How's that retirement penson going?

[Heeb]

15 hours ago, hk blues said:

Slightly off topic but...

I'm not in any sense of the world a political person but I'll stand up and say well done to the UK Government's response to this pandemic - 80% of salary to all employees and self-employed covered. Absolutely well played.

We can cut through the BS and ask the important questions - do we provide free education, healthcare and welfare support for our population - yes.

We may not be the greatest nation on earth anymore, but we sure do a great job getting the basics more or less right.

And that's from a Jock!

That would never happen in the states, supply side economics or trickle down has ruled the day since the 80's, that's why some theorize that we have such a huge wealth gap.

[Heeb]

It's a good thing I didn't get back into that OIL ETN that I mentioned in a previous post, it just blew up, shutting it down at the end of the month, I think USO oil it's going to be next, big problems with the contango, probably won't recover from trying to sell current contracts, looks like they may be what caused crude to go negative.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2020/04/20/the-us-oil-etf-uso-is-the-culprit-behind-oils-massive-plunge/#5629a8b24e8c

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Heeb said:

It's a good thing I didn't get back into that OIL ETN that I mentioned in a previous post, it just blew up, shutting it down at the end of the month, I think USO oil it's going to be next, big problems with the contango, probably won't recover from trying to sell current contracts, looks like they may be what caused crude to go negative.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2020/04/20/the-us-oil-etf-uso-is-the-culprit-behind-oils-massive-plunge/#5629a8b24e8c

I was wondering if you did that.  Yes, very ugly.  People paying other people to take the oil.  I was watching it last night and it just turned negative when I went to bed, and I read in the morning it got clear down to -45 dollars per barrel!  I'm watching CNBC right now and it is 4.39 for the May contract, which ends at 2 pm eastern.  I think they said there is very little being traded now;  most of the contracts got taken care of yesterday.

I just closed out a day trade and made $667 on a $25,300 bet.  It is the trade I described previously.  Shorted the S&P 500 using SDS.  I have made money on 4 of 5 of these SDS day trades.  I always put in a trailing stop right away to limit my exposure.  With the only loser I limited my loss to $250.

Casinos are closed and I can gamble from home!

[Papa Carl]

I have always said there are two things to invest in here in the Philippines. Births and Deaths. There are about 4,500 births every day, and around 2,500 deaths every day. So anything to do with babies, and anything to do with funerals or cemeteries. I hope this relates to pensions or investments.

 

Papa Carl 

[Heeb]

9 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I was wondering if you did that.  Yes, very ugly.  People paying other people to take the oil.  I was watching it last night and it just turned negative when I went to bed, and I read in the morning it got clear down to -45 dollars per barrel!  I'm watching CNBC right now and it is 4.39 for the May contract, which ends at 2 pm eastern.  I think they said there is very little being traded now;  most of the contracts got taken care of yesterday.

I just closed out a day trade and made $667 on a $25,300 bet.  It is the trade I described previously.  Shorted the S&P 500 using SDS.  I have made money on 4 of 5 of these SDS day trades.  I always put in a trailing stop right away to limit my exposure.  With the only loser I limited my loss to $250.

Casinos are closed and I can gamble from home!

One question...how do you get to sleep at night? I would be a nervous wreck, I am...just from watching the wild oil ride for the last 2 weeks, and the markets only open just at bedtime.

I opened up my E trade account in mid 1999 just before I retired from the Navy in Guam, it was the wild wild west days of online trading. When I retired I bummed around Thailand for awhile, drinking during the day and hitting the internet cafe at night when the markets opened up, the wife had moved to the Philippines, and I was supposed to be looking for a job in the states. I was doing really well as a lot of people were, and at that time I was also going through a mini mid-life crisis brought on by retirement from the Navy after 20 years, I fancied that this was how I would live my life, then came the dot.com tech bubble burst in mid 2000, which also burst my bubble and brought me back down to earth and on an airplane to the states to look for work, and here I am 19 years later and finally really retired. I will say one thing good about day trading now verses back then, is the information available, and software, also the speed at which a trade can be made, also I remember doing my taxes and having to manually input page after page of trades which can now just be uploaded directly into your tax program.

[Tommy T.]

17 minutes ago, Heeb said:

also the speed at which a trade can be made,

Are you referring to internet speed in the Philippines, Heeb? 

Sorry... I just can't help myself now....

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tommy T.

[OnMyWay]

22 minutes ago, Heeb said:

One question...how do you get to sleep at night? I would be a nervous wreck, I am...just from watching the wild oil ride for the last 2 weeks, and the markets only open just at bedtime.

I opened up my E trade account in mid 1999 just before I retired from the Navy in Guam, it was the wild wild west days of online trading. When I retired I bummed around Thailand for awhile, drinking during the day and hitting the internet cafe at night when the markets opened up, the wife had moved to the Philippines, and I was supposed to be looking for a job in the states. I was doing really well as a lot of people were, and at that time I was also going through a mini mid-life crisis brought on by retirement from the Navy after 20 years, I fancied that this was how I would live my life, then came the dot.com tech bubble burst in mid 2000, which also burst my bubble and brought me back down to earth and on an airplane to the states to look for work, and here I am 19 years later and finally really retired. I will say one thing good about day trading now verses back then, is the information available, and software, also the speed at which a trade can be made, also I remember doing my taxes and having to manually input page after page of trades which can now just be uploaded directly into your tax program.

I used to do a lot of trading when I first moved here, before we had two babies.  Not day trades, but in and out more often than than what one would consider "long term" trading.  Then the kids came and I settled into a "leave it alone" stage, which had pluses and minus', like everything.  There were a few times I wished I had followed the market closer.

Since we are on lock down, I have so much time at home.  The kids go to bed about when the market opens, so I have my own time.  And during this wild ride, it has been interesting to watch.

Currently all of my trades are done within my tax deferred accounts, so I don't have to report anything to the IRS.  If I get my house sold, I will have some taxable cash to invest, but I will probably stick with very conservative investments.  Also, most trades are free at Fidelity now, so that helps a bit.

[Heeb]

On the subject of oil again, we had some news coming out of Iran in the last week with patrol boats (remember the gulf of Tonkin) and today this article of an Iranian military satellite launch. The problems with Iran started with oil in the 1950's, and they better be careful or they could end up being a costly solution to falling oil prices, and a way to save the U.S. shale oil industry. I'm talking about some type of sustained strike on Iran that chokes the supply coming out of the Persian Gulf. Far fetched? maybe...but don't underestimate what the powers that be will do when it comes to the price of a barrel of crude.

[Heeb]

On 4/22/2020 at 4:43 PM, Heeb said:

On the subject of oil again, we had some news coming out of Iran in the last week with patrol boats (remember the gulf of Tonkin) and today this article of an Iranian military satellite launch. The problems with Iran started with oil in the 1950's, and they better be careful or they could end up being a costly solution to falling oil prices, and a way to save the U.S. shale oil industry. I'm talking about some type of sustained strike on Iran that chokes the supply coming out of the Persian Gulf. Far fetched? maybe...but don't underestimate what the powers that be will do when it comes to the price of a barrel of crude.

And right on cue...6 hours after I post this we have this:

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/22/president-President-orders-navy-destroy-iranian-boats-harass-us-vessels.html

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Mike J
replaced broken URL

[earthdome]

Friday my financial advisor closed out the PUT positions in my account, that allowed me to sell the index funds in the account but at the PUT price from before the market meltdown. PUTs are kind of like an insurance policy in case of a bear market. So my retirement accounts are only down 3% from their peak back in early FEB and now are mostly cash with some gold related investments. My financial advisor is patiently looking for good opportunities to reinvest.