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Sixty-four.

When I re-took control of my investments - they'd been in a blind pool for most of the past 20 years as I wanted nothing to do with the investment world for my first decades in Alaska - that number was just about double.

And the portfolio was a mess! It's been fun straightening it out. And beating the codswallop out of the indices, too.
 
Congratulations on that add-up at $33. As I wrote above, I chickened out at that time, but I did get in a boat-load during Day #1. And with this recent surge, it now has displaced SCTY as my #2 position.
 
John Fichthorn said 2 weeks ago he was short TSLA and GPRO. He might have been able to cover his TSLA position when we dipped into the $255 range but I've been following GPRO everyday and GPRO was at $38 when he shorted it and there has never been a day since that he could have made money. I bought some Oct 18th calls 2 weeks ago at $38 and was going to sell some today after a good two week run up. But these calls currently have no time value ( a Oct 18 40 call is worth about $8 when the share price is $48, which I don't understand but I should probably post that in the newbie option thread). I might just keep them and see what happens. Feels like GPRO is getting a short squeeze.
 
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John Fichthorn said 2 weeks ago he was short TSLA and GPRO. He might have been able to cover his TSLA position when we dipped into the $255 range but I've been following GPRO everyday and GPRO was at $38 when he shorted it and there has never been a day since that he could have made money. I bought some Oct 18th calls 2 weeks ago at $38 and was going to sell some today after a good two week run up. But these calls currently have no time value ( a Oct 18 40 call is worth about $8 when the share price is $48, which I don't understand but I should probably post that in the newbie option thread). I might just keep them and see what happens. Feels like GPRO is getting a short squeeze.

Nicely done. I was in/out of GPRO in the first week run up at IPO wish I had those Calls! It does look like a short squeeze. I do not give investment advice per se, I only indicate what 'I do'. After a nice run up I usually sell a portion equal to my investment, plus 10% so I have a 'profit' no matter what, then see what happens with the rest. Good luck....and again, nicely played!
 
Thx AIMc, that's a good rule u have about playing with the houses money. I did sell one of my GPRO options today but I'm hoping to get a little more out of the rest. Hope I'm not being too greedy but the Oct 18th 40 calls I have, have absolutely no time value what so ever, so if I keep them a little longer I don't have to worry about time decay, just that the share price won't plummet. And it seems GoPro is going to be doing pretty good this Christmas with their bigger store displays and more accessories. It is hard to put a value on GPRO right now so I'm kinda just living on a prayer right now. All the shows on discovery I can always spot out a GoPro and all my best pictures I have were takin with a GoPro so I think they're on to something, just not sure what will be next. But Nick Woodman seems pretty excited about their future.
 
Well, Lending Club is filing for IPO next Wednesday:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/lending-club-leader-in-peer-to-peer-plans-i-p-o/

I really love the product (see my offtopic thread of the same name). The business is lemonade-stand simple, which is nice. I look forward to seeing the ipo price and number of shares. From that I will try to do a back-of-the-envelope analysis.

I'd love to read your analysis. (I'm very curious what your Lenders Club estimate for step #3 here, Articles/megaposts by DaveT - Page 71)
 
I'd love to read your analysis. (I'm very curious what your Lenders Club estimate for step #3 here, Articles/megaposts by DaveT - Page 71)

Right, I will do my best. I think it passes a few tests: The product is awesome, it is better than competitors, it disrupts an old and lucrative industry, almost NO ONE knows about it and understands it-- leading to a undervalued situation, it has a CEO on a mission (need to do more research here). Plus, it is not IPO'ing so late that it is already a mega bazillion company at IPO. It is going to come out rather small.

The problem is that their main *feature* is that they are super efficient taking modest fees in the exchange between borrowers and lenders. Instead of charging what the market would have borne, they take the bare minimum. So while a person can make nice steady money on the *product* the *stock* is a different proposition. For all the billions they exchange their cut is modest, and they seem to have a strangely high expenses for just running a website.
 
The Lending Club IPO does look interesting, their method of lending just seems easier to use and they operate at a much lower cost than banks I can imagine, so I think they will gain a large market share with time. From your link austin, I can see they issued $1,8B of new loans in the first 6 months of 2014, of which they derived $87M in revenue, does anyone know the total size of consumer lending and or business lending in the US?
 
The Lending Club IPO does look interesting, their method of lending just seems easier to use and they operate at a much lower cost than banks I can imagine, so I think they will gain a large market share with time. From your link austin, I can see they issued $1,8B of new loans in the first 6 months of 2014, of which they derived $87M in revenue, does anyone know the total size of consumer lending and or business lending in the US?


Americans in Debt – Causes, Solutions Legal Protections of Debt in the United States

Consider these statistics about personal debt in America :

  • More than 160 million Americans have credit cards.
  • The average credit card holder has at least three cards.
  • On average, each household with a credit card carries more than $15,000 in credit card debt.
  • Total U.S. consumer debt is at $11.4 trillion. That includes mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and student loans.

From LC:
Lending Club has facilitated $5,040,158,840 in loans as of 06/30/2014.

so 5 billion/11.4 trillion = .044% market share.... that is an eye opener..

If you look at just the credit card debt they mention, that is a more realistic addressible market. That is 5 billion/2.4trillion= 0.208% market share. still rounding error in the total market.
 
I have a holding of private shares in Lending Club I purchased a few months ago (when the company was valued at $4 billion - rumors are $5 billion at IPO and likely to be a "hot" IPO). I think this company has amazing disruptive potential and their CEO has the right "mojo" going for him as well (not quite Elon of course, but many similarities). Prosper is the 2nd biggest peer-2-peer online lending company and they will likely be very successful too. There are no plans for its IPO yet for Prosper and I am trying to get my hands on some of its shares to spread my investment across the 2 major frontrunners.

Just like how trading stocks online and banking online just feel right (unlike buying groceries), borrowing money fits the internet platform perfectly. The difference in margins between banks (2% savings account at best vs. loans in mid-high teens% = 15ish% cut for banks) and peer-2-peer (1% cut for company) is monumental and gives these companies such huge competitive advantage that banks can never match with their huge overhead costs. There are risks of course - legislation changes outlawing them (like what happened in Canada) and unknown effects when interest rates ultimately rise, but to me the potential reward greatly outweighs the risks. This is a buy and hold for me.