Surprise...the game is rigged

[magiccannabus]

While I am a huge fan of self-restraint, I do think a lot of people waste time worrying about all the wrong things. They teach us all this community, sharing, and open nature as a kid, but then as an adult, it's like everyone just winks and says "we didn't really mean all that stuff!".

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Yeah how many people jumped ship from MySpace to Facebook. Facebook is just one program away from becoming obsolete.

We might see facebook for longer then we may expect. While I normally would agree with you facebook has been heavily invested in by the government... I don't think they'll let it "go away" so easily.

Thats said.. I think its foolish for anyone to invest into facebook unless they are looking to take very short term profits..

Account execs are already unloading their positions. They (due to their employment) have a lot more shares then anyone else. They've got the ability to drop the price and rest assured profits are going to be taken as soon as the average Joes load up.

IPOs are a pump and dump.. you can ride the coat tails of the elite for short term profits, but rest assured the markets are designed to take your money!


Invest in yourself.. invest in small business.
Saving (protecting your wealth) in hard assets like precious metals...

I think its unnecessarily risky for anyone to be speculating in the market in these times.. You'd be much better off buying some earth moving equipment and creating some real jobs...

 

[Stoner4Life]

Surprise...the game is rigged

buy all the Farcebook ya want today, it lost 11% closing @ $34.03, now's your chance to get in cheaper than the big boys did.......

I think I'll invest in my property instead.


EDIT:
and btw, every share you buy now @ $34.03 takes
11% out of some rich pricks pocket for a change.

 

[HempKat]

While I am a huge fan of self-restraint, I do think a lot of people waste time worrying about all the wrong things. They teach us all this community, sharing, and open nature as a kid, but then as an adult, it's like everyone just winks and says "we didn't really mean all that stuff!".

Well okay sometimes self restraint is a good thing but I didn't mean it that way. I was thinking more along the lines of how we let the government make laws to protect ourselves from our self rather then people practicing the self restraint you're talking about. Like texting and driving for example. Any idiot should be able to figure out that it's not a smart thing to focus on a small electronic device in our hand rather then focus on the road while we drive. Because some don't practice self restraint we've now allowed laws to be passed that prevent what most people have been doing safely for a decade or more, (using a cellphone while driving).

 

[Yes4Prop215]

buy all the Farcebook ya want today, it lost 11% closing @ $34.03, now's your chance to get in cheaper than the big boys did.......

I think I'll invest in my property instead.


EDIT:
and btw, every share you buy now @ $34.03 takes
11% out of some rich pricks pocket for a change.

really? i heard somewhere that zucky and all the big dogs got a special pricing on FB stock that is way lower...something like 6 dollars a share. cant verify this it was only heard during discussion...so even if it falls to 15 bucks they are still doing good...


my pops keeps telling me to invest in stocks...he showed me his portfolio and how hes made a decent amount of money. but it all seems like such a risky bullshit scam..if the markets collapse again even solid corps like mcdonalds and johnsonjohnson are gonna lose value, kiss your money good bye...

id rather invest in more lights, more plants, guns, ammo, and tools to build up my SHTF capabilities...

 

[trem0lo]

my pops keeps telling me to invest in stocks...he showed me his portfolio and how hes made a decent amount of money. but it all seems like such a risky bullshit scam..if the markets collapse again even solid corps like mcdonalds and johnsonjohnson are gonna lose value, kiss your money good bye...

id rather invest in more lights, more plants, guns, ammo, and tools to build up my SHTF capabilities...

Invest in both. The elite will keep the game going until the dollar is kaput, so stocks will go up and up and up...

 

[HempKat]

really? i heard somewhere that zucky and all the big dogs got a special pricing on FB stock that is way lower...something like 6 dollars a share. cant verify this it was only heard during discussion...so even if it falls to 15 bucks they are still doing good...


my pops keeps telling me to invest in stocks...he showed me his portfolio and how hes made a decent amount of money. but it all seems like such a risky bullshit scam..if the markets collapse again even solid corps like mcdonalds and johnsonjohnson are gonna lose value, kiss your money good bye...

id rather invest in more lights, more plants, guns, ammo, and tools to build up my SHTF capabilities...

I think your investment sounds smarter frankly. The rich will keep influencing the game the way they have and we'll keep seeing crashes and bubble burstings and more paper money will be printed until the dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on. At that point a well diversified portfolio will do you little good. When the SHTF all those stocks will be good for is starting fires. What's the point of having lots of dollars if you need a wheel barrow full just to buy a loaf of bread? If you are going to invest precious metals would be better as that'll be the most likely foundation for whatever replaces the dollar. Although not much better because it'll be a while between the collapse of the dollar and a new currency is developed and during the time in between gold will not be very helpful. Unfortunately though if you're not already well invested into such things it's too late.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Telling you guys. Invest in ABCD (Anything Bernanke Cannot Destroy). Dollars, stocks, bonds, and all other paper bullshit will eventually be worthless because of the global monetary debasement race to the bottom.

The developed world is broke and printing money to monetize it's debts. It's inevitable that the currency used to monetize broke sovereign debt becomes worthless.

Land, metals (gold, silver, bullets), seeds, oil and nat gas leases, some physical fiat currency. Anything physical. Farmers will be the rich class in the future. Wall Street is a dying corpse and good riddance.

Obviously the super elite will become even richer if/when all this goes down because they have the means and knowledge. It's the petite bourgeois and proletariat holding worthless paper products who will get wiped.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

really? i heard somewhere that zucky and all the big dogs got a special pricing on FB stock that is way lower...something like 6 dollars a share. cant verify this it was only heard during discussion...so even if it falls to 15 bucks they are still doing good...

They probably already cashed out. Goldman Sachs set up Facebook's D-round, the IPO predecessor in December 2011. The D-round was largely limited to the European market and raised Facebook's value from $50 billion to $98 billion.

This created a gray market where folks in the know bought and sold Facebook at the right time. They're cashed out so to them, IPO performance means diddly.

my pops keeps telling me to invest in stocks...he showed me his portfolio and how hes made a decent amount of money. but it all seems like such a risky bullshit scam..if the markets collapse again even solid corps like mcdonalds and johnsonjohnson are gonna lose value, kiss your money good bye...

id rather invest in more lights, more plants, guns, ammo, and tools to build up my SHTF capabilities...

There are varying degrees of risk. It would help if you already know what you need and how long you're willing to wait to get it. If you're young and planning for a retirement fund, you can assume far less risk than someone closer to retirement.

If you're interested, check out Dan Solin's "The Smartest Retirement Book You'll ever Read". Solin sold managed, low-risk index funds for 3 decades. After retirement he checked out the performance of non-managed, low-cost index funds and found they out performed their managed counterparts.

I just look for the fine print that spells out how much these guys get and how often. It's typically no more than a fraction of one percent. There's no fine print with non-managed funds.

 

[OrganicBuds]

really? i heard somewhere that zucky and all the big dogs got a special pricing on FB stock that is way lower...something like 6 dollars a share. cant verify this it was only heard during discussion...so even if it falls to 15 bucks they are still doing good...


my pops keeps telling me to invest in stocks...he showed me his portfolio and how hes made a decent amount of money. but it all seems like such a risky bullshit scam..if the markets collapse again even solid corps like mcdonalds and johnsonjohnson are gonna lose value, kiss your money good bye...

id rather invest in more lights, more plants, guns, ammo, and tools to build up my SHTF capabilities...

Don't forget gold, you seem like a fellow prepper. I got months of food for several people, guns, ammo, gold, silver, stock pilled cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis. Economic collapse is coming, and your dads portfolio will be worth a lot less when that happens. Good luck to you and your family.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Try comparing apples to apples vs apples to predictions.

Might not be a bad idea to check out the historic cons to gold, they're significant enough that no country utilizes a gold standard.

Oh yeah, some countries invest in bullion. Oh yeah, that's not a gold standard.

The folks busy selling gold are selling it for dollars. That should make the bell go ringy dingy.

 

[SpasticGramps]

If you're young and planning for a retirement fund, you can assume far less risk than someone closer to retirement.

You meant assume more risk right?

Solin sold managed, low-risk index funds for 3 decades. After retirement he checked out the performance of non-managed, low-cost index funds and found they out performed their managed counterparts.

Just about every market professional out there, even the propagandist on CNBC, admit that "buy and hold" is dead. As per the last 10 years.

That line of thinking may have worked for the last three decades, but I highly doubt the next three decades will resemble the last.

 

[HempKat]

Well personally I think if you're prepping for a major societal collapse stock piling gold and silver now is foolish. It's not practical, takes up lots of space (if you have enough to do you any real good) and combined with the weight that makes you less mobile which can be bad in a survival scenario. Plus at today's price buying gold means that you're really benefiting someone else more then yourself. Better to take that money and invest it in things people will be desperate for after the collapse because they were too busy stockpiling gold. That's when you start buying the gold, when you have something the gold owners don't.

 

[whodare]

Might not be a bad idea to check out the historic cons to gold, they're significant enough that no country utilizes a gold standard.

thats because the people in power like blank checks and printing presses.

there is a historical importance to holding government to a gold standard, it limits the governments ability to expand beyond its means.

that concept is consistently lost on you when the gold standard comes up.

furthermore the problem of no gold standard is compounded when the government holds a monopoly on currency creation...

Oh yeah, some countries invest in bullion. Oh yeah, that's not a gold standard.

The folks busy selling gold are selling it for dollars. That should make the bell go ringy dingy.

yep my spidey sense is tingling but its telling me that the government taxes gold trading(remember that whole monopoly on currency stuff) and people dont work for free...

a man isnt going to sell/trade you his gold for what he subjectively determines as less valuable...

and governments ''invest'' in gold in a lame attempt to skew markets, hiding just how worthless the fiat really is...

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Better to take that money and invest it in things people will be desperate for after the collapse because they were too busy stockpiling gold.

Single malt scotch.

 

[whodare]

Well personally I think if you're prepping for a major societal collapse stock piling gold and silver now is foolish. It's not practical, takes up lots of space (if you have enough to do you any real good) and combined with the weight that makes you less mobile which can be bad in a survival scenario. Plus at today's price buying gold means that you're really benefiting someone else more then yourself. Better to take that money and invest it in things people will be desperate for after the collapse because they were too busy stockpiling gold. That's when you start buying the gold, when you have something the gold owners don't.

yep i figure getting good at gardening, hunting, gathering, preserving, hiding, construction are all priorities.

land, cigarettes, booze, and weed, plus a good supply of pharmaceuticals would be a good place to start for physical investments...

 

[magiccannabus]

Well okay sometimes self restraint is a good thing but I didn't mean it that way. I was thinking more along the lines of how we let the government make laws to protect ourselves from our self rather then people practicing the self restraint you're talking about. Like texting and driving for example. Any idiot should be able to figure out that it's not a smart thing to focus on a small electronic device in our hand rather then focus on the road while we drive. Because some don't practice self restraint we've now allowed laws to be passed that prevent what most people have been doing safely for a decade or more, (using a cellphone while driving).

I really don't think I can put it better than the current Dalai Lama, so I'm going to let him say it:

"My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others’ interests alongside our own."

and I really like this one as well:

"Of course, change must come from within the individual. But when you are seeking solutions to global problems, you need to be able to approach these problems from the standpoint of the individual as well as from the level of society at large. So, when you're talking about being flexible, about having a wider perspective and so on, this requires the ability to address problems from various levels: the individual level, the community level, and the global level."

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

You meant assume more risk right?

Maybe... if you believe the guys selling bullion for dollars.

Just about every market professional out there, even the propagandist on CNBC, admit that "buy and hold" is dead. As per the last 10 years.

That line of thinking may have worked for the last three decades, but I highly doubt the next three decades will resemble the last.

 

[HempKat]

yep i figure getting good at gardening, hunting, gathering, preserving, hiding, construction are all priorities.

land, cigarettes, booze, and weed, plus a good supply of pharmaceuticals would be a good place to start for physical investments...

Those are fine for a while and the land, weed and some pharmaceuticals do have practical applications. If nobody is making those things though then eventually everyone will run out. I'm not sure what would actually be the best thing to stockpile for use as barter to sustain you. I'd have to think long and hard about that because I can't help but think the most valuable items are going to be different then most expect. My immediate notion is that it'll be things to fix stuff. Lots of people are stockpiling but I rarely hear people talk about stuff like needle and thread to repair clothes and stuff like that.

I guess two stockpiles of things one of creature comforts like cigarettes, alcohol and the like to fleece the gold owners early on as they try to cling to a semblence of thier former life and then save the practical stuff for bartering for more practical things like other peoples crops or tools they have or some form of service as trade.

 

[whodare]

Maybe... if you believe the guys selling bullion for dollars.

sorry but conventional wisdom says that the younger man can afford to lose more than the older man...

the benefit if the high risk is sometimes high yields, but if your 50 and that high risk portfolio tanks, you dont have very long to rebuild...


but hey keep knocking people selling gold and dodge the clear fallacy in your statement gramps addressed