Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On Fri, 27 Dec 2024, Lars Poulsen wrote:

On 23/12/2024 21:25, rbowman wrote:

I read an article this morning about Bitcoin EFTs that went right over my
head. It reminded me of the brilliant scheme of buying derivatives based
on insurance payouts for tranches of mortgages likely to default.

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On 2024-12-27, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

I got quite deeply involved in stocks shares and funds at one time.
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- Anyone who tells you how to make a fortune begs the question of why
they didn't make one themselves and not write a book.
- telling punters to buy a stock is the last refuge of someone who
bought early and just wants to make another percent before it nosedives.
-at least 50% of funds do worse than the stock market index. If you dont
know which ones, buy a tracker.
- physical gold is generally at least a way to keep place with
inflation. Apparently a loaf of bread today costs the same in gold as it
did in Roman times...
- If you dont want to spend your days with your nose glued to the market
data, find a fund manager who does, and let him take his 1%.
- If there is anything more rigged than FX I have yet to find it.
- Futures and options for 'domestic' investors are rigged so the bank
always wins. Unless you do straight forward futures trading at the raw
level, dont touch it.
-  aim for about 20% ROI and be happy when you get ten.

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This matches exactly my experience. 100% agree with all of these. Figured
these out more or less in the order listed.
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Around the time I turned 50, I realized I was going to need to boost my
retirement savings. I thought Ï work in internet technology, I know
which are the good and growing companies in my field, I will buy some of
that.
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Then 2000 happened, and my Cisco, Osicom, Juniper etc stocks all took a
real nosedive.
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So I figured that I needed to diversify. Bought some Ford Motor, United
Airlines, Robinson/May dept stores, ... only to see every single one
descend into near bankruptcy.
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So I headed for the SP500 funds, and have done quite well with that.
There have been some dips, but always recovered spectacularly. My one
ïndividual" stock is Berkshire (Buffett). But that is really more of a
very well-managed, diversified investment fund.
>

I started when I was 16, I think I more or less settled on my current method in my late twenties. It's worked well for two decades, so I'm sticking with it. Usually during a recession I go down 30%-40% and then at least triple from the bottom at the next high, and on and on it goes.
The only timing I do is to stop buying once I think that we've reached a high, that can be anything from 1 to 3.5 years so far of waiting. When things crash, I've saved up quite a nice sum, and start to buy. Here is where it does take a bit of tolerance to psychological pain to keep buying as the stock market goes down, then it turns, continue to buy, until I feel that the next high is approaching, then I start to save.
And of course I always reinvest my dividends. I am very dividend heavy in my portfolio.
Some contrarian bets that went wrong were IT, Ericsson, debt mgmt companies. Some contrarian bets that went right were oil, banks, gambling and industrial air conditioning.