Anybody buying gold? It has gone nowhere but down. So far, I'm glad I haven't bought any.
Anybody buying gold? It has gone nowhere but down. So far, I'm glad I haven't bought any.
Are you saying that CVS only operates in depressed areas?
odd thing, low price stores - when they do well it can mean a few different things:
1) everyone is poor so they are buying cheap
2) Poor people are getting richer so they can buy more stuff
3) low gas prices free up more beer money
and I could go on. it's hard to know what is behind it all.
Maserati wrote:
Further to my suggestion that bifurcation will accelerate at the consumer level, CVS just jumped on increased revenues.
I don't know what proportion of their revenues is paid by insurance, but what I have sensed from checking out those places is that CVS is CHEAP--and by cheap, I mean low quality, in addition to low prices.
It's divey junk, and it's selling. They seemed to be only in depressed areas, but recently they have started expanding, to supply cheap junk to places where you would think that people would have some money.
This tells me that everybody is getting price-conscious, as opposed to value-conscious, and that bifurcation will therefore continue, in this case benefiting CVS shareholders.
Only in depressed areas? CVS is ubiquitous in my neck of the country and they are certainly well represented in areas that are far from depressed. And they've been there for decades. As for selling junk, their main business is prescription and over the counter meds. Also gift cards, candy, photos, etc. Hardly junk. And their recent move away from tobacco products tells me something too.
I'm not saying that you're wrong, because I don't know.
Do you have good evidence of your claims concerning their revenue sources?
And yes, they are making forays into better neighborhoods, like I said. Your area may be different, obviously they are older stores.
And junk it is, right down there with the best of the discount retailers, and making forays into dollar store merchandise. Pure crap, for the price-conscious consumer
They have some standard brands on the shelves, but they all derive from the big industrial suppliers. A handful of beauty products may be the exception. Some cheaper beauty products from well-known brands like Clinique, Biore, and Biotherm appear, but they certainly aren't the expensive names, nor do their expensive products feature at CVS. What they have is aimed at giving the price-conscious an invitation to a different experience.
In any case, I may be wrong, and may have picked a winner for the wrong reasons. I would enjoy seeing the revenue evidence.
DJIA flat mid-afternoon, up a trivial 6. All eyes on the election.
Maserati wrote:
I'm not saying that you're wrong, because I don't know.
Do you have good evidence of your claims concerning their revenue sources?
And yes, they are making forays into better neighborhoods, like I said. Your area may be different, obviously they are older stores.
And junk it is, right down there with the best of the discount retailers, and making forays into dollar store merchandise. Pure crap, for the price-conscious consumer
They have some standard brands on the shelves, but they all derive from the big industrial suppliers. A handful of beauty products may be the exception. Some cheaper beauty products from well-known brands like Clinique, Biore, and Biotherm appear, but they certainly aren't the expensive names, nor do their expensive products feature at CVS. What they have is aimed at giving the price-conscious an invitation to a different experience.
Yet again your lack of knowledge is disappointing.
CVS competes head to head with Walgreens. Wherever you find a Walgreens you'll find a CVS nearby. They're everywhere.
Plus they have a ton of exclusive deals with large companies. For instance, my company's high-end Aetna medical insurance only covers drugs bought at CVS pharmacies or CVS/Caremark online.
Randy Oldman wrote:
Maserati wrote:I'm not saying that you're wrong, because I don't know.
Do you have good evidence of your claims concerning their revenue sources?
And yes, they are making forays into better neighborhoods, like I said. Your area may be different, obviously they are older stores.
And junk it is, right down there with the best of the discount retailers, and making forays into dollar store merchandise. Pure crap, for the price-conscious consumer
They have some standard brands on the shelves, but they all derive from the big industrial suppliers. A handful of beauty products may be the exception. Some cheaper beauty products from well-known brands like Clinique, Biore, and Biotherm appear, but they certainly aren't the expensive names, nor do their expensive products feature at CVS. What they have is aimed at giving the price-conscious an invitation to a different experience.
Yet again your lack of knowledge is disappointing.
CVS competes head to head with Walgreens. Wherever you find a Walgreens you'll find a CVS nearby. They're everywhere...
Who needs knowledge when one has an inexhaustible supply of hot air?
I've just unearthed that Aetna have done a 12 year deal with CVS, to be the exclusive supplier of prescription drugs to their 40 million policy holders.
Maserati wrote:
Anybody buying gold? It has gone nowhere but down. So far, I'm glad I haven't bought any.
You trying to pick a fight with agip? He's going to be crying for a while longer as it slides below 1K in the coming months.
Looks like the market is poised for a big up day following the euphoria of the Republican landslide victory...
Yet again your lack of substance is disappointing.
Still you offer no evidence of your revenue stream claim.
Where do inflammatory responses like that get anybody? Nowhere, that is where. Just be civil.
Thanks for the Aetna contract information.
I agree, but it is a strange situation.
The next 2 years will be messy, with a president who is not afraid of acting unilaterally, even if it may exceed his constitutional authority, on his way out, and maybe pissed.
Be ready for some short-term gains, anyway--at least until the new Congress runs into the inevitable resistance, which may be March-May next year.
Given this result, I'm sticking to my earlier predictions of a significantly higher DJIA by year's end.
It will take a while for everybody, including the Republicans, to realize that turning the ship around isn't that easy without the office of President. The SYSTEM, the MACHINERY OF THE STATE, is not sympathetic to the current Republican platform, as threadbare as that is.
Until this is clearly demonstrated, there should be confidence in the markets.
Be wrote:
Maserati wrote:Anybody buying gold? It has gone nowhere but down. So far, I'm glad I haven't bought any.
You trying to pick a fight with agip? He's going to be crying for a while longer as it slides below 1K in the coming months.
for the record, I've been out of gold for a while - the momentum strategy I was trying to use with gold failed again and again...gold would move up above the 200 day moving average so I would buy it...then it would plunge way below where I bought it, putting me in the unfortunate position of buying high and selling low, 3 times.
So I don't know what to do about gold - rules based strategies need to be followed every time or they are just gambling. At some point, buying gold above the 200 day will be a big winner and I would make back all my losses.
the question is if I have the stomach to keep doing this.
(for the record, the gold trading is just part of my fun money account - at its largest, gold was around .01% of my portfolio)
agip wrote:
for the record, I've been out of gold for a while - the momentum strategy I was trying to use with gold failed again and again...gold would move up above the 200 day moving average so I would buy it...then it would plunge way below where I bought it, putting me in the unfortunate position of buying high and selling low, 3 times.
So I don't know what to do about gold - rules based strategies need to be followed every time or they are just gambling...
Actually, the fact that one has a rule to follow does not make it anything other than gambling. Hopefully you know this.
And regarding what to do about gold - are you also wondering what to do about silver? copper? crude oil futures? pork bellies? Perhaps you should accept that gold is an inert material and that there is no reason to think that its value should outpace inflation over the long haul. As such, a rational investor will avoid it entirely.
Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:
agip wrote:for the record, I've been out of gold for a while - the momentum strategy I was trying to use with gold failed again and again...gold would move up above the 200 day moving average so I would buy it...then it would plunge way below where I bought it, putting me in the unfortunate position of buying high and selling low, 3 times.
So I don't know what to do about gold - rules based strategies need to be followed every time or they are just gambling...
Actually, the fact that one has a rule to follow does not make it anything other than gambling. Hopefully you know this.
And regarding what to do about gold - are you also wondering what to do about silver? copper? crude oil futures? pork bellies? Perhaps you should accept that gold is an inert material and that there is no reason to think that its value should outpace inflation over the long haul. As such, a rational investor will avoid it entirely.
I'm no goldbug, man! it was a trading strategy, that's all. Just playing with a few dollars. It had little to do with any investment strategy or beliefs I have in gold. I'll agree that gold has been a bad investment over the long haul.
As for rules-based investing...I'll disagree. Rules based investing is a way to take some of the chance out of investing. For example, over time, value investing beats growth investing. Over time micro caps have done better than large caps. Over time if you follow a 200 day in/out strategy, you will beat the market.
These things have been proven to work in the past by multiple studiers of market performance.
if you point is that just because value worked in the past doesn't mean it will work in the future, then fine, we'll agree.
but I'm willing to bet that markets don't change much over 80-100 years in these sort of things.
Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:
And regarding what to do about gold - are you also wondering what to do about silver? copper? crude oil futures? pork bellies? Perhaps you should accept that gold is an inert material and that there is no reason to think that its value should outpace inflation over the long haul. As such, a rational investor will avoid it entirely.
I'll disagree with this too - gold has a function in an investment portfolio. it is a crisis hedge. That's why it soared durign the financial crisis and european greek debt crisis.
When people lose faith in currency and economic peace, then gold will likely go up in value.
If you think economic and political chaos is likely, then you should own gold.
Maserati, for example, should own gold. he has been predicting an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed. If that happens, gold will do fine. Stocks and bonds may not.
if nothing else, look how it did during the financial crisis. It worked spectacularly well as a crisis hedge.
gold may be inert and pay no dividend, but it certainly has a place in some portfolios.
agip wrote:
Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:And regarding what to do about gold - are you also wondering what to do about silver? copper? crude oil futures? pork bellies? Perhaps you should accept that gold is an inert material and that there is no reason to think that its value should outpace inflation over the long haul. As such, a rational investor will avoid it entirely.
I'll disagree with this too - gold has a function in an investment portfolio. it is a crisis hedge. That's why it soared durign the financial crisis and european greek debt crisis.
When people lose faith in currency and economic peace, then gold will likely go up in value.
If you think economic and political chaos is likely, then you should own gold.
Maserati, for example, should own gold. he has been predicting an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed. If that happens, gold will do fine. Stocks and bonds may not.
if nothing else, look how it did during the financial crisis. It worked spectacularly well as a crisis hedge.
gold may be inert and pay no dividend, but it certainly has a place in some portfolios.
Actually no. What you think will happen in the market has no bearing whatsoever upon what actually will happen in the market. This is indisputable.
As such, one's belief that "an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed" is on the way does NOT make gold any more sensible for Maserati than for someone who thinks that we are destined for 1% inflation and 4% GDP growth every single year for the next thousand years.
I know that this is a subtle concept that may be too much for your individual cranial capacity. But it is simply the way it is, regardless of your personal belief system.
Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:
agip wrote:I'll disagree with this too - gold has a function in an investment portfolio. it is a crisis hedge. That's why it soared durign the financial crisis and european greek debt crisis.
When people lose faith in currency and economic peace, then gold will likely go up in value.
If you think economic and political chaos is likely, then you should own gold.
Maserati, for example, should own gold. he has been predicting an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed. If that happens, gold will do fine. Stocks and bonds may not.
if nothing else, look how it did during the financial crisis. It worked spectacularly well as a crisis hedge.
gold may be inert and pay no dividend, but it certainly has a place in some portfolios.
Actually no. What you think will happen in the market has no bearing whatsoever upon what actually will happen in the market. This is indisputable.
As such, one's belief that "an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed" is on the way does NOT make gold any more sensible for Maserati than for someone who thinks that we are destined for 1% inflation and 4% GDP growth every single year for the next thousand years.
I know that this is a subtle concept that may be too much for your individual cranial capacity. But it is simply the way it is, regardless of your personal belief system.
some truth to what you are saying -that market predictions are worthless and should not be the basis of investment strategy.
I don't think it is quite right, but I have to think about it.
Where it clearly falls down is on the behavioral side. If having a 5% position in gold makes Maserati more likely to stay invested in markets over time and not chicken out of being invested, then it would make sense. As sort of a comfort blanket, or insurance policy that lets him take wise risks elsewhere.
I may get back to you on the other if I have anything to add.
agip wrote:
Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:Actually no. What you think will happen in the market has no bearing whatsoever upon what actually will happen in the market. This is indisputable.
As such, one's belief that "an infrastructure disaster that can't be fixed" is on the way does NOT make gold any more sensible for Maserati than for someone who thinks that we are destined for 1% inflation and 4% GDP growth every single year for the next thousand years.
I know that this is a subtle concept that may be too much for your individual cranial capacity. But it is simply the way it is, regardless of your personal belief system.
some truth to what you are saying -that market predictions are worthless and should not be the basis of investment strategy.
I don't think it is quite right, but I have to think about it.
Where it clearly falls down is on the behavioral side. If having a 5% position in gold makes Maserati more likely to stay invested in markets over time and not chicken out of being invested, then it would make sense. As sort of a comfort blanket, or insurance policy that lets him take wise risks elsewhere.
I may get back to you on the other if I have anything to add.
You are truly a remarkable individual.
And I completely agree with your comment regarding the behavioral side of things.
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