Cardboard

"As part of this reassessment, the corporation intends to pay the full amount within the next two weeks in order to stop further interest from accruing. Additionally, the corporation intends to file an appeal of this reassessment within the required regulatory time frame."

This was a bad instance but, the one that really discredited Prem for me was this "take-over" of Blackberry that never happened. It is illegal to make a take-over offer for a public company when you don't have the means or intention to carry it through. I understand that it was subject to obtaining support from friends and all that but, I think it was a manipulative scheme while Blackberry shares were heading downhill.

Hmmm, interesting trading in both stocks and preferreds on a really bad afternoon for the market and Trump looking into some trouble.

What is the impeachment inquiry impact on this? I would think that money grabbers such as Warren would want to nationalize and confiscate such things. They will just amend the Constitution while brainwashing people that it is in their own interest. Even if Trump makes it through and gets re-elected, shouldn't we expect a delay or this being put on back burner? If have a small position in FNMAH.

Thanks Gregmal! These were Jan 2020 so I have learned not to be too greedy with short term expiries. Although, I may have been too early to jump the gun as this shows no support, nor accumulation yet.

Sold my NFLX puts for a 30% gain in 3 days! Thank you Gregmal or genius of CoBF!

Which puts Gregmal if you don't mind? They are crazy expensive due to shorts/volatility but, yeah I can see this going way down in time. Everybody can make this shit even Maple Leaf Foods and Tyson. $10 billion market cap is nuts for something that will be commoditized.

I had to rub my eyes this morning when I saw the target price then looked up current price of AAPL to be sure: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/13/goldman-sachs-just-dramatically-cut-its-outlook-for-apple-predicts-26percent-downside.html Then Apple made a rare rebuff: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-says-tv-won-t-185904696.html It is really rare for large brokerage to basically issue a sell rating on a mega cap and market darling. Rarely see target price below actual price too. Then to see the company debate it publicly is also uncommon. I mean you see that kind of stuff with GE or when a known short seller issues a report on a small company but, this I have rarely seen. Cardboard

Can't really answer your question Greg but, when it comes to greed, there is very little sophistication. Recall the CEO at Lehman who said that as long as the music plays that you gotta to dance or something like that.

"The certificate the broker sent you saying you own them is all that counts." No idea how it works in Australia but, in Canada and U.S. you have to make a special request and pay fees to obtain stock certificates. All you get normally is a statement indicating that you own such and such. However, if you have certificates in hand then you have no worry. As Orchard alluded to, if you have your shares in a cash account, then all of this is segregated from the broker. However, if you have a margin account, then they are "held" by the firm and they can lend these shares to short sellers. That is when brokerage insurance (fund for all brokers) and government bail-outs kick in if one defaults to reimburse clients but, it could take time and there is always risk. Cardboard

FMCCI is trading at $20.50 or 41% of par. Seems to be among the cheapest ones. There is a liquidity issue vs FMCKJ but, is there something else? I notice that they are variable dividend and not perpetual so could it be it?

Move next door to Belgium. No capital gain tax. Cardboard

Gregmal is the smart guy here: buys cheap, quality stocks that he could hold on for a long time if they continue to drop and sells them for a nice profit (20-30%) if they rebound. Then rinse and repeat. Seems to be the way to make money in this environment.

"Berry Sold some of my $47.50 puts for $9.25 today (paid $1.90 for them). In short, I am going long the stock by exiting the puts. Looking to use the put proceeds to either buy more stock and/or calls." Maybe you could expand on the Berry thread instead of here but, would like to understand your approach as I thought you were squarely long the stock. Cardboard

"They're trying to delay when the damage occurs until election season to maximize the odds that Trump gets removed from office" I believe that this strategy could easily backfire with the bunch of "crazies" on the Democratic side to borrow the expression from Stanley Druckenmiller. Trump is in a weak spot and they know it. Might as well sign an easier deal now. Cardboard

I think that you guys ignore that there are 2 stock markets: the hyped/new/very large high tech and the rest trading like a depression is coming. Cardboard

I continue to believe that the tarrifs approach is a huge failure. It is imposing higher costs to your citizenry and especially the poor. Punishing yourself to try to hurt your opponent is dumb. My view remains that China or its regime does not care that much about its people during a period of duress and will sacrifice them if need be. That is what history has showed us multiple times and we may see another repeat soon in Hong Kong. Latest propaganda out of there that they have not talked with Trump and will not bend over, etc. is just another indication that we can't really do honest deals or business with them. IMO, there are key buttons to push to try to get them to move to where you want to be without imposing a duty/tax on your citizens and slowing the global economy but, there is no certainty and still risk: South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, North Korea, arming Japan, India border, etc. The less confrontational approach would be to implement a revised TPP agreement to trade more with friendly countries or introduce more alternatives to China. I believe that Japan gets it and that is why we see a warm relation. Unfortunately, Japan is high cost and not producing cheap items anymore. So we need other countries with large populace and low labour cost such as Malaysia, Indonesia and yes India. Looking around the house, I am hard pressed to see anything: "made in India". How can that be? This is a huge population looking to develop itself with a lot of English speaking folks and democratic. I mean, there is no need to impose tarrifs. Just tell companies to move out of China and into India and other places and implement solid trade agreements with them. Cardboard

"* This thread belongs in politics section long time ago." When I read statements like these, I have to LMAO. Seriously any smart investor has to know how politics could impact its investments. It could be regulation, trade, taxation, interest rates but, in any case the impacts could be tremendous. So to ignore this altogether and saying this belong in the politics section so it could be hidden is absurd. Cardboard

"I think this is an oversimplification." Very much so especially when you go around the house and look for the label: "made in China". Supply chains have evolved for multiple decades to be as they are today. I can't see how unwinding all that will be more efficient/cheaper and make people better off. What is really odd in this whole thing and likely part of the solution are currencies. Both China and Germany benefit from devalued currencies and large trade surplus. If you want some trade "reversal" it seems to me that you need a weaker USD vs Yuan and for Germany to have its own currency. Cardboard

I think was is missed by Orthopa and others on this need to put China at its place is the coming impact to Main Street. 1- Costs for imported goods are going up due to tariffs. These can't be made cheaper here either by the way. 2- We are at full employment which is very beneficial to the poorest folks. They are the first ones to be unemployed when the economy slows or when uncertainty mounts. 3- The banking sector is not globally cured and is still interdependent and global debt level is high. It would not take much in terms of credit default to trigger a crisis. Argentina could be the first event. As we saw in 2008-2009 it was the poor who lost their homes. So if we get a deep economical crisis because we want to strike a trade deal with China by using this tit for tat approach it probably won't be worth the human cost in the end. My personal view is that the Chinese leadership do not care about their own people and care only about retaining and increasing their power. This makes striking a deal via economical tarrifs very difficult unless it makes them lose internal control. General unrest in China seems unlikely especially as they control the media and will simply try to portrait the U.S. as the enemy + instigator and try to raise Chinese pride to stand behind current leadership. Seems to me like the U.S. and Trump failed to understand that they are dealing with a dictatorship/communist regime and the only thing they understand is force. Cardboard

"Shouldn't you guys be hoping for lower prices, not higher ones?" Sorry but, this is the Warren Buffett typical line because he sits on billions in cash and has recurring free cash flow coming in weekly which he doesn't know what to do with. Could also be advantageous to a regular salary earner who saves monthly into ETF or funds. I don't think that any of us here are in this situation or at least those actively investing. My view is that if you can't find bargains at our size, you are lazy. Therefore sure, these selloff's offer opportunities but, when you are already close to fully invested (if not at our size you are a market timer or again lazy) it hurts from the process/goal of buying cheap, selling, then repeating. A stable market works better for value to be recognized vs these ups and downs of the general market when everything tends to be heavily correlated. The other logical alternative is to sell something that is cheap to buy something cheaper during these sell-offs. It works but, it is hard and sometimes elusive. Cardboard

I actually bought some calls today. Yup, VIX calls before Powell. Then they lost me a lot of money until the imbecile started Tweeting. Then proceeded to sell them for a decent profit. It is a very small consolation for a very bad day. So where do we go from here? Do you guys still think that a deal with China is possible? Calling Xi the enemy, ordering companies to move out. I mean, this is going too far. Cardboard

Well DooDiligence, I have stated multiple times that if there was something to investigate it should be insider trading. There are way too many of these market moving tweets with high impact. Way too many people involved or in the entourage for this not to be the case. Cardboard

My fear is that we don't make it to 2021... Cardboard

Trump ask what is our bigger enemy: Powell or Xi? I thought he said Xi was a friend of is??? Then orders all U.S. companies to move out of China. Why playing around here? Let's just state that we don't recognize One China and arm Taiwan with nukes. I thought that China would look to defuse the situation but, they certainly didn't this morning with more tarrifs or just ahead of September meetings. War is now a real possibility IMO. Cardboard