A Sign Of The Times

I have been a customer with Robinhood since the beginning of the summer 2017. I put money down, I took money back, and I proceeded with caution. I also had some extra money that I wanted to put down for the big win, playing with crypto. A small gamble of an investment that could make but never break the bank that is me. Hence, this very account you see here where I am happy to say that I have made some good fortune just from spilling my brains on the internet with the rest of you.

For the crypto, like many of you I had to resort to some more sketchy sites, often of a Chinese persuasion. Nothing against the Chinese at all. They are amazing people (with a shitty government... but then again, what government's aren't shitty these days?). So, I looked up what people posting on forums had to say about their experiences with these nuanced exchanges, and I eventually found great happiness in trading crypto on binance.com. I don't think I've witnessed any better missed opportunity since I signed on to Binance than their own BNB currency that has been growing along with the popularity of the site rather than the ups and downs of rumors and trendlines.

While I still have faith in Binance, they need a competitor. Enter the established American stock trading platform that is Robinhood. The waitlist for early access is long (>1 million) but if you get nothing else out of this post, I hope you see the value in staying in the know on this front. Stock exchanges are starting to push back on the traditional rules that supposedly keep big investments safe, but also hold back the true potential of the markets to benefit more than the high-roller elite.

All of this is opinion, so take none of this as the advice of a pro. I speculate as a futurist, not an economist. If you would be happy to take investment advice from Isaac Asimov and don't care if he was incorrect and lost you money for betting on when the robot revolt will occur, then feel free to read some knowledge out of what I have to say. Otherwise, if you can't take legal responsibility for your own losses, then don't read my posts, ever.

That said, I think the first concern in regards to this move is if your money can still be borrowed on margin for crypto. Best advice I can give: DON'T BORROW ON MARGIN TO BUY CRYPTO!!! If you do, you are risking too much. It's bad enough watching an investment dwindle down to a huge loss. It's way worse when you are forced to accept the loss because you borrowed the money. If I have a loss, I prefer to let it sit like a lottery ticket that might some day surprise me. Otherwise, I count that money as gone and I move on to grow more of what I have growing.

I AM buying secure stocks on margin because I expect those stocks to grow slowly over time. The largest drop that could reasonably hurt me from those investments is a 10% drop, unless we hit another bubble pop like 2008. Even in that case, I have a few bears up my sleeve that will make that a good year for me.

Since Robinhood boasts happily of zero-commission trading on stocks, I have to wonder if they will be able to carry that on to a crypto trading market. Even if that's not the case, this move to Robinhood Crypto is still interesting. Robinhood will be able to tie their appeal to the commoner low capital traders like me with a new appeal to the high rollers with who have the sense to be worried at the thought of trading on an exchange that's not American.

Curious About Options?

I wanted to do a post on Options Trading with my preferred exchange . <== Another Ref!!! This little blurb will have to suffice for now, since blogging is not a full time gig of mine. Options trading done right can gain you more money with less risk than regular stock trading. In fact, that's what it's about, buying a huge potential for less capital being risked in exchange for serving as insurance to the person selling the contract. There's lots of room to have mutual benefits from a successful trade.

If you are up for the challenge of learning options, I suggest you place your money on TastyWorks and follow the advice of their daily vlog site TastyTrade. You can take trade advice from people you see making the exact same trades. The learning experience becomes a bonding experience as you watch, listen, call in, and make the research of investing a daily social experience.

Best of luck to all of you. Happy trading!

Note: Openly and shamelessly, I plugged some ref links into this post. If you sign up and put money down on these exchanges through these links, I get nice things for it.

If you feel like shooting me some dust, you have my sincere thanks AND my motivation to put out more awesome content:
Monero: 48BCKjhwZhSW3CEib1D86G9f6oYKUCqPbZvaSqfPsdmbPymvpdRSHYwfrkyxMy79Aqbb2BCFoXuUDgwAQeHxsNYLK1NMdKD