Welcome to an American Tragedy Waiting to Happen

To preface this post...

I am not a financial advisor. You should NOT read this post looking for advice regarding stocks, investing, or the market. 

Now that that's out of the way... have you guys seen what's going on with GameStop?

I know, it's been all over the news. As I write this post, the GameStop stock is currently trading at over $300. About a month ago it was less than $15.

This screen shot is from 31 Jan 2021

People unfamiliar with the stock market might think that this is amazing and shows that GameStop is doing really well and that if they buy the stock, they'll make money. People unfamiliar with Reddit might be trying to figure out what it is and why it's causing GameStop to trade at such an inflated price. 

Guys, this whole thing is one giant troll.

I mean that in the Internet sense.

Yes, some people are doing this to mess with Hedge Funds. Yes, some ordinary people are going to make a lot of money. 

However, this is an American Tragedy waiting to happen.

This all started when some dudes on a Reddit page noticed that a Hedge Fund was planning on shorting the GameStop stock in the hopes of making a ton of money. This is not an unusual thing to happen in the market - most financial institutes are just smart enough to not advertise what they are doing to the general public. How or why the people of Reddit learned this information isn't super important. We can assume it was public information or at least released publicly. 

What is important is that these people on Reddit - because of nostalgia, wanting to stick it to "the man", pull of the biggest troll of their lives, or to deal with their boredom from the pandemic - decided to buying up the GameStop stock. Thus they drove up the trading price.

More people jumped on the "buy GameStop" train and the value of the stock shot up. This meant that the Hedge Fund that made a bet to short the stock were going to lose a ton of money.

Now, I don't really like the practice of shorting stocks - I don't think it's all that cool to bet on someone or something to fail - so I don't feel much for these institutions. But I'm also not going to go out and tell people to buy GameStop or any of the other stocks these Reddit people are trying to drive up. 

GameStop stock is not work the $300 it's currently trading at. 

What does this mean?

It's a massive train wreck waiting to happen. 

Here's where we get to the tragedy. If you need a refresher on what tragedy is, it's basically when a story ends badly because our protagonist has a personality quirk that's actually a fatal flaw. Think Hamlet or Othello from our days studying Shakespeare (assuming you guys studied this). If you want a quick deep dive into the genre, go watch the Overly Sarcastic Productions video (link here) that came out a couple of days ago. It's funny and informative.

See the thing about the stock market is that it's just another type of gambling. By buying a stock, you are betting the value will go up. The value of a stock usually, but not always, reflects how a company is doing. There are other benchmarks that should be watched and some stocks are traded at future/potential earnings instead of real/current earnings which adds another layer of risk. People who know what they're doing know that there's no guarantee that the money they put in the stock  market will ever be seen again... even if there's also the chance they'll make a ton of money.

From my perspective as an outsider of the situation looking in, I'm entertained by what is going on. A bunch of people on the Internet getting together to disrupt the stock market and stick it to a bunch of billionaires is satisficing in many ways. Its a whole new level of trolling.

But there's going to be collateral damage… and I don't mean those Hedge Funds that are going belly up. Real individual people are going to be harmed by this. 

Though I've been avoiding reading the actual Reddit forums, some of my friends haven't and they're concerned by the number of people bragging about how much money they put in to buy GameStop stock. Some people were claiming that they had put in all of their savings or at least their stimulus checks to join in on the buying frenzy.

I want to repeat that GameStop stock may be trading at over $300, but it is not worth that amount.

GameStop is not doing well as a company. And the most tragic part of this story is that they could easily go bankrupt. If that happens, everyone loses their money. There's no refund for a stock from a company that goes belly-up. 

That's the worst case scenario. 

The real tragedy comes from the people who brought the stock when it was at it's highest and how much they're going to lose when the market re-stabilizes. The people who brought the stock when it was still around $15 are going to make a lot of money, but that's not going to be most people. Most people are going to lose all the money and then some that they put into GameStop.

That's the reality.

That's the tragedy.

I don't think that many of those people who helped drive up the cost of the stock realize this. Investment isn't something that the average American participates in on their own. With the push for investment apps and free trading on the Internet, more people have begun to try their hand at it, but it's still not the norm. How to invest isn't a standard class in schools (though I did take several classes on the subject in both high school and college, but they were electives). 

So no matter what happens next, the market stabilizes or GameStop declares bankruptcy, the people still throwing their money at this stock are going to lose it. I don't know when the bubble is going to burst. I don't know how awful it might be (it might not be that bad).

I don't even know what kind of laws and regulations are going to come out of this. And, oh yes, there will be laws and regulations because of this madness.

Like I said earlier, it's a train wreck waiting to happen. I'm morbidly fascinated being entertained by a situation that I know will end badly no matter what. I am a member of the audience watching a play where the actors are inviting the gullible to join them on stage.

Tragedy is cathartic. It's not positive or negative. It simply is. Hamlet continues to be performed nearly 500 years after it was written even though we know how it's going to end. Heck the first monologue in Romeo and Juliet tells us that our two love birds are doomed to die. There's no mystery to the story. We already know what's going to happen. What we don't know is the "how".

Which is where we are in the GameStop stock saga (as I write this post).

Some people might walk away with a lot of money, but the average person is going to get hurt. Seriously hurt - like Ophelia drowning because she went crazy hurt (that's not a spoiler to a 500 year old play).

And that my dear readers, is why this is an American Tragedy.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to a Little Break

Guys, I'm taking a break from social media. Starting around Wednesday, I'll be off all my social media sites for a week or two.

I won't be off forever. I need to let my friends and family know I'm alive somehow. Plus I have a lot of poetry and art projects I want to share (*cough* self promote *cough*).

Painting is a great way to express myself and then share it on Deviant Art of Instagram

I just need a break.

For the past several years, I've had almost non-stop Internet access. My phone is a mini computer which I take everywhere. The few times I've gone without the Internet are rare, the last time being an adventure I had in Washington State where I had zero cell service for 90% of my trip.

It was also wonderful.

I loved being able to just stare out the window of the car, not worrying about what was going on in the world beyond the wilderness. I could just experience what was going on around me and be present. Though it was a little scary being miles from the nearest cell tower just in case anything bad happened, the experience of sleeping in a tent next to a river was worth it.

I'm also not here to bash social media. It's helped me keep in touch with people I might not otherwise still speak to.

Heck, I've posted at least 5 times today on Instagram already.

This adorable face had to be shared. It just had to be.

But that doesn't mean that there are a lot of drawbacks to constantly being connected to people. Between chasing likes, fake news, and a weird voyeuristic feeling when looking at other people's lives without really taking part, it can be tough to handle emotionally and mentally.

So for the next two-ish weeks, there won't be any new blog posts from me (either this blog or my food blog), no updates to my webcomic, and no Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I will still be answering emails (I can't give up the Internet entirely - not in this high speed world).

If you are thinking about taking a break from social media, I say give it a go. You don't have to go cold turkey. Try deleting your apps for a weekend or a week and see how you feel. Social media is still a great way to connect people and share the best your life has to offer. If you find that leaving social media has a good impact on your life, then see if you can deactivate your accounts.

Have a great couple of weeks guys.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to Information Overload

I don't think it's any coincidence that my chosen day job profession is as a Market Researcher. I love doing research and information gathering. I able to learn make better choices.

Of course I might go a little overboard with my research on occasion.

I have a hard time making decisions and choices if I can't count for every possible variable. Since many of these possible variables are unknown, the possible starts to turn into the impossible. It sort of feeds into my own fears and self doubt. It's the primal fear of the unknown (well in my case unknown consequences of my actions).

It doesn't help that in this day in age, there are more sources to obtain information. The Internet is a wonderful tool that allows all of us to find out about obscure facts, the best restaurants, and places to go. We're able to document our experiences and promote the things we like best to a wider audience that generations couldn't. We can do this instantly.

Not only can we find out about world events we might not otherwise hear about on the news or facts that might not be taught in schools, we are also exposed to many new and different opinions. Behind the anonymity of our computer screens, we can engage in discussions that we might not otherwise have participated in.

The Internet often feels like the ultimate freedom of expression.

The downside to all of this information is that it can be overwhelming, easily taken out of context, and extremely misleading. Many of us are already seeing the effects of this.

Bias is always present in any source of information. The phrase "history is written by the winners" can be found in almost every history documentary. Facts and numbers can easily be manipulated to show the outcome that someone wants.

That phrase "there are two sides to every story" has also been tossed around a lot. I think this one in particular is too simplistic for the reality we live in. There are usually dozens of different perspectives each based on past knowledge and future outcomes.

What does this mean for me as a person who needs as much information as possible to make a decision?

Well, it can mean that it takes me far longer than necessary to make choices, perhaps a missed opportunity, and the constant feeling that what ever choice I end up making is the wrong choice. It creates a need for perfection and a fear of failure. It makes me constantly compare myself to my peers and those who have already succeeded, while I hesitate to take the next step in my own life.

There's a lot of information to be gathered. There are a lot of things I still need to learn. I will continue doing research because it's what I do best. However, I'll have to work on stopping myself from becoming overwhelmed by all of it.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome to Car Trouble & Other Uncontrollable Problems

If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to admit that I like to be in control. Maybe it's because of my independent streak or my need for planning things out, but I like feeling in control of my life. I'm sure many of my readers feel the same way. So when something that I don't plan on happening happens, I tend to start overthinking things.

For example, my car has been having problems shifting gears. This isn't an unusual issue for the kind of car I drive. In fact the warranty has been extended for this issue for a few extra years. However, this is something that can take a while to fix if the parts aren't in.

My car is my primary mode of transportation. There are alternatives I can use (I live right across the street from the train station), but they are not the most convenient to get to work and I hate unconvincing anyone to ask for help (that doesn't mean I won't, I just feel bad about it). When I don't have my car I tend to get antsy.

Before taking my car into the dealership, I did some research as to which place I should go to (there are a couple close by) and what the Internet had to say about them. Now the Internet tends to be on the extremes when it comes to reviews, people either love something or they hate it. Then there are the fake reviews that can either be a smear campaign or a means of boosting up a rating. Looking in the Internet did not decrease my anxiety at all.

But the car needed to be looked at, so to the nearest dealership I went. I took a deep breath and I packed a bag full of snacks, books, notebooks and my knitting. I was set to wait at the dealership all day, which didn't end up happening because after they found out what was wrong and made sure they had all the parts to fix it, they took me home with the promise to come get me later that day when it was fixed.

This didn't stop me from worrying while I didn't have my car. What if they found something else wrong with he car. What if it wasn't covers under the warranty? What if a giant fell out of the sky and landed on my car squashing it for good ( as unplausable as that last one is I once saw a car combust in the parking lot at work, so my imagination went a little out there).

Today I feel a little silly for being so worried. Even though everything turned out alright for me, not having a car can be a real problem when there aren't many options for backup transportation. John Oliver went into detail about it this past week on his YouTube channel. If you haven't seen it yet, it's on pre-approved auto loans and it's a good watch.

Having a plan is a good idea if the worst should ever happen, but the worst that can happen isn't something that can always be planned on. I never thought an earthquake would hit Virginia and yet it did five years ago when I was just arriving at school.

It would be nice if I could control everything in my life, but then nothing unexpected would happen. And the unexpected can lead to some pretty awesome experiences, as well as some of the strangest.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from my readers. Until next week.