Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Correct me, If I am wrong but stock trading takes more insight, unless you want depend on a gamble or your trusted stock guru. Typically, form my experience, a person is getting excited about the getting in, carried by all the hype - I saw it in the late 90s, and they depend on the advice on someone who seems knowledgeable.
So, for instance, in mid 2000s when fuel was 5 dol per gal, lots of folks were looking at oil drilling, now the pandemic caused a lot of folks looking at the pharmaceutical etc. That is a common approach of people trying to analyze it by applying logic which on the surface appears sound but at the same time there is a crowd of similar investors who think the same and there is going to be a moment when the hype subsides, which causes a massive retreat - and that's when the problem starts, people are not sure what to do and I would be like one of them. I mean, can you still see a direct connection between the state of economy and the equities of businesses? Lot's of dollars in circulation will find its way in stocks, if an average Joe like me, has enough cash to use up his IRA limit, I can surly assume that trend is massive and will be. Therefore, I am not into individual stock picking and trading. I just hope that those in charge won't be for too long to f...up the almighty dollar. As we can see Russians and Chinese are trying to do without it and if they keep 'printing' it - which is not exactly the same as diluting its value, the rest might follow suit. However, I am surprised that it is still holding strong at exchange rates with other currencies.

 

Couple of observations.

Yes, all civilizations eventually crash and burn. When ours goes, gold isn’t going to make one whit of difference. You’ll be dead when the Visigoths sack Rome, metaphorically speaking. Planning for TEOTWAWKI is an entirely different, depressing discussion.

No, gold is NOT an investment. It doesn’t produce anything, sell anything, or engage in any kind of commerce. It’s no more than a risky savings account that’s expensive to maintain and subject to devaluation and theft. Gold doesn’t produce anything, and is a zero sum investment. If you make money, someone else loses. The only thing about gold is that it is a decent hedge for inflation. Where an ounce of gold could buy you a decent suit in 1850, it can still buy a decent suit of clothes today.

I’m truly sorry that you see the stock market as a roulette wheel. It’s not. Roulette is a game of pure chance, with the advantage to the house. Roulette is a net loss game. The stock market is not like playing poker with your buddies either. Poker is a zero sum game. What one person loses, the others gain.

The stock market is a net positive endeavor. On average, the participants make more money than they put in. On average, the stock market has returned more than 10% a year for the last 100 years. That’s roughly 6% more than the average inflation over the same period. Incidentally, that’s a little better than real estate over the same period.

What the stock market is not is stable, predictable, or in any way logical in the short term (days, weeks, even months). A smart guy wrote a popular book about that “A random walk down Wall Street”. It’ll go wildly up on a rumor, and sell of massively on speculation, a presidential tweet, or no reason at all. In the short term, there’s no rhyme or reason to it.

In the long term, however, three, five, 10 years, the market becomes far more calm the graphs have much smaller bumps and valleys, and the thing just steadily rises. Individual companies rise and fall, but the average pretty steadily chugs along. Over an even longer period of time, 20, 30, 40 years, the market becomes highly predictable and remarkably risk free.

if we return to that suit of clothes again for a moment, that $27 invested in 1921 with average stock market returns would be more than $500,000 today. That’s a really NICE suit, last time I checked.......

 

I didn't read your mininovel. Gold is what all currency is based off of. Paper and a bunch of numbers on a screen are worthless when collapse comes. Have a good day.

 

Our dollar hasn’t been backed by gold for a long time.

 

Stated perfectly.

 

Might want to get a little bit more current in your economics knowledge. Currency hasn't been gold backed in a long time.

 

If we see total collapse to the point where everything is devalued then those with precious metals will be in the same boat as everyone else. Trading and bartering will be the name of the game.

 

So let's say that you've been able to acquire some gold over the years and the government collapses. The dollar is worthless and you need to eat and keep safe from the hoards of starving people in the streets just trying to survive. What exactly will your gold do to help you? There is no supply chain, no food, no gas to get anywhere. No planes flying, no trains running. Who is going to take your gold in trade for food or transportation to someplace safe? Do you envision a world like a John Wick movie where an underground society operates in the shadows using cases of gold coins to barter with and takes them in trade for everything you need?

I invested $40k in gold coins in the early 80's when gold was around $500 per ounce. As an investment, it has done fairly well but most of my stocks did a lot better. My investment gave me around 80 one ounce gold coins which I still have to this day, but I have no illusions that I'll be able to do much with them should society collapse into anarchy. A much better investment for the end of the world are a few firearms, a lot of ammo, and a food supply that will last at least several weeks and is stored in a secure place where you can protect it. Some people live under the illusion that gold will be the only thing they can barter with when the world ends. Reality won't work like that. People can't eat gold or any precious metal. The real currency will be weapons, ammo and food. If you don't have a good supply of at least one of them to barter with, don't count on surviving very long. If you can't protect what you have, somebody with a gun will take it from you. Civility flies out the window when people are starving and they will do anything to assure their own survival.

 

You would think somebody who notices things professionally would already know that.

 

He said based not backed