Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • Why I Just Invested in Gauge, the Best Way to Sell Your Car

    If you have a car to sell, you generally have 3 options:

    1) Craigslist. You can get a good price, but buyers are flaky and the process takes forever. If you can sell it at all.

    2) Dealer trade-in. Easy but the price is terrible.

    3) Sell to a used car lot. See # 2

    Now, there’s a much better option: sell your car with Gauge. Gauge is a Salt Lake City-based startup that gets you the highest price for your car, easily. When you list your car with Gauge, you get competing bids from multiple dealers. You pick the offer you’re happiest with, and that’s it!

    Selling with Gauge avoids the hassles of shady Craigslist buyers, and the competitive process gets you a better price than taking the car to a dealer.

    But what about Carvana?

    What about them? Carvana buys your car itself, which means their incentive is to give you the lowest price possible. While Gauge does buy your car directly from you, it does so on behalf of dealers and buyers who want to bid on it. Gauge only makes money if you decide to sell your car on their platform. If you’re not happy with the bids you get, you’re free to sell your car elsewhere. So Gauge has every incentive to get you the best price possible.

    This model is working so well they’ve earned a stellar 4.7 star average on Google. Sellers love the great customer service with no fees. Dealers love Gauge too, because they can get better quality cars than at most auctions. And not having to show up at an auction in person is a huge time savings, not to mention being safer.

    Gauge is growing very fast, and I’m super excited to be an investor! They only list cars in the Salt Lake City area at the moment, but they’re expanding rapidly, with several new markets already in the works.

    If you’re in the area with a car to sell, I don’t think you can do better!

    More on tech:

    WHY I JUST INVESTED IN CRAFTER, MAKER OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ARTS AND CRAFTS KITS IN THE WORLD

    7 COMPANIES HAD 3 MINUTES EACH TO PITCH US. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

    INSIDE A STARTUP ACCELERATOR DEMO DAY

    Photo: “Corvette Stingray” by pyntofmyld is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • CUTE ANIMALS ONLINE: MY TOP 5

    As a fun thing heading into the weekend, I thought I’d share five of my favorite cute animal accounts online. I’m a big animal person, rodents especially, and really enjoy spending time with them. The next best thing is checking out adorable animal content online, and these are my favorites!

    Number 5: Goodable

    More than just cute animals, but some wonderful cute animal content. Check out this adorable abandoned kitten that was found and saved by some very kind people:

    https://twitter.com/Goodable/status/1410976667439403015?s=20

    Number 4: My Little 4 Rodents

    Wonderful Instagram account with some very cute gerbils, along with other fine rodents!

    Number 3: Hummingbird Returns to Man Every Year

    A man who rescued an injured hummingbird and nursed it back to health. He later let it go, but it returns every year and sits in his hand during its migration! Wonderful story.

    Number 2: Chi Channel

    Adorable chinchilla and degu videos! It’s all in Japanese, but even if you don’t speak the language, the cuteness translates!

    Number 1: Cat saves little boy from falling from balcony!

    Just do what kitty says! 🙂 What an amazing cat!

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CQZfiBjH8uK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    Have a great weekend everyone!

    More on entertainment:

    THE AWESOME VIDEO SERIES THAT’S SWEEPING JAPAN NOW

    THIS IS SATRIALE’S FROM THE SOPRANOS

    MY FAMILY IN JAPAN SAW ME ON TV!

    Photo: “Cute Rodent” by SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent) is licensed under CC BY 2.0. This is an elephant shrew.

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Short Sellers Lose $44 Billion in 30 Days

    Short sellers had a disastrous June:

    Overall, U.S. short sellers are down -$44.49 billion in net of financing mark-to-market losses over the last thirty days.

    The #1 source of short seller losses? AMC, by a wide margin, at $2.8 billion. AMC was also the #2 stock in the entire market in increased short exposure in June, a little behind Tesla, which has a market cap more than 25 times as large.

    How can we describe this behavior by short sellers? Delusional? Suicidal? Or perhaps rational, given the incentives hedge funds are facing. Numerous funds are down heavily on bad bets against meme stocks. Once a hedge fund is well into the red, it has to make back its losses to even have a chance of earning its 20% performance fee. (That fee is collected only on gains over the capital invested.)

    So, the deeper in the hole a fund gets, the more incentive it may have to make risky bets. Only a huge payoff on a volatile stock (like AMC) can get them back in the black, earning those sweet, sweet performance fees.

    Unfortunately, this exposes investors who have already lost much of their capital to enormous risks. If I were an investor in a hedge fund that bet against meme stocks, which fortunately I am not, I’d pull my money out ASAP before they lose it all. It’s hard to make money shorting anything in such a hot market, but shorting one of the most popular stocks out there is a recipe for disaster.

    The hedge funds were just lucky that June is a short month.

    More on AMC:

    HEDGE FUND TORCHED BY AMC

    AMC + UFC = JACKPOT

    AMC’S S-3 WITHDRAWAL: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

    Photo: “I’m scared too, but we’ll make it.” by qousqous is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Why Indian Tech Is Exploding

    The Indian tech industry is growing at an incredible pace:

    Indian startups have raised a record $10.46 billion in the first half of 2021, up from $4 billion during the same period last year

    Salaries are also increasing rapidly, from an average of $40,000 to $70,000, and even $150,000 for some top engineers.

    Why is Indian tech growing so fast? I think several changes in the industry in recent years are weighing in its favor:

    • Major investors went remote due to COVID, and have largely stayed that way even as the pandemic recedes in the US. This means they can meet an Indian entrepreneur just as easily as one across the street in San Francisco. This democratization is great for the entire industry.
    • The venture industry as a whole is on fire, with both exits and valuations in the US reaching staggering levels. This gives venture firms more incentive to look outside the US for better deals, and more cash with which to do so.
    • It’s easier to incorporate in the US than ever. I recently invested in a startup that lets companies incorporate, issue stock options, and handle compliance cheaper and easier than ever before. Many of their customers are outside the US, but incorporate here to make fundraising from American investors easy. (More on this awesome company soon!)
    • India is stacked with tech talent. Anyone who has worked at a software company in the US can tell you that Indian-Americans are a huge part of the industry, and they have incredible skills.
    • China is killing its tech industry. Heavy-handed regulation, massive fines, and even disappearances of tech entrepreneurs is having a chilling effect, and the number of Chinese startups breaking out is way down. India competes with China for venture funds, and right now, it’s looking like the better bet.

    New regulations that may require companies to expose users and break encryption are the biggest risk I see on the horizon for Indian tech. But with a deep talent pool and ample funding, India’s is a startup scene to watch.

    सौभाग्य!

    More on technology:

    INDIA IS SOAKING UP VENTURE CAPITAL LIKE A SPONGE

    CHINA IS KILLING ITS TECH INDUSTRY

    7 COMPANIES HAD 3 MINUTES EACH TO PITCH US. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

    Photo: “India – Enroute Tso Moriri, Ladakh” by sandeepachetan.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • AMC + UFC = Jackpot

    AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. just made a bold move to capture a huge new audience:

    The value proposition here is obvious: why pay $70 when you can pay $25? But the implications for AMC are even bigger than they may appear.

    UFC is growing at an incredible rate, dwarfing growth in any other major sport. 2020 was a banner year for the league:

    “For us personally, it’s the best year we’ve ever had. Crazy to say that, but we broke just about every record we have, except for live gate, obviously,” White told TSN. “It was a very challenging year for us, to pull all this stuff off. It was without a doubt the hardest year of my career.

    Viewers grew 30% on ESPN and the UFC’s YouTube and Instagram accounts are second only to the NBA in followers.

    UFC not only brings an enormous new audience to AMC, it counters one of the biggest problems movie theaters have: strong seasonality in their business. The most anticipated movies are usually released in the summer, and the crowds swell. But in the colder months, major releases are fewer and attendance drops off.

    Unlike the movie business or most professional sports, UFC is not seasonal. Major tournaments happen regularly throughout the year, and there is no off season.

    Picture normally empty theaters packed with cheering fight fans in January, and then imagine the money printing machine in AMC’s headquarters spitting out hundreds. While the stock’s price is a little high for my taste at the moment, I have to applaud CEO Adam Aron’s leadership.

    More on AMC:

    AMC ON THE THRESHOLD LIST: STRONG EVIDENCE OF NAKED SHORT SELLING

    AMC’S S-3 WITHDRAWAL: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

    HEDGE FUND TORCHED BY AMC

    Photo: “File:Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin UFC 115.jpg” by Bad intentionz is licensed under CC BY 3.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Why I Just Invested in Crafter, Maker of the Most Beautiful Arts and Crafts Kits in the World

    I’m super excited about today’s company! Of all the startups I’ve looked at recently, Crafter might have the most compelling product. This San Diego-based company makes arts and crafts kits of the very highest quality and provides great instructional videos that will have you making beautiful crafts in no time.

    A beautiful textile project from Crafter

    I never thought I’d consider embroidery until I saw their product! Crafter, also known as The Crafter’s Box, can also help you make quilts, leather bags, and even stained glass! This post barely scratches the surface; you really have to check out Crafter.com and see all this cool stuff! Go ahead, I’ll wait here. 🙂

    Learn to embroider!

    The founder, Morgan Spenla, created Crafter after what was supposed to be a relaxing crafting experience turned into a nightmare. Morgan wanted to make a nice necklace, and found herself at Joann’s looking at a thousand different tools and materials. She had no idea what to choose. The store was about to close and her kids were going wild. Morgan wound up with a random assortment of materials and couldn’t find a YouTube video to show her how to turn them into the necklace she wanted. She wound up giving up in frustration. But she knew there had to be a better way.

    I doubt Morgan is the only person to have this experience. Crafting has become increasingly popular during the pandemic. If you’re stuck at home, why not make a cool scarf? And I don’t see people giving up their fun new hobby just because things are reopening.

    The venture capital world is largely male, and most of us probably don’t do crafts. But that doesn’t mean other people don’t! Arts and crafts is a $44 billion dollar industry that has grown by half in just 5 years, and it’s almost all brick and mortar retail. Crafter could completely disrupt this market. Etsy is the go-to for finished crafts, and Crafter may become the go-to for making crafts. Oh and by the way, Etsy is valued at $25 billion.

    On a meeting with Morgan recently, I was impressed by her resourcefulness and dogged persistence. Founders giving up is the biggest killer of startups, and I don’t see Morgan giving up. She funded the company herself for nearly 5 years before raising venture capital, and continues to work long hours to make her dream a reality.

    She also excels at recruiting the best people to help her. On a recent episode of This Week in Startups, Morgan shared her strategy of recruiting former Starbucks employees for customer service jobs. They excel at dealing with difficult customers, and if your tech startup can pay more than Starbucks, you’ve got them. This struck me (and the host, noted angel investor Jason Calacanis) as brilliant.

    Take a look at Crafter.com and make yourself something awesome! And by the way, that link will save you 20%!

    More on technology:

    7 COMPANIES HAD 3 MINUTES EACH TO PITCH US. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

    INSIDE A STARTUP ACCELERATOR DEMO DAY

    CHINA IS KILLING ITS TECH INDUSTRY

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • China Is Killing its Tech Industry

    Major news over the holiday weekend as the Chinese government required all app stores in China to remove the Didi Chuxing app. Didi is the Chinese equivalent to Uber, and dominates shared rides in the country, along with a major presence abroad:

    China has ordered app-store operators to remove the app of Didi from their stores, the latest as tension escalates between the nation’s largest ride-hailing giant and local regulators. The app has disappeared from several stores including Apple’s App Store in China, TechCrunch can confirm.

    The nation’s cyberspace administration, which unveiled the order on Sunday, said Didi was illegally collecting users’ personal data.

    Existing users can continue the use the app for now, but new signups are blocked. This comes just days after Didi raised billions in an IPO in New York, perhaps angering the Chinese government.

    The claim of data violations seems specious. Didi’s CEO, Li Min, denies that any data is handled improperly or passed to the US.

    This is part of a broader crackdown on China’s technology industry:

    • Alibaba Group fined $2.8 billion shortly after CEO Jack Ma criticizes the Communist Party
    • Fintech giant Ant Group, also founded by Jack Ma, has IPO cancelled
    • Bitcoin miners forced to shut down and are racing to move their servers elsewhere, including the US, as the Chinese government prepares to launch its own competing digital currency
    • A Chinese billionaire, many of whom are in the technology industry, dies every 40 days on average, often in suspicious “accidents” and “suicides.” Some are simply executed.

    What is this doing to China’s technology industry? The damage is reflected in a massive decline in the number of “unicorns,” or startups reaching $1 billion valuation, in China. Meanwhile, the number of unicorns in the US is skyrocketing and the tech industry as a whole is hotter than ever.

    China’s overall economy has also trended sharply downwards in recent years:

    The Communist Party doesn’t want any competing power centers, and the Chinese tech industry, with its wealth and control of information, is perhaps the biggest alternative power center left.

    But the industry needs freedom to experiment and exchange ideas, and a stable climate without the constant threat of fines, shutdowns and imprisonment. Entrepreneurs can find that here in the US, along with abundant funding. And I think you’ll see more and more of them making that jump.

    More on technology:

    7 COMPANIES HAD 3 MINUTES EACH TO PITCH US. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

    INSIDE A STARTUP ACCELERATOR DEMO DAY

    UNICORNS ARE BEING MINTED FASTER THAN EVER

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Hoffa Murder Suspect Tony Pro’s Union Hall

    On July 30, 1975, James R. Hoffa, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared without a trace. In 1982, he was declared dead. No body has ever been found.

    A prime suspect in that disappearance was Teamsters Local 560 President Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano. In fact, Hoffa was actually on the way to meet Tony Pro when he disappeared.

    Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano

    A member of the Genovese crime family, Tony Pro ruled Local 560 with an iron fist. Anyone who opposed him had a way of winding up dead.

    Tony Pro’s union hall

    Hoffa and Provenzano’s beef seems to date from prison. Whether Tony Pro had other reasons for wanting Hoffa dead isn’t known.

    Today, I went in search of the remains of this history. Tony Pro’s Local 560 Union Hall is in Union City, NJ, a town that was once heavily Italian but is now mostly Hispanic. Though it has changed since Tony Pro’s day, its working class roots are very much intact. Nearby are Tonnelle Avenue and the Lincoln Tunnel, where many of Local 560’s members drive their trucks every day.

    Looking at the door to the union hall, I imagined a small, bespectacled man leaving at the end of the day with a sheaf of papers. Who would think he had the power that he did?

    Tony Pro’s habit of disappearing anyone who got in his way eventually caught up with him when he had the local’s treasurer, Anthony Castellito, murdered at his country home in the Catskills. Like Hoffa’s, his body was never found. But years later, an informant tipped the FBI to Tony Pro’s involvement, and Tony went to federal prison, where he died in 1988 of heart failure.

    More on the mafia in New Jersey:

    THE MAFIA’S HOBOKEN FORTRESS

    BADA BING’S REAL-LIFE MOB CONNECTIONS

    A NOTORIOUS MOB INFORMANT’S HOBOKEN HEADQUARTERS

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • AMC’s S-3 Withdrawal: What Does It Mean?

    There is a lot of talk lately on Twitter and Reddit about AMC’s withdrawal Tuesday of an obscure SEC form called an S-3. Form S-3 is a filing that registers securities. In this case, the securities were convertible bonds, or bonds that can convert into stock when the holder chooses.

    Many on social media conclude that this withdrawal is somehow part of a plan by AMC to kneecap short sellers. I’m not quite clear on how that would work, but removing the possibility of a lot of new share issuance does keep a tighter market in the shares, making a short squeeze somewhat more likely.

    But I think the key part of the S-3 withdrawal is this:

    The Registrant confirms that no securities have been issued or sold under the Registration Statement.

    It appears to me that AMC is simply withdrawing an SEC filing that no longer reflected reality, thus keeping their regulatory filings current. They didn’t issue shares under the agreement, so
    the shares couldn’t have been sold short. In all, there doesn’t seem to be a clear connection between the withdrawal of the S-3 and short selling in AMC.

    This excellent video explains the situation well:

    I won’t pretend to be an expert on S-3’s. Is it possible I’m missing something? Absolutely, and I’m curious to hear your perspective in the comments at the bottom of the page.

    That said, we don’t need to draw any conclusion from the S-3 withdrawal to have strong evidence of illegal activity by short sellers in AMC. As I covered yesterday, repeated fail-to-delivers in a heavily traded stock like this, along with serious short interest, powerfully suggest illegal naked short selling.

    Whatever the S-3 means, there’s more than enough evidence of misconduct already.

    More on AMC:

    AMC ON THE THRESHOLD LIST: STRONG EVIDENCE OF NAKED SHORT SELLING

    HEDGE FUNDS LOSE $12 BILLION ON AMC AND GAMESTOP

    HEDGE FUNDS’ AMC DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

    (Full disclosure: I don’t have and have never had any position in any AMC securities, long or short. I just find the phenomenon of a 28-fold increase in a stock in 6 months interesting as an investor.)

    Photo: “Monopoly Guy Graffiti – Rich Uncle Pennybags” by Indrid__Cold is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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  • AMC on the Threshold List: Strong Evidence of Naked Short Selling

    For months, investors in AMC have suspected a conspiracy by hedge funds to drive down the share price via an illegal practice called naked short selling. Strong evidence of this emerged Friday with the listing of AMC on the NYSE’s Threshold Securities list.

    Let’s back up: what is naked short selling? In a normal short sale, you borrow the shares and then sell them, agreeing to return them at a later date and hoping the price drops by then, netting you a profit. Naked short selling is selling shares short (betting against the price) that you have not actually borrowed.

    Naked short selling is illegal unless it’s a bona fide attempt by a market maker to meet demand. This usually occurs in thinly traded stocks. AMC is the exact opposite, and is often one of the most traded stocks in the market.

    Stocks can also wind up on the Threshold List because of fail-to-delivers (trades not being completed) due to administrative errors. But the fail-to-delivers must be substantial: at least 0.5% of all shares outstanding. AMC has been on and off this list for months, along with other meme stocks like GameStop. AMC has high short interest, numerous hedge funds betting against it, and many appearances on the NYSE list. So, I think naked short selling is the likely reason for the fail-to-delivers, not innocent errors.

    Naked short selling is illegal because it is a powerful way to push down a stock’s price artificially. If a seller need not even find the shares and borrow them, they can short sell any amount. They could even sell more shares than exist! And no pesky interest to pay on those borrowed shares. Naked short selling is a tool that manipulates stocks and kills investor confidence, the lifeblood of markets that allow companies to raise funds.

    So what happens now?

    Regulation SHO requires that participants of a registered clearing agency must immediately purchase shares to close out failures to deliver in securities with large and persistent failures to deliver, referred to as “threshold securities,” if the failures to deliver persist for 13 consecutive settlement days.

    If hedge funds have to close out their short positions, that involves buying. A lot of it. This could strain the capital of funds that are already nursing wounds from betting against meme stocks, pushing them closer to the edge.

    It could also cause another short squeeze, pushing AMC’s price much higher. The stock is up 28-fold so far this year, but it’s possible we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

    More great content on the threshold listing here and here.

    More on AMC:

    HIGH FREQUENCY TRADERS MAKE BILLIONS ON AMC, MEME STOCKS

    HEDGE FUNDS LOSE $12 BILLION ON AMC AND GAMESTOP

    HEDGE FUNDS’ AMC DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

    Photo: “Naked Cowboy” by moneymakermj is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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