Investing Thread

[Hards Alumni]

This downturn has much more to do with China considering banning Apple products for it's government officials than anything.

[SoCalEagle]

This just gives AAPL the opportunity to buy back their shares at a better price.  They are spending another $90 Billion on their share buyback program this year.  This should drive the number of outstanding shares to under 15 Billion.  Management will most likely continue to drive down the number of outstanding on AAPL's march to $250 - $300.  No predictions on when all this will happen.  For now I am just holding and letting APPL do its thing. 

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Powell seems really intent on crashing the economy

[TSmith34, Inc.]

No one saw this coming.

Remember when NFTs sold for millions of dollars? 95% of the digital collectibles may now be worthless.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-nfts-sold-millions-dollars-215646661.html

"A report by dappGambl based on data provided by NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap showed that out of 73,257 NFT collections the researchers looked at, 69,795 of them, or slightly over 95%, had a market cap of zero ether.

By their estimates, almost 23 million people hold these worthless assets.

Even filtering out the lower-value, less significant projects, most collections have little value today. Out of the top 8,850 collections by market cap, 18% are worthless, and 41% are priced at $5-$100."

[lawdog77]

No one saw this coming.

Remember when NFTs sold for millions of dollars? 95% of the digital collectibles may now be worthless.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-nfts-sold-millions-dollars-215646661.html

"A report by dappGambl based on data provided by NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap showed that out of 73,257 NFT collections the researchers looked at, 69,795 of them, or slightly over 95%, had a market cap of zero ether.

By their estimates, almost 23 million people hold these worthless assets.

Even filtering out the lower-value, less significant projects, most collections have little value today. Out of the top 8,850 collections by market cap, 18% are worthless, and 41% are priced at $5-$100."

need more of these

https://collecttrumpcards.com/

[jesmu84]

Powell seems really intent on crashing the economy

Gotta put those uppity workers back in their place

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tim-gurner-property-developer-australia-b2411998.html

[The Sultan]

Gotta put those uppity workers back in their place

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tim-gurner-property-developer-australia-b2411998.html

Someone doesn't understand demographics.

[JWags85]

No one saw this coming.

Remember when NFTs sold for millions of dollars? 95% of the digital collectibles may now be worthless.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-nfts-sold-millions-dollars-215646661.html

"A report by dappGambl based on data provided by NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap showed that out of 73,257 NFT collections the researchers looked at, 69,795 of them, or slightly over 95%, had a market cap of zero ether.

By their estimates, almost 23 million people hold these worthless assets.

Even filtering out the lower-value, less significant projects, most collections have little value today. Out of the top 8,850 collections by market cap, 18% are worthless, and 41% are priced at $5-$100."

My issue was NFTs was simple. The vast majority of Financial products can be explained, at their most fundamental, fairly simply.  The Big Short was great for that sort of distillation. 

But with NFTs, it was nearly impossible. And so you had myself, who was a Finance major in college with an MBA with nearly 2 decades of stock and option trading experience, struggling to understand what exactly they were and why they were needed/so valuable...yet is was being marketed as something any random person SHOULD TOTALLY INVEST IN. Such a scam at best, obvious money laundering at worst.

I get/understand crypto. But NFTs, Crypto Kitties, all the other crypto adjacent products just screamed red flag

[Skatastrophy]

Powell seems really intent on crashing the economy

By what measure is the economy close to crashing?

GDP continues at a 5% growth rate YoY
Unemployment still sub 4%, which is incredibly historically low
GDP to debt ratio down 10+% from the pandemic peak
Inflation, CPI and PCE, down to 3.8% YoY (off of it's 8+% peak from a few months ago)

[MU82]

Yep. The radicals running roughshod over McCarthy are the ones intent on crashing the economy.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

By what measure is the economy close to crashing?

GDP continues at a 5% growth rate YoY
Unemployment still sub 4%, which is incredibly historically low
GDP to debt ratio down 10+% from the pandemic peak
Inflation, CPI and PCE, down to 3.8% YoY (off of it's 8+% peak from a few months ago)

I'd agree with you that the economy is largely doing fine and inflation has obviously cooled...which is why I've been arguing for 6-9 months the Fed's work is done.

But, Powell indicated yesterday again that his focus is firmly fixed on bringing inflation to 2%, which he seems to view as some sort of holy grail, and let the chips fall where they may in regards to the effect further tightening will have on the economy.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Yep. The radicals running roughshod over McCarthy are the ones intent on crashing the economy.

Yeah, those morons, too.

I wonder why it is the repubs never try to shut down the government why the GQP occupies the Whitehouse?

[tower912]

The government shut down under Trump.  With a Republican house and senate.   35 days.

[Hards Alumni]

My issue was NFTs was simple. The vast majority of Financial products can be explained, at their most fundamental, fairly simply.  The Big Short was great for that sort of distillation. 

But with NFTs, it was nearly impossible. And so you had myself, who was a Finance major in college with an MBA with nearly 2 decades of stock and option trading experience, struggling to understand what exactly they were and why they were needed/so valuable...yet is was being marketed as something any random person SHOULD TOTALLY INVEST IN. Such a scam at best, obvious money laundering at worst.

I get/understand crypto. But NFTs, Crypto Kitties, all the other crypto adjacent products just screamed red flag

The main problem with NFTs is that they are/were marketed as collectable art or digital art.  A stupid idea to begin with.

There are use cases with NFTs, but they're not get rich schemes so they don't receive as much attention.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

The government shut down under Trump.  With a Republican house and senate.   35 days.

I must be getting old as I didn't even remember that. Of course that was Trump shutting down his own government, I mean WTF.

[SoCalEagle]

The art of compromise is dead.  Politics is all about two sides coming together for the good of the country, but in today's world the Ds and a small number of Rs keep extending a hand to compromise, while the MAGA Rs keep extending their middle finger.

I know, I know, stop with the politics in the investing thread.  That's probably the best thing to do, but when the stated goal of many Rs (including the de facto leader of the party and multiple members of the House) is to shut down the Government to defund the DOJ,  .... nevermind.

Do these people even care about investing, or the economy, or how their actions effect others?

Good luck with your investments.  You're gonna need it with these MAGA nuts running around in D.C. 

[ZiggysFryBoy]

The art of compromise is dead.  Politics is all about two sides coming together for the good of the country, but in today's world the Ds and a small number of Rs keep extending a hand to compromise, while the MAGA Rs keep extending their middle finger.

I know, I know, stop with the politics in the investing thread.  That's probably the best thing to do, but when the stated goal of many Rs (including the de facto leader of the party and multiple members of the House) is to shut down the Government to defund the DOJ,  .... nevermind.

Do these people even care about investing, or the economy, or how their actions effect others?

Good luck with your investments.  You're gonna need it with these MAGA nuts running around in D.C.

Waking and baking is fun.

[tower912]

The art of compromise is dead.  Politics is all about two sides coming together for the good of the country, but in today's world the Ds and a small number of RIs keep extending a hand to compromise, while the MAGA Rs keep extending their middle finger.

I know, I know, stop with the politics in the investing thread.  That's probably the best thing to do, but when the stated goal of many Rs (including the de facto leader of the party and multiple members of the House) is to shut down the Government to defund the DOJ,  .... nevermind.

Do these people even care about investing, or the economy, or how their actions effect others?

Good luck with your investments.  You're gonna need it with these MAGA nuts running around in D.C.

Truth teller.   We are all held hostage by the most extreme.

[lawdog77]

I must be getting old as I didn't even remember that. Of course that was Trump shutting down his own government, I mean WTF.

I was in Arizona for the Christmas Holiday in 2018 into early 2019. Government shutdown=free admission into Grand Canyon

[tower912]

No wonder the markets are unsettled.  Another huge jobs report.

[rocky_warrior]

Right!?  The interest rate spooks are real.  A couple years ago I never would have guessed that a well functioning economy = bad for the market. 

[MUBurrow]

Right!?  The interest rate spooks are real.  A couple years ago I never would have guessed that a well functioning economy = bad for the market.

Hard to believe we threw all that free money around for so long. At least we really seem to have learned our lesson.

[MU82]

Truly a weird day for Mr. Market.

The good economic news instigated a sell-off ... which was strongly reversed by day's end.

[MU82]

From the WSJ:

Why has consumer spending proved so resilient as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates? One important reason: Consumers are getting older. People in the 65-and-over age group make up a greater share of the population now than at any other time on record. They're less reliant on borrowing and less at risk of layoffs than other consumers, making them a spending force to be reckoned with. Younger Americans aren't so cushioned from high interest rates, and so could stand to benefit if inflation data due this week suggests the Fed has room to ease off in its fight against rising prices.

[MU82]

From the WSJ:

Economists are turning optimistic on the U.S. economy. They now think it will skirt a recession, the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates and inflation will continue to ease. In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, they lowered the probability of a recession within the next year, from 54% on average in July to a more optimistic 48%. That is the first time they have put the probability below 50% since the middle of last year. Investors will parse the latest retail sales data on Tuesday for fresh clues on the economy's trajectory.