Investing (aka GameStonk and other gambling events)

This still sounds like a negotiation, just one where you’re getting fucked.

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So if somehow the market holds at this ridiculous level until November … Trump is -10000 or -1000000 to win?

Biden might just endorse him at that point, he loves telling people to vote for someone else anyway.

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Just wanted to drop a PSA here for the folks who are someday looking for PSLF. The wife just got off the phone with the myfedloan.org people. Apparently there’s a provision in the stimulus law that puts everyone with fed student loans on special forbearance for 6 months. During that time no payments need to be made, but those 6 months where you would have normally made payments count towards your 120 cumulative month total. Whether this is actually true remains to be seen but it’s what their letter to her seems to indicate and what she was told over the phone.

Not a chance. You still have to make 120 qualifying payments. I’d bet my life on it.

Never say never. The problem with slapping together a $2t bill in 3 days is weird stuff will become law.

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I hope it happens!

I don’t have anything to say I just need to make a post because I have anachronistic on ignore and the forum software keeps telling me I have one unread post, even though I’ve read it many times now…

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I moved my retirement money into a stable bond fund as something of a test between now and May or June. If things keep gaining for no appreciable reason and I miss out on another 10 or 15% and things go back to what they were in February I’m going to concede that the game is indeed rigged, put it in a growth mutual fund, and look once a year.

I’m freerolling.

The other thing about doing this is it is a bit of a life hedge. If we are truly fucked you make money. If we aren’t then thats good too even if you miss out on some of the upswing.

How do you figure you’re free-rolling if you miss out on gains? When did you move your money from stocks (presuming) into the bond fund?

In my mind the worst thing you can do is miss out on a jump because you may never get that back. As Riverman has posted - buy and hold pretty much always works eventually (until it doesn’t).

Which is why I was so quick to get back into the market a few weeks ago. I missed some of the drop and wanted to make sure I didn’t screw around and miss the run back up - even if I thought it was more than likely to keep going back down. My plan was just to ride it out - since I won’t need that money for 9 years.

I mean, I know it’s at least sort of rigged because the market rises based on statements from a White House that everyone knows lies through their teeth taken as gospel. Very efficient markets.

But like, the ripple effect from this is real and obvious and will be to everyone. Can’t wait for a chicken shortage because no one is working those Perdue factory farms. If it’s just emperor and his clothes stuff then nothing matters.

“Don’t fight the Fed” is one maxim that’s proven true over and over and over.

My biggest concern is the day the music stops and we can’t just print our way out of any jam anymore. At that point it’s pretty much total collapse, and quickly. I just hope I’m dead or old enough to only need cash and have it all in Euros or something. Not that I think the US won’t drag down Europe as well. But maybe that buys me a few more years.

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It’s a mental freeroll. Either I make my gtd 2% in the bond fund for 3 months while things crash and burn like they SHOULD and I do better on a relative basis, or I miss teh gainz but get armed with the knowledge that the game is completely rigged in favor of “growth” for the next 40 years of my investing life.

It’s a freeroll because I win both ways.

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I will tell you right now the market is rigged for growth. 2008 pretty much sealed that. It’s just a question of when the printing press stops working. Trump is accelerating the timeline bigly.

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If we have rolling stay at home orders until a vaccine hits I think the point we can’t print our way out of it has a non zero chance of happening in the next 18 months.

Which bond fund are you in? Don’t think there are many with guaranteed 2% return.

TRP B. Nothing is gtd, and it’s something of a low performer over time for bond funds in from my short researching history, but it’s the only one offered in my 401k.

Just the thing to be careful about is assuming that bond funds purchased when interest rates are low will generate a positive return. If you buy the bond fund and then interest rates rise, there will be capital losses that could wipe out interest income. Of course there is a lot of downward pressure on interest rates so maybe don’t lose any sleep over it.

Yeah we’re supposedly freerolling until June when her loans should be forgiven. I’ll believe it when I see it. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they use this against us even though the forbearance is not something we chose.