[Coronita]

How do you short a freshly minted IPO stock? There’s not that much float and there are so many regulatory hurdles for shorting right after an IPO, that most retail speculators would not have access to those limited shares in a meaningful quantity. How did you folks that said your shorted right after Snap went public did you manage to pull it off? What brokerage firm did you use that were allowing you to short right after an IPO?

And I don’t think you pay 18% interest just from shorting unless you the short position blew up, the stock price went up past your short price AND you don’t have enough money in your account to cover the paper loss. That difference between what you shorted at , and the current market price (which is higher) is like a margin loan.. At least that’s how my broker works. I never had to pay margin interest when I was on the right side of a short. And even when a short position had a loss, so long as I had enough cash in the account to cover that unrealized loss, there was no margin interest charges too.

[Coronita]

Brian, you know damn well you started this thread with no real intention of discussing the state of the economy in an objective fashion. You know damn well you are fishing for attention and trying to start another political thread to talk about how horrible Trump is , using the recession as yet another example.

Just about everyone can see through this because it’s the same pattern. You come over here and resurrect a few threads see was sort of reaction you can get, and then go back to trying to talk about left versus right. You then disappear for a few days, to let the dust settle so your don’t get kicked off the blogs again… And then you do the same thing again on different threads. You did such a bad job the first time, you got kicked off this blog the first time.. and now you are back and basically doing the same thing except this time, you come post a few threads. disappear a few days and then come back and do the same thing… That’s why every top thread has your name with your last post. And why most people stopped responding to any thread you touch. They know it’s you and only you and they could care less about what you think. let alone take your seriously…. You lost your audience a long time ago….you’ve just haven’t come to terms with it yet. But at least you are responding to ,”Brian” now.

..and you can’t stand being wrong….

[Coronita]

I opened your last reply Brian, saw how long it was and decided it was not worth my time to actually try to read it. If you want to summarize it for me in a cliff notes version or can convince someone else to on your behalfz I can reexamine it.. The effort to try to actually read, understand, and respond…frankly… is not worth my time. Using a line I repeat many times. I’m sorry, no thank you.. I would only spend that much time and effort if I was actually paid to do it… and frankly, you can’t afford me.

[Coronita]

I don’t know how to read Brian . remember most conservatards don’t have that pedigree degree from a prestigious Ivy League school that you progressive elitist have and keep talking about ….Oh wait…. Doh!

[Coronita]

Brian.. If you keep moving out your recession prediction by 1-2 years each year you were WRONG with your prediction…eventually you will be correct… Not due to any mental acumen with your prediction….just pure coincidence….similar to a broken clock being able to show the correct time twice a day eventually.

But by all means, given your unhappiness with the current political climate keep fishing and resurrecting old threads to try to get positive affirmation and therapy that apparently is very important to you. Normally, I’d say spend more time with friends and family, but do what you need to do to convince yourself and get the positive affirmation you need. Meanwhile, the world continues to turn and life goes on…

[Coronita]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chipmaker-tsmc-raises-capex-5-082647723.html

Given that TSM is one of largest and most advanced contract fabs out there, there does not appear to be a slowdown considering they are expanding capex spending by $5billion. All this demand fueled by demand for consumer electronics..

Side note… TSM’s strong quarter was almost obvious. There were several articles and speculation weeks before that many companies were having their contract lead time for 7nm delayed from 1month to 6month, and this fueled concerns about supply shortages at some companies like AMD. Since TSMs 7nm is shared between large customers like Qualcomm, Apple, AMD, etc…. Those delays and shortages indicated TSM was running at full capacity.. IE business is good, increasing consumer electronics demand…..I did mention this a few weeks ago… But hey, don’t let extreme pessimism of current political climate get in the way of that warped perception of doom and gloom as a means of mental therapy.

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Apple Inc supplier TSMC <2330.TW> raised its 2019 capital spending plan by up to $5 billion on Thursday and forecast a nearly 10% rise in fourth-quarter revenue on strong demand for faster mobile chips and new high-end smartphones.

The bullish forecast by the world’s top contract chipmaker should ease investor fears of a global tech slowdown, as the world economic growth outlook has dimmed largely due to a 15-month trade war between the United States and China

[Coronita]

interesting read.

https://riabiz.com/a/2019/10/10/after-vanguard-instigated-commission-war-in-june-charles-chuck-schwab-steps-up-to-challenge-in-brilliant-counterstroke-that-paints-bulls-eye-on-custody-rivals-in-zero-sum-showdown

[Coronita]

[quote=Hobie]I’ve been using these guys for years. Local as in LA and they stock all the bits.

Home

A TDS (total dissolved solids)tester is handy to tell when the membrane needs to be replaced.

Mr Tony

Remember, in a RO system the membrane does the heavy lifting. The first two filters help scrub chlorine and solids to help extend the life of the membrane. Filters after the membrane are to polish the water for taste. Including adding an alkaline minerals, if you wish.

(now you can make your own Kangen water!. those who don’t know Kangen is a >$4,000 machine to make alkaline water. sold through multilevel marketing pitches)

The UV light is not necessary for city water, maybe well water. IMHO[/quote]

speaking of Kangen water and those $4000 systems. I was over at someone’s house that bought one recently. Claims the water is really good. I didn’t have the heart to say it, but I’m sorry, it still tasted like tap water. Unlike the $100 RO system that seems to do a pretty good job making tap tastes more like drinking water.

[Coronita]

I think I got this figured out….I wasn’t trying to chase a “better” or designer system. What I was trying to do was reduce my future operating costs for a comparable system.

My new house had a 3 stage RO water filter system: EcoWater 175…
I’ve never heard of this company, and the system looks pretty similar to ones made by Kenmore, Whirpool, and EcoPure, and the replacement filters and membrane all looked the same, so I thought they were interchangeable.

Nope, I was wrong. The EcoWater system uses a slightly thicker thread on the pre/post filter so that you can only buy the filters from EcoWater, not anyone else…. That annoyed me, so I looked into replacing the entire system with something similar….

I found that the EcoPure ECOP30 system, Whirlpool WHER25, Whirpool WHAR055, kenmore ultrafilter 650. and kenmore ultrafilter 450 all are all very similar systems with the same post and pre filters and membranes that can be used interchangeably. There is no difference in performance in those systems and the EcoWater system, as there is nothing special about the different filter housing, and they all use the same filter type. EcoWater was just an ahole company to make their filter thread different so they could vendor lock their customers.

So I ended up buying an EcoPure water system, since it looked similar to the EcoWater system, was the second cheapest price, The cheapest priced system that uses the same filter was the Whirpool WHAR055, which looked really flimsy…..

All I had to do was replace the EcoWater filter housing with the EcoPure housing. Everything else, all the hose fittings, tank, etc was pretty much the same…
The future running cost will be much lower and more readily available generic filters and membrane since gther are 5 different RO systems that share the same filter/membrane design, unlike the EcoWater that intentionally changed the thread of the filters to vendor lock customers into there own branded filters….

The membrane is good for 3 years, and the pre/post filters are around $30 for both, and I think can last for about 1.5 years given my usage…. Score! EcoWater’s replacement costs are nearly double. Screw you EcoWater.

I don’t need anything more fancy than 3 stage..

Anyone want an older EcoWater 175 system????Makes a great doorstop.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]They’re making money off of either margin fees or not giving the most favorable buy/sell prices. Possibly both. I’d honestly rather pay a commission and get the most favorable prices than have the fees be hidden and non-transparent.[/quote]

Lol… Unless you have several millions or your family does, you will never get the most favorable prices….

Folks with a large account or with family with a large family account always gets placed at the front of the queue. Doesn’t matter unless you day trade.

[Coronita]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Not big into trading these days (maybe 20 years ago LOL).

But it seems they must be making something off the transaction.[/quote]

They make money with all the accounts with sizeble deposits.

[Coronita]

[quote=Hobie]I’ve been using these guys for years. Local as in LA and they stock all the bits.

Home

A TDS (total dissolved solids)tester is handy to tell when the membrane needs to be replaced.

Mr Tony

Remember, in a RO system the membrane does the heavy lifting. The first two filters help scrub chlorine and solids to help extend the life of the membrane. Filters after the membrane are to polish the water for taste. Including adding an alkaline minerals, if you wish.

(now you can make your own Kangen water!. those who don’t know Kangen is a >$4,000 machine to make alkaline water. sold through multilevel marketing pitches)

The UV light is not necessary for city water, maybe well water. IMHO[/quote]

thank you

[Coronita]

[quote=bibsoconner]My apologies Flu. For some reason I thought all your kids were in college. I’m trying to make you older than you are :).

Like you, I’ve been pretty happy with Vanguard for my own retirement and mutual funds so I just went with them for the 529s. I went with the “age” funds where they start out almost all in stock and now (for my 12th grader) are almost all in cash/bonds.

Like you, I’m not particularly interested in gaming the system. I’m too lazy for those games and I think the money is needed for those less fortunate. I don’t consider getting residency in another state gaming the system. Besides living there for four years, based on my experience, one often ends up settling down near the university or grad school. If the kid has a condo in that state, he/she really does have a vested interest in that state and is paying into it (ex: property taxes).

However, my brief research indicates that it is not trivial to establish residency for purposes of in state tuition. I’d be interested to hear from folks whose kids are recently in university if they considered getting residency in another state and if they were successful.[/quote]

I don’t have a problem of taking advantage of every tax benefit legally 🙂 That said. You do bring up a good point. Hypothetically if my kid goes to a local school, could I rent a condo to my kid, and have they cost of rent be deducted from my kids 529k account? Obviously not above the amount that is how much room and board would be at the university dorms.

Stay focus on personal finance. Short of the rest of the world is exploding, no point worrying about it.

[Coronita]

Some states offer a state tax incentive to participate in the 529plan of their state. However, for California, no advantage exists, so for practical reasons, any of them will do… There are websites that rank the performance of 529 plans…

For example,
https://www.savingforcollege.com/529-plans/performance-rankings

However, I think more important than which plan “is better” is how are you allocating your investments in the 529k. I chose the Nevada plan simply because it’s run by Vanguard, and I am familiar with Vanguard funds and indexes, and generally I have been happy with them elsewhere. So I stuck to something I’m familiar with. Some people really like the CA ScholarShare plan. Probably good too..

But again, imho, it’s all about the allocation. We had an incredible run if you just allocated most of it to Vanguard total stock market or Vanguard Index 500 + Vanguard Total International Stock Market Index… I’m afraid, though the trend will not continue indefinitely, and especially as your kid gets closer to college (within a 7 year window), it’s time to slowly change the allocation to be “safer”… I’ve been slowly moving out of stock market funds into some corporate bonds, some inflation protected index funds, some income funds, and some cash based funds. So I’m am about 50% in the stock market right now for the 529k’s. That would have happened, irrespective of who is in office, whether we had a trade war or not, or any other external events.

It’s a strategy that people with 401k/IRAs have been preeching to me about… as you get closer to using it, take less risks and put more things into something more predictable that won’t swing wildly. I think for a 529k account ,especially if you only plan on using it for 1 kid at one time, it’s even more so the rule. Assuming you start when your kid turns 1, you have about 18 years. Statistically we have a good run at the market maybe for 10 year period followed by a downturn.. So if you milked it for the first 10 years, imho there is an increasing odd the next 10 years won’t be that great in the same investments… Since I had a pretty decent returns for almost 18 years between my account and my kids, I am over due to take a beating, so I’m not expecting things to continue. It’s time to plot a “safer” course for me. If you have more than 1 kids, then you have a largere timeframe to recover from prolonged downturn, since if you can’t’ take advantage of a large capital gains for your first kid, you can roll it over to an account for your second, third, or four… or their kids eventually… or their kid’s private K-12 now….

The magic number to beat is 4% per year. That’s roughly the average annual increase in college expenses and that has not changed.

[Coronita]

My kid is in middle school so I don’t have answers about residency because we haven’t considered much yet. started my kids 529k and custodial accounts much earlier, before the first birthday..There was also a point in time I was planning on going back to school for an MBA, so I had a 529k for myself before I decided not to go back. So there is a rollover that goes on…

Exactly how you rollover matters if your kid is somewhat eligible for financial aid.. It doesn’t matter that much if they are not. What matters is rolling over between beneficiaries are subject to gift tax rules… Which don’t matter if you stay under the limit per rollover per year or do t plan on exceeding the lifetime exclusion limit.

I am in the Nevada/vanguard plan because i generally like vanguard funds. I think the ScholarShare plan is ok, but it doesnt matter really which one. except I was tempted to get the free cash offer(s)

[Author]

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