Warren Buffett: "The tapeworm won."

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WVUPharm2007

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Buffett - Bezos - JPMorgan triumvirate admit defeat. The healthcare system is a monster they just can't disrupt.

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I remember the day it was announced. My CVS ESPP shares were eligible to be sold and I was ready to sell, but didn't get to it. Then boom this announcement happened and CVS tanked from like 83 to 75 or so the next day. I held that bag for years. It still hasn't touched mid 80s ever since.
 
I remember the day it was announced. My CVS ESPP shares were eligible to be sold and I was ready to sell, but didn't get to it. Then boom this announcement happened and CVS tanked from like 83 to 75 or so the next day. I held that bag for years. It still hasn't touched mid 80s ever since.
I might start buying CVS stock next ESPP. The PE ratio is only like 13 or so.
 
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CVS isn't a growth company though.

The tapeworm indeed won
 
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Experts said the venture, which disbanded in February, failed to take off because the health care system is just too complex with many large, longtime players and a content support group.
I think this single sentence summarizes why the US health care cannot be fixed
 
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You know it’s bad when the finance people can’t restructure it so they become the leaches instead.
 
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Funny to hear the back and forth between him and Robinhood. I will say that he tells it the ways he sees it.

Honestly my impression from that clip is that he is out of touch or elitist. Not necessarily wrong but pretty condescending. He would probably be better off explaining why he thinks the way he does vs just kind of writing them all off as dummies who shouldn’t be allowed to play.
 
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Honestly my impression from that clip is that he is out of touch or elitist. Not necessarily wrong but pretty condescending. He would probably be better off explaining why he thinks the way he does vs just kind of writing them all off as dummies who shouldn’t be allowed to play.
That's what makes it funny. Like your grandpa telling you to invest in Woolworths or that electricity is just some fancy new thing that people will forget about.

Weird things going on. First, Bezos gets divorced and steps down, next come Buffet with his announced successor, then Bill and Melinda getting divorced. Lot of business and personal chess pieces being moved around and wondering if we are seeing the end of some titans just like a century ago with Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt.

Question is who will be the new aristocracy other than Musk?
 
Honestly my impression from that clip is that he is out of touch or elitist. Not necessarily wrong but pretty condescending. He would probably be better off explaining why he thinks the way he does vs just kind of writing them all off as dummies who shouldn’t be allowed to play.
He's right, though. All the "democratization" of trading has lead to is speculation and, with it, pointless volatility. And just like Socrates said, pure democracy is frightening.
 
He's right, though. All the "democratization" of trading has lead to is speculation and, with it, pointless volatility. And just like Socrates said, pure democracy is frightening.
I like Churchill's view of democracy but it's all a rouze. Corporatocracy is the US.
 
He's right, though. All the "democratization" of trading has lead to is speculation and, with it, pointless volatility. And just like Socrates said, pure democracy is frightening.
I'd say the high frequency algorithm trading has an infinitely larger impact on volatility that a bunch of average Joe's having access to trading apps and options.

Maybe retail traders are impactful for the volatility of small or micro cap companies.
 
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He's right, though. All the "democratization" of trading has lead to is speculation and, with it, pointless volatility. And just like Socrates said, pure democracy is frightening.
Look, far be it for me, a nobody, to criticize someone who is an expert in their field. Like I’m never going to have the kind of money that Warren Buffett has so all of my comments about him should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, if he had an issue with speculation he should just explain why. That would be way more helpful than “get off my lawn” type comments about investing being too easy or too “gamified” or whatever.

This is a totally irrelevant aside but I think it’s funny that people complain that Robin Hood is too gamified. Like all it does is give a little positive feedback when you execute a transaction. Do brokers not do the exact same thing? Common now. Be real.
 
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Yeah I'm no 'oracle's and he knows more than me I'm sure but the question is can you adapt and it just seems like he is salty and people are eating his pie. The sad thing is he could get a Playboy bunny at his 90 year age so I'm just going to shut up now...lol
 
Yeah I'm no 'oracle's and he knows more than me I'm sure but the question is can you adapt and it just seems like he is salty and people are eating his pie. The sad thing is he could get a Playboy bunny at his 90 year age so I'm just going to shut up now...lol
Is Playboy still a thing? Just watch out when these companies start selling real estate..playing obscure financial games...spouting "B " one "S" pur etc....guard your goods....see "Shopko".
 
Look, far be it for me, a nobody, to criticize someone who is an expert in their field. Like I’m never going to have the kind of money that Warren Buffett has so all of my comments about him should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, if he had an issue with speculation he should just explain why. That would be way more helpful than “get off my lawn” type comments about investing being too easy or too “gamified” or whatever.

This is a totally irrelevant aside but I think it’s funny that people complain that Robin Hood is too gamified. Like all it does is give a little positive feedback when you execute a transaction. Do brokers not do the exact same thing? Common now. Be real.

Buffett comes from a "hold forever" value mindset. His point is that this is just going to wind up hurting people. Which it will. A lot of people will lose a lot of money. Instead of a get-rich-slow near guarantee with actual investing, Robin Hood encourages a get-rich-fast casino atmosphere of speculating. Speculation is rampant right now. Gamestop, AMC, the entire crypto market. They are glorified ponzi schemes.

Robin Hood CEO like to go on about how they allow for the democratization of the market. Democracy isn't always a good thing. In fact, it is generally frightening. That's why the US is a republic.
 
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The U.S.'s implementation of employer-sponsored health insurance and advent of private for-profit health "insurance" companies combined is prob one of the biggest all-time "oops" and arguably a big "ghettoizer" (putting the poors in a crap-tier means-tested public option as a way to keep the riff raff isolated from everyone else). That's arguably just as "planned" though.
 
Honestly my impression from that clip is that he is out of touch or elitist. Not necessarily wrong but pretty condescending. He would probably be better off explaining why he thinks the way he does vs just kind of writing them all off as dummies who shouldn’t be allowed to play.


The behavior of the market has changed permanently. Sentiment now drives a huge chunk of the stock market and those that invest don’t even understand what the word “fundamentals” means.

this is difficult for the old guard as they are loosing their grip/control of this beast.
 
The behavior of the market has changed permanently. Sentiment now drives a huge chunk of the stock market and those that invest don’t even understand what the word “fundamentals” means.

this is difficult for the old guard as they are loosing their grip/control of this beast.
This all happened back in the late 90s when day trading was a big thing. Also in the 1920s.

It is nothing new.

The casino traders will all flame out. People wildly speculating on stocks wasnt invented recently.
 
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This all happened back in the late 90s when day trading was a big thing. Also in the 1920s.

It is nothing new.

The casino traders will all flame out. People wildly speculating on stocks wasnt invented recently.

No but commission free trades, gameified apps, socialization of trading via social media, and wider access to options for all people just means more amazing volatility to ride amazing climbs and amazing falls.

“Daily call volume averaged 16.7 million contracts during December, more than double the daily average of 6.8 million for December 2019, while put volume averaged 6.6 million contracts a day in December, up 74% from December 2019’s average of 3.8 million a day, Cboe data show.” Source: Stock Option Volume ‘Exploded’ in 2020. What Comes Next.

explosion in options means gamma plays are that much bigger.
 
No but commission free trades, gameified apps, socialization of trading via social media, and wider access to options for all people just means more amazing volatility to ride amazing climbs and amazing falls.

“Daily call volume averaged 16.7 million contracts during December, more than double the daily average of 6.8 million for December 2019, while put volume averaged 6.6 million contracts a day in December, up 74% from December 2019’s average of 3.8 million a day, Cboe data show.” Source: Stock Option Volume ‘Exploded’ in 2020. What Comes Next.

explosion in options means gamma plays are that much bigger.

It's a fad like it has always been. When people realize that's it's basically gambling, it will fizzle out like it has in the past. History doesn't repeat itself, but it always seems to rhyme.
 
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Yeah, people always say "this time is different". So far, it never has been. Yes, you can point to the factors that are causing it (or think you can) but ultimately it is going to end the same way.
 
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Yeah, people always say "this time is different". So far, it never has been. Yes, you can point to the factors that are causing it (or think you can) but ultimately it is going to end the same way.

Yea - I just feel like I may see some different psychology here. I certainly was not alive in the 20s so I can not speak to how people’s behavior moved the market.... But the way I see it is this:

These days - everyone thinks they are a certified expert on pretty much everything that they have googled at one point or another. This gives the masses an aire of arrogance and perceived professionalism when approaching the market. Couple this with the fact that we are in a period of exponential market growth - we end up with a whole generation of perceived Warren buffets.

then when you layer the fact that the market has been made freely available to anyone with a phone - this gives access to, at least, 70% more of a population that actually uses the stock market. Just 20 years ago, the only access the masses had was through their 401 or other employer sponsored stock plan. Access to index stocks was not easy, it was mostly done via stock certificates and through a live broker like Edward jones.

with those two points - I think we have entered a new phase of market behavior which could possibly be a bit different than what we have seen before.

where this will take us? Who knows...
 
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Honestly, I *do* think Robinhood is a game changer. Like you said, anyone with a phone can jump in and trade with no perceived fees or lag time. The genius who developed the interface really earned their paycheck.

We will see what the long term effects are, especially after a prolonged bear market. I am still betting on regression to the mean.
 
It's a fad like it has always been. When people realize that's it's basically gambling, it will fizzle out like it has in the past. History doesn't repeat itself, but it always seems to rhyme.

Oh no doubt that what we are seeing now will likely fizzle out to some degree.

I do challenge the idea that YOLOing on deep OTM weekly or 0dte call options with no hedge is a fad we’ve seen in the late 90s or 20’s but I could be wrong...

it’s one thing to have new retail investors buy shares that could lose a significant % of value. It’s another to buy weekly options and be wiped to nothing in literally a week without a market crash.
 
Honestly, I *do* think Robinhood is a game changer. Like you said, anyone with a phone can jump in and trade with no perceived fees or lag time. The genius who developed the interface really earned their paycheck.

We will see what the long term effects are, especially after a prolonged bear market. I am still betting on regression to the mean.

Yes, I wondered about a bear market too. A lot of these new users probably do not understand what “shorting the market” means - and they probably do not yet know that there are ETFs available on RH that will short entire markets like the Dow/nas/spy. When covid hit that is what I did. I put 5k on 3 etfs - one of each of the previously mentioned. Then when it hit approximately 19k I threw it all back into SPY. Once they realize that it does not matter if the market is going up or down, there is always money to be made, it may only shake off the ones who are not really that bright to begin with.
 
Oh no doubt that what we are seeing now will likely fizzle out to some degree.

I do challenge the idea that YOLOing on deep OTM weekly or 0dte call options with no hedge is a fad we’ve seen in the late 90s or 20’s but I could be wrong...

it’s one thing to have new retail investors buy shares that could lose a significant % of value. It’s another to buy weekly options and be wiped to nothing in literally a week without a market crash.
Junk bonds were a big thing in the 80s. Very similar boom vs bust prospects. They were all the rage for almost an entire decade.

Again, not the same thing, but it is in the same vein of thing.
 
That's what makes it funny. Like your grandpa telling you to invest in Woolworths or that electricity is just some fancy new thing that people will forget about.

Weird things going on. First, Bezos gets divorced and steps down, next come Buffet with his announced successor, then Bill and Melinda getting divorced. Lot of business and personal chess pieces being moved around and wondering if we are seeing the end of some titans just like a century ago with Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt.

Question is who will be the new aristocracy other than Musk?
@babybull
 
I remember the day it was announced. My CVS ESPP shares were eligible to be sold and I was ready to sell, but didn't get to it. Then boom this announcement happened and CVS tanked from like 83 to 75 or so the next day. I held that bag for years. It still hasn't touched mid 80s ever since.
it finally reached the $85 dollar range
 
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