Oso planning to go pro
I’m taking a spin at the roulette wheel on NOK. Just placed an order for a few hundred shares.
So these guys made gazillions while the funds they managed, collectively, didn't come close to gaining what a simple investment in SPY would have ... and a few of their hedge funds lost investors major money.Good work if you can get it!
+++So these guys made gazillions while the funds they managed, collectively, didn't come close to gaining what a simple investment in SPY would have ... and a few of their hedge funds lost investors major money.Good work if you can get it!
Yeah, I must be ready for a sweater vest because I don't get this (from NYT Morning Brief):People are paying big money for gifs"Last month, someone bought an animated gif of a flying cat for more than $500,000. A short video by the artist Beeple went for almost $7 million. Anyone can still view or share the clips. So what’s the point of owning them?It may not make sense to everyone — and has elements of a financial bubble. It mostly comes down to very expensive bragging rights, as well as the potential of reselling it for more money.These rights are known as NFTs, short for “nonfungible tokens.” “It seems crazy to do that for something purely digital that can be easily copied and shared across the internet,” Erin Griffith, a Times tech reporter who has written about the trend, told us. “But the popularity of NFTs shows that people are willing to pay for special, scarce collector’s items.”The technology has made it easier for artists, musicians and sports franchises to make money from digital goods. The N.B.A. recently introduced a series of NFTs, Top Shot, that turn highlight clips into trading cards. In music, the latest album by Kings of Leon is an NFT."
How is this different from Honus Wagner baseball cards, game-used jerseys, vintage Air Jordans, Warhols, Rembrandts, or 1960s Muscle Cars? Do you find those purchases equally baffling?
You don't seem to understand scarcity in this instance.
Because a digital version of a flying cat gif can be copied with 100% accuracy an infinite amount of times. Despite you owning a token saying that own the original, every other infinite number of copies are identical.
Idk if I agree. There are a lot of hallmarks of the collectors items Heisy mentioned that can be faked, but would otherwise look just like the original. Collectors cars without the original parts, signed sports memorabilia that is forged or even less dramatically is just signed at a different time that makes one less valuable than the others, prints of art, etc. What makes those things valuable are that the authentic version is "the one" and the knowledge of that authenticity. Granted i just learned about NFTs today, so what the hell do I know, but it seems the blockchain code is meant to replicate that "the one-ness." I'm torn about whether NFTs are difference in type or difference in degree to what Heisy mentioned. Are they really altogether different things than tangible collectors' items, or just a different medium that is harder for us fogies to relate to? (Ed. note - I do hope it is the former because this does have a very Black Mirror feel about it that bums me out.)
But we aren't talking about forgeries. We are talking about copies. And the copy you bought can be copied without defect an infinite number of times and the 'owner' of that original gains nothing from each copy. They own no rights to the actual data. I'm going to catch heat for this, but it is a lot like buying stock in the Packers a few years ago. You have a fancy piece of paper that says you own something... but with the Packer's stock, you actually get to vote on some BS every year... but ultimately, you bought a vote.
I have a question that is not exactly "investing" but it is from the finance/banking world, so perhaps it could be described as "investing adjacent." People here have such varied experience, I figure someone might know and I couldn't think of any thread where it would be more appropriate.In a banking environment (GS specifically, if it matters), what is a "staffer"? What do they do? What, if anything, does it mean to someone's career trajectory? I understand that there aren't too many of them (and that it's unrelated to the usual Analyst, Associate, VP, etc., career progression), but I don't really understand what it is. I saw this definition but I was wondering if anyone knew anything more (or if they knew that this definition is garbage).
https://twitter.com/DjangoWexler/status/1369712177418956801?s=20Prediction: NFT frenzy burns itself out in a year tops. Actionable advice: Get in if you can and extract EXTREMELY SHORT TERM profits. Flip assets the same day you buy them, bleed suckers who are going to be stuck holding the tulip bulbs in 1638.
I think where the the analogy breaks down with collector cars and the like is that imagine there were an infinite amount of absolutely identical copies and you didn't have to pay a penny to own or use one. What value does the original have?Further, the owner of the NFT can't monetize their purchase through licensing, etc. Basically, they can only hope someone else is willing to pay more, the Greater Fool theory.I'm not seeing a big difference between buying a flying cat gif and buying a pet rock, other than about $499,997.
It depends on what you mean by NFT frenzy?If you mean digital art prices will peak, sure? But who cares, this is a side-show.But if you mean the concept of a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) will disappear altogether, I will definitely take the other side of this trade, and I am in a big way. NFTs are the big game-changer that will disrupt financial business like nothing before it.Mark Cuban is making a huge bet on them.https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/mark-cuban-the-business-id-start-now-would-center-around-blockchain.htmlDitto Alexis Ohanianhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/reddits-alexis-ohanian-nfts-trading-card-boom-will-be-big-for-womens-sports.htmlBottom line DeFi (decentralized finance) and NFTs are going to turn the current CeFi (centralized finance) on its head. They are ride-sharing and traditional banks are taxis.I'd be most worried if I work at a large bank, they will be about as lucrative as a taxi medallion in 5 to 10 years.
NFTs will change our understanding of the capital stack ... what is equity and what is a bond within the existing capital structure.Companies will be able to slice and dice their equity ownership and financing possibilities in ways they cannot even imagine now. Companies can sell ownership in specific products, business lines or even RD projects (each is its own NFT token). With the ability to program smart contracts within an NFT, they can program in royalties that revert back to the company.When it comes to financing, they can borrow against specific assets, goodwill, or even future revenues. Again, with smart contracts, covenants can be programmed in.This might explain why the coming coinbase IPO might be valued more than the ICE/NYSE. The NYSE is a dying technology.Bottom line, the concept of a stock market/bond market could go away ... it will be replaced with something far more robust with far better opportunities.