Here, let me help you...

Try investing in distilled spirits and ammunition. I have a few cases of .223/5.56, 9mm and 45 ACP purchased pre COVID. The ROI has been fantastic, but it’s unlikely I’ll sell. My next favorite investment has been distilled spirits. I prefer brown vs clear. My best was a $59.99 bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle. In the last 3 years its up over 1000%, so on par with TSLA. The other Buffalo Trace bottles have also done well. The Hibiki and Yamazaki bottles are performing well, although two bottles were “called away” after collecting a few months worth of Cuban cigar “option premium”.

My expertise is very limited with the clear stuff, so any vodka, gin or tequila peeps feel free to chime in.

I’ve put a small amount into silver recently based on the above average Silver:Gold ratio. It’s part of a longer term strategy to accumulate a minor stake in precious metals. I’m metal agnostic, just looking to acquire some for fun. Anyone have experience trading the ratio?

First of all, no one WANTS to fly a 737. (Signed, Happy Airbus Pilot). The rest of your post is very true though. I don’t think Fidelity allows the kinds of options trades that can decimate an account though. Covered calls....I know some use the Snider method with success. I’ve only traded covered calls in my account on stocks I was ready to sell. Instead of flat out selling a stock, I’d sell covered calls against it until the options got exercised and then I’d get a better price for the stock than selling with a limit order, or make some extra premium while I waited. I’m interested to see about cash secured puts. If those are available to trade, I would only use that to buy stock I wanted to own anyway, or make some premium in the mean time while I waited for the stock to pull back.

this is what I was thinking of doing in IRA or 401. Seems like a low threat way of making a little extra if you are buying or selling regardless.

BTW...This seems to be exactly what Snider method does once a month. Huge thread on chit chat about SM on the investing sub forum

How and where do you purchase warrants?

Seneca can do a better job, but here is where you can find warrants........

https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/markets/warrants/a-z


Here is part of an offering from aug 2019 on a SPAC for EXPC which is bringing a company called BLADE to market. The warrant is EXPCW.....



"This is an initial public offering of our securities. Each unit has an offering price of $10.00 and consists of one share of our Class A common stock and one-third of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as described in this prospectus, and only whole warrants are exercisable. The warrants will become exercisable on the later of 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination or 12 months from the closing of this offering, and will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation, as described in this prospectus. Subject to the terms and conditions described in this prospectus, we may redeem the warrants either for cash once the warrants become exercisable or for shares of our Class A common stock commencing 90 days after the warrants become exercisable. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. We have also granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,750,000 units to cover over-allotments, if any."



Don't take investment advice from me....I was just curious from his post yesterday and this is what my digging with a spoon(vice a shovel) found. This is the extent of my knowledge....other than I think most initial warrants are bought from a broker(sometimes as rewards/inducements for "good" clients). They also offer warrants on less speculative stocks like AIG....those act like LEAP's

Warrants can be bought through any broker. The broker may have to be prodded but they are listed securities so the broker can trade them for you. Due diligence is necessary. I recommended a writer earlier in the thread Ed Thorpe. His hedge fund traded warrants and options and made 20% + every year for twenty years. His book is a good place to learn. Warrants are essentially a call but less volatile and time is not a factor. If you have risk money warrants on new SPACs and troubled companies can be a good gamble. Buffett bought some very cheap ones during the 2008 crash and made billions.

2021 Side Hustles
 

40 Side Hustle ideas for 2021
Side Hustles from Millennial Money Man

No surprise my favorite is #37 - Rental Property
Rental property is about as exciting as watching grass grow, paint dry, concrete cure, water boil, etc you get the point. Buy income producing assets, tenants cover the costs plus cashflow, inflation wipes out the real value of the debt, while increasing cash flow relative to debt payments. You don't get the dopamine rush of trading options, futures or warrants, so if you need the excitement find a hobby. RE moves at a slow and steady pace, plus you have the federal government and central banks all working in your favor.

I've been spoiled by living in a non-coastal, linear market that works well for rental property. The links below look like good resources for my coastal friends looking for real estate investments that make sense.

INVESTING OUT OF STATE (biggerpockets.com)
Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties: Greene, David: 9780997584752: Amazon.com: Books


OK, back to ToS paper trade account for my dopamine.

Of all the real estate investors I got to know while I was in it, the most successful, by far, bought houses near colleges. He broke them up into as many rental units as he could get and had the parents sign the leases. He printed money.

That has been a great strategy for years. It works especially well for parents who can put a college student on the payroll. Well capitalized REITs have gotten in on the game also. The growth of student housing around several universities I'm familiar with has exploded. My biggest concern with these niche markets is how rapidly a move against the niche can wipe you out. Reduced in class attendance as major universities continue moving classes online poses a huge risk in this area. Another previous "money printing" niche market was converting large homes into assisted living facilities. More people are opting for at home care. The VRBO niche has been hot as well, but that industry doesn't have the political capital to compete with Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. Legislation and HOAs are slowing down that once hot segment.

There are sliding scales of capital and time that investors can use to find their fit. Many of the niche markets are fantastic for investors with higher time to capital ratios.

Lots of real estate investors get stuck in their niche and don't have a plan to scale. You can double from one house to two or 5-10 pretty easily. Above that, it gets progressively more difficult. As capital grows, time remains finite and you have to find ways to scale. Generally that means having a geographically concentrated income source. 50+ unit apartment, 300+ unit self storage, X+ unit RV park, a couple dozen homes in a 3 mile radius, etc.

The most successful investors I know have successfully scaled out of houses and into larger commercial property. Some have scaled by deploying their growing capital into passive deals rather than taking on more employees or tenants.

Been enjoying this thread. Thx to all contributors.

How much money would one need to get into a decent passive CRE deal?

The minimums generally range from 25-100k. Mine have been through a group from Houston called Lifestyles Unlimited. Crowdsourcing platforms like Crowdstreet, Yieldstreet, Fundrise, etc may have lower mins. I haven't used any of them, but a few on here have.

Their site looks like it’s just selling memberships in the club and the perks of said memberships. Where do I get to the meat-and-potatoes?

Has anyone here ever invested through lending club?

The offerings are Reg D, 506b, which means no advertising. You have to be a preferred member and approach each syndicator individually and ask to receive their offerings. If you don't have an established relationship with the syndicator before the date of the PPM, you can't participate. Lifestyles Unlimited does not make any investment offerings, they provide education, mentoring and networking. You pay a hefty fee to join so you can network with other investors and syndicators. It's worth a couple hours to check out their free intro seminar.

Huge waste of time, messed around with it years ago when it first got popular. I'd rather get .5% in a bank than mess around with LendingClub (more than likely you'll end up making more money in the bank too).

Cool, thanks.

I've been paper trading a 100k account on Think or Swim. The SPY & SPX Short Iron Condors got crushed this week. The short RMO double diagonal is holding up OK. I'm short FEB 15 put / 40 call and long May 12.5 put/ 45 call. On the plus side, my short FEB 230 Straddle on BRK/B is up $32.50. I started paper trading after Christmas and am down $2,792.50 overall. I'm keeping my day job a while longer.

As for the real money, the Feb TSLA calls are now ITM, so they are candidates to roll out and up as the extrinsic value decays closer to expiration. In staying true to my core competency, another passive share of an apartment community made its way into the portfolio. Were expecting 8% cash on cash, with a cash out refi in year 3-4. Another one from early 2020 is already planning for a 50% equity distribution from a supplemental loan in Q3 2021. We've been getting 6% CoC so far, and with half of our initial equity back, we will be getting 10-12% CoC and still retain our initial share of ownership. The cash out supplemental will fund part of another investment when we get it. Gotta keep the equity snowball rolling...

Help from the crowd please. Does Tradestation have the same nice red/green arrow, trade visualization graph that I see on the Tastytrade videos?

FYI TSLA investors, Dr. Michael Burry, who's famous short of the Mortgage Backed Securities is detailed in the book and movie The Big Short, is shorting TSLA. Tread carefully. Don't get wiped out. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8e929add59.jpg

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I was getting a bit concerned about TSLA valuation as well. Rather than paring my position I went with selling CC against a portion of it. I'll keep rolling them ITM, possibly out and up or maybe just out.

On a side note, Elon Musk is the richest person in the world and the TLSA shorts have lost close to 100 billion so far this year. Ouch...

that’s the problem with shorting because of valuation. You can get crushed while you wait.

Correct. The market can stay irrational longer than most folks can remain solvent. Dr. Burry is worth over $100 mil so he can cover Margin Calls for quite a while.

This is just my personal prediction so YMMV, but between TSLA, Bitcoin, and S&P valuations at near all time highs, I think a reckoning is coming and it will end in Tears for many. When Meek Mill is talking about stocks the top has got to be nearhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...91d87607d3.jpg

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I sold a bunch of naked puts at 700 and was on edge for a couple of days. Drinking scotch tonight.

The movie, “The Big Short” comes to mind, concerning valuations.


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My shorts keep getting smaller and smaller, as do my pants. Maybe I need to exercise more.

​​​​​​It's one of my all time favorite movies.

Mine too.

can anyone educate a layman on bitcoin and crypto currency? They seem to be more of an indicator of economic stability rather than of actual monetary valuations. BItcoin jumped from 29k to over 40k just this week alone. 25%!!! Similar growth for RIOT and MARA. WHATS GOING ON HERE?

I recall the scene from Big Short where they’re all shouting ‘no no no’ but can’t put my finger on why. Any wisdom from the crowd?

https://youtu.be/wJNJrBvA_1o

institutions are finally adopting it. I wish i had bought more than i did but hindsight is always 20 20 right? My average coin cost is $929.

Yes, there was market "exuberance" over mortgage based securities, but the collapse of the real estate markets due to defaults on sub-prime lending wasn't what torched the world's economy. Yes, it was bad, but alone would have been just "Savings and Loan Crisis" bad.

Rather, it was the all the derivative products (the bets on bets, and bets on bets on bets), that truly magnified the result exponentially, and sank the whole world.

When I see crap being hawked on late night TV (gold, real estate, etc), that's my indication to exit the pattern.

Buy businesses (or shares of a business) and real estate that are a good value. Sell derivatives like options when they are overvalued. Problem solved.

have any of you done a simple wheel strategy on one of those indexes. What has been your return?

Mostly agree. But to really identify what happened and why, in addition to the things you mentioned (all correct), we also have to look at foundational thing that contributed to the runups that the leverage was based on in the first place. Everything from numerous "community reinvestment acts" to mortgage interest deductions (massive subsidy to banks, huge boosts to malinvestment and wrecking ball destroyers of honest price discovery) all helped build that Tower of Rabble in the first place. Rather than allow values to settle to actual true market value that buyers could afford with fair and honest money, they went right back in and pumped them up with artificially low interest rates. That "helps" people "afford more house" which in turn drives up the prices of real estate.

Same thing with "education". Every cycle the people beg to help make it more affordable. So the lobby machine writes gifts for themselves like ever more financial aid, easier loans (even for extremely expensive joke degrees) and 529 tax scams, all of which help make the already artificlally expensive product even more expensive because the more they "help" the more expensive it gets and the more help you need because it keeps getting expensive, That's why colleges quickly started burying the money avalanche in as many little holes as they could; opulent new buildings and student centers with cafes and rock climbing walls and architecture and landscaping that rivals where the 0.1% live. Hiring mutipiles of fake make-work admin jobs (often from poorly performing educators and/ or idealogically minded outsiders) than actual teachers. Meanwhile as the speed of information became instant and the cost of delivery of it nearly free, "education" costs went nuts.

Both education and real estate are massive bubbles and no politician on either pretend side will ever allow either to be fixed in a sustainable way. They'll just keep pumping til they pop then hope they can bail it out.

You've identified one more reason to own income producing real estate. The taxpayer will bail you out. Don't hate the player...

Reasons to own income producing real estate.
1. Indexed to inflation. With leverage, you actually profit from inflation.
2. The inflationary bias of central banks and the federal government create powerful allies.
3. The government subsidizes the investment through the tax code by allowing depreciation on an appreciating asset.
4. If the entire market goes in the tank, they will try their hardest to bail you out.

Ways to make money with real estate and pay less in taxes.
1. Equity capture through value add properties. Preferably via contractor sweat equity vs your own.
2. Cash flow from rent exceeding expenses and debt service.
3. Principle reduction through amortization.
4. Appreciation on the asset, that could be multiplied with smart leverage.
5. Tax savings through depreciation and possibly tax deferred exchanges.


Neither education or cost of housing will get solved until lawmakers address the constrained supply. Fees and regulations surround development of new housing ensure that affordable housing won't be built. Embracing technology as a method of distributing education is a great start on that avenue. Adding "free money" just makes it more expensive.

After today's close, I'm up $2,500 overall, which is a swing of $5,000 from last week. That seems like a pretty wild swing for less than a week of activity in a 100K account. I thought I was playing fairly conservative with a few short SPY/SPX IC trades at 30/16 Delta with VIX >24 and 15/10 Delta trades when VIX was lower.

Is a 5% weekly swing normal for you option traders? Should I be trying something else to smooth out the swings?

yeah give me some, i’ll smooth it out for ya. 1’s across the floor.

​​​​​​It's all play money on ToS. They have a paper trading feature on the platform. It has a 100K margin account and a 100K IRA. Trading rules vary by account type. It's a great tool for learning trade entry, management and exit. Play with $200k and still sleep at night.

Sound logic and I agree with it. However we can't discount the progressively increasing assault on "the rich" which is increasingly defined as anyone who makes more than whoever is voting on it (the truly rich seem to only get richer). Look at the student loan "forgiveness" and especially the populist left "cancel rent" initiatives. If you own someone else's place, that's their entitlement, and best case you're just a modern day kulak.

Small businesses and rental incoome properties were alwasy two of the best ways for people to work themselves up the ladder. Both of those things are squarely in the crosshairs of the statists now and all trends point to that only getting worse.

I agree that its a good idea. But the attacks on it have only just begun, and I wonder how much longer it will be a good deal or a path up the ladder.

Is "whistleblower" a legit side gig?

Impressed that you get that part of the puzzle. Just to continue the conversation I reply, "Did it? Really? Or did a chosen few get very rich with no basis in law (or common sense) for what happened?

Would the world have sank if Goldman Sachs only made a 200% profit on reselling CDO coverage it got from AIG for $0.0004 per dollar instead of whatever the rate of return is going from $0.0002 to $1? Micheal Lewis (author of the Big Short) figured it out after he wrote his book. Let me try to explain it here.

From 2004 to 2007 mostly Wall Street players underwrote several trillion of sub-prime loans. To peddle this garbage off they made it look better by underwriting it with insurance against default. The insurance was priced at about two basis points per dollar. Later, rates were increased to 4 basis points, then as high as seven. Goldman Sachs and other big investment banks positioned themselves as brokers of this "insurance" marking it up 400% to its customers.

Insurance is 100%-total-profit, when you sell it, ** IF ** you do not have a loss. Yes, there are administrative expenses and reinsurance costs if you peddle the risk off to someone else (like say some rich prince in the Saudia Arabia (who will never f'n pay you)). If you multiply 450 billion of yearly coverage by $0.0004 that's $180 million for the sixteen or so managers of AIG FP (Financial Products) and $720 million for the Goldman boys. They were doing this on an annual basis and it grew from that $450bn snapshot.

In the Big Short people observed this absurdly underpriced insurance and began to place bets on having a loss. The amazing deal was on the retail level, Goldman was pricing this stuff at about 16 basis points, but the loss paid out $1. You can't get that kind of payoff in Vegas.

Buying an insurance policy usually requires an "insurable interest." For example, I could not buy insurance on your mother's life because it does not affect me if something were to happen to her; I have no skin in the game. As a matter of public policy, we do not want insurance companies to be gambling houses. However, both political parties have gone along with deregulation in the name of profits.

Typically when this kind of thing happens the Insurer (underwriter) declares bankruptcy and offers something like ten cents on the dollar of coverage. Those who had placed their bets would have still received a $0.10 return for every $0.0016 invested, which is huge. Anyone with any sense wonders why not let Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Goldman handle this like any other bankruptcy with investors taking haircuts, as they damn well should? Maybe we should look at the resumes of those involved in engineering the bail out starting with the chief architect of the thing:

Hank Paulson: CEO of Goldman. Wiki notes "Before becoming Treasury Secretary, he was required to liquidate all of his stock holdings in Goldman Sachs, valued at over $600 million in 2006, in order to comply with conflict-of-interest regulations.[17] Because of a tax provision passed under President George H.W. Bush, Paulson was not subject to capital gains tax. This saved him between $36 and $50 million in taxes.[18]"

So yeah, there's that. Love Mr. Lewis. He got closer than most writers to figuring this mess out.

Further reading https://haraldhau.com/The_Man_Who_Crashed_the_World.pdf

It can be...

https://www.phillipsandcohen.com/whistleblower-rewards/