Red Wave

[Some Schmo]

There are some issues where the calculus on that one issue overrides everything else. If someone agrees the GOP backed trying to steal an election and attack Congress? Kinda hard to vote for anyone with an R until they stand up against that. View the McConnell shenanigans in packing the the Supreme Court as having begun to impose religious beliefs on others ala Dobbs? Kinda hard to vote for anyone with an R when they clearly don't value democratic norms. Inflation, concerns over spending, foreign policy and conflicts in Europe aren't tipping scales for anyone who is weighing the effects of becoming a failed democracy. It was heartening to see that, to be honest. I didn't think we had it in us.

Yeah man. This was my primary reaction to the midterms. This is the most optimistic I've felt toward American voters in years. We actually do care about democracy. I'm heartened to see it, too.

I'm also very encouraged by how poorly Trump endorsed candidates did. It seems most people are sane.

[Vēritās]

There are some issues where the calculus on that one issue overrides everything else. If someone agrees the GOP backed trying to steal an election and attack Congress? Kinda hard to vote for anyone with an R until they stand up against that. View the McConnell shenanigans in packing the the Supreme Court as having begun to impose religious beliefs on others ala Dobbs? Kinda hard to vote for anyone with an R when they clearly don't value democratic norms. Inflation, concerns over spending, foreign policy and conflicts in Europe aren't tipping scales for anyone who is weighing the effects of becoming a failed democracy. It was heartening to see that, to be honest. I didn't think we had it in us.

Yeah man. This was my primary reaction to the midterms. This is the most optimistic I've felt toward American voters in years. We actually do care about democracy. I'm heartened to see it, too.

I'm also very encouraged by how poorly Trump endorsed candidates did. It seems most people are sane.

Trump is imploding and it is just glorious to see it. He went off screaming at Melania blaming her for his endorsement of Oz, and now he's attacking DeSantis saying he was a loser who was nothing until he came along and saved his career by endorsing him. He's nicknamed him "Desanctimonious."

[Gadianton]

Ajax, have you even looked at a chart that compares dollars to gold?



Here is my interpretation.

The dollar is weak around Jan 6 2020 as Trump and his dumb followers try to destroy democracy. Once Biden has the reigns, gold and the dollar jump.

Then the dollar drops as Roe vs. Wade is overturned, but then faith in Biden picks up, and the dollar makes a new high. The dollar peaks and gold peaks during Biden's presidency absolutely destroy the values in Trumps presidency.

(pro tip: dollars are commodities)

I can't believe how Bidenflation is destroying the value of the dollar, can you guys?

[Analytics]

You want to diversify? Fantastic. Going all in is nuts.

I guess we'll find out. No offense but didn't you believe Veritas's economic predictions in 2020 after the Democrats took control of Congress and the presidency? My diversified portfolio still lost at least $12k last year....

Hmmm. It reminds me of my first Economics class when I was a Freshman in the Fall of 1987. For the non-Econ buffs in the room, that is when we had Black Monday and the stock market unexpectedly crashed by 30%. It was the single spookiest thing that had happened on Wall Street since 1929, and at the time people were actively wondering if it meant a great depression was going to immediately begin.

My Econ professor said that he personally lost $50,000 that day, but he shrugged his shoulders and said it didn't matter. He said the $50,000 he lost wasn't real money--it's was just the market price of his stock portfolio. Even though the market price of his portfolio changed, the underlying portfolio didn't change--he still owned the shares and the future dividends they represented. Those things didn't change, and the underlying value of the companies didn't change, either. Because of that, he was confident his portfolio would bounce back, and it did.

At this stage in my life, I'm working hard and purchasing shares of mutual funds every payday. And when the market fell this Spring, I genuinely got happy. That's because I have a buy-low-sell-high mentality. When the market is down, that means I get to buy stocks when they are cheaper! Shouldn't everybody who is working and saving be happy when stocks are on sale? When stocks are cheap is the time to buy them, not sell them.

[Kishkumen]

Indeed, Analytic! I recently increased my contributions to my retirement.

[Vēritās]

At this stage in my life, I'm working hard and purchasing shares of mutual funds every payday. And when the market fell this Spring, I genuinely got happy. That's because I have a buy-low-sell-high mentality. When the market is down, that means I get to buy stocks when they are cheaper! Shouldn't everybody who is working and saving be happy when stocks are on sale? When stocks are cheap is the time to buy them, not sell them.

The way to beat the stock market as a day trader is so simple but too many people get emotionally caught up in it and start panicking during the drops. It crashes and then people sell in a panic because...? Do they really think it will drop to zero value? No, it almost always bounces back up over time.

Earlier this year I pretty much cashed out my etrade accounts and let the money just sit there because the market was too volatile and I was traveling a lot and so I didn't have a lot of time to monitor it and do my daily trades. I didn't want to come back home only to find out my portfolio balance took a dive.

But last week I decided to get back in the game and felt like we were hitting the bottom of the bear market, so I bought $50k worth of NIO and another $100k in Tesla. I put another $40k in a mix of AMD, NVDIA, DAL, APPL, CCL, RCL and ENPH. Yesterday my balance jumped by more $13k. And the first thing I did at 3:50pm yesterday was sell everything. The idea is simple. I take that profit and let it sit and then buy again when I see more dips. Sell high, buy low. It really is that simple. No one makes money in the market doing it the other way around.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...]I put another $40k in a mix of AMD, NVDIA [...]

I've been enjoying the little GPU jousting lately. It's going to be interesting to see if AMD puts a voltage limit on their Zen 4 cards like NVIDIA did with the 4090, or if 3rd party partners are going to be able to go hog wild. With Intel getting their foot in the GPU door now, and their advantage with existing architecture and driver development, the next 3 years are going to be exciting to watch.

Benchmarking, and Intel taking back the CPU crown with 13th gen is probably going to hobble AMD until they get a 7000 series X3D game chip up and running, but AMD's new server chips look like they are going to be absolutely insane with price-to-performance.



(My apologies for the massive derail. I have self-control issues when it comes to geeking about my latest interests.)

[canpakes]

I got out of the stock market and into precious metals today. I'm a fool with no confidence for not doing it sooner.

Please tell me that you’re not buying ‘Trump coins’.

[Hawkeye]

I guess we'll find out. No offense but didn't you believe Veritas's economic predictions in 2020 after the Democrats took control of Congress and the presidency? My diversified portfolio still lost at least $12k last year....

Hmmm. It reminds me of my first Economics class when I was a Freshman in the Fall of 1987. For the non-Econ buffs in the room, that is when we had Black Monday and the stock market unexpectedly crashed by 30%. It was the single spookiest thing that had happened on Wall Street since 1929, and at the time people were actively wondering if it meant a great depression was going to immediately begin.

My Econ professor said that he personally lost $50,000 that day, but he shrugged his shoulders and said it didn't matter. He said the $50,000 he lost wasn't real money--it's was just the market price of his stock portfolio. Even though the market price of his portfolio changed, the underlying portfolio didn't change--he still owned the shares and the future dividends they represented. Those things didn't change, and the underlying value of the companies didn't change, either. Because of that, he was confident his portfolio would bounce back, and it did.

At this stage in my life, I'm working hard and purchasing shares of mutual funds every payday. And when the market fell this Spring, I genuinely got happy. That's because I have a buy-low-sell-high mentality. When the market is down, that means I get to buy stocks when they are cheaper! Shouldn't everybody who is working and saving be happy when stocks are on sale? When stocks are cheap is the time to buy them, not sell them.

I admitted to my broker he's probably right that stocks would eventually go back up again and outperform precious metals. But I'm not a stock market savy guy and I'm not a save every penny so I can retire early guy either. I just wanted out. I wish I could remember the name of the old Japanese/American billionaire who explained why he only had assets with physical real value like gold, cattle, oil, real estate, etc. The short of his argument was, "I don't trust the bastards."

[Gadianton]

I just wanted out. I wish I could remember the name of the old Japanese/American billionaire who explained why he only had assets with physical real value like gold, cattle, oil, real estate, etc. The short of his argument was, "I don't trust the bastards."

Right, and he's probably waiting for Trump to resume his presidency with JFK as his vice president.

If he's a billionaire then his financial empire is ultimately based on paperwork just like everyone else. Gold is the only thing you can realistically hide under your bed, and then as Steuss pointed out, there are far more untrustworthy bastards than the government you've got to worry about.