Jurgis

Not a company I'm interested in, but very nice writeup writser. 8)

You are very likely right about EU ports (especially in NATO countries). Outside EU is another question. NPR article claims: I did not search further what exactly "naval deployments" mean.

OT? Something useful out of this discussion. 8) ./bow Let me see if I understood this correctly in a broader context. Let's take a company that produces FCF. But it does not pay it out some way. Instead it keeps it and does not invest it (at high/reasonable ROI). Then really we cannot just DCF that FCF at the time it was produced since we are not really getting it. We'd have to assume it's only paid out later (if ever) and add additional time periods (and discounts) to DCF model to estimate when it is paid out. Of course, we could still assume that if we owned the whole business then we'd be able to use the FCF as we wish. And we can do the basic DCF based on that "wholly owned" assumption. It's just that in reality the business won't be worth as much as our basic DCF indicates. Pretty interesting, n'est-ce pas? 8) I agree that Thrifty3000 is confused, but I'm not sure how to explain to them why their calculations are incorrect.

I'd be surprised if Liberty has it just because it's a chart from a third-party. That said, it's pretty easy to visualize because the EU has about the population of the USA, plus a third. So, keep the same line from the EU, and move the USA line up a third. That said, I agree with your underlying point--the chart is a bit deceptive because, compared to the EU, USA has actually done even worse than you'd think just by looking at the chart. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-deaths-covid-19?time=2020-03-02..&country=USA~European%20Union You can edit the chart to select the start-end dates, etc. It's not a seven day rolling average though AFAIK.

Sad to hear. Good luck to David in his fight with cancer.

Yeah, it doesn’t pass the smell test to begin with. This is also very embarrassing: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-finance-minister-on-wirecard-oversight-the-supervisory-institutions-did-their-job-2020-06-22?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo BaFin has a history of going after short sellers harder than going after fraudsters. Yeah, that's really sad and screwed up about BaFin.

Get this man an agent, make him write a book, and ... , profit!

I think that (large scale) war between India and China is not going to happen. But I also think that nuclear deterrence between India and China is much less guaranteed than it was between West and Soviet block. IMO both India and China could think that the war would not go nuclear because it would be regional and not "large scale".

Yup, I know it is absolutely crazy but something like 44% of republicans have been found to believe Bill Gates is planning to implant microchips in everyone via vaccines. Don't know whether to laugh or cry at that one. See https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648 and https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-vaccine-conspiracy-theories-are-stupid-2020-6 for some of the craziness. The bricks come in within all these theories because Bill Gates apparently hates and is scared of Trump (who might expose and counter him as the story goes) and wants to damage him by making the protests violent. That is about as far as I can figure out since they don't make much sense overall (some claim that Bill Gates wants to kill 15% of all people via vaccinations but some don't so there is quite a bit of variation to this nonsense). This sh!t is so f&cked up that... I don't have anything to add for now

Sucker Punch ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ). My rating: 9 out of 10. #YouGuysStillDon'tUnderstandMovies ::)

I think by definition very few of the impoverished manage to break through to get into engineering programs, etc. For example, even in Soviet Union if you lived in a village, the school was pretty crappy. So if you were a genius, you probably could have broken out to get into university, etc. But if you were just above average (let's say good enough to work at Microsoft with right education), then you had slim chances because the school was not good enough to prepare you for university entry exams/etc. On the other hand, if you lived in a large city, the schools were better and you had way more opportunity to be prepared to get into university. I think similar or worse situation is common in developing countries. Very few if any of children in a poor village or city slum would have opportunities to make it into universities or similar engineering programs. Maybe you can take population of school age children under poverty line and/or living in villages, multiply it by some factor to adjust for overcounting, then multiply by let's say 10% to get the "really good" ones. And that would be a potential of impoverished/underutilized talent.

LOL, mine was “Stuck Everlasting“ It predates yours, but I still recall the feeble plot line as if I have watched it yesterday, You guys just don't understand movies. ::) #SleeplessInSeattle-BestMovieEver

On the positive side, TurboTax online tax filing and not-qualified dividend reporting was fine with IBKR this year. So sometimes they learn/fix issues... I still mostly hate them from past experiences... 8)

These are very good questions. I might disagree with second part of "do they receive that message, but nevertheless reject it, which suggests that more education would not help". Although, yeah, probably OT here. As having a bit of a finger on the pulse of some of these investors (roughly my demographic), I'll say that a lot of people making these stupid trades are college educated. A lot of times it isn't educational, as much as it is boredom and a propensity to gamble. Some people may legitimately not realize that stock in a bankrupt company is worthless, but many others do and just see the volatility and get rich quick schemes. See wallstreetbets for example. Yes, I agree with this evaluation - greed / gambling is often the driving force. I'd naively think that even for greed/gambling appropriate education might help. But perhaps not. ::)

These are very good questions. I might disagree with second part of "do they receive that message, but nevertheless reject it, which suggests that more education would not help". Although, yeah, probably OT here.

OT? I am afraid that our expectations in both of these cases are too high. In fact, I am afraid that our expectations of human behavior in general are too high. Whether applied to young people in their 20s, or people in general, or "highly rational" investment professionals frequenting certain investment forums, or even people at the highest levels of business or politics. Yeah, that makes me a misanthrope. :-\ Also see my signature.

You're right I'm biased. I dislike all men in green tights with green hats and bows and arrows. I'm not fond of pied pipers either. Should we take this outside to the Politics section and fight about it? ??? The truth is I'm also not fond of some of Robinhood's competitors and the recent free trading trend in general. I don't think it's free it's just that the frictions are non-obvious and the customers are unsophisticated. If you're not concerned and don't see material differences, maybe you just haven't really looked yet. Yes, I disagree with you. I think that cheap (no) commissions is great by providing access to investing to people who had less access before. Yes, I know people in Lithuania who want to invest $100 and have to pay $10 commissions to do it. That's 10% gone in one side of a trade. If you don't think that's a ripoff and creating a divide between rich and poor, that's your choice. And I think you are biased, since you are financial professional and this is threatening your and your brethren livelihood. So you'd rather see Robinhood fail. Edit: BTW, I would disallow trading options @ Robinhood. Or make them restricted to whatever large accounts. And I would probably ban forex trading for most individual accounts. Forex is a way bigger scam than Robinhood ever was and it's available and been around forever. In Lithuania too.

This isn't all that personal responsibility bah blah, blah. Brokerages have a KYC duty. There is no new ground. Brokerages are not allowed to allow people to speculate on things they may not be knowledgeable about. Again, this has been around for a long time. To put it another way, I have client money. If I made some investments that the client can't understand the risk because of their knowledge and I loose money I have to personally eat the loss for the client. This is even if I explain the trade and the risks ahead of time. That's just what the rules are. A 20 year old kid in most cases is not knowledgeable enough to understand the risk in option strategies. The new era seems to be hey, ignore the rules if you think you can make some money, don't worry about it. This is particular in this case because companies like Robinhood seem not only to ignore whether a client is knowledgeable or not to take a certain kind of risk, but they seem to be actively encouraging risk taking in that group. That's why my view that this rises to criminal negligence. A (highly?) imperfect analogy would be tobacco companies marketing cigarettes to minors. I made a flippant joking post earlier about "moving fast and breaking things", but this is a real tragedy and I am starting to think that whenever Silicon Valley wants to disrupt something really important like our health or our wealth we should be VERY worried about our safety or the safety of those around us. I have been making fun of Robinhood for months and saying that this will all end in tears, but I have to say that I am surprised by the speed and severity with which we have our first nationally publicized tragedy. The best imaginable outcome is if this somehow helps to prevent even more trouble down the line, but I doubt those who should be most concerned will even notice this new story, hopefully others will be able to make a difference. I think this goes beyond simple KYC, which I think is shocking in this case. I think you could also argue that there is a basic consumer product safety argument that a lawyer might be able to make. Seeing how egregious this example is makes me think that there is more to be concerned with regarding Robinhood than even its most vehement detractors might have imagined. In a worst case scenario, we may be making comparisons with the irresponsible behavior at Theranos once more becomes known about what has actually been going on with Robinhood that we are unaware of. Why is it beyond KYC? And why you think KYC would have prevented this? Yes, brokerages ask you to tell them how much experience you have trading options when opening account/allowing to trade options. You can simply lie. I know people who have lied... So, presumably what all brokerages do is not enough to prevent what happened. What would you expect Robinhood to do that goes beyond what other brokerages do? And why would you single out Robinhood for this? I'm not RFT, but our views are aligned on this. First of all it's KYC (know your client) not AYC (ask your client). You ass isn't covered just because you asked and the client lied. Robinhood has a social media component to it from which it's clear that the clients lied on their KYC. It's on THEIR platform. Furthermore, at least in this particular case the story states that the margin option was turned off. How the hell do you short options without margin? Yeah, there might be some issues with Robinhood. But also see my edit for my previous post.

There should be executive order for all rich people to book a dinner, stay, golf package at Mar-a-Lago or do time. We should not have unpatriotic behavior of hiding in their mansions. Jawohl! I don’t know the current status but there was some chatter recently about making leisure travel expenses tax deductible for the year or something like that. Not kidding. :o For people who are not scared to travel/etc., there might be some good travel opportunities around. ./shrug Airfares and air travel though might not be very attractive, since airlines cut a lot of flights. Chicago-Tampa flights are fully booked - albeit with social distancing seating. Yeah, I was just listening someone in our social group saying they flew to/from Florida for $700 on JetBlue - when normally tickets are $130. (Not sure exactly where/to and timing of the flight). ::) Maybe we should invest into airlines. ::)

This isn't all that personal responsibility bah blah, blah. Brokerages have a KYC duty. There is no new ground. Brokerages are not allowed to allow people to speculate on things they may not be knowledgeable about. Again, this has been around for a long time. To put it another way, I have client money. If I made some investments that the client can't understand the risk because of their knowledge and I loose money I have to personally eat the loss for the client. This is even if I explain the trade and the risks ahead of time. That's just what the rules are. A 20 year old kid in most cases is not knowledgeable enough to understand the risk in option strategies. The new era seems to be hey, ignore the rules if you think you can make some money, don't worry about it. This is particular in this case because companies like Robinhood seem not only to ignore whether a client is knowledgeable or not to take a certain kind of risk, but they seem to be actively encouraging risk taking in that group. That's why my view that this rises to criminal negligence. A (highly?) imperfect analogy would be tobacco companies marketing cigarettes to minors. I made a flippant joking post earlier about "moving fast and breaking things", but this is a real tragedy and I am starting to think that whenever Silicon Valley wants to disrupt something really important like our health or our wealth we should be VERY worried about our safety or the safety of those around us. I have been making fun of Robinhood for months and saying that this will all end in tears, but I have to say that I am surprised by the speed and severity with which we have our first nationally publicized tragedy. The best imaginable outcome is if this somehow helps to prevent even more trouble down the line, but I doubt those who should be most concerned will even notice this new story, hopefully others will be able to make a difference. I think this goes beyond simple KYC, which I think is shocking in this case. I think you could also argue that there is a basic consumer product safety argument that a lawyer might be able to make. Seeing how egregious this example is makes me think that there is more to be concerned with regarding Robinhood than even its most vehement detractors might have imagined. In a worst case scenario, we may be making comparisons with the irresponsible behavior at Theranos once more becomes known about what has actually been going on with Robinhood that we are unaware of. Why is it beyond KYC? And why you think KYC would have prevented this? Yes, brokerages ask you to tell them how much experience you have trading options when opening account/allowing to trade options. You can simply lie. I know people who have lied... So, presumably what all brokerages do is not enough to prevent what happened. What would you expect Robinhood to do that goes beyond what other brokerages do? And why would you single out Robinhood for this? Edit: when I started investing in 1990s, I was broke immigrant graduate student. I opened account at full service broker (Dean Witter) and they allowed me to trade options and buy crappy no-info BB stocks... I don't remember if they asked any questions... But I know some of my positions went to zero. Well maybe times have changed, but IMO singling out Robinhood smacks of bias.

Yeah, I haven't been looking at prices, but some anecdotal data seem to suggest that pricing is not great.

You can always get a private charter. #netjets-ftw

There should be executive order for all rich people to book a dinner, stay, golf package at Mar-a-Lago or do time. We should not have unpatriotic behavior of hiding in their mansions. Jawohl! I don’t know the current status but there was some chatter recently about making leisure travel expenses tax deductible for the year or something like that. Not kidding. :o For people who are not scared to travel/etc., there might be some good travel opportunities around. ./shrug Airfares and air travel though might not be very attractive, since airlines cut a lot of flights.

There should be executive order for all rich people to book a dinner, stay, golf package at Mar-a-Lago or do time. We should not have unpatriotic behavior of hiding in their mansions. Jawohl!

Is it a criminal negligence to send the 1.1mln Covid bill to the person even if he will not need to pay it ( https://time.com/5853392/million-dollars-covid-19-treatment-seattle/ )? Or is it criminal negligence only if he kills himself after seeing the bill (that he may not need to pay)? Edit: is it criminal negligence for Fidelity to display that my accounts have $0 dollars in them (and all my lifetime savings have vanished) or is it criminal negligence only if I kill myself after seeing this? (Yes, this happened.)