Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 29, 2021

No matter which option you pick, in the end you lose

Anyone remember pneumatic tubes? Needs to be added to this building for short sellers.

The stock market: LEGALIZED GAMBLING (with people’s retirement funds).

Hedge fund managers received BILLIONS in compensation and become very wealthy by gaming the system, yet add NOTHING of tangible value to any product or service.

It is a GAME. And they love to brag about how they “play by the rules” and win and if you can’t do it, well, it is just too bad for you.

…UNTIL some young, plucky Geeks notice the game players are buying stocks in failing companies on short sale, then jack up the price and beat them at their own game. Then all of a sudden, boo hoo, it suddenly isn’t fair and they have to stop the trading. All of a sudden they want to rein in the Wild West they created.

It is all a GAME until it STOPs.

Totally off topic. Do members at a nudist colony have to wear masks?. I can see Wiley’s gears turning already.

On October 24, 1929, the Bear sign was pointing out the window. One clerk jumped from a 40-story building.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/10/25/the-jumpers-of-29/17defff9-f725-43b7-831b-7924ac0a1363/

Anyone notice that Wiley appeared in a Jeopardy! clue today (Thursday)?

REALLY good timing on this one.

What a shame that there’s a long lead time for comics. Otherwise, it would be about Game Stop & the nerds that are taking the hedge funds to the cleaners. One hedge fund had to borrow over $2 billion to cover their losses trying to short Game Stop!

Or commodity futures options.

Decades ago, our econ prof suggested the following: learn all you can about buying and selling stocks at a profit. Then use a pin on the day’s issue of the WSJ to pick your stocks at random. Look at your list and read their stats for the last year. Then use the paper for fire starter, and put your money in your mattress. Old Herman wasn’t a big fan of the stock market in the 1950’s. Wonder what he’s think of it now?

I purchased some junk bonds once, 30 cents on the dollar. Two months later the company was purchased and the bonds paid off at face value! I figure that was unlikely to happen again and never bought any more bonds.

If I were in the stock market I would cash out about now and pay off the house car and credit cards. If my neighbors kid is giving me stock tips, I need to step aside for a bit.

Where’s the sign for Rainbow?

Is it too late to get in on Game Stop? … S/

Timing.

I’ve got a good idea. Let’s manipulate the market via the Internet before we get shut down. /sarcasm

I assume Gamestop is also right outside the window…

We can only hope that more brokers (and regulators) take Wiley’s version of the Junk Bond Express. “Derivatives,” too.

bull bear bird

Anyone have any examples of the 1% funding infrastructure rebuild projects?

Drawn before the Reddit/Game Stop vs Wall Street incident, yesterday.

Worse thing is to have a big payoff in the first year of stock picking. Looked like such an easy way to get rich quick. Plus, it’s a way to satisfy the gambling craving since I don’t like casinos.

Years later (Early 2020) I tripped into NNDM starting at .81 with the thought I would get lunch money out of it, but ended up accumulating five figures of it at 3.11 avg.

Sold half in December at 9.55 for a three bagger. Now I think I am a financial genius again. Trying to resist buying back more now when it has taken a dip because I don’t know if my genius (my luck) will hold.

Like other gambling it is fun when you “win big” but I would not want to do it for a living. Then there’s the Madoff School of Investing that used to be next door to Trump U.

Just moved to a cash position. Things are to weird.

Game Stop?

And what about the hedge-fund managers?

I’d make a killing in the market if I had the guts to sell.

Bernie Madoff is a poster boy for the stock market. It’s shell game with investor’s money.

Don’t forget the Reddit river!

The children playing at buying options are like teenagers daring each other to jump off a bridge. For the maimed ones that survive, it was a learning experience.