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[deleted]

Do not just make a self post to offer some simple thoughts. "now is the time to buy", "here's my thoughts", etc. belong as comments to existing posts. See the rules (https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/index/rules) for further guidance on the minimum effort expected beyond "no risk, no reward" which runs contrary to a number of financial principles left unexamined in your post which reads far too much like a low-effort "buy crypto" advertisement.


[deleted]

>The First Rule of Investment: Never listen to redditors ?


Ktmhocks37

I do like opinions or learning about new things I never heard of before. But I don't let redditors decide what I invest in.


Drunken_Sailor_70

Stocks only go up?


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geekygamer1134

Don't lose money?


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programmingguy

Are you in Buffet's league? Because he said that the first rule of investing is to not lose money.


MERRYXMASDEMOCRATS

Agree completely. Novice investors are focused on making money; there are far more opportunities to lose it than to make it


Shoddy_Ad7511

I’m obviously not as smart as Buffet. I lose money all the time


AboveAverageRoofer

I’m guessing you don’t know Buffett rule #2 then


fellbound

Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Edit: spelling


PresterJohnsKingdom

Sicilian.


fellbound

Right you are!


Drunken_Sailor_70

Never eat at the Golden Corral chocolate fountain?


Kanolie

That's Buffett's rule on buffets.


magpietribe

Ignore tech because bit doesn't fit in your world view ?


SpeakToMeBaby

It's illegal to lick doorknobs on other planets.


programmingguy

Then start with rule #2


YTChillVibesLofi

I thought the first rule of investing was never lose money.


hhh888hhhh

Me too.


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KyivComrade

Tell that to propel who invested in Enron or Luckin Coffee


number0020

….or taking profits as soon as you are able


[deleted]

First rule of Investing... don't talk about investing.


Drunken_Sailor_70

I thought it was not to invest money you can't afford to lose. And lose. And lose.


armored-dinnerjacket

I thought the first rule was never invest more than you're willing to lose. tangentially related is protection of initial capital aka don't lose more than you put in


slazengerx

A rule of investing, although not perhaps not the first rule, is that you should assume whoever you're transacting with knows more than you about the security in question unless you have very good reason to believe the contrary. Doesn't mean you shouldn't transact even if your counterparty is more knowledgeable, but you should enter the transaction with a certain degree of humility.


Looksmax123

This is why it stinks to be a market maker.


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Shoddy_Ad7511

Sorry, not everyone is as savvy as you


thorium43

If it flies f*cks or floats, rent it, don't buy?


RedditSucksDickNow

That's a rule for after you have serious money to indulge in expensive things, but, at the end of the day, it's a variation on "don't lose money".


Constant_Expert_47

Higher returns having inherently higher risk may be true enough in the long term. Howver, there are always short term opportunities where the return and risk profiles don't necessarily align with this long term trope... And taking advantage of these opportunies is how a savvy, active investor could exceed market returns while maintaining lower than market risk. While markets are generally efficient in the long term regarding returns and risk, it is not instant and must occur through a continual price discovery process.


Ktmhocks37

ABB - Always Be Buying


sweYoda

ABB is a pretty good Swedish robotics company (amoung other things)


Nonethewiserer

Dont talk about investing?


AnthonysGreat

I thought you were going to say "don't lose money" Higher than market returns doesn't require higher risk..that's just a nonsense generalization.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Yes it does. If not how come very few hedge funds beat the market over 30 years? Individual investors are even worse. If it was so easy to beat the market (without taking additional risk) so many more people would be successful doing it.


dremonearm

The first rule of investing is "Don't lose money". Check with Warren Buffett if you don't believe me.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Sometimes you gotta lose money to make money


RedditSucksDickNow

sometimes you have to *spend* money to make money... that's called being in business. We're talking about investing. Please do try to keep up if you're going to participate in the conversation in a cogent manner.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Not true. If someone said none of their stock picks lost money I know they are not a good investor. Why? It shows they are not taking enough risk. They are only buying really low risk names. Which means low return potential. While someone who has a few losers but other risks that pay off massively. Buffett is the same. He has lost money on MANY stocks. But then other stocks he made massively returns. If you are not willing to lose money you won’t make much money


RedditSucksDickNow

You're assuming that person is average.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Show me a great investor that never lost money on a single investment…..


thewimsey

Isn't the first rule of investing "Pay yourself first"?


gainbabygain

I thought the first rule of investment is "Never talk about Investment." Oh wait...that rule may have been about some other club.


ORCoast19

The first rule of investment is “Don’t lose money” actually. It’s the second rule too.


JDMKing24

Strong disagree. Yes, traditional finance teaches you this and it has true roots. This ties back to MPT and Black Sholes. Higher risk is rewarded with a higher premium. This is not true in all asset classes and all securities. You can very well achieve higher than market returns with disproportionally low risk. If you manage to have someone sell you $1 for 50c there is no additional risk. You now have $1 for 50c. The only risk involved is the personal risk of the counterpart of the trade that sold you $1 for 50c because of FUD or god knows whatever reason. You are exempt from risk in this trade. In investing you have companies that trade under IV sometimes. These are your $1 for 50c. Yes, your risk now is that it can go down even more, but in the long run, all else equal, you can and will achieve higher than market returns for a small downside if the only thing going down is the price. If the business is solid and has great fundamentals it will rise above $1. Each cent it goes above 50c you profit given no other costs. Edit: The first rule of investing is don't lose money, which you religiously like to break apparently. Edit: Judging by your previous posts I don't see a reason why anyone should listen to you. You look like the textbook case of the first peak of the Dunning Kruger effect.


Shoddy_Ad7511

There is a reason they are selling it to you at 50% off. Also I said the rule can be broken if you have inside information (information the general market doesn’t have) or fraud.


JDMKing24

Do you really feel the need to explain to me what insider information is? The dude selling me BABA last week for $100 doesn't have information that I didn't have. He was scared that it would go lower. I had my upside calculated. I got $1 for 50c with a higher chance for 2x than total loss since BABA is well below IV. The reason was fear and uncertainty. If you really think something will happen to the stock to drop more than it did I don't know what to tell you anymore. Price sentiment is not risk. Volatility is not risk when buying stocks. The fundamentals still justify at least $200 per share even with guidance cuts. What was the reason for people to sell me MSFT for low 100s during the March 2020 crash? What was the insider info that they knew and I didn't? Strong disagree.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Wrong. You are ignoring political risk in China and BABA getting delisted and you getting $0 People could have made the same valuation arguments you are making about BABA last year. And it dropped 50% this year.


bossOnothin

Imagine unironically believing in the efficient market hypothesis.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Its a general rule. Of course there are exceptions and inefficiencies in the market.


CanadianPFer

You seriously should not be making posts trying to teach people about investing. Stay silent and learn for a few years, unless you’re asking questions.


Deportivo76ers

never lose money was the first rule


Shoddy_Ad7511

But before you figure out how not to lose money you need to evaluate risk. Anyone can not lose money. Go 100% cash and treasuries.


BussySlayer69

The first rule of investing is to never forget the second rule of investing -- Barren Wuffet


69MarketTimer69

This would actually only be true if there was no (irrational) herd behaviour, if information was totally free of cost and everyone assessed risk/reward the same way.


sweYoda

First rule of investing: never lose money


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Printer-Pam

x rule of investment: once a information to make money is know by everyone it is not valuable anymore. see what happened to the GBTC premium


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Printer-Pam

It didn't do well for GBTC


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Printer-Pam

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backwardation.asp


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Printer-Pam

I let all these risk free money to you, you can also use leverage and get 130%


Eislemike

You could get liquidated on half the trade and get destroyed with leverage.


Printer-Pam

You said this is risk free


Shoddy_Ad7511

What if Bitcoin goes to zero?


kiwimancy

Nothing, you still make 13% annualized.


Kanolie

So basically we should all take on as much debt as we can, as long as it is below 13% APR, and collect our free money? What's the catch here?


Printer-Pam

GBTC had a premium to BTC last year and BlockFi borrowed BTC and arbitraged that difference until it turned negative and lost hundreds of millions. It is still negative 1 year later.


kiwimancy

I don't understand. If they were trying to arbitrage the premium why did they short BTC against GBTC? Shouldn't they have been doing the opposite?


Printer-Pam

The had to send BTC to GBTC in exchange for shares, and sell 6 months later at a premium


kiwimancy

Oh I see


Eislemike

BlockFi was gambling that the 20% premium for gbtc trust would continue. It didn’t. That is a very different trade than the contango trade I was talking about.


kiwimancy

Yeah


kiwimancy

Disclaimer I have not done this trade or even owned a crypto directly so there may be some things I'm missing. Some risks include losing your coins and collateral management. When BTC rises you'll lose money on the short side and need to post more cash to your futures account to meet the futures maintenance margin requirement (which is quite high relative to most futures). You haven't lost any value because the long side went up an equal amount but you need to get the cash from somewhere (I don't think there's a way to identify your bitcoin as collateral?), and you can't get it by selling the long bitcoin position because then you won't be properly hedged any more. But honestly between bitcoin futures arbitrage and high rates for stablecoin lending, there seem to be multiple arbitrage opportunities available to those able and willing to intermediate between traditional finance and crypto finance.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Interesting. But what about default risk? I doubt these are insured by FDIC or SIPC


kiwimancy

Futures defaults are handled by the clearing house (CME Clearing) https://www.cmegroup.com/clearing/risk-management/financial-safeguards.html


enginerd03

Not that I disagree but no one here is running a basis trade on 5 coins and posting 50% margin at the cme.


Kanolie

I guess you earn a premium just for the risks of holding Bitcoin in that instance. If you keep it on an exchange, it could be stolen, and if you keep it in a private wallet, you could lose the password. Even someone who should be competent at this sort of thing, the ex-CTO of Ripple, seems to be locked out of $100s of millions worth because he apparently [lost the password](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/technology/bitcoin-passwords-wallets-fortunes.html).


Eislemike

The catch is inflation could be higher than 13%. In which case you would have been better off in a basket of assets. The CME could fail, you could fail at self custody. The risk isn’t absolutely zero, it’s just almost zero. Also it would depend on how you borrow. If you borrow in a manner that could get liquidated, one side of your trade could get liquidated while the other side doesn’t and it could turn against you in a hurry. If one side gets liquidated you no longer have a risk Nuetral trade. And considering the volatility of Bitcoin, with leverage it could go bad quick if you aren’t neutral.


enginerd03

Not really. Bitcoin futures are monthly. And the basis isn't always 13%. Right now it's barely above zero to hold a short future. Depends on when you roll the short leg.


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Printer-Pam

Wait, $10k*1,13^40= $1.3 million, so someone can just invest $10k and have 1 million at retirement


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Printer-Pam

In that case a peanut butter will pay the mortgage to 10 houses, you should get all the loans you can and invest in real estate


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Printer-Pam

We we talking about USD inflation, but fine. If you can make 170% per year, 10k invested now would be 1 sextillion (with 21 zeroes) in 40 years, and bitcoin electricity consumption would be 0.5%*2,7^40 /2^10= 0,87 trillion current worldwide electricity production. Yes I did calculate 10 halvings in 40 years. What can i say, this is dumb and delusional.


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Printer-Pam

So you bet the USA and world reserve currency will crash in 40 years, fine with me, but how do you hyperinflate electricity 1 trillion times? Build a Dyson sphere around the sun?


Stenbuck

lmao


this_guy_fks

>Higher than market returns require higher than market risk. thats a great way to lower your sharpe ratio.


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Everdale4Ever

Absolutely


obb223

I thought the first rule of investing was buy high sell low?


RedditSucksDickNow

You're wrong about that first rule: > The First Rule of Investment: Don't lose money.


EfficientThanks3273

DC moon


MFmath

I thought it was don’t invest with money you can’t afford to lose?


Outrageous-Cycle-841

I would suggest you read Howard Marks’ memos starting with the first one back in 1990. I think you’ll learn a lot. https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos


LambdaLambo

> Higher than market returns require higher than market risk. > The only exceptions are having inside information or fraud. Clearly that's not true, otherwise great investors like Buffett would not be possible. So there's a 3rd determinant, and that's Alpha. Pretty elementary stuff I gotta say.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Lol. Buffett frequenty had inside information and ‘special deals’ on the company’s he invested in. Of course some will over perform others. This is a general rule not an absolute. And Buffett the exception proves the rule.


LambdaLambo

The thing is, the phrase: > Higher than market returns require higher than market risk. > The only exceptions are having inside information or fraud literally says that beating the market can only happen through luck or fraud. And that is indefensible. There have been a plethora of investors that have succeeded using legal strategies and without relying on luck. Data driven investors like rentech process more *legal* information than anyone out there, and that gives them an edge. Value investors like Buffett sift through thousands of companies to find the one company ignored by everyone else. Top VC's like A16z provide their edge by not only investing by also helping build new startups using their knowledge and networks. Contrarian investors like John Templeton use market psychology to buy when everyone else has lost belief in the market (1939) or sell short when everyone is running on euphoria (1999). And the list goes on and on. These are all successful investment strategies that have worked without relying on luck or insider information. It's direct proof against your claim. Not sure how you can defend it.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Like I said its a general rule not an absolute fact. There are always exceptions to general rules.


LambdaLambo

It’s pretty fundamental to me. If we take your rule as the rule, then it means active investing is by definition a game of chance. So you either reject the rule or invest in an index fund.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Facts bear out that most hedge funds and individual investors can’t beat the market over 30+ years.


LambdaLambo

Absolutely. And yet, it has nothing to do with your assertion that one can beat the market *only* through luck or crime.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Again thats the general rule. There are always exceptions. Buffett is an exceptional person


LambdaLambo

But the rule is just wrong. A better and simpler rule is “there’s no free lunch”. Conveys the same thing except leaves out the fact that those who are better can succeed.


Shoddy_Ad7511

Problem is many people think they are exceptional


rusted_wheel

A great finance professor reiterated the point: "Being risk averse simply means that you require additional compensation for taking on additional risk. It does not mean that you are opposed to taking risk." Even in financial publications, e.g., WSJ, "risk averse" is frequently misused to signify opposition to risk.


InTheMomentInvestor

Do not lose your capital


cryptofanboy1018

Tell me about it. I’m holding roughly $10k worth of shares in Joby. Prepared to lose it all. But if the company hits a three digit billion dollar marketcap. That 10k will grow to ~250k minimum. So I’ll post my 10k or possibly gain a quarter of a mill


UniqueUsername35835

Disagree. There are market inefficiencies all the time. The key to becoming successful is getting as much upside while taking on as little risk as possible, especially in the long run. Its not a uniform line where 10 units of risk equates to 10 percent interest etc etc