After our stock market crash last week, I started to think a little harder about the stock market and what it actually is. Most people have the preconceived notion that the stock market is a reflection of the health of the general economy of the USA and the world at large. That is because every day people take their excess money and purchase stocks in companies to grow their money. If the company does well, their money increases. Then they step back and look at the S&P or DOW Jones which is a summation of many companies across the board which gives you an indicator of how many companies are doing generally, and hence you get a reflection of the health of the overall economy. I think that's most people's general understanding of what the stock market is and how it works. I believe that's what the stock market WAS, up until the 2008 economic crisis. After 2008, I believe the globalists got together and said "hey, we can't have this stock market crashing whenever something goes wrong in the economy. We need to have control over the stock market so that we can artificially make the economy look good, even though it's not because we shipped all the manufacturing jobs over to China and we've been printing money like crazy for the past 40 years. Also, we don't make money if the stock market goes down without us knowing that it's going to go down. We need a way to have absolute control over this thing. " So, once this discussion happened, they selected two companies, BlackRock and Vanguard, to control the entire stock market for them. I'm sure you've all seen the youtube videos explaining how BlackRock and Vanguard own 90% of every company in the stock market. My problem is that I KNOW that the stock market is fixed through BlackRock and Vanguard. However, I still keep going back to the assumption that the stock market is a reflection of the health of the economy and you can somehow predict how the stock market will act if you have a good feel about what's going on with the economy as a whole. THIS IS A FALSE ASSUMPTION. I know it is. For some reason, I have trouble breaking this outdated belief. I need to start looking at the stock market for what it is. It's a controlled and manufactured business that enables the globalists to make as much money as they want by bringing the market up or down, as they see fit. It has absolutely NO relationship to the health of the economy. It used to prior to 2008, but that is the old model.
The problem is. Most investors buy when they shouldn't. Sell when they shouldn't. Don't know how to take a profit. Don't know how to read a balance sheet. Hell, they don't attend the earnings calls nor read the regulatory filings. They are not investors but rather speculators. It's like buying some crypto currency. If you don't know what utility it serves but are jumping on board due to FOMO or greed as they are going to be rich .. they are going to lose most of the time. Every time i buy a stock I know when i'm going to sell it when it goes up x percent or limit my loses when it goes down y percent. Have i sold early .. sure have most times missed out on some potential upside but typically some time after i sell, it comes right back down and keeps going down. I will tell you what. No one ever went broke taking a profit. I also don't invest in things i don't understand. Especially if I try to research a hot new field/stock/industry .. it i can't figure it out and what good it is for mankind .. I just walk away. That way I'm only out of my time spent and not cash. Have i missed the boat? Yes. Have i saved my ass? Yes. You can make money in a up market, you can lose it as well. same goes for a declining and sideways market. There is money to be made but if you aren't willing to do your due dilligence. Probably better off putting you money towards paying off debt, increasing your preps and buying tangible things that will hold their value. I think in this up coming market downturn. The winners will be those that lose the least amount of money.
People watch the indexes and not the stocks. The Dow Jones is a grouping of companies that are "tracked" to act as a proxy for the general market. Problem is they remove the losers and replace them with winners. The same thing happens with the other indexes. Historical components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average - Wikipedia And they always stress the winners when they add to the list. The real problem is that in many cases you don't lose 25 % of the value of the stock in the long run, you lose it all. Pan American Airways, Sears, steel companies, car companies, etc. A second problem is that if a stock loses 50 % of its value, it has to double to get back to where it was before and then there is brokerage fees, management fees, etc, all coming off the top and taken if you are making money or losing it. Then the people in the industry have access to facts and act in ways that limit your making money. They can get in and out in fractions of a second and find out things in seconds. An individual may take a day to get out of a position and will never have access to the information a large company or bank has. Heads they win, tails, you lose.
The vast majority of todays investors invest in passive investments like index funds. Every pay period they dump billions into mutual and index funds. The funds have a benchmark upon which they are compared ... and it's an index. If there fund is up for the year .. they think the economy is doing great. If they are down .. they think the economy is in the dumper. And yes, it's typically a few stocks in these fund buckets that can keep the fund in the black or drag it down into the bloody red zone. so, the indexes are the reality for the masses. When the quarter ends and the results come out ... that is reality. ditto for home prices. The equity in your home has doubled, tripled or more .. you perceive that the economy is great. Your home loses half it's value and you are now under water ... the economy is terrible. For some, the inflation in energy, food and transportation we are experiencing is an inconvenience. For others .. it's devastating. There is that line. I'm going to reject your reality and substitute my own. The truth is how you perceive your reality it to be. And yes, the stock market is rigged. Market makers with nano second look ahead on market order have the edge over you. The third week of the end of the quarter stocks make big moves due to mutual fund rebalancing for reporting. Trading algos you can't afford are making thousands of micro trades per second will beat your ass most times ... but sometimes they get it wrong. It's like we've bellied up to the poker table. And if you don't know who the sucker at the table is ... it's you. Never invest more than you can afford to lose because you probably will. You definitely will if you are just chasing after the next best thing and don't do your research. Carbon streaming credits are going to be the next big thing in the new economy! Buy now before it takes off. You are going to be riding a 25 bagger! All aboard! Back up the truck! Don't wait or you'll miss out. Yep, you are screwed.
Investing how you do it comes down to comfort level, knowledge and practice. Something most people tend to lose sight of is that it is all just numbers on paper or on a server that mean nothing real until it is cash in hand.
I have made a lot of money in the stock market and loss a lot. Luckily, I made more than I loss. It's a casino where the rules and regulations are made to support the House, not the punters. "Never invest more than you can afford to lose..." Is very good advice mainly because the chances/odds are that you will indeed lose. I still own some stock but got out years ago after it became very obvious that they can and will control the market when and how they want. So, yes, the game is rigged. Can you win? Sure! But, it's still rigged against you...
My thoughts on the stock market. There was a time when companies had pensions and that's what the working stiff relied on for retirement --the average joe didn't do much investing. Now most companies have done away with pensions. The average joe is investing his money and a matching percent of the companies in the market each pay day hoping to make enough for retirement. I think many companies are over priced simply because so many peopler dumping money into the market . Never was one to play the market, thank god I have a pension and don't need the wife's 401K ---it has had a major hit
Years ago I received some great advice about the stock market from my broker and have followed it ever since. "If you're wanting to get into the stock game, find someone that understands it, likes it and is someone you can trust. Let them work for you and don't bother checking up on your investments every hour/day-you'll drive yourself insane. When I needed a welder I hired you. When I needed an electrician I hired one. Why should the stock market be any different? Hire someone who makes their living at it and has a good rep." I let him do his thing. We talked about what my goal was and he invested accordingly. I get quarterly reports and that's it. I've always preferred hard assets and that is still true. I've never put more into stocks than I was prepared to lose. As to the all the dark arts of the stock market? I have neither the time nor inclination to learn it other than the basics. That's why I pay someone I trust.
Yep @Tully Mars Only way to do it unless you're going to center your life around the Markets. It's interesting, but I don't want it to be my life. No thanks. I pay someone also. Now, if only I could figure out how to do a decent weld.....
We all know this to be true. This is why they are attacking BTC right now. The largest computers in the world are working on bringing down BTC. Check out this chart from right now. Notice a pattern? I have been watching it for the last few hours and it just keeps repeating. People don't buy and sell in exact patterns. Only computers do. They know that people will think this pattern will continue and then they throw the monkey wrench.
Nobody can beat the 2 AI computers running our entire stock market. If you want to make money on the stock market, you need to have one of them working for you. My question is this: it is illegal to count cards in Vegas, why is it legal to use computers to run the same scam on the stock market. Could you imagine playing against the computer algorithm in Vegas? The computers that run the stock market BlackRock Aladdin – portfolio management software https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/29/tra...other-asset-managers-are-in-an-arms-race.html Citadel Securities, BlackRock, Gemini Slam Social Media Accusations of Involvement With UST Collapse
