Investing

[oblong]

He's flailing.  Making it up as he goes along.

 

[Tigerbomb13]

He’s so in over his head that it’s both fascinating and cringy to watch. 

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

🍿

[oblong]

a friend and I go back and forth on Musk.  I wondered what would happen if every employee declilned, and suddenly he has 0 employees but has 3 months severence to pay.  He thinks oddly enough that Musk has planned for that.

 

[Screwball]

Deming has only one m, not two.

If you hate Musk and Twitter, don't buy the stock. 🙂

[chasfh]

Yeah, I still think he's trying to destroy the company.

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Screwball said:

Deming has only one m, not two.

If you hate Musk and Twitter, don't buy the stock. 🙂

Spelling has never been a forte, typing even less so! 

I can't buy or short twitter stock so it's not a question. Again, I have no personal interest in the man, but I find the situation bizarre and interesting. I think the service is useful so I'd as soon not see it fail completely.

It will be a classic case study it Twitter goes under, a spectacular one if he somehow saves it given the current trajectory.

Apparently folks that do hold Tesla stock are in court trying to claw back the compensation he's taking from Tesla while spending all his time at Twitter.

The other reason it has to be of general interest as an investment topic is that a complete meltdown of twitter could draw a government response that might affect us all. Twitter is one piece of tech that Congress-criters do know oh so well.

Edited November 16, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Screwball]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Spelling has never been a forte, typing even less so! 

I can't buy or short twitter stock so it's not a question. Again, I have no personal interest in the man, but I find the situation bizarre and interesting. I think the service is useful so I'd as soon not see it fail completely.

It will be a classic case study it Twitter goes under, a spectacular one if he somehow saves it given the current trajectory.

Apparently folks that do hold Tesla stock are in court trying to claw back the compensation he's taking from Tesla while spending all his time at Twitter.

The other reason it has to be of general interest as an investment topic is that a complete meltdown of twitter could draw a government response that might affect us all. Twitter is one piece of tech that Congress-criters do know oh so well.

I was forced to study Deming over the years. I think it is great stuff. Once you are programmed into that mindset, it makes so many more things we see today make sense.  Like a window into the mechanism and process of how the world works.

Since this is an investment thread, should we be buying TSLA, or shorting? I would start with chart porn.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Screwball

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Screwball said:

I was forced to study Deming over the years. I think it is great stuff. Once you are programmed into that mindset, it makes so many more things we see today make sense.  Like a window into the mechanism and process of how the world works.

Since this is an investment thread, should we be buying TSLA, or shorting? I would start with chart porn.

I think I've noted here before that I think Tesla is overvalued, but I have no stomach for high flyers anyway. I'm a plodder investment wise!

[Deleterious]

A lawsuit had been filled against a bunch of celebrities that promoted FTX.

Shaq, Larry David, Steph Curry, and Tom Brady are some of the bigger ones named in the lawsuit.

[Screwball]

14 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

A lawsuit had been filled against a bunch of celebrities that promoted FTX.

Shaq, Larry David, Steph Curry, and Tom Brady are some of the bigger ones named in the lawsuit.

Let's go down that rabbit hole please.  HA!!!!!!!

[Screwball]

To further that thought. I never paid any attention to the crypto stuff. I thought it was a scam. The only thing that seemed to have any intrinsic value (used loosely) was the block chain technology. I have no idea how that works.

The block chain should prove transactions (as I understand it) just like our CUSIP numbers trading on the NYSE.

Now it seems we have "issues" (imagine that) so it would make sense to look under the hood and see what happened and why? But that's not what we do.

[Screwball]

Adding again; we don't go down the rabbit hole of CUSIP numbers either.  How stupid of me.

[chasfh]

Can a commercial spokesperson contracted by a company be held liable for the company’s malfeasance? They’re just hired hands, and not permanent employees.

[oblong]

Can they just sue Angel Hernandez?

[chasfh]

Oops ...

[Tigeraholic1]

You don't say.

 

 

[oblong]

I know it's anecdotal and not the same thing but there's a new house being built on nearly every residential street in Dearborn. Certain cultures have no qualms about throwing up a 4,000 square foot home in a block of 1000 sq foot homes.  Not sure where they are getting the workers.  They move fast.

 

 

[Jim Cowan]

The house across the street from me is spending $100,000 on a back yard project, and have hired the Keystone Kops to implement it.  Usually at least 4 guys, a forklift, a dump truck, and they have been there for 7 weeks.

[chasfh]

Every business building they are tearing down in the Big City here, they're replacing with "luxury" residential condos running in the mid- to high six figures and targeted to first-time buyers. This has been going on for years and many units built in the three-to-five-year-ago range still sit empty, along with practically 100% of their first-floor storefronts. I've long wondered whether there is more than just the hope of making a profit selling them that's motivating the feverish pace of building—specifically, whether local government grant money is factoring into guaranteed profits for builders.

[Tigerbomb13]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

I know it's anecdotal and not the same thing but there's a new house being built on nearly every residential street in Dearborn. Certain cultures have no qualms about throwing up a 4,000 square foot home in a block of 1000 sq foot homes.  Not sure where they are getting the workers.  They move fast.

 

 

This is happening in Hazel Park I know too. All these old smaller homes and then at the corners these giant things are going up. They are built insanely fast, have very few windows, and are hideous looking. 

[oblong]

58 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Every business building they are tearing down in the Big City here, they're replacing with "luxury" residential condos running in the mid- to high six figures and targeted to first-time buyers. This has been going on for years and many units built in the three-to-five-year-ago range still sit empty, along with practically 100% of their first-floor storefronts. I've long wondered whether there is more than just the hope of making a profit selling them that's motivating the feverish pace of building—specifically, whether local government grant money is factoring into guaranteed profits for builders.

Yep.  Same here in Detroit.  And from what I hear it's very cheap quality.  Everything's empty but they keep building shit.

Some guy bought the old Hyatt building in Dearborn and says it's going to be "mixed use". Condos/retail, etc.  Fairlane Mall can't keep occupancy.  Another local developer bought a Ford building nearby and that's also his plan.  Who am I to tell someone who spent $20M on something that they don't know what they are doing but.... I'd bet $50 it's not a success.

 

[Tigeraholic1]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

I know it's anecdotal and not the same thing but there's a new house being built on nearly every residential street in Dearborn. Certain cultures have no qualms about throwing up a 4,000 square foot home in a block of 1000 sq foot homes.  Not sure where they are getting the workers.  They move fast.

 

 

My buddy is a residential contractor and he told me recently that house he is building now was greenlighted in 2021 but due to supply issues they have been delayed. He has not got a new contract in two months and not looking good at all for next year.

 

[Screwball]

Home builder numbers came out yesterday.  This from MarketWatch; Home builder sentiment continues to sour in November

Quote

 

The numbers: The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) monthly confidence index fell 5 points to 33 in November, the trade group said on Wednesday.

It’s the record eleventh month in a row that the index has fallen.

Outside of the pandemic, the November reading is the lowest level since June 2012.

Last November, builder sentiment stood at 83.

Key details: All three gauges that underpin the index fell in November.

• The gauge that marks current sales condition fell 6 points to 39
• The component that assesses sales expectations 4 points to 31
• And the gauge that measures traffic of prospective buyers fell 5 points to 20.

Big picture: The Federal Reserve’s rapid increase in interest rates has made home ownership less affordable. Builders are still facing higher prices and are now calling on lawmakers in Washington to lower the regulatory costs associated with land development and home construction.

 

 

[Screwball]

3 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

My buddy is a residential contractor and he told me recently that house he is building now was greenlighted in 2021 but due to supply issues they have been delayed. He has not got a new contract in two months and not looking good at all for next year.

 

My oldest lives in the Columbus, Ohio area.  Not far from where the new chip plant is suppose to be built (New Albany I think).  He is in a development that was pretty empty when he bought a few years back.  It exploded with homes in the last year and a half, none finished as of yet.  I will be curious to see what it looks like next week when I go down there.

I don't know the deal on these homes.  Investment homes built for profit selling to the new plant employees, or people themselves as the buyer.  Either way, given the cost increase over the last year, they have to be losing their ass unless they can raise the price of the house.  I would love to ask a contractor how that works.

Contractor quotes a house for X, over time while being built, cost go up 20 percent.  Quote price of X now only covers the cost and ate all the profit.  What kind of protection does the contractor have?