Down goes the Dow

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

So has my home.

Nope. Doubled maybe.

Just took my overall, big-number, total portfolio exposure to stonks down to 62% from 68%.

Lowest in my lifetime. I realized gains in funds I bought 20 years ago...what astonishing gains we've been blessed with.

Yes, I am feeling pessimistic about the US, but that's only part of it...I have enough money now. I don't need more money. 62/38 is plenty of stock to keep my portfolio growing if the market continues to be strong.

I would feel like a total idiot if I lost my financial security after working all these decades to get it.

agip wrote:

Just took my overall, big-number, total portfolio exposure to stonks down to 62% from 68%.

Lowest in my lifetime. I realized gains in funds I bought 20 years ago...what astonishing gains we've been blessed with.

Yes, I am feeling pessimistic about the US, but that's only part of it...I have enough money now. I don't need more money. 62/38 is plenty of stock to keep my portfolio growing if the market continues to be strong.

I would feel like a total idiot if I lost my financial security after working all these decades to get it.

Pessimistic about the US? The pandemic is mostly beat here ( let's be real - a bunch of unproductive fat asses dying in Florida and Texas isn't gonna register an economic hit), the largest infrastructure bill in history is about to get passed, and meanwhile the rest of the world is in shambles and looking for a safe place to park their money while China takes a trip down Mao Lane. On top of that, it looks like a moderate baby boom might be in the works (which usually follows big existential events like what we've seen).

It's basically 1946 all over again. Stocks only go up, USA #1. Hedge against her great might at your own risk.

the bill may not get passed and will be a big bunch of unneeded spending that doesn't do much for the economy.

the pandemic is still scaring people

the fed will be tightening ever so slowly

one big issue I have is how to deal with the US politics and how they affect the stock market. I don't see how we avoid a constitutional crisis if trump runs again. There is no force on the GOP side to stop him from stealing the election. Nothing other than a few scattered honorable republicans. I have little doubt that they will send competing slates of electors in 2024. Trump and the GOP have told us exactly what they will do - I see no reason to disbelieve them.

So what do we do with that in an investing sense? Companies will make a lot of money even in a fascist dictatorship, but will stocks have to come down to reflect lack of political stability? Probably.

Bonds? The GOP has said it will vote for a default. How is that going to help things?

You are right that China is doing its best to prevent it from becoming an alternative to the US. and that's good news I guess. Or not.

seems weird to me that gold is not moving up.

with all the crazy and instability in the world....why isn't gold rallying?

I suppose it has to do with USD - the dollar is the strongest its been in around a year vs the euro.

I wonder how gold is doing vs other currencies. Is it rallying there?

Please don't call it an infrastructure bill when only 1/3 goes to actual infrastructure and the rest - 2/3 - is just expansions of liberal pork programs. Also, there is much uncertainty about whether it will get passed. As of right now, it looks like it won't get passed with 2 Dems already vowing to shoot it down and others who are less vocal about their intentions.

Infrastructure beyond repairs of stuff is mostly human infrastructure anyway. Figuring out ways to invest in the people and give them ease of transition to the knowledge economy.

Oh, the knowledge economy. Crypto infrastructure.

😹

the idiot from a different IP wrote:

agip wrote:

B

T

F

D

W

T

F

?

?

?

I think I know, without looking it up.

And I did. I think. Would have to total up the sells against the buys, but frankly, it's probably about even and such a miniscule percentage of portfolio as to be little more than allowing myself the feeling that I am doing something.

agip wrote:

Just took my overall, big-number, total portfolio exposure to stonks down to 62% from 68%.

Lowest in my lifetime. I realized gains in funds I bought 20 years ago...what astonishing gains we've been blessed with.

Yes, I am feeling pessimistic about the US, but that's only part of it...I have enough money now. I don't need more money. 62/38 is plenty of stock to keep my portfolio growing if the market continues to be strong.

I would feel like a total idiot if I lost my financial security after working all these decades to get it.

That inspired me to do the same look-see.

I am at the same level of leveraging as when we last talked, maybe 2 months ago (?).

I absolutely agree, I would feel like a fool to lost what luck and timing has come my way, but even when i sell on the way up, that is offset by the fact that what remains invested has increased in value, so the net level of exposure stays the same.

Going in my favor is the fact that there's retirement savings for both the wife and for myself through respective employers, not to mention a lucrative pension, which make the rest of this not really something we would have to depend on.

Helpful to compare notes, nonetheless.

agip wrote:

seems weird to me that gold is not moving up.

with all the crazy and instability in the world....why isn't gold rallying?

I suppose it has to do with USD - the dollar is the strongest its been in around a year vs the euro.

I wonder how gold is doing vs other currencies. Is it rallying there?

The Greatest Trade Ever

I guess he's investing in gold diggers re his gold is going parabolic call.

la gente esta muy loca wrote:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FAAfEylVIAoDuvc?format=jpg&name=small

Looks like Igy math.

🤡

Well, my math tells me she is less than half of my age.

Get your mask on obsessed Troll, your heavy breathing is fogging up my iPad.😷

la gente esta muy loca wrote:

agip wrote:

seems weird to me that gold is not moving up.

with all the crazy and instability in the world....why isn't gold rallying?

I suppose it has to do with USD - the dollar is the strongest its been in around a year vs the euro.

I wonder how gold is doing vs other currencies. Is it rallying there?

The Greatest Trade Ever

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FAAfEylVIAoDuvc?format=jpg&name=small

I guess he's investing in gold diggers re his gold is going parabolic call.

remember Terms of Endearment? The movie? Nicholson plays a retired astronaut. He is around 50 in the movie and still on the prowl. He keeps a room in his house filled with memorabilia, and that is where he takes young women to try to impress them.

A woman his age calls him out on it - using his stuff to seduce - and he says unapologetically, paraphrased I don't remember exactly - 'Well you got to use what you got.'

One of the truest lines ever written. I wonder what the actual line is.

“She’s dating me for my good looks, not my wallet.”

gawd I love the internet.

Here's the exchange

Such good writing. I remember it after 40 years.

The format doesn't cut and paste well.

AOROAA aglow, the living room filled with astronaut memorabilia--pictures, a piece of rock, a NASA flag, a model of a

missile. AUROAA now stares at a m::>on globe wit:.h raised

surfaces denoting the craters of the moon.

GlUU'lrl'T

(proudly) What do you thiM?

AO'RORA

(easily) Well, I think it's sad that you think you need t.'lis to impress girls.

GlUUltTI'

(angrily)

Need it? Sometimes it isn't enough. I don't thi:lk t.'l.ere' s a thing wrong with using all your assets.

Ati:ROBA

Except it tu..--ns your profession into

a sex t.rap.

GARRETT

Oh, come on. ~~ all use whatever we

have. I ea=ed it. It's as much a

pa.rt of me as anything else.

AO'RO:RA

I didn't realize I was tripping over

such a deeply-felt principle.

~T'!'

(agitated)

Man, hew many men have you had to

step on to get on that high a horse?

But you're not so different, believe

me, you' re going t:o ask me very soon

wba.t it was like out in space just like

every dolly does and I'll give you my

stock answer and you'll love it. You'll

see. You'll ask. So don't act like

it's nothing to you.

A silent beat. He a bit per-urbed at hL-iself for letting her get 'Wl.der his skin.

AC'RO:RA

(flustered--backi.~g down) Well, of course, I'm c-.iriou.s uiout

what it was like out t.'l.ere.

(CONTI~'ED)

Frv. 3-14-83 as.

143-144 CONTINm:O: (2)

l4S

GA:t."U:TT

(immediately)

It's a long, long, long way away and when you're there you feel t.~at

you've got a long, long, long way

to get back. It's not much different

than being out in a field in west

Texas except the sky is black and

you keep thinking how far away you

are from people.

AURORA

That's your stock answer.

GARP.l:TT

And it's true.

At7RORA

And you always leave it at that.

GAlUttTT

I wouldn't know what else to say

and that happens to be all they

reqw.re.

The scene cuts to the astronaut and aurora in bed.

Even though it would disadvantage both me and my heirs, I'm all for getting rid of the stepped up basis on securities. It doesn't make any sense logically other than a way for rich people to protect their wealth. If we have a a capital gains tax, I see no reason why it should not be paid. My child should have to pay tax on the gain even if I did the buying and not him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/biden-tax-loophole.html

Saving up right now to buy into the new fund GTEK

Hahaha.. love to see you blathering leftist Democrat morons still obsessing over Trump.

And have the audacity to claim he’ll steal it after the biggest fraud in history put a senile old fool in the White House.

TRUMP 2024 baby!! Make America Great Again.

#ResistDementiaJoe