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How to Lose Money

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Re: How to Lose Money

#221

Post by ghaff »

bluGill wrote: post #194
_a1_ wrote: post #12

> I’ve written four short books and they have literally grossed hundreds of dollars. I hear this argument pretty often. A book is not a binary thing: there is a book, and there isn't. It's not about the "book", it's about the contents of the book. So in other words the author has gathered some knowledge and he didn't make much money off of it. Therefore, the knowledge you will gather will not allow you to earn any mo…

Most books make money from the speaking fees "the guy who wrote the book" makes. I've had a couple classes at work where my company paid $5-20,000 (500-1000 per student depending on how long the class is for) for a guy to come in and give a one week class. As a student in the class I got a copy of the book (someplace on my bookself, I probably opened it a couple times, but never read it). The book is free with class.…

It even applies if you work for someone else in my experience. The link isn't so obvious in that case. But I've written several books (both independently and though a publisher) and I'm pretty sure it's been reputationally valuable even though I've made very little money directly.

Writing a book alone isn't enough obviously. But it still sets you apart from others.

Re: How to Lose Money

#222

Post by greenshackle2 »

clipradiowallet wrote: post #214
greenshackle2 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, NQ is stock future not a commodity future? Commodity futures are soybean, oil, corn, gold, etc.

NQ is based on the collective value of the nasdaq 100, which themselves are classified as a commodity by the NFA. I'm not sure if you are being pedantic or not... 75 years ago, the commodities you listed were the only type available on the futures market - but since then, it's no longer the case.

Not pedantic just confused, I've never heard stock index futures referred to as commodity futures, that's all. If you told me you're a commodity trader and all you trade are stock indices I'd be puzzled. But maybe that's just me.

Re: How to Lose Money

#223

Post by graeme »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #100
CoffeePython wrote: post #83

Building an online course[1] has been one of the easiest ways to make money in my personal experience. Other things I've tried building: SaaS, Trades business, Freelancing business. I've made over $8k since I launched last month and it's been a great stepping stone into other ideas. The main problem I see going forward is getting consistent traffic. Building the course was the "easy" part and now I'm focusing hard on…

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you got to the frontpage of HN the first time you posted your site which presumably generated the bulk of that 8k, right? If you hit the jackpot (I.e. front page of HN) on your first try, yes it's going to feel like it's super easy to make money off building a course.

Honestly it isn’t too hard to hit the front page with something polished that’s of interest to hn readers.

I have not had anything to market to HN, but I’ve hit the front page with articles of my own a couple of times, with an ask HN once or twice, and with submitted articles at least twice.

The most popular article I wrote here was about how I tried not having home internet for a month (didn’t work, but was interesting). How can an article like that not hit the front page? You see 2-3 articles a day on that theme: wacky personal experiment + earnest well written personal narrative.

Not everyone can do that but it’s hardly some unique alchemy. If I’d done it once I’d say it’s the jackpot but it’s happened often enough without special effort on my part that I think anything reasonably interesting has a fair shot.

Assuming the submitter is a HN user, knows the community, has a track record of writing stuff people like, etc.

I’m pushing back because I think presenting fairly pedestrian accomplishments as jackpot level achievements has the effect of discouraging people from trying.

Obviously not everyone can write well enough to pull that off but most people making a course ought to have that kind of communication skill.

Re: How to Lose Money

#224

Post by leetcrew »

jmvoodoo wrote: post #122
metafunctor wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does holding money have an "unlimited loss potential"? You just buy back at whatever value the stock is at the time. I would argue that money is a neutral position (adjusting for inflation which is nowadays quite low). After all, we buy stuff with money, not stock. Now, selling short, that has an unlimited loss potential, but it's very very different from a cash position.

It's unlimited opportunity loss. If you sell at say $100 and it goes to $1000 while you're in cash, you "lost" $900 vs your original position. However if you hold at $100 and buy a put for $2 that hedges you, you can still participate in the upside while limiting your downside. Also, downside risk has been historically undervalued (this may be changing though) which is why tail risk funds exist.

everything has an unlimited opportunity loss though. if I put all my money in SPY, I'm forgoing the "opportunity" to buy a bunch of OTM gamestop calls at the perfect time and 10x my net worth.

Re: How to Lose Money

#225

Post by Isn0gud »

verganileonardo wrote: post #210

Building an online course has been one of the easiest ways to make money in my personal experience. The problem is that most people focus on what they know and spend hours creating the content for the course. However, most of your success is going to come from building an email list of at least 1k people. And most of the effort should be here BEFORE you start building the course. I've done that many times and have be…

That is literally what he was saying...

Re: How to Lose Money

#226

Post by metafunctor »

yreg wrote: post #139
metafunctor wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, well, pfft. Not being on the market is an opportunity loss, sure. But it's not "unlimited".

The strategy forces you to time the market. You might get unlucky by holding cash during a market rally, then buy back for a dump. An investor who sells when they think the market is going to go downhill, with the intention to buy back later is not acting as an investor but as a trader . That's why hedging with options is less risky (and less profitable in the best case). edit: My use of word 'unlimited' applies if y…

Yep, then I agree. I'm not advocating for trying to time the market, or holding cash instead of being on the market.

But selling your position simply does NOT mean you take on "unlimited loss potential". It's simply being outside of the market, which means you're missing out on gains. It's not like selling stock is suddenly the same as shorting the same stock. I think the terminology here is clear-cut and well established.

Re: How to Lose Money

#227

Post by vinceguidry »

Noos wrote: post #193
vinceguidry wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is way, way, way less true than it used to be. There are pro and semi-pro leagues in lots and lots of games, YouTube and Twitch make getting paid for entertaining rather than competing possible. Patreon, Instagram and TikTok makes getting paid for your lifestyle far far easier and more lucrative. Getting paid as an independent developer on open source projects is possible these days, sadly there's precious littl…

Most people trying to do this will make little or no money, and the sheer amount of competition and effort required to be the maybe 10% of the top people who can make a living on it is too much for most. And there are less and less structures in place to protect or mitigate risk for them; all Youtube has to do is change an algorithm or demonetize/ban you to tank your streaming business. And the base assumption now fo…

This has always been true. It's just less true now.

Re: How to Lose Money

#228

Post by gdubs »

It’s a shame that education has become so transactional. I was lucky enough to have a scholarship, but if I’m fortunate enough to pay full-ride for my kids when they’re old enough, and they’re at a place where they seem ready to get the most out of it, I’d spend that money in a heartbeat. Not because I think we’d see a dollar value return on the investment, something coldly transactional. But because I was lucky enough to see firsthand the value of that experience.

And it was lucky, because the vast majority of people are under a ton of financial stress for something that hasn’t provided a clear return on investment.

So what I would caution is this: don’t write off college. But also don’t write off the enormous financial burden you may be taking on. If you’re young and have a shot at a scholarship, really consider it! A lot of the negativity around college is financially driven, but the experience of getting a truly rounded education is invaluable. As well as the friendships you make.

Re: How to Lose Money

#229

Post by matonias »

DC1350 wrote: post #169

> Do things because you have genuine interest in them... Don’t start out with a singular goal of making money. I really hate advice like this. Have you ever seen a business before? Have you ever met a person? Pretty much no interests are monetizable and almost all companies are doing really boring work. I don’t believe anyone in the world is truly passionate about things like payroll software. If I followed my intere…

You still need to seek your passion. Only then can one form an opinion lime yours. It’s possible !

Re: How to Lose Money

#230

Post by smnrchrds »

DC1350 wrote: post #169

> Do things because you have genuine interest in them... Don’t start out with a singular goal of making money. I really hate advice like this. Have you ever seen a business before? Have you ever met a person? Pretty much no interests are monetizable and almost all companies are doing really boring work. I don’t believe anyone in the world is truly passionate about things like payroll software. If I followed my intere…

I read it as "you are unlikely to make money, so you might as well enjoy the process." The article is not about employment. It's about side projects, which are infamously hard to monetize.
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