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The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

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Re: The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like gambling where you can addictively throw away every dollar you have in a day. It's not? > If you 'invest away' all your money, you can uninvest it the next day. Not if it's gone.

Actual investment (to be distinguished from day-trading) is not an addictive action. There is no feedback loop. What crazy definition of investing are you using where you have any reasonable* chance of losing all your money in less than a day? Compare that to the near-100% chance of losing your money if you spend a single hour betting all of it at casino games. *let's say 1% or greater

I know for a fact that you do not have a near-100% chance of losing your money in a single hour at the casino, so the rest of your data, and your logic in general I find suspect.

Your argument would hold some weight if you could provide some source or documentation for your assertions (that investment has no feedback loop and is therefore not addictive, or that the speed at which you lose your money on an investment is something that matters for the sake of this conversation).

Re: The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual investment (to be distinguished from day-trading) is not an addictive action. There is no feedback loop. What crazy definition of investing are you using where you have any reasonable* chance of losing all your money in less than a day? Compare that to the near-100% chance of losing your money if you spend a single hour betting all of it at casino games. *let's say 1% or greater

I know for a fact that you do not have a near-100% chance of losing your money in a single hour at the casino, so the rest of your data, and your logic in general I find suspect. Your argument would hold some weight if you could provide some source or documentation for your assertions (that investment has no feedback loop and is therefore not addictive, or that the speed at which you lose your money on an investment…

I didn't say walking through a casino for an hour, I said betting all your money for an hour. As in, find a game, bet all your money, rinse and repeat. If you can win dozens of times in a row please take me with you next trip.

Compare to buying and selling stocks repeatedly for an hour. Except for transaction fees you're probably not going to move more than a couple percent.

What do you want documentation for? Buying a stock for three months is about a million times slower of a feedback loop than a casino game, and that's an unarguable fact. When I search for anything about addiction to investing, all I find is articles talking about addiction to speculating, which is not the same thing.

And of course the speed matters, because the core of my argument was that you can't do something like blow your paycheck on investments. Bad investment might lessen your savings over the long term, but they're not going to turn a working adult into someone that costs society money the way a terrible car crash or gambling addiction can.

Re: The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe the club would have to meet the requirement. I think if you do your investing via an LLC or Corporation you could subvert that rule but I'm not really sure.

The "club" would have to have at least $5 million in assets, according to current SEC guidance: http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm .

That assumes its a trust, what if you just created an s-corp with a few other people and used that as an investment vehicle?

Plus, is there any consequence to saying "yes I am an accredited investor" even if you aren't? I would assume you lose all the "protections" and ability to say "I was duped" but otherwise does anyone care?

Re: The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "club" would have to have at least $5 million in assets, according to current SEC guidance: http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm .

That assumes its a trust, what if you just created an s-corp with a few other people and used that as an investment vehicle? Plus, is there any consequence to saying "yes I am an accredited investor" even if you aren't? I would assume you lose all the "protections" and ability to say "I was duped" but otherwise does anyone care?

In a nutshell, the problem is that you can't really release the company you're investing in from potential liability from you not being accredited. If you decide after you invest that they ripped you off, you may be able to sue both the company and some of individuals involved, or they may be criminally liable for the manner in which they sold securities.

However, there are some situations in state and federal law where being a "sophisticated investor" with knowledge of the markets and the industry allows you to invest.

P.S. I am not a lawyer and this is only my understanding of the situation.

Re: The SEC Just Voted To Lift The Ban On General Solicitation

#107
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nothing prevents people from gambling in Vegas. The only reason that people gamble in Vegas is because every other place created laws to protect fools from their own foolishness. Vegas, a city built by organized crime figures who normally had to operate illicitly, didn't.

> "every other place" Vegas is not the only location of legal casino gambling. It is by far the largest but there is significant gambling activity elswhere in the US. Wikipedia mentions these markets: 1. Las Vegas Strip $5.550 billion 2. Atlantic City $3.943 billion 3. Chicago region $2.092 billion 4. Connecticut $1.448 billion 5. Detroit $1.36 billion 6. St. Louis $1.050 billion 7. Tunica Resorts, Mississippi $997.0…

That's not what he meant, he meant Vegas as a stand-in for gambling in general.
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