More dancing dog gifs, as promised lol - the doggie act made the latest cut on yesterday's episode of America's Got Talent, so there should be more gifs to come too

Before going on my trip, asked Mat Sklansky if it'd be possible for me to get an edit button back to change all the photos in this thread so they show again - and he said he'd give me one back for a couple of hours! Am super happy about that, because sometimes will still actually scroll back and look at some of the info have collected about investing, since it's still been less than a year. And it's such an eyesore to have those Photobucket messages everywhere

Have started saving some of the photos back to my computer, but still have a bunch left to do - and then after that, will have to upload them all to a different site. Guess the transfer process is taking a while because there's over 600 photos to switch over? lol


Will get going on that tonight

Hey Sam,

Good to see you had a fun time and made it back home safe n sound. Bummer about the rain and holiday traffic but seems you managed to fit quite a lot into your days there still.
I was a lil worried I had oversold it a bit with my posts before you went when you said you were worried you may not feel what others have whilst there. It's generally only after I give a strong opinion on something I think is cool that I remember not everyone likes the same stuff. My personal recommendation has led to calls of "you like that..?" on more than one occasion I must admit. I didn't think i could get it wrong with an entire city.
TBH Iv just always loved hip hop and graff/street art and NYC is the spiritual home of atleast one of these, so I was always drawn there. It's a place with such a high concentration of creativity in these areas, and my time was spent exploring the burroughs and little neighbourhoods just as much as the city centre. I'm sure most others have a different experience/reason for being there though, and just hope I didn't put any unnecessary pressure on you to 'feel something'.

Totally agree that no matter how great a trip is, it's always lovely to be back home and in familiar surrounds though. The local grass is still always the best.
Have a great week Sam


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It's amazing how many rappers come from the NYC area - guess it's a big city, but surely growing up in a city that places a high value on the arts must have helped nurture all that talent?

There were some kids from the Harlem YMCA on our Statue of Liberty boat ride - guess during off-peak hours like in the morning, the boat company gives a certain amount of tickets to local organizations, so everybody has the chance to experience all of what NYC has to offer? Apparently the Broadway musical Hamilton has been doing that as well - it's probably better in the grand scheme of things that the future Jay-Z get to see Hamilton and be inspired by the story and the creativity, than have a tourist like me seeing the show, who can't even feel the NY vibe that everybody else does who comes to visit the city

You're definitely not the only one who feels a vibe while in New York - my friend and I were talking to a local while in line to buy half-price show tickets, and she mentioned the vibe more than once. We were in line for quite a while

It must be amazing to live close enough to go see half-price shows all the time - although living somewhere where there's lots of greenery and wide open spaces is pretty awesome as well

Will go out on a limb and make a travel recommendation of a place that maybe you might enjoy visiting - if you enjoy places where creativity is celebrated, maybe you'd enjoy Paris? Lots of amazing food, and art and beautiful architecture. Very far away though

Hey, the Dirt Devil was able to pick up for a steal on Amazon Prime Day finally arrived!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Just picked up this Dirt Devil stick vacuum with detachable hand vacuum for C$19.99 - am hoping the hand vacuum will be helpful in doing spot clean ups to the inside of my car?

It's a little steamy outside, but today should be a nice day to give it a try on the inside of my car - since coming home from my trip, seem to have developed a bit of a preoccupation with open space and freshness ... happiness is having a freshly vacuumed car

This kitty went to a baseball game last night, and wound up bringing the team good luck!

Feeling a little beat Guess can work on copying the photos over from this thread on the couch? Hopefully won't fall asleep lol

Gosh, kind of slow going with the photo transferring Was kind of hoping to have everything done by Sunday, but with +600 photos to copy/transfer/switch, maybe that timeline's a bit ambitious?

Will try to do a little more tomorrow

Sort of may have mentioned to Mat Sklansky that my photos would be ready to go by Sunday afternoon - guess it'd be nice to stick to that time, in case he happened to remember me mentioning that?

Probably he doesn't care if it's this week or the next ... or whatever But still ... guess would like to stick to my word and be reliable and dependable, in case he would just like to get things done sooner rather than later? just in case ...


yawn!


Will work on things until bedtime, then hopefully will be able to finish the rest off by tomorrow morning?

Well, guess there's also Sunday morning to work on things as well

Things are coming along - will pick things up again in the morning ...

About 2/3 to 3/4 done - guess there's Sunday afternoon-ish available as well

Haven't been to the beaches area yet this Summer, because they had a jazz festival going on throughout July, and it gets really hard to find parking. Then they had a food truck festival, or something like that ... this week all they seem to have lined up is some sort of doggy meet and greet in the park - hopefully they haven't taken up all the parking spots?

There's a boardwalk, and some pretty shops a street up from the lake, so it's a nice area of the city to spend a weekend afternoon, catching up with friends


Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!

Most of the time, things still seem to look better in real life than they do in my photos - but every once in a while the photos wind up looking better, not sure why

This is the big beach area, in the East end of the city - there's a nice bike trail in between the trees, but the pedestrian paths are maybe more pretty downtown, with a view of the island? For some reason my photos wound up turning out looking more like downtown ... the beach was actually pretty sparse today, because it rained for about an hour mid-afternoon ...

Just going to a friend's place for a little bbq - guess there may even be a little time later on to work on transferring more photos!

While scrolling through my posts to copy all the photos, was finding some real gems about investing at the beginning of this thread. This thread used to have some decent content ... before it got overtaken by my amateur photography and salad bowls

Had made all these notes to myself to keep track of some of the other stocks that were doing quite well for a while, like Goldman Sachs - then totally forgot to keep track of those other stocks Guess there will be more time to take a look at some of those other things after all the photos have been fixed?


Look at this cute photo - it worked better on twitter, but it's still cute

Spoiler:

(so cute! )

Hopefully there should be enough time to have everything done by tomorrow? Will do a little bit more before bedtime, and then will hopefully be able to finish the rest tomorrow morning?

Will pick things up in the morning ...

My usual Sunday morning ritual is to bring my morning fruit and coffee back to bed and laze around reading morning headlines on my iPad - oftentimes there'll be those week in pictures to scroll through from around the world, which are lovely to see? And it's a chance to catch up on all the important stuff that's happened over the past week as well ...

The caption here mentions that there was a lunar eclipse this past week - although there doesn't seem to be one happening in this particular pic lol? It's very pretty though There's supposed to be a solar eclipse happening in North America next Monday - but that's the one that can burn peoples' eyes ... so guess will just have to watch highlights on tv ...

Also, it looks like Bitcoin went on another wild ride this week?

One day, when am able to stop being the person that buys high and sells low, will have to give stuff like Bitcoin and gold another try ... such nice returns to be had for people who aren't fish like me


Okay, should get going and finish up my stuff now - it's my Dad's birthday tomorrow, and so we're starting the celebrations today!!

Yay, we did it!!

Just have a couple more things to polish up - guess should be ready to go before letting Mat know everything's ready?


Hope everybody has a wonderful Sunday!

You know what we didn't do while in NYC, was eat at any of those world-class restaurants - although there was the chance ...

One thing that's nice about top food is that restaurants are really good about making it accessible - like a lot of the world's top restaurants in NYC offer 3-course lunches for US$90. Guess that's a relatively affordable price for a world-class experience, if like the WSOP ME costs $10k, and a ticket to Hamilton can cost over $1k ... and even great seats to a sporting event can cost hundreds of dollars?

Funny thing about meals at the world's top restaurants though - they seem to serve a lot of seafood, but none of them seem to serve chicken? Here's a pic of what a lobster dish from Le Bernardin ...

Wonder if chicken is too 'solved' - because like all one has to do to eat a world class plate of chicken is head down the street to Swiss Chalet, and it can be had for $9.99 ... jk - sort of We're going there tomorrow for Dad's birthday dinner - yum

It's getting dark so early now - and in a couple of days the CNE will be starting already ... this year does look really good though

Haven't heard back from Mat yet, but don't mind at all because guess there's always one extra thing one can do to be just a little more organized. Must say, by organization with these +600 turned out to be quite a work of art - which maybe shows that if you put your mind to something, anything's possible, because am not the most organized person ...

May have also mentioned to Mat that fixing the photos would only take about 2hrs - hopefully will be able to get things done in the promised amount of time?

If we were allowed to have more than one blog in this section, might have been tempted to start a new one with my fresh new Airmiles grind

Heading out to the store right now to pick up enough shampoo and laundry detergent to last the next couple of months

Last night's Poker After Dark felt like kind of a bit of a sleepy episode - but there was one spot that sort of seemed maybe a bit different from the usual? This turn spot where JRB's double-barrel got raised by Roberts, and he called?

Back when was still learning to play, used to attend live training classes at Poker School Online, where a couple of the live trainers once held some classes on the special stuff to consider when playing +200bbs deep. And one of the tips they gave was that in addition set-mining, playing a lot of suited gappers and connectors can be more EV when playing deep-stacked - guess because the implied odds will be there to continue on the flop and turn, if the villain is someone who's likely to pay off a disguised straight if it hits on the river?

So like, guess they were saying that instead of JRB needing 32% odds to call the $29k on the turn while the pot's $90k, maybe he really only needs 14% if the pot will likely wind up being $216k on the river the times he hits the straight, or something like that? Does that sound like that could be right?


Never actually bothered to give playing deepstacked cash a try because was always worried that was more likely to be the person getting stacked, rather than the person doing the stacking - like it seemed more likely would wind up the stackee rather than the stacker?




Anyways, hopefully tonight's show's a little better than last night's?

Never had the chance to describe the Broadway Musical we went to see in NYC - this one caught my friend's eye because the stars of the show are both two-time Tony Award winners, so they're supposed to be like the Meryl Streep of Broadway?

And the story sounded kind of neat for a musical! It was about two cosmetic entrepreneurs, Elisabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein, and how they revolutionized the cosmetics and skincare industry - one relied on marketing and pretty pink packaging to grow sales, and the other used science and developed special formulas.


My night photography needs some work But here's a couple of photos ...

And here's some stills of the stars of the show, from the clip that was on youtube ...

The story was kind of neat because they started businesses way back in the 1920's - guess maybe in part by finding a niche where they could thrive, like selling women's products to other women?


Also stumbled upon this other story today, about a college student who borrowed some money from his parents to buy a franchise, and now he owns 3! What's great about this story is that they also included a story of two sisters who have also picked up a franchise, but their learning curve seems to have been much more of a struggle? Although they seem to be doing better now ...

Sometimes when things like starting a business seems like it would just be too hard, guess it can be neat to hear stories of people who did find it hard, but gave things a try anyways, and have managed to make things work?

Wonder if there's like a 2nl recreational level equivalent to starting a small business from home - something that would be fun and would offer a chance to learn new things, with little chance of financial ruin? It still seems like it'd be quite scary to try though


Anyways, the musical was great, even though it didn't have a ton of dancing. Maybe one of my favourite parts of the trip?

So blah and rainy out today - just came home and crawled into my jammies

Guess the daily Usain Bolt challenge will have to wait - don't feel like trying to zip through anything right now, except my nap

The nap turned out to be one of those ones where after waking up, was all groggy instead of refreshed - then wound up playing Pet Rescue on the couch, instead of going back to take a closer look at some of the more unusual spots on Poker After Dark this past week ...

Guess there should be time to look to see if there's any spots worth a second look on the weekend, since may not go to the Ex until next weekend?


The Summer Fair opens up tomorrow, and it runs for two weeks - they've got all the usual stuff they seem to have at these things ... like rides, shows, and lots of deep fried food?

It's a lot of local stuff, but walking around on a nice day is kind of fun way to enjoy the pretty weather with friends, before Fall hits and it starts to get colder again


There's even a temporary casino that gets set up with a little poker tournament - does this look like it might be any good?

(no mention of the structure anywhere online)

Going to turn in now

Oh my goodness - it looks like my edit button is temporarily back, so will be able to fix all the photos in my thread now!!1!

It seemed to become much more noticeable how lame so many of my comments are, without all the photos around to distract from all the silliness


Anyways, thanks so much Mat!! Will try and be super quick!!

Photobucket is now officially the worst company in the world in my book - for doing this to all our photos

Am really fortunate that Mat's letting me switch everything out, but gosh is it ever a headache - about half-way through, so hopefully not too much longer now

Told Mat Sklansky that switching out the photos might maybe only take about 2hrs - was really hoping it would take less than one, but like to add in a cushion so when things tend to go over a bit, i don't wind up looking like a disorganized hot mess

Then switching out the photos wound up taking a whole 5 hours instead of 2 - what a disaster ...




Anyways, looks like the thread has most all the pictures back again - switching out all the links was surprisingly draining, but am feeling super fortunate to have had the chance to switch things out ... thanks Mat!!

Belated 2Q Results - how are things going now??


So gosh, when was the last time there was an update on my portfolio?

Once summertime hit, guess may have gotten a bit distracted by the longer days and lovely weather, and may have wound up taking my eye off the ball - which we're not supposed to do Guess that's another mistake to add to the long list of mistakes put together for the 1Q review ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

First Quarter Results - so how are things going?


Guess this thread starts off wondering if it might be possible to invest from home and get decent returns, using only the resources available on the internet? And since it's only been 3 months, maybe trying to answer that question might be like trying to figure out how poker is going after only about 5k hands - just too soon to tell?

Maybe 3 months has been long enough to have noticed a couple of things though? Some early observations:

1. When was first starting out with poker, made every mistake new players are warned not to make - now the same thing's happening with investing

Did everybody start out doing these things, or was it just fishy Sam?

• played too loose
• chased draws without getting odds
• made curiosity calls on the river, even though it seemed obvious was beat
• played bingo, rather than consider what the other players at the table might be up to
• went on a heater and then moved up stakes too quickly and wound up playing sharks
• tilted and spewed off my stack rather than regroup and be patient
• etc

Maybe some lessons are just meant to be learned the hard way? Here's some of my mistakes from my new hobby

• invested a bit too much on risky investments, more than once (too loose)
• keep buying impulsively on days when the market is up, hoping to catch a 'heater', only to find that it's variance and the price drops the next day or the day after, which is chipping away at my returns (chasing)
• started to veer away from relying on earnings, hoping to make bigger returns on riskier more complicated stuff ... (playing bingo)
• ... where the pros all hang out (eek)
• continue to focus on too short a time frame of highs and lows, rather than just wait for the price to calm down and reflect earnings (impatient)
• etc

Maybe having to switch all the links of my photos was a bit of a blessing in disguise, since it gave me a reason to look through the thread and remember that was supposed to be keeping an eye on my investments And the timing is good as well, since summer's starting to wind down ...


Anyways, guess have calmed down some now that it's been a couple of more months, and have basically been trying to stick with this - which kind of makes my investing sound quite a bit similar to my other hobbies of playing The Deal, and collecting Airmiles ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Preliminary Findings - added August 29, 2017

Investing in stocks does seem to be quite a bit like poker?

1. There's promos for recreationals - the government offers very generous tax breaks to encourage amateurs to participate, which makes buying and selling tax free
2. Have been trying to maximize EV by sticking with strong starting hands, and then continue to gather info and monitor changes post-flop - have stuck with investing in quality companies that appear like they may continue to grow profits in the long-term, like Amazon and Facebook
3. Have been avoiding higher stakes play where the sharks hang out - so no day trading, options, or short-selling ... any more
4. Guess there's still risk and uncertainty though - so guess it helps to run lucky!

Must admit that things are going much better than would have expected Guess have been really lucky for there to have not been any crashes of any kind ... yet!

One thing that made me want to really give investing a try this year, was seeing how quickly big returns for quality companies can compound into something meaningful ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

The Big Investment Dilemma

just about every article on the internet seems to recommend the first option - of investing in a index fund that tracks one of the broad market indices, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So it's interesting to look at how much/little the Dow has grown over the last 15 years, when it's compared to something else like Apple stock.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has grown by 67% over the last 15 years - but Apple's grown by 9206%. So guess $10k, invested 15 years ago ... would it be worth this much today (?)

DILEMMA: With conventional wisdom being that index funds that track the Dow are the way to go, would it be foolhardy to take a different route and buy a stock like Apple instead? Or would it be more foolhardy to stick with conventional wisdom, when there's the potential to make millions by making different investment choices?

Guess after only 8 months, it's still too early to tell if decent returns will be sustainable - in poker it'd be silly to assume a decent roi would be due to anything other than rungood ...

Although part of me really likes the idea that even in the face of uncertainty, it might sometimes be better to give things a try, even if it's likely there'll be mistakes and stumbles along the way ... rather than sit on the sidelines and not try something new at all?


Looks like it's already past the middle of 3Q But guess the plan for the rest of 3Q and the rest of the year will be to keep investing in company superstars, and continue to hope for the best, and try to prepare for the worst?

Am holding some BABA right now - but may change it to FB or APPL in mid-September, a couple of weeks before 4Q ...

GL us!!

wow, you are crushing it! congratulations sam, you put a lot of work in and it's paying off bigly. my slacker fantasy portfolio is still turning a fantasy profit but not even half of what you're doing. well done!