The Investment Thread

[dbridge]

Vanguard has lots of different options in terms of ETFs, mutual funds, dividend paying funds, etc- as i found out when i called to set up an account today.. which, incidentally, took forever since one of my old 401ks had been with Vanguard years ago, so they still had an account for me that I couldn’t access, etc etc- but i digest... finally got it figured out though... i had been researching their funds for a while.. VDIGX is like their ‘stalwart’ dividend fund that has been around forever in terms of these things (ie since 2002) and has companies like UnitedHealth, J&J, etc- only 40 companies, which is considered a very small quantity- but high quality... they have other dividend funds focused on tech- but I’m already in TSLA (since 2016), BTC and ETH on my own... another great Vanguard fund to look at is VTI, which i may soon get into as well.. but it doesnt pay dividends.

VTI is the ETF version of the index fund VTSAX. It tracks the total stock market. Very low expense ratios. I'm almost 100 percent sure it pays dividends each quarter, so you may want to recheck your info on that. Fidelity also has some good low cost index funds. In fact, many have lower expense ratios than Vanguard, who is supposedly the king of low cost funds.
I also own some VDIGX (several hundred shares acquired over the last few years) and it pays healthy dividends, especially in December, but I slowed down buying it because it has a slightly higher expense ratio of .26 (still not nearly as bad as the majority of managed funds) whereas I can get an index fund with a .05 or less expense ratio that performs just as well.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

VTI is the ETF version of the index fund VTSAX. It tracks the total stock market. Very low expense ratios. I'm almost 100 percent sure it pays dividends each quarter, so you may want to recheck your info on that. Fidelity also has some good low cost index funds. In fact, many have lower expense ratios than Vanguard, who is supposedly the king of low cost funds.
I also own some VDIGX (several hundred shares acquired over the last few years) and it pays healthy dividends, especially in December, but I slowed down buying it because it has a slightly higher expense ratio of .26 (still not nearly as bad as the majority of managed funds) whereas I can get an index fund with a .05 or less expense ratio that performs just as well.

I asked the licensed Vanguard agent i spoke with this morning if VTI was a ‘dividend fund’ like VDIGX, which we’d just been discussing, and he said No.. he seemed competent, and not sure how he could have misunderstood .. but in any case, I’d been leaning towards VDIGX for a while... Nice to know that there are some other good dividend-paying funds out there to look at in the future.

 

[Turfie]

Looks like its time to buy more bananas .

I really wish I could. But I’m all tapped out. I do have a few penny stocks I’m trying to farm to get more money. I budgeted that if it’s drops to zero I can keep on keeping on.

I have been tempted to sell and re-rebuy to get more shares but it’s so risky. Last time I did it was with GME in mid March. But not doing it again. Plus it ultimately doesn’t help the cause. I don’t want to give shares away to hedges.

 

[St. Geezy]

I really wish I could. But I’m all tapped out. I do have a few penny stocks I’m trying to farm to get more money. I budgeted that if it’s drops to zero I can keep on keeping on.

I have been tempted to sell and re-rebuy to get more shares but it’s so risky. Last time I did it was with GME in mid March. But not doing it again. Plus it ultimately doesn’t help the cause. I don’t want to give shares away to hedges.

I am not a financial advisor, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable giving this suggestion if this was still trading in the single dollar range when I did so, but if you believe in the squeeze and believe it is imminent, you may want to consider converting some shares to September and January calls.

It's literally changed my entire portfolio. I am in the Twilight Zone looking at my portfolio gains these days, and things are just getting started.

 

[St. Geezy]

Fake dip. I hope all the new apes know the drill when they artificially shake the tree.

Fascinating that the same big banks and hedge funds are suffering from FTDs (failure to deliver actual shares). But yet they are still able to short it.

Very fake. Was predictable even, given today's options expiry combined with the 3-day weekend, not to mention them wanting to create fear to get some of the millions of the synthetics off the books before AMC's shareholder count gets tabulated next week.

Expect a ton of FUD this weekend, as there is more than enough reason to believe that the clock is about to strike midnight for the hedgies.

 

[St. Geezy]

Looks like its time to buy more bananas .

 

[dbridge]

I asked the licensed Vanguard agent i spoke with this morning if VTI was a ‘dividend fund’ like VDIGX, which we’d just been discussing, and he said No.. he seemed competent, and not sure how he could have misunderstood .. but in any case, I’d been leaning towards VDIGX for a while... Nice to know that there are some other good dividend-paying funds out there to look at in the future.

Ok. I see the misunderstanding now. It's true that VTI is not a dividend fund, but that doesn't mean it doesn't pay dividends. Dividend funds' main focus is finding companies that pay reliable dividends, but most index funds/ETFs also pay dividends. Best way to find out for yourself is just google "VTI dividends" or "VTI distributions" (substitute whatever fund you want to look up) and you should be able to come up with a list of the dividends paid for at least the last year.

 

[St. Geezy]

 

[Turfie]

At least the German markets are open today

 

[St. Geezy]

At least the German markets are open today

Solid day thus far...AMC went up 16% and is at $24.99 euros last I saw, which is $30.53 U.S. Dollars. We tend to go up whenever they go up, however they still have another trading session that starts before our next one tomorrow.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Hope y'all make some money, but this reddit stuff is just...

 

[Turfie]

Hope y'all make some money, but this reddit stuff is just...

I hope so too.

What’s currently blowing up the GME subreddit is that GameStop confirmed that 1.5% of all GME shareholders use the brokerage Etoro. That was what GameStop reported.

1.2 to 1.3 million Etoro customers own GameStop shares. So if 1.2 to 1.3 million represents just 1.5% of all GME shareholders.....Boom.

That means 89 million people in the world own GameStop shares.

Only 73 million real shares are in existence. The majority of which are insider and institutional.

If the average shareholder owns 1 GME shares = 89,000,000 shares.

2 shares on average = 178 million

5 shares on average = 445 million

The level of national/financial embarrassment coming out of some of these naked shorted stocks is going to be something.

Edit a lot of these could be errors in communication and the math could be way off.

 

[DaveXA]

I hope so too.

What’s currently blowing up the GME subreddit is that GameStop confirmed that 1.5% of all GME shareholders use the brokerage Etoro. That was what GameStop reported.

1.2 to 1.3 million Etoro customers own GameStop shares. So if 1.2 to 1.3 million represents just 1.5% of all GME shareholders.....Boom.

That means 89 million people in the world own GameStop shares.

Only 73 million real shares are in existence. The majority of which are insider and institutional.

If the average shareholder owns 1 GME shares = 89,000,000 shares.

2 shares on average = 178 million

5 shares on average = 445 million

The level of national/financial embarrassment coming out of some of these naked shorted stocks is going to be something.

Edit a lot of these could be errors in communication and the math could be way off.

The problem is these aren't necessarily static numbers. Shares change hands all the time and stopping the clock and counting all the shares outstanding at a given point in time is difficult to do. Not saying there isn't an issue with shares owned vs actual shares available, but actually nailing down where all the shares are and who owns what seems like a tough thing to do.

There are definitely questions worth asking and issues that have to be answered regarding how hedge funds and institutions are managing those short positions.

 

[Saint_Ward]

I hope so too.

What’s currently blowing up the GME subreddit is that GameStop confirmed that 1.5% of all GME shareholders use the brokerage Etoro. That was what GameStop reported.

1.2 to 1.3 million Etoro customers own GameStop shares. So if 1.2 to 1.3 million represents just 1.5% of all GME shareholders.....Boom.

That means 89 million people in the world own GameStop shares.

Only 73 million real shares are in existence. The majority of which are insider and institutional.

If the average shareholder owns 1 GME shares = 89,000,000 shares.

2 shares on average = 178 million

5 shares on average = 445 million

The level of national/financial embarrassment coming out of some of these naked shorted stocks is going to be something.

Edit a lot of these could be errors in communication and the math could be way off.

How did you arrive at that math that 89 million people own GME? I don't think they are saying 1.5% shareholders is 1.5% of people who own a share, but 1.5% of all shares...

About 46% of all Gamestop Shares are owned by the top ten holders / holding companies.

Ownership Summary | Gamestop Corp.

news.gamestop.com

Looking at that list, I'd say Sherman George Jr has more power (by shares) than every single person trading on Etoro.