Investing
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I'm editing this now and it has gotten significantly longer than I expected. I'm still learning a lot myself, so this is mainly some guesses I've made and put to practice about how to spend money and invest.
I'm not risk-averse, which is to say, I'm OK with seeing my net-worth decline by, for example, 80% in two years if I see a problem being solved by the asset/product/organization. Eg. Bitcoin in 2017-2018, 20k to 3k, ~20k last year, currently ~48k). That's the case with Bitcoin, and that's the case with my other investments. My stock portfolio is currently pretty flat.
There's all kinds of options to choose from, there's "options" ("puts" and "calls", lol), stocks and ETFs, treasuries/bonds, crypto related stuff, commodities, realty, art, fx etc etc etc. I only currently have access to what's on CashApp, which I could use my passport to sign up for, and crypto (Bitcoin).
I don't want to be nauseating about this shit, but again I'm very influenced by Karl Popper and David Deutsch when it comes to investing. I won't get into specifics, I already have enough. BUT, if you're looking for an authority figure similarly influenced by Popper, see: George Soros (worth a measly 8.6 billion, the face behind BlackRock and The Open Society Foundation). Here's a long article about Popper and George Soros and how the philosophy influences his investing: https://indarktimes.medium.com/https-medium-com-indarktimes-karl-popper-to-george-soros-open-society-and-its-frenemies-4c62e20cc6b5
And, for good balance, here's an argument against it:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/06/the-george-soros-philosophy-and-its-fatal-flaw
I'm not trying to be George Soros, and I definitely don't want to be, but there is some overlap in philosophy.One of my goals for the next year is to set up a US based Fidelity account to reallocate my investments and get access to more options (eg. the Sprott ETF, see below). But ANYWAY, here's where my money's at in order of volume and, more importantly, WHY (putting my money where my mouth is):
1. Bitcoin. It's a voluntary resilient global economy that doesn't rely on the existing nation state security model. It's also a way to voluntarily extend the West's "Tradition of Criticism" to the world, in that way it could even be viewed as a military weapon to undermine authoritarian states.
2. Nuclear ETFs, stocks. Uranium-235 is the third most energy dense source of energy in the known universe. For context, you'd need 25 million 300-watt solar panels and 262 mega-batteries to replace a nuclear plant. It's getting safer, better engineered, and the market is adapting to future demand with the Sprott ETF. I really want some Sprott, but I don't have access to it yet, I just have Cameco and an energy ETF that's on CashApp (a US based Bitcoin wallet that also provides access to fictionalized stocks and ETFs).
3. ARK ETF. See. I like the explanations that Cathy Woods et al have provided, I don't think I can improve on them. The one thing I will add is that if you take identity politics and cancel culture out of Tesla and Elon Musk, SpaceX is looking like the winner of Space Race 2.0. SpaceX isn't publicly traded, but Tesla is, so it's a meme stock. Tesla also owns a shit load of Bitcoin, so the pricing of ARK is going to be volatile. To me, buying ARK can be a way of saying to the world: "Stability and stasis are dangerous". Here's a list of other disruptive stocks I'm thinking about slowly getting into:
- Moderna (They are pushing medicine right now, IMHO, they are perhaps the most likely to find a universal Coronavirus vaccine and be able distribute it at scale)
- VOTE ETF (Goal is to get seats on the board at massive companies, then turn the board vote into a representative vote for all ETF investors.
- Merck (they are during quantum medicine research in collaboration with the part of Oxford where Deutsch works, I think)
- Beyond Meat
- AMD
- Apple (M1 chip is so far ahead of the competition it's mind boggling)
- QuantumScape
- Social Capital Hedosophia VI
- Nvidia
- Exxon Mobile (they are slowly going to pivot to nuclear, imho)
- Amazon (Blue Origin)
- Live Nation Entertainment
- VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment
- SoFi
- Virgin Galactic (meh, no SpaceX, but)
- Alphabet (don't bet against the big guys, they have a significant quantum and AI division)
- Toast
- Twilio
- Costco
- Block
- Robinhood
- Opendoor
- Clover Health Investments
3. Cash for Emergencies and New Shit. People want products to be cheaper and their savings to be worth more. People also want new an innovative things, they want their lives to be easier. Everyone's a genius with inspiration but the ninety-nine percent perspiration gets in the way. A new dryer, a new automatic vacuum, a new smart watch, yes, they can help with that perspiration! Old products get cheaper with innovation, but innovative new products (which speculative demand), are going to be more expensive. Using cash to buy stuff is a way to invest in the economy, especially if you buy new wiz-bang stuff that's never existed before. I like to allocate a non-trivial amount of money just to buying new interesting stuff. So, on top of having enough money for daily expenses for six months easily accessible money in case of emergency, I also allocate money to spend on things that I want to be cheaper for everyone in the future but are expensive now. Some things I've bought with this in mind:
- Apple Products (AirPod pros, brand new overpriced iPhones, new iPads, etc)
- Smart home stuff (lights, automated sockets and shit)
- Tracking stuff (like TILE)
- Preordering new overpriced Hardcover books and stuff
- Apps and subscriptions for new services (my favorite recent one was Marvel Unlimited--the "Infinity Comics," series have been great)
- Crypto stuff (just for fun, I don't plan on making money off it) like a Bitcoin full Node for weird "Web 3.0" stuff
- Rommba vacuum
- Oculus Quest 2 (check out this VR piano learning tool someone made!!! hoping to try that out next week when he DMs me with access to the software he wrote)
- etc etc.
I did this even before I was as well off as I am now, and I think to a certain extent everyone does. And sometimes people judge others for the New Shit they spend money on, and I really dislike that cynicism and elitism (eg. '*scoff* it'll just end up in a landfill') about what New Shit is good or bad. I think I have said stuff like that in the past, like especially with fashion, for example, and I realized it's another form of technology (knowledge growth), and just because I'm not interested in it, or don't get the value in it, doesn't mean I can't benefit from others investing their time, money, and energy in it. That said, I find it frustrating that Junko spends big money on shit that just ends up in a pile after uniqlo copies and mass produces it 4 years later. lol
ANYWAY, again, I'm hoping to up the amount I have in the stock and ETF zone next year--but personally, I think we're still in a Bitcoin bull cycle, so I don't want to think about paying taxes on selling some of my Bitcoin just so I can re-invest immediately. I also think we're, as always, going to have another huge crash, eventually. A lot of socialist perspectives turn the crash into a crisis, and it is! BUT, I think that if everyone knew WHY these crashes happen cyclically, and how they are related to the growth of knowledge, there would be less suffering.
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Happy New Year
I have a question, what do I basically need to have to be able to start trading/investing? I mean accounts for funds, brokers, the best access to markets etc. Excuse if it sounds lazy, but I'm just trying to cut through the wealth of information that's online and get to a nitty gritty place to begin from. -
Originally posted by Richard:
... what do I basically need to have to be able to start trading/investing?Might be where I'd start if I got the investor's bug.
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A friend of mine uses Interactive Trading. He's from New Zealand, so he doesn't have access to US fintech apps (Robinhood). I've also heard EToro is OK for UK citizens. BUT these are assuming you want to do day trading. Day trading is gambling, IMHO.
If you just want to sit on some investments there's TONS of options for UK citizens. Of the platforms here, for example, Vanguard had the most capital inflows in 2021--it's also probably one of the most recognized brand names in investing. Before Vanguard, actually, there was this idea that you couldn't just "beat the market" by buying a little of everything--Vanguard INVENTED index funds.
Anyway, this isn't an advertisement for Vanguard, lol. I don't use them. My dad did. It's pretty Boomer if you ask me, lol. Lots of gatekeepers holding back progress.
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When trying to sign up for accounts I'm getting asked for tax identification numbers, mobile's registered in the UK, and/or permanent UK addresses. The address could be wangled, but I don't pay tax in the UK, so I don't have a TIN. Did I hear you American Dutchmen still pay tax of some sort in the US? Does that give you access to US based sites? I'm thinking I might need some kind of side step to access UK based sites, or just do it through a Japanese site?
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I just asked a friend (Gerard, you may know him). He's from New Zealand and has a somewhat similar tax situation to you. He recommends Interactive Brokers.
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