Posts by Simon

11

Anyone else selling stocks?

by mickbobcat in

i hit the highs yesterday and sold deep in the money calls.

this will protect my stocks while i still draw dividends.

anyone else hedging their stocks.

BTW: If anyone has a decent powered graphics card from the last few years, you can actually earn money mining crypto (usually Etherium). Even on an old RX580 I'm getting $8 a day. If you have one of those fancy RTX 30 series Nvidia cards you can double or triple that (which is why you can't find them in stores for love nor money).

If you do get into crypto and are in Canada, we have lots of ETF options for both BTC and ETH that can grow tax-free in a TFSA. There's also things like WealthSimple where you don't have to manage your own keys. You'll hear things like "not your keys, not your coins" but as long as you're dealing with a reputable company such as WS, or Coinbase or Binance (not some crappy little exchange, see "Quadriga") then you're probably at much greater risk from losing your own keys than them being hacked (and they are usually insured).

I actually just managed to crack a 9 year old blockchain wallet that a friend had, which they'd forgotten the password to in all that time. Unfortunately, they also mis-remembered there being much in it, LOL, but I was quite pleased that I managed to write an app to brute-force it in a few days (there was an open source tool but a bug in it meant it failed to work on old wallets).

BTC was first priced at 1,000 for $1, later 10,000 for 2 pizzas, and is now nearly $60k. Non-inflationary money for the first time in history.

Whether you want to ignore it or not, it's likely that central banks will issue their own digital currencies in the near future so you'll likely be using some form of it at some point. Although I expect the central bank versions to allow for the same unlimited money-printing that their fiat currency does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuIjZF1FGrc

11

Anyone else selling stocks?

by mickbobcat in

i hit the highs yesterday and sold deep in the money calls.

this will protect my stocks while i still draw dividends.

anyone else hedging their stocks.

Simon

I don't believe in Crypto.

I take it you mean as a worthwhile investment, not like "santa" or "the tooth fairy" ...

Yeah, I was very bearish on Crypto for a long time but there is so much institutional buying now from big, BIG financial companies, that the chance of it going to zero is probably zero.

In the meantime, the returns it provides and the potential hedge against inflation long-term are hard to ignore.

It's well worth putting some time in to learn about it, how it works and why it works, to better understand it properly. Your opinion of it may change when you do.

But you have to wade through the "to the moon!" crowd of shills to find those who really know there stuff. I can recommend watching talks by Andreas Antonopoulos which are very informative (aantonop on YouTube)

11

Anyone else selling stocks?

by mickbobcat in

i hit the highs yesterday and sold deep in the money calls.

this will protect my stocks while i still draw dividends.

anyone else hedging their stocks.

Simon

Overall a lot of the money the US and others are printing will go into the stock market one way or another so I don't think there will be a crash unless they do something silly to cause it.

If you are concerned about high inflation you need to have assets that grow at around that rate or more to protect your wealth and the markets are one of the few places you can find that. The booming housing market is a sign that people are using that as an investment to store their wealth too. If you take it out and hold it as cash then you are accepting the devaluation rate.

The usual hedges, gold and bonds, don't look like the protection bet they once were.

Maybe DOGE coin is the answer after all - wouldn't that be a plot twist! But some crypto of some form that has actual utility (BTC, ETH, ADA, DOT) is probably one of the better options right now as an insurance policy.

20

Remember how it felt before you woke up. Living forever in a Righteous World.

by pistolpete in

i woke up early in life.

it’s not because i was smarter than my brothers and sisters.

in fact, reflecting back, i actually don’t know why i didn’t embrace the watchtower teachings?

Simon

It's "The Matrix" conundrum - would it have been better to take the blue pill and live in blissful ignorance?

The trouble is that you imagine you could have continued in blissful ignorance. The truth is that I think everyone realizes at some point that it's all a lie and it's better to realize sooner than when you are 90 on your death bed.

At best it's the happy escapism of immersing yourself in a great sci-fi movie. A different life, a fantasy, for a short while.

Reality always bites.

15

Black Hammer's Colorado Commune

by LoveUniHateExams in

yeah, so apparently there's a black separatist group called black hammer.

black hammer has raised money to purchase 200 acres of colorado land for 'colonised peoples' (black and native american people) and create a communist ethnostate (no whitey allowed).. it's may 11 so it can't be an april fool joke, lol ….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcijfj50uai.

Simon

It'll fall apart like these things always do because no one will want to do the actual hard work necessary for success.

6

I want to help

by Debra in

jw
friends

my name is debra i have been out of this cult for a number of years now but i know how difficult it is for people to have the courage to leave especially if they have family still trapped inside i'd like to help people who may be struggling by offering them a listening ear and some support /friendship via email .

Simon

Just a heads up - while it's always great whenever anyone wants to help others everyone needs to be aware that not everyone offering help might really want to help them.

There is a risk in giving your email address and also confiding personal information to someone you don't really know. Some people are looking for victims, some are looking for someone to listen to their own preaching, and of course some are genuine ... but how do you know who is who?

A safer option for most people is to start with getting anonymous support publicly OR to pay for professional help locally. Everyone else is free to provide the former.

If someone is offering support then you should a) know who they really are and b) be able to see their public contact information.

30

$15.00 minimum wage

by hoser in

jw
friends

while we are talking about economic stimulus i thought i’d bring up the $15 minimum wage.

pros and cons?.

Simon

BTW: If anyone thinks that a $15 minimum wage won't cause unemployment and inflation, please explain why it shouldn't be $100 instead.

Surely if it's a free benefit with no drawbacks, then 'more' must be even better still?

So why not $100, heck why not $1,000 and then everyone will be rich and all our problems will be solved!

Just need to print the money ...

30

$15.00 minimum wage

by hoser in

jw
friends

while we are talking about economic stimulus i thought i’d bring up the $15 minimum wage.

pros and cons?.

Simon

On the other hand I don’t think anyone earning minimum wage should pay a dime in income taxes.

Everyone should pay something in taxes, otherwise you get the situations where people don't want to work or earn more in order to avoid them.

They should always be progressive - if you earn more you will get more, even if the marginal tax rate you pay increases along the way.

Unless people have a stake in society, some investment in it, many don't seem willing to take part in society in the way they should.

People don't value things if everything is free to them. If they contribute, then they will feel differently about seeing things vandalized etc... and have more of an interest in what happens to their tax money.

The reason politicians don't want this is obvious - they would rather have the votes of the peasant and stupid class willing to give them up in exchange for free crumbs.

"take from the rich" really is a dated and failed financial policy although there needs to be greater controls to prevent the ultra-wealthy controlling the playing field to keep their wealth. For those who don't keep up with things, when you see a billionaire saying the wealthy should pay more taxes, that is their way of controlling the game and protecting their position.

23

Is There Life On Mars?

by LoveUniHateExams in

no, i'm not talking about the david bowie song, i'm asking does life exist on mars?.

opportunity rover (the one before the present one) took photos of strange, puffball-like sphericals seemingly sprouting on the martian surface.. these photos aren't conclusive evidence but it is an exciting area to investigate.. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9546225/scientists-claim-evidence-fungi-red-planet.html .

Simon

It's a strong possibility as Mars was hit with the same space debris as earth over millions of years

Ah, the old "it must have come from outer space" theory.

... which never explains where that life originated, or how it came to be hurtling through space or manage to survive the impact with a planet.

30

$15.00 minimum wage

by hoser in

jw
friends

while we are talking about economic stimulus i thought i’d bring up the $15 minimum wage.

pros and cons?.

Simon

It's not the role of government to tell companies how much someone is worth, that is the job of the market.

The real minimum wage is $0 - if you try to force companies to pay someone who is only worth $10 to them, $15 instead, they will be fired and / or replaced by robots.

Raising the minimum wage raises inflation and prices - the poor will never earn more in real terms even if the numeric value of their pay denomination goes up, as all the things they want and need to spend that money on (assuming they keep their job) will also go up.

At a time when stimulation the economy and improving employment is most needed, putting further limits on employers and making it harder for them to keep staff is simply idiotic.

It also doesn't factor in location - $15 per hour in NY could be nothing, but significant in some small town in the middle of nowhere. Why have one-size-fits-all when it clearly doesn't?