Gregmal

Yeah...while Im happy the poor souls who have owned this forever are starting to see some money made, fact of the matter this is still just getting back to where it was in 2017 and 2018. As others have pointed out, the decision making here is poor. If your investment case is easy money coming into the EV sector, all around, I think you have better options than GM. Whats the upside? Maybe you hang around for another $10-20 a share? LOL Has anyone seen what kind of "easy money" is being made in other names? Why hang around for 20-30% in GM? Is GM a better company? IDK, GM is flirting with junk status, other companies have no debt or net cash. Network effect? Maybe, but GM is owned by the unions. Profitability? There's plenty of other profitable companies in the EV ecosystem. Mary Barra? Well, you guys can have her. One of the more valuable lessons Ive learned over the years is that if your investment thesis is "speculative", well then buy a company that will reward you for speculating. BYD has crushed it over the same period GM has floundered. Wont even mention Tesla. NIO and Li have done well. You've got a handful of the SPAC bunch ranging from total dogshit, to somewhat interesting. Unless of course you insist of earning your "value investor badge" here. Where 20% in GM >>>>> 50-100%+ in another ticker.....

LOL. This is so true and not limited to just friends and family. Its why I dont take new clients anymore and why existing and any potential future investment is solely under the condition that theres either a PPM with lockup and vehicle to operate from, or an existing long term relationship, IE 5+ years already in place. 90% of people do the opposite of what you should do during periods of great opportunity. And then once the opportunity has passed almost all of them want to know why they didnt partake in it.....Its so infuriating and early on I had this issue a lot which is why I more or less switched to full discretion and the understanding that you could be constructive in criticism but the second we stop having a productive relationship or the second I'm being second guessed...your shit gets sold and your money gets wired back. Just not worth it. I have an old friend/business partner who still actively runs a FS brokerage biz. Classic story from March-April goes something like "super HNW guy who has a self directed but advisor assisted account. He's been speculating like mad for years and is big on the options and margin. March declines and he starts getting skittish. Gets margin calls and refuses to add money because "we haven't hit the bottom yet"...gets stopped out and still won't make new investments because he's not comfortable doing so yet and wishes he had been advised to go short the whole market in February. In September he is furious because "we should have been buying in March and April, not selling", and "real soon" he's sending a ton of money for some options because "he needs to take control of the account now".... I have no doubts about how that relationship will end... When things are good its "me" and occasionally "we" and when things are bad its "you"...

Its amazing how these idiots had 4 years to do this and now its a last minute race against time that optically, looks bad....

AIV is Land & Buildings Investment Management's biggest holding at 12% of AUM which was 3% in Q2 when they started buying. This is also Long Pond Capital's biggest public position at 8.6%. Long Pond Capital sold ESRT in Q3 and still owns PGRE, BTW. Brilliant timing. The institutions continue to impress! And yea, good catch with the Litt position increase. Further pointing me towards the conclusion that the guy values publicity much more than anything else.

How do you manage to get your bed into the basement without coming in contact with another human being? Typically moving a mattress and frame from top floor of the house to the bottom would be a challenging task without taking a major risk of getting within a few yards of another human being. Especially hauling it down a flight of stairs or two. There s an epidemic of people falling down stairs recently. Be careful and stay safe!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CH1c_h8A7AI/?utm_source=ig_embed "covid stricken" Don Jr.....

I'd also add that the 6/7/63 licenses are only needed if you wish to buy/sell securities for a client and get paid a commission or sales fee. In order to do this you must also be sponsored by a BD. This is probably not necessary within the context of what the OP was asking. A 65/66 license is, if anything what you want into order to be able to charge a wrap fee or an annual advisory fee. Profit sharing, in any event, typically cant occur unless the assets of the client are at least $1M. Meaning they are likely accredited, in which case, just form a private partnership where you dont need any license as the relationship is exempt. But even in all those cases, if you are dealing with friends/family, you most likely dont need any of the above to begin with.

Finished Queens Gambit and it was excellent. Especially so if you have ever taken an interest in chess. Also recently watched The Company Men. Nothing great but good actors and a worthwhile watch if nothing else to remind oneself of where things were not too long ago and where they can someday be. Be grateful for what you have and dont squander it...side story in the movie was the number of people making good money who were living paycheck to paycheck.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-new-elegant-chemo-israeli-scientists-edit-genome-to-destroy-cancer-dna/ https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/47/eabc9450

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4390625-billionaire-investor-says-buy-reits Good collection of thoughts from Flatt on various RE. Obviously, I tend to agree with him.

Bought some LSAQ and sold a few puts on PSTH

Anyone still following this? Interesting developments here of late.

There's no replicating Elon, but this guy is pretty colorful. https://twitter.com/henrikfisker/with_replies

Ideology is what you allow it to be, and in many ways its what you want it to be. For all the negative connotations, theres people in cults like Alcoholics Anonymous adhering to rhetoric that has legitimately saved their lives. Same is true for religion. Of course there are darker sides and uses, but thats true for everything.

Agree with all that as well StubbleJumper. The understanding of the investment philosophy is easiest conveyed through the dreaded PPM or form ADV. Many times people skip these with "related parties" or when dealing with friends and family....they come to you because you are viewed as the guru and they are not; which lends itself to having a very limited understanding of the gig...and also leaves you dealing with what is likely an average person with an average understanding of the market...which by default is often something involving "get rich quick" and "gambling". I dont know too many normal folks who are ecstatic about the prospects of a steady 10-12% compounded annual return....I was talking a couple months ago with my brother in law and he brought up investments. He asked what I like right now, and of course the majority of the stuff I mentioned is boring, hard asset with next to no debt names that I told him I think should be able to do 15-20% annually for a while. He goes "what about Carvana? I bought some in an Acorns account and its up 80% in a few months"...exactly on point with your statement about relative performance and expectation. Its just too messy over the long haul and unless you're desperate for a favor in the form of money and/or a job....youre better off taking your skills somewhere you can monetize them and cultivate business relationships without all the potential hazards.

Any upside you can make off your family and friends you can make off of building a real customer base. I get what you are saying, but its basically just a roundabout form of a handout. And yes, I know plenty of silver spooners who breezed through life, went to name brand schools, and then were "given" assets by family to earn a living off of without ever holding down a real job or gaining experience in the field. Wouldn't one rather build something real on their own? Without the risks of....best case scenario, freeloading off family, or at worst...blowing them up and being the moron at the dinner table every family gathering? Theres nothing "wrong" with doing it, but its not a very asymmetric bet. If its not a form a freeloading, then do it for free...And if you're doing it for free, whats the upside?

You can do off the books stuff, no issue just get creative. If you want something more official, IBKR has friends and family accounts where you can manage up to 15 accounts iirc, without any sort of license. Otherwise, you need either a 7/63 or a 65 and then a sponsor firm in order to conduct business. I'd agree with the above though...business and friendship dont mix. I do some lightly, but I dont charge family members anything and close friends I just kind of tell them what to do and how to do it themselves. That way between them listening to me, and then executing whatever it is they seek to do, they have a little bit of time to think it over.

Yea Ive done a few and know people who run these type of shops. Its basically the same thing wherever and theres a lot of places that do it with some, like Sharepost, InvestX, EquityZen the most recognizable and then a lot of smaller ones which hire teams of aggressive sales people who basically seek out folks at the target companies. This is something you can do yourself however where it gets really expensive is with all the legal stuff as most private share offerings have ROFR at the company level and paying a securities lawyer to draw up an agreement for you and the counter party just isn't worth it unless you're probably dropping a quarter mil or more. So thats where these companies come in. They basically take care of all the legal work and then you buy shares in a fund who's sole holding is typically your target company to get around all the issues involving registering shareholders and documenting multiple changes upon transfer. When there is a liquidity event, you can either request a cash out or have the shares transferred to an existing brokerage account. Its all pretty simple. The minimums at most is $20k or so. The sales charges vary a bit depending upon what you are looking for and how aggressively you want it. For instance Synthego I really wanted a few years back and paid almost 15% for commission for. Whereas Palantir these places where begging people to take, and was only 5%. Ive only got a handful because one, they are definitely illiquid. Expect like a 40-50% haircut if you need to cash out before a takeout or an IPO. And two. most of them are junk. I really just try to find unicorns or companies in areas I really wish to invest(like biotech) and then sit on my hands and wait or put out an indication of interest and see what/if anything comes back. Sometimes you'll get insane offers like for Ripple theres been shares offered anywhere between a $2B valuation and a $15B valuation. Definitely very buyer beware. I think if you can float a few low 5 figure investment and choose wisely, you'll be fine and its a neat little way to speculate on otherwise good companies. Would you have taken SNOW at the initial IPO offer? Or AirBNB at $30B? How about SpaceX? You're giving yourself a pretty damn good head start if you can get in on these. Even PLTR which I wasnt thrilled with up until a few weeks ago, $7.90 a share...RobinHood has been readily available the past few weeks, which is interesting given the IPO speculation. I wouldn't go fucking with small no name software or green new deal type stuff though. You dont get access to the numbers but there's other places like Pitchbook that have them and if you know a few folks in the biz theres other avenues to pursue as well. Frankly, I think some of its as easy as just finding a well established company, tracking its past funding rounds, and then getting a good idea of who its investors have been. If I see Founders Fund for disruptive tech or Alexandria for bio, I like my chances.

I am also impressed with these fellows. Recently, I took a chunk of original investment off the table. The rest, which is ~5% position will ride for a while. Lot of runway and its crazy to think they are more or less hitting guidance issued pre pandemic even with big time shutdowns and further, should absolutely crush things next year as well. I dont think a $60-$75 price target is unreasonable.

I love it when i encounter this type of thinking when it comes to investing. It is like taking candy from a baby. Not so great when in the middle of a pandemic and the health consequences can be extreme. Effectively managing the virus is just a tad more complex than you are suggesting (my uneducated opinion). As i have been saying since March, the virus is in control (until a vaccine is available). Do stupid things and the virus will love it. Develop a fatalistic mind set and the virus wins. It is pretty straight forward. It is not black and white. Not go out or stay home. Not open up or lock down. Not left or right. Not Democrat or Republican. But just like thumb sucking when young i guess this is the easiest most comforting way for most people to think about the virus. Just like trying to play checkers when you are in the middle of a game of chess. Well in regards to both investing during this manufactured "crisis", and handling the virus, I am pretty certain I'm doing quite well in both categories....much better than most I would imagine. It isn't totally black and white, but in many aspects it is. If you run around chicken shit scared or impair your life, well, that sucks. If you choose not to, well, thats your choice. And then even in the worst case, despite the liberal loveliest for headlines like "he dismissed the virus and then he got it!"...most people, even who fall into the later category, end up just fine. Bottom line is if you're so damn scared of this thing, your only surefire way to avoid it is to sit in your house and avoid any contact with people. If you do that, you'll never get it. For the rest of us, its pretty reasonable to just go about living our lives to the extent that the corrupt and power-hungry politicians dont interfere. Not much more to it.

The only way not to catch covid with a near certain success rate is to avoid being around people. If you are going to be around people, wearing a mask helps to a certain degree, but your risks increase greatly. Why is this such a hot button topic for people? Seems really freakin simple. The more people you are around, the greater your chance of catching a cold, whether you have a mask or not...

Assclown in NY giving people one more chance to exit the WFH trade...

Result out https://ir.ayrstrategies.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/49/ayr-strategies-reports-third-quarter-2020-results-updates

Wait for the Tilray like rumor/announcement...."the insiders arent selling!" hoping to jack up the share price...so that they can sell.

How much NYC office do you still own? This is what makes a market. low teens % of portfolio and dropping. What was it at peak and how do you typically size? Pupil and Gregmal trimming their office REITs... Uh oh... Run, don't walk! To be fair, I have, over the past few months come across one of the most exciting invest opportunities Ive seen in a long time, and its not in the real estate space. Given my massive real estate exposure, my incentive to reallocate to a new and somewhat diversifying core position is large.