Highest Rated Comments


whenyouknowyouknow25 karma

why were you put in a coma?

did you have any dreams or out-of-body experiences?

did it feel like a month long coma?

sorry for all the questions but I am pretty curious about this

whenyouknowyouknow20 karma

I think he gambles, but i think his representation of himself, his 'work' and how X is better than Y is absolutely factually incorrect.

He can gamble all he wants, but when he posts about telling people about how blackjack gambling is safer than investing (gambling) in the stock market, well now he is just spewing misinformation and being a problem.

let me break this down further because i am bored at the moment:

I work in the financial industry, I do keep a healthy portfolio of stock that earns about 4-6% a year consistently. I will not preach about good and bad stocks I will only explain what the stock market is, and why it is safer than gambling at a casino.

step 1) understand the market

essentially the stock market is a version of a casino, your 'bet' is considered buying shares of a company. For ease of understanding, lets say I buy stock in apple. Each share is valued at say $10 (it's not currently but for numbers sake let it be) I go ahead and place a $100 'bet' on Apple.

Which means I just bought 10 shares of apple at $10. I bought this because I feel that over time, apple company is going to sell a lot of product, make a lot of money, and do well as a company. Analysts will say something similar, except they are more/less like the booky that sets an over/under line. so the financial analysts says "yes we agree, apple should be doing well, and we think that in the next 3 months, their stock should be at $12 because we expect them to turn $40 Billion in profit"

so three months pass, and apple releases their financial results and guess what? apple exceeded expectations, they made $50 billion in profit, and therefore, they beat the financial analysts expectations and theoretically, their stock price is worth $13 per share.

well if you decide to sell your shares or "color out" you just made $30 ($3 x 10 shares)

ok so now you know how the game works (kind of) of course there are intricacies, such as derivatives, hedges, bonds etc. but for sake of introduction, lets stick with the basics

step 2) understand the companies (bets), and risk (odds)

picture a roulette table, you can bet on red or black, or you can bet on an exact number to come up. Coca-Cola is red or black, and Herba life is choosing one number to hit.

what I am trying to say is that coca cola, a mega company, a company that is not ever going to go out of business is a pretty safe bet (like red or black) coincidentally coca cola stock may give you safety, but they are not likely to bring crazy returns.

herba life is the opposite, company could be huge tomorrow, could be bankrupt today, your investment could triple, or it can vanish in a moment's notice.

not only is risk measured company by company, but also by industry, meaning, a the tech industry is considered high risk, where as industrial products, may be lower risk as the industry is less volatile.

so yes, in a way, stock market is gambling but here comes the caveat:

step 3) the caveat

with casino gambling, you have no idea what it is next, and the house always has the edge on you. With thr stock market, a tiny bit of common sense, and understanding business can lead you to make smarter picks (bets)

for example, you are a gadget nerd, you know that for the past couple years, the iphone market share is being slowly eaten by android, and windows and possibly even black berry.

so the iphone sales are dropping, but android sales are increasing....maybe a purchase in android phone manufacturers is in the future.

and for reason #3, and part of reason #2 is why stock market is 100% safer than any style of casino gambling.

I could go on further if anyone wants but i am trying to keep this short.

whenyouknowyouknow20 karma

do you remember the event's leading up to the point where you were put into a coma?