Mostly Maine
This Monday starts off quietly. No noticeable rants from nincompoop, the G20 meeting ended without noticeable fireworks, war hasn’t started in Venezuela yet and the Chinese haven’t invaded Taiwan yet.
So without much to go on, I’m going to close my puts on PLTR, keep them on MSFT and NVDA for a bit. Still too early for me to dive back into US equities, I lightened up on Europe last week, left Asia alone. Mostly bonds and cash now. I’m sure there will be some new crisis soon.
While many factors affect the stock market, my primary concern is the nincompoop in the White House. He makes pronouncements that are off the wall, he runs the country on fear, he does not allow independent thinking, he is a socialist.
Why do I say this? There are two types of socialists, communal and nationalist. I’m not going to go into the history and derivation of each type, but from my viewpoint they ended up at the same place. A few men, who due to timing, some ability and mostly luck, think they can outperform everyone else. You find these elitists in all authoritarian governments and in some democracies.
They destroy capitalism and democracy by dictating what they want and forcing their will on both individuals, companies and organizations. They think they know best and will destroy anyone and everything that gets in their way.
So what does this lead to? Fear of trying things. Fear of innovation. The mindset is always CYA, Cover Your Ass.
Unfortunately, this situation is effecting a vast majority of countries. The US, China, Russia, India, various countries in Europe and Latin America are all in the same boat. It’s almost like we are entering a new Dark Age. Too much governance by “gut feelings” little governance by science and knowledge.
So where does this leave us. Fluctuating markets moving with little rhyme or reason. Broken alliances, nationalistic pride and most likely destructive wars. Once again, gold makes the most sense as an investment, but remember gold doesn’t make anything, it’s just a place to store wealth.
I purchased NVDA and MSFT puts during the last two weeks expecting a decline in their prices due to an overly strong expectation about AI. I held those puts despite yesterday’s good earnings reports from Nvidia. Today I added PLTR puts just because of the high P/E valuations.
Until this year, most of my positive investments have been long in tech, but these days I’m very wary. The circular financing for massive AI projects, discussed in last week’s financial newspapers, need to be remembered! Creative financing always kill small investors.
I still like gold. As long as nincompoop keeps buying gold toilet fixtures and the Saudis, Indians and others keep buying gold, it will continue to go up. It’s too bad gold doesn’t produce anything, that’s partly why I hate investing in it.
As for crypto, well, now you know. To heaven one quarter to hell the next. If you do indulge, just make sure you know which way the wind is blowing.
At least locally, here in the Brunswick Topsham area, I think customer service is far superior at Lowe’s than at Home Depot. Hard to find anyone to help you at HD, while staff come up to you at Lowe’s and ask if you need help.
Androken Aerial is my website to showcase my aerial images. Other than drone shots, my aerial photography days are coming to an end. However, my interest in imaging, both photography and especially videography has increased. So, I have setup a new website, androken.com to display that work.
I will keep androkenaerial.com for a while in the hopes I can find new ways to create aerial images, but most of my efforts will be found on androken.com. Enjoy!
This is the second version of my video of Bordeaux and its surrounding region from trips in 2019 and 2024. Too often I still think like a still photographer rather than a videographer. Lots of stills from those trips not a lot of video. Thank you Ken Burns for showing us a way to incorporate stills into video.
I’m feeling thankful for the last four years of relative peace. Much of the world is in flames, turmoil and crisis, but here for me, life has been relatively tranquil. Unfortunately this will not be the case for at least the next four years. The divisiveness that has beset this country has only expanded and deepened. This has allowed those who thrive on chaos and fear to come to power. We will pay an heavy price for this foolishness.
Who will benefit as we descend from greatness? Our adversaries of course! China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and others all want us to be diminished. How are they accomplishing this? Divide and conquer, it is one of homo sapiens earliest tactic to overcome a stronger enemy; and, it has been well played by the above named countries.
We red and blue Americans stare at each other, wishing the other side would disappear. In the meantime, China, Russia and Iran are sharpening their knives. While we turn our eyes inward, thinking the enemy is within, those on the outside will take what they want.
So, I’m thankful for what we had. I can only look into the future with a steely resolve not to be afraid but also not to bend to the will of the chaos mongers. Life will be different.
My protest song: “Yes, we have no bananas”. The reason will become obvious in the future.
This was part of a Bloomberg editorial piece: (Traders Odd Lots “Traders bet on financial rumspringa” Nov 8, 2024). “What Joe us Thinking”
…Anyway, a thing that continues to interest me is that there are multiple wings of Trumpism. There is clearly the kind of Wall Street/bank wing. There’s the more techno-libertarian-crypto wing (roughly embodied by Elon Musk). And then there’s the America First, nationalist, populist, tariff wing. And right now, the mood seems to be that this last wing is just not going to be a meaningful part of the economic picture. That it’ll get squeezed out, because in the end, greed will win out. And maybe that’s a good bet. But, you know, maybe.
Interesting, I guess partly to be answered by what is Susie thinking??
I’m fortunate enough to have stumbled into a gig that lets me practice my videography in an interesting and inviting setting. I’m working with Barbra Jean, the gym manager for the Gray Fitness Center in Gray, Maine.
There are many new things to learn, various challenges to overcome but we are also having fun. What’s more, Barbra is a super person to work with.
We plan to make more of these, both as instructional videos but also to introduce the Gray Fitness Center as a community resource. If you live near Gray, Maine come and visit Barbra.