When your number stops coming up in the Casino

[cannuck]

Amazing how the fickle operation of Casino Capitalism works.  With all of the hype and spin the looney left media puts on eco-nonsense and anti-carbon, those who have been playing the board and betting on a "sure thing" or two are getting walloped if they played Exxon:

https://www.ft.com/content/39a70458-d4d1-4a6e-aca6-1d5670bade11

If "markets" reflect anything (other than the musings of the "analysts" who are used to jerk the prices around according to the flavour of the booze and drugs at their social interactions the night before) it sure as hell isn't related to reality.  Yes, the demand for oil during Wuhan Virus times is dramatically down due to reduced travel, but the idea that a handfull of wind generators is going to replace the entire petroleum infrastructure in the foreseeable future is total nonsense.

Sadly, Exxon is what I would consider a "blue chip" since price-to-book has remained very stable and "reasonable", so few trade it for speculative purposes, but hold it for the dividend (which, IMHO is what the entire equities market SHOUD be about).  https://ycharts.com/companies/XOM/price_to_book_value

NextEra is not really goofy, but much more of a speculative play https://ycharts.com/companies/NEE/price_to_book_value

While NEE is at 3.71, have a look at a genuine speculative play and try to understand how playing at the casino has defunded real investment and hobbled our economies:   https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSLA/tesla/price-book#:~:text=The current price to book,October 02%2C 2020 is 36.07.  Money going into bets on the future of Tesla should be used to invest in real business on Main Street, but with the promise of windfall profits from speculating, it is instead thrown at the roulette wheel of equity trades with about the same chances of beating the house as you will get in Vegas.

Our failure to tax speculative gain, and our blind ignorance of the problems of corporate governance of publicly traded companies is disgusting.   Here is a snapshot of how even a relatively small company can and DID behave at the expense of regular shareholders and great benefit to the officers, directors and their friends outside and inside:   

https://www.portandterminal.com/how-a-texas-shale-suppliers-founders-made-fortunes-as-the-firm-failed/

Edited October 5, 2020 by cannuck

[Argus]

There is a LOT wrong with the markets. There is a lot of insider information passed among the big traders, far more than the SEC ever acknowledges. High speed trading is just plain cheating on ordinary investors, as is the ability to buy and sell in the pre-market and after-market. And we know the likes of Moodies and other ratings agencies are often in the pockets of the companies they're rating. And your complaint about taxes is just an extension of the bribery and corruption which lets rich people and corporations pay little or no taxes on everything they do. The tax codes are hopelessly corrupted with loopholes inserted by politicians being paid off for their cooperation.

At the same time, ordinary people are given little choice but to play in the market if they want to have money for their retirement. Nobody is having eight kids to support them in their dotage any more. And only a few lucky unions with good deals (and all government sector workers) can be assured of comfortable pensions. Everyone else is on their own. And neither bank accounts nor bonds pay anything. And those ordinary people are often preyed upon by 'financial advisors' with no fiduciary responsibilities, and by banks who direct them to high price, low return mutual funds run by the banks.

So if your point is it's a shit system, well, you won't find much argument. I'd like to see huge changes in how the markets are overseen, in how companies and the wealthy are taxed - including large increases in taxes for dividends and capital gains beyond a certain amount (ie, $100k). But I think we both know that's not going to happen because the politicians are in the pockets of and on the same side as the corporations. And yes, that most assuredly means the Liberals too. They've been in the pockets of billionaire corporations and wealthy families, from the Bronfmans to the Desmarais to the Irvings my entire life.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Argus

[bush_cheney2004]

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board loves "Casino Capitalism"....to wit:

 

 

http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2019/06/cppib-gets-lucky-with-active-management.html

[cannuck]

On 10/5/2020 at 8:07 AM, Argus said:

 

So if your point is it's a shit system, well, you won't find much argument. I'd like to see huge changes in how the markets are overseen, in how companies and the wealthy are taxed - including large increases in taxes for dividends and capital gains beyond a certain amount (ie, $100k). But I think we both know that's not going to happen because the politicians are in the pockets of and on the same side as the corporations. And yes, that most assuredly means the Liberals too. They've been in the pockets of billionaire corporations and wealthy families, from the Bronfmans to the Desmarais to the Irvings my entire life.

Sorry I missed that part.  It is not dividends one needs to tax, it is speculative gain.  Dividends are merely the distribution of profit to shareholders, but it is HOW the profit is made that matters.   A speculative gain creates no wealth and should be taxed IMHO 99% on day one, 95% in year one, and decreasing 5% a year until at nominal tax rate of all earnings.   Profits made from productive endeavor are what create wealth and what casino capitalism eschews.  The world of finance owns the world of business, and the result is you have finance employees running companies for the purpose of making a gain on market value to cash in.   THAT is why you get such poor quality product and service along with ridiculous price.

[inlineb]

This is because the casino/website you are playing on doesn’t use proper software that would assure such things don’t happen.

[VicenteLewis]

For me, most casinos are just money-grubbing sites. I believe that you need to play consciously and that there are only a few sites where you can play and get some profit from it. To do that, you must play consciously and understand when to stop...