM - Bounced up pretty hard from the 300 support - bull case looks pretty good, especially if today's 1D candle completely engulphs the Friday candle. Also sold another half of my remaining long-dated VIX calls - still holding on to a substantial amount (\~10% of portfolio). Will start looking to re-buy them when VIX falls back below 30. Going long on DAL as well + +6/15 11:30PM - /ES looking good hovering right above 310 right now. Not many price levels above 300 so it's hard to predict trading ranges since there's no price levels and SPY will just go parabolic above this level. Massive gap between 313 and 317. If /ES is able to get above 313, which is where the momentum is going to right now, we might see a massive gap up and open at 317 again. If it opens below 313, we might see the stock price fade like last week. + +6/15 Noon - SPY filled some of the gap, but then broke below 313. 15M MACD is now bearish. We might see gains from today slowly fade, but hard to predict this since we don't have strong price levels. Will buy more longs near EOD if this happens. Still believe we'll be overall bullish this week. GE is looking good. + +6/16 2PM - Getting worried about 313 acting as a solid resistance; we'll either probably gap up past it to 317 tomorrow, or we might go all the way back down to 300. Considering taking profit for some of my calls right now, since you'll usually want to sell into resistance. I might alternatively buy some 0DTE SPY puts as a hedge against my long positions. Will decide by 3:30 depending on what momentum looks like + +6/16 3PM - Got some 1DTE SPY puts as a hedge against my long positions. We're either headed to 317 tomorrow or go down as low as 300. Going to not take the risk because I'm unsure which one it'll be. Also profit-took 25% of my long positions. Definitely seeing the 313 + gains fade scenario I mentioned yesterday + +6/17 1:30AM - /ES still flat struggling to break through 213. If we don't break through by tomorrow I might sell all my longs. Norwegian announced some bad news AH about cancelling Sept cruises. If we move below $18.20 I'll probably sell all my remaining positions; luckily I took profit on CCL today so if options do go to shit, it'll be a relatively small loss or even small gain. + +6/17 9:45AM - SPY not being able to break through 313/314 (79% retracement) is scaring me. Sold all my longs, and now sitting on cash. Not confident enough that we're actually going back down to 300, but no longer confident enough on the bullish story if we can't break 313 to hold positions + +6/17 1PM - Holding cash and long-term VIX calls now. Some interesting things I've noticed + +1. 1H MACD will be testing a crossover by EOD +2. Equity put/call ratio has plummeted. It's back down to 0.45, which is more than 1 S.D. below the mean. We reached all the way down to 0.4 last time. Will be keeping a close eye on this and start buying for VIX again + SPY puts we this continues falling tomorrow + +6/17 3PM - Bought back some of my longer-dated VIX calls. Currently slightly bearish, but still uncertain, so most of my portfolio is cash right now. + +6/17 3:50PM - SPY 15M MACD is now very bearish, and 1H is about to crossover. I'd give it a 50% chance we'll see it dump tomorrow, possibly towards 300 again. Entered into a very small position on NTM SPY puts, expiring Friday + +6/18 10AM - 1H MACD is about to crossover. Unless we see a pump in the next hour or so, medium-term momentum will be bearish and we might see a dump later today or tomorrow. + +6/18 12PM - Every MACD from 5M to 1D is now bearish, making me believe we'd even more likely see a drop today or tomorrow to 300. Bought short-dates June VIX calls. Stop loss for this and SPY puts @ 314 and 315 + +6/18 2PM - Something worth noting: opex is tomorrow and max pain is 310, which is the level we're gravitating towards right now. Also quad witching, so should expect some big market movements tomorrow as well. Might consider rolling my SPY puts forward 1 week since theoretically, this should cause us to gravitate towards 310 until 3PM on Friday. + +6/18 3PM - Rolled my SPY puts forward 1W in case theory about max pain + quad witching end up having it's theoretical effect. Also GEX is really high coming towards options expiry tomorrow, meaning any significant price movements will be damped by MM hedging. Might not see significant price movements until quad witching hour tomorrow 3PM + +6/18 10PM - DIX is very high right now, at 51%, which is very bullish. put/call ratio is still very low though. Very mixed signals. Will be holding positions until Monday or SPY 317 before reconsidering them. + +6/18 2PM - No position changes. Coming into witching hour we're seeing increased volatility towards the downside. Looking good so far +I am an ape, not a financial advisor. While i was eating my wifes boyfriends 🍌 I stumbled upon this nice read from r/investing. I didnt write this. simply passing on what I saw and before you apes hate just take some time to read and hopefully lift your spirits back up from the battle. + +GME Options data shows Shorts think you'll disband by March + +Just wanted everyone to take a look at this write up DD below. + +Hope it helps bring some clarity. Tried to post it in thread but it has images so can't + +&#x200B; + +[https://www.evernote.com/shard/s233/client/snv?noteGuid=a28b4aad-6e75-048d-7e47-f706dd007f36&noteKey=855a749d7ccce4ff3810afb4aaba709d&sn=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs233%2Fsh%2Fa28b4aad-6e75-048d-7e47-f706dd007f36%2F855a749d7ccce4ff3810afb4aaba709d&title=GME%2BOptions%2Bdata%2Bshows%2BShorts%2Bthink%2Byou%2527ll%2Bdisband%2Bby%2BMarch](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s233/client/snv?noteGuid=a28b4aad-6e75-048d-7e47-f706dd007f36&noteKey=855a749d7ccce4ff3810afb4aaba709d&sn=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs233%2Fsh%2Fa28b4aad-6e75-048d-7e47-f706dd007f36%2F855a749d7ccce4ff3810afb4aaba709d&title=GME%2BOptions%2Bdata%2Bshows%2BShorts%2Bthink%2Byou%2527ll%2Bdisband%2Bby%2BMarch) + +edit: TLDR: 🍌🙌🙌💎💎🚀🚀🚀 +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. + +STOP ASKING ABOUT THE NEXT DIP AND READ CAREFULLY + +It's pointless to try and time the market. Bitcoin has an average of 200% gains every year since it was invented. I am not a day trader, I don't give a flying fuck what the new "price floor" is. As someone who has been watching the market for 7 years I can tell you this: Buy as much of it as you can whenever you can afford it. Wait 5 years, and thank me. Every single person with experience will tell you the same thing. STOP TRYING TO TIME THE MARKET AND JUST BUY. I could give you my opinion about the short term price action, but I could be wrong and it doesn't really matter anyways. The money you may save is not enough to justify sitting on the side lines. If it hits 220K this year and falls back to 50k, then you will just tell yourself it's too late and "I should have bought in at $33,000". DO YOU GET IT YET? If you buy in at $33k and it falls, to $20k, who the fuck cares? Buy more. In 5 years your $33k buy will be worth a shit load. Not to mention you will be a part of the new monetary network. + +Even though I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN, I can tell you what I personally think will happen. 30k is our support level for now until price breaks bullish. It will have an incredible run up to somewhere near 220k and fall to an unknown level. Could be 50k, could be 100k. I doubt it will fall below 40k ever again after it makes this run because there are too many strong hands in Bitcoin now unlike 2017. Historical data is useless when talking Bitcoin because it's an emerging technology unlike other comparative assets. There is no guarantee of anything. If you buy in at 200k IT IS STILL A SMART MOVE because I think Bitcoin's true value is in the millions. + +This is not financial advise. Sometimes I put my finger in my butt and smell it, hard. +Hard to find detailed information about heli skiing online, since it's such a niche activity. Curious if anyone here heli skis regularly. What advice can you offer? Stuff like Interior BC vs Alaska vs Elsewhere? How not to get put in a Jerry group? How to get the most out of a trip? Etc +So, as you may know we have advertising budget on the subreddit thanks to your kind donations. Since Reddit is kind enough to advertise us for free with a sidebar ad, that money has been sitting idly by waiting for some good thing to spend it on. + +Last time we used the money was to sponsor [a StarCraft 2 tournament](http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-tournaments/438453-bitcoin-starcraft-scarlett-vs-naniwa-for-14btc) organized by [TotalBiscuit](https://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut). A lot of people enjoyed the show and we as mods thought it was money well spent promoting Bitcoin. + +Today we figured, why not continue working with TotalBiscuit to promote our subreddit and currency? Luckily enough, he is running an esports team - [Axiom](http://www.axiomesports.com/), and they are taking sponsorship deals. + +---- + +So, here is roughly the deal we are talking about: + +- We would like to sponsor Axiom for a trial period of 6 months +- After that period if we like how the deal is going, we can extend the sponsorship deal further +- We estimate to spend about $4000-$5000 worth of our advertisement budget on this (at the moment [we have about $14k in the bank](https://blockexplorer.com/q/getreceivedbyaddress/16KaCJB7fVuT6hvA7wzgzVjAnHz28bNvvh)) + +What we get from this deal? Branding on: + +- axiomesports.com +- All proplayer twitters +- All proplayer streams +- @axiomesports twitter +- Physical branding on team uniform sleeve +- Ingame branding in Gameheart supported tournaments + +As well as some small in-house Starcraft tournament. + +---- + +At the moment we as mods are for the idea, but we would like to know your opinion. Would you like us to spend your generous donations on this? +My net income went from ~$3500/month to $13,500/month and that’s without any overtime. Some of this money is from unused stipends which is untaxed and not counted towards income. I make $70/hr hourly so roughly $10,000/month thats taxed. I will be taking home rounghly $53,000 by the end of this contract come the end of April. I’m not counting on this income to last forever, but I want to make smart investments now that will set me up for the future. + I have $26,000 invested in a 403b through Fidelity over the last 3 years at my old job with that I’m still technically employed at. I put in about $2500 into 403b roth this year. Can I still contribute to my 403b by transferring money from my checking? The only way I know how to contribute is through my paycheck and I haven’t had one there in 2 months. I’d like to max out my Roth contributions, can I make up the difference through a Roth IRA? I can contribute to a 401k through my agency, but they won’t match (3%) until I’ve worked with them roughly 6 months. There is also a chance I could switch agencies for different contracts so I may never have any employer matching. + My level of financial/investing knowledge is limited, but I’ve always been responsible. I didn’t start my career until later in life and I’m trying to play catch up financially. I’m doing my best to learn I just need to know where to start. + As mentioned I just bought a house for 245,000 with 5% down. I have a loan for about $232,000 with a 3.25% interest rate. Part of me really wants to pay off another 15% so I can have the PMI removed (~$40/month), but I realize there may be better places to put my money. + Finally, My fiance (getting married in September) is a teacher and her income is roughly $3,000 per month. She has a pension and a 403b I thought about just having her put most of her check into her retirement funds. +Sorry for the lengthy post and thank you in advance. + +edit: I forgot to mention that portion of my income is stipend money which is untaxed. so If I was to maintain this rate all year it would be $127,000/year. Mind you my rates can fluctuate so I may be making less in 4 months or possibly more depending on the needs. +Now, with a lot of smoke clearing bit by bit around the situation of last several days (by smoke meaning the very variable estimations of exactly how much money and how many banks and investors are losing on this Archegos fiasco) is surfacing an interesting possibility - They may not have owned much of the actual securities, "if any at all." + +&#x200B; + +[Bloomberg article](https://preview.redd.it/l9t3e77416q61.png?width=1304&format=png&auto=webp&s=e98d800a65c0a46db995ea1c0510c6454125da0f) + +How is this even possible? Is this a common "business model"? + +How big is the SECs blindspot? + +[Link to the full article](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-29/billions-in-secretive-derivatives-at-center-of-archegos-blowup) +I have always been a vocal advocate that the Motley Fool is close to a scam in the world of investment advice. Their recommendations don't work and they window-dress their mutual fund products by closing down underperforming mutual funds (survivorship bias). + +In [this article](https://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2015/03/08/tips-treasury-inflation-protected-securities.aspx), The Motley Fool clearly doesn't understand how Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) work and overstates its protection against inflation to be twice of what it actually is: + +> Here's how it works: every month, the government releases the latest reading on the CPI. The Treasury then boosts the principal value of every TIPS issue by that same amount. Interest payments are calculated based on the changing inflation-adjusted principal value. For instance, say inflation **rose 1%** over the course of a given year. A bond initially issued for $1,000 would see its principal amount rise $10 to $1,010. If those bonds pay 1% interest **every six months**, then **the next interest payment would be $10.10** rather than $10, because of the boost from inflation. + +I have highlighted the error part. First, there is a minor error that the face value is adjusted by inflation, not the change of inflation. Second, there is a material error that the interest (coupon) payment is actually calculated based on a face value adjusted for the inflation **during the period equal to the payment frequency**, not "inflation over a given year". In the example, if inflation is 1% that year, then US Treasury will deem inflation to be only 0.5% for the six month period, and the interest payment will be only $10.05. + +I hope all fixed-income traders understand these products correctly and not misinformed by bad people. + +----------------------------------------------------------- + +Edit: Some good points brought up here by people. This afternoon I asked a specialized in this field for explanation. He told me I'm right and there are indeed some newer fixed income traders who can understand TIPS better. He informed me the US TIPS is just the way it is: semiannual coupon interest payments, and based on semiannual inflation rate. + +He said it is impossible to predict what will the US Treasury do if one day they decide to offer annual pay TIPS or monthly pay TIPS, and therefore it is too bold for me to assume their will use annual and monthly inflation for these hypothetical products that don't exist. He also said he has seen some foreign (non-US) inflation-indexed bonds that have payment intervals in one length and are based on the CPI in the period of a different length. + +For industry practitioners, an example that explains the mechanism of these products can be referenced in your level 1 curriculum volume 5 book's page 327: Exhibit 7 (Lemuria). + As companies continue to clear low hurdles, stocks and their related ETFs are sent soaring. Nowhere is this more evident than in the semiconductor sector. This is especially troublesome when company management in large part is forecasting another flat to negative year across the board. + + [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/semiconductor-stocks-are-bubbly-as-companies-sales-are-worse-than-most-investors-think-2019-11-25](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/semiconductor-stocks-are-bubbly-as-companies-sales-are-worse-than-most-investors-think-2019-11-25) +It's Sunday and as I lay here in my bed browsing Superstonk, I can't help but wonder what could possibly be in store for us GME holding apes. + +I daydream of MOASS and tendies, but I really have become attached to my beloved GME shares, and I want to hold onto them forever. Every share sold is a forfeiture of GME dividends that share holds rights to. I want to keep them ALL. + +So I'm thinking about the posts we've all read about taking loans out against our hodlings. But doesn't a loan charge interest and require payments made against it? Won't that mean that *eventually* you'd have to sell shares to cover the payments on the loan? Hmmm... + +What if our Chairman had another option in mind? What if there was another way for shareholders to get our tendies *without* having to sell any of our shares? + +Now this is pure Tinfoil Hat Theory, and I have nothing to back this up other than my smoothe brain and a box of snack crayons... + +But what *if* GameStop actually *does* issue an NFT dividend. Are shorts going to need those NFTs? Are *naked* shorts going to be *desperate* for those NFTs? + +I don't know. We'll just have to wait and find out. We may never get an NFT dividend. But if we do get one, then every legitimate share will get one as well. + +Won't every naked short owe an NFT as well? Where are they going to get these NFT's from? I think the logical explanation is they get them from the apes and institutions that have them. I wonder what the floor price will be on those NFTs? My bet is that those NFT's will be going for the same phone numbers that the shares are going to be bid up to because apes are not going to want to part with them. + +In my opinion apes that paper hand their NFTs for chump change are going to have sellers remorse when there's not enough NFT's to go around and the price launches on *another* rocket to the moon. Bitc0in is going to be nothing compared to the price of a GME NFT dividend token if apes diamond hand them just as tight as the shares themselves. + +I see two rockets launching towards the moon. One is the GME share price. The other is (Tinfoil hat) the Top Secret NFT dividend resale price on the open and fair market. + +Now I am just a smoothe brain making stuff up off the top of my head trying to entertain myself and possibly jack some titties as I daydream about what may possibly come. + +We have no idea if there will actually be a NFT dividend, but things are sure lining up nicely, are they not? + +If there is an NFT dividend, I personally think that there will be a secondary market for those tokens. I think this is the *Second Rocket* going into outer space. The floor is whatever it is. Personally, I'm waiting for a phone number. + +TLDR: IMO there is potential for TWO rockets launching towards the moon. One is the GME share price, the other is the potential GME NFT dividend resale market price. If the NFT price skyrockets, apes can sell their NFTs for mountains of tendies to naked short sellers without ever having to sell a single share of GME. +Just now, US CPI has offically been released and comes in at 8.5%. That's a good margin below the estimates of 8.7% and massively below last month's CPI of 9.1%. Markets will now probably start to rally. And that lower inflation was crucial for Crypto to continue its rally and expand it further on. + +Also in my yesterday's post about inflation numbers I layed out the scenario of a lower than 8.7% inflation and that will mostly happen now. + +It has especially been important as the FED will have no arguement at all now to do a 100bps hike and weay be looking at a 50bps hike next month that could make markets pump even more as the FED is looking to pivot now. Who knows whether inflation has peaked now bit the US government will definitely make it market like that as we are going into Midterm elections. Crypto will have less moving forward from the FED and a reversal, at least for now, is actually possible. +Lots of people talk about switching careers to something less stressful (and presumably less lucrative) after hitting their FI number. For those of you that fall into this group, what do you have in mind? + +Personally, I'd love to find a flexible job that would allow me to schedule my hours when I want. Pilots, for example, can bid on which trips they want each month, but that's not a career you simply pick up. I've been wondering if the baggage handlers have a similar work structure. I'd gladly trade salary for some travel perks :) +I discussed this a little while back in one of the daily threads so not sure if you are discussing me or not. I have built up a portfolio of 15 rental units in the last 4 years with a partner. + +I knew I wanted to invest in real estate as soon as I read Rich Dad Poor Dad maybe 10-12 years ago. I was still a bit risk averse, so I wanted to do it with a partner rather than on my own. That way I had half the cost, half the risk, and half the work if things went really bad. I asked around for 4 or 5 years for anyone interested, and I probably had 10 people say they wanted to do it with me. However, when it came down to it, no one actually followed through. + +Enter four years ago when I posed the question to another like minded friend of mine, and he was gung ho. We bought our first property about 4 years ago when the market was still flooded with foreclosures. Great up and coming area of town, great price, just needed a lot of work. We did a lot of the work ourselves, even though we both had full time jobs, and rented it out quickly (sidenote: the tenant is still there today). + +We were instantly hooked. We also realized we did not want to do the renovations anymore, so have gone through numerous different contractors and have finally found one that is fantastic. We also no longer manage the properties, we pay a 3rd party manager 8% of the rents to manage for us. + +Each property cash flows maybe $200 to $300 on average per month. In addition, each property has about $100 of principal paydown per month. This is in addition to the tax benefits from depreciation, and what appreciation we do get. + +We typically buy the properties with cash, fix them up, rent them out, and refinance with a lender pulling most of our cash out and rolling it into another property. + +We are investing for cash flow and not depending on appreciation though. We live in an area of the country with pretty affordable housing that doesn't have the big booms, but also thankfully doesn't have the big busts. + +Since we don't manage, we don't have the dreaded "fix my toilet" phone calls. We also don't have to chase down rent. We've never had a trashed unit and we've never had an eviction (knock on wood, I'm sure it happens at some point). + +Our goal is to acquire 5-7 units a year for several more years, focus on paying them down, and then when we retire we can live off the income. + +If you have any other questions let me know, I love talking about this stuff! + +Edit: I'll be around some more this weekend if you have any questions! +I recently found out that there’s a negative tax rate for eligible Canadian dividends. + +1. How do I find out which ones are eligible? +2. The negative rate is only on dividends, not the capital gain when selling, correct? +3. Is it a good idea to have dividend heavy stocks in my personal account for this reason only? I maxed out TFSA & RRSP and am investing for long term (~35 years min). I was thinking of VFV and VCN originally, but wondering if buying individual stocks or ETFs that are more dividend heavy is beneficial in the personal account for this reason? +I've recently gotten interested in investing after seeing all of the recent activity with the WSB guys. I opened up a TSFA with WS and I was wondering if anybody has any advice about initial moves. I'm not interested in the yoloing on meme stocks. I'm looking to put what money I have leftover each month into the account and trying to grow it in the long run. I've been reading up on ETFs like VGRO and XGRO and they seem to show pretty stable growth. I'm not looking for anything in depth or DD but any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated +I recently exited my company and benefited from a "large" sum of money (>$10M) . + +I've spoken to various Wealth Managers but am strongly inclined to dollar-cost-average into a 80/20 equity/fixed income mix which would be largely Vanguard based ETFs. + +Questions: + +* Would you let Wealth Managers manage this for you? (fees at ~0.5%) +* If not, at what rate would you buy into the market? +* What would you do with the money that isn't in the market? + +I'm in my early forties, no debt, no children and a low personal burn rate. + +....yes, I fully realize these are "champagne problems", but curious what people would do in this scenario. +Like the title says, I'm in my mid 30s and exploring the options to retire early, as I'm also considering retiring in a fairly LCOL country/town - just pointing that out to clarify that I don't need a massive portfolio to succeed with this idea. + +In order to achieve that, my strategy - which probably works more in my head than it does in reality - is to invest in high yield ETFs such ZWC, ZWS, ZWE, VDY, VYM, VRE, etc etc. + +That would enable me to experience the consistent monthly (and/or quarterly) income first-hand, while keeping me easily motivated as well as making the progress tracking extremely simple. + +Now, while I don't need any of that income during the portfolio-building years, I would re-invest every last cent back into the portfolio and let the compounding help my regular monthly contributions. + +So I would watch my portfolio yield $50/month, then $100 and then $200 and so on until I reach the number I'm comfortable with and can live off of for the rest of my life. Just for comparison with my next paragraph and question, let's say it is $30k/year and that I'd need roughly a $600k portfolio. + +Is this completely crazy at this point in life? Or would I be better off investing in something like VGRO (which is currently 100% of my portfolio) and then convert into high yield ETFs when I reach the portfolio value of said $600k? + +Thank you very much in advance and I'm looking forward to suggestions and comments! + +P.S. I've read a ton of articles and posts, as well as watched dozens of hours of Youtube videos lately, and I got the sense that there is some tension when income investing is mentioned. Having said that, I'm not looking to start a war here, I'm just thinking income investing suits my psychological profile better and therefore it has greater chances of success for me. But also, I want to keep an open mind and do the smart thing in the end - without just listening to my gut feeling. Hope this makes sense. If you've gotten this far - thanks again for reading all this! + +\-- + +EDIT: Just got through all the replies - thank you so much guys! Not only have you helped me tremendously, but I've also found a lot of replies very inspiring and motivational. + +For now, until (or unless) I devise a better strategy, I will simply stick with VGRO. I feel like most of you opted for growth here, so I think I can't really go wrong with that approach. And honestly, I'm still not certain if I should hold individual dividend stocks, or high dividend ETFs, or covered call ETFs, REITs or any combination of those. Finally, as some of you have said, I can always convert/rebalance my portfolio into income, once the target is reached. + +So yeah, for now just VGRO and keep learning and researching. + +Thanks again, I hope you're all safe out there and have a great holidays! Cheers. +The question is simple, if I work for a company, can I buy shares of the company in my brokerage account? The company is listed in the Toronto exchange. + +No, I don’t work the financial department, but we have meetings where the CEO communicate how the company is doing. +Good morning! I've been preparing that I want to open an EQ bank account for my emerg funds and possible ladder a few GICs in the future. I see a lot of complaints about Flink from EQ to their banks as it voids TOS. + +As a wealthsimple investor, I am curious why I haven't seen any complaints about linking accounts with them? Does Wealth handle it differently than EQ? +Let me begin by stating that there are many of you who, despite any evidence to the contrary, I will not be able to convince. There are those of you who were, or know somebody who was, burned by Bombardier in the past. Maybe you bought in just before the 2015/2016 bankruptcy scare, or maybe you bought in at the peak of 2018, or maybe you bought in just before COVID, only to watch your investment wither down to a quarter, and maybe some of you sold on the way down, and lost a lot of money just to get the heck out. Listen, I get it, it hurts, it’s like a kick in stomach, it’s a rough game man, it’s like a casino out there, and sometimes the house wins. Fast forward a few months/years, and now, after all your pain, and all your suffering, those incompetent, crooked, nepotistic, family and friends of the family get bailed out with taxpayer money, in fact, not only are they getting bailed out, they’re giving themselves bonuses because they were able to get the bailout, so they pat themselves on the back and congratulate their brilliance with taxpayer money! Those fuckers. And to top it all off, afterwards, the share price goes back up, way up, so far up it doesn’t even make sense. So you say to yourself, “well, it’ll go back down, just wait and see.” And in the mean time, you think to yourself fuck it, it’s too volatile, management is corrupt, it’s going bankrupt, and they’ll never get another penny from me. If this is you, then please know that I understand why I will never convince you. No amount of reason can change a person’s core belief, especially when that belief is forged in pain, and tempered with deep losses. And please understand that this post is not for you. If you’re ready to get hurt again, read on, if not, all good, thanks for your time so far, I wish you the best of luck, don’t bother reading the rest. + +&#x200B; + +Okay, now that that’s out of the way let me be perfectly transparent about a few things. Number one, I own approximately 335,000 shares of Bombardier, which I purchased at around $0.60 CAD. I want to see, and will benefit tremendously from, an increase in their share price. If you decide to read this post, and agree with my point of view, and subsequently decide to buy shares, and thus increase the share price, I will directly benefit. Number two, this is a very volatile, and hence very risky company to invest in. I have not YOLO’d my entire portfolio in to this, and neither should you. Number three, this is not a short squeeze, or a pump and dump, or a meme stock, or any of the other type of harebrained *DD* that seem to have flooded every investment sub recently. This will not double your money overnight, nor even in a year, this will take three to four years and might not even happen at all, and you probably shouldn’t be day-trading this. And lastly, I am not a professional, farthest thing from it. In fact you would have to be incapable of rational thought to pay me for any kind of advice. I am a university student who has only completed one introductory accounting class, one corporate finance class, and am half-way through a financial derivatives course. I am in no way qualified to give any kind of advice, including life advice, and I’m probably not even qualified to brush my own teeth. All clear? Alright, now who wants to make some god damned money! + +&#x200B; + +My plan is to lay out my position in about 4 steps. First I will show why Bombardier is not immediately about to go bankrupt. Then I will briefly touch on, but not in detail as I leave this to you, their projections. Then, I will show why I believe the 250% increase in share price has already been factored in Bombardier’s preferred shares. Then, I will use enterprise value and projected EBITDA to derive my projected share price. + +&#x200B; + +A series of common complaints about Bombardier is that they’re broke, they have too much debt, they can’t afford to pay their debt when it comes due, they’re going bankrupt, etc.. I assert that, **Bombardier is not teetering on the brink of bankruptcy** **due to their debt**. Why? Because all of Bombardier’s bonds are currently trading either between 3% and 5% above par, OR are within pennies of trading at par. As far as the bond market is concerned, Bombardier’s ability to pay its coupons for the foreseeable future is not in question, and the bond market’s confidence is back to pre-pandemic levels. Bankrupt companies, companies that are soon to be bankrupt, or even those whose ability to manage cash flows for interest expenses DO NOT HAVE BONDS THAT TRADE ABOVE PAR VALUE. Here is a screenshot showing all of the currently listed Bombardier notes with their symbols and CUSIP numbers for anybody who would like to check for themselves. + +[https://imgur.com/gEL1R4c](https://imgur.com/gEL1R4c) + +And, here is a series of screenshots of the bond price charts. Sometimes seeing is believing. What do you notice about the shape of all of the charts? Something spooked em real good a few months into 2020, but whatever it is seems to have faded away. Again, go check this out for yourselves. + +[https://imgur.com/2CGg5os](https://imgur.com/2CGg5os) + +The yield on Bombardier’s debt is between 5.5% and 8.75%, with the majority being close 7%. This means that should Bombardier need to raise money through a debt issuance, in order to say, roll over a maturing note, that they could very easily find money at non-usurious rates of interest. So, to anybody who says “well what about 20XX when XX million/billion comes due?”, the answer is very simple, they pay it down with cash, or they roll the debt over into a new offering, most likely at a better rate, and continue on with their day. The bond market is much, much larger than the stock market, and they employ veritable armies of very smart analysts whose job is literally to quantify the risk of default, and they know waaaaaay more about a company’s financial health than any of us do. They’re sentiment appears to be that Bombardier is not going to go bankrupt (in the near term, like say less than 3 years at least). + +&#x200B; + +Alrighty, so they’re not bankrupt, great, where do we go from here? Welp, I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass, no sir, I’ll let Bombardier do all the smoke blowing themselves. Here is the link to their Investor’s Day 2021 presentation. + +[https://bombardier.com/en/Investor-Day-2021-Presentation-20210304-en.pdf](https://bombardier.com/en/Investor-Day-2021-Presentation-20210304-en.pdf) + +In short, they have put together a fairly convincing path forward, and are projecting EBITDA at $1.5 billion by 2025. They have laid out how they will increase EBITDA by expanding aftermarket service and manufacturing efficiencies. They explain why they have made the switch to just business jet manufacturing, and why it’s a good thing. They also explain that they’re aware of the issues that the size of their debt causes, and state that they plan to make de-leveraging the balance sheet a priority. They also state that they don’t plan to de-leverage via an equity offering (thank God). Of course this is all stuff we’ve heard before from Bombardier, and that’s where the risk in this investment comes from. With that being said, their new management team is devoid of the usual friends of the family we’ve come to know and hate. They seem to know exactly what they need to do, and frankly, in my opinion have been making all the right moves. Read through their presentation yourselves for the details. I don’t remember if it was in the presentation or if Eric Martel said it during the Q&A, but he expects Bombardier to be a $7 Billion company by 2025. It’s extremely important that you read what they’ve put out yourselves, especially if you’ve been hurt before. If you don’t believe they’ve got a chance then you might as well stop reading now. + +EDIT: for anybody who's looking for a quality write-up on the bullish case for Bombardier, give this post, and all of the comments a read through. + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/m0l9by/why\_bombardier\_tripled\_in\_5\_months\_and\_why\_i/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/m0l9by/why_bombardier_tripled_in_5_months_and_why_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) + +&#x200B; + +Still here? Cool, wait, what’s that? Yes, I did say they expect to have a $7,000,000,000 market cap by 2025? Hang on a minute, if I recall… there’s about 2.4 billion shares, and so a market cap of $7 billion would give us something like $2.90/share, right? But like, if anybody actually believed all this, then the stock price would start to reflect that, right? But it isn’t, so it must not be, right? Well, I’ve already shown how the bond market believes this to be case, now let me show you why I believe this confidence is already priced in to their series 2, “B”, preferred share. I have analyzed (i.e.: plugged into Excel) close to 15 years of price history of BBD.B and BBD.PR.B (and the C and D series, more on why I don’t use them soon) and determined that there is a 0.91 coefficient of correlation between these two shares (for the last 14 years, I don’t have access to daily records prior). For any who don’t know, the coefficient of correlation (C.o.C.) is a measure of how strong the relationship between the movement of two variables is. It can range from -1, which means perfectly negatively correlated (when one goes up, the other goes down), to 0 (no discernible correlation at all) to 1 which means perfectly positively correlated (when one goes up, the other goes up as well). This is very easy to check for yourselves using the historical prices of both shares and Excel. Anyways, back to the C.o.C., a 0.91 C.o.C. can be considered to be an extremely strong positive correlation. So they tend to move together. Have a look at the chart I made from Excel and you can see for yourselves. + +[https://imgur.com/oR0r00I](https://imgur.com/oR0r00I) + +Pretty darn cool isn’t it? But here’s the fun part. Look at the trajectory of BBD.PR.B (the orange line) from April 2020 onward, and look at the trajectory of BBD.B (the blue line). Can you guess where I’m going with this? But first, a little more about the comparison. A preferred share is like a hybrid between a stock and a bond. They pay a fixed dividend every month/quarter, but they typically don’t get to participate in capital appreciation the way a common share would. I chose the B series preferred share because: of the three (B, C, and D) it had the highest coefficient of correlation, it cannot be converted to common shares at the option of Bombardier, and is fairly liquid. When I made this chart I noticed that the distance between the two follows a pattern, when things are good they’re relatively stable and maintain a similar distance, and when things are bad, they’re close together. So in the good times, I suppose this means there would be some kind of stable ratio between the two, and this might be useful in deriving the common share price. From this, I collected the ratios for the last 14+ years, dumped them into a histogram, and noticed the shape was similar to a log normal distribution (really, really cool!), with the mode ratio being in the 3.3-3.4 bin, then I found that the median ratio was 3.52 (if anybody wants to see the ratio histograms let me know). For my calculations I used the mode and the median, but not the mean as it’s very heavily affected by the high ratios from the COVID era, for any who care to know the mean ratios are 4.49 including COVID, and 3.64 when excluding COVID (March 6, 2020 and prior). I believe that this ratio can be used to derive the price of the common share because (I’m assuming) Bombardier’s preferred shares have, similar to the bonds, already priced in the pandemic recovery. BBD.PR.B closed at $8.99 on Monday April 5, and $8.99/3.35 = drum roll please… $2.68/share, and $8.99/3.52 = $2.55/share. This isn’t far off from $2.91/share projection using Martel’s numbers. The other two series of preferred shares yield very similar results. But wait, this isn’t really a meaningful analysis is it? Haven’t I just stumbled upon some kind of fascinating coincidence? Any kind of statistical analysis on this ratio doesn’t have any real value since the ratios aren’t really random, right? I mean, clearly my own bias would lead me to seek out something that would fit my own internal narrative, right? Friend, you’re absolutely correct! + +&#x200B; + +You won’t find my previous analysis in a textbook. Why? Well, probably because it’s junk, and some idiot just came up with it at home. But do you know what you will find in a textbook? Enterprise value and EBITDA multipliers! First, the formula for enterprise value is: **EV = Market Capitalization + Market Value of Debt – Cash and Equivalents.** That’s straight off of the Corporate Finance Institute’s website. + +[https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/valuation/what-is-enterprise-value-ev/](https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/valuation/what-is-enterprise-value-ev/) + +We should note that the debt and (mostly) equivalents to be included should only be those that are not used in the day to day operations of the company. Anyway, I calculate Bombardier’s current enterprise value to be about $14.8 billion USD. Yahoo Finance has it at $13.66 billion USD. + +[https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/BBD-B.TO/key-statistics?p=BBD-B.TO](https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/BBD-B.TO/key-statistics?p=BBD-B.TO) + +I’m not sure why there’s a difference, but in the end my numbers end up being more conservative. Anyways, what we’re looking for here the difference between EV and the current market cap. I calculate this to be about $12.95 billion USD. Since we know this difference, and we know how many shares there are, then if we knew what the enterprise value was in the future, we could derive an appropriate share price for the future as well. Well, how do we determine the enterprise value in the future? With EBITDA multipliers, that’s how! Also, I want to point out that I’m going to assume that the difference between EV and market cap is the same in the future. This is a conservative assumption as a decrease in debt yields a lower difference, and thus a higher share price in the end. Now, depending on where you look you will find a range of EBITDA multipliers for the aerospace industry. The lower end seems to be around 12. + +[http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/\~adamodar/New\_Home\_Page/datafile/vebitda.html](http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/vebitda.html) + +And the upper end seems to be about 14. In the link Bombardier’s current EV/EBITDA ratio is hidden, but you can see that they’ve got the aerospace industry at 14.66. + +[https://www.infrontanalytics.com/fe-EN/20001NC/Bombardier-Inc-/financial-ratios](https://www.infrontanalytics.com/fe-EN/20001NC/Bombardier-Inc-/financial-ratios) + +During Bombardier’s last peak in 2018 their EV/EBITDA ratio (the multiplier) was 18. I will of course use the conservative end of the range, 12. Okay, so now we’ve got a multiplier, and we’ve got an EBITDA projection from Bombardier (1.5 billion, from their own projections), so let’s find this projected enterprise value. $1,500,000,000 times 12, gives us an enterprise value of $18 billion. From this we need to subtract the difference between EV and market cap ($12.95 billion) which leaves us with a market cap of $5.05 billion USD. Now we can divide that by the number of shares outstanding (2.43 billion) and we get a projected share price of close to $2.07 USD. When we convert this into CAD (divide it by 0.8) we arrive at a CAD share price of, another drum roll please … $2.59! Hot dang diggity, that’s awful close to Martel’s projection, and even closer to my bogus preferred share ratio hocus pocus. For anybody who would like to check my math, or how I arrived at my original enterprise value, here’s a screen shot of my Excel calculations. + +[https://imgur.com/uAQMuYN](https://imgur.com/uAQMuYN) + +I’m not banking on this, but I feel like I should point out that if you use the upper end of the average EBITDA multiplier, or Bombardier’s previous ratio, the you get a projected share price of around $4, and $7 CAD respectively. Again, probably not going to happen, but it’s inside the model. + +&#x200B; + +So, there it is. My case for a 250% increase in the current share price ($0.97 CAD). Let me know what you think. Oh, and I’ve tried to provide a well reasoned argument, so I would appreciate well reasoned responses. Of course I know that some of you will simply reply with: nope, pass, turd alert, etc.. To which I will point out that if you can't articulate a point, especially after reading through 3000 words, you probably have a child's understanding of the situation, and ought not to be taken seriously anyway. To everyone else, I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose to invest in! +**What is ADMA Biologics?** + +* ADMA Biologics is an end-to-end commercial biopharmaceutical company committed to manufacturing, marketing and developing specialty plasma-derived products for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in the immune compromised and other patients at risk for infection. +* [Develop and commercialize plasma-derived globulins (antibodies) for the treatment and prevention of certain infectious diseases and management of immuno-comprimised patients.](https://www.admabiologics.com/about) +* Products target the likes of hepatitis B and primary humoral immunodeficiency (PI). +* 150,000 - 360,000 cases of PI a year, primarily in young adults and adolescents aging from 12 - 17 (in comparison, 37,800 new cases of HIV occurred in 2016) + +**Leadership and Management:** + +* [Adam S. Grossman](https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/17622015) (CEO and founder) - board member of ADMA Biologics and Plasma Protein Therapeutics. Previous positions include Executive Vice President of National Hospital Specialties and Executive VP-National Hospital Specialties at Genesis BPS LLC. Bachelor's degree from American University. +* [Brian Lenz](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-lenz-cpa-mba-945015a) (EVP and CFO) - 20 years of experience in financial, specifically in healthcare and pharma. Previous experience includes CorMedix, Smiths Detection, VioQuest and more. CPA certified, holds MBA from Saint Joseph’s University. +* [Dr. James Mond](https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/17701794) (Chief Scientific and Medical Officer) - M.D and Ph.D from NYU School of Medicine. Previous experience in a similar role at a company called Biosynexus. + +**What are their existing products?** + +**BIVIGAM** + +* Liquid solution containing 10% immunoglobulin G (IgG), intended for intravenous injection. +* Treats primary immunodeficiency (PI) +* Human immunoglobulin is purified from source human plasma and processed using a modified classical Cohn-Oncley fractionation procedure. +* [FDA approved](https://www.fda.gov/media/84782/download) for PI (2012) +* In a phase 3 study, seven patients (11.1%) experienced serious averse reactions. +* 94% of patients experience some form of averse reaction. + +[**Nabi-HB**](https://www.nabi-hb.com/nabi-hb-general-population/threat-of-hbv) + +* 92% of test subjects reported mild averse effects including but not limited to erythema, headache, and aching at the site of injection. +* Manufactured using FDA approved methodology of collecting plasma. +* About 4000 people die from chronic hepatitis B–related cirrhosis and 1500 die from hepatocellular carcinoma each year. +* The potency of each milliliter of Nabi-HB exceeds the potency of anti-HBs in a US reference hepatitis B immune globulin (FDA). The US reference has been tested against the WHO standard and found to be equal to 208 IU/mL. +* Multistep viral removal/activation system that eliminates and inactivates viruses to further ensure the safety of Nabi-HB +* [FDA approved. ](https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/approved-blood-products/nabi-hb) + +**What are their Pipeline Products?** + +* [*ADMA possesses a patent portfolio that targets strep pneumonia and other respiratory pathogens.*](https://www.admabiologics.com/our-pipeline) + +**ASCENIV** + +* Only IGIV product available manufactured using patented methodology for the screening and collection of plasma from donors +* Liquid solution containing 10% immunoglobulin G (IgG), intended for intravenous injection +* Treats PI, including but not limited to the humoral immune defect in congenital agammaglobulinemia, common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), X linked agammaglobulinemia, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and severe combined immunodeficiencies (SCID). +* In a 1-year, prospective, open-label, nonrandomized, multicenter, phase 3 study evaluating the efficacy and safety of ASCENIV in adult and pediatric patients with PI,[ zero serious acute bacterial infections were discovered.](https://www.asceniv.com/clinical-efficacy.html) +* [Fifty-eight subjects (98%) had an adverse reaction during clinical study. ](https://www.asceniv.com/clinical-safety.html)The proportion of subjects who had at least one adverse reaction was similar for both the 3- and 4-week cycles. The most common adverse reactions observed in this clinical trial were headache (22 subjects, 37%), sinusitis (16 subjects, 27%), and diarrhea (14 subjects, 23%). +* [FDA approved](https://www.fda.gov/media/122533/download) for PI (2019) +* Working with the FDA and the immunology and infectious disease community on developing a clinical investigation to evaluate use of ASCENIV in immune-compromised patients infected with or at-risk for RSV infection. +* Looking to get FDA approval to treat RSV infection. +* *Seems awfully similar to BIVIGAM* + +**Plasma-Derived Therapeutics:** + +* [Plasma-derived medicinal products ](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853983/)(PDMPs) are prepared industrially from human plasma by pharmaceutical companies and include products such as albumin, coagulation factors and immunoglobulins, which are life-saving therapeutics for several chronic and acute life-threatening diseases. +* Plasma protein therapies are not interchangeable and have been defined by regulators as sole-source biologic products because no generics or substitutions exist. +* [Capable of treating diseases including but not limited to](https://www.pptaglobal.org/plasma-protein-therapies): bleeding disorders such as hemophilia-a and -b, primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a disease affecting peripheral nerves (CIDP), liver diseases, severe bacterial infection, hepatitis, rabies, tetanus (often referred to as “lockjaw”), certain genetic diseases, and mass bleeding from trauma. +* Different types of therapy utilizing plasma exist. ADMA appears to primarily focus on immunoglobins. + +[**2020 Quarter 1 Financial Filings:**](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases/detail/467/adma-biologics-reports-first-quarter-2020-financial-results) + +* Total revenues of $10.2 Million, a 189% increase over first quarter 2019. +* Focus on strengthening commercial infrastructure. + * Aseptic filling machinery installed, Site Acceptance Testing completed and validation testing underway. + * Expansion of plasma collection center network continues on track with the commencement of collection center build-outs and the securing of additional locations. +* “Due to our strong foundation, we believe we are well positioned to not only weather the current macroeconomic challenges, but to continue to execute on our future growth plans.” +* Successful manufacture of three BIVIGAM conformance batches at an increased plasma pool scale, which has the potential to increase overall plant production capacity by approximately 50% or more. +* Received BioNJ 2020 Innovator Award in recognition of the development and approval of ASCENIV, ADMA’s novel, proprietary immune globulin product. +* Entered into a 5-year manufacturing and supply agreement with a third-party customer to produce and sell plasma-derived intermediate fractions from ADMA’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved IG manufacturing process. This agreement is expected to add $5-10 million per year in annual revenues for 2020 and 2021, and $10-20 million per year for 2022 through 2024. + +**Potential Risks and Negatives:** + +* From most recent 10-Q: “While ADMA has not experienced any significant decreases in its plasma collection operations to date, there have been reports that other plasma collection organizations are experiencing more meaningful declines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which could lead to potential plasma product supply constraints.” *In other words, they might run low on plasma to work with which could slow things down a little.* +* From Q1 filings: “Consolidated net loss for the first quarter of 2020 was $19.2 million, or $(0.26) per basic and diluted share, compared to a consolidated net loss of $13.1 million, or $(0.28) per basic and diluted share, for the first quarter of 2019. The increase in net loss of $6.2 million was primarily due to the increase in cost of product revenue of approximately $7.4 million, which increase is mainly a result of the investment made for the production of BIVIGAM’s conformance lots at an increased plasma pool production scale, which pertains specifically to our planned capacity expansion, as well as other production enhancement initiatives and supply chain investments at the Boca Facility.” +* [From most recent ](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/sec-filings/sec-filings/content/0001193805-20-000562/0001193805-20-000562.pdf)10-Q: “To date, we have generated limited product revenues, have a history of losses and will need to raise additional capital to operate our business, which may not be available on favorable terms, if at all.” +* From most recent 10-Q: “We anticipate that we will not be able to generate a sufficient amount of product revenue to achieve profitability before 2021 and, as a result, we anticipate that we will need to finance our operations through additional equity or debt financings or corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements.” *What I’m getting from this phrase is that they plan to have another offering within the next year.* +* From most recent 10-Q: “Even if we are able to raise additional capital, such financings may only be available on unattractive terms, resulting in significant dilution of stockholders’ interests and, in such event, the value and potential future market price of our common stock may decline.” +* [The company underperformed Q1 expectations.](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/ADMA/research-ratings) + +**Additional Notes:** + +* From most recent 10-Q: “We currently anticipate, based upon our projected revenue and expenditures, that our current cash, cash equivalents and accounts receivable, will be sufficient to fund our operations into the second quarter of 2021.” *Should be able to last a full fiscal year.* + +**Events Concerning Q2-Q4 and the Future:** + +* [On 5/21/20](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases/detail/470/adma-biologics-commences-collection-of-covid-19-plasma-from), AMDA announced their collection of plasma from patients recovered of COVID-19. +* [On 3/3/20](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases/detail/463/adma-biologics-highlights-expanded-intellectual-property), ADMA announced patent claims on proprietary immunotherapeutic compositions comprised of plasma derived immune globulin, which “has higher than normal titers for respiratory pathogens including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), multiple strains of coronavirus (OC43 and V229E), parainfluenza virus 1, parainfluenza virus 2, influenza A virus, influenza B virus, and metapneumovirus.” +* [On 2/11/20](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases/detail/461/adma-biologics-receives-bionj-2020-innovator-award-for), ADMA announced their receival of the BioNJ 2020 award for ASCENIV. +* [On 1/7/20](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases/detail/457/adma-biologics-enters-into-a-manufacturing-and-supply), ADMA announced their partnership with “an undisclosed partner to produce and sell plasma-derived intermediate fractions from ADMA’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Immune Globulin (IG) manufacturing process.” +* ADMA will attempt to have ASCENIV approved to treat RSV infections. + +**Important Dates:** + +* As of 6/12/20 there are no announced important dates in the near future. The last notable date was on 6/2 in their participation with Jefferies Virtual Healthcare Conference. +* [Link to press release page](https://www.admabiologics.com/investors/press-releases) + +**Target Prices:** + +* *As of 14:33, June 12th, 2020, the price of $ADMA sits at $2.89.* +* [WSJ ](https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/ADMA/research-ratings)sets high at $15, low at $6, and median at $9.50. +* [CNNMoney](https://money.cnn.com/quote/forecast/forecast.html?symb=adma) sets high at $15, low at $6 and median at $9.50. +* [MarketBeat ](https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/ADMA/price-target/)sets high at $12, low at $4, and average at $7.25. +* Consensus appears to be a buy. + +**Conclusion:** *Please note this section contains opinions. They should not influence your decisions.* + +I personally don’t really think this stock is good for a quick flip. Most of their main goals appear to be focused more on the long-term. In the short term, any significant change would likely come from any developments with the coronavirus plasma samples they took, but betting on that is just as good as betting on any other pharma working on it. My knowledge on the topic is not deep enough to form an accurate estimate on the effectiveness of plasma therapeutics in relation to COVID-19. Over a longer term, this symbol could gain value if they manage to get ASCENIV approved for RSV infection. In my very, very humble opinion, under current conditions, $ADMA will not rise significantly without reason in the near future. However, if you are looking for a longer term hold this could be a good option with relatively low risk. They already have a solid product, seem to have strong management and are sitting on a good pile of cash. +I went to a bank in Mumbai (State Bank of India) with my mom and grandfather running an errand. After waiting in line for 1.5 hours we made deposit. The person charged us a 100 Rupee "deposit fee". It simply blew my mind. + +Somebody from Mumbai verify this please. +Called Gamestop and they sent a replacement within 5 minutes, didn't even have to wait on hold to talk to someone. That's some great customer service! +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/yecqux9wx39a1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=7805acd1062c71794e4307f212c4fa6b84460766 + +**Not a single insider has added shares at these current deep discounts.** + +Ask yourself why wouldn't they add shares now. + +Ryan Cohen added 100,000 shares in March at split-adjusted prices from $24.20 to $27.20. Larry Cheng and Alain Attal also added shares in March at much higher prices than today. + +And what has happened since March? Here is a short list: + + +* Chrome Wallet launched +* NFT Marketplace launched +* iOS Wallet launched +* Became free cash flow positive in the latest quarter +* Streamlining staff and operations in an effort to be profitable very soon. + +So again, why aren't insiders adding shares at these deep discounts with the company firing on all cylinders? We are combing the couch cushions and adding every dollar we can. + +I speculate that the Insiders **CAN'T BUY SHARES** right now. Maybe it's the SEC/DOJ investigation that has been ongoing. Perhaps, it's the DTCC with a secret chill placed on our beloved stock based on the tokenized stock likely used as locates. + +Whatever the reason, Insiders not buying right now is extremely bullish to me. Because they should be adding (just like we are doing). +I'm wondering what people do to overcome greed when it comes to trading? I have been trading this week and 90% of my entries were right but I fail to sell when I know I should be selling to take the profit before it drops, even tho I know I should be exiting the trade, but there is also the greed that tells me to wait a little more and always end up losing what I could have earned. I tried setting my goal of $200 which I reached but didnt sell due to greed. The fear of selling and the stock ends up skyrocketing and missing more gains, how do you do to control this sort of emotion? I'm aware that you gotta be emotionless but how do you apply it? + +Thanks guys +Stocks, indexes or forex. Long or short. Binaries and regular contracts. If I double, triple, and quadruple down on something because "it has to pivot eventually right?" It'll pivot as soon as I've given up on those positions and gone the other direction. I doubt that move and do a straddle, the price moves sideways until I've lost that money again. Then when I've given up, it starts doing what I've been waiting for it to do. + +Every time a trend either stays the same or changes it's at my expense. The odds have to be astronomical right? +Nearly 4 years ago, I submitted a [post to this sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/1vvqgy/read_this_before_thinking_about_touching_your/) imploring people to think about the financial ramifications before touching their retirement savings. I urged people to consider the power of compounding and the wonders it can produce if allowed to work its magic. Also within that post, I mentioned that I strived to become a 401k millionaire someday, and this week, thanks to years of consistent savings and a long bull market, that goal [has come to fruition](https://i.imgur.com/ihNtSod.png), at the ripe age of 45. The following table shows my annual out of pocket contributions, and below that I will share my story. + +Year|Employee 401k contribution| +:-|-:| +1995|2,800| +1996|6,100| +1997|8,800| +1998|9,900| +1999|10,000| +2000|10,500| +2001|10,100| +2002|10,300| +2003|12,000| +2004|13,000| +2005|14,000| +2006|15,000| +2007|15,500| +2008|15,500| +2009|16,500| +2010|16,500| +2011|16,500| +2012|17,000| +2013|17,500| +2014|17,500| +2015|18,000| +2016|18,000| +2017|17,000| +**Total**|**308,000**| + +First, I want to iterate that I do recognize how fortunate and privileged I am to be able to achieve this milestone. I am extremely lucky to have been born without any major disabilities or health issues, and I am very grateful to be able to participate in a society where the opportunities and resources to achieve personal successes exist. Furthermore, I believe I was lucky to have been born into extreme poverty, for it ignited a fire within me to do everything within my power to escape my circumstances. I refused to allow my situation to define me, and I focused my time & energy on the things within my influence to improve my life. + +Because I grew up in poverty, I've held a job in some form or fashion since I was 10 years old. The ones I worked in my youth were tedious and low paying, but they taught me to not be afraid of hard work. They also motivated me to find better & higher paying jobs, and to that end I pursued getting my education since I lacked any special gifts or talents for earning a lot of money easily. My youth was not like that of most people I know. It was comprised entirely of school, work, and study. There was little time for leisure, and even during school breaks I would borrow books for the subsequent semester to get a jumpstart on the material. Thankfully the effort paid off, and I was able to do well enough in school to qualify for some scholarships for college. I went to the cheapest institution I could find, and when choosing a major, I decided to pursue engineering as it suited my strengths in math & science *and* offered careers with higher earning potential, as opposed to one that simply followed my passion (art). + +Upon graduating college (with around $10k in student loans), I landed my first professional job, which paid a handsome annual salary of $28k. I continued living intentionally and aligned my actions to my values & priorities. As Dave Ramsey is known for saying, "live like no one else now, so later you can live like no one else". I was accustomed to living in poverty, so I knew how to survive on a lean budget. Achieving a financially stable and secure life was more important and rewarding to me than stuff I could accumulate or luxurious experiences I could buy, which allowed me to avoid the YOLO mentality and FOMO mindset. Also, as a Gen X-er, I started my career in an era of disappearing pensions and the advent of outsourcing/offshoring. I watched good paying, stable jobs disappear overnight, and loyal, long term employees left suddenly without the incomes and secure retirements they had come to expect. That motivated me to treat my income like lottery winnings, and maximize my savings rate to ensure that I never had to worry about relying on a job for survival or face the prospect of being in poverty again. + +I wasn't the most knowledgeable investor, and didn't learn about low cost passive index funds until my late 30s. However, I was fortunate to work for a company early on in my career that explained the power of compounding and the benefits of tax advantaged savings, which encouraged me to participate in my 401k program. I knew I had a long investing time horizon, which helped me to develop a high risk tolerance and feel comfortable with putting most of my contributions into equities. I ignored short term market volatility (which many of my coworkers had trouble handling during the 2000 and 2008 recessions, to their unfortunate detriment), and as I gained work experience & skills I strategically job hopped to pursue higher income opportunities. I looked for jobs with solid 401k benefits, such as low fees and generous employer matching, so that I could continue to take advantage of that savings vehicle. + +Achieving any long term goal requires consistency and discipline, and the ability to break it down and attack it one small bite at a time--while keeping an eye on the larger prize. It's no different for finances, and each of us has to decide if it's worth making some trade offs today in order to have a brighter and more abundant tomorrow. I've had some people tell me that it's important to enjoy the present, as there is no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow. However, the reality is that tomorrow will likely come for most of us, so it's prudent to plan for it. +As the title says, I am disabled and in my mid 20s. I am on the DSP which gives me about $25k/year of income (it is not taxable income). + +My living expenses are currently low and my health is relatively stable at the moment so I want to plan for my future now while I have extra money to put away. + +I may have periods in the future where I am able to work short term but right now I have to plan as though I will be on Centrelink for the entirety of my life and that the payment will be similarly low. I also have to plan as though I will be single forever so I cannot expect another persons financial support changing my circumstances. + +I currently put $45/fortnight into my super as a stable and low risk long term investment for my future. + +I then have $55/fortnight that I put aside with the intention of investing (this is separate to my cash savings). + +So basically my question is, what now? +Curious to hear from the people in this subreddit about good and bad experiences they’ve had with employers over the course of their careers in Australia, especially with big organisations, and why you chose to stay or leave (i.e. work life balance, better pay, more progression opportunities, good leadership). + +I know people may not be at liberty to name and shame but for example, happy to disclose that I once worked for Big 4 Consulting. Projects were occasionally interesting and camaraderie amongst the team was great but the brutal hours and low pay were what made me leave in the end. +I found out yesterday from my boss that the owner wants me fired next Friday. I find the situation to be very confusing and not sure how to work next week out knowing I’m going to get canned and the end or the week. I haven’t done anything wrong and haven’t been written up or reprimanded but I 100% trust the information I was given. + +I have 80 hours of PTO available. + +Is it better to wait to get fired or go ahead and put in a two weeks notice and hope they pay out my PTO? If I get fired would I be able to collect unemployment? + +I am not sure how to even show up to work at this point. To be fair I have been looking for other jobs so it’s possible someone threw me under the bus. I have 9500 saved up and that will last 9-10 weeks if I budget the hell out of it + +*Thanks everyone for mostly encouraging comments and advise +Every time Computershare comes up on this sub, the message is "only for shares you aren't going to sell". Ask yourself why... The fact is there is nothing stopping you from selling those shares. The settlement is not as fast as traditional brokers. You might have to make a phone call. But MOASS will NOT be a race to sell. We all understand that the MOASS will take days/weeks, you don't need settlement within a minute to cash out shares. + +The fact that EVERY SINGLE time Computershare is mentioned, the narrative is "only for shares you don't want to sell" is super suspicious. If everyone believes this lie, it will prevent 99% of us from transferring significant holdings. Most people don't want to martyr themselves, or can't afford more than a handful of shares. + +I think there is a very good chance that transferring the float to CS is the catalyst we need, and certainly terrifies the SHFs. Ultimately there is nothing they can do to stop it, except convince apes that those shares are not sellable. That's is why they are pushing the false narrative that CS is for inf-pool only. Don't fall for this BS. I'm holding shares on CS, and I'm gonna sell all of them. +[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/xxh13d) 🎃🐦 + +>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! + +🏴‍☠️ [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/) +This beautiful ape [u/Carborundum\_](https://www.reddit.com/u/Carborundum_/) create this post [https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/q8l0u6/etoro\_will\_consider\_transfering\_shares\_if\_enough/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/q8l0u6/etoro_will_consider_transfering_shares_if_enough/) + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/l99akzv392u71.jpg?width=699&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2fe025e9628052a5b9ce5c2bb154c1d457e5979 + +u/[CharltonnBreezy](https://www.reddit.com/user/CharltonnBreezy/) created the template! + +**HOW TO SEND AN EMAIL TO ETORO** + +* Link to open a ticket + +[https://www.etoro.com/customer-service/](https://www.etoro.com/customer-service/) + +* **Subject** : Transfer my GME shares to the agent Computershare +* **Email template:** + +Hello there. + +I and many others would like the option to transfer our shares to Computer Share via DRS. As a user in your company and a shareholder, I believe it is my legal right to do as I please with the shares I've purchased and for you to hold us in your custodian agreement. I would like to know if there will be a statement by eToro on transferring our purchased shares via DRS? + +Is there anything you can tell me about the possibility of this in the near future? + +If this cannot be done, please state why in writing so that I can seek legal advice as I am serious about my shareholder rights. + +Regards, + +&#x200B; + +https://preview.redd.it/may7jbnr82u71.jpg?width=1011&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c71df6656813da29b1946590476daec270a3f482 + +If we have the same impact as the moment of voting in the shareholder meeting we can finish with KG games! + +I'm reposting this because almost nobody saw it. +Tuesday is the day. After many months of investor buildup, Apple is finally about to unveil the first generation of 5G iPhones, which likely will be called iPhone 12. + +The details have been widely leaked. Apple  (ticker: AAPL) is expected to unveil four models. Here’s how Raymond James analyst Chris Caso laid it out in a research note last month: + +• iPhone 12, with a 5.4-inch screen, priced at $699 + +• iPhone 12 Max, with a 6.1-inch screen, priced at $799 + +• iPhone 12 Pro, also with a 6.1-inch screen, plus higher end cameras, priced at $999 + +• iPhone 12 Pro Max, with a 6.6-inch screen, priced at $1,099 + +There is also some speculation about new Apple-branded over-the-ear headphones called AirPods Studio, and perhaps a new product for tracking things with Bluetooth called AirTags. But there’s no question that this event is all about the iPhone, and the expectations are sky high. + +Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives writes this morning that this will be the most important Apple iPhone product cycle since the iPhone 6 in 2014. That time, Apple finally moved beyond 4-inch displays—the iPhone 6 was 4.7 inches and the beloved iPhone 6s a whopping 5.5 inches. + +All of the new phones will run on 5G networks. (No coincidence that the tag line for the event is “Hi, Speed.”) Ives notes that the Pro versions are expected to have Lidar sensor technology, useful for augmented reality applications, as well as enhanced rear-camera technology. Ives expects preorders to kick off in a few weeks, with two of the models shipping later this month and the other two in mid-to-late November. + +Ives says the U.S. version of the phones will be capable of accessing speedy millimeter wave version of 5G, which he thinks “could be a game changer looking ahead as more infrastructure, technology and apps are built around this transformational 5G highway over the coming years.” + +Ives is particular bullish on the prospect for the new phones in China—he thinks the country will account for 20% of upgrades over the coming year. + +“With 5G now in the cards and roughly 40% of [the]...iPhone installed base not upgrading their phones in the last 3.5 years, [Apple CEO Tim] Cook & Co. have the stage set for a supercycle 5G product release, which should drive shares further,” he writes. “Although the soft macro and Covid backdrop will clearly dent some demand, we believe the underlying growth drivers for iPhone 12 success are unparalleled for Cupertino.” + +Ives maintains his Outperform rating and $150 price target. + +Meanwhile, RBC Capital analyst Robert Muller on Monday repeated his Outperform rating, while lifting his price target on Apple stock to $132 from $111. Muller writes that he thinks the new iPhone lineup will “kick off a significant replacement cycle which we believe will be a multiyear process as new applications and spectrum become available over time.” + +Muller is also bullish about Apple’s push into the fitness category with the pending launch of the Fitness+ service. “We view Apple’s upcoming Fitness+ offering as a worthwhile competitor within the Health and Wellness category, and expect the service will benefit from pandemic-related at-home spending trends,” he writes. “In addition to meaningful revenue/EPS contribution, we expect notable synergy opportunities across Watch/TV/iPad/Services and view the offering as one more way that Apple can drive customer loyalty and, importantly, repeat purchases.” + +Assuming a 20% adoption rate by Apple Watch customers, Muller estimates that Fitness+ could generate $3 billion in annual revenue by 2022. “Our revenue estimates are stand-alone for Fitness+; however, Apple Watch is a requirement and unit sales could benefit from interest in Fitness+,” he writes. “In total, we view Fitness+ as an ideal candidate to drive additional Apple-related spend and, importantly, keep customers more engaged and immersed within the Apple ecosystem, which should drive future iPhone sales.” + +Source: Barron's + +Thanks for the awards. +Can I just say how zen y’all have become? A year ago there would’ve been hundreds of posts hyping the run and hundreds more being upset about the dip. Today, other than DD and a couple memes about it, I saw majority DRS posts and marketplace related discussions. I’m living for it. Up, down, doesn’t matter. In the end it’s all about success (however you might see it) and money and it’s starting to show in the sentiment. + +Also I got a new job so I’ll be able to add even more to the collection soon! +So we have our 401K at Fidelity and today received an email from them telling us about the situation of our investment mix. It turns out, with our 90% large cap index and 10% bond mix, we are right in the middle of the conservative to aggressive investment. + +I always thought that with 10% bond index, we are very aggressive already; however it turns out not to be the case from finance management perspective. Theoretically, what should you do to be an aggressive investor? Stocks are not an option in our 401K selections. + +&#x200B; + +==Update 1, 18:50 27/Aug/2020== + +WOW I am overwhelmed by so many responses. Big thanks to you all for all the comments and inputs here! It's great to learn other's perspective. + +Some further info: I am in my early thirties so I am not looking at retirement at least in another 25-30 years. Thus I am comfortable with my split of stocks (through index funds) and bonds (also bond index). Originally I was just surprised to see that with 90/10 split I am still considered as intermediate aggressive; now I get that it's not only about the ratios, but also what kind of stocks I get. With my heavy investment in the large caps, it's indeed not that risky, or aggressive. + +Based on the portfolios mentioned below, it looks like I am in no way at the extreme. However, it does remind me to add some int'l stock to diversify, which is something I will do as my next step. + +&#x200B; +Before trying to make the case for [$BANANO,](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/) I feel like it's important to bring up that the biggest issue working against the project is decentralization. Currently about 61% of all Ban is controlled by devs and slowly released to users who can [earn Ban](https://banano.cc/#faucets) through captcha faucets, by playing online games, or by [donating computer power to charity through Fold at Home](https://bananominer.com/). Still, though, the release has been slow, and [devs estimate](https://www.reddit.com/r/AltStreetBets/comments/lijmyi/in_retrospect_it_was_inevitable/gn49jba?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) it will take 2 more years for Banano to become fully decentralized. So, the question is whether or not you believe them, and I personally do, but that's probably the biggest risk in this yolo, and it's why I've only allocated 5% of my $NANO stack to gamble on. + +Aside from that, though, Banano actually has some solid fundamentals. As a currency it's basically the same as $NANO, so instant transactions with zero fees on a spam-resistant DAG capable of processing micro-transactions 6 million times more energy efficient than the BTC blockchain. There are no fees on transactions, no mining, and the DAG can theoretically process thousands of transactions per second. Basically everything that is true and good about $NANO is true of $BANANO (with the exception of decentralization, which is happening, just slowly), and on top of that there are also a lot of [cool projects](https://github.com/BananoCoin) being developed specifically for $BANANO including [second layer privacy solution called Camo Bonano](https://medium.com/banano/introducing-camo-banano-bananos-privacy-layer-98a5bb0ecdb1) that's currently in beta. + +Here's just a few more pluses: + +* Banano has one of the coolest wallets out there, [Kalium](https://kalium.banano.cc/) available on [iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kalium/id1449623414) and [Adroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.banano.kaliumwallet&hl=en_US&gl=US). +* It's got a small but active subreddit r/banano full of memes and silliness +* Decent [Twitter following](https://twitter.com/bananocoin) +* Growing watchlist on [Coinmarket Cap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/) +* Very low $7m market cap with strong potential for 10x, 100x +* Built in community from $NANO enthusiasts, who have the most active subreddit per market cap dollar. +* Memes are in right now, as stupid as it seems/is. As with NOK, GME, AMC, DOGE, memes are moving markets +* Held on [very few exchanges](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/markets/) which can create some intense pump action. + +As of two days ago I switched 5% of my Nano stack over to Banano and so far it's up 30% against Nano. I own 0.0013% of the global supply of Banano at a cost of \~$600, so if it makes it to the top 100 on CMC, that'd be about 56x from here, \~100x from where I bought in. + +Anyway, looking forward to criticism. It's a yolo, so anyone who can convince me to cash out now at a profit is welcome to do so. + +**tl;dr - Banano is a Nano forked meme coin w/$7m market cap. My assumption is that it will do well as both a meme coin and an actual currency with zero fees, and grow alongside Nano which has been doing well. It's not yet fully decentralized but devs are working on it.** +Alright Degens. Listen up. I posted about this earlier on cryptomoonshots and it has 4x since then and I’ll do once more before real traction and FOMO kicks in. Rub those crusty dry eyes, let this marinade in your brain and make some fucking money. + +As I listed before, there are several reasons as to why I’m bullish on $DOGIRA: + +1. Self Doxxed Dev + +2. Audited and cleared by WOR + +3. Partnership with $FEG and soon to be meme war (Elon has given $FEG great publicity) + +4. NEW ATH OF 6 CENTS + +5. BEAUTIFUL NFTs (seriously check them out https://rarible.com/rootpew) made and being made by community members (linked rarible is made by an OG $DOGE Dev who is very bullish on DOGIRA and active community member) + +6. OVER 89% Growth in community and holders in the past two days alone + +7. LOW MCAP, HUGE ROOM TO GROW (Circulating supply of 80m) + +8. GREAT TOKENOMICS THAT ENCOURAGE AND REWARD HOLDERS AND BULLISH COMMUNITY MEMEBERS AND BTFO SWINGERS AND WHALES (its amazing to see in real time lmao) + +This is ALL before CG listing (ETA is EOW) and CMC, and the community is so much full of life. I’ll be very transparent with you all, as I have in my prior post shouting out $DOGIRA. I bought a small bag @ .015 thinking this can possibly moon, but as soon as I saw and experienced the community, talked with the dev team, and saw the MEMES BEING MADE, I liquidated my low MCAP utility gems and aped in. This coin will moon because of two reasons: + +1. The Fucking Community - It’s like the internet before the culture started changing mid to late 2000s. Memes, just having fun, no suits nothing. When it was still pure. So many ideas, so many laughs, so many smiles as we stare as this fucking graph shoots green dildos everywhere + +2. MEME MAGIC AND MEME COINS ARE REAL. This is THE beginning of the Alt Season Golden Bull Run and its starting off with meme coins. There is no denying this after witnessing HOGE, ROCKET, etc. There are other solid utility projects out there guaranteed MOON dates but won’t solidly hit until 2-3 months from now. $VRA is one for example. This token has the most genius Tokenomics for something so fun. I just want to spread my excitement, get some more wholesome and fun people in here and see the community grow as we break more ATHs in the next 24 hours and hit $1 EOW. So drop in the tele, see what is getting me and other community members so HYPED up about, and see if you like it. Even if you don’t, drop 0.2 ETH at the minimum so when it DOES hit $1, you don’t feel like a dick. You’re still early if you’re reading this today, so get in you degenerate. See you at $1. + +TX to Look in @ Dextools: 0x4b86e0295e7d32433ffa6411b82b4f4e56a581e1 + +WEBSITE: https://dogira.lol + +Tele: https://t.me/dogiratoken + +Ether: https://etherscan.io/token/0x4b86e0295e7d32433ffa6411b82b4f4e56a581e1 + +**Important: The BSC version is a scam and has been pinned by dev team in tele. If you are going to buy in, it’s sold through uniswap. It is recommended you set slippage to 5-7% and trade for WHOLE NUMBERS of Dogira for the swap to go through. +Right, This is something new! +I don't consider this a Shitcoin. More a Fun coin but used flair to be safe lol + + +Each transaction has a 6% Tax +2% burn fee +2% Share fee + +And now the fun bit + +2% Lottery fee + +2% goes into a pool, once the pool hits 0.2% a random winner will receive the pool. + +I won it last night! 🤙🏼 + +So you gain coins for just holding, you can win the lottery pool just for holding +Only 150 holders right now, + +Presale sold out under 1 minute + +There hasn't been any marketing as of yet so it's still under the radar but the lottery feature is awesome. +Something different to the Safe bubble. + +Join the Telegram, ask questions + +[Telegram](https://t.me/lotterytokenchat) + +Website is new, need some work + +[Website ](https://www.lottery-token.com/) + +BSCscan for the detectives + +[BSCSCAN](https://bscscan.com/token/0x26898013a78754022aa2165dabae3f01c8f6d9bd) + +These are the latest Lottery winners. Lottery wins will happen more often once transactions pick up. + +[Winners](https://bscscan.com/token/0x26898013a78754022aa2165dabae3f01c8f6d9bd?a=0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000) + + +[Chart](https://poocoin.app/tokens/0x26898013a78754022aa2165dabae3f01c8f6d9bd) + +The current Marketcap is 100k + + +This can be purchased via Pancakeswap, +Copy the BSCscan and paste into Pancakeswap with 6/7% slippage + +Enjoy! +Before trying to make the case for [$BANANO,](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/) I feel like it's important to bring up that the biggest issue working against the project is decentralization. Currently about 61% of all Ban is controlled by devs and slowly released to users who can [earn Ban](https://banano.cc/#faucets) through captcha faucets, by playing online games, or by [donating computer power to charity through Fold at Home](https://bananominer.com/). Still, though, the release has been slow, and [devs estimate](https://www.reddit.com/r/AltStreetBets/comments/lijmyi/in_retrospect_it_was_inevitable/gn49jba?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) it will take 2 more years for Banano to become fully decentralized. So, the question is whether or not you believe them, and I personally do, but that's probably the biggest risk in this yolo, and it's why I've only allocated 5% of my $NANO stack to gamble on. + +Aside from that, though, Banano actually has some solid fundamentals. As a currency it's basically the same as $NANO, so instant transactions with zero fees on a spam-resistant DAG capable of processing micro-transactions 6 million times more energy efficient than the BTC blockchain. There are no fees on transactions, no mining, and the DAG can theoretically process thousands of transactions per second. Basically everything that is true and good about $NANO is true of $BANANO (with the exception of decentralization, which is happening, just slowly), and on top of that there are also a lot of [cool projects](https://github.com/BananoCoin) being developed specifically for $BANANO including [second layer privacy solution called Camo Bonano](https://medium.com/banano/introducing-camo-banano-bananos-privacy-layer-98a5bb0ecdb1) that's currently in beta. + +Here's just a few more pluses: + +* Banano has one of the coolest wallets out there, [Kalium](https://kalium.banano.cc/) available on [iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kalium/id1449623414) and [Adroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.banano.kaliumwallet&hl=en_US&gl=US). +* It's got a small but active subreddit r/banano full of memes and silliness +* Decent [Twitter following](https://twitter.com/bananocoin) +* Growing watchlist on [Coinmarket Cap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/) +* Very low $7m market cap with strong potential for 10x, 100x +* Built in community from $NANO enthusiasts, who have the most active subreddit per market cap dollar. +* Memes are in right now, as stupid as it seems/is. As with NOK, GME, AMC, DOGE, memes are moving markets +* Held on [very few exchanges](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/banano/markets/) which can create some intense pump action. + +As of two days ago I switched 5% of my Nano stack over to Banano and so far it's up 30% against Nano. I own 0.0013% of the global supply of Banano at a cost of \~$600, so if it makes it to the top 100 on CMC, that'd be about 56x from here, \~100x from where I bought in. + +Anyway, looking forward to criticism. It's a yolo, so anyone who can convince me to cash out now at a profit is welcome to do so. + +**tl;dr - Banano is a Nano forked meme coin w/$7m market cap. My assumption is that it will do well as both a meme coin and an actual currency with zero fees, and grow alongside Nano which has been doing well. It's not yet fully decentralized but devs are working on it.** +Fool that I am, I have my heart set on buying a place in one of the UK's most expensive cities, a task which has been made considerably more difficult by the fact that prices have risen in said city by 16% in the last year alone. I set the target of building up enough deposit to boost my affordability to ~£280k, but now that I've done so it's no longer enough to buy the type of place I had wanted (nothing too fancy, but a simple 2-bed freehold with a small garden). What I'm left with - at least until I manage to boost my affordability even further - is quite basic flats, but I'd like to avoid those if possible. + +Browsing RightMove, I started noticing park homes again (which I'd previously dismissed). For £90-150k, I could get a place that's larger than the typical flat, but detached and in a nice wooded location near countryside. With the deposit I've built up, I could either purchase outright or with a small loan, and therefore be able to save much more of my salary than I would otherwise. I'm aware that there are site fees to take into account, but these seem to be no more than £150 per month, and some sites appear to be council run (which I hope means that there wouldn't be any dodgy hidden fees or sudden rises in fees?). + +So what would be the drawback? I'm aware that park homes are thought to depreciate in value... is this an inevitability (I can't see why it necessarily would be - given how quickly other types of property are increasing in value, you'd think more people would consider park homes)? If so, does anybody know how quickly they tend to depreciate? Is there anything else I'm failing to take into account? +Hello everyone, + +As some background, I'm (24) currently a high earner in London (>100k total comp), and I've got a bunch of savings I (mostly) don't know what to do with. I've already paid back my student loans and maxed out my S&S ISA for the year. + +I've been with my SO for more than 5 years and I'm fairly confident we're going to be together for a long time, but we're not married yet and I don't have plans get married in the near future either. + +I had the idea that I could give her money to pay back her student loans and maybe even max out her ISA as well, as that would likely be maximizing for the two of us. It would probably be best I she could then pay me back in a similar way over the next few years, but this isn't strictly necessary. I guess I'm mostly curious if there are any tax implications that I'd have to consider, or if there are any better alternatives that would effectively achieve this. + +I'm aware that I can generally gift her any amount of money, and if I don't die within 7 years, there are no taxes to pay on that. I don't really know if the thing described above would be considered as a gift. + +Any advice is very much appreciated! +[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/) +[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! + +🏴‍☠️ [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/) +30M here. During the pandemic I racked up about $45k in CC debt, have $8K+ in other loans, and that's NOT including my impending 40k student loans. Basically, spent more than I had. + +Got married in September to my wife (30F). She did NOT know the extent of my debt, because to be honest, neither did I....it all happened in the span of 2 years, and I just...turned a blind eye to it I guess. Prior, I had about $10k CC debt. We haven't merged finances yet for no other reason than laziness. She currently has $9k in CC debt (only 1 credit card with actual debt, but 4 cards total) but is paying it down with a budget and plans to have it paid off by April. She will have no student loans. + +I make around $3800/mo NET. Wife makes maybe 1.5x-2x my salary. We live in a HCOL area, and our rent for a 1 bedroom is $3100. Believe it or not, this was a pandemic priced apartment that usually rents out for $3800, so at the time it was a steal. I pay $1300 and wife pays $1800 and all utilities. We are currently looking for a cheaper place to live, but right now the market doesn't look so good. Needs to be safe, animal friendly (we have a cat), and big enough for two people... pick two. We are actively searching and have reached out to some buildings/landlords, so may be able to drop rent anywhere from $2400 to \~$2800 if we get approved...honestly, any drop will help. + +I feel like I'm drowning. I feel incredibly guilty, and wife is rightfully disappointed/upset. Although she's been supportive, she also feels deceived and that her personal goals are out the window (she wanted to buy a house in 7 years and had a financial plan, wanted to go back to school for her masters, etc) but now she is in this with me. I want to dig both of us out of this, but I don't know here to begin, so here I am. + +To start, here are the CC debts I owe: + +Credit Card 1 (BoA): $17,000, minimum payment of \~$450/mo. 18% interest + +Credit Card 2 (BoA): $17,000, minimum payment of \~$450/mo. 23% interest + +Credit Card 3 (Chase): $9500, minimum payment of \~$260/mo. 20% interest + +Other debts: + +Car Payment: $7800, minimum payment of \~$400/mo. + +~~Personal Loan: $2000, minimum payment of \~$300/mo.~~ See point 6 below + +Student Loans starting May 2022: $40k + +Current plan is to start with the smaller payments. Personal loan first, then car (need car and specifically the SUV I have for work purposes). Hopefully a tax return will make some sort of dent. I'll also try calling BoA and Chase to see if they would consider dropping the interest rate. + +Wife will be holding on to my credit cards and paying for groceries. She will also start paying rent at $2000 and I will pay the remaining amount (right now $1100 but hopefully that drops with a new place). I want her to be able to pay off her card by April so I don't mess with all of her goals, but she will start helping in May when student loans come around. + +Would love for some advice/resources...anything. Feeling like I can't get myself out of this. + +&#x200B; + +**Edit:** Thanks for all your replies. This got way more attention than I thought, so having a hard time keeping up, but will try to reply asap. + +1. I cut up all 3 credit cards and removed them from all online accounts. I do not have any of the numbers memorized. I will not be using them even as they get paid off. Wife will have full access to my accounts whenever she wants. +2. I may have written this in the comments, but wife did NOT know about my debt prior to getting married. She pushed for a financial conversation several times prior to getting married, and was always very open about her debt and expenses. I kept pushing off the conversation because it made me anxious and I truly did not want to face the numbers. Eventually, she backed off because she felt she was nagging me and that I would have told her if there was an issue. Yes, that makes me selfish. No, there is no excuse. Yes, I fucked up. +3. That being said, we do have a larger income when combined, but this is my mess and I don't want her to help more than she wants to. I agree with many of you who say she shouldn't have to contribute to a financial crisis that she had no idea about. She has already increased her part of the rent to $2000, and started planning a pretty tight grocery budget at $300 or less a month. She is going to cut down some of her savings send it to me to help, but as of now we will not be sharing finances. She is doing all of this because she does not trust me, and I understand that it will take a very long time to gain that trust back. +4. Wife is going through a lot of emotions right now. I can't blame her. Not just betrayal, but sudden change of lifestyle, the fact that she has to put me on a financial leash, etc. She had wanted to start trying for children late this year but feels it's financially irresponsible to do so until the debt is gone. I feel extremely guilty as all she's ever wanted was to raise a child/children. +5. I went through the last year of credit card expenses with my wife. She can't fathom how this could have added up to 40k in 2 years. A lot of the charges were from going out with friends when things started opening up again. She suspects that I've had this problem way longer than 2 years and it probably went back to when we started dating. We used to go out to eat on dates and I never let her know there was an issue. At the same time, I had been going out with friends a lot. I think she's right. I definitely have a spending problem. +6. My mom had been planning a family trip in a few months, and today I called her to let her know that I wouldn't be coming. She was very upset, and I let her know (without specific numbers) about the debt I had. I told her that even if she pays for the whole trip, I need to start buckling down and proving to my wife that I can be financially responsible. Missing a week of work to go on vacation is not that. My mom then let me know that she had an extra $5000 from our wedding (her budget), and wanted to gift it to me for my debt. She sent me $2000 today for the personal loan, so that payment is out. The other $3000 she is holding until she gets the OK for my wife to loan it to me. +This post is written by a friend of mine who works in the financial services industry. I’m posting it for him because he doesn’t have a Reddit account: + +I work in the financial services industry myself, and I decided it might be beneficial to provide my opinion on some of the leading financial cryptos based off their website/white papers/news I've read. Today I'll be covering the 4 leading financial cryptos in my opinion: XRP, REQ, OMG, XLM. + + +[Market Cap & Ranking Graph] (https://imgur.com/a/h8YAB) + + + +######**Ripple (XRP)** + +1. **Description:** Cross border transactions between banks and payment providers + +2. **Slogan:** “Enterprise blockchain solutions for global payments” + +3. **Potential Market Size:** $155 trillion/year cross border transactions (McKinsey Global Payments Industry Study) + +4. **Primary Focus:** Ripple has had huge success lately given its focus on satisfying and providing cross-border payment services for big banks, who have driven up the price of Ripple. It currently has 100+ customers and has the most enterprise traction of the four coins. One big risk is the 55 billiion XRP put into an escrow out of a max 100 billion XRP. Once these escrows expire, there is always the risk of the company flooding the market with XRP. That being said, while Ripple is much further ahead than the other 3 coins, I fear that banks will license Ripple’s blockchain that is centrally governed without intended usage of their token. + +5. **Architecture:** Built on Ripple (payment protocol) + +6. **Market Cap:** ~$77B + + +######**Request Network (REQ)** + +1. **Description:** A decentralized network for payment requests + +2. **Slogan:** “The Future of Commerce” + +3. **Potential Market Size:** $1,825 trillion/year on the SWIFT network that Request Network can capture on its platform (Extrapolated using daily historicals from U.S. Dept. of Treasury) + +4. **Primary Focus:** Request Network, also known as “Paypal 2.0” is a Y-Combinator-backed project created by the founders of Moneytis. Request Network has the biggest opportunity of the four. They are building out the infrastructure for payments and accounting/auditing between both businesses and consumers. Request will be more secure (blockchain tech), intelligent (smart contracts and IoT) and universal (supports all currencies both Fiat and cryptocurrencies) than Paypal. A key differentiator of Request is its usage of “token burning” during transactions, which intrinsically increases the value of the remaining REQ coins. In addition, Request is heavily focused on reputation management and helping accountants and auditors easily review transactions at extremely low costs. My concern here is that they are the earliest stage project of the four and also the most ambitious project, soon to be released on Mainnet. That being said, their team has executed ahead of planned timelines and I believe they seem to have the right expertise to get the job done. + +5. **Architecture:** Built on Ethereum + +6. **Market Cap:** ~$480M (Market cap is ~1/194 the size of Paypal at current valuation) + +7. **Paypal Market Cap for comparison:** ~$97B + + +######**OmiseGo (OMG)** + +1. **Description:** Advanced e-wallet and payment platform + +2. **Slogan:** “Unbank the Banked with Ethereum.” + +3. **Potential Market Size:** N/A (market not clearly defined) + +4. **Primary Focus:** Many people around the world can’t get a credit card or pay for items online because geographically there are no banks around or their credit score is too low to receive financial services. OmiseGo looks to change that by enabling everyone in especially in developing countries to create an e-wallet that enables this underserved population the ability to cash in and cash out without a bank account at low costs. They have an enormous presence in Asia, and their vision is to look like the bank of the future. My concerns here are adoption outside of the Asian countries given the difficulty of scaling across geographies as well as a tough name to pronounce resulting in the necessity for a potential re-branding, but a very solid project with a fair amount of adoption nevertheless. + +5. **Architecture:** Built on Ethereum + +6. **Market Cap:** ~$2.5B + +######**OmiseGo Edit:** +Some additional points to note are its recent acquisition of Paysbuy (large payment service provider in Thailand) and partnerships with McDonald's Thailand and Alipay. It's often thought REQ and OMG are quite similar which they are, but their focus is different. OMG is firstly focused on banking and e-wallet services, while REQ is currently more focused on the actual payment request process and the accounting behind it, which you'll realize are quite different despite both moving in the same direction. + +######**Stellar (XLM)** + +1. **Description:** Cross border currency transfers between developing countries + +2. **Slogan:** “Move Money Across Borders Quickly, Reliably, And For Fractions Of A Penny” + +3. **Potential Market Size:** N/A (market not clearly defined) + +4. **Primary Focus:** Stellar competes directly with Ripple at different ends of the market. Stellar is a great project focused on providing low-cost financial services for lower classed individuals, whereas Ripple is focused on profit generation and founded by ex-bankers. Stellar differentiates itself through solutions targeted around micropayments, mobile banking and services for the underbanked (similar to OmiseGo). The thing I like about Stellar is that structurally it is set-up as a non-profit and something established for the people to easily exchange money between one another. I think the market is large enough to support multiple competitors, but it is important to note that they compete with Ripple in cross-border transactions and OmiseGo in services to the underbanked. + +5. **Architecture:** Built on Stellar (payment network) + +6. **Market Cap:** ~$11.7B + +######**Stellar Edit:** +Expanding on Stellar based off comments, let's clarify that Stellar is indeed founded by one of the co-founders of Ripple, which makes them somewhat similar. But wanted to key in on a few more points that make XLM unique: no mining with circulating supply of 100 billion lumens from the start @ 1% inflation rate and a recent partnership with IBM for cross-border payments as a bridge currency. Finally it's important to look at their Stellar Development Foundation, which controls the distribution of Lumens. Distribution is split as follows: 50% through Direct Sign-up Program, 25% through Partnership Program, 20% through Bitcoin program and 5% held by the foundation to support operations. Note this effect is huge because they can also unleash a large amount of lumens, but they do have a more defined mandate for dilution than Ripple. + +Read more about it here: https://www.stellar.org/about/mandate/ + + +######**Disclaimer and Final Words**: + +I am a holder of all four coins, but from a returns standpoint, I am most bullish on Request Network given it has the largest market size, smallest market cap and an incredible team. But from a risk standpoint, Ripple is the lowest risk coin to hold given its widespread adoption and use across numerous banks that are displayed on their website. Honorable mention for both Stellar and OmiseGo, which are superb projects that will still succeed. Remember that the financial market is extremely deep with trillions of dollars in transactions moved every day, so there is ample room for all four of these coins to find their niche whether it is in a certain region of the world or in certain product types (i.e. micropayments). All in all, you can’t go wrong holding a portfolio of these four coins because each one of these cryptocurrencies are going to kill it in 2018! + + +&nbsp; + + +**Sources:** + +1. https://ripple.com/ + +2. https://omisego.network/ + +3. https://request.network/#/ + +4. https://www.stellar.org/ + +5. https://coinmarketcap.com/ +Hello everyone! Like some people, I struggle to get my head around NHS scheme. I started working in London around 2017 but has worked for private healthcare. I recently moved from private to NHS (last month to be exact) and now learned about the tier scheme. I am currently paying £6500 (12.5%) per year. I am shocked that it costs me a deduction of about £530 per month. I’m 31 years old and unsure yet whether I would retire here. However, given the circumstances if I do retire here.. is it worth it now? + +If the pension age is 68, that means a 37 year contribution. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to that? Thank you! +Hi there! Let me start off by saying I am grateful for our NHS heroes. As I ask for your opinion and advice, please do not think I am dissing NHS. + +With that out of the way, here is the deal. Throughout the pandemic I developed quite severe health anxiety. I won't go into much detail but I had an older brother who died of cancer in a very short span of time a few years ago and ever since I tried to be as vigilant as I can about healthcare. + +I used to live in Turkey which had a different healthcare system than the UK. If you have a private health insurance there, you get to visit any hospital (private or state), get appointments from any specialist doctor anywhere without any referral, get any scans, tests etc. etc. and if your insurance plan covers it, you do not pay a dime (or pay a small percent of the fees). + +In 2017 we moved to the UK with my wife and I was told that not only the healthcare system works differently (i.e. I can't just call up a specialist doctor and get an appointment myself even with a private health insurance) but also the private health insurance was rather limited in its scope when compared to some other countries. + +This is why we decided to not get private health insurance then. This year I got diagnosed with a skin condition (thankfully a mild one) and a related inflammatory condition (again, thankfully mild) and my wife has had a few health scares (thankfully, nothing bad). But here is the thing, from me first telling my symptoms to me getting a diagnosis for my skin condition was 8 months. For the inflammatory condition, the diagnosis is still not set in stone so I am not given medication yet apart from (take 2 ibuprofens if it hurts) and it seems like the earliest I can actually get a treatment plan is going to be the end of 2021, which means it will have taken more than 1 year from me going to my GP with symptoms. + +I was already feeling scared and adding to my health anxiety with how COVID-19 really pushed the limits in NHS and how waiting lines were so long for many things (including cancer in some cases). Then today I saw on The Guardian that GPs are cancelling non-urgent blood tests because of a shortage in test tubes. + +After all that, I started to consider, will private health insurance bring me a degree of peace of mind? This community help me with so many financial decisions that I wanted to ask your opinion. As a couple (no kids, non smokers) we have combined income of around £42000 right now and we are able to save around £100-300 every month. Comparison websites show that I can get coverage for both of us between £20-150 per month. From what I researched, I think my preferred plans would be around £70-150 to get the coverage that can give us peace of mind. + +Do you think it is worth it? Anyone who pays for their own private health insurance thinks it is money well spent? +I have been back at work barely a week since we went into lockdown for 2 weeks last march. 5k in savings depleted in that time. Had to sell car as well to literally put food on the table, still, I've been lucky and have/had my health. + +Bought an electric scooter to travel to and from work, yano being economical, saving the planet and all that and the fact they are ridiculously fun. Well some twat that doesn't know where to speed smashed into me and I broke both my elbows in several places, require surgery, ligament damage, pretty banged up. Pretty fucking sore. + +Ignoring the fact I can't even butter toast or wipe my ass, although I'm fashioning a device the will let me get that job done, and I have literally no one to help me, what is the protocol for when sick pay doesn't even cover rent, I've nothing to my name after pandemic? + +Honestly pretty scared, I'm in a lot pain and have never felt as hopeless in my life. + +There must be help out there for people like me? Any tips on where to begin. Thank you +Pretty new to investing, trying to learn from the best. + +Bought many shares of various Canadian Energy stocks, biggest ones : Imperial oil, Canadian natural resources and Cenovus. Bought many smaller caps too like Athabasca, as its been like shooting fish in a barrel. + +What should I do? Hold steady while this market continues to crash (s&p nasdaq) or should I take these profits sooner than later and start buying the dip for long term plays like Tesla. + +What is the best source of information predicting where oil is going to go? I don't want to be greedy and continue to hold these stocks and possibly lose or make more. It scares me to be almost 85 percent invested (entire life savings ) in oil stocks but I made a really good return the past 3 months. + +Thanks +Hi there, I am hoping the wealth of knowledge in this forum will help me more than RBC invest academy! +I am helping my mother in law manage her trade account (after my father in law passed away). It's an RBC Direct Invest account, but nobody has traded or rebalanced it for at least 6 years. +Before you ask, yes, It's still in the positive overall and throwing out nice dividends. +However there are a whole bunch of dead stocks, Nortel for example. Does anybody know how to delete them or at least hide or suppress them? The help file was not helpful and I can't call RBC because it's not my account and my mother in law is 91, so she's not going to either. Any hint is appreciated! Thanks in advance +I know this may be too speculative for a proper response but I'm finding it strange that while BTC is hitting record highs the BTC mining companies (e.g. HUT, HIVE, and(for a few hours today) BITF) are dropping. + +I'm finding this especially strange since as I understood it a good chunk of the assets of these companies is BTC itself. + +I know the market can be irrational, but I'm looking to better understand why we'd see drops in the mining companies when the underlying currency is increasing in value. I don't think there's been any change in supply of hardware technology, changes in electricity prices, or other things that might negatively impact non-BTC assets. + +I was thinking it could have just been a day of investors selling more than they were buying, but am curious what the broader community thinks. +Bharat Masrani has been spreading the word: He likes Toronto-Dominion Bank’s growth potential in the United States, and he’s open to doing more deals south of the border. Having run TD’s U.S. division before he took over as chief executive officer in 2014, he’s quite comfortable with the banking sector along the Eastern Seaboard. + +Despite his conviction, there hasn’t been much action. Save for some smaller asset purchases, such as credit card loans, TD has largely sat still, leaving analysts and investors to wonder if Mr. Masrani is playing the long game, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. + +If so, that time could be now. TD is flush with excess capital, meaning it has more than enough cash reserves to cushion against any loan losses, and it’s also sitting on a large chunk of Charles Schwab stock after the wealth management giant bought TD Ameritrade in 2019. (TD owned 43 per cent of the discount brokerage that was swallowed.) + +Put together, TD now has “vast financial resources” to do a major deal, National Bank Financial analyst Gabriel Dechaine wrote in a note to clients. By his calculations, TD could splash $11-billion south of the border simply by using excess capital. If the bank wants to go really big, it could splurge on a $30-billion deal by selling its 13.5-per-cent Schwab stake and adding in those funds. + +But should it? Being able to pay for something isn’t the same as getting the best return on its money – and TD has already learned how long it can take to eke out a decent return on a major U.S. investment. + +TD started its U.S. foray in 2004, then doubled down on an American expansion in 2008 with the US$8.5-billion purchase of Commerce Bank, which was headquartered just outside of Philadelphia. TD’s return on equity in the U.S. has been paltry since, largely because it paid such rich premiums to expand. Last year, TD reported a U.S. ROE of only 3.2 per cent, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and before the pandemic hit it reported 6.8 per cent in 2019. Comparable U.S. rival U.S. Bancorp, meanwhile, reported returns more than double TD’s in both years. + +Yet Mr. Masrani seems to want people to know he’s considering something. Like a central bank governor, he chooses his words carefully. When TD reported its quarterly earnings in February, he reiterated, “We certainly are open to acquisitions in the U.S. market, and in the Canadian market as well, I might add.” + +Two weeks ago, he went a little further. “With respect to major mergers and acquisitions in the United States, we’re very open,” he told Bloomberg News, adding the bank’s capital levels give it extra flexibility. TD declined to comment for this story. + +Should the bank go for a major deal, it might take some time. Under a lock-up agreement with Charles Schwab, TD must hold its stake until June. Yet just last year, the U.S. saw a similar two-step transaction. In May, 2020, PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s sold its 22-per-cent stake in BlackRock Inc. Six months later, it turned around and bought Houston-based BBVA USA, the American arm of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA for US$11.6-billion. + +Following this playbook, TD could afford something along the lines of Citizens Financial Group Inc. or M&T Bank Corp., both of which would add scale to its existing Northeast and mid-Atlantic footprint and are each worth roughly US$20-billion. Or TD can make a splash in the Southeast, where it has been piecing together some assets, by acquiring a lender such as Regions Financial Corp., which is also worth US$20-billion. + +The financial analysis is compelling. Charles Schwab trades at 32 times its earnings, while Citizens and Regions trade at 20 times their own. TD could cash out its premium stake and swap it for something cheaper – but still the get the same dollar of profit. + +Yet nothing is ever that simple. Charles Schwab is a high-growth business with a better ROE than many U.S. banks, and it currently delivers 9 per cent of TD’s annual earnings. For management, “the decision to [sell] is not an easy one,” Mr. Dechaine wrote. + +The price tag would also limit what TD can do with its excess capital. At the moment, some of it is earmarked for dividend hikes once Canada’s banking watchdog permits lenders to boost their quarterly payouts again. While TD could sell shares to raise cash, its own stock trades at 13 times earnings, which would dent the takeover’s financial upside. + +TD, then, might benefit more from picking off something a little smaller in specific markets where it doesn’t have much market share. It may also want to shift its centre of gravity because its top metropolitan areas, Philadelphia and New York, aren’t fast-growing regions anymore. Before the pandemic hit, Toronto-based Hamilton ETFs, which invests in U.S. financials, crunched the numbers by region and found the Southeast, the Southwest and the West were the fastest growing in the U.S. + +TD has a small position in the Southeast, but its market share in Miami, for instance, is still in the low single digits. To add to it, regional banks such as Synovus Financial Corp., First Citizens Bancshares Inc. and South State Corp., which largely operate in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, would run TD between US$6-billion and US$8-billion (that’s before a takeover premium). + +By no means does TD need to do a deal. The bank is heavily exposed to retail lending in the U.S., with a loan book geared toward jumbo mortgages, autos and retail credit cards, and these sectors should get a major lift from the budding economic rebound. Crucially, TD also had the fastest-growing loan books in autos and credit cards relative to its large U.S. peers over the past five years, according to a recent analysis by CIBC World Markets analyst Paul Holden. + +Yet the market can move around you, and more bank mergers are expected over the next five years. As a rule of thumb, when the music starts, it usually helps to be one of the first to hit the dance floor. + +https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-td-open-to-a-major-us-acquisition-and-can-muster-30-billion-should-it/ +I am wondering if anyone here uses the strategy of dividend growth investing with individual stocks, if so what platform do you use and how diversified are you between Canada, US & international markets. I am thinking of using WealthSimple Trade to purchase stocks of a few hundred dollars every pay cheque. My current concerns are with US stocks with the currency exchange fee and any US dividend witholding tax as I will be investing with a TFSA. +I’m in my mid-20s and I’ve only been investing (100% equities, mostly broad-market SPY type ETFs/MF) for a couple years and I’ve only recently learned about IB margin rates and the fact that margin interest is tax deductible. +I, however, am having trouble coming up with an intelligent leverage strategy. Are there any good books and sources on it? How much should I have as a cash reserve (long term investing GUARENTEES margin calls.) Is it prudent to max out a TFSA first? + +I did some badly done and poorly-presented calculations with unforeseeable assumptions attached, but its pretty clear to me that leverage provides a better return than a TFSA. +https://imgur.com/a/3KtKRXO + + +but my numbers ignore important things: +1) TFSA is risk adjusted, margin is not + +2) TFSA requires no cash cushion- a margin does, so I added a column doubling the tfsa investment, assuming I kept a 50% cash cushion with margin, which I assume is quite high. + +3) probably many other things cause I'm bad at everything lol + +What I’m seeing is that investing margin is clearly much more profitable than a tfsa on the surface with no cash cushion, but being a pragmatic realist, I think having no cash cushion is stupid. Though, I could probably get an uninsured LOC to avoid margin calls if need be- but I don’t include that cost in the chart. +However, if I consider a 50% cushion, invested instead of held for a margin, the margin only preforms like ~10% better than TFSA over 2 decades which is nowhere near worth the risk. Clearly, in this case, maxing out a TFSA is superior. + +The one RESOUNDING thing to me is that leverage is much better than a non-registered account, even with a 50% cushion at the highest interest rate. + +So would the conclusion be that it's best to maximize a TFSA And then leverage afterward? If so, what are cash reserve considerations? + +Ib requires 25% maintenance so a 50% cushion by itself could cover a 60% loss and the s&ps worst year was about 50. I actually have no cash right now either so this would motivate me to save lol. + +Anyway, proceed to call my math bad, and tell me how I’m wrong in every way lol. I need to educate myself. + + +Edit; +Forgot to edit "dumb" lol. Dumb is just selling it all at once + +More questions: + +Can a margin loan be called at any time? Ie. What if IB goes bankrupt? + +So, this thing was $25 a few days ago, it's now hit $45USD on the US OTC markets. Completely unbeleivable and insane. + +What the hell is going on here? This should be trading at like 80cents.. when will they stop paying to pump this up ? +I have a joint investment account with my sprouse, a few stocks have lost money. If I sell them to create a $100k capital loss. Is there a way to split the the loss equally so that each person gets $50k capital loss. +Long story short, after some saving and grinding, I've got about 100k now that I would like to start using to generate some returns. + + +Also of relevance, my wife and I own an acreage property worth around 650k with about 470k on the mortgage (180k / ~27% equity). She works as a teacher, I run a rental business out of our acreage as well as doing part time engineering work (P.Eng) + + +I was originally planning on putting this money towards one or two rental properties but with interest rates where they are I'm finding it very difficult to do that. I also believe we are in a recession and have a hard time putting much money into stocks / funds at this time as I believe there will be better entry points in a year or two. +I made a good amount on bitcoin in the past but I believe crypto will be trending downwards for a little while still as well. + + +With that said - I have no clue what to do with this money. There has to be some options out there but I'm fairly new to actual (ie. non-crypto) investing and would like to hear some input from people smarter than myself. +A few years back a cavity was filled on a molar with some not-so-great filling. A small hole grew on a side of that filling, and thus led to the abscess. + +Serious pain started on Wednesday (06/12), I saw a dentist Thursday morning. + +I've got Anthem dental through my employer at the moment, and pay is shit and because of that I've only managed to live paycheck to paycheck for the last 6 months. + +After insurance, the cost for doing a root canal on that tooth and crowning it came to $615, due before treatment. + +They had this Care Credit thing but my credit score is 545 for hospital collections from 6 years ago (one more year to go, woot). + +Tried an Emergency Dental near me it was the same bullshit. 50% due before treatment plus $75 fee to even start the exam. + +[I have about $100 to last me until my next paycheck in two weeks.](https://imgur.com/gLeSoNz) + +The pain/infection has already spread to the entire right side of my jaw. I feel weird movements of blood going up to my head. The pain is constant, sometimes sharp excruciating pulses. The tooth's super sensitive to cold or heat, can't bite anything even a bit. Just self-medicating with ibuprofen and tea tree oil. + +I start a job with much better pay and better insurance in mid-July, but I don't know how I'm going to last until then. I cried all the way from the dentist because there's nothing I can do, and it could kill me. It's not like this can wait until Bernie Sanders becomes president. + +What do I do? + +Edit: In Colorado + +Update: Huge thanks to a generous redditor for $20, was enough to order Fish Mox. +Clove oil added to shopping list, +Hitting up dental schools when they open on Monday, +/r/povertyfinance, you are amazing and extremely helpful. +Makes fun of me for putting back 50 a paycheck to invest in the market. I only invest into bigger companies that will always be here, etf’s, and such. I try to explain to her why I do it but she constantly tells me that 50 could be put into savings or spent somewhere. Am I just dumb or what the heck + +Edit: apparently I need a new girlfriend so who’s trying to date? 😂 lmao +Gemini website is down and users are not able to access their trading or withdraw their funds. Here is a screenshot: [https://i.redd.it/3tmq7y13dc0a1.jpg](https://i.redd.it/3tmq7y13dc0a1.jpg) . I posted the screenshot a few minutes ago but the post was automatically removed. + +If Gemini is not going down and this is just an unfortunate co-incidence, then the timing could not frankly be any worse. All CEXes are on the line of fire, customers withdrawing their assets to safety and the credibility of the who industry in jeopardy. Before going down Gemini sent a load of spam trying to convince their customers that all is fine. I got similar spam from FTX just before it went down. +I've been with one company for years. I had a corporate discount and just took the deal. I truly don't know if I am on the best rate possible and when I started to try and compare I found it quite convoluted to match the services. Does anyone have suggestions on how to reassess my situation and try to get the best deal? +Why? Because the stock market is not decentralized. + +Sure, I switched from robinhood to etrade, but GUESS WHAT...even e-trade blocked trading. + +The curruption isn't the company, it's the system. + +So I gained $900 and bought cryptotendies with the total investment. +Hi FI! I'm having a bit of a dilemma about how to explain my frequent career changes to potential employers. I never deliberately intended to become financially independent; I built a company, sold it, and had enough $$ to never need to earn another dollar (given my low cost lifestyle). + +With my new freedom, I went back to school, I studied teaching and became a high school biology teacher for a 5 years. It was great, but I wanted to try new things, so I went back to school again, studied classics and fine arts, and spent a year as an art gallery curator. After that, I went back to school for a third time, got my MBA, and I'm about to apply for accounting positions... + +Now, my question: how the hell do I explain my mess of a career history to potential employers? I'm not exactly a beacon of company-dedication. Heck, not even of career-dedication. + +I'm FI but I don't want to stop working. I'm loving the freedom of trying out different things. I'm not being flaky or bailing when it's tough or failing, I'm purposely choosing to frequently change careers for the challenge of it (and the fun/hard work/excitement/learning opportunities/humility of it). + +Do I just own it? Do I say that I'm FI and do things for fun? Or do I invent reasons for career changing? What will they want to hear? Will they think I'm crazy? + +tl;dr: In last two decades I've been a business owner, a biology teacher, an art curator, and now I want to be an accountant. How should I present this at job interviews? +Hi all, I'm in Texas. + +My partner is working $15/hr at Lash Lounge, her position is part time but she works 80 hours every pay period. At first, she was working 36 hours per week but it slowly started creeping towards 40 and even past 40. Her wages weren't adding up so she decided to track them her self, she's quite meticulous and notes as soon as she's in and as soon as she's out. + +One evening, she clocked out at 8:54pm and noted it in her personal log. Upon arriving for work the next day she noticed her clock out had been changed in the company computer to 8:30pm. Only the manager and owner have access to change the logs. +This has happened several times. + +After tracking her hours for the last pay period, she tracked that she worked 85 hours. **Her paycheck was for 80 hours.** She went back in through the clock in / out logs and there was a discrepancy of 2 hours between her logs and the company logs. The computer said she worked 83 hours but her personal logs said 85, presumably from the 20 mins from the end of her shifts that are taken off by the manager or owner. Either way, she was only paid for 80 hours. Officially missing 3 hours from her check, unofficially missing 5 hours due to altered clock outs. + +I know this is wage theft, what can we do? Can my partner use her personal logs as evidence of wage theft? She deserves to be paid for 85 hours. + +Or is the discrepancy from the employee computer the only evidence she can use? 83 hours to 80 hours. + +To rub salt in the wound, there is an informational poster in the break room that says all hours over 40 are paid overtime. +Sorry this is a long one but I'm at a loss! + +I got a car out on finance 3 years ago, paid it for a year no issues then Cvid hit and I lost my job (the locks were changed one day and that was it, £2000 in wages that I didn't get back until the start of this year after going to court). I missed 2 payments back to back (although I did phone in advance and they said they would take the cost of the 2 payments and added it to the finance I took out). + +When the third payment was due, I expected the payment to come out of my account as I was back working again and able to afford it, it never came out. I called to be told my agreement was cancelled and they would be repossessing the car. I was gutted as I loved the car so I asked if there was anything that could be done, I even offered to pay the two months, that were technically no longer due as they'd been added to my agreement, over the phone there and then.. they refused. + +I asked when they would be repossessing and they told me I need to surrender it as I'm in Scotland and they told me they'd send someone with paperwork to sign.. nobody showed and it's been over 2 years now. + +Can anyone tell me what I need to do with this car? The company I bought it from are in England but I'm also worried about leaving the car anywhere (I'd have to find an address anyway) without signing something to say I have dropped it off with them. + +I haven't taxed or put it through its MOT as I was told I no longer own it, they were repossessing it and it's no longer my responsibility but... I kind of feel like it is so I'm not sure if I should leave it at my families farm or if it needs to be at my address for them to repossess... To clarify its outside my house and has been for years. I bought a new car as I was too anxious expecting someone to repossess this car, so it's definitely not moved and I'm definitely not hiding it 😊 + +Please help me and my mad anxiety 🤣 +# 100k?! + +Wow, 100,000 of us. Who'da thunk it? + +If you are interested to see what the subreddit looked like when I first got involved with it, this is the earliest wayback machine page I can find with my name on the mod-list: [https://web.archive.org/web/20140326064017/http://www.reddit.com:80/r/UKPersonalFinance/](https://web.archive.org/web/20140326064017/http:/www.reddit.com:80/r/UKPersonalFinance/) + +Less than 3,000 subscribers, old Reddit was still the default, nobody had heard of Brexit or Coronavirus. Ahhh, nostalgia... + +Anyway, onto business! + +# First, some stats: + +## The Subreddit + +[https://i.imgur.com/p4IKUk1.png](https://i.imgur.com/p4IKUk1.png) + +* Page views on the subreddit peaked as the COVID crisis hit, and were an eye-opening 3.7M last month. +* Most of our users now use the reddit apps +* We seem to be growing at a fairly steady rate, with interesting spikes at certain points (spot the new year resolution subscribers!) +* Geeky stats here: [https://redditmetrics.com/r/UKPersonalFinance](https://redditmetrics.com/r/UKPersonalFinance) + +## The Wiki + +[https://i.imgur.com/PN1Cvc7.png](https://i.imgur.com/PN1Cvc7.png) + +* The wiki ([https://ukpersonal.finance](https://ukpersonal.finance)) has now been offsite for nine months, and continues to be a popular resource +* We broke the analytics plugin so we only have data up to 19th April +* We've had 38,000 users visit the site with 113,000 total page views since we started it +* The content is starting to show its age and is need of a refresh. I wrote the majority of it over the course of three years or so, and it hasn't had much of an update for the last three or four years. Are you interested in writing wiki content or editing the content that is already there? Please join our Discord server ([https://discord.gg/kaetMg8](https://discord.gg/kaetMg8)) and let us know! + +## The Discord Server + +* Speaking of the Discord server, it now has over 1,200 members. +* Feel free to drop by and chat. We have a separate "lounge" channel for regular subreddit contributors, in case you're interested in speaking with like-minded people on wider topics. + +## The Flowchart + +...have you seen the flowchart? + +[https://i.imgur.com/gUxV4bc.png](https://i.imgur.com/gUxV4bc.png) + +* The flowchart got hosted separately (permalink: [https://flowchart.ukpersonal.finance/](https://flowchart.ukpersonal.finance/) ) which gives us some fancy stats. The most interesting to me is the biggest numbers: 76,000 pageviews in two months. Wowzers! +* I hope to have some time to evolve the flowchart further. This will intersect with Wiki updates. +* The main area for improvement is the last bit, which is still confusing and overly complex, whilst still not being complex enough. Perhaps it's an unsolvable puzzle? Any ideas?! Please shout up! + +# Thoughts from the mods... + +The visible mod-team shrank a little while ago, as we ~~staged a coup~~ removed the "top level mods" who had set the sub up and run things initially, but had subsequently left Reddit. This left the team of myself, strolls, Borax and TheRealWhoop running the show. In addition we had clippybot handing out reputation points. + +More recently the mod team *looks* like it has grown suddenly, although we've only added one human into the mix. Epicmindwarp, who provided and has maintained clippybot, accepted an invite to come on board, and has quickly added an automated induction process (see below). + +Generally speaking, the sub has always been easy to moderate. Most discussions are on topic, people are generally civil to each other, and we don't have to intervene very often. + +We have an incredible community of experienced people, both financial professionals and otherwise, who are very happy to help. Our key focus as a mod-team is to keep the sub working for you, as you're the reason the sub flourishes. + +# The "new new" user workflow + +There have been a couple of recent threads suggesting that post quality is falling, and this is something we have taken seriously. To this end we have recently put in place a new workflow for new posters: + +* If automoderator notices that you have no flair, your post is removed and a message is sent explaining the purpose of the sub, the wiki, the rules and posting requirements, letting you know about our reputation system, and so on. +* If you respond affirmatively to the message, the post is approved. + +This is helpful for a few reasons: + +* The majority of our traffic now comes from the Reddit mobile app, which is pretty poor at making the sidebar obvious, where a lot of the information is. +* It empowers the mod team to remove more low effort posts as a result of point one +* It hopefully encourages new users to use !thanks and build on our reputation system + +The whole process was put together by our newest mod, /u/epicmindwarp, who had already helped us significantly by setting the reputation system up a while ago. + +Additionally, we have very recently setup a "weekly help thread", which will be stickied each Monday. This will hopefully allow people to ask smaller questions they might not otherwise have asked, or would have posted as a thread, in a single place. If you're a regular, please stop by and answer the odd question :) + +(Also, special thanks to /u/pflurklurk who has kept the furlough q&a thread alive for the last few weeks). + +# Over to you + +So, over to you! This is your chance to tell us what is working, what could be working better, what you love, what you hate, and so on. Some questions that might start you off: + +* Are you a new user? Did our introduction system help? Were you frustrated by it? +* Have you noticed our weekly help thread in the past week? Is it useful? +* If you're a long-time user, have you noticed thread quality improving? +* Are the rules still appropriate for the sub? Do we need stricter rules? Less rules? +I posted this a number of months back and it got a fair bit of traction so thought I’d do another post. Help to Save is a type of savings account. It allows certain people entitled to Working Tax Credit or receiving Universal Credit to get a bonus of 50p for every £1 they save over 4 years. Help to Save is backed by the government so all savings in the scheme are secure. + + + +Eligibility: + +You can open a Help to Save account if you’re any of the following: + +-receiving Working Tax Credit + +-entitled to Working Tax Credit and receiving Child Tax Credit + +-claiming Universal Credit and your household earned £604.56 or more from paid work in your last monthly assessment period + + +If you get payments as a couple, you and your partner can apply for your own Help to Save accounts. You need to apply separately. The total amount of free money for a couple over the duration of the account is £2400, tax free. + + + +[https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income](https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income) +June 2016 I bought a new truck, I didn't like the truck I bought so I went back and purchased a different truck. It was all added to my loan, and it was the the biggest mistake of my life. + +My loan total was $49,000 + + +I was making great money and I figured okay, I made a mistake but I will pay it off... + + +Well life happened and my boyfriend and I moved to another state for his job, I had a hard time finding another job in my field, and my truck ended up getting repossessed. My parents helped me and I got my truck back. + +My monthly payment is $730 a month + + +My loan total is now $39,000 + +My Dad suggested I trade in my truck, and figure something out because it's too big of expense for me right now. + +I'm not sure what I can do... If I trade in my truck, won't that balance just be added onto the new car I'm getting? + +Can I even do anything? + + +Is my credit too messed up now, after the repossession to even buy/trade in a truck. I won't be approved... + + +Please help... Thanks +I have no brothers and sisters and my parents never married so I am the next of kin. My aunt is sending me threatening messages about having a right to his car, bank account, and belongings in his storage garage. We are in Tennessee and I believe by state law, if we find out there wasn't a will, everything would go to me. + +What actions can I take now to protect myself against the aunt meddling in all of this? + +Second question: I believe Dad had medical debts and I wanted to take some action to make sure his money isn't drawn from his bank account or whatever. I don't have any idea what to do. + +He worked at Walmart and I have to go there today and find out about policies I guess. This is all completely new to me and I am overwhelmed but need to act fast. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. We are working on getting the death certificates now. +And that's why I'm extremely bullish on GameFi projects these days. You have probably seen these coins pumping the last few weeks while everything else was dumping. The market for regular NFTs seems oversaturated, NFTs with utility, like Land NFTs seem to be the next big trend imo. The crypto real estate boom is coming guys, in fact with the prices on Decentraland/Axie landholding, it might already be here, I'm in a couple of low marketcap gems though to make up for being late (shoutout RisingSun), but I'm feeling pretty comfy about the future with my bags. + + +We're entering the Ready Player One Era guys. Are you ready? +Leave your thoughts below. +**YO, Welcome back to Staten Island, Home of the Ryan Cohen - Wu-Tang Tinfoil Theory...** + +We all know about the theory u/silver7una layed down, If not educate yourself ape... + +[https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/q9basd/ryan\_cohen\_wutang\_could\_deliver\_death\_blow\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/q9basd/ryan_cohen_wutang_could_deliver_death_blow_to/) + +Which leads us to today, where an Anonymous group of buyers have come forward as the owners. + +[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes) + +**I like Tinfoil, so here we go.....** + +*Our BOY RC is wearing an Interesting hoodie in this image at a Gamestop Location in CA.* + +*There is a hooded figure in the press going around today about the purchase of the 1/1 Album.* + +***Could RC be a part of PleasrDAO, and plans on facilitating its release through Gamestop and NFT's somehow?*** + +[Check out the piping on the jacket RC is wearing](https://preview.redd.it/2gyufp2p9ou71.jpg?width=1395&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c701b2477bb787860b3f1185cea1e1031567543d) + +&#x200B; + +&#x200B; + +[PleasrDAO posing with \\"Once Upon A Time In Shaolin\\"](https://preview.redd.it/hcmven0yaou71.jpg?width=1800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=111d10171ef3bd2de8c7e655f57fc672fb183e05) + +[RC Posing in Culver City, CA](https://preview.redd.it/rnl0ft0yaou71.jpg?width=646&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcfe79311e430bcf0fdcaadcbff3ce294eb4699e) + +&#x200B; + +I was worth sharing. Thanks for your time. + +I Like the Stock, And Wu-Tang is for the Children. + +MY word is bond God, this is just a theory. Id love your thoughts. + +I made a comment once that had some nice feedback. That’s why I decided to share it as a post. + +I know there is a plenty of trading rules, so feel free and add yours in the comment section for other traders! + + +1. What is the market sentiment (indexes / futures/sector) + +2. Do I trade in the same direction (bear / bull market) + +3. What is my Risk/Reward Ratio + +4. Where is my SL + +5. What is my PT (don’t be greedy) + +6. On 10 Trades how many times do I made money (trading journal with self analysis!) + +7. Do I trade this stock only because of TA or is there any catalyst incoming + +8. TL, Support/Resistance levels are not strict lines, they are more like areas. + +9. If a Stock looks nice on a daily timeframe (price sitting on support), zoom to a smaller timeframe to time your entry like a sniper. (Better entry = better Reward & less risk) + +10. Trading is a business not a gamble (learn it, earn it) + +11. Don’t take advices from furus / pump & dump influencer. They already front loaded all stocks they mentioned and they just want to sell it to you + +12. Don’t be emotional, trade with facts not with feelings + +13. Don’t drink or do drugs while trading + +14. If you have a losing streak take a break + +15. If you feel uncomfortable while trading, maybe you took a to large position (sizing is important) + +16. If you make screenshots of your gains, then you are proud enough, so sell and take the money + +17. Let the winners run & keep losers small + +18. Mute the noise, the market & the people around it are loud and full of shit + +19. If you have lost money it’s your fault, don’t accuse someone else. Denying don’t make you a better trader + +20. If you made some gainz, it’s on you! Be proud of yourself but don’t get cocky. + +21. FOMO is a no go + +22. If you are super excited about the money you made, take a break till your are back to emotionlessness + +23. Trading can be the way to freedom but also makes you poor if you don’t treat it with respect + +24. Trade only with money you can afford to lose (that takes pressure off) + +25. Loosing is part of your journey (learn from it) + +Feel free to share your journey. I think it helps each other & that’s all a community is about. +As the title says, the clock is ticking for the rumored time frame of the inevitable merge from POW to POS. We all know that this has been continually pushed back for years, and many expect this to continue. I'd be interested to hear your guy's opinions on the subject. Personally, I believe that another delay is inevitable, simply due to the fact that hundreds of billions are on the line. There is no reason to rush such a major switch when a failure could cause competitors like SOL and ADA, to pass you in usage. +As the title says I am in my late twenties and building a business. My parents are in their late 60s and early 70s. One is already retired and the other is going to potentially retire this year. I am very nervous as my siblings are older (late 30s and mid 40s) and I am not as financially stable as they are. They want to buy their home and split it three ways, but I do not have anywhere near the amount of money that they do. I barely have 10k saved in my savings and earn less than 1800 a month after taxes. + +My siblings and I are about to have a conversation about how we handle their retirement and take on the financial burden (I only use this term because I have no other way of saying it, I love my parents and they have given me more in life than I can ever imagine) of being their sole resource of money along with their social security. + +I have prospects to one day buy a home in 15 years but if I use most of my small income to supplementing this I'll barely have any for myself to survive off of day to day. + +I want to be a part of this and help my aging folks as they are immigrants from another country and only worked in blue collar laborious jobs. But if I don't help myself I'm afraid that I won't have a financially stable enough future for myself. + +Does anyone have advice on how to prepare for this and experiences of this kind that can lend some sound advice? Thank you! + +Edit: some additions from replies, to shed more light to the situation. + +Well here is the other layer. I currently live with my parents. It's the same house I've lived in since I was born. They have allowed me to stay with them while I get my finances saved up to buy a future home. I'm happy to take over the basic upkeep if they do retire. But my parents has expressed that they want my oldest sibling and myself to inherit their house, as the middle has already been given the other home. But with the added investment my oldest sibling is doing to my parents current home that also propositions them to have more ownership of the house. Does this make sense? It's a really weird situation. + +My oldest sibling's idea is to purchase the house that my parents purchased. They get to continue living in the home for as long as they live and we take over the house financially 100%. My parent's house is paid completely, therefore there is no mortgage. + +The money will be for them to do whatever they wish with it. + +As for as future holdings on the house I have no idea. + + Another layer to this is is that my oldest siblings sold their home and downsized to a separate living situation while they add an additional floor to our parents house for them to live in. But that displaces my parents for a half year minimum, myself, and my parent who is still working (she is a host home care provider) means that she would lose her job which she still wants to do. + +As for why my income is so low, I'm 3 years in of growing my own business which sprang up in the beginning of the pandemic. I lost my job due to covid and it was an opportunity for me to grow financially for the future. My parents have been 100% supportive of me in this endeavor and if it weren't for them I wouldn't have been able to invest in my business. + +Wow I've been kept up all night with so much anxiety over this whole situation and I deeply appreciate everyone's input and different perspectives! I'm reading through everything as best as I can! +With Twitter being a perfect example, how can a company go private if there’s still shares they need to buy back? Say for example 1 person buys 98% of the companies shares, but a person who holds 2% doesn’t want to sell or multiple share holders don’t want to sell, how can they be forced to take a buy-out? + +I was looking this question up because I’m currently invested in a stock OXY where Berkshire has bought 21% of the public shares with a goal to buy 50%+ public shares. Anyways the only answer I found is the person or company has to buy majority of public shares and then will make a set-price to buy off the rest. So how can a company go private when they haven’t bought all the shares back or if a shareholder that for example, has 3,000 shares refuses to sell and wants to be a >1% shareholder? How is that legal to force them to sell when technically they own part of the company? +There are so many posts and comments on this subreddit to the effect of “I could never stop working, I’d be so bored just sitting around on a beach/watching tv/on the porch.” It always confuses me that so many people think life is a set of two binary options: 1) work full time at a job or 2) sit around doing nothing and be bored. As if there isn’t an entire world of opportunity in between there. + +I’ve been keeping a mental list of all the activities I plan to devote my time to once I’m retired, and I thought I’d share it here to give people a little jolt of imagination. + +Note for the “build the life you want” crowd: I’m already doing (or have done) most of these activities now, it’s just that my spouse and I both have demanding corporate jobs and a young child that don’t leave us enough time to explore everything we want to do. My push to retire early is not even necessarily that I don’t like my job. It’s just that my job isn’t the only thing I like. There is an entire vast world of other people, places, and activities that I would like to experience as well. + +So here’s just a sample of what we want to retire to, in no particular order: + +• Family and Friends: Look, you can love your job, but your job is never going to love you back. You know who will? Your friends and family. But one thing that has always frustrated me it how hard it is to find time to get together when we’re all working and running errands and shuttling the kids around. We all want to see each other more but are always short on time and energy to make it happen often enough. Retiring would mean I could have extra time for planning and hosting dinners, weekends, and events with friends and family. Those that are still working wouldn’t have to worry about doing the heavy lifting of social planning – they just need to show up. + +• Roadtripping: as an extension of the first point – we’ve moved several times and have friends and family all over the country (not to mention all the places I just want to visit). It would be great to have all the time we need to travel out to see people and interesting places. + +• Backpacking: we try to go out a few times a season now, but limited vacation time means we can only go out for long weekends. We would love to be able to take off several months to hike long trails: John Muir, PCT, or AT. I love the idea of researching, planning, gearing up, and taking off into the woods for an extended stretch. + +• Volunteering: there is always desperate need for people who not only show up, but who actually have time to get things done for local organizations. School boards, community committees, libraries, tutoring, Meals on Wheels, voter drives, helping out at community events, the list is endless. There’s a cool group in my community where you volunteer to have coffee with people trying to learn English so they can converse with native speakers. I've served on the Board for several organizations (child's daycare, writer's group, community association) but never have enough time for it all. There are soooo many opportunities to be involved and engaged with your community – we could do entire posts on just this! + +• Classes: I never want to stop learning and exploring. I’ve found time to take a dance class here or an art class there – but think of everything out there! Language classes, more dance classes, cooking, astronomy, tennis lessons, pottery. There are always city parks, community art centers, or community colleges offering classes (often cheap or even free!) and I would love to take advantage of as much as possible. + +• Writing: I’ve already published a few books and I like to say I still write in my “spare time” which is practically zero lately. I dream of mornings where instead of rushing around to get ready for work and get the kid off to school, I can sit with a cup of coffee on my back deck and let the creative juices flow once more. + +• Sewing: I love sewing, but only impractical costumes and historical garb. I love researching the history of the clothes, the fabrics and construction methods, and then spending days or weeks (or more) creating big, beautiful, dresses. This is yet another interest that has been pushed aside by the demands of corporate life that I would love to get back to. + +• DIY house projects: Spouse and I love to work on small projects around the house together. Or find the perfect piece of old, damaged furniture we can restore or revamp. Or design and build a piece ourselves. + +• Cooking: I’d love to be able to devote time to growing my own herbs and vegetables, to sourcing local meat and food, to more thoughtfully planning meals and cooking them from scratch. We do the best we can, but dinner right now is often another thing we just try to cram in between getting home from work, wrapping up emails, homework, and evening chores. + +• Adventure travel: we both travel a fair bit for work and pleasure, but I’d love to kick it up a notch with some more exotic trips. Trekking to Mount Everest basecamp. Hiking through Patagonia. Riding horses through the Mongolian steppes. Again, there is a whole wide world out there and I’ve only seen tiny pieces of it. + +• Rock Climbing: I love the outdoors, I love mountains, and I love climbing things. I’ve tried rock climbing once or twice, but I would really like to get more into it. Not with the expectation that I'll be any good at it at this stage in my life, but just for the pure joy of it. + +• Music: I played cello for many years and have taken lessons on and off. Haven’t picked it up in awhile and would love to take lessons again. + +• RVing: I want to rent an RV for a season and travel to as many National Parks as we can. + +• Sailing: I crewed a racing sailboat one summer and caught the sailing bug. Would love to get out on the water more. + +• Sitting around: So yes, I’ll admit it. There is actually is a need in my life to just sit around once in awhile. Watch tv. Read a book. Just relax. Drink wine. + +• Fitness: I try to fit in a few workouts a week, but I’d love to have more time to really work on myself and my fitness. Maybe train for and run a marathon. + +• And more! Book clubs, discussion groups, gardening clubs…. + + +There is so much more on my ever-expanding list, but I’ll stop here. + +What about you all? What are the things you’ll be doing once you retire? Post some ideas we can all add to our mental lists! And, hey, if your answer is that you're one of those people that really does want to keep working, that's cool too! +I still have a few years to go to FatFIRE, but like many on this sub, many of my retirement goals include luxury, international travel. But much of my focus is not only on the quality of the travel, but also the freedom and flexibility to visit for weeks at a time (which is not possible in my current corporate role). But for those that have done it or are living FatFIRE, is there a diminishing return to this kind of travel? Is the 10th night at the Four Seasons really adding much more joy than heading home after the 5th night? Appreciate your thoughts. +Hello + +Im not fire, but am doing quite alright for myself. I have noticed throughout the years that once people know how much money I have or make, things go south very quickly... People start asking me money, suddenly stop speaking to me or try to use me ( eg for latter: keep asking me cigarettes instead of buying their owns although they have a job...) + +But here is where it gets even more complicated for me. I personally don’t feel the need to impress people. I m at the moment **really ** doing all right for myself ( couple of properties, enough clients, etc...), but still don’t own a car, live in an extremely small apartment alone, buy my clothes at primark, etc... +On the other hand we live in a day and age where people constantly show off. Just look at social media. People who barely have a job keep on showing off and pretending to have an amazing life style. I do notice that many of the people that surround me that don’t know anything about my finances (90% of the people) just look down on me because I look like a poor kid (due to clothing and lifestyle). This makes it extremely difficult for me to shut up and not speak about some of my business deals. For me, my company is my life. I started out alone far behind and now work 7/7 (not as complaint, I like it). So speaking about work is very natural as well as it takes up like 90% of my life sort of speak and I don’t like to constantly be looked down onto. + + +So, how do you: + + - keep everything lowkey without being looked down onto? + - speak about money and your business without making people jealous or hate you? +I'm 19yo and I have about 15k saved. I'd like to invest about 5k of it but I just have no idea where to start. + +I've looked into Vanguard ETF's but their website and details about it might as well be in Latin. Every time I try to learn about something, I feel like end up with more questions than answers. + +Is there like an investing for dummies resource you guys could point me toward? Like, a podcast or something? +This is not a parody post, I am genuinely asking this. + +Has anyone on here ever moved into something else FROM coding? I have been doing it over 10 years and tbh I can’t stand it. I I just don’t have a passion for it anymore, and the jobs I have aren’t the problem generally. It’s just not fulfilling and very mentally taxing in the long term. + +I much prefer doing stuff with my hands, woodwork, fixing my car, planning stuff to build, but I know that a) there’s a huge difference between a hobby for yourself and a job, and b) I am very lucky with the salary I have so any trade would knock me back a lot + + +Has anyone here successfully managed to completely change from coding to another industry? I thought about taking a part time tafe course for something like waterproofing, but I think it would still be hard to get into it. +My father is reaching retirement age and no longer wants to own his business. My brother has been working there full time for the past 20 years and I have been there full time for the past 3 years. + +The plan has been for a long time for my brother and I to take over the business when my Father does retire. The main asset involved is the factory which is owned outright. Initially my brother and I were planning on just paying a lease to my father while we continued to operate the business, but now my father has said he would prefer it if we bought the factory ourselves and he could basically be finished with it all. + +I am not 100% sure who owns the factory, if it is in fathers name or under the business (a Pty Ltd). I do have a feeling it could be under my fathers name which would make the most sense. I do not believe my brother and I would be able to borrow enough in our own names to be able to buy the factory directly (I believe it would be worth around $1,000,000). So I am trying to think of other options which may suit everyone. + +The business may qualify for a loan to buy the factory, I would need to go through the financials and see how viable something like that would be. I have had a brief look through the accounts and they are okay but far from amazing, and I’m not sure how servicing a significant loan would go. + +Is it possibly an option to set up some sort of “rent to buy” arrangement between my father and the business? I don’t mind paying a bit more than market rent because I could see it as a way of getting a “mortgage” but instead of the bank collecting interest and fees it would at least go to my father instead. I still need to look at the financials for this as well because it may be difficult to pay for this sort of arrangement as well. + +It should also be noted that with the money he would receive from the sale of the factory he would only have it sitting in a bank account, he is not interested in any sort of ETF investing so I believe this would work out beneficial to him as well + +Happy to hear any other ideas from people who know more about this than I do? (Which wouldn’t be hard since I know very little about this particular stuff). + +Also don’t bother arguing against going into business with family and such, I know it isn’t ideal but we have talked at length before about it and although my brother and I are both aware how things can turn sour we are still willing to risk it. + +Thanks for reading +This is the lowest point of the 2018 bear market: [https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20181216/](https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20181216/) + +Out of the top100 altcoins 95% of them did perform WORSE than buying btc and switching to newer alts (Dot, Kusama, Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Axie Infinity, Avax, Terra, Sand, etc) in December 2020 after bitcoin broke ATH. + +And that's BUYING THE EXACT BOTTOM, if you'd have bought a month earlier, the results would've been even worse, because alts drop more than bitcoin. + +The lesson here is, maybe you should DCA in bitcoin/ethereum and leave alts for next year or for when btc breaks ATH, because now the risk/reward, even if it's better than a few months ago, it might be not worth it. + +That's just my opinion, not financial advice, just check the data, do your own research and think about it yourself. +Original interview: [https://youtu.be/wpHGLtohlxM?t=51](https://youtu.be/wpHGLtohlxM?t=51) + +&#x200B; + +Curious to hear what people here think of bitcoin as a sort of hedge to all this recent Fed money printing? +I'm young, early 30. I don't remember the market aspect of the early 2000 recession, but I was kinda old enough in 2008 to understand what was happening. I had a friend or two whose parents lost their job, my job controlled a bit more their expenses, but that was it. + +I am heavily invested in equities, and even have some investments on margin (on an extremely conservative leverage amount though). + +I do think I'm intelligent enough to ride through a recession and hold, even seeing my portfolio down by half. The worst case that could happen for me is a margin call, but at that point my portfolio would need to have dropped by ~80%. I am betting this will not happen. Having a healthy emergency fund does make me safer than others as well if I lose my job. + +Anybody willing to share their experiences? +I am 21 years old currently with slightly more than 10,000 invested into mutual funds. I currently have 8 or 9 thousand more dollars to invest. I know it’s often pointless and impossible to try and time the market but I keep on having the feeling that as soon as i invest my money the market shits itself. Just for context I invested 8,000 half a month before the covid crash. Should I wait a while and see if there is a larger correction in the market or just invest now? +Hello everyone. + +I would like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year. I would also like to thank my fellow moderators who have helped substantially to keep this subreddit going. This subreddit wouldn't be the same without them. + +The success of this reddit is driven by contribution from you and participation by others. I'm an open minded person and even though it is the internet, occasionally another persons perspective can help to make these difficult decisions. There is never one way of doing things and everyone has different risk tolerances. There is lots of opportunity for someone to research while being pointed in the right direction. The better decisions that Canadians make in investing, the better financially they will be. Canadians need to be not just shareholders but stakeholders in the economy. That stake can grow and contract but never be taken away. This allow opportunity for growth by other means elsewhere, including debt reduction. + +It is interesting watching how the world is evolving in the business world. This upcoming year we will see some sectors emerge. volatility from marijuana, lithium, bitcoin, biotech perhaps. we will see the effect of monetary policy recently passed in the states. if you are able to, there is a podcast on the IMF (international monetary fund) on freakanomics radio as well as an interesting one about the german economy. + +See you all in the New Year! +I'm one of the victims of Fido/Rogers who is stuck in the national outage with no ability to even make an emergency call. SMS is also down. Not even any clues by them as to how long this will occur. After noticing a lot of outraged custerms theatening to move to Bell... this has me wondering. + +&#x200B; + +How much Fido/Rogers may dip if it doesn't just blow over... + +&#x200B; + +Or how much Bell may increase by next earnings report? +I have 130k in liquid assets, I’m in University but my parents are paying for tuition. + +I have 115K in my TFSA. The goal of the portfolio is aggressive growth. + +30% - $XSP - CAD hedged ETF that follows S&P 500. CAD is suppose to rise and USD is suppose to fall. Protect gains from losing them to currency price change. + +15% - $VOO - Low cost ETF 0.03% MER tracks S&P 500 + +20% - $ARKG or $EAGB-NE - High growth ark ETF that focuses on gene editing, crispr, bio. Debating on buying the US one (ARKG) which has 0.75% MER vs CAD one with (1.5% or 1.75%) MER but would this be better for CAD increasing and USD decreasing? + +15% - $ARKQ - Focuses on companies that will be automation and robotics which I think will be huge this decade. Same question for the CAD vs US thing. + +15% - $ARKW - Big data, A.I, cloud computing, cyber security very big next couple decades too I believe. + +5% - $CRSP - I think we have barely tapped into this and has so much potential. + +So I have 15kish left. + +I put 9k in 90% bitcoin and 10% Ethereum. It’s at 11k right now. + +6k for savings. Should I put 2k more in my TFSA I have like 10k more contribution room. + +Edit: Just wanted some advice - also don’t US dividends get taxed at 50%? Should I try personal finance Canada? +I'm looking at putting some money into CASH ETF to get some yield in the meantime. I'm trying to figure out if its distributions are considered eligible, non-eligible dividends, or even capital gains, but I can't find the info. I've read the fact sheet, and prospectus. + +Anyone have any insights? +I’m looking for any sort of place where I can read opinions and we’ll thought out posts/discussions that are longer than just : + +“5 stocks that PAY DIVIDENDS in CANADA!!🚀🚀💯” + +Considering buying a subscription to the national post if anyone finds it is worth the read +Ok so i started my portfolio this year hoping to learn along the way. i bought a lot if stuff that i dont think i need, or is not helping me. + +I've been looking at past performance 3/5/10 years and charting my various stocks against VFV and XQQ and basically they all fall short. + +Can someone explain a scenario where i would want to be in ENB, TD, BCE rather than VFV and XQQ over the next 10 years? what events could make the indexes poor performers? + +im working towards retirement goals and eventually want to have solid dividend revenue but should i be scooping up dividend stocks now or just buying the indexes and converting them to dividend stocks when im retired? is there a case to make for paying taxes each year or paying taxes later? or should i never consider dividend stocks and only buy and sell indexes? + +ive been using this link to compare: + +https://www.dividendchannel.com/drip-returns-calculator/ +I'm looking at putting some money into CASH ETF to get some yield in the meantime. I'm trying to figure out if its distributions are considered eligible, non-eligible dividends, or even capital gains, but I can't find the info. I've read the fact sheet, and prospectus. + +Anyone have any insights? +As the universe of bonds renew with new rates and coupons, would the distribution amount increase? I think it has always been .04. Currently near 4% and historically 3.2%. Portfolio term us 7.8 years, so by half way there it should turn around. + +I am happy to hold for the next 4 years, reinvesting, and DCA now and then in my TFSA. +Most of the coins I check, have at least a red candle somewhere in the middle. Ethereum is a pleasure for the eyes right now. And we still have the fork ahead. + + +I need to complete 210 characters so don't mind this part. +1) **It's rarely as bad as the headlines**. + +This was the worst quarter since the GFC, with the S&P500 down about 20%. Peak-to-trough decline was about 35.5%, which makes a great headline. I'm "only" down 14.6% YTD due to continued savings. I'm reminded of Root of Good's [net worth graph](https://rootofgood.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/net-worth-growth-2015.png), which has a surprisingly modest dip in 08/09 due to continued savings and a lower portfolio size. Obviously those with larger portfolios will be hit harder, but most of us are probably somewhere around the boring middle. + +2) **Maintain a consistent record keeping schedule** + +Re-calculate your net worth in regular intervals: monthly, quarterly, annually, whatever. This consistency keeps you from comparing your your top-to-bottom loss. If I do this exercise I "lost" >$100k top-to-bottom, but when just looking at my month-end numbers, my portfolio is "only" down $67k over the past 2 months and down $57k YTD. Not great, but much better than $100k+. No need to distract yourself with intra-month volatility chatter. + +3) **Spending matters** + +With shelter-in-place for most of March, my spending is down 26% relative to my average. If I was currently retired, I'd actually be *better off* from a SWR standpoint because my spending has declined more than my portfolio. Cutting spending is always easier said than done, and in the absence of a global pandemic it might not be so easy to avoid social events, restaurants, concerts, bars, and what have you. But this does show that reduced non-essential spending *can* be done and *does* have a very positive impact on SWR. I'd also imagine many of us are baking in a somewhat hefty discretionary spending budget into our FIRE number, which just provides more flexibility to rein in spending if necessary. + +4) **The bigger the dip, the larger the gain** + +If you buy a fund at a 25% "discount", when the price increases back to normal, you will see a 33.33% gain. + +Down 33%? Your back-to-normal gain will be +50%. + +Additionally, the dividend yield will likely be higher. A fund with a 2% yield will have an effective yield of 2.67% if you're able to buy the stock at a 25% dip. You're locked into this price and will reap this higher yield until you sell. A counterargument is that companies cut dividends in poor economic conditions, which can sometimes be the case, but if we look at the [dividend yield during 08/09](https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-dividend-yield), it actually increased. + +How was your spreadsheet day? +> U.S. stock futures rose on early Monday morning as Wall Street tried to recover from another decline last week. + +> Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 872 points higher, implying a gain of about 906 points at the Monday open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to robust Monday opening gains for the two indexes. + +[CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/05/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html) +One of the most prolific scam coins has been beaten out of the top 10 once and for all. For this we can all be grateful. + +Evidence for all your downvoters: + +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxbiH_Mg44 + +https://medium.com/@omiros23/evans-and-dash-s-scam-story-add1f16528ae + +https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@thedashguy/the-reason-i-call-dash-a-scam-and-echo-chamber-proof-of-the-crazed-cult-like-thinking-of-dash-community-inside + +Today is a good day. +&lt;speculation&gt;I believe GameStop went on the offensive to flex before Cohen spoke with the SEC (based on the tweet of the GameStop location nearest their headquarters). They promised him his pound of flesh and GameStop is hodling until it’s time. &lt;\speculation&gt; + +This is the longest break they have gone between press releases this year. For a while, every week they launched bullish news in a release. Even this week, apes across the world can now access the GameStop web page. No release. They are hodling things in until it’s time. Bullish as fuck. +Just watched this movie yesterday about the housing crash of 2008. One month later Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper. + +If you want to understand why Bitcoin was created and why so many people say that Bitcoin = Freedom from this corrupted system, watch this movie, can't recommend enough. + +It's labeled comedy, but I was anxious throughout the whole movie lol. + +Edit: you can see many parallels with the current situation, with endless money printing. Bitcoin solves this. +As of 4 months ago (Dec 2020) I cut the cord with a FAANG's 520K/y position. I'm in late 30s, NW 3.2M. I'm living on a humble budget so expecting my NW to only grow. + +I'm a permanent resident in US and am scheduled to get a US citizenship in a month - an event that I've been working towards for the last dozen-ish years. My earlier thoughts (before going FIRE) were that a citizenship will give me firmer footing in US as I absolutely love this country and the job opportunities it has been giving me. + +However, after FIRE, I'm realizing that getting a US citizenship will put me (voluntarily) into US tax net, hence will weigh highly against future considerations of moving to other countries. For instance, I would not be able to move to Cayman Islands to enjoy the 365 day weather AND other perks like NO income tax, NO property taxes, NO capital gains taxes, NO payroll taxes, NO withholding tax, ... + +I'm also a Canadian, so have good fallback if I decide to NOT get US citizenship. However, after few days of deep thoughts on the subject I decided to still go on with getting the US citizenship as a) I have a big family and this country is a great place to raise my kids, and b) I've built my life here and it truly feels like my new home, something I'm reluctant to part with for bigger numbers in my bank account. + +Having made peace with my decision, I'm still curious what other FIRE folks think on the topic? Would also love to hear personal stories about trade-offs made between getting a US citizenship and ... not. Also, given that [2.6K (of 9M Americans living overseas) renounce their citizenship annually](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-gave-up-citizenship-in-record-numbers-in-2020-up-triple-from-2019-reports-tax-specialists-americans-overseas-301222817.html), I'd love to get a feel how many FIREs make up that number? + +&#x200B; +I'm relatively early on in the fat fire path but was curious as to when everyone started using someone to prepare their taxes vs. using Turbo Tax. The first several years out of college I used Turbo Tax because I was only receiving W-2 income. This year I received a K-1 for my portion of the carry in a PE fund that I previously worked at. I'm not sure what it tells me or how it ties back to overall fund performance. Are the resources online / offline that explain this or is this too niche? + +Is this the level of tax complexity where it starts to make sense to hire a tax adviser? In the past, it hasn't even made sense for me to itemize my deductions so I'm totally over my head here. + +In general, what resources do you use to educate yourself on tax matters and how do you decide when to insource vs. outsource. + +Thanks! +I see loads of people on here talking about working in tech or software making $200k salary and $300k equity a year. + +I’m at the start of my career in software development at a large UK bank, however I’m fairly certain that even some of our executive board don’t make even close to that kind of money, let alone someone working tech/software. It seems that super high incomes are much more common across the pond. + +Is there anyone from the UK here working towards fatFIRE who could give some insight into the plausibility of achieving this in the UK? +I was an early employee at a company that is about to IPO later this month. I am no longer employed there, but exercised all my options upon leaving. It is an exciting time with possibly life-changing money involved, but reflecting back, being involved in this situation seems like such an incredible crapshoot. + +They say "Lightning never strikes the same place twice," so how did you beat the odds? What was the situation? And how much would you attribute to luck vs skill and hard work? + + Have been a long time lurker. Thanks. +I recall a couple months ago, it seemed like we were getting a post every few days about a new crypto millionaire, just was wondering what their thoughts are now. + +/u/105kgSysAdmin, /u/plzraiselimits, /u/cryptothrowaway256 +Anyone that was in eth Dec 2016 should post what it was like. It was brutal. Those that held were greatly rewarded. Here we are again a brutal crypto winter with a 70% correction..... Post your thoughts. I will remove Fud. +I have a Statistics undergrad, Comp Sci/Software Eng masters. +I am pretty bored in my Data Eng role at the moment and need something more challenging and fast paced. I work in tech at the moment. +Most of the roles I see require finance experience and/or require a 'pro' level programmer, which I am trying to become (Python) through freelance work/projects, but my own job will not 'get me there' therefore I'm unsure how to become pro and develop the skills to move over. +I also miss doing statistics stuff but have not touched ML models etc for a while, so won't be as good as the Data Scientists etc at the moment. I want to be pro and useful to the company. +Any advice for someone in my position? +I'm planning to put together a trading bot to identify pharma candidates based on clinical trial results. This would have the modest aim of identifying a short list of candidates based on the following criteria: + +* Phase 2 trial results +* Interventional trial with drug +* Condition is on a list of serious conditions (cancer, neurological etc) +* Tradable, small cap company + +I was going to start with RSS feeds from [clinicaltrials.gov](https://clinicaltrials.gov) as a jumping off point. I'd be willing to post the output publicly on a daily basis. + +Has anybody done anything like this before? Any recommendations? +I'll have to file a chargeback through my bank, but this is still such a hassle. I'm going to just have to spend the money and get the good shit from tickdata.com as the algoseek api has no way to format the 1-minute data into 15-minute bars and quant quote is a scam :( +I came here looking for it and couldn’t find it. here you autists go. don’t fucking dance. + + +https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-weekly-initial-unemployment-claims-march-21-153036254.html +Any time the market rising people flock to cryptocurrency looking for "*the next big win*" and are constantly asking others to tell them what the best opportunity is. + +Because in many countries the cryptocurrency market is not a regulated industry, it is one that is ripe with manipulation and scams. The mod team here at /r/cryptocurrency regularly has to ban professional manipulation groups (sometimes as large as 800 members) who have been paid to promote projects. + +Given this, it's important to be able to do your own research and so I've assembled this handy guide for you. + +**Some tools that might be useful:** + +* [CoinCheckUp.com](http://coincheckup.com) - this is my preferred research site as they have a lot more data, and more diverse data than other price monitoring sites. + +* [Coinmarketcap.com](http://coinmarketcap.com) - this is one of the oldest price tracking sites, and is more popular than CoinCheckUp, but has less data. + +* [Delta Portfolio Tracker](https://getdelta.io) - A popular cryptocurrency potfolio tracker. (Downloadable app not vetted by /r/cryptocurrency) + +* [Blockfolio](http://blockfolio.com) - A popular cryptocurrency potfolio tracker. (Downloadable app not vetted by /r/cryptocurrency) + +**Disclaimers:** + +* Crypto isn't an investment strategy. + +* Crypto is highly volatile and highly risky. Any money put into crypto could be lost in a crash. It could take years to recover. It could never recover. + +* The following information is not financial advice. + +* This is a guide on how to perform research, and is formed from an individual opinion. It's focus is helping you debunk *some* of the under qualified advice that others try to give in this space. It should not be considered complete or sufficient. You should never base any decisions on things you read online. Use your own best judgement. + +Here is my personal approach to researching coins: + +**Step 1 - Understanding your risk profile:** + +A lot of people advocate for users purchasing cryptocurrencies and tokens that are "low-cap" ($10M - $100M) because they have the most opportunity to grow. + +While this may be the case, the smaller a coin, and the earlier the project the more risk there is that the project can go to 0. + +In traditional stocks some people are happy to make a 3% - 4% annual return, but would be in financial hardship if they lost money, and will invest in larger, safer and more stable stocks. + +Other people, would only be satisfied with a return of 7% - 12% annual return. These people may also be willing to lose all of their investment. In their case they'd look at higher risk and turn around companies. + +We say these two people have different 'risk profiles.' + +It's important with any purchase (even something like a car) to decide what your financial risk profile is. + +My personal view is that just because something has the highest chance of return, doesn't mean that it is the best opportunity. + +**Step 2 - Identify New Coins:** + +There are three ways I generally discover 'new' coins: + +* 1) Bitcointalk.org forum posts in the altcoin and token announcement sections. + +* 2) Coins mentioned here on /r/cryptocurrency + +* 3) Coins newly listed on https://coincheckup.com/newly-added as coins tend to list on price trackers very early on. + +**Step 3 - How I rule out coins:** + +One of the first things I do when examining new projects is find really strict criteria to remove projects from the list. + +Everyone should come up with their own list of things that voids a coin from being on their list, but here are a few I personally use: + +* I don't buy coins in industries I don't understand. +* I don't buy coins in regulated industries. +* I don't buy coins that are inactive in communication on social media. +* I don't buy coins that are registered in countries where I can't validate that a corporate entity. +* I don't buy coins if I can't find their executives on LinkedIn and validate it is a real profile. +* I don't buy coins that spam low quality partnerships on channels like /r/cryptocurrency +* If a coin is building a brand new technology, I won't buy it unless there is a detailed technical paper explaining the new technology. +* If a coin had an pre-ICO with discount, I tend not to buy it. If I do, it would need to be a small ICO discount and significant time would have needed to pass so that early investors have likely already dumped on the market. +* I don't buy coins if I wouldn't use them as a customer. + +These criteria I use to quickly filter down my list before I do some more detailed analysis. + +**Step 4 - Doing detailed research:** + +First and foremost I **read the white paper** and then I ask myself the following questions: + +1. Would I use this as a customer? +2. Would I pay that price as a customer? +3. Does this project require a new technology to be built? +4. If I look at the team behind the project, do they have a previous track record? Have they run a successful company previously? What happened to that company? +5. Does this team have the ability to build this technology? Are their engineers published in this industry? Do they have product managers and customer support? +6. Is it clear how the project will get users/customers? +7. Why are they using the blockchain - does it add value here? What are the pros and cons to using the blockchain here and why would the blockchain improve the current alternative? (Remember, right now blockchains are slow and costly in most cases) +8. Watch out for absolutist claims. Every projects has downsides and cons, a real project will be realistic in outlining those. + +After that, if it is an already launched project I check out the coin's detail page on CoinCheckUp for example the Bitcoin page: [https://coincheckup.com/coins/bitcoin/charts](https://coincheckup.com/coins/bitcoin/charts) + +I then look at: + +1. Tab "Analysis" > "GitHub Development" to see if there is active engineering development on the project. + +2. Tab "Analysis" > "Coin facts & figures" if it is a company I check the information on the CEO/CTO as well as some info on the team. + +3. Tab "Markets" - I check where the coin is trading to see if any of my preferred exchanges are available yet. If it's on limited exchanges, I look for non-sketchy ones. I also may look to see if there is a large spread between currencies. + +4. Tab "Charts" - I check that the volume has a decent, growing and steady turnover. It's easy to get trapped at a bad price in a currency that has a low volume. + +Once I've gone through those pieces of information, I usually check out the subreddit of the project and ask myself questions like: + +* Are they constantly announcing partnerships etc? If so, what will those partnerships do for me? Are they legitimate? If they are frequent low quality posts, I assume they are just trying to pump the market and I'll avoid it. + +* Are the users hostile towards people who are critical of their project, or who are asking questions? If it is a brainwashed, angry, subreddit that can't have any questions, I usually try and avoid. + +* Does their team's marketing/communication people respond to posts in a genuine fashion or is there a lot of "marketing" language with no real answer? + +**Final Tips:** + +* Finding "the next big coin" is overrated. When you weigh up the risk the odds are better that a divrese set of coins would be better. + +**Share your research methods!** + +Everyone has different research methods, and things they look out for. Consider sharing yours in the thread below so that others, especially new users, can learn from your methods! +EDIT 2: Sorry I haven’t been able to answer everyone individually; today marks the 5th total day I’ve been back at work physically, so I’ve been putting computers together and going back and forth assisting with tech problems, but I’ll answer a few of the more common questions here. I am on mobile, so the formatting is going to be pretty bad. + +* I *was* paid during those 32 hours, so I wasn’t docked PTO without having it paid out. + +* HR told me not to report to work on the 21st, and I didn’t start working from home until the 27th which was the following Friday, so I wasn’t unemployed between that Saturday and Friday, I just wasn’t told they’d use my time. + +* Overall, everyone who’s answered has been a wonderful help. I don’t know if what happened to me would fall under whichever Coronavirus mandate that prohibits them docking my time, but I was just shocked to learn I was 32 hours short without being notified at all prior to yesterday evening. Again, I appreciate all of your help and your responses on this, because I really couldn’t google-fu this as hard as I’ve tried! Stay healthy; you’re all appreciated! + +EDIT: Everyone’s been a wonderful help here. I’m pretty sure I don’t really have many options here, but I just wanted to confirm my suspicions on that as I’ve never had to deal with having PTO quietly taken, along with a pandemic situation causing said quiet deduction. I hope everyone’s staying healthy during this whole ordeal, and I appreciate everyone’s responses! + +To provide context, I live in Illinois and I work in Kentucky. I’ve attempted to find an answer with no success, presumably because this is all extraordinary circumstances. To keep it simple, on March 21st, Illinois issued a Shelter-In-Place order, and I promptly received a call from my HR department informing me not to report to work the following week. + +I wasn’t informed of any further information past how continuing work may occur or may not occur. I wasn’t told I’d be deducted time, and I didn’t report time usage on any time cards as is usual policy. + +Later, on March 27th, I started working from home. Now, yesterday on May 19th, I was told by my boss that I had been deducted 32 hours of PTO due to the week I was told not to come into work by HR. + +My question at this point is if I can get that amount of time back, as it almost feels like they stole time from me, especially since I wasn’t informed of the deduction until nearly 60 days later. Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed at the loss of 32 hours of PTO? Or is this something I should bring up with HR? + +TL;DR: I live in IL but work in KY. When IL issued a shelter in place mandate, my HR told me to stay home the following week and deducted PTO without informing me. I’m just now finding out and am wondering if I’m being unreasonable annoyed or if I could get the time back somehow. +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 have $400 to my name. My car needs work done. I decided to surrender the car back to the bank. I have no idea when they're going to pick it up. I have bad credit, Inflation is killing me and I won't be able to get another car under a decent APR unless I put a huge lump some of money down. I'm so tired of doing everything on my own. My parents have no money to help. I have no money to go to school to start another career. +I’ve held JEPI for just over a year, during one of the best bull runs! It claims to return close/more than the s&p but my returns have been abysmal in comparison to the s&p, what are your thoughts on this? + +Should I cut bait and transition into something else? + +Thanks +I may be coming into a large sum of money in the near future (a few million) and am not sure which system to use to invest. I've downloaded webull just to get an idea of what I'm looking at but running it myself seems like a headache. I've thought about using fidelity since they don't charge commission from what I saw but I'm not really sure either. What are your thoughts? +Let's say a stock is $40/ share and has a yield of 4% when I buy that stock I'm thinking I'm making $1.60/shr annually. Now let's say the stock drops to $30 but maintains 4% yield. Am I now making $1.20 annually. Or do I still make 1.60 on my shares. Basically I think what I'm asking is. Do I get an annual return based on the price I paid, or the value of my portfolio. + +People say dividends are consistent and even if the value of the stop drops you can still count on your dividends. But this confuses me. Because if you have $10,000 invested at 4% and are making 400 annually. But you lose 50% of your portfolio, did you just lose 50%of your annual dividend income? +A year ago I was living across the state from my family renting a room from a 50+ guy I found on Craigslist sleeping on an air mattress I bought after trying and failing to get rid of a bed bug infestation multiple times. + +My rent was getting up at 5:30am M-F to drive him 20 minutes to work and then another 15 minutes to a Starbucks where I waited 2 hours to go to my job at a pizzeria. + +There was another roommate who died of a drug overdose while I was there (fun fact, I did cocaine with him for the first time). The older guy was an alcoholic who would drink multiple fifths of whiskey a week. He lost his license and had a "girlfriend" who just used him for money and took advantage of his loneliness since his wife died. + +My car broke down multiple times and I had to fix and then replace an engine putting me in 4k of credit card debt. I donated plasma as much as I could, so much so I almost got a permanent scar... + +Bottom line is, it was the low point of my life. I voluntarily broke ties from friends and family because I had been dishonest about college and the immense guilt of fucking up my life caused me to literally run away from everything. + +After living like that for nearly a year I started to mend my relationships. My parents and family are far better than I deserve. My sister helped me get a job at her company where after a raise I'm making $15.62 an hour, way more than I've made previously. My parents helped me to get a reliable car, only asking I pay back half at 0% interest for as little as $100 a month. They bought a manufactured home for me to live in and plan to put it in my name if I prove responsibility. I never asked for any of this...it baffles me how much they care to be honest after how distant I was. + +I now work a 9-5 job (well 10-7) Monday through Friday with almost a month of PTO and extremely cheap health, dental and vision. My lot rent is only $410 a month and utilities are $150 at most and that's in the dead of winter. All of my debt is paid off and I have nearly $2k in savings already. My life went from utter hell to stable and I really don't deserve it all. + +I think I just wanted to make this post to get this off my chest. I'm thankful to my past experiences since it instilled a strong sense of frugality and desire for financial stability. I never would have gotten here alone and God knows how long it would have taken to have a life even remotely similar if I tried to do it all on my own, it probably never would have happened. + +I really do feel for and empathize with people in poverty, of course some make shitty mistakes in life like I did but once you fall into a cycle it's so goddamn hard to crawl out. I hope I don't fuck my life up again somehow and am able give back in some way to others in the future.... +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 got a phone call today from a spoofed number (real police department number) pretending to be from the police department. He said some irs is checking my older tax return and found some improper tax reporting of my scholarship. They were gonna put out a warrant to arrest me and he was going to help me by putting me through some process. Halfway through the call I got suspicious and mentioned I should probably get a lawyer, and he hanged up. +I called the number back, and it was indeed the police department. He immediately said it’s a scam and it’s been happening a lot. He ensures I will get something in the mail if I actually have problems with the irs and calmed me down. So it turned out ok. + +My concern was that the scammer was actually able to gave the name of my university and the exact scholarship amount(they were from 6-7 years ago). And he somehow also had the idea that I might have reported it incorrect?(I don’t think so but I wasn’t sure) how did he get that information and how should I protect myself in the future preventing situations like this? +I assumed this is a finance-related question so going to try it here. + +Out of all the jobs on my resume, this recent job would be most relevant for finding future jobs in my field. I would like to include it but not sure how to word it if I do. Is it a red-flag if an employer sees a resume with a short recent job like that? My other jobs are all 2-3 years, so I guess I have proof of being able to last in a job for a long time. + +One or two of my managers said they would be happy to act as my referee and they had lots of genuinely positive things to say about me. I left on good terms with 99% of people (neutral terms with the other 1%) +After being made redundant from my corporate job. I’ve decided to get my traffic controller license so I can get a job asap and also for a change while I think about what to do next. I’d love to hear stories about anyone going through a similar situation for motivation! +So, this has been a bit of an issue for a while now from what I can see. I live in Brisbane and there seems to be so many empty commercial buildings all over the city which remain empty for years. + +I have worked with some people renting these spaces, and they really struggle to pay the rent because it's so ridiculously high (like 50% of a restaurants turnover). + +I've also worked with some people who own some places and it stays empty for years because the added insurance costs etc for renting it out makes it cheaper to keep it empty than to rent it for what people in the area can afford. + +I assume this is a problem in many cities as people gradually buy more things online. The question is, does anyone know how government bodies plan on handling this? Surely they should just rezone some of these into residential spaces right? Thoughts? +So I'm working at Aldi earning $60k at the moment with the potential to get a pay rose of 3-6k hopefully at the start next year. I was speaking to a friend that also works full time and they work in marketing earning 75k a year. With their salary being negotiated each year. + +At aldi there is no negotiations, instead it's set salaries. I'm able to live comfortably but work can make me physically and mentally exhausted due to the high demands. Am I pushing myself too hard for the salary? +Hey Guys, I would love any advice on starting a self managed super fund in Australia. As someone who is very new to it, I would love to know how to start the process and all the steps included. I went through the ATO website and did some study but I would love to know what it’s about from someone who’s managing their own fund and has experience in it. + +Also, I am not entirely new to managing my investments, I do hold some stocks and other investments, although fairly new to it, getting better at it by the day. + +Any advice is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance! :) +Over the past 24 hours we've seen a huge change in sentiment in the way BAT is being seen by the community. For some valid reasons, others less so. + +&nbsp; + +In case you're not up to speed the reason for this is because the BAT cap was increased from 15 million to 24 million and now a pegging of the Eth price has made the cap (ETH Price)/ 6400) * 1,000,000,000) = $33 million and rising by the minute (as Eth price increases) + +&nbsp; + +Let me now try and bring everyone down to earth a little. A increase in cap from 15 - 24 million was actually a pretty reasonable move imo, allowing more investors to get in to an ICO which was **highly** anticipated. +Next it's important to remember the increase of cap from $24-33 million wasn't purposeful, the problem was with pegging the eth price in the contract and then wanting to get the contract out for people to look though before the ICO begun. Since this was announced BAT has received a **huge** amount of criticism Brendan Eich (the CEO of Brave/BAT) replied with: + +*Sorry for delayed comments from me (sick macbook pro needed for multisig and slow sync among several causes of our being late from yesterday’s goal of deploying). i saw @teamjinx ask why we set the BAT:ETH ratio at a “seemingly random time”. We had intended to set it yesterday which would have might have favored an even lower ratio. since the address is bound to an immutable contract that contains the peg as a constant, we have a problem publishing address early: we must pick a peg likely to reach the target price. so we’ve been studying ETH, which has been very volatile. this morning we set the peg based on a price around $160 and then ETH started up. note that it could well fall in the next two days, and that with a peg of 6400, any price below 2.4e7/(1e9/6400) = $153.60 will fall short of the target of $24M.* + +*Again, I’m sorry for the delay and then the block number mistakes. We will monitor ETH over the next day and let you guys know if we make any changes* + +Now this doesn't seem like an overly unreasonable response. Pegging the Eth/bat price is certainly an odd move but perhaps they were trying to avoid problems like the ones faced by WeTrust (where there was a huge backlash because a Eth/trst ratio wasn't set so some people got **much** more favorable rates then others based on a changing Eth price) + +&nbsp; + +Regardless of the reason the BAT team clearly have some thinking to do about a path forward from here. In a conversation with Brendan he offered a few different solutions to a crowdsale that would raise more then they intended. All of which seemed to me like options the community would approve of - I'm not going to post said options though because I don't want to spread FOMO/FUD about options that might be off the table. + +However I do also want to stress to everyone - please take a step back. +If the crowdsale started yesterday with a price of $156/Eth and they raised the 24 million which almost instantly appreciated into 35 million would their really be this amount of up cry? This is almost standard practice - check **any** ICO. I understand people don't like the pegging system and you can bet you're bottom dollar BAT are regretting using such a system at this point but this doesn't mean BAT is going out of their way to mislead users. + +Also to address the people quoting Exhibit C:Risks Associated with Markets for BAT "BAT are intended to be used solely on the Platform, and Company will not support or otherwise facilitate any secondary trading or external valuation of BAT" +This is standard legal jargon - BAT is an erc20 token - they will be traded. + +&nbsp; + +Now, a decent question to ask is if the Eth price dropped to $100 and they were only raising $15 million with a $24 million cap would they do something to address this issue? I don't know the answer to this question and I'm interested to see how the BAT team handle this (or if they don't handle it all). Either way I imagine the ICO will insta sell out. + +Edit: A Post to the slack. +*@here guess it was much earlier: Statement from @brendaneich follows:* + +*ETH hit 218 today. If we started the sale today, we’d likely raise more than $34M.* + +*This note considers feasible alternatives to how to handle the “overshoot” above $24M target set in USD. To make numbers easy, say we overshoot by 4:3 from $24M to $32M as reckoned based on ETH:USD at end of sale. Non-exhaustive and (note well) non-exclusive list of ideas:* + +*1. Promise to set aside all ETH left after converting enough to USD to hit $24M. Then evaluate options (see below).* + +*2. Promise to develop a blockchain analysis that looks for sends to our sale address, and sends back 1/4 of the ETH sent from each address to our sale address assuming 4:3 overshoot. In other words, a pro-rata return of ETH based on end of sale USD raise to $24M target. Problems: fiat:ETH volatility experienced by people buying in, ETH:USD volatility by us trying to secure $24M USD, sends can fail, sender contract could reject ETH, and risks of building the analysis program that uses etherscan.io.* + +*3. Promise to spend the overshoot on user acquisition by best means, TBD as we go, that are available (BAT, USD, XBox a la Microsoft, sharing with other BAT-enabled apps as specs and rules come up for how to use BAT evolve).* + +*4. Endow a new entity with the overshoot, to further support BAT-enabled apps. We already said that we would work to set up a trade association, so this would be something else. One idea is to create an accelerator or VC fund for attention apps.* + +*--- end of list ---* + +*I think we must do (1) at a minimum. I don’t like the complexity and likely complaints about exchange rate differences/volatility in (2). I like (3) because growth of user base across Brave and future BAT-enabled attention apps is best way to build the ecosystem -- advertisers will come, and publishers after. (4) is possible but needs detailing on governance with respect to the trade association.* + +*This is our current thinking and I wanted to get good-faith comments from BAT slack members. If anyone sees a (5) we missed, or more ideas that are categorically distinct, please raise them. Thanks. Whatever we do I promise we’ll start with (1).* +Once the update hits and scaling is effective, the only thing holding ethereum back will be corrected. Gas fees are the only thing that makes ethereum unstoppable right now. And the main reason for these high gas fees is much higher traffic than anticipated, which isn’t a bad thing 🙌 I have faith that ethereum will surpass or be close in price to bitcoin within 10 years. +Quick background story, I am not a whale but I have a decent amount of shares with the average price of 250ish! I went to my bank for my transfer bc they wouldn't let me phone transfer! Red flag one! I went to the agent, he did some stuff on the computer and told me it was good. First attempt!(early April!) + +Two weeks later, nothing happened. I emailed him and he said I will follow up with you. I waited another week before going back to the bank. This time he made me sign a bunch of papers with what I was holding and filed it to the "transfer people." Nothing happened again and I kept asking him what was happening but I was busy with school since it was exam period (late may) so I just left it there. + +Now this is my 3rd time trying, I went back like last week and the guy apologized and saying he is gonna rush it and I am going to see my account being transferred within 5 business days. (July 20th ish) I woke up today and indeed the account was transferred but it was a partial transfer!!! All my other stocks transferred (not a lot of stuff since my portfolio is like 95% gme) but my gme shares wasn't fully transfered. About like 30% of my shares were not transfered. I am a high 2xx ape and it is not a lot of shares! Why did it not work? I am not sure? They can't locate my shares?! Why did it not work before and the guy never gave me a proper explanation! He claimed he screwed up the fee, I had 100 bucks in the account and the fee was only 15 bucks but I have savings as well! + +My account type is CASH! Not margin + +Any thoughts is appreciated! Diamonds hands!!💎✋🚀🚀 + +Edit one: I need to clarify I was trying to transfer out of TD Waterhouse (Canadian version of Ameritrade) to Questrade since I have more shares of GME there + +Edit two! I forgot one important part!! During the second time when I signed a bunch of papers!!! They only transfered my Canadian cash account. I had like 100 bucks of cash in there but the US account did not transfer (the one I am holding GME shares!) That was my second try and it is really weird cuz others are also having similar issues with TD! +Given how early in the [Rogers Adoption Curve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle) for Crypto we are, I would like to take a moment so we can just imagine what this technological revolution, which I consider is the next huge step for human kind, could bring. I will emphasize some socioeconomic implications of descentralization, but I\`m mostly interested in listening to, and debating your inputs. + +Blockchain and Crypto Currency are here to change the world forever. + +**The implications of descentralization** + +As you may know one of the core proposals of blockchain is decentralization, and with it we can optimize so many processes that this alone could be the revolution we are talking about. By eliminating intermediaries, we can save on the cost they add to the supply chain ensuring those that create the value, keep it. Or we can simply save on fees. + +To quote the man himself: + +Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly. – Vitalik Buterin. + +To put it simply, imagine that you replace Binance (a centralized company) with a robot. A robot that you have programed so well, whose code you publicly audit, and that is so safe you can trust it with billions of dollars in liquidity pools, so it proceeds to host and operate the trading platform by itself. In case you didn’t know, this is already a reality! Many people here trade on those platforms on a daily basis. + +But this goes beyond replacing Centralized Exchanges with [Automated Market Makers](https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/amm-what-are-automated-market-makers), Airbnb with a blockchain DApp that connects landlords and costumers, or even banks with complex smart contracts that allow you to borrow, save, tokenize physical assets, and so on. This goes way beyond. + +Here is where I start to fantasize of the future. Think about replacing capital itself, think about getting rid of corporations. Lets dream of a world with [DAO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization)s massive adoption. + +**With DeFi, we may no longer need a company like Nestlé…** + +And specially not their investors. Of course, you will still need the people administrating, planning, monitoring, generating new ideas that adapt to their context, and creating innovative solutions for a complex world only humans can comprehend. But the figure of shareholders and CEOs that steal all the value that workers create and leave them with a tiny fraction of it, can disappear. This can be the basis of a once in a century transformation. + +Just as an example: Nestlè’s coffee growers in Colombia keep less than 10% of the final sale price, and barely make a living on it, so are actually abandoning the rural areas. + +With Blockchain, DeFi and Smart Contracts, people like you and me can collectively fund such an operation, and then agree upon specific terms like wages by direct democracy, voting with our crypto holdings. Then we would proceed to allocate funds, hire “developers” which would ultimately be regular office jobs that keep the organization functioning. Once in operation we would frequently vote on decisions and results, which would ultimately keep the highest level of accountability for people working in the organization. This is already happening by the way, this is how some blockchain projects work today. We just haven’t applied it to industrial and physical supply chains yet. + +Let’s go back to our project to replace Nestle. Imagine that an organization’s main goal is not to maximize profits for shareholders and bonuses for CEOs anymore. Instead, it’s the interest of regular people and the company’s collaborators that drive its actions. + +Most likely, you and I will want to consolidate an efficient and effective supply chain, that is sustainable and keeps the dignity and wellbeing of its collaborators as a guiding principle. We are not longer at their mercy on issues like climate change, we can now take immediate action against it, or stop endangering and hoarding water supplies in classic Nestle fashion. + +Also, we are making profits, so we are redistributing capital, and improving our quality of life, which will be most notorious in the most vulnerable communities, usually those that extract/harvest/mine raw materials. + +This is what could happen with the blockchain descentralization of business. And you could apply it to pretty much anything, but maybe initially it could be for low labor and capital intensive businesses. + +I’ll give you another example. I work for a solar power multinational company. If you don’t know it, solar energy is essentially a financial product, most people working in these companies don’t care about the world, its simply that solar is a very safe and lucrative hustle, and all investors care about is having a nice return of investment (ROI). As of now, my company works exclusively for large scale corporate clients or the state itself, given that’s where the nice ROIs are, since they give you the projects that allow you to place large capitals at once. This means, as of today, we blatantly ignore the regular people that seek for our help and funding to power their farms and/or houses with solar energy. They’re not that profitable my boss tells me. This is shitty, and I’ve thought of quitting several times. + +But back to the point. Now, imagine once again, we get rid of the institutional investors. Now you and me create Reddit Solar Co, a DAO. Our only purpose is to facilitate access to electricity to those without it, and to advance in the urban implementation of renewable energy. We help the world, make dividends that are automatically distributed by the DAO, and also our own Crypto is rising in value. + +And this is not the best. + +**Let’s not forget of synergies.** + +So, we just created a DAO that manufactures and distributes food globally right? Or maybe Reddit Solar Co. As an organization born on the blockchain, we won’t have to adapt to the state of the art innovations on the crypto world like an old steam locomotive attempting to adapt a warp drive on top of it. We were born in space. + +From the beginning, our Ethereum based DAO could adopt VeChain’s solution for supply chains, Cardano will help us to give an integral solution to the unbanked communities that provide our raw material, they now have IDs, access to DeFi and education. The land deeds and legal documents that relate to our enterprise are certified by LTO Network, we move money internationally with XRP or Stellar, and don’t worry, we use Polkadot to ensure proper blockchain interoperability. + +Too complex for you? Don’t worry, you don’t even have to know or care about this, leave that to others. You’re into finance. Maybe sales is your thing and there’s a little Michael Scott in you. Or you\`re into social work and want to supervise our community engagement at the start of the supply chain. Just go do your thing! You don’t necessarily have to be involved in all of this. + +All you know is you do your job and receive your crypto salary. + +Just as computers and the internet changed the world forever, and not only had economic implications but also changed our culture, routines, work lives and ways to interact with each other, crypto will. We are just so early; that all we can do for now is dream. + +**You’re having too much hope in humanity dude…** + +Sure, I may be making some optimistic assumptions on the motivations of humans, I may be saying that we will use this technology for good, and that we care about each other, and that’s one way to look at it. But we could also argue in favor of this from a sceptic perspective: even if you don’t care about the collective wellbeing of your community, it’s in your interest to live in a safer environment right? Ergo you want to reduce poverty. Its also in your interest to stop global warming so organized human life can continue to exist, or to make sure you and your children will have water and food in 50 years, that’s why you will want to use technology for good even if you only care about yourself. Also lets not forget the powerful incentive of profits. Crypto has the clear potential to achieve all of this. + +Most of the current generation of crypto projects will be ready and operating within the next 3 years, so all we will need by then is the will to use this technology for good, and the vision to change the world. + +This is just the beginning, we will be killing industries but giving birth to others we could have never imagined before. + +Edit: Of course there are a lot of improvements to be made in blockchains and DAO governance. Also traditional institutions will actively try to stop this using their almighty power. It'll be a bumpy road ahead, we will have to work hard, human progress has always been riddled with conflict. +Because I just had someone make a fraudulent ATM withdrawal with my account last night. It didn't really click until I got home and looked at my purchases again. But I initially thought the pay with phone option was just acting up. Because I had bought a drink from Dunkin and it cleared. But then a few moments later the guy was calling me back in the store because my card didn't go thru. + + +Later went home to see someone had made an ATM withdrawal in a completely different borough. Idk how they possibly did that but I believe with Capital One you can withdraw money in many different ways. + + +This isn't the first time either I had something fraudulent happen to my bank account. Back in 2020 or 2021 when I was with Chase Bank. Someone used my account to take out a Venmo withdrawal. Only difference is Chase gave me my money back instantly. Capital One has me playing the waiting game and to call them back in a few hours to see if I can get my money back today. + + +I just used my last bit of money to pay a phone bill today. So that money they took out was pretty crucial because now I won't have any money tomorrow work night. And I will have to make extra time to find a Capital One bank or call these guys to get money out of an ATM. When I'm not even a person who even uses cash like that these days. + + +Imagine being a scammer seeing my low balance and thinking "oh yeah we got one right here, time to get paid." Like just some really low life scumbag behavior. +# Hi Everyone! + +I wanted to reach out one more time to see if anyone has any questions or topics of discussion they would like to bring up in front of Dave. I would really appreciate the help in bringing some great questions to spark educational and interesting discussion! + +I have been given the opportunity to speak to Dave Live and the main categories we will be discussing are: + +&#x200B; + +* Securities Lending +* Direct Registration +* Settlement/Clearing + +&#x200B; + +This is focused around the efforts of the second letter to the SEC: [https://www.urvin.finance/advocacy/we-the-investors-sign-on-letter-2](https://www.urvin.finance/advocacy/we-the-investors-sign-on-letter-2) + +&#x200B; + +*I will not be sharing where the AMA will be as I'm just looking to get input from the community here. If you would like to watch it I'm sure you will be able to find it. This is about ensuring people here are heard and have the ability to have some input on possible changes to our markets for the better.* + +# The letter is requesting the following new disclosures be introduced to shed light on the opaque portions of the markets: + +**Lending Transparency:** Retail investors have the right to know whether their securities have been lent out, and how much revenue the broker has received. + +&#x200B; + +**Margin Transparency:** Investors need visibility into the estimated margin per security for Clearing Brokers. + +&#x200B; + +**Netting Transparency:** Investors need disclosure of gross versus net notional or share count per security to help understand trading dynamics and discern the level of real investment versus intraday trading activity. + +&#x200B; + +**FTD Transparency:** Failure To Deliver disclosures need to be updated more often, and include more information, including how and when FTDs are remediated, what type of counterparty is responsible for the failure (bucketed into clearing broker, exempt market maker or custodian), and how long the FTDs remained open.‍ + +&#x200B; + +**Disclosure of Registration:** Public companies should be required to disclose directly registered shareholder numbers on all 10-Q and 10-K reports. + +&#x200B; + +# As well as obligating retail brokers to give their investors more control over the lending of their securities and how those securities are registered: + +**NOBO/OBO designations**: Brokers should explain to investors the choices they may make as it relates to transparency of share ownership, where shares are recorded in a brokerage account in beneficial format. The default options should always be NOBO (non-objecting beneficial owner). Shielding holdings from investee companies through the use of OBO (objecting beneficial owner) designations should be a right that an investor should opt in to. Brokers should provide the investor’s email address as part of any disclosure of NOBO holdings. + +&#x200B; + +**Control of Stock Lending**: Investors have the right to decide whether their securities can be lent out to short sellers. Disclosures around account types and the implications therein need to be made simpler, easier to understand, and more explicit in the account creation process. + +&#x200B; + +**Control of Registration**: Investors should be able to choose whether their shares are to be held in a brokerage account or in direct registration form in the investor’s own name on the company’s share register. Brokers should be required to support the direct registration of shares in an investor’s name. + +&#x200B; + +**Investor Communications and Proxy Voting**: Investors should be able to receive their communication directly from the company they invest in and not have their shareholding pooled with other clients of the broker, whose interests may not be aligned. Investors should be able to vote directly with the company, and have their voice heard at general or extraordinary shareholder meetings. Their votes should be directly confirmed by the company or its agent. + +&#x200B; + +**Thank you for the help! I appreciate it and look forward to going through all the questions and topics.** + +🦍🍻🦍 +Gauging what the appetite is for the millennial generation to be investing in Real Estate. Given so many other investment vehicles, is there anybody out in this demographic there that found their FI via Real Estate? + +&#x200B; + +Also emphasis on Canadian market ! + +If so what was your story? How has the process been and lessons learned? + +Thanks! +I have \~200k that I want to invest for the long term; the goal is to see some serious compound growth over some 20 years for retirement. + +I was originally debating between Wealthsimple auto-invest and all-in-one ETFs like VGRO, but after doing some reading I understood that they essentially do the same thing and figured Wealthsimple was a better fit for me since I don't mind the fees and its simpler. However I came across [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianInvestor/comments/rtq41g/comment/hque527/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) where someone seemed to get dramatically better returns from investing in certain ETFs that aren't all-in-one than what Wealthsimple projects for me for a similar timeframe. + +My question is; for someone who doesn't intend to actively manage this money and wants to simply leave it somewhere to compound over the years, would investing in individual ETFs be a smart/worthwhile move, or is that investment strategy really only suitable for someone who knows what they're doing and plans to move the money around every so often to keep it in a relevant sector? +Hi, I have a few questions about investing in Canada. I have very limited knowledge though, so please feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. + +From what I gather in these threads, the options for index funds are very "limited" compared to the USA here, so many people seem to vie for ETFs because they have many more options, and lower MER. This seems like a painful trade-off regardless though, as ETFs seem to force you to do the trading yourself, even if you can use a roboadvisor. (Something you'd never need to bother with in the extensive choices of index funds in the USA) + + +So here are my questions: + + +1). Why is everyone in this subreddit so obsessed with CCP when their returns seem overrated? + + +I mean sure, true to their name they seem good for a lazy investor. But their returns ... don't look so good. +For starters when you look at their ETF portfolio examples, their 10 and 20 year annualized returns are between 5-6%. I don't know if 20 year annualized returns work different in Canada, but in the US that is less than optimal. + +If you look a 30 year period for the S&P index it's average is 11%, and IFA's 100 index portfolio is 12% (literally double what I'm seeing from CCP) + +Also, why are their 20 year annualized returns almost the same across the board from their most conservative portfolio to their most aggressive?? +This kind of struck me as a huge red flag, unless I'm missing something very basic here. Again, I'm probably far less learned than many of you on these subjects. + + + + +2). Why are Canadian portfolios' diversity so funky? + +Every "example" portfolio I see in Canada seems to fly in the face of what I learned in the USA. + +they all seem to have WAY too much equity in mostly Canada (or the US and Canada), rather than worldwide, and so much of the equity seems to be large-cap, bonds, and growth stocks + +From what I've seen through data, these stocks have some of the LOWEST returns in the long run. +I've read that small-cap, value cap, global market and things of this nature all have much higher return when you look at them across a decades-long period of time. +Yet these choices always seem scarce at best in all the Canadian options I keep seeing. What gives? + + +3). Why are there so many bonds? + +Where can I find more 100% equity options? I'm planning on being a very aggressive investor, but all the portfolios everyone seems to recommend are full of "safe" bonds. + + + + +4). Is it possible for a Canadian citizen/resident to invest through a U.S. broker, like Vanguard? + +Or is there some very simple reason I shouldn't do this? such as exchange rates, or taxes? + + + + +5). Considering the returns, why does this subreddit think Canadian ETF's are superior to US index funds? +Or are you just doing the best with the options you have available in this country? I'm genuinely curious. + + + + +Thank you for taking the time to read this, +I really hope someone can help clear some of this up for me. +Really appreciate any responses I can get. +I bought shares of SNC-Lavalin on June 12th. Making up 4.5% of my portfolio. It is currently down just over 40%... More and more bad news just keep on piling on. From the Saudi Arabia political tensions, to the past bribery cases, their mining and metallurgy operations and also Justin Trudeau is somehow involved. (Trying to give SNC a sort of "free-pass"). Is there anyway that SNC gets anywhere back to near where they were (almost at 60$/share) or will they be banned from federal projects for 10 years? Which would result in billions of revenue lost for them. + +Thank you! +Hey everyone, + +I posted a similar thread in /r/baystreetbets yesterday to get some discussion going but that sub is much smaller than this one. So I decided to share here to continue the discussion and see if there are differing opinions. + +I'm a fairly new investor but I've done a deep dive in theScore (SCR) and I really like the prospects of this company. I haven't seen too much discussion about them which is why I'm posting. + +About them: + +* Canadian Sports media company that's investing in sports betting in the US. They recently promoted to TSX in Sept. +* They're the first sports media company to invest in sports betting. +* \#2 sports mobile app in the US following ESPN. +* \#1 sports mobile app in Canada +* \#1 Esports media company (YoY growth of 113%) +* They're very active on social media & have an active + increasing following (Monthly reach of 104 million with YoY growth of 5%) +* 20 year agreement signed with Penn National Gaming to grant them access to sports betting markets in 11 U.S. states. +* the Score Bet is currently operating in 3 states : New Jersey, Colorado & Indiana. They're expanding to more states as sports betting becomes legal. They're looking to expand to Canada through bill C-218 which has gone through first reading to legalize sports betting in the country. +* They've invested heavily in their betting platform. Their Sports app works seamlessly works with their Betting app to show live game updates, which other betting apps don't do. +* Current Market cap is 292.20M + +What this means: + +As sports betting opens up in around the US & Canada it'll put theScore in prime position to benefit from its already very active sports user base without spending heavily on marketing. They're also in the best position to profit from Esports betting. + +The leader in sports betting; DKNG recently partnered with ESPN but their app does not have direct sports updates. DKNG's market share is 20.23B compared to theScore's 292.20M which shows the kind of growth potential that SCR can have. For the time being I feel like SCR's been overlooked. + +With sports having started again I'm looking forward to their Q4 results which should come out some time in Oct. I expect the stock to rise quite a bit in the near future. + +Let me know what you think +This happened to me not just once or twice, but uncountable number of times. Right after I sold and made profit from what I was holding, that shit just went to the roof. I feel worst than when I lost money. + +&#x200B; + +How do you guys over come the down feeling when you sold just right before the price skyrocket? Or do you have strategies to determine if it will skyrocket in a few min/sec? +So I'm under the 25k PDT... I try and make the most of my 3 day trades grindng my way up. However, is being fearful of the overnight options legit? I've only left options open twice and been burned both times. Is overnight options in order to get a good daily return worth it? If so what time frame do you use? I've got a good daily strat but not a multi day position strat. Roast for the lack of knowledge if you must. +This subject has come up several times recently in various forms: people asking the probability of surviving to various ages, or asserting that they are not worried about living to age X, that they aren't bothered if they can only receive basic care, and so on. + +A very basic principle of long term financial planning is that you cannot predict how long you will live, or your future state of health. For working age people, survival into our nineties will be a frequent event. So will experiencing years of disability requiring assistance with activities like feeding, dressing, washing and toileting. + +These aren't unfortunate events, they are normal things that happen to normal people. You have a responsibility to your future self, and if you exercise, insure your belongings, maintain your home - why not this? +Nikola took another beating today, dropping by 14.48%, which is probably still rooted in the report by Hindenburg Research making the rounds. Just in case you haven't heard of the report yet, it goes as far as calling the company "an intricate fraud built on dozens of lies" and presents lots of condemning evidence. + +Nikola founder Trevor Miilton is understandably agitated over the incident and is currently working on a rebuttal of the report. He actually posted multiple photos of the inside of the hydrogen vehicle they are working on, taunting Hindenburg: "Do these look fake?" + +How do you think this is going to play out? Will Nikola survive as a company? Will the bad press scare away any of the big partners such as GM and Bosch? NKLA is down 40% since the GM announcement on September 8. + +Sources: + +[https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/nikola-fires-back-at-short-sellers-salacious-claims-51599833858](https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/nikola-fires-back-at-short-sellers-salacious-claims-51599833858) + +[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NKLA](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NKLA) + +[https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304291381637124096](https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304291381637124096) + +[https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304424797368061953](https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304424797368061953) + +[https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304432858937741313](https://twitter.com/nikolatrevor/status/1304432858937741313) + +[https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/](https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/) +I bought puts on SPY and now I'm -90% down on my portfolio. I've lost everything. I'm crying right now. I am so stupid for betting against the Fed. + +I give up. I am liquidating the remainder of my portfolio. It's over. I'm putting what's leftover into index funds. At least index funds can't blow up. +(TL:DR - Escrow scam. Forums. DON'T DO IT!!!) + +Morning Redditors, + + +This is the story of how I gave away over £12,000 of Bitcoins last night to a conman. I hope that it is a good read, up there with other true crime stories like The Hatton Garden Heist or Making of a Murderer but I can't promise crowbars let alone a murder. The real purpose of this story is to make sure no one else ends up being scammed like I did. + + +Two days ago I watched with my brother the escalation of Ethereum up into the night sky, a twinkling $2 star. We discussed making an investment in Eth as our mining operation at 126 MH/s didn't instill the same sense of excitement from the rising Eth price. What if we had not spent £900 on the rig but simply invested it at 90 cents. We'd surely be laughing now. Not watching tears puddle. + + +Now it isn't straight forward buying Eth, first you have to get some Bitcoin and then use that on an exchange site to get Eth. Being a tight arse I spent a long time googling how to get hold of Eth in the cheapest possible way without buying it for $2.2 or more. That's when... + + +Scanning the https://forum.ethereum.org/categories/sale I spotted a guy who wanted to sell over 32,000 Eth. The dream was to be able to afford vanilla latte's whenever I went out. A mere 1000 Eth would be plenty... + + +[Exhibit 1](http://i.imgur.com/Wot2wL7.jpg) This is the post I clicked on and private messaged the guy.. + + +"I'll offer you 4.5 BTC for 1000 ETH". That's about $1.8 per ETH. + +*"I can sell you more 10k ETH for 42,5 btc if you want to buy."* About $1.7 per ETH. + +"Hmmm. I'm interested, but want to know a bit more. How would this transfer work? +How do I know I won't get scammed :) Sorry. Thanks" *Slap myself so hard it cuts my quivering lip* + +*"It's ok and i respect yours question . We can use any escrow , also i have 15600 ETH and i will sell them all.Ok, escrow is ok for me."* + +"Ok. I've never used an escrow before, do you know a particular one that is good?" + +*"https://webchat.freenode.net/ channel #ethereum DEV is Animazing , join here pls"* + + +[Exhibit 2](http://i.imgur.com/mPKXlwe.png) + +OK so it should be like on a submarine when the alarms go mental, all the internal cogs firing warnings. Yeah I obviously had a few doubts but the guy was so convincing and confident.. bloody con men. + + +---------------- +-------- **PART 2** -------- + +This is not easy to write. I'd prefer to simply forget and move on and not go on any holidays for a while. + + +You may have noticed how my initial 1000 ETH request turned into 10,000 ETH! Just like that. Hey, why not? We could sell it on almost immediately for more. OK. That's most of my savings but imagine the reward. And so easy. Easy money. If it looks to good... blah blah. **bullshit**. + + +So we're doing escrow. ESCROW. Someone mentioned that once somewhere, it's that safe way of transferring money via a middle mediator who makes sure both sides give him the money before he passes it on. Everyone is happy. And safe. I googled escrow naturally as I didn't know much about it. Still don't. But the fact is there wasn't an obviously site that jumped out and said "I look safe and modern, do escrow with me!". So I kindly asked the conman to recommend somewhere and he directed me to the chatrooms of Ethereum. + +Fucking hell. Anyway on we go. + + +--- *NEW SCENE: https://webchat.freenode.net/ #ethereum* --- + + +The guy StrongEth has the name 'Navigator' now. He directs me to a private chat room with a guy called @'Animazing. I have no idea who this is. I am reprimanded by @'Animazing for my ignorance. He is an Ethereum dev and forum moderator. Oops, I don't want to ruin the deal. I apologise for my ignorance. Navigator also apologises on my behalf and then tells me not to worry in our own private chatroom. + + +[19:07] <@`Animazing> i/m Moderator +[19:07] <@`Animazing> and who are you ? +[19:08] <+lifeofplum> I'm just a guy who wants to buy some eth +[19:08] <+lifeofplum> Ok but I don't see what stops you running with our coins? +[19:08] <@`Animazing> Then go search who i'm +[19:08] <@`Animazing> before you say anything +[19:09] <+Navigator> sorry man +[19:09] <+Navigator> He don't know, he is new +[19:09] <@`Animazing> I don't care Navigator who is who +[19:09] <+Navigator> i know +[19:10] <@`Animazing> He need to checked before he cross in Ethereum community +[19:11] <@`Animazing> http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/paths/85BE4B0C/to/695506FD.html +[19:11] <@`Animazing> ifeofplum +[19:11] <@`Animazing> http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/paths/85BE4B0C/to/695506FD.html +[19:11] <@`Animazing> FIRST READ +[19:11] <+lifeofplum> look i'm going to need to do a bit of research, this is just going a bit too quick sorry +[19:12] <@`Animazing> https://redditjs.com/u/animazing +[19:17] <@`Animazing> So guys + + +To be honest I had no idea what these pgp images showed. But they looked legit to me.. Me. Who knows nothing about escrow or pgp. Dick head. [Exhibit 3 - PGP link](http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/paths/85BE4B0C/to/695506FD.html) + + +My next quest was to get hold of 42.5 BTC. No easy task. Especially when you are not verified on any of the main sites. After a couple of hours deliberating and coming up with nothing I tell Navigator it is no good, maybe we can try again tomorrow. I was going to play a boardgame downstairs (Castles of Burgundy) so was quite happy to leave it there. Navigator says "try LocalBitcoins". The price was £293.46 per BTC and I would deal with a individual seller. Hmmm. I wasn't too sure about this. But I thought it seemed alright and could be done quickly so I went ahead. Doing it in two installments of 20 BTC and then 22.5 BTC .. to be safe!!!! Ha. Well it went perfectly well. + + +That was maybe another point where I got further sucked into his web. Now I had trusted one random guy on the internet and it had gone well. Why would I doubt Navigator? Eh? + + +The excitement was beginning to build. Imagine 10,000 ETH. Imagine when the price climbs higher. This is my moment. At the time I remember thinking.. "look back on this date as one of those days when your life changed". Oh god. The writing was on the wall in front of my face. + + +**!!!ATTENTION: people have been impersonating Ethereum staff. Please note: we will NEVER advise you on an investment, ask for private keys etc. Be careful !!!** + + +I even brought this up with Navigator.. + + +*"Yeah you have to be careful". We can trust @'Animazing though 100%."* + + +Fuck a doodle do. Animazing gave me his bitcoin address. I send the 42.5 BTC to that address. He tells me to be patient, it can take up to 20 minutes to reach him. We wait 16 minutes exactly until it is confirmed. + + +[22:53] <@`Animazing> i POST BTC address +[22:53] <@`Animazing> 1AA3DK4ru2musrEuduyg4dSofCieZteUAW +[22:53] <+lifeofplum> ok +[22:54] <Navigator> Ok 42,5 btc for 10000 ETH +[22:54] <+lifeofplum> Right +[22:54] <+lifeofplum> Sending now +[22:54] <@`Animazing> Ok +[22:54] <+lifeofplum> Sent +[22:55] <@`Animazing> Ok +[22:56] <@`Animazing> waiting to confirmation +[22:58] <+lifeofplum> how long does this normally take for transfer? +[22:58] <@`Animazing> still unconfirmed +[22:58] <@`Animazing> 20 min +[22:59] <+lifeofplum> ok +[23:12] <+lifeofplum> 1 confirmation i think +[23:12] <@`Animazing> yes , still waiting +[23:18] <+lifeofplum> I see "3 confirmations" for the transaction in my wallet now +[23:19] <@`Animazing> wait pls +[23:22] <@`Animazing> 2 confirmation +[23:22] <@`Animazing> in the wallet +[23:22] <@`Animazing> just wait 1 more +[23:32] == `Animazing [c3f2dea6@gateway/web/cgi-irc/kiwiirc.com/ip.195.242.222.166] has quit [Quit: http://www.kiwiirc.com/ - A hand crafted IRC client] +[23:32] == Navigator [c3f2dea6@gateway/web/freenode/ip.195.242.222.166] has quit [Quit: Page closed] + + +Hold on. Why did they both leave at exactly the same time? Stay calm, it's ok. Maybe the chatroom went down. But I was still here, other people too - enquiring about how to get their mining rig running in Geth. That black hole of doubt started sucking me in. Little by little until I was overcome. This cannot be. No way. There must be an explanation. + + +@Animazing was still in the forum but when I tried messaging him I was told he way away. Hmm. Why had he suddenly disappeared? Surely everything would be OK - if he were a main dev of Ethereum he couldn't run away. THINK. + + +Navigator had sent that pgp image and there was an email address for one Jeffrey Wilcke. I googled him, he was definitely a real person. Everything would be fine. I could hunt him down in Amsterdam on my bicycle if need be. So I emailed him. No reply. + + +Found Animazing on Reddit - "Where are you? We were in the middle of escrow." + +Found Ethereum on Facebook - Private message "Do you know Animazing? I need to speak to him asap." + + +What to do? Had I really just lost £12,748? Cycling through the stages of grief. + +Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression... + +----------- + + +Surely someone would know Animazing in the chatrooms. I spammed everyone. You know when you exert yourself or find yourself really panicked and high on adrenaline, and you just don't care about anything - no inhibitions. Well now I was at this point. Someone needed to tell me something. Finally some guy called kopykat seemed a bit wise to the situation.. + + +*"What was his name exactly?" he asked.* + +"Animazing" + +*"Can you copy and paste it?"* + +"@'Animazing" + +*"Well that isn't Animazing. Do you see the '? It's a fake account. An impersonator."* + + +The final torpedo had hit. The submarine was going to rest on the bed, the people resigned to be entombed for eternity among the fishes. **ANGER.** HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID? + + +---------------- + +**PART 3 - Today. 25th January. After the night before.** + + +An awful night of anxiety, there was no cold side to the pillow anymore. At around 9am I received an email from an Ethereum developer - the **real** Animazing - who I had Facebooked last night: + + +**"I'm afraid you got scammed. I have never done nor will I ever do an escrow."** + + +Bargaining. It can't have been for nothing. As I rolled sweaty in the night head spinning like the stars above I thought about how this could possibly be a positive thing in my life. I would sell my story and make my money back! HA. Nope, that would mean everyone would know how much a fool I am. I don't want to be a fool to the world. I can keep that to myself. + + +Maybe this is my way in to a job at Ethereum? Some people do actually have to pay for internships these days. Nope, it is time to be realistic and go and chop some wood. It won't know what hit it. + + +The final stage of grief hit me late this morning: Acceptance. + + + + +People are always advising everyone to buy a Nano S to store their coins. + +But how safe are those really? + +I mean, as far as I'm concerned, it's a black box. And with a black box you don't know what's in it. + +Maybe the creators ( or even just 1 developer secretly) put an algorithm in there that makes the generation of private keys predictable (for him / for them). + +( not insinuation but hypothetical) Say 1 rogue developer inserted this trick, and he decides to only use this trick to steal funds from 1 % of all of the sold hardware wallets. He might get away with it and nobody is going to notice, because the other 99 % of customers will claim it's safe. + +How can we be 100 % certain? That's my question. +After reading widely and careful consideration it seems *highly* unlikely to me that a 'wisdom of the crowds' scatter-gun investment strategy into what amounts to a raft of moonshot kickstarter projects will provide gains that would even break even, let alone outperform Ethereum itself. + +Crowds are *awful* at making business decisions. Even more awful at making investment decisions, and I feel that a majority-wins generalist approach to kickstarting based on a get-rich fantasy is a terrible way to fund projects. + +My guiding stats were that only 36% of Kickstarter projects are successfully funded, of those 9% fail to deliver anything whatsoever, and in trading less than 2% of traders make money. Combine those stats and I got some sense of how bad an idea it was to lock ETH into the DAO. + +Essentially you're taking a crowd for whom 98% of their investment decisions are garbage into an arena where 64%+ of the projects are junk and running on a platform that almost nobody understands. I can't see this going well for now. + +Considering that one needs to buy ETH to invest in the DAO, and the strong probability that the DAO will lose money, staying in ETH seems the logical safe choice. + +Perhaps in five years a decendent of this project could be a winner. For now hell no, I'll keep my ETH untouched before the DAO token price collapses on the open market. + +What is your opinion about my position? I'm open to reconsider, but this seems the correct position for now. +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 realise Vitalik and co aren't actually there, but still a packed out event. +Yet we've seen 0 price movement? We'll wait and see. + +https://twitter.com/huobicom/status/874877524693704704 +Apple reportedly warned suppliers not to use 'made in Taiwan' labels on products to avoid angering China following Nancy Pelosi's visit + +Apple told suppliers on Friday to avoid labeling products from Taiwan as "made in Taiwan," according to a report from Nikkei. + +The tech company told its suppliers that products or parts made in Taiwan must be identified as made either in "Taiwan, China" or "Chinese Taipei" to avoid indicating that the island is independent of China, the Japanese business news outlet said. + +According to Nikkei, Apple made the decision in order to avoid possible supply chain disruptions from Chinese scrutiny over the labels, especially as the company prepares to receive components from Taiwan that will be used for new products slated to launch later this year. + +Some iPhone components were held for review on Thursday to see whether the shipments were labeled to China's satisfaction, Nikkei reported. + +Apple did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication. + +Apple's warning comes only a few days after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan in a visit that prompted a strong reaction from China. The nation has claimed Taiwan as its own for decades, even though China has never controlled the self-governed democratic country. + +Pelosi's actions were seen by Beijing as a "major political provocation" and a challenge to China sovereignty, Hua Chunying, China's assistant minister of foreign affairs, said on Twitter. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned ahead of the visit that the Biden administration would get "burned." Beijing also launched a series of military drills around Taiwan in response. + +Pelosi has been outspoken in her support of Taiwan's independence. + +Source: [https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-halts-made-in-taiwan-label-anger-china-pelosi-visit-2022-8](https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-halts-made-in-taiwan-label-anger-china-pelosi-visit-2022-8) + +Reports says that Apple, Inc. (APPL) warned suppliers not to use 'made in Taiwan' labels on products to avoid angering China following Nancy Pelosi's visit + +How do you think this recent US-China tension could impact APPL's trading price? +Put a house for sale in November due to issues with a tenant (couldn't evict due to moratorium). Tenant left and I kept the house. Now I'm talking about November... I still get 3-5 calls a day... And that's a huge improvement from the first few months. Each call is the same: + +"hi I'm calling about your property at (address), I see you took it off the market..." + +I usually cut them off, "I'm not selling it. Thanks for your interest" + +"why not? What can we do to change your mind?" + +I just hang up. I'm not going to have a conversation about why I'm not selling with 3-5 people a day. I know they're just doing what they do and there's not much I can do about it, but I can only imagine how many of you have gone through this, so I'm wondering. How do you handle it? Any fun I can have with this to keep my sanity?? Lol, at this point, between "we've been trying to reach you about your car warranty" and "were calling about your property..." my phone is pretty much useless! +Yesterday, for the second time this week I found myself in a thread where the crypto bashing was just insane (I won't link it, just in case). + +The general gist was this: + +* Crypto is stupid and has no value +* Right-click to save NFTs +* If crypto crashes 80%, you idiots will buy in and call it a sale. + +Additionally, any pro crypto comments were downvoted heavily. + +To be honest, as annoying as it was, I was a little bit relieved. We see news here everyday about mainstream crypto adoption and upcoming blockchain improvements etc, while many of us probably get tailored Google alerts about crypto; sometimes it makes you feel like you got on the boat too late. But stepping outside that gives a nice reminder that we still have a ways to go. +Not sure if it’s a good idea to even make this post because it might jeopardize my own safety, but I am guessing that there are others like me, probably lurking this subreddit right now. + +Ever since 2018 I have been able to perfectly time the crypto market and it is starting to make me very anxious. + +I’m not a conspiracy theory lunatic, but I have a knack for simulation theory and theorize that my ability to time the market might be linked to a supernatural power. + +If there is anyone else out there, I hope this reaches you and we can talk more about it. + +Anyways, about how I can time the market. Each time I buy, it goes down, and each time I sell, it goes up. +>There are two exceptions: first, federal tax liens imposed by the IRS; second, judgments against individuals who had administered an employer-sponsored plan for embezzlement of the plan or a fiduciary breach against it. + +[How to Protect 401\(k\)s and IRAs From Creditors](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124181801239401917) +Just wondering if anyone has used a buyers agent, particularly in Sydney? Did it help? Did you pay a flat fee? Do you think you paid less for your place (I.e. they found a deal)? How did you go about finding/choosing your buyers agent? +How is this possible? What is driving this stock to hit an all-time high each month for the last 5 months while what seems like everything else has been in a downtrend? Would love to hear your thoughts. +The metric of illiquid supply defines how much of the bitcoin supply has not moved over a certain period because of that its often labeled as the ultimate “HODL metric“ by on-chain analyst. But before get a look on it here is a warning that on-chain analysis of crypto is a very big Experiment and even some analysts themselves are not sure what kind of influence on-chain metrics have on the crypto price action as most metrics are more long-term orientated. So it would not be wise to base your financial decisions off solely such metrics, but now lets dive in: + +The illiquid supply is based off the amount of bitcoin that has not been moved out of a wallet and that over a certain time period and in relation to the total supply. The most famous one is the one-year illiquid supple that has just again made a new ATH as it has recently been sky-rocketing this year, which is weird as the price did the complete opposite… + +Here a picture of the illiquid supply in relation to the BTC price. + +&#x200B; + +[Illiquid Supply by Glassnode Studios \(daily time-frame\)](https://preview.redd.it/k0kugehw1lv91.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f9cdb96275d2945a226288c55cbd882817c806a) + +So we can clearly see a pattern that the illiquid supply falls during bull runs as many holders start to take profits and it rises during bear markets as many start to hodl for the long-term. The interesting thing here is that the rise of the illiquid supply usually happens just before the last leg down of the bear markets as in 2018 but now it was different… We saw a rise of the illiquid supply last year in December (the BTC price was $49k) when arguably many were sure we are still in a bull market. + +To sum up, while this metric may not be the best to predict any short-term prices (as most indicators, even TA, are not). Though this metric is good to view the change of sentiment between “profit-taking in a bull run“ and “conviction in a bear market“, to some extent. +🆕 GalaxyProtocol is holding the FIRST EVER Pre-sale for their new token, Galaxia. 🆕 + +✅ **PRESALE** ✅ +The Pre-sale is happening in a very unique way. They are Buying Back an old token, SafeGalaxy, and issuing holders Galaxia at $ for $ Plus 15%. So if you hold $100 Worth of SafeGalaxy, You'll get $115 worth of Galaxia at the time of BuyBack. This is the Pre-sale price of Galaxia. + + + +💫 **SAFETY** 💫 +Team is Fully Doxed, Registered in Canada as a business, KYC'd by Assur Defi, has a Business address on their website. The new token, Galaxia, Will be hosted on our own exchange, GalaxySwap when it releases July 30th, it will also include a secure Launchpad in the future. Staking, Farming, etc. will all be offered on the exchange as well! The aim is to be a DEX/Launch Pad with a section for only Safe/Secure projects, as well as the place people come to learn about Crypto. + +❤️ **LISTING PRICE** ❤️ +**Galaxia will be starting at $0.10 per token.** + +🐳 **DATE & BONUS** 🐳 +The Buyback is happening on July 24th 2021 - July 27th 2021. GalaxyProtocol will be doing about $100,000 worth of advertising starting soon, towards The Buyback token. This means if you get $100 worth right now, and the price doubles, then at the time of buyback, you'll get $200 Galaxia, + 15%, or $230! + +⚠️***Getting in early is definitely the better way to go here.***⚠️ + +Learn more here! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ + +1️⃣ Website: https://galaxyprotocol.io/#/ + +2️⃣ Telegram: https://t.me/GalaxyProtocolOfficialTG + +3️⃣ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GalaxyProtocol + +4️⃣ Discord: https://discord.gg/galaxyprotocol + +🤑 **Presale Token:** 🤑 https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?outputCurrency=0x6b51231c43b1604815313801db5e9e614914d6e4 (Buy on V1) +SafeStar just got listed on p2pb2b exchange today. It’s a legit project with great community and devs since all the big whales got out. The coin still has so much potential to grow similar to the likes of SafeMoon or even greater. It’s the first exchange we got listed on but there will be more to come get in before it’s too late for rocket to take off 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 + +BscScan: [https://bscscan.com/token/0x3C00F8FCc8791fa78DAA4A480095Ec7D475781e2](https://bscscan.com/token/0x3C00F8FCc8791fa78DAA4A480095Ec7D475781e2) + +Proof of Liquidity Lock: [https://dxsale.app/app/pages/dxlockview?id=20&add=0&type=lpdefi&chain=BSC](https://dxsale.app/app/pages/dxlockview?id=20&add=0&type=lpdefi&chain=BSC) + +Pancake Swap: [https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?inputCurrency=0x3C00F8FCc8791fa78DAA4A480095Ec7D475781e2](https://exchange.pancakeswap.finance/#/swap?inputCurrency=0x3C00F8FCc8791fa78DAA4A480095Ec7D475781e2) + +Website: [https://www.safestar.me/](https://www.safestar.me/) + +Medium: [https://safestar.medium.com/](https://safestar.medium.com/) + +Twitter: [https://twitter.com/SafeStar\_](https://twitter.com/SafeStar_) + +Telegram: [https://t.me/SafeStar\_Group](https://t.me/SafeStar_Group) + +Edit: New website also launched it keeps getting better and it will keep doing so 🚀 +Edit2: SafeStar lottery went live +Here is another country that talks about how dangerous crypto is. It is unregulated, volatile, and has no intrinsic value. That is why it should be completely banned. This idea was published in an essay written by the director of the Dutch Bureau for Economic Analysis under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Pieter Hasekamp. By “banning” he means to prohibit not just mining and trading, but also holding. +This news looks a little sad after the proposal of the president of El Salvadore. What do you think? Are only developed countries afraid of crypto? +I’ve been holding a position now about 3 months, I had been doing a lot of day trading, realized I didn’t really make anything. + +My position was as high as $27K at the recent peak late last year. About 3.5x my investment. Now it’s $16K, and doesn’t seem to recover but keep this downward spiral. + +I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to exchange some coins around, maybe bolster up with a different mix, or keep sitting on what I have and wait out these negative impact of the stream of bad for crypto announcements from China, S Korea and India. + +Looking to discuss a smart strategy in all this that appears to be some serious FUD and pulling out of the market place. + +Thanks +For example, some very cheap coins, Vertcoin (VTC) and VeriCoin (VRC) both currently have very small market caps (< $15m each). Therefore, it is reasonable to think they have a great upside potential because a 100x return would still only be a market cap ~ $1.5b. + + +On the other hand, Siacoin (SC) is very cheap but has a market cap of $250m, so seeing a 100x return would mean the market cap climbs to 25b, which is unlikely to happen considering that would be larger than the market cap of ETH. + + +I'm not necessarily looking for a 100x return, this was just a big example of a general concept. Am I correct in thinking coins with smaller market caps have better opportunities for better returns? +Hey Guys, + +As someone with no background in Crypto Markets, how efficient is the Price Discovery Process? In your opinion, do Crypto markets react in a meaningful way to news? Is the Price Discovery process different with Bitcoin than with alts (Bitcoin being more/less efficient?). Are there hedge funds / sophisticated investors in the space actively pushing prices to levels that make sense? A lot of the volatility in Bitcoin and the alts seems extremely clumped. Is this a flaw in the market? Or is this something akin to VIX or Gold, where it makes sense considering the market? Thanks guys. +Okay so we have over 15,000 active nodes and like 30 million users so far and we’re not even at Main net yet. We are based from stellar XLM. Super fast, efficient, have a great functioning blockchain with a variety of unique projects in the works. Also the head of our Core team is a freaking Standford blockchain professor who has already created and sold multiple multi million dollar companies. Not even to mention Dr Chendiao Feng and her success. Everyone always wants to talk crap on this project but in reality we are already ahead of most and aren’t even live yet. Thoughts? +Couple of days ago I was think about the fact that the only legal way for you to become a millionaire, is either by investing in crypto projects or creating a software and sell it for millions. + +Since developers are earning passive income and royalties, for simply having people use their programs on daily basis. + +And second when people invest early in crypto projects like MATIC, especially since it increased by more than 15,000% in 2021, so imagine the profits that holders generated last year from Polygon. + +So for now you’ll find me searching for the next 100x gem, and will try my best to learn coding. +I was hoping the community could help me answer this question. Besides LTC, are there any cryptos worth holding long term? + +If so, which ones and why? + +I've read about the usefulness of some cryptos like NMC and read a little about Ethereum, but don't really understand a lot about how it works or why it's a good idea. + +I'd like to hold 5-10 cryptos long term, so I'd love some suggestions. +Welcome to the /r/CryptoMarkets Daily 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/). + - 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://goo.gl/qnZ1mj). + * 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). Account permissions are required to post comments through Reddit-Stream.com. + + *** + + Thank you in advance for your participation. Enjoy! +This is how I understand 3 of the popular crypocurrency: +The bitcoin (BTC) is decentralized coin. Ethereum (ETH) is block-chain technology. Ripple (XRP) is digital coin supported by banks (where support means banks use XRP to transfer money). +I maid some profit early January with Ripple (~200$) and then, being newbie and seeing dollar in my eye, I spent all of it (principle+profit) in Ripple. With the price falling last couple of days I assumed ripple is not going to come back to a higher value. Here are some reason why I think ripple is failing: +1. Ripple was originally popularized that banks can use this to transfer money. But soon banks lost interest as there is no control on its price. Ripple price would not be stable or have slow variation like USD-EUR pair. Although the banks like the technology. So the banks/govt will try to use the technology and develop something similar, which would have a more stable value (and control). +2. Bitcoin is given most preference by every company (whether wallet service, payment service, buying goods etc.). So this makes people makes more interested to BTC (rather than XRP and other AltCoin), + +So, what these two reasons transforms XRP? XRP is just another AltCoin. So my sole speculation is XRP will reach a lowest point (around Mid February) and stay there with little or no change. Many people did make money when XRP was fresh and new and when the price increased with the news that banks are testing it. +But my guess, new people would like to invest to newer AltCoins (at cent prices) hoping that they will make one time fortune that happened to fewer people last year. +All of the above is my sole opinion and I do not want to suggest/advice anything to anyone. I posted this for a discussion. If you see I did not understand how XRP work then please let me know. Cheers. + +You ever hear the expression "Throwing good money after bad?" + +*Technically*, this was his second transaction, where he followed his 1BNB purchase of Safemoon on the 17th April 2021 with another 151 BNB, and then apparently found another 1.84BNB underneath the couch cushions and lobbed that in as well. + +I am talking about a Twitter user called "Unknown_Whale", known as "Safemoon Whale" + +But don't tune out just yet, this isn't really a Safemoon story, it's actually **much ruggier**. + +So my guy eventually spends a snifter over $514,000 on Safemoon on a handful of purchases between March 2021 and March 2022, I guess he is unimpressed by the "Birthday month filled with gifts" and stops buying. Then Safemoon list a new shit token on their swap a couple weeks ago... + +##Blockbusters Tech Family + +Ya, straight away leveraging the "family" just to hook in those desperate suckers. + +What does this token even do? To be honest, I didn't give it the time of day. I immediately discarded it as another stack of bollocks ram-packed with scam "developers" + +Turns out my tingling TNG-senses were right on the money, as you will quickly discover. + +Let's come back to Unknown Whale. On the 5th, he turned his unrealised loss into realised loss and sold pretty much his entire Safemoon bag for $177,000 - that's a whopping **-65.5% loss**. + +And what did he do with this still impressive wodge of cash. Invest it wisely? Make a play on Ethereum or Bitcoin? Look at some interesting L2's? **BUY MOONS?!**. + +No, he bought BBTF token, just before the contract "somehow" broke right at the top of a massive run up where people weren't really able to sell, and then one sell got through [where **ONE** person was able to dump $1.5m on the market all at once](https://bscscan.com/tx/0x858361c4d666a8e7c949f13e6ff85b2440851180522bde6539c9096a7cbc1164), making the price tumble -98.5% in like, one minute flat. Immediately rekking thousands of investors. + +###[Bloodbath chart](https://i.imgur.com/D0qgNiT.jpg) + +And this isn't even the good bit... + +So apparently our whale here bought early enough that even after the mega dump he was still in profit, good for him. Didn't want to take his profit out even though on paper he had recovered his entire Safemoon losses, and even fired off some snarky tweets about how he will be rich rich rich. He flashed a video of his wallet with $778,000 BBTF tokens - a 51% gain on his total Safemoon purchase costs. + + +###And then, yesterday, alas... + +--- + +So turns out when you get a bunch of yoo-ha's to cobble together random offcuts of barely-functional smart contracts, you end up with something so catastrophically amateur, some of the most bare-faced mistakes fly under the radar. + + +When you try and send more tokens than you have in a Smart Contract, there's usually a line of code that checks you can execute the transaction. If not, it errors out. + +Not with BBTF. + +> The transferFromWithPermit function did not check for underflow + +> Meaning if you transferred someone 1 more token than you owned, the contract would let you, and instead of you having 0 tokens left over, you'd have 2^256 - 1 tokens. + +This attacker created + +[115,792,089,237,316,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 BBTF tokens.](https://bscscan.com/token/0xe7057B10E2B59F46D151588d9C8694B4b8328F44?a=0xc02b8cdfe74f0487782b7dc1e387d10518429616) + +To understand how catastrophic this is, BBTF was meant to have a 10 Billion supply . + +The attacker created + +##One hundred fifteen octodecillion seven hundred ninety-two septendecillion eighty-nine sexdecillion two hundred thirty-seven quindecillion three hundred sixteen quattuordecillion tokens. + + +And then he sold as much as he could before the LP was emptied - and made off with about $530,000. + +--- + + +Remember, this story is about Unknown Whale. He started with $514,000 and lost $337,000 of it due to theft & incompetence of the Safemoon team. Then he bought $170,000 worth of another shitcoin made by another dodgy team of incompetent nobodies (who are stationed a few miles away from Safemoon HQ weird that) and that's now worth $17,400. + +From $514,000 to $17,400 - a 96.6% loss courtesy of Safemoon and BBTF. + + +#Shitcoins - NOT EVEN ONCE. +Interesting. The only reason anyone I know has an AMEX card is because it's the only credit card Costco accepts. + +http://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-stop-accepting-amex-cards-133314755.html +Now, as always, you should be investing money you have designated for long-term investing as soon as it is available, according to your risk tolerance. Nothing about your strategy should change based on market movements. + +* If you were going to be investing today, you should invest today. +* If you weren't going to be investing today, you shouldn't invest today. +* If you've been deliberately saving up cash you intend to invest since the beginning of the year waiting for "a dip", you've missed months where prices were lower than today. Your attempt at market timing has failed. You should invest your investable cash now and take this as a lesson for the future. + +We brought our 7 months old to ER due to covid and croup then they gave him all the treatment at the ER but his Pedia was not comfortable sending our boy home so she wants him to get observe for 6 to 8 hours. The problem was ER can't let us stay that long so his Pedia referred him to Loma Linda Children Hospital which is 65 miles away from our place. I asked them if we can just bring him there by ourselves but they said if we do that there will be no guarantee he'll have a room so we got no choice but to take their transport which is the ambulance. We've waited around 6 hours before the ambulance arrived and he got transported along with my wife. My wife said our baby was so behave and calm, no supplemental oxygen or other treatment given. It was only plain ride. Now we're getting charged $5400 for that?! His insurance didn't even cover portion of it. What should we do? Can we negotiate the price? We don't want to pay that kind of amount because his ER treatment was cheaper and he got better. Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you + +EDIT: Forgot to mention our state and his insurance. We're from California and he has BC/BS 80/20 PPO health insurance. +As the title says predict the best performing stock of 2021 and by the end of 2021 I will give away a Reddit award 🥇 to the person who correctly predicts the best performing stock of 2021. + +The award will given by end of next year. And if there is no correct prediction the award will be given to the person who’s stock comes closest to the highest return. + +P.S - You can only pick 1 stock. +I was about to invest in bitcoin, but I just jumped into the ethereum hype train without asking a question... + +Hopefully I have made the right decision. Why did the price go up dramatically today? +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! + +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! + +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. +DF - Dividend 15 Split Corp. II Class A Shares + +Is paying 19% dividends, can I just throw a million in there and make almost 200k a year and never work again? Or am I missing something +Thoughts on chorus aviation going forward? Air travel will back eventually, and I feel national travel will come first and quicker than international travel. + +The dividend should come back eventually as well. It peaked in the 8s and is now holding steady under 4. + +What are people thinking about this? Could be a good time to grab a whole bunch. Plus a buyout could be possible. Who knows. Looking to see if anyone has done some more detailed recent research. +I've seen today that Saudi Arabia ordered it's fund managers to divest from Canada. If they haven't fully done it by now, does anyone know which companies might be impacted? I'm always for a good discount ! + +Thanks ! +[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/) +