Liquidate entire portfolio until virus is over?

Bravepants

123mat123 said:

I really enjoy reading almost all the opinions on here and I think we all know who the heavy lifters are in terms of content....
But really, enough on gold already.....

I second that! In meetings at work we talk about "taking a meeting offline", which is management speak for "Let's go and continue our conversation somewhere else, at some other time, without boring everyone else to death!"

MaxiRobriguez

Bravepants said:

123mat123 said:

I really enjoy reading almost all the opinions on here and I think we all know who the heavy lifters are in terms of content....
But really, enough on gold already.....

I second that! In meetings at work we talk about "taking a meeting offline", which is management speak for "Let's go and continue our conversation somewhere else, at some other time, without boring everyone else to death!"

Perhaps when you get back to work after this virus is over, and that phrase is said, you should retort with "Yes, and now lets talk about gold."

Bravepants

MaxiRobriguez said:

Bravepants said:

123mat123 said:

I really enjoy reading almost all the opinions on here and I think we all know who the heavy lifters are in terms of content....
But really, enough on gold already.....

I second that! In meetings at work we talk about "taking a meeting offline", which is management speak for "Let's go and continue our conversation somewhere else, at some other time, without boring everyone else to death!"

Perhaps when you get back to work after this virus is over, and that phrase is said, you should retort with "Yes, and now lets talk about gold."

I'm working from home, no 80% furlough for me! I'd rather talk about biscuits (which could include "Gold" bars of course) of which there is ample supply here in Bravepants Mansions compared to my office. It's also warmer! 

EdGasketTheSecond

bowlhead99 said:

EdGasketTheSecond said:

The book is actually free for anyone to download in pdf form and I recommend it. Incidently it has 4.2 stars out of 5 on Goodreads from 204 ratings. 

If you give someone a book that costs them nothing, is written entertainingly or accessibly and sounds like it is good information, you can get them to rate you just over four out of five on Goodreads. That's unsurprising, whether the 'sounds like good information' is actually good information or is simply a one-sided spin on the information that serves as a sales pitch for a particular mindset.

Well Mike Maloney has made no money out of me

Sure, but you did buy the mindset and spread the mindset and a video link, virally on social media.  

The marketing videos are paid for by the revenues and dividends from his bullion trading business and literally form part of the blog and 'educational content' for an online gold shop.

When a spammer produces a piece of spam he doesn't expect every reader to become a customer; likewise once he has produced the content, Mike doesn't mind whether someone in the UK who doesn't want to use a US online gold store, sees his videos without buying a product. In this connected world you might still pass a video link on to a friend, colleague, online chum or fellow internet community forum member, who is US based, and might buy a product directly. And even if they don't buy from his site and instead buy from a gold dealer in a neighbouring town, state or country ... every gold coin or bar or online ETF sold to an investor or speculator, is something that helps the price he can sell at. 10% bid offer spread is nicer for him at $1600/oz than at $1500/oz.

So ideally, everyone in the world would see his videos, buy the dream, and adopt the mindset he promotes. It's an online marketing juggernaut funded by the money it attracts

There is no charge for these, no course is being sold, they are completely free; there is no obligation to buy anything from him; he never asks you to buy anything, only to download the book which is free

Correct; see comments above.

To suggest the whole thing is a sales pitch is rather unfair and unjustified

Seriously?? The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. You have read the sales pitch, watched the sales pitch, had 'why it's a sales pitch' explained, and you still can't see it's a sales pitch from someone who self identifies as a "serial entrepreneur who "by age 23 had already founded his first sales firm". 

On the 'about us' page for his online gold shop, "A veritable YouTube sensation, Mike has nearly 50 million views and counting". Yes, and I'll say it again that those videos are commercial not charitable - they promote the concept of buying metals and exiting stocks and distrusting currencies and literally form part of the blog and 'educational content' for an online gold shop...

So having previously claimed Mike Maloney was only selling his book for $20 and having been proved wrong on that, you are now attacking the 204 reviews on GoodReads. That's pretty rich coming from someone who hasn't even read the book.

Whether Mike is a salesman or not, the arguments and points he makes can still be judged and stand on their own merit but you can't take 30 minutes to respond to that. However you do seem to have 30 minutes for a diatribe against what you already admit you have not investigated. Why not be intelligent and answer the points Mike makes?

So you think my post on MSE has spread virally and will cause gold to rise from $1500 to £1600? Seriously? Only a few people read these posts and it will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the gold price; rest easy on that one.

Next, without knowing anything about me, you make what can only be considered a personal attack i.e. that I am some schmuck falling for a sales pitch and have just now got into gold. Listen I bought my first Krugerand and gold stocks back in the 70's when you were probably still on Janet & John Book 1 of Keynsian economics.

So you have a 'finance' degree and have met with a few CEO's, WOW. Mike Maloney has lectured around the world including with country leaders. If all he had to offer was a sales pitch for some dodgy gold site do you really think important people would want to listen to that? Would a finance minister in Russia be asking for a signed copy of his book after a lecture there?

Hey I better tell George he's got it all wrong too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjEf42R1i-I

that there won't be a market crash after all because here in the UK we have our own resident expert bowlhead99 who is so darn clever, there is nothing more he needs to learn. In fact all you have to do according to him is a bit of 'rebalancing' and it'll all be just fine.

Well my 3X leveraged short on FTSE @ 5720 (posted on MSE at the point I took it out, you can look back and check) is doing much better than anything else right now.

We each have our views and a right to express them but don't try and make yourself look superior bowlhead99 because you just end up looking foolish.

quirkydeptless

Alexland

EdGasketTheSecond said:

we have our own resident expert bowlhead99 who is so darn clever

Yup it's annoying but true. I'd rather put my money with bowlhead than your YouTube fella.

worldtraveller

IMHO, generally, anything up to, maybe, a maximum of around 10-15 lines of text, in any post, probably gets read by most people with any ongoing interest in any particular thread here.

Anything more is probably skipped, or maybe glanced at with glazed eyes, and/or is often, and increasingly so, viewed as completely off topic!

Go figure!

MaxiRobriguez

Alexland said:

EdGasketTheSecond said:

we have our own resident expert bowlhead99 who is so darn clever

Yup it's annoying but true. I'd rather put my money with bowlhead than your YouTube fella.

Seconded.

You and Thrugelmir take up the rest of the podium.

Notepad_Phil

worldtraveller said:

IMHO, generally, anything up to, maybe, a maximum of around 10-15 lines of text, in any post, probably gets read by most people with any ongoing interest in any particular thread here.

Anything more is probably skipped, or maybe glanced at with glazed eyes, and/or is often, and increasingly so, viewed as completely off topic!

Go figure!

Agreed, except for Bowlhead99 and dunstonh whose sometimes lengthy replies are lengthy for a valid reason.

schiff

I think we get get more useful and interesting comment about finances from bowlhead, Thrugelmir, and several others than you would out of the FT, The Times and the DT combined. This is my daily read!