Tidbits

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Sweet said:

I think the smart glasses so far have been very underwhelming and I wasn’t surprised they didn’t take off.  But these glasses from Meta look like a big improvement and might actually be useful:

 

 

 

Fixing the faucet would be cool if it functions really well...but looking up stuff about a local spot seems kind of pointless. I'd rather just look it up on my phone instead of carrying some glasses around.  Though $300 seems like a very good price. 

[Sweet]

2 hours ago, stahleyp said:

 

Fixing the faucet would be cool if it functions really well...but looking up stuff about a local spot seems kind of pointless. I'd rather just look it up on my phone instead of carrying some glasses around.  Though $300 seems like a very good price. 

The difference here, unlike the previous iterations of smart glasses, is they look good and they appear to be functional as actual glasses - not some dorky tech.  I don’t think it’s a phone replacement but I can imagine these being used.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Sweet said:

The difference here, unlike the previous iterations of smart glasses, is they look good and they appear to be functional as actual glasses - not some dorky tech.  I don’t think it’s a phone replacement but I can imagine these being used.

 

If they work, they'll certainly be used. It will be interesting to see the adoption rate.

[Sweet]

https://twitter.com/StockMKTNewz/status/1708926458062676362

[jfan]

This is from a well followed financial educator that my work colleagues follow intently on social media.

 

 

 

[Sweet]

^ interesting take, I get what he means but… 

[Sweet]

I’m sure the board is well aware already

[Spekulatius]

Totally non-investment related but it is fascinating how long some ancient borders last. Below is picture of the Polish election map outcome:

 

[ValueArb]

On 10/7/2023 at 5:06 AM, jfan said:

This is from a well followed financial educator that my work colleagues follow intently on social media.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes there is a great deal of downside protection moving money from management's pockets to yours.

[ValueArb]

Some good Ed Thorp investment stories. He certainly wasn't a one trick pony, his curiosity to learn and understand new things must have been off the charts.

 

https://miltonfmr.com/ed-thorps-remarkable-journey-from-beating-casinos-to-dominating-wall-street/

[UK]

12 hours ago, ValueArb said:

Some good Ed Thorp investment stories. He certainly wasn't a one trick pony, his curiosity to learn and understand new things must have been off the charts.

 

https://miltonfmr.com/ed-thorps-remarkable-journey-from-beating-casinos-to-dominating-wall-street/

 

If I remember correctly, in some interview he said, that he put most of his money into BRK in the end, exchanging possible extra returns to a more free time:)

[ValueArb]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-17/top-japan-fund-bets-english-disclosure-to-lift-small-cap-shares?srnd=null

 

A top-performing Japanese small-cap fund is betting that pressure on companies to provide financial information in English will help spur demand for shares that foreign investors tend to avoid.

Gesiuris Asset Management’s Marc Garrigasait, who manages the Japan Deep Value Fund FI from Barcelona, got a head start by side stepping domestic brokers for information and spending months studying translated material to help find undervalued firms with liquid assets. This year it’s enabled his fund to beat 97% of its peers, according to Bloomberg data.

... Tokyo’s bourse operator said last week that it discussed mandating firms that are popular with overseas investors to provide English-language material. Less than half of the firms with a market cap lower than ¥25 billion ($167 million) offer investor relations presentations in English, compared with more than 80% for firms with a size of at least ¥100 billion, according to TSE figures. 

 

[Guest]

On 9/28/2023 at 5:47 PM, Sweet said:

The difference here, unlike the previous iterations of smart glasses, is they look good and they appear to be functional as actual glasses - not some dorky tech.  I don’t think it’s a phone replacement but I can imagine these being used.

 

This looks very....disappointing.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-learns-braid-hair-meta-ray-ban-smart-glasses-2023-10

[Sweet]

 

[gfp]

2 minutes ago, Sweet said:

 

I've been posting about this here for a while.  Why doesn't China just let the CNY decline vs the USD?  What is so important to them about defending this currency level?

 

The funny part is all the media outlets painting these declines in Chinese holdings of USD reserves as somehow a reflection of dollar weakness / de-dollarization when it is plainly the exact opposite - a dollar shortage in Asia.  (INR, CNY, JPY, same same)

[ValueArb]

7 minutes ago, gfp said:

 

I've been posting about this here for a while.  Why doesn't China just let the CNY decline vs the USD?  What is so important to them about defending this currency level?

 

The funny part is all the media outlets painting these declines in Chinese holdings of USD reserves as somehow a reflection of dollar weakness / de-dollarization when it is plainly the exact opposite - a dollar shortage in Asia.  (INR, CNY, JPY, same same)

 

I'm probably the least qualified to guess at this, but I'm assuming that much of their worker income is linked to that exchange rate. The weaker the Yuan gets the cheaper chinese assembly gets for foreign manufacturers but the less buying power the chinese workers have. When large groups in any society see their buying power diminish, even if it's much higher than it was decades ago, they tend to get restless.

[gfp]

Remember the US fascination with labeling China a "currency manipulator" because the US Government felt that China was pegging their currency too low in order to gain an economic advantage in exports / manufacturing?  Kind of funny how things go

[Sweet]

China were pegging their currency and making their economy more competitive.

 

China is a bit stuck in some respects, Western countries have become more suspicious and Western companies are finding it is easier and cheaper to make their goods elsewhere.

 

China wants to try and be more self reliant and consumer based which requires a stronger currency.

[Saluki]

 

 

Interesting piece by Wall Street Millennial about Stansbury Research. 

 

 

[Spekulatius]

Sarepta Risk and the FDA (Drugs that don’t work but get approved anyways due to pressure from orchestrated patient advocacy groups)

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnhempton/p/sarepta-risk-and-the-fda?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

[Yosemite]

Saluki -  yea very interesting

 

Tilson and Stansberry are the worse of the worse!      Tilson actually has the brains and ability to be decent if he wanted to and tries to come across as such,  but he goes low to fund his lifestyle.   Stansberry is just scum.

 

From Tilson's writing recently:

 

Porter is a big name in our space... some might argue the biggest. And right now, he's predicting some scary things ahead for the market:

• A huge global recession
• 10% unemployment
• Bank runs
• A 50% drop in the S&P 500

As my readers know, I don't share Porter's super-bearish outlook... but he makes some compelling points.

And, interestingly, we end up in nearly the same place to protect and grow your money in spite of the possible headwinds: focused on the stocks of high-quality businesses. He presents a compelling solution, which you can learn.

[ValueArb]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:48 PM, Yosemite said:

Saluki -  yea very interesting

 

Tilson and Stansberry are the worse of the worse!      Tilson actually has the brains and ability to be decent if he wanted to and tries to come across as such,  but he goes low to fund his lifestyle.   Stansberry is just scum.

 

From Tilson's writing recently:

 

Porter is a big name in our space... some might argue the biggest. And right now, he's predicting some scary things ahead for the market:

• A huge global recession
• 10% unemployment
• Bank runs
• A 50% drop in the S&P 500

As my readers know, I don't share Porter's super-bearish outlook... but he makes some compelling points.

And, interestingly, we end up in nearly the same place to protect and grow your money in spite of the possible headwinds: focused on the stocks of high-quality businesses. He presents a compelling solution, which you can learn.

 

I thought Porter Stansberry has been long outed as a total fraud? Why would Tilson reference him at all?

 

The only Porter I trust is Porter Collins.

[gfp]

23 minutes ago, ValueArb said:

 

I thought Porter Stansberry has been long outed as a total fraud? Why would Tilson reference him at all?

 

The only Porter I trust is Porter Collins.

 

Tilson works for Porter

[ValueArb]

6 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Tilson works for Porter

All becomes clear.

[ValueArb]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/billionaire-targeted-by-hindenburg-emerges-more-rich-and-unbowed

 

Quote

How One Billionaire Emerged Richer After Being Targeted by Short Seller Hindenburg
Freedom Holding’s stock rose to record days after revelations

Timur Turlov is still trying to make sense of how Hindenburg Research’s bet against his Kazakh brokerage backfired so much that at one point it left him with a paper windfall of more than $1 billion. The US short seller took aim at the Kazakh billionaire’s Freedom Holding Corp. in August with accusations that ranged from fraud and market manipulation to circumventing sanctions. Days later, the company’s stock surged to a record.

 

Object lesson how you don't target a company with a tiny float for a short. Turlov "only" owned 71% of Freedom, but when the stock price dropped after Hindenburg's report it looks like a bunch of friendly clients bought in to create a short squeeze.  It doesn't say he orchestrated it, but one could assume...