101–110 of 233 posts
This wouldn’t work, but my hot take is that anyone with potential insider information can only buy/sell index funds.
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
Not trying to be a hater, but if you follow most investing advice, you can do really well in the stock market. Don't try to pick stocks, just buy low load index funds (SPY, Russel2000) and hold onto them. Doing that, you can get above 6% yields over the course of a few decades. This has worked really well for so many people. Its boring, there's nothing sexy about it but you will retire with a decent chunk of cheddar.…
Money printing and the Cantillion effects associated with it have created asymmetric playing fields which are fundamentally unfair. The injustice of modern markets can be explained with an analogy: Imagine that you don't have much money and you open a coffee shop; assume that it's your only stream of income... Now imagine that a few years later, a multi-millionaire opens up a coffee shop right next to yours as a pass…
> as corporate livestock you add negative value to society (you're now a cog in the money laundering machine) but you're getting paid more than what you did when you were adding value to society. Can you explain this bit more? Why are you adding negative value?
First Pepsi Vs Coke. Both Pepsi and Coke make a product that takes no more than 10 cents to create, ship, and put into stores. And yet their prices are many times more than that. Capitalism says that a perfectly free market will eventually reach a point to where there are no profits. Why is it that in a very mature field such as soda, there is still massive profits?
In order to get where they are they had to make deals, certain restaurants are only allowed to have one of them. They need logistics agreements. They need massive billion dollar factories. Those factories are working at way below capacity. Most of their value derives from these political aspects.
In every market there are only 2 things you need to keep track of. Costs and Values. Values - Costs are the surplus. Who gets the surplus is negotiated between the average participants. In a buyer's market, where there are many suppliers all fighting to sell, the price is close to the costs, and most of the surplus goes to customers. In a seller's market, the price is close to the value. Soda is a seller's market.
What if it were a buyer's market? What would happen if Pepsi dropped their prices to $0.10? Coke would have to follow suit, and they would end up with no profits. They know they can't bankrupt Coke doing so, as they each have equivalent infrastructure, so there is no need for them to slash their prices. Same deal with Coke. They are in a stable equilibrium. It is in the best interest of each company to split the market and reap the margins.
Now let's take Uber and Lyft. We just saw the war phase explained through coffee shops above happen with them, and they are now solidifying into a relationship similar to Coke and Pepsi. Let's take a look at Uber
1. Uber is losing money.
2. Their drivers are making less than minimum wage after taking into account car depreciation.
3. Their investors are losing money.
4. Their customers are mad at the rising prices.
What the heck is going on?! Everyone is losing! Just because you win a market does not mean that the market is worth having. Taxis in big cities makes sense. Taxis occasionally but you know will be expensive makes sense. Uber tried to push this low cost system where you use their system much more than we should be relying on. And it simply doesn't make sense. Costs - Values is negative! In 5 years we will be back to where we started, exact same use cases of Taxis, except with Uber and Lyft with near monopoly Coke and Pepsi margins.
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
Of course it is a scam. Otherwise, why wouldn't we have government-run banks which invest our savings in the background for us?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like you agree, except you don’t use the word “scam”.
Not really? I mean if I went to the farmer's market and decided that instead of buying vegetables, I wanted to make a bunch of money buying and selling vegetables, and I ended up losing all my money, I'd be hard-pressed to call the market a scam either, even if some of the farmers do have inside information on the upcoming radish harvest.
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
when you own shares in a company you are entitled to the cash flow of the company. Over time the price trends towards the future cash flow of the company.
In the short term the price can be anything, but if a company continues to grow and generate cash/profits, then the value will go up.
There is too much money chasing too few companies so multiples are high, but that is a temporary situation (that could last a decade).
Anything that happens in the short run is irrelevant to long term investors. In fact retail investors have a huge advantage over professionals in that they dont have to show returns every quarter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>you're never shielded from inflation It seems to me that inflation is integral to success of the system. That is to say, without inflation, far fewer people would "win".
> without inflation, far fewer people would "win". Wouldn't it also be: without inflation, the people not playing wouldn't "lose"?
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
Not trying to be a hater, but if you follow most investing advice, you can do really well in the stock market. Don't try to pick stocks, just buy low load index funds (SPY, Russel2000) and hold onto them. Doing that, you can get above 6% yields over the course of a few decades. This has worked really well for so many people. Its boring, there's nothing sexy about it but you will retire with a decent chunk of cheddar.…
I've been down-voted for years for saying this, but I am right. The stock market is a scam. Just like casinos in Las Vegas. The house wins more often than we do. 'You need to diversify' simply means 'Give us more of your money'. Don't fall for it. It's just rich people and politicians taking money from less rich people. If you want to double your money, fold it over and put it in your pocket (and buy real things that…
But the great thing is that you can participate in the scam just as easily as the next guy. Just buy the index and wait. Jay Powell's got your back.
I used to be a "hard money" guy who raged against the "injustice" of the "rigged" system. but think practically - you can either be mad, or you can join in and benefit. One is better for your mental health than the other.