OT: Stock and Investment Thread

bob-loblaw

Senior
Jan 23, 2011
2,033
852
0
I bought ETH on PayPal at 1207 a few weeks ago. Was hesitating and should have bought it a week earlier when it was 750.
If you're oging to buy coins outright, its best to buy them on an exchange were they can be taken off the exchange if needed. Paypal and RH do not offer that.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
I bought ETH on PayPal at 1207 a few weeks ago. Was hesitating and should have bought it a week earlier when it was 750.
Most of my ETHE was purchased while ETH was priced between 1200 and 1300. However, I have bought some more recently in the 1500 to 1600 range, so my cost basis is creeping up. I don't like this, but I have plenty more bullets to fire when both ETH and BTC pull back. I just believe ETH has a lot of wind to its back now, so who knows how much the pull back will be. It may set a new plateau.
 

Postman_1

Heisman
Mar 12, 2017
7,551
12,264
113
A lot of crypto pumping like crazy now. Ocean Protocol has been doing good for me lately. It is one of the only cryptos in the data field. Worth a look if you have time
 

Frida's Boss

All-American
Oct 10, 2005
10,952
7,737
0
Might I recommend you read "One Up On Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. He is (was as far as working is concerned) a " buy what you know guy" and ran Fidelity Magellan when it was ringing up returns like the Ark funds in the 80's and early 90's.

I’m guessing you know the following story, but it’s instructive to your point and, I think, helps clarify Lynch’s point.

In 1963, a warehouse operator in Bayonne, NJ owned a large number of soybean oil tanks. The soybean oil, stored in large tanks, would serve as collateral for, in essence, loans issued to the warehouse operator.

Every so often, a representative of the lenders would check how much oil was in the tanks. They’d climb up and insert a measuring stick at the top of the tank to see if the tank was full, and they always were. The problem with their measurements, though, was that their stick only went A yard or so into the tank. And the operator knew this. So, Mr. DeAngelis would fill his tanks with seawater and place a relatively small amount of oil on top (which, of course, floated), thus deceiving the inspectors.

Eventually, Mr. DeAngelis made contractual commitments to sell the oil, collecting fees upfront. He assumes oil prices would continue to rise, but they collapsed. Counterparties wanted the oil, and discovered it was nothing but seawater. The loans were called, and their was no collateral. But the loans were further guaranteed by American Express.

Two days later, JFK was killed in Dallas and the stock market collapsed, forcing a temporary closure of the market. In the coming week, stocks rose but Amex did not and this caught the attention of a small and unknown fund manager. Indeed, Amex was off 50% and drifted lower despite the overall increase in the market in the weeks after JFK was killed. And, of course, the issue was whether Amex’s brand was damaged by their association with De Angelis ( not to mention the financial hit to the company. The guarantees were $175mm, which was a substantial amount at the time).

So, the fund manager set out to do diligence. He visited local restaurants to see if Amex cards were still being used. He sent others to see if hotels were still receiving and accepting travelers checks. And he concluded that the consumer hadn’t cared at all about the Bayonne oil scandal, if they knew about it at all. There was no change in the use of their product. And he knew Amex had the financial wherewithal to make good on its $175mm of loan guarantees So he set to buying stock hand over fist, as much as he could without disrupting the price, He ended up making a killing on Amex.

That is the diligence, in essence, conducted by Lynch. Lynch visited malls to see traffic patterns, warehouses to see shipments and capacity. Yes, he was interested in the products, but more to see what was selling than to understand the actual product. He wanted to understand the business, and the trends.

Which leads to my final point in this lengthy post. Investors don’t need to understand the product or service, per se, as the developer of each would need to. You don’t need to know the algorithm behind google’s search engine to understand the nearly impenetrable advantage it has in search and tailored advertising. But you’d better be able to understand why the business will continue to grow and fend off competition. What’s its edge? Most business earn average rates of return on capital, and their only edge is to improve efficiency and lower costs. It’s the rare business that can earn a return on capital exceeding its cost of capital, and you do need to understand why it does to have conviction. Conviction isn’t needed in times like today, Everyone is a genius because everything just goes up. But when prices fall, and eventually they will, perhaps substantially, how will you have conviction to hold or buy more? Easy to say when everything is rosy. Harder to do when skies turn dark. When it’s time to buy, you won’t want to. That’s why you need to understand the business, it’s value drivers and what is relevant and what is not,

Just as Buffett did when he loaded up on Amex in 1963 after what’s come to be known as the Salad Oil Scandal.
 

Scarletnut

All-Conference
Jul 27, 2001
5,460
4,141
77
Here's a good listen from an old timer who's really on top of things. BTW, no fiscal year losses in his 30 years managing investments.
 

robcac26

All-Conference
Nov 30, 2012
2,991
2,625
83
Are you sure about that? Recent history would seem to contradict that, with GME and others being strictly trades with "good investment" be damned.
The GME/NOK/BB/AMC up-and-down of the past week is an anomaly. It's not indicative of a trend of millennials buying stock in companies from their childhood. People saw an opportunity to make money and jumped on board, didn't matter what the company was. The fact that they were nostalgic brands that were more relevant when we were younger was the cause of them being heavily shorted, and them being heavily shorted was the cause of the mass purchases of stock. Many seem to be skipping that part in the middle--the possibility of making money off a short squeeze--and are instead just arriving at the conclusion that these people bought these stocks just because they knew them from their youth.
 

RUJohnny99

All-American
Nov 7, 2003
64,666
5,961
113
That is the diligence, in essence, conducted by Lynch. Lynch visited malls to see traffic patterns, warehouses to see shipments and capacity. Yes, he was interested in the products, but more to see what was selling than to understand the actual product. He wanted to understand the business, and the trends.
Hey, thanks for that tip on Boston Chicken back in the day, Mr. Lynch. LOL.

In all seriousness though, his books should be required reading for new investors. I saw Beating the Street on cassette at a yard sale a few months ago, and had to buy it. That audiobook made me a lot of money over the years. Of course, 15 baggers are daily occurrences now so what does he know about digital currency backed with the full faith and credit of something no one can explain.
 
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T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
The more I learn about Exone the more I like it.

Nice video, learned something new. XONE up 11% today.

Galaxy Digital Holdings up 22% today. Glad I bought at $7.50, but unfortunately I only bought 1/2 the position I need. So I need to wait for the next pull back.
 

robcac26

All-Conference
Nov 30, 2012
2,991
2,625
83
is there a mutual fund for crypto currency
You might be interested in one of these. I have had Crypto20 for the past few years, but have decided that I'm probably better off just sticking with bitcoin or ethereum. Crypto10 is better but it doesn't seem like you can get it in the US. C20 is at least available on HitBTC.
 

rurahrah000

All-Conference
Aug 21, 2010
3,223
2,172
88
VIX is down to 20.87. A few more days like today and we will be ripe for a correction. Corrections are not a big deal for long term investors, but an opportunity for short term gains. For all you UVXY fans, time to load up on upside calls.
 

theRU

All-American
Dec 17, 2008
11,135
5,798
0
I'm putting $100 target on GM stock 2 years out, I also think if you want to make money off the ev movement you need to invest in rare earth mining companies. Finally if you want to be aggressive and take a shot in the dark on getting a good Lucid valuation, put some skin on Cciv.
 

miketd1

Heisman
Sep 26, 2006
59,713
13,916
0
Both ARKW and ARKK have Tesla as 10% of their holding. A significant portion of their performance was due to the Tesla holding with Tesla up 695% in 2020. Better hope that Tesla keeps on performing.
It’s a major piece of a typical s&p 500 index fund.

I’d wager most of us should hope so.
 
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T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
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It’s a major piece of a typical s&p 500 index fund.

I’d wager most of us should hope so.
As I mention in a previous post, 31 of the 47 holdings in ARKK had 1-year returns over 100%. This is not a got lucky on Tesla story. They crushed it up and down their portfolio.

But I definitely agree with you. Tesla is floating a lot of boats.....growth funds and indexes.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
MTA is already using them.
+1 - small scale use I assume. Most MTA buses I see are not EV (but haven't been in the city in about a year!).

Think about how well E-buses would clean up cities. Buses are the dirty as hell. MTA, NJT, and all other public mass transit entities across the nation (probably world).

Elon, get on it! LOL.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
Just did a formal check-in with our accounts this morning:

Retirement accounts = +4.9% YTD
Fun/Crypto account = +24.6% YTD

Hmm.....LOL.
 

phs73rc77gsm83

All-Conference
Aug 11, 2011
3,055
3,852
83
Grayscale is the way to go. There are not technically "funds", but rather "trusts". You essentially buy fractional shares of coins. They are traded like ETFs.


And a few others.

Here is the S-1 registration statement for Bitcoin Trust Grayscale. This provides valuable information on the product, market, associated risks, etc. I am not invested in Bitcoin but if I were, it’d be maybe 1%-2% of my portfolio.
 
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T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
What are the other trusts besides these two?
On the top of the page, click on investment products. The have a bunch of other crypto trusts, but not any of the newer/hotter ones.....Polkadot, Cardano, or Dogecoin. They also have a trust with 4 different coins, but I don't like the mix. Not nearly enough ETH.
 
Dec 4, 2010
5,866
5,255
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+1 - small scale use I assume. Most MTA buses I see are not EV (but haven't been in the city in about a year!).

Think about how well E-buses would clean up cities. Buses are the dirty as hell. MTA, NJT, and all other public mass transit entities across the nation (probably world).

Elon, get on it! LOL.
It's all about batteries. Tesla is ready to go on the semi truck, but they're battery constrained. Plans exist for a van/shuttle, but again... batteries.
The Austin factory and Berlin will both have their own battery production lines. Both come on line this year. Going to take some time to get going. 2022 is when things get interesting.
 
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Rutgers Chris

All-American
Nov 29, 2005
4,560
5,217
97
I'm putting $100 target on GM stock 2 years out, I also think if you want to make money off the ev movement you need to invest in rare earth mining companies. Finally if you want to be aggressive and take a shot in the dark on getting a good Lucid valuation, put some skin on Cciv.
I have an irrationally large position on CCIV/Lucid. Hoping that works out and they can compete with Tesla. The SPAC market in general is a solid play with all aspects of EV (charging, buses, garbage trucks, other commercial vehicles).
 
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T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
30,810
18,823
113
It's all about batteries. Tesla is ready to go on the semi truck, but they're battery constrained. Plans exist for a van/shuttle, but again... batteries.
The Austin factory and Berlin will both have their own battery production lines. Both come on line this year. Going to take some time to get going. 2022 is when things get interesting.
Is Tesla making there own batteries, any development partners of interest?
 
Dec 4, 2010
5,866
5,255
0
Tesla's pilot line.

These are 4680 high nickel cells. 46 mm x 80 mm.
These will be used in Berlin & Austin model Y, semi, and Cybertruck.
All other vehicles currently used either 2170 or 1865 which are produced by their 3 suppliers.
Eventually, all production lines will move to the 4680 cell, but not all as "high nickel". There will be different battery chemistries for different vehicles. For example, China model 3 uses LFP batteries. (Lithium, Iron, Phosphate)