Is being in "finance" the new MMA?

[2Thick]

Yeah, all of this printing and pumping and holding rates down will have consequences eventually. I'm mostly bottom-up, and I do like liquidity, so I mostly stick to "paper" - stocks, commodities, some bonds at times, and a variable annuity I'm growing until 60 - all in taxable accounts... and more conservative IRAs with mostly mutual funds in them.

As far as hard assets, mainly a nice home I just had built and a little bit of land that Chevron has been drilling on for years - they pay me a lease fee and 20% of what they pull out of the ground - it's another very nice stream of income, but it will eventually dry up sooner or later.

I figure that IF things ever get as bad as some think they will, all the gold in California won't matter. I think guns, bullets, safe to eat food, clean water, and avoiding illness will be the keys to some surviving longer than others. I think an absolute crash of the dollar that would destroy the entire financial system would also paralyze everything else and lead to total lawless chaos and perhaps eventual human extinction. I certainly hope that never happens and doubt it will, and refuse to live my life in complete fear of such a disaster.

Well, I've already been pulling back on equities a bit because all time highs demanded it - but how long can money be printed, fake numbers, manipulation and corp stock buybacks prop up the market? Probably longer than we think...until some market distortion causes an unforseen event...increase in rates, etc. What is the chance of a 2008 drop happening again? Decent, but average people and boomers have WAY less in reserve than they did then.

Flipped some into land and hard assets...silver at 5 year lows right now for a little insurance, 10% cash on hand...pay attention to upcoming biflation and stagflation. You can't sell all stock because of taxes and nothing is making any return right now. Maybe market goes to the moon because the dollar and our markets are the best of the worst? Who knows.

I was in finance and housing at one point and they same cycles make the same money which is why you keep seeing the same things happen. Will work until it doesn't.

[2Thick]

It's easy to call people out for their bullshit in the "finance" industry since most people are talking out of their rears and seldom know what they are doing or pretending to be doing. The word "hedge" is as misused in finance as "(no homo)" is in the bb industry.

Would these definitions / uses meet your criteria of correct usage of the word? Please let us all know if not. I'm the first to admit I don't know everything, and am always ready to learn.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hedge.asp

Mallaby defined the "hedge fund" that was initially used many decades ago by a pretty smart guy as basically a long / short fund whose main purpose was to make money while reducing risk through the "hedging" strategy of always being both long AND short. This often resulted in underperforming the markets in "up" market years and outperforming the markets in down years, and over time outperforming the markets with less risk.

http://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Than-God-Relations/dp/0143119419

Legally speaking, a "hedge fund" is a type of private investment fund.

[pedro01]

I am in finance.

Sadly, not the side of finance that gets huge bonuses for doing fuck all.

I have a product, people buy it (and lease other parts), I get paid. It just happens to be a product in that sector.

It could be a potato peeler to be honest.

I am improving the product all the time with a small team and one day I hope to knock a few products higher up the food chain off their perches.

I did speak to an investment banker about financing the improvements but when he put 3 upturned cups on the table, told me my share was under one and started shuffling them about, I decided to walk and attempt to finance it myself.

Shady motherfuckers those guys...

"I'll give you $xxx for 51% of your company. I'll pay you $xxx of that up front. The remaining $xxx I will give you when I sell the company."

So I'm thinking about it for a while.....

"So where's my 49% gone, then?"

[FermiDirac]

Would these definitions / uses meet your criteria of correct usage of the word? Please let us all know if not. I'm the first to admit I don't know everything, and am always ready to learn.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hedge.asp

Mallaby defined the "hedge fund" that was initially used many decades ago by a pretty smart guy as basically a long / short fund whose main purpose was to make money while reducing risk through the "hedging" strategy of always being both long AND short. This often resulted in underperforming the markets in "up" market years and outperforming the markets in down years, and over time outperforming the markets with less risk.

http://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Than-God-Relations/dp/0143119419

Legally speaking, a "hedge fund" is a type of private investment fund.

That definition is correct. I even recall someone using that video as a part of a presentation when I attended a course in portfolio analysis.
investopedia of peace.

From my experience, many people I've encountered believes hedging strategies to be equal to a risk-free profit strategy, i.e. an arbitrage.
Although, I might add that these people are usually undergrads or people outside of the industry.

[denarii]

Yeah, all of this printing and pumping and holding rates down will have consequences eventually.

Pretty classic statement. 'Rates' refers to the rates curve. He didn't say interest rates. Is there any empirical evidence to show that fed QE has kept rates lower than they would have been? Every time the fed has tried to withdraw policy since 2008, rates have fallen as markets priced in a deflationary recession. Empirically you can state for a fact that fed QE has kept rates higher than they would have been without QE. However without QE the s&p would probably be trading at about 1000...

In before local hero tells me I don't know what I am talking about and that the fed has helped working people. Idiot.

[SOMEPARTS]

Yeah, all of this printing and pumping and holding rates down will have consequences eventually. I'm mostly bottom-up, and I do like liquidity, so I mostly stick to "paper" - stocks, commodities, some bonds at times, and a variable annuity I'm growing until 60 - all in taxable accounts... and more conservative IRAs with mostly mutual funds in them.

As far as hard assets, mainly a nice home I just had built and a little bit of land that Chevron has been drilling on for years - they pay me a lease fee and 20% of what they pull out of the ground - it's another very nice stream of income, but it will eventually dry up sooner or later.

I figure that IF things ever get as bad as some think they will, all the gold in California won't matter. I think guns, bullets, safe to eat food, clean water, and avoiding illness will be the keys to some surviving longer than others. I think an absolute crash of the dollar that would destroy the entire financial system would also paralyze everything else and lead to total lawless chaos and perhaps eventual human extinction. I certainly hope that never happens and doubt it will, and refuse to live my life in complete fear of such a disaster.

Sounds good. This idea that 401k etc is "pre-tax" is mis-leading and I'd rather just use the money after tax as I wish from here on out. It won't be tax deferred by the time most younger people try and cash out, nor will it have the free will involved it has now(ie more gov control). Things you can touch are good for savings and paper makes paper. Nobody wants the dollar to crash but just look at Bitcoin stabilizing and Paypal going up for sale this week...these are indicators of acceptance and that we are moving away from hard and paper money in dollars and into even more unbacked currencies. That's the only way they wash away the huge deficits and printing....a delete button on reset to digital. All of this really far from gold and silver as money which is why metals are in a down trend also I think. Still thinking 10% in metals is okay if you can afford the dead money.

[SOMEPARTS]

Pretty classic statement. 'Rates' refers to the rates curve. He didn't say interest rates. Is there any empirical evidence to show that fed QE has kept rates lower than they would have been? Every time the fed has tried to withdraw policy since 2008, rates have fallen as markets priced in a deflationary recession. Empirically you can state for a fact that fed QE has kept rates higher than they would have been without QE. However without QE the s&p would probably be trading at about 1000...

In before local hero tells me I don't know what I am talking about and that the fed has helped working people. Idiot.

We don't know what a non-QE post-2008 would look like and probably with good reason. We've been borrowing/living off of future prosperity since the 70s. Nobody wants the standard of living that real growth would provide. We're now to a point where we have run into no future growth to take from. What are rates supposed to be when money isn't moving and everybody is just holding on to what they have?

[2Thick]

Pretty classic statement. 'Rates' refers to the rates curve. He didn't say interest rates. Is there any empirical evidence to show that fed QE has kept rates lower than they would have been? Every time the fed has tried to withdraw policy since 2008, rates have fallen as markets priced in a deflationary recession. Empirically you can state for a fact that fed QE has kept rates higher than they would have been without QE. However without QE the s&p would probably be trading at about 1000...

In before local hero tells me I don't know what I am talking about and that the fed has helped working people. Idiot.

The Fed cut interest rates to the bone roughly a half dozen years ago, and they've stayed basically at zero since. They will raise rates eventually - there's constant talking always going on about "when" it will happen. They've also been pushing lots of $ into the markets with asset purchases that they've recently tapered. And printing money.

Depending upon who you ask, they've either done it just right or they're way behind the curve.

I've mentioned here previously that I bought Twitter in early June, just after the lockup expired and the stock had sold off heavily. Bought it just above 30. Too easy - I didn't bother worrying about interest rates or Fed actions or any other macro factors.

Also mentioned that I bought Tekmira under $14 a few weeks ago, it's near 30 now. I didn't think about the Fed then either.


Fundamentals.

[2Thick]

Sounds good. This idea that 401k etc is "pre-tax" is mis-leading and I'd rather just use the money after tax as I wish from here on out. It won't be tax deferred by the time most younger people try and cash out, nor will it have the free will involved it has now(ie more gov control). Things you can touch are good for savings and paper makes paper. Nobody wants the dollar to crash but just look at Bitcoin stabilizing and Paypal going up for sale this week...these are indicators of acceptance and that we are moving away from hard and paper money in dollars and into even more unbacked currencies. That's the only way they wash away the huge deficits and printing....a delete button on reset to digital. All of this really far from gold and silver as money which is why metals are in a down trend also I think. Still thinking 10% in metals is okay if you can afford the dead money.

I am self-employed for the last several years and have had a SEP set up for a while.

And I've worked for others in the past and always contributed religiously to traditional 401ks that were eventually rolled over from former employers to brokerage account IRAs from when I switched companies several times.

I haven't been Roth IRA eligible for many years, but I also jumped into a Roth 401k (after tax $) when they first came out when I was still a retail broker for a big firm.

I also put a lump sum into a variable annuity some years ago and add to it. I'm 45 now and hope to retire at 60 and start drawing my $ on these retirement instruments while I continue to invest pretty aggressively in my other taxable accounts.

[denarii]

We don't know what a non-QE post-2008 would look like and probably with good reason. We've been borrowing/living off of future prosperity since the 70s. Nobody wants the standard of living that real growth would provide. We're now to a point where we have run into no future growth to take from. What are rates supposed to be when money isn't moving and everybody is just holding on to what they have?

well as the fed has tried to withdraw policy this year the curve has bear steepened... so you answer that question.

[Hulkotron]

Most getbiggers prefer a bear market.

[2Thick]

That definition is correct. I even recall someone using that video as a part of a presentation when I attended a course in portfolio analysis.
investopedia of peace.

From my experience, many people I've encountered believes hedging strategies to be equal to a risk-free profit strategy, i.e. an arbitrage.
Although, I might add that these people are usually undergrads or people outside of the industry.

No such thing as NO risk.

[TEH boob]

All I do is help others develop budgets/forecasts and automate stuff.....I've never once taken the lead on a big "finance" deal LOL.

I'm the classic analyst that when speaking to folks that have no concept of finance or own a business but always talk a big game about business give me the same ole line in reference to my job......"yeah, I hire people to do that for me."   

Lol, assholes