OT: Stock and Investment Thread

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
31,174
19,194
113
I was at 280 Park at the time Bear collapsed. Felt really bad for the lower paid (relatively) guys who were strongly encouraged to hold company stock in their retirement accounts by sr mgmt. They worked long hours and built a secure retirement only to have it all fall apart quickly. And then you had protestors outside their offices angry that the govt bailed them out. That could have gotten violent really quickly.
Never own company stock. Even if you own a little, it normally comes with restrictions. My LTI plan is based on company stock (RSUs that after 3 years convert to ADSs). Every year when they vest, I could keep them in the account and hold. However, I immediately sell and take the cash.
 

patk89

All-Conference
Jul 25, 2001
6,304
2,428
78
Enron was another that was encouraging the rank and file to hold the stock while the sr executives knew the end was coming.
 

RU in IM

All-Conference
Nov 3, 2011
2,678
2,139
113
On this point I'll disagree with you. It can be done prudently. I've done it and I'm not in the financial business, just ingrained myself to not be greedy.

I did it to, and I am doing it again. I have trimmed before each of the peaks, including this one. I focus on fundamentals and avoid being greedy. I stay in the market, but reduce equities and increase cash. If I miss the end of a bull market, I am fine. I don’t plan to be the richest person, but I will not get slammed. I am in too good of a spot to stay on a speeding train. The last major downturn 12 years ago (and 8 years before that) destroyed a lot of wealth. I saw the pain that people went through, including people who had to extend their career or return to the workforce. i’m not suggesting people not invest in innovation, but you need to have a diversified portfolio.
 
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RUschool

Heisman
Jan 23, 2004
49,910
14,001
78
I did it to, and I am doing it again. I have trimmed before each of the peaks, including this one. I focus on fundamentals and avoid being greedy. I stay in the market, but reduce equities and increase cash. If I miss the end of a bull market, I am fine. I don’t plan to be the richest person, but I will not get slammed. I am in too good of a spot to stay on a speeding train. The last major downturn 12 years ago (and 8 years before that) destroyed a lot of wealth. I saw the pain that people went through, including people who had to extend their career or return to the workforce. i’m not suggesting people not invest in innovation, but you need to have a diversified portfolio.
Sounds like most of the over 60 crowd. Whatever is gained is really for the next generation.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
31,174
19,194
113
I did it to, and I am doing it again. I have trimmed before each of the peaks, including this one. I focus on fundamentals and avoid being greedy. I stay in the market, but reduce equities and increase cash. If I miss the end of a bull market, I am fine. I don’t plan to be the richest person, but I will not get slammed. I am in too good of a spot to stay on a speeding train. The last major downturn 12 years ago (and 8 years before that) destroyed a lot of wealth. I saw the pain that people went through, including people who had to extend their career or return to the workforce. i’m not suggesting people not invest in innovation, but you need to have a diversified portfolio.
It only destroyed wealth if you panicked and got out of the market (or were doing something nuts). Otherwise, it would have come back just fine.
 

Scarletnut

All-Conference
Jul 27, 2001
5,467
4,159
77
I did it to, and I am doing it again. I have trimmed before each of the peaks, including this one. I focus on fundamentals and avoid being greedy. I stay in the market, but reduce equities and increase cash. If I miss the end of a bull market, I am fine. I don’t plan to be the richest person, but I will not get slammed. I am in too good of a spot to stay on a speeding train. The last major downturn 12 years ago (and 8 years before that) destroyed a lot of wealth. I saw the pain that people went through, including people who had to extend their career or return to the workforce. i’m not suggesting people not invest in innovation, but you need to have a diversified portfolio.
I’ll tell you my dot com story. I bought the Juniper Networks IPO. It ran, split, ran, split, ran again. My 200 shares became 1200 shares worth just under 300k in 6 months!!. My goal was 325k to pay off my mortgage. The market dipped, no problem, it’s gonna come back. It dipped again, and again, and again. I finally sold for under 20k. Same thing in my kids 329 college funds. I had a goal for their college education which was far surpassed (AOL was a big holding) but greed hit and I didn’t sell. Why should I sell? Pundits said NASDAQ was gonna hit 10,000 and the Dow was gonna go to 50,000.
That was 21 years ago. Learned my lesson the hard way. Folks much smarter than me lost millions. I was fortunate compared to them.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
31,174
19,194
113
I’ll tell you my dot com story. I bought the Juniper Networks IPO. It ran, split, ran, split, ran again. My 200 shares became 1200 shares worth just under 300k in 6 months!!. My goal was 325k to pay off my mortgage. The market dipped, no problem, it’s gonna come back. It dipped again, and again, and again. I finally sold for under 20k. Same thing in my kids 329 college funds. I had a goal for their college education which was far surpassed (AOL was a big holding) but greed hit and I didn’t sell. Why should I sell? Pundits said NASDAQ was gonna hit 10,000 and the Dow was gonna go to 50,000.
That was 21 years ago. Learned my lesson the hard way. Folks much smarter than me lost millions. I was fortunate compared to them.
Sorry to hear this. I was too young to be invested during the dot.com crash. Got my MBA in 2002 and then started my career. Yeah, I worked a bit before that, but knew I was soon headed to business school.

As for the 2008/2009 crash, we literally just powered through it. Kept buying all the way down and then back up. We never stopped. That paid off like crazy! Our 25 year or so time horizon at the time made it easy to do so.
 

Scarletnut

All-Conference
Jul 27, 2001
5,467
4,159
77
Sorry to hear this. I was too young to be invested during the dot.com crash. Got my MBA in 2002 and then started my career. Yeah, I worked a bit before that, but knew I was soon headed to business school.

As for the 2008/2009 crash, we literally just powered through it. Kept buying all the way down and then back up. We never stopped. That paid off like crazy! Our 25 year or so time horizon at the time made it easy to do so.
Thx but no need to be sorry. It was a life lesson (also less money to split when I got divorced, lol!). I’ve bounced just fine.
 

mdk02

Heisman
Aug 18, 2011
26,451
18,754
113
FYI - There is a front page WSJ article today focusing in lithium miners in general with a focus on domestic miners like Piedmont Lithium (PLL) specifically. Now I know why Albermarle jumped today. And it's basically too late for Piedmont as shares have jumped from 8 to 86 and back to 68 since January.
 
Dec 4, 2010
5,866
5,256
0
It's a broader release of their beta software. If you've seen any footage on youtube, you'd know there are still driver interventions necessary at times. It's the smart thing to do for safety and liability purposes. The media is running with this BS, just like they ran with "Ford taking market share from Tesla" last week. You're smarter than this....i think.
 
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Dec 4, 2010
5,866
5,256
0
FYI - There is a front page WSJ article today focusing in lithium miners in general with a focus on domestic miners like Piedmont Lithium (PLL) specifically. Now I know why Albermarle jumped today. And it's basically too late for Piedmont as shares have jumped from 8 to 86 and back to 68 since January.
I agree. Lithium is everywhere on earth and individual batteries don't use much. Think of lithium as the salt on your salad. While the world is going to need an insane amount of batteries, I think we have plenty of lithium.

Nickel on the other hand is going to be the big bottleneck in batteries. Currently, battery cathodes are made of either iron or nickel. Iron is abundant and cheap, but only good for short/medium range vehicles. Tesla Shanghai went to 100% LFP (lithium, iron, phosphate) for the standard range model 3. Nickel is going to be needed for long range vehicles and larger vehicles(semi, all pickups, probably anything over 300 miles). There ain't enough!
 
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Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,069
12,232
82
Am I the only one that’s crazy enough to touch GME? It’s now indicating 198. High was 348.5
 

mdk02

Heisman
Aug 18, 2011
26,451
18,754
113
I agree. Lithium is everywhere on earth and individual batteries don't use much. Think of lithium as the salt on your salad. While the world is going to need an insane amount of batteries, I think we have plenty of lithium.

Nickel on the other hand is going to be the big bottleneck in batteries. Currently, battery cathodes are made of either iron or nickel. Iron is abundant and cheap, but only good for short/medium range vehicles. Tesla Shanghai went to 100% LFP (lithium, iron, phosphate) for the standard range model 3. Nickel is going to be needed for long range vehicles and larger vehicles(semi, all pickups, probably anything over 300 miles). There ain't enough!

The real issue with lithium is non-China production and processing.
 

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,069
12,232
82
The fact that people are willing to buy a stock that dropped 42% in like 30 mins tells me this is going to end well.
 

Joey Bags

All-American
Sep 21, 2019
5,175
5,311
1
I thought GME was supposed to be back to single digits by now. How is the stock still in the 300s when the short squeeze was a long time ago?
 
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Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,069
12,232
82
Stimulus passed today. Those $1400 checks are going right into Robinhood and GME! :)
This stock is just so manipulated. I’m long the Apr 1 135 puts. When the stock hit 340 today, my option still had a bid at 19. The volatility risk premium is insane.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
31,174
19,194
113
This stock is just so manipulated. I’m long the Apr 1 135 puts. When the stock hit 340 today, my option still had a bid at 19. The volatility risk premium is insane.
No idea what this means ^^^^^. I haven't shorted a stock before, please give me the 101.
 

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,069
12,232
82
No idea what this means ^^^^^. I haven't shorted a stock before, please give me the 101.
I was describing put options I bought, not a short position. The particular put option I bought let me sell shares at 135 with an expiration date of April 1st. The underlying stock was trading at 340ish. That’s 200 points out of the money. My option should be worthless but the stock volatility is holding the value up. The option is actually telling me that there is a decent probability that it could be in the money at expiration.

I did short the shares as well. As a hedge to time value. But the 1000% margin requirement makes it hard to do size.
 
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Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,069
12,232
82
Another fun fact on the GME puts is that my option were up 17.5% today when the stock was UP 7%. Not sure I’ve seen anything like this before.
 

mdk02

Heisman
Aug 18, 2011
26,451
18,754
113
I was describing put options I bought, not a short position. The particular put option I bought let me sell shares at 135 with an expiration date of April 1st. The underlying stock was trading at 340ish. That’s 200 points out of the money. My option should be worthless but the stock volatility is holding the value up. The option is actually telling me that there is a decent probability that it could be in the money at expiration.

I did short the shares as well. As a hedge to time value. But the 1000% margin requirement makes it hard to do size.

For someone not familiar with options the outlier is paying that much for the right to sell stock for the next 3 weeks at a price that's 65% below the current market price.
 

RUAldo

All-Conference
Sep 11, 2008
4,648
3,319
113
Maybe I was wrong about Tesla not being affordable. Jeep just rolled out a 6 figure SUV.
I hear you. It’s a beautiful SUV but I suspect the sales projections are quite conservative. I’m guessing it’s intended to grab attention and then ultimately drive sales to the standard Wagoneer at $55K+. There are Jeep loyalists that will choose it over an Escalade.
 

T2Kplus20

Heisman
May 1, 2007
31,174
19,194
113
And what did she sell to buy those shares? Or did she have that much in cash?
ARK seems to hold about 0.5% in cash, but this can vary quite a bit. ARKK has about $100m in cash. This ARKW fund only has $15-20m. Look like they sold some FB for that fund as well:

Latest Trades
FundDateDirectionTickerCUSIPCompany
Shares​
% of ETF
1ARKF03/10/2021BuyKSPILI48581R205KASPI.KZ JSC
7,043​
0.0129​
2ARKG03/10/2021BuyADPT00650F109ADAPTIVE BIOTECHNOLOGIES CORP
30,323​
0.0130​
3ARKG03/10/2021BuyRPTX760273102REPARE THERAPEUTICS INC
14,138​
0.0041​
4ARKG03/10/2021BuySEER81578P106SEER INC
573​
0.0003​
5ARKG03/10/2021BuyVRTX92532F100VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INC
112,100​
0.2563​
6ARKG03/10/2021SellPSTI72940R300PLURISTEM THERAPEUTICS INC
49,525​
0.0028​
7ARKG03/10/2021SellREGN75886F107REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS INC
21,639​
0.1089​
8ARKK03/10/2021BuyBLI084310101BERKELEY LIGHTS INC
145,219​
0.0341​
9ARKK03/10/2021SellICE45866F104INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE INC
11,354​
0.0058​
10ARKQ03/10/2021BuyAONEG7000X105ONE
79,272​
0.0278​
11ARKQ03/10/2021BuyESLTM3760D101ELBIT SYSTEMS LTD
135​
0.0006​
12ARKQ03/10/2021BuyEXPC30217C109EXPERIENCE INVESTMENT CORP
160,000​
0.0584​
13ARKQ03/10/2021BuyJD47215P106JD.COM INC
76,059​
0.2081​
14ARKQ03/10/2021SellCAT149123101CATERPILLAR INC
7,300​
0.0491​
15ARKQ03/10/2021SellDE244199105DEERE & CO
9,500​
0.1039​
16ARKW03/10/2021BuyRBLX771049103ROBLOX CORP
519,086​
0.4702​
17ARKW03/10/2021SellFB30303M102FACEBOOK INC
67,032​
0.2522​
 

patk89

All-Conference
Jul 25, 2001
6,304
2,428
78
ARK seems to hold about 0.5% in cash, but this can vary quite a bit. ARKK has about $100m in cash. This ARKW fund only has $15-20m. Look like they sold some FB for that fund as well:

Latest Trades
FundDateDirectionTickerCUSIPCompany
Shares​
% of ETF
1ARKF03/10/2021BuyKSPILI48581R205KASPI.KZ JSC
7,043​
0.0129​
2ARKG03/10/2021BuyADPT00650F109ADAPTIVE BIOTECHNOLOGIES CORP
30,323​
0.0130​
3ARKG03/10/2021BuyRPTX760273102REPARE THERAPEUTICS INC
14,138​
0.0041​
4ARKG03/10/2021BuySEER81578P106SEER INC
573​
0.0003​
5ARKG03/10/2021BuyVRTX92532F100VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INC
112,100​
0.2563​
6ARKG03/10/2021SellPSTI72940R300PLURISTEM THERAPEUTICS INC
49,525​
0.0028​
7ARKG03/10/2021SellREGN75886F107REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS INC
21,639​
0.1089​
8ARKK03/10/2021BuyBLI084310101BERKELEY LIGHTS INC
145,219​
0.0341​
9ARKK03/10/2021SellICE45866F104INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE INC
11,354​
0.0058​
10ARKQ03/10/2021BuyAONEG7000X105ONE
79,272​
0.0278​
11ARKQ03/10/2021BuyESLTM3760D101ELBIT SYSTEMS LTD
135​
0.0006​
12ARKQ03/10/2021BuyEXPC30217C109EXPERIENCE INVESTMENT CORP
160,000​
0.0584​
13ARKQ03/10/2021BuyJD47215P106JD.COM INC
76,059​
0.2081​
14ARKQ03/10/2021SellCAT149123101CATERPILLAR INC
7,300​
0.0491​
15ARKQ03/10/2021SellDE244199105DEERE & CO
9,500​
0.1039​
16ARKW03/10/2021BuyRBLX771049103ROBLOX CORP
519,086​
0.4702​
17ARKW03/10/2021SellFB30303M102FACEBOOK INC
67,032​
0.2522​

T2K, my 10 year old daughter told me to buy Roblox. CW beat us to it!
 
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