Financial topics

[aeden]

sweeps as noted in renews was sold
they drifted back later down
not interested
I did dca a very modest position into kyn

[jcsok]

Short crude Tuesday. Lightened up on NY Silver Thursday, looking for pullback of $1 into low $25, and sold another ES.

[Higgenbotham]

From the Harvard Business Review:

Consider a story I recently heard about the dean of a well-known law school: Two senior, well-regarded faculty members called the provost to complain about their dean because, they said, he wouldn’t do anything. The provost responded by saying that he had a dean who was a drunk, a dean who was accused of sexual harassment, and a dean who was accused of misusing funds, but the law school dean never caused him any problems. So, the provost said, the faculty members would just have to deal with their dean.

https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-most-common ... ent-leader

It's OK not to do our job in America. In fact, it's normal, or, as the title of the article says, "common".

Since the US has the world reserve currency, the Fed just counterfeits the money to cover for those who don't do their jobs and Trump proclaims the strongest economy in history.

We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.

Waddling up to the window for a bailout is the most in demand job skill in America.

[Higgenbotham]

Great Depression, circa 1932: Brother, can you spare a dime?


2020: Big Brother, can you spare another trillion?

Congress reaches deal on $900 billion Covid-19 relief package

The deal includes a new round of direct payments to struggling Americans, as well as more money for businesses.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... f-n1251779

[Higgenbotham]

The deal includes a new round of direct payments to struggling Americans, as well as more money for businesses.

If you are one of the businesses that got "more money", then you have mastered the most in demand job skill in America: Waddling up to the window for a bailout. Congratulations!

If not, then you are probably one of the "struggling Americans". Too bad for you, here's "less money" - $600.

[Higgenbotham]

Duck Duck Go search for "waddling up to the window for a bailout"
Lots of results quoted from this forum.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22waddling+u ... =hr&ia=web


Google search for "waddling up to the window for a bailout"
No results found.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=7NLgX- ... +a+bailout%


I've been censored by google!

Truth hurts The 97th Percentile!

[Higgenbotham]

Today I called to pay a medical bill. Since I am self-pay I have to call to get the discount.

$178 of the bill is eligible for a 25% discount.
$14.85 of the bill is not eligible for discount.
$50 was required to be paid up front, so was already paid.

I was on the phone continuously for 1.5 hours until I found someone who could do the math properly. The first 2 people I talked to were unable to do the math. I explained over and over in different ways but they were simply unable to do it. The third person did it in about 30 seconds. I asked her how I could get connected to her every time. She just laughed. Once she retires (probably soon), my bet would be that nobody (in this particular billing office) will be able to calculate these bills.

Today I called to pay another bill. I was told by the machine that there was a longer than usual hold time today. I held for about 10 minutes and got a rep. When I told her I was self-pay, she said she would transfer me to a self-pay specialist. Then I was on hold for about another 5 minutes. When the self-pay specialist came on the line, I was told that:

$253 of the bill was eligible for a 25% discount.
$50 was required to be paid up front.

After maybe 4 seconds, I said, OK, I get $139.75 for the amount due.

She said she would need to run it through the system to get the amount. There was a long pause, probably over 5 minutes. I heard a lot of clicking.

She got back on the line and said, you're right, it's $139.75.

Then I paid the bill by credit card.

Probably the whole thing took 20 minutes, somewhere in that vicinity.

Now remember what you are told and don't forget it. The American economy is extremely efficient. Computers and automation have boosted productivity through the roof.

[Higgenbotham]

Today I smashed the bots for $380 in 30 minutes. That's efficient, I guess. But I have to be super efficient in order to have time to pay my bills and do everything else that Gen X and The 97th Percentile make harder to do. Soon Biden and Harris will likely destroy my bot smashing capability. What will I do then?

[richard5za]

Today I called to pay a medical bill. Since I am self-pay I have to call to get the discount.

$178 of the bill is eligible for a 25% discount.
$14.85 of the bill is not eligible for discount.
$50 was required to be paid up front, so was already paid.

I was on the phone continuously for 1.5 hours until I found someone who could do the math properly. The first 2 people I talked to were unable to do the math. I explained over and over in different ways but they were simply unable to do it. The third person did it in about 30 seconds. I asked her how I could get connected to her every time. She just laughed. Once she retires (probably soon), my bet would be that nobody (in this particular billing office) will be able to calculate these bills.

Today I called to pay another bill. I was told by the machine that there was a longer than usual hold time today. I held for about 10 minutes and got a rep. When I told her I was self-pay, she said she would transfer me to a self-pay specialist. Then I was on hold for about another 5 minutes. When the self-pay specialist came on the line, I was told that:

$253 of the bill was eligible for a 25% discount.
$50 was required to be paid up front.

After maybe 4 seconds, I said, OK, I get $139.75 for the amount due.

She said she would need to run it through the system to get the amount. There was a long pause, probably over 5 minutes. I heard a lot of clicking.

She got back on the line and said, you're right, it's $139.75.

Then I paid the bill by credit card.

Probably the whole thing took 20 minutes, somewhere in that vicinity.

Now remember what you are told and don't forget it. The American economy is extremely efficient. Computers and automation have boosted productivity through the roof.

People can't do percentages and ratios. Simply don't understand unless a "parrot fashion"application without real understanding. I have no idea why this is so

[Higgenbotham]

Efficient Markets?


Today I ran into a situation I haven't encountered before.

I saw a stock had gapped down in the pre-market and read the news. The only news on the stock was that it was taken out of the small cap 600 and put into the mid cap 400.

In an efficient market, that news would not move the stock at all as nothing changed with the company. However, the stock dropped about 9% and I started to take a position based on that idea.

However, the stock eventually worked its way to down 13.5%, so I began to investigate further. Turns out that other stocks that left the small cap 600 and were put into the mid cap 400 have dropped about 10% on average.

So while I haven't read anything about this, it would be likely due to indexing and the fact that there is more money in small cap index funds than mid cap index funds, so when a stock is moved from small cap to mid cap large selling automatically kicks in with no buying demand to compensate.

Had I known about this inefficiency, I would have waited for the stock to be down more before attempting any buys. As of now I am down about 3K on this stock. The stock is still down over 12%. Probably over the next couple days I will be able to work my way out at a profit.