Is it September 1, 2022 already ??? The date is not of particular significance for most (unless a birthday, anniversary of some sort or other) and not so much for me either; except that we started Traditional IRA accounts with a paper check, about 44 years ago. We decided to have a lunch trip in the metro Detroit area of Southfield, Michigan; after stopping at the Fidelity office there and presenting paper checks for that years (1978) deposits. We continued to add over the years, eventually having access to 401's and Roth's.
The above is not really of much value for those reading; except the time value of compounding one's investment monies.
Compounding value, of course; depends upon one's choices driving along the investment highway. Perhaps a full limitation of performance depends upon learning experience (meaning knowledge), perhaps an arse kicking loss here and there; which hopefully helps form a solid thinking base going forward.
Today. A bit wiser for investing. The investments over the years could be worth a lot more today; but also worth a lot less; OR ZERO, if the investments were never made.
A benchmark of FBALX provides a personal performance view for us. We remain at this time, a percent point from its weekly performance, as has been the case for this year. We were at a -13.32% TYD, last week. 'Course, using this percentage causes one to look at that in dollar terms, too. Yikes, that's a lot of money to the down side for this year, so far.
But, the main point is that if we had never invested in the first place; well, there wouldn't exist the money to ponder. Only a paper loss at this time. No sells.
We still do take the time to prod folks into start investing in a retirement account. Whatever amount, start slow, try to set aside some time to learn. You have other skills, and you can learn this, too. Don't do crazy things will this money unless you have a full understanding of the circumstances. Be careful with the emotional side; as this can eat away at your clear thinking. Time compounding is your friend.
I had a conversation a few months ago that has taken place for 30 years. She....."I need to talk to you sometime about investing some of my money". 360 months of compounding gone.
Anyway, we investors exist in a very strange world of terms, strange words and investments with a length and variety of capital letters. Add almost every possible variable that may affect an investment, day or night; and we are indeed sometimes a "Stranger in a Strange Land".
I've jabbered enough.
Remain curious and be well.
Catch
The bottom are likely in Might as well go to sleep and not touch/bother/click/check investment accounts for 12 24 months
The bottom are likely in 
CD Question Just bought 1-year CDs at 3.15%. Expect interest rates to go up and may purchase additional CDs in the future.
As a retiree, I am currently in a capital preservation mode until I get a better sense of how far the Fed will go, and how the market reacts to the anticipated rate hikes down the road. At this time, I am in no hurry to put money into bond or stock funds. At my age, I prefer to err on the side of caution.
Good luck,
Fred
CD Question If you stagger 4 1-yr CDs, 3 months apart, you should able to do okay. There are more new issues available today.
Treasury offers few more basis points than CDs on comparable duration if you want to look at this option as well.
yes, and i was just about to throw $$$ at LEV +1. PLUG has been mentioned to me in here.
With all the geopolitical turmoil surrounding lithium sourcing, hydrogen fuel cell technologies are pretty interesting here.
CD Question "I believe 6-12 months CDs are reasonable as one can build CD ladders."
Yes, that's what I'm doing at this point. 3.15%/1 year isn't great, but it's better than nothing.
CD Question I notice that too. In the past, yield curve inversion indicates the coming of a recession. I believe 6-12 months CDs are reasonable as one can build CD ladders.
CD Question Area bank is offering cd's from 9, 12, 18 months. The rate goes down as the length increases. I find this to be the opposite of what I would call the norm. Any good reasons for this ?
yes, and i was just about to throw $$$ at LEV @PRESSmUP, CHPT is on my watch list and would appreciate what you learn from the earnings call. Thanks.
Well, the market apparently likes what they heard. They are certainly expanding their footprint and making great strides in several different verticals. Of course, they still aren't profitable, but with expected revenues of $500M and 96% year over year increases, I suppose it will come. I bought Tuesday, the day prior to earnings, and I'm up >
10% so there's that. With all these EV's coming on line, it's a race to see who deserves a leadership role here. It's speculative, for sure.
europe. cum ex scandal +1.
more lockdowns in China. +1. OJ.
Doinkbrains in charge. The reputation of OUR vaccine is more important than the lives that could be saved with an EFFECTIVE Western vaccine. ....... And remember: these are the very sacs of germs who obstructed and obfuscated and dissembled when the rest of the world tried to investigate the SOURCE of covid 19, back when.
There are 'unusually attractive' prices for promising companies, says Ron Baron +1 !
The bottom are likely in Sometime holding cash is not all bad (sone call it trash). Time like this cash give you options. Money market yields have inched up to over 1-2% now from near zero.
Whether Giruox’s timing is right to deploy his cash to buy tech stocks in June’s low, we won’t know until later this year. That is what investors pay him to make those difficult calls.
Fed’s Kashkari “Happy” to see stock market falling … A little more about Powell's evolving strategy for getting inflation under control....
Powell “buried the concept of a soft landing” with his Aug. 26 speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG LLP. Now, “the Fed’s goal is to grind inflation down by slowing growth below its potential,” which officials peg at 1.8%.
“It’s a bit like dripping water torture,” added Swonk, who attended the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium last week. “It is a torturous process but less torturous and less painful than an abrupt recession.”
Powell Abandons Soft Landing Goal
europe. cum ex scandal JPMorgan is only the latest bank to be raided.
From four months ago:
The German branch of Morgan Stanley was searched by prosecutors in Frankfurt in relation to "past activity" on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. bank said.
...
A large number of banks were involved in the cum-ex deals: In the past few weeks alone there have been raids on the German branches of Barclays and the investment bank Merrill Lynch.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/frankfurt-bank-two-homes-searched-relation-cum-ex-scandal-2022-05-03/The Financial Times reports that:
Prosecutors have been investigating the scandal for years, but the inquiry was stepped up last month when a former senior banker from Fortis bank was arrested in Mallorca at the request of Frankfurt prosecutors.
https://www.ft.com/content/84ad1e87-cad2-47d7-832f-5025b74a081d(Subscription usually required, though google search may yield access)
As Reuters noted years ago, this was a legal loophole in Germany until 20
12, though courts have ruled otherwise.
German banks exploited a legal loophole that allowed two parties to claim ownership of the same shares. ... The loophole was closed in 2012, with the means of claiming double ownership banned. ... a German regional court ruling in February [2016] found there was no legal basis for the double claiming of rebates, even before it was banned in 2012
https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-dividends/dividend-tax-scandal-how-banks-short-changed-germany-idUSL8N1991BNI like the NYTimes description from 2020:
The scheme was built around “cum-ex trading” (from the Latin for “with-without”): a monetary maneuver to avoid double taxation of investment profits that plays out like high finance’s answer to a David Copperfield stage illusion. Through careful timing, and the coordination of a dozen different transactions, cum-ex trades produced two refunds for dividend tax paid on one basket of stocks.
One basket of stocks. Abracadabra. Two refunds.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/cum-ex.htmlThe US has a distantly related form of legerdemain. In the EU, these banks took one basket of stocks and pretended (legal fiction) that it had been taxed twice, In the US, mutual funds and ETFs take one basket of stocks, sell it (via redemption in kind), and pretend (legal fiction) that no sales have taken place. Abracadabra. No capital gains recognized (
IRC §852(b)(6)), tax averted.
The main difference seems to be that the EU fiction had a fraudulent intent; the US fiction is out in the open - no fraud. Either way, the legal fictions are tax loopholes.
