Best Apps that Loan You Money Instantly in 2021 - Elite ...

what apps give you money instantly

what apps give you money instantly - win

StuffPoints

StuffPoints is one of the easiest and fun places on the web to make money.
[link]

30 Seconds From Triggering Market Nuclear Bomb

I'm glad this place has quieted down enough for some actual DD written by a monkey with a keyboard and Adderall.
Disclaimer: I am that monkey. Let me explain to you what happened, play by play. I will give you illiterates who hate reading a spoiler up front:
We were within approximately 30 seconds of triggering a nuclear bomb that would have blown up the market. Do I have your attention? Here goes:
  1. ⁠Yesterday, new call option strike prices were added all the way up to $570. Do I have to go over gamma squeezes again? Really? We've been over this: when deep out-of-the-money call options start being gobbled up and the price starts moving towards being in-the-money, the call writers have to hedge their risk of having their sold calls exercised, typically by buying stock. This creates upwards pressure on the market. We've been seeing these movements all week.
  2. ⁠Yesterday after market, you probably saw that coordinated effort to drive the price down and spook retail investors into a mass sell-off. It didn't work.
  3. ⁠Last night, Robinhood sent out a message to users: you could no longer enter into new options. You could exercise them if you had the collateral (money in the account) to do so. Very interesting and the first sign of pants-shitting fear.
  4. ⁠Today, the market opened very strong. It opened so strong that we were looking at a self-perpetuating gamma squeeze all the way up way past $570.
  5. ⁠At approximately 9:58 am, the stock had reached $468 in a parabolic move.
  6. ⁠Two minutes earlier, at 9:56 am, Robinhood tweeted that they were not allowing users to buy GME stock, but they would allow selling.
  7. ⁠The trend instantly halted and started a collapse downwards, before picking up a bit, especially after some retail was allowed back in.
Okay, now that you are clear on the facts, understand this: The market ran out of liquidity today, or was threatening to get close enough that they killed it. What does that mean? It means they ran out of shares and/or capital. They wouldn't let you buy new shares because we were burning through all the shares on the market.
I saw an unsubstantiated post from a user (u/zshub) who said a market sell order executed at $2600 for him. Also, someone else for over $5,000 per share. Do you get the severity of the situation, if that's true? It means the buying was getting to the point where it was just about to put INFINITE pressure on the price of the shares. It means virtually any ask was getting bid.
How do you get infinite upwards pressure? A gamma squeeze triggering the mother of all short squeezes, just like we predicted. The call writers need shares to hedge. Retail is still buying more. The short sellers need over 100% of the float back. Add these together. There were more shares needed than existed on the open market. That's what a liquidity crisis is.
Listen to this to this remarkable (if infuriating) interview where the chairman of Interactive Brokers admits that they didn't have the capital to pay out the winners (us), so they took their ball and went home. DO YOU GRASP HOW INSANE IT IS THAT HE SAID THEY NEEDED TO SHUT DOWN BUY ORDERS TO "PROTECT THE MARKET"? Hello! He's not talking about the market for GME shares. He's talking about the entire market! The New York Stock Exchange. The NASDAQ. All that.
Remember the movie Snowpiercer? Do you remember that scene where the lower class people realize the soldiers who oppress them have no bullets? Go to the 1:00 minute mark of this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH1EtiOhr6o
It kick starts a full blown rebellion. They have no bullets. It's the exact same in this market: No capital. No shares. Infinite losses inbound.
TL;DR: For all you who will just skip to the bottom to ask, "Do I get my tendies now?" the answer is this: they NEED NEED NEED your shares. Do you get that? HOLD. Like the guy in the movie, scream, "They're out of bullets!" and create a stampede. That's how we win.
They needed your shares so badly that they literally risked PRISON TIME to get them. They tried robbing you, and I'm not even exaggerating. They were within 30 seconds of all being wiped out today.
Credit: u/PlayFree_Bird
submitted by VerySlump to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]

FIDELITY and VANGUARD!! Transfer your MONEY now if you're stuck in RH. They've combined $9.3 trillion in AUM! They own 21.1% of GME collectively! SWITCH OVER NOW 💎👋

Disclaimer: I'm not giving you retards any financial advise whatsoever. You are free to do whatever you want with your money. I'm just providing you with my research for you to make up your own conclusions.
Listen.
Fidelity and Vanguard are in a class of their own when it comes to retail brokers available to retail investors. Shithood, Interactive Dumbasses and so on do NOT compare.
Shithood is a little startup that has to answer to hedge funds, HFTs (their main customers of order flow buys), and venture capitalists. Shithood CEO has no fucking idea what he's doing and is clearly vested in our failure.

Fidelity and Vanguard 🚀🚀✅

Here come the big fucking boys!
Fidelity has $3.3 trillion, YES trillion, in assets under management. Vanguard has $8.8 trillion in assets under management. I am saying TRILLIONS, not little billions.
Guess what? THEY ANSWER TO NO FUCKING ONE.

Fidelity owns 13.67% of GME shares. 💸💸💸

And Vanguard? 6.27% of GME shares.
https://preview.redd.it/8gutt1kephe61.png?width=667&format=png&auto=webp&s=574fc95b38139a8679a593999934fe531c796c6a
Source: https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=GME&subView=institutional
Collectively, they literally own 21.10% of GME. They are INVESTED in its success.
Consider putting your volume, our customer base, behind them. They are with retailers.

Okay, so what do I fucking do now?

Open a new account in either of these brokerages. Deposit your money and buy GME! Fidelity gives you INSTANT funds as margin.

LEAVE YOUR SHARES IN RH. TRANSFER YOUR MONEY OUT.

I know, this sounds fucking stupid. But your shares are needed in play next week. LEAVING THEM IN RH FOR NOW! HOLD DIAMOND-HAND IT 💎👋
Transferring your assets (shares, options) takes 5-14 days with Fidelity, and similarly at Vanguard.

again: LEAVE YOUR SHARES IN RH. TRANSFER YOUR MONEY OUT.

Do NOT transfer your shares from RH yet!! Just your money.
Here is how to open a new brokerage account:

Fidelity Brokerage account: https://www.fidelity.com/trading/the-fidelity-account

Vanguard Brokerage account: https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/online-trading/

FAQ
How long does it take to open an account w/ Fidelity?
About 5 minutes! Transfers are instantly credit in your account as margin.
Okay, so I opened a Fidelity account. Now what?
Enable "Real-Time Quotes"! Go to this link from Fidelity.
What tools or apps are available to me in Fidelity?
There are three available to retail investors. The website, the mobile app (iOS & Android), and Active Trader Pro. I use all three, with the mobile app being my favorite.
positions: 300 GME
submitted by enter--matrix to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]

I fucked up. I lost $10k. You know what on. Here's a brief history of me ignoring all the signs, and why it's important to only ever fend for yourself.

I will be as brief as I can. And I will not make excuses. I fucked up. I ignored too many signs and got uncharacteristically greedy.
EDIT: It seems I haven't explained this story well enough so here's the spoiler: I lost $10,000. Not $10,000 in unrealised gains - I straight up own $10,000 less than I did a few weeks ago.
Bought 81 @ 225
Sold 81 @ 100
HERE'S ME GETTING DICKED
The timeline:
Humbling. In a sense I am happy that I lost it. I learnt more lessons this way than I ever would if I had walked away with $20,000 profit in a few days. I would've lost it all by now I reckon.
TLDR: Got so greedy that I became the antithesis of who I am. Abandoned my own exit strategies, and learnt many valuable lessons.
Can I get a "ignores every red flag" flair?
submitted by chubbyurma to wallstreetbetsOGs [link] [comments]

My uncle left me a shifty little bar in his will. The employees here sleep in the backroom.

My uncle was an odd, lonely man. That one guy you try to avoid at family reunions, the one nobody knows too well but loves to talk about nonetheless.
I think he liked me best because I never really enjoyed badmouthing him. I wouldn't say we were close, but we tolerated one another. At least that's how it was when I was little, we never bothered to stay in contact. I forgot about him by the time I left home. That's why the news of his death caught me completely by surprise.
Uncle Mack was alone in his apartment when he had a heart attack causing cardiac arrest. He fell unconscious and died within minutes.
Then there was me at the time. I had just flunked out of college and the only thing I was actually good at was playing video games. When I was contacted by Mack's lawyer, I was even more shocked. Mack had left me three things: a box of sorted letters addressed to me, all the money he used to own, which to me was a lot, and his bar–the one he had inherited from his father and had worked at all his life.
I'll be frank, I had no idea what to do with the bar but I knew from the very start I'd take it over. I felt kind of honored–this had basically been Uncle Mack's entire life and he was giving it to me of all people. Sure, from what I knew there hadn't been many friends or loved ones in his life to choose from, but it was still flattering to me. Once I read the first letter, I was even more convinced.
"Hi Giulia,
If you're reading this, my bad eating habits have probably caught up to me. Or maybe someone killed me, who knows. As of me writing this, you're fifteen years old. You were the only one to talk to me at the family reunion today. Not for long, but more than just an awkward hello. I notice these things and I appreciate it. That's why I'm trusting you with the most important task anyone in this family is ever going to offer you. You are going to take over my bar. Besides, knowing you, you're not gonna have much of a career anyways, so you might as well.
Once you're done reading this, please go to the bar at your earliest convenience. Take the box of letters with you and stash it away somewhere there. It has some valuable advice you're gonna need down the line. In fact, you will need to read the second letter right after your arrival. You'll find my employees are a bit special.
Anyways, I hope you're doing alright, however this letter finds you. You're a good kid, Lia. Always have been. Besides, the only person you could possibly disappoint by screwing this up is dead so there's no pressure to impress.
Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack."
I wiped my eyes. They had actually gotten a bit watery while I was reading the letter. I folded the letter and tucked it back into the box before grabbing my coat and bag. Mack's bar was a train ride and a thirty-minute walk away from my parents' place, which is where I was residing at the moment. I figured I would probably have to look for a place close to the bar if I really would start working there full time.
When I finally arrived at the establishment, it looked almost exactly the way I had expected. It was just another wall in the row of buildings on the street off to the side from the inner city's market square. A large, bright red double door with a neon sign reading "The New Saloon" above it. It would probably glow if I'd find out how to switch it on. At least I hoped it would glow.
It felt weird, unlocking the door and opening it for the first time, all on my own. Entering and looking around inside felt even weirder. The New Saloon was your typical old-style dive bar. Even completely empty it looked overcrowded. The fabric of the cushion seats was stained and frayed, the walls behind and in front of the counter were plastered with neon beer signs and large framed photos of people I didn't know, some were even in black and white. The floors were dirty and my heels stuck to them when I walked further in. This place was small, shabby and smelly and I loved it.
It was so strange but I suddenly just felt like this bar was mine, and that I needed to take care of it and protect it. Remembering what Mack had told me in his first letter, I pulled the second one out from the box and unfolded it.
"Hi Giulia,
If you're reading this, you're probably at the bar for the very first time! How do you like it? Let me guess, it's ugly and gross but it instantly started growing on you?
Don't worry, it's about to get a lot weirder. You'll find the entrance to the backroom behind the counter. The lightswitch is on the inside of the wall, make sure to turn it on before you head inside because there's stairs leading down right behind the door. It's a death trap. Once you're in there, stand in the middle of the room. Stay away from the walls. You may then say out loud the following words:
Spirits of this house, by the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve.
You'll see what happens next. Whatever happens, keep in mind you can order them around. When all the work is done, simply tell them to go back into their room. You've got this.
Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack."
I frowned. That was odd. Was this the prelude to some kind of joke? I walked over to the door behind the counter and pressed down the handle. It swung open with a loud creaking noise and I began to grope around for the lightswitch. A single light bulb down in the backroom came flickering on and I proceeded down the rickety wooden stairs. No bannisters. Risky, especially with the shoes I was wearing. By the time I had reached the middle of the room, my heart was already beating faster than it should. Still, if this was a prank, Mack had been planning it for over five years, and I was not about to ruin it. Besides, no one was watching anyways.
I cleared my throat. "Spirits of this house…" I began, a giggle swinging along in my voice. "By the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve."
Nothing. Not a single sound for five whole seconds. I looked around the room. It was completely empty, except for a single door in the wall across from me. Maybe I had been supposed to say it in whatever room was behind that one? Just as I was about to walk over to it, a loud noise came from one of the walls to the side. I spun around to find that it had cracked open. Bits of it were beginning to crumble to the floor as the tear widened. I stared at it with my mouth agape, frozen in place and incapable of comprehending what I was seeing there.
From the crack, a set of long, bony pale fingers reached out into the room, gripping the inside of the wall. My throat was too dry to produce a proper scream, but I couldn't contain a gasp as I staggered backwards until my back met with the other wall behind me. It was then that I felt cold palms rubbing against my neck and hands closing around my shoulders from behind. This time, I shrieked. I whirled around again only to see that there was a hole there too, long, skinny arms slowly moving forward from it, grabbing at me, searching for me.
I glanced around the room frantically. Holes had opened in basically every spare spot. I counted four sets of arms pulling themselves out into the light, followed by similarly slender upper bodies. By the time I finally thought to run back up the stairs and save myself, the people from inside the walls were standing in the backroom, fully emerged from their dark hideouts. I didn't risk another look at them. When I finally reached the top stair, I dashed back into the bar and slammed the door shut behind me. I pressed myself up against it just to keep standing. My knees had grown weak beneath me and I was panting heavily, my mind racing.
Then I heard them; slow, light footsteps making their way up the staircase and stop on top of it. I heard calm, steady breathing coming from the other side of the door. I tensed up and shifted my weight on my feet, leaning up against it to keep whomever was in there from getting out. I was sure this person would start to try pushing it open, but to my surprise, nothing happened. Instead, a voice rang out from inside.
"Excuse me, who are you exactly?" It was a man's voice. I had expected something like a growl, or a hiss, or the groans of some decomposing zombie, but this was distinctly more articulate. It sounded almost polite.
I didn't know what to do other than respond. "Giulia," I stammered.
"Giulia?" The man sounded surprised. "What about Mack? Wait, if you're here…" He sounded quite sad now. "Mack's dead, isn't he?"
"Yes," I replied quietly. "His heart stopped."
"That's… good God." He fell silent and I heard him utter a shaky sigh, almost like a sob. "I'm sorry, would you give me a moment? I need to tell the others."
"Go ahead," I murmured.
"Nevermind, they heard us. So, will you let us out now or…?"
"Who are you? Why were you in there?"
"We work here, actually. My name is Andrik… I do most of the organizing here. I take care of the accounting, our profits, our spendings; I place the orders on most of what we need. Back here with me, I've got Bo, who is our bouncer, and Danika and May, both waitresses."
"You work here?" I repeated. "And you live in the walls? After your shift is over, do you just go down there and melt into the room or what?" I couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle at the mental image. This was just too absurd. At least I was breathing normally now.
"Pretty much, yes."
I shook my head. "What are you?"
"Well, to explain that you would have to go exactly a hundred and twenty-two years back so it's a long story," Andrik replied. "All you need to know for now is that if you let us out, we'll get the bar up and running right away. We've been working under Mack ever since he took over this place though, so you'll have to excuse us if we're a bit gloomy."
"No, that's fine," I muttered, slowly turning away from the door and carefully pulling it open.
The man in front of me was of normal height, slender and looked to be in his thirties. Despite being dressed in jeans and a simple black t-shirt with the bar's name printed on it in white, swirly letters, he had a very official look to him. Maybe it was the way he stood, straight as a rod with a friendly yet matter-of-fact smile on his face.
"Thank you," he said. Turning back to the room, he raised his voice. "You heard it everyone, Mack might be gone and while that's a downer, our work isn't over; so get yourselves up here and let's get this going again!" His tone carried the flat motivation the coach of a youth sports team might have.
Three more people emerged from the backroom, all dressed exactly like Andrik, all of them that same content little grin on their lips. They walked by me offering polite greetings; the first one, a large, bulky guy giving me a curt nod and the two women that followed smiling brightly. The girls were a little younger than Andrik, maybe in their late twenties. Both had blond hair hanging down their shoulders in wavy pigtails.
That first night the bar was open, I merely watched the backroom people work, following them around while they ignored me. It was eerie. They looked almost like automated mannequins, going about their routine by sticking to preplanned paths; like there were set directions painted somewhere I couldn't see. I soon began to notice other distinctive attributes about them. None of the people from the walls had fingernails. I saw it on the waitresses when they reached for the cups handed to them, on Andrik when he scribbled down notes. However that was not the only thing off about them. All those little details in their faces, the kind of thing you'd normally never pay attention to–they didn't add up.
For example, their eyes didn't lign up. One was always slightly lower than the other, just enough for someone to notice. Their nostrils would differ in width and one of the girls' pinky fingers was the same length as her ring finger. Had I not known that they had just crawled out from the backroom walls, I would have chalked these harmless little oddities up to simple, inconspicuous deformities, but knowing what I knew, it made my skin crawl with uncomfort.
I soon found out that Andrik did most of the talking for them. Bo rarely ever said a word, and all the waitresses did was whisper amongst themselves, giggle and chat with the patrons. Eventually, Andrik waved me over to him behind the counter.
"Alright, to give you a rundown of the place, we have a cash-only system. We rely on our local clientele, but once in a while someone new comes by and then we try and keep them around, obviously. Here's some of our regulars." He pointed at a lady sitting in a corner, weeping over an empty glass of whiskey. "That's Shauna. Comes here whenever she can, only ever orders whiskey. Will not stop crying."
His finger wandered over to an old, short man with an almost disproportionately large head and short white hair. He was sitting at one of the tables as well, talking to two younger women who seemed very much out of place. "That's Tommy. He's likely to start fights but he drinks a lot and tips very generously. Bo throws him out a lot but he's very easy on him, so don't worry."
He finally nodded towards a tall glass of wine standing lonely on the counter right in front of us. "And this is Irene. She can't pay but she's always welcome. She's very nice and she's been here ever since Mack's family started this business."
"Andrik, there's nothing there."
The pale man threw me a confused glance. "What do you mean, she's right… oh! Of course. Don't worry, you'll start seeing her with time. Either way, for now there's actually not much for you to do except read up on barkeeping once you get the chance. However you should start getting acquainted with the regulars. After all, the owner of The New Saloon will always be part of the reason why people come here." He paused as his mouth started to twitch into an almost guileful grin. "I have a feeling they're going to love you."
I retreated into the ladies' room for a quick break. I sat down on one of the toilets and buried my face in my palms. I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do. Andrik had made himself pretty clear when it came to the instructions he'd given me, but all of this was so surreal I seriously considered the possibility of me having suffered some kind of blow to the head and dreaming it. I spent the rest of the night standing behind the counter and observing their every move. Andrik kept to my side mostly, looking at me with the kind of suspicion I probably had in my eyes as well. I couldn't figure him out.
I accidentally-on-purpose walked by the waitresses who were talking to each other in hushed voices, picking up on small bits of their conversation.
"Her blood is weaker than his. Do you think she's–?"
"We shouldn't take any chances. Remember what Mack did when we tried to test him?"
"I do, but this could be our chance to have some fun."
Her words sent chills down my spine. Remembering Mack's letter however, I decided this was not the time to show I was frightened. "You're going to do no such thing," I chimed in from behind them. "I don't care what you are but I promise I'll find a way to make this whole thing very uncomfortable for you guys if you try to pull any kind of weird crap on me."
The looks they gave me were worth my initial doubt. They seemed shocked that I had listened in on them at all, let alone spoken up. I glared at them, holding their gaze and ignoring the trembling of my legs. Their heads lowered, they marched off. When the bar began to clear out and we got ready to close down for the night, I told the four of them to clean up. Of course I helped, but I made sure never to lose sight of a single one of them. I felt like they were wild, hungry animals, waiting for their chance to pounce on me. Whenever I looked up from the rag I was wiping the countertop with, I would find one of them staring at me.
By the time we were done, the place really did look a lot more welcoming. It certainly was cleaner, despite the four workers' angry faces spoiling the mood. We carried the cleaning supplies back into the small storage chamber next to the employee restroom before I went to open the backroom door for them. "Okay everyone, good job today! Thanks a lot, now back inside!" I called out, almost enjoying the feeling of authority as they came trodding towards me and made their way down into the dimly lit basement single-file. Andrik was the last one to cross the threshold. Right before descending the staircase, he turned to face me once more.
"You were keeping a close eye on us," he said quietly. "That's clever. But you're going to need to keep it up and… let's see how long you'll last. Who knows what might happen." He gave me a sly wink with the one eye that was a little lower on his face before following his co-workers. I watched from the top of the stairs as they leaned up against the walls. It was almost as I had expected; their bodies seemed to melt into the holes they had come from, sealing them shut and not leaving so much as a thin crack.
Lacking a better option, I stayed at a nearby inn that night. As bizarre and frightening as all of this had been, I got out of it unscathed. The bar workers and I would end up coming to blows in the future though, more than once. And I wouldn't always be that lucky.
X
Part 2: one of the regulars had a doppelgänger
Part 3: My bouncer and I got beaten up by a little girl.
submitted by girl_from_the_crypt to nosleep [link] [comments]

An explanation of what caused the trading halt and a defense for small trading apps

I can tell you right now with complete confidence that the only thing brokers who halted trading are guilty of was bad PR and nothing else. I was pissed when trading was halted, but now I’m just upset that I’m hearing people trash some trading apps which did absolutely nothing wrong and has done so much good in the past years. People are piling on, politicians from left right and center are wrapping their own agenda around it, and somehow we finally saw AOC and Ben Shapiro agree on something. People are thinking “they” control it from the top and they stopped it because they were scared of us. I can assure you none of that is true, it is conspiratorial thinking and it is all nonsense and unfounded.
Wanna know why? Read on, education ahead, and it’s good for you.
When people in aggregate from exchange A buy 1 million dollar worth of a stock, if there’s not enough people selling that stock on exchange A, that stock needs to come from exchange B. That means that 1 million needs to be transferred from exchange A to B. Money transfer is very complicated (as you’ve probably seen with wire transfers) and take 2 business days to clear even for the big guys. Now, what would happen if before money clears, exchange A collapses and goes bust? Exchange B is fucked. It still promised and have to give its users by law who sold those shares a 1 million dollars. Enter: Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation(DTCC)
DTCC is probably the biggest bank in the world and you’ve never heard of it. It acts as the man in the middle insurance company of sorts, it’s a self regulating private entity on wallstreet who’s existence is required by law. It exists to absorb all the risk of ripple effects of an exchange going bust and impacting other exchange. They basically want to take the risk of “what if that market we’re trading with doesn’t pay us?” completely off a brokers book. Also note, DTCC is not just for stock brokers, it’s for banks, institutional investors, hedge funds, mutual funds, all of them.
In my example, DTCC fronts exchange A the cash by guaranteeing the 1 mil for exchange B. All good so far right? Well there’s a small catch, DTCC needs to still protect itself from going insolvent, since it’s basically the backbone of the market, their chances of going insolvent cannot be even 0.000001%.
So they have this formula that calculates an upfront collateral for a particular stock. This collateral needs to be given cash to DTCC on the time of the trade. It’s not speculative, it’s just math and it takes a lot f factors in like the broker’s finances(how much cash they got on reserve, etc.) and also factors in the stock being traded. Usually it comes down to 1-4% of the security. Say that 1 mil I mentioned earlier was all SPY stock, since it’s safe and all the upfront fee is 1%. So when the 1 mil buy happens, exchange A immediately gives $10,000 to DTCC, and starts a wire of 1 million to fund B. Once the transaction clears, DTCC gives the $10,000 back.
All that was happening with GameStop, but then the morning the guys got block, DTCC raised their collateral requirement for the meme stocks to 100%. Why? Well, because it’s volatile as fuck and they did not like the odds of keeping it lower. We all know that this is a bubble and given that so many retail investors are buying this stock on margin at $300+ which is for sure crashing to $20, most likely in an instant, there’s a solid chance some exchanges might go broke over it, so they can’t insure it.
Now what does this mean for exchange A? That means for every 1 million dollars of GameStop, exchange A needs to wire 1 mil to to exchange B AND immediately send another million cash to DTCC. Well now we got a sticky situation, at the current market cap, we’re talking hundreds of billions (that’s not a typo) that these firms need to cough up to DTCC for 2 business days! They simply don’t have the money so they halted it. That’s it. Then the next day they secured some loans, and managed to re offer the stocks at a limited quantity that their loans enabled them to.
One small clarification, I simplified my explanation by combining clearing firms and brokerages as one entity. In reality they’re usually separate(sometimes they’re not, for example the popular trading app I can’t name does their own clearing), the connection goes broker -> clearing firm -> DTC. Clearing firms are actually the companies that are trying to secure loans to support more, and it’s the clearing firms who don’t have enough money to pay DTC, so they just tell brokers “sorry, no GME, can’t clear it”
“Dude fuck DTCC, they’re evil, they’re the ones controlling from the top they should’ve left us be”
Well last time they were too slow to raise the collateral was 2008. Lehman which was a clearing firm collapsed. Finally DTCC did what it was supposed to do! They paid out $500bn to clear all of Lehman’s outstanding transactions. But that’s not all, since DTCC was slow to raise their rates for certain securities at the time, they were legit at the risk of going insolvent if more banks and hedge funds collapsed. Enter Bailout, a loan to help everyone sort their shit out, clear out their transactions and not collapse. Had enough banks and hedge funds collapsed to push DTCC into insolvency, the entire United States paper market(stocks, bonds, etc.) would’ve collapsed(total market breakdown). Little known fact: DTCC technically owns almost all paper assets in the US, including yours and mine in a trust. Technically we are just beneficiaries of those stocks. Also, government has every right to take those away from you due to “national emergency”. Fun fact eh?
“DTCC is helping out their wallstreet buddies”
No, they’re protecting the system, they raise collateral for all ultra volatile securities. They’d do it if hedge funds were profiting too.
“But why some markets did allow buying?”
Well their clearing firms did, and some did their own clearing and they had enough cash to allow trading. And if you noticed, it was a ripple effect. TD was a clearing firm that was first to stop doing GME, then a bunch of brokers ran to other clearing firms, and now a clearing firm is servicing their existing brokers and all the refugees from TD, and naturally they got overloaded with GME. So they fell, and now two sets of refugees went and crash another, and eventually almost all brokers stopped offering GME and friends.
“Why sell only then?”
Selling doesn’t require DTCC collateral, cuz a stock is going out not money. The stock is just a digital signature in DTCC’s database, it ain’t going anywhere, it’s not gonna go insolvent. Money on the other hand is more complicated and not just a digital signature on a database, it’s no guarantee you’ll get it from a buyer until it’s in your vaults, so you need a collateral until you get it
“Why was so and so broker selling GME without my permission”
Alright dude this one on you for getting a margin account, you agreed to it and all brokers do it. You know how those boomers always tell you don’t get a margin account? This is why
“Why do we need DTCC anyways?”
They prevent cascading failures that doomers wish for on their birthdays. If a broker goes bust, suddenly that $2bn that broker was supposed to send to some other broker goes poof, and now that other broker is in the negative and goes bust, and so do all their debts to other companies
“Does DTCC raising the collateral requirement mean we were at risk of collapsing the financial system?”
Yea probably, but that’s why they raised the rates
“Why can’t markets just trade inside themselves and avoid sending money and DTCC”
They still need a transaction with DTCC because you all have your own bank accounts on a brokerage and DTCC being the owner of all stock needs to know which account which stock belongs to
“Wtf why does it take 2 business days to transfer money? Can’t they Zelle or some shit?”
It’s how things work at that large of a scale, they record transactions all day, end of the day they add it all up and move the money. One day to take the money from broker the clearing house, one day to move the money from clearing house to the receiving broker. It’s the same system as ACH transfers, which stands for automated clearing house
“Why is DTCC private and so centralized, break it apart!”
[blockchain shills have entered the chat]
submitted by THICC_DICC_PRICC to stocks [link] [comments]

How I turned $1k into 300k in 2017's bull market (very long).

How I turned $1k into 300k in 2017's bull market (very long).
First, English is my second language so please forgive my poorly organized, horribly formatted and super long story. Also I never shared this story before and wasn't really planning to, but I told it to one of my now close friend who is a crypto nerd like me and he said it was inspiring and that I should share it so here goes.
It's 2014 I am working a minimum wage job at a labels factory, I boxed the finished labels. 6 months later, I am promoted and I am head of the quality assurance department (happened super fast and everyone was amazed that it happened including myself :P ). I got a raise and life was good.One day the owner decided to hire a "team leader" basically a tier 2 boss. An authoritarian racist c*nt that hates my guts. We get in an argument, I turn my back on him and walk away and he ends up physically assaulting me for it. I threaten to sue and they fire me because of it.
I complain to the EEOC, because I can't afford a lawsuit. We mediate and like an idiot I settled for 5k they offered me. I Payed my lawyer $400, Bought us a new furnace because ours was old and had broke down. I replace the kitchen sink, paint the house and did some other minor repairs.
All said and done, and after working for nearly 2 years at that company I am unemployed, depressed and have nothing to show for it, Well except for a $1000 I have left from the settlement that I wanted to preserve and invest in something instead of spending it.
​
I spend a couple month of freelancing and hustling trying to find a new source of income. And one day I am on some random forum trying to find a solution to a problem I have with my code (I have 13+ years of programming experience C++, C#, Asm and reverse engineering) I read the word Bitcoin for the first time ever. And the person talking about it made it sound like it's the next big thing and that it's going to do wonders for apps and payment systems.
Other replies to that same post were talking about how it will make them all rich. I got curious, And on September, 2015, I google Bitcoin for the first time ever and I end up on Coinbase. I bought $5 worth of Bitcoin for shit's and giggles. Forgot about it for ~3 months. Then came back and sold it in October for $5.10. So I made 10 cents profit after coinbase's outrageous fees. And I thought to myself, This is great, I just made 2% with minimal effort. Greed kicked in and I started my quest to learn as much as I can about BTC.
For the skeptics:
https://preview.redd.it/jrz4ptp5z4b61.png?width=797&format=png&auto=webp&s=d91bfe7e49827ba274cfbb9fca57dc419bdd9e2f
Edit: More proof for those that think I am a lair, full of shit and made all this up:
LTC trades since 2017
https://preview.redd.it/znrn5tgmp6b61.png?width=2698&format=png&auto=webp&s=9132a624df041e57060b163e31e5cc5747875e0f
2015 trades are no imported from the coinbase account in this SS
Next thing I know I am on Coinbase Pro (Gdax at the time) and was instantly hypnotized by the insane volatility and price swings. I immediately start buying and selling, Without any knowledge about trading whatsoever. I made some money then then lost more than I made and now I have ~$820 left and I realized I am not going to beat the market like this. My orders were being front ran by bots (didn't know they were bots at the time) because they keep burying my limit orders whenever I post them and I don't get filled. Also fees for market orders were exceeding my profit so I end up losing instead of making money.
Thinking like a programmer (a problem solver really) I thought to myself there has to be a way for me to do the front running. I do some googling. Learn about the exchange API. I fired up Visual Studio, downloaded some files/libraries and spent a few weeks creating a prototype that would speed things up and give me an edge. At first I used C# and it looked like crap but it performed well, And with the ability to place orders as fast as possible (and free limit orders). My balance started growing.
Slowly but surely I kept improving the prototype over the years and it evolved into a fully functional trading platform. I eventually used Directx to recreate the order books locally (this part happened much later 2019-ish) because the exchange kept freezing and crashing when I needed it the most and low and behold, I had out done myself and created a fine trading platform Here is the post were I first showed it to the world.
Here is a video of it in action too: https://streamable.com/3jl30l
​
One click insta buy/sell and everything was pre-calculated for me. All I had to do was pre-set the # of lots I wish to flip in each trade and click either the buy or sell buttons.
​
Within a few weeks of the first prototype I was up from $800 to 8k scalping BTC's volatile market and I was ecstatic, I was over the moon, pun intended. However, The market was slowing down and it is now boring and I am not making any $$ and I was never happy that I could only trade BTC and LTC on Coinbase and was scared to trade anywhere else for fear of losing my money with all the hacks and scams that were happening almost everyday. But then I learn about a coin called Lisk. And the Lisk zealots managed to convert me and I end up joining them and opened a Bittrex account lol.
​
By now I had spent 3k in life expenses and I have 5k left so I move it to Bittrex, And add Bittrex to my trading platform and go all in on Lisk at $3. I was convinced it is going to the moon and will make me rich. I go to my wife and beg her to borrow some money from her dad for me or max out a credit card or whatever the fuck she can do to get me a few more thousand dollars so that I could add more to my LSK position because I have no credit score history and no one would lend me, She was terrified and refused to help me. I didn't get a single dime. (Hindsight, I am glad she didn't :P)
​
So there I was, Angry at my wife (I was wrong I know) determined to prove her wrong and show her that this will work and that I am not going to lose so I am trading like a degenerate gambler with my entire stack. Looking like a zombi from malnutrition and lack of sleep, But I pull through and grow that 5k into ~24k within roughly 1.5 months. Phew, I DID IT, I shout. looking at my wife. I FUCKING DID IT. I TOLD I CAN DO IT but you never believed in me. And my head grew bigger and bigger to the point were it wouldn't fit through the door any more. Meanwhile LTC is pumping like a mother fucker but I had no idea because I am not paying attention to anything else but my cash cow LISK. Now that LISK is slowing down (Re-branding delayed) and hype was dead. I sell it all. Transfer the cash back to Gdax and join the LTC frenzy.
By now it's December 2017, And shit was Insane, It was lit, Everything was on steroids and $ signs everywhere. I was going all in on every trade (Spot trading) and with every trade and my account kept growing. First it was growing hundreds, Then LTC went parabolic and it was thousands of $$ with every click of the mouse. Every click of the buy/sell buttons I made or lost a few thousand $$. Never holding on to a position loser or winner. I catch the wicks (which were huge) and would flip it in seconds just to go back to fiat for fear of getting whipsawed and losing it all.
​
By now I had grown my 24k into 100k within like 3 days at the markets peak (LTC at like $150+). The joy I felt, The happiness, The pride :) I was victorious and those 3 days were like a crazy epic dream.
So now I am gloating and teasing my wife telling her how I did it all by myself and shit and thanking her for all the help she didn't offer. meanwhile, LTC is still pumping like crazy. But I was content, I had just broken the 100k mark and was ready to celebrate. but of-course life is never sunshine and rainbows.
​
To my dismay, My wife asks. What about TAXES? I am like what taxes? I already payed the fees! (I am a foreigner so i knew nothing about taxes in the US of A) She said you have to pay capital gain taxes on this, It's like 30%. My face turned pale and my heart skipped a beat, I jump out of bed, go online and research capital gain taxes.
And I realized she was right, I am going to end up paying at least 25% to 32% of my money in taxes. I felt like I wanted to cry and all the joy and happiness I had felt was gone (Hindsight I should have been happy even after taxes :P). But I decided to push forward and make the 32% that I have to pay in taxes to get to the 100k mark after taxes while the market is hot.
so I cancelled the moon party and went back upstairs, Started the computer and started trading again.
​
So now I am back at it, Still killing it making more and more money. This continues for a day or 2 more and by the time the crypto party was over and when LTC started the big crash from $400 to $150 I was all back in cash and I had made a grand total of 310k+ and 105k+ trades in about 6 months, Most trades were made in Dec 2017 and Jan 2018 on BTC, LTC and LSK combined.
​
I at first protested paying taxes for weeks, No for months, because it seemed unfair to me. But the April 15th deadline drew ever closer. And our CPA scared me str8 telling me about all the fees and fines I would have to pay if I delay paying the IRS so I reluctantly agreed and paid all of my taxes to uncle Sam. It was a massive chunk of money to give away all at once and it made me sick to the stomach.
​
And that my friends is the long-short version of the story of how I turned a $1000 into $300k. I hope to one day be able to tell a story of how I turned whatever I have left of the 300k now into a million $ or even better into a multi million dollar fortune :)
I know some people did like 1000x better than me, But for my story, I am proud of what I had achieved so far and I thought it would be cool to share the story and to hear other peoples success stories.
I still am still doing great in this bull market and trading crypto has been my full time job ever since I got fired from my job at the labels factory. I have grown a lot since. btw I thought about sending the owner of the factory that fired me a letter thanking him for firing me because it was the best thing that ever happened to me but I never did :P
​
If you have made it this far. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, And wish you and everyone else the best of luck and riches beyond your wildest dreams.
​
TL;DR: I turned a $1000 I got from a EEOC settlement into $300k+ scalping LSK and LTC back in 2017 bull market.
​
Leave a downvote and a "delete" comment if you think I should delete this :)
submitted by Squeaky-Bed to CryptoCurrency [link] [comments]

Rocket Companies (RKT) - DD on an Undervalued Gem!

This is my first DD post on any company, be gentle.
Disclaimer: I am long RKT. This is not financial advice, and I am not receiving any compensation whatsoever from anyone for this post. I’m not a professional, I’m not even an amateur, this is a Wendy’s.
Sources used: RKT investor relations website and company website, RKT earnings transcripts, SEC fillings, the SEC EDGAR database, sea king al pha, whalewisdom, finbox, yahoo finance, stockcharts, openinsider, Zacks, google sheets.
​
Summary
Rocket Companies (RKT) is a fintech company that operates several brands including the flagship Rocket Mortgage. I think RKT presents an opportunity to buy serious value at a cheap price, because the market has not priced in the underlying fact that RKT is a tech company akin to Square, Paypal, etc.
Key Point - RKT is Priced Like a Legacy Mortgage Company
The average estimate for 2020 year end revenue is $15 billion, and the yearly earnings estimate average is $3.85 per share.
This estimate gives a ttm P/E ratio of just over 5.5. The sector median is something like 8-12, which makes RKT cheaply valued relative to the earnings it produces, even compared to the financial/mortgage sector. What’s key here is, I don’t think that’s really an appropriate comparison. I would place them more in line with companies like Square (ttm P/E ratio of 325x lol), PayPal (ttm P/E ratio of 69x, nice), or Fiserv (ttm P/E ratio of 24x). I used Zacks for all of these P/E ratio lookups.
Let’s assume RKT is conservatively worth 15x earnings, and that it hits the estimate of $3.85 eps. That would put its fair value right now at $57.75 per share. I think it’s worth more than that but, we all should do well to remember that it’s really only worth whatever the market will pay for it.
Key Point - Catalysts
This thing needs a catalyst. Right now I am loading up. I’m buying shares, I’m selling SHORT TERM covered calls to reduce basis on those shares, but I will be stopping the sale of those covered calls within a couple weeks most likely. The Q4 earnings announcement will be on 2/25. I am not sure that the actual earnings numbers will be enough to wake this thing up, although I expect them to be good. But if that announcement comes with discussion of their focus for 2021 and beyond, and gets the market thinking about them as a tech company first and mortgage lending company second, things will start to heat up. I don’t know when the real catalyst will hit that triggers the run-up, but I think it could start with the Q4 earnings call. I am looking at $21 as the floor for this stock, and I expect the price to double within a year. I will be acquiring OTM LEAPs, expiring next spring.
Supporting information and background follows.
The Business
RKT is in the business of providing solutions to financial transactions, including mortgage origination and refinancing, auto lending, and more. Specific subsidiaries and my simplistic view of how they interact:
Home Financing
Home Sale and Search
Auto & Personal Financing
Media
Services & Technology Development
Recent Acquisitions
RKT, through Lendesk, acquired Finmo back in October of 2020 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rocket-companies-subsidiary-acquires-fast-182042594.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALnvnNBoglSnmMP0O61AqgXBJokNS53LjJYuG3NvYKhayp4I6ZH2RpfmFUbSsCAU4xmnBNGMTwiEG-Ly29EabVy1-OjPIGfkYoQ3389gn3Edebs9sIwWOy1tPzqjRwOwwGA_PWg0cNzEFCe7HBTilMwADUT_y0QxWw8vizWecGcv) Finmo is a rapidly growing Canadian digital mortgage platform and this acquisition I think was perfect - it shows RKTs dedication to embracing a fully digital experience, and making sure they’re the ones leading that charge.
Management
I do not have much to say here, aside from this. The RKT team is not the new kids on the block, they have decades of industry experience. Also, I value leaders that make people feel valued. And on that note, under CEO Jay Farner Quicken Loans has been in the top 30 of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for 17 consecutive years.
Financials and Growth
When it comes to the numbers, RKT is killing it. I don’t want to just spout a bunch of numbers that anyone can easily go look up so here’s a couple that stood out to me from the Q3 earnings announcement and related data:
$4.63 billion in revenue, which is 163% YoY growth.
From that revenue, they beat EPS estimates with $1.21 for the quarter vs $1.09 expected.
Net income was $2.4 billion which represents a YoY growth of 365%.
Closed loan volume YoY growth was 122% to $89B.
Net rate lock volume was $94.7 Billion (101% growth).
RKT has brought in $13.1 billion in revenue in the first 3 quarters and seems to be on track to close out Q4 with yearly revs above $15 billion.
That’s awesome but what I really like is that they pair this amazing growth with $3.5B cash on hand. That’s great because I want them to be able to scale as they grow, and make acquisitions as needed (see Finmo) to ensure they can keep that growth going without getting overextended and failing to capitalize.
RKTs ability to recapture clients is one of the keys to their future success in my uneducated opinion. Their recapture rate is 4.6x the industry average. The Q3 earnings transcript includes a statement by the CEO on how when interest rates fall, retention rate falls, refinance activity is larger. The high recapture rate RKT has serves as a natural hedge to their retention of existing clients because their recapture is so much higher than average in the industry.
Quick aside - RKT announced a $1 billion share buyback program. They’ll be able to repurchase shares from time to time starting Nov10 2020, ending in two years. I don’t love the idea of share buybacks because I think this can be detrimental to actual business growth for the sake of shareholder value. However, with the large cash position RKT has (and it doubled from December 2019 to September 2020) I think this is a reasonable way to deploy some of that cash for now.
Ok so what about valuation using DCF, free cash flow analysis, something like that? Honestly I’m not convinced this is as useful as some people make it out to be. It’s nice to know what the numbers indicate, but I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about an exact price target based on anything like this. That said, you can crunch the numbers yourself or check out something like the Finbox resources:
https://finbox.com/NYSE:RKT/models/dcf-growth-exit-5yr
I don’t believe that fair value estimate for an instant, but it's a part of the puzzle to consider. Finbox has various models you can check out, but it’s also just a nice place to view aggregate data other than directly from the SEC filings.
Product Channels
RKTs direct-to-consumer channel is their main source of revenue right now, but I think they will be successful in their efforts to grow their partner channels as well. Why do I say that? Numbers don’t lie:
The partner network volume is a little over half of the direct-to-consumer volume but the growth rate is just so damn juicy. That revenue growth is hellathicc.
Current Market and outlook
Right now, rates are low. The average 30-yr mortgage fixed rate is 2.92% (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/03/mortgage-refinancing-surges-but-high-home-prices-stop-buyers.html)
I cannot say how long interest rates will remain low but I believe RKT is positioned to continue to grow regardless of what rates do moving forward. They just cover so much of the space, and they do it with a focus on applied technology.
Here’s some blatant speculation. I think as we move into 2021 and the vaccine becomes more prevalent, millennials will buy, sell, and borrow against real estate with renewed intensity. I think RKT is uniquely positioned to capture that market.
Positions: RKT shares. Cost basis of $21.14.
submitted by petriefly42 to thetagang [link] [comments]

My uncle left me a shifty little bar in his will. One of the regulars told me he had a doppelgänger.

Not a lot of people visiting my bar are completely normal, well-adjusted individuals. It took me a long time getting on the same wavelength with most of our regulars, but I'll never forget the day I had my first close encounter with one of them. This happened when I was still quite green, as you'll see.
His name was Cole. He'd been coming to the bar a lot since we'd opened up again but Andrik said he hadn't seen him around that often before. A few times, yes, but he didn't know anything about him safe for his name. Cole would never talk to anyone. He'd keep his head low and order his drinks in a rough, quiet voice. He stuttered a lot. Once he'd received his beverage of choice, he'd sit down in the emptiest corner of The New Saloon, where he would stay for up to four hours. I'd watch him from time to time. His head would always be hovering just a few inches above the table, his eyes half-closed.
I felt sad for him. He looked sort of defeated, although I didn't know by whom or what. The fact that he drank a little more with every visit concerned me. I knew it wasn't really my place to snoop around in my patrons' lives, but I didn't have to be intrusive–all I wanted to know was whether he was okay. So one time when I handed him his beer, I simply asked. He stared at me for a split second, his eyes wide and watery, before he broke down sobbing. He tried to keep it in at first but eventually buried his face in his palms, tears dripping down his chin.
I handed him a napkin before rounding the counter and walking over to him, waving for Andrik to take over for a little while. "It's none of my business," I began cautiously, "but if you want to talk…"
"Yes," he breathed. "That might help."
I nodded and we went back over to his corner booth. Glancing around, I assured myself nobody else was in earshot before sitting down across from him. I didn't have to prod for him to begin. "I'm going to kill someone very soon. He's taken everything from me, that bastard. But honestly, I'm scared." He lowered his voice. "This thing, it's not…"
"Wait, slow down," I said softly. "What's he taken from you?"
"Simply everything. My house, my job, my wife… It all started when I came home late from work to see the same car I own already parked in my driveway. The exact same one, down to the license plate. I went inside the house, planning to ask my wife about it, but then I heard something. My wife's voice, but also another man's. I could hear them from downstairs in the living room when I came in. I sneaked up to the bedroom, opened the door and there they were. My wife… and me."
"You?" I repeated, frowning in confusion.
Cole shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "Not me of course, but he looked like me. He had the same birthmark on his back, he even sounded like me. I've heard my voice recorded before so while I didn't realize it right away, his was just like mine. Before you ask, I don't have a twin or anything. The instant I saw him, I knew he wasn't human. He was something else, I didn't know what but… either way, the two of them hadn't noticed me and once I'd gotten a good look at him, I was too shocked to speak up anymore. Weak reaction, I know, but what was I supposed to do?
"I went back outside and after a bit of thinking, I decided to call the police. But when I told them there was someone in my house who looked just like me and that I was scared, they hung up on me. Granted, I probably sounded like I was drunk or high or something. I was not, you should know that. I've never had any problems with my mental health either. That was just the beginning though. I'm not a confrontational kind of guy and I wasn't just going to barge in there. I was afraid and then of course, there's the fact that he literally managed to trick my wife into… I know I should have done something right away but I just couldn't. I ended up letting it happen, that and so much more. I slept in my car that night, parked somewhere public since my spot at home was occupied."
Cole let out a dry laugh and emptied his glass. "You must think I'm crazy."
I was staring at him with my mouth agape. I'm not sure what I had expected to hear, but this was not it; this was terrifying. I believed him though. Knowing where Andrik and the others working the bar came from, the concept of doppelgängers didn't really seem groundless. I shook my head. "I believe you," I replied quietly, my voice raw from my parched throat. I was starting to feel like I'd need a drink as well. "Go on."
Cole raised an eyebrow in disbelief before taking in a shaky breath. "When I came in to work the next day, he was already there. He was sitting at my desk, reading through the papers stacked up there. I watched him for a little while. I kind of felt like something was draining from me. Maybe my energy or whatever, I'm sorry. I'm not good at storytelling. I suddenly felt incredibly hopeless is what I'm saying. I waited in the corridor outside my office for someone to come by. I wanted to talk to my co-workers; surely they'd notice that there were two of me. When the place got more crowded, they did come by, but they all just ignored me. They didn't so much look at me, not even when I tried to speak to them. It was like I wasn't even there.
"And then I realized it. My wife hadn't noticed me either, even though I had been standing in the doorway right across from her. Nobody I knew was noticing me. When I turned to look back at the other me sitting in my office, he looked right at me, the only one to look me in the eyes in that entire building, and he smiled.
"Again, I did nothing. I simply went back to my car and drove around, crying like a baby. I remembered The New Saloon and that's how I ended up at your bar again. See, I have nothing else to do anymore… and no one to talk to either. I don't have any siblings, my parents live overseas and I don't have any friends who'd stand with me in this. Even if I had, they would have probably forgotten me by now as well. This is the only place for me."
He sighed and raised his glass. It was empty then but I smiled at the gesture, though sadly. Cole tried to smile back but his lip was quivering. "It's warmer here than in my car and the drinks are cheap, so I can just forget about everything for a little while. Besides, you guys here don't know me and since only strangers seem to acknowledge my existence anymore, I'm grateful for at least being alive here… being a person here or whatever. This thing pushed me out of my own life. I don't even dare to walk by my own house anymore because of how much it scares me. I still have access to my bank account but who knows how long that's going to last."
"So now you want to kill him."
"Of course. It's the only way. No clue what he is but… I bought a gun from some shady guy selling weapons underhand and I'm just going to fire until that thing isn't moving anymore. I've been waiting for too long already. Once he's dead, I'll take over again. I didn't have much of a life, but I was with the woman I love and I earned enough money to afford some luxury. My life wasn't busy or glamorous or anything but it was good, and it was mine."
I nodded. I didn't know what to say so I offered to let him sleep at the bar that night since it was warm in there at least. Cole shook his head no. "I appreciate it but I have to start looking for a chance to… you know. It'll be difficult. I need to do it somewhere no one else sees, and I need to keep my wife from finding out. I don't want her to know. Maybe I should tell her, maybe I will, someday, but she'd have a complete meltdown and I just want to keep her safe. I'll be missing out on a lot of sleep from now on and I won't be showing up here as often anymore but this has to be my priority now until it's done."
"Is there anything else I could help you with?"
"No. I really don't want to drag anyone else into this mess… who knows what's gonna happen. But for what it's worth, thank you It was nice having somebody listen to me. And looking me in the eyes, I suppose." He rose from his seat and handed me the money for his drink directly. I watched as he left, his jacket pulled tight around his shoulders. He gave me a quick glance before he disappeared through the door, the tiniest of smiles on his lips.
"Good luck!" I called after him, catching a few surprised looks from my other patrons. Smiling awkwardly, I got up and walked over to Andrik, who was just in the process of drying off a clean glass. He raised his brows quizzically.
"It's nice you're getting to know your regulars, but you don't always have to take that long. You don't have to play therapist for whoever comes in here," he told me.
I sighed as I joined him behind the counter. "I wasn't playing therapist, this guy just really needed someone to listen to him. He's got a bit of a situation. Say… do you know anything about impostors? Like, doppelgängers."
Andrik tilted his head. "Well, a doppelgänger doesn't always have to be just that. Usually an encounter with one is said to be bad luck, so in a way, they're harbingers of misfortune. However what you mean is basically an evil twin and that can be anything." He rubbed the glass in his hands with a thoughtful look on his face. "Any being able to mimic something or someone else can set its sights on you and try to push itself into your life. However very few succeed. It'd have to be powerful to deceive its victims' entire social circle. I mean, you'd have to get every detail about them down cold."
"And what if it can do that? And can it copy a person's belongings too? Like a car or something."
"It'd have to be even more powerful to do that," Andrik replied. "By the way, I'll gladly tell you anything I know, but since your questions are very specific, I'm guessing this has to do with your friend from earlier."
I nodded quietly.
"Care to share what exactly he told you?"
"I'd rather not for now. But can you kill something like what you just described, like, with a gun?"
Andrik let out a mirthless chuckle. "If you could, life would be so much easier for folk like me. But no, most certainly not."
I dropped the cleaning rag I'd absent-mindedly been wiping the counter with and rushed outside, my heels clacking on the wooden floor. I burst through the door, ran past Bo who flinched upon seeing me dash by, and called out Cole's name, shouting for him to come back. I walked the length of the street trying to find him. I had to warn him somehow. If what Andrik said was true, he wouldn't stand a chance. Maybe he could start anew somewhere else instead, it'd beat dying at the hands of that shapeshifter. After half an hour, I realized I wasn't going to find him. My head low, I returned to The New Saloon.
When I came in, Andrik was still where I had left him, but he now had an almost sympathetic look on his face. I took position beside him again. "Go do something else, please," I muttered. "I've got this." I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a bit.
I listened to the sounds of people chattering as I dried off glasses and cups, tidied up behind the counter and gave out drinks. I didn't know Cole very well, but I'm the type of person who gets kind of invested, I guess. At least I used to be back when this happened. I overheard May whispering something to Danika as they strolled by. "I can't believe Mack left us with someone this weepy." Or at least it was something to the tune of that.
That just added to my mood. For two weeks, I waited for Cole to return. I hadn't asked him to, but I was sure he'd come by to let me know he was alright if he were to succeed. I was very busy with the bar and everything, but he was always on my mind, albeit in the back. And then, one day, completely out of the blue, Cole came marching through the door, his arm around the waist of a beautiful well-dressed woman. My heart took a leap and I beamed at the two of them, my chest light with relief.
"Hi Cole," I said, barely able to contain the excitement in my voice but keeping it cool since he had who I assumed to be his wife with him. After all, she wasn't supposed to find out about the whole incident. "Long time no see. What can I get you?"
"Hello," he replied, drawing out the word. I could see a hint of confusion in his eyes.
"I thought this was your first time here," the lady muttered into his ear. He nodded but kept smiling politely.
I frowned. Why didn't he recognize me? Furthermore, while he could have easily forgotten about what I looked like, why wouldn't he remember the bar? He'd been here time and time again during the course of the evil twin-ordeal. It took me longer than I cared to admit to put the pieces together in my head. During that time, all I did was stand and stare dumbly as the realization gradually started to set in and my stomach slowly sank. Suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. Turning around, I found Andrik standing next to me.
He eyed the couple over, but it was obvious he was focused more on the man. Cole was beginning to look rather uncomfortable, almost angry. Eventually, Andrik raised his other hand and pointed at a sign behind us on the wall.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
"This is a joke, right?" Cole asked.
"It's not. Would you please leave now?" Andrik's voice was sharp. I was starting to get nervous. To my surprise, he squeezed my shoulder upon feeling it tremble.
"You know you can't just throw out anyone, right? We didn't do anything."
"Not you as in the two of you, but you as in… just you. The lady may stay if she wants to."
"What did I do? Do I smell?" Cole let out an incredulous laugh as he glanced around the bar, almost like he was looking for support among the other patrons.
"What did you do to him?" I pressed out. It wasn't a smart thing to ask outright, but I just had to. "Is he alive?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Andrik cleared his throat. "As you can see, your presence is distressing her. Please leave now." He said this with a deadpan look on his face, his voice flat and steady.
Cole's wife looked at us like we were crazy, but I could see an angry gleam in the eyes of the impostor as he turned around and made for the door, mumbling something to the lady about how nuts we were.
"Wait!" I screamed, realizing that this was my last chance to warn her. "That man is not your husband!" The lady turned around, giving me an odd look, but she didn't stop. Instead, she picked up her pace a little, approaching the exit in a hurry. "That's not Cole!" I shouted, frantically trying to get the words out as. "He's dangerous! He–"
I felt Andrik cover my mouth with his hand, pulling me away from the counter and grabbing one of my flailing arms with his other one. "You're gonna get it angry!" he hissed into my ear. I struggled, trying to get over to the woman, but Andrik was stronger than he looked. By the time he let go of me, Cole's wife was gone.
I looked around. None of the patrons had gotten up during my screaming fit. Like they hadn't even noticed the crazy chick going off at all. Andrik had a bitter smile on his face. "Want to know the kicker? This happens like thrice a year around here."
I still remember a very short letter my uncle left me that kind of relates to what happened back there. It read,
"Dear Giulia,
You're nobody's savior. If you try to be, you'll either get hurt yourself or you'll see someone you care about get hurt. Both suck, so keep your distance.
Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack."
X
Part 1: The employees here sleep in the backroom.
Part 3: My bouncer and I got beaten up by a little girl.
submitted by girl_from_the_crypt to nosleep [link] [comments]

Lockdown 3.0 Things to do, plus help and support.

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers
  • Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  • Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  • Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  • Disney+
  • Britbox
  • Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV
If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is
The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design
Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts
  • Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  • Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  • GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  • Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  • Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  • Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  • Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months
  • Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  • Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  • EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  • PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks
  • Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  • Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  • Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
Education
  • Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  • BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change
  • If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  • Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  • Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  • There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  • Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  • Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish
Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:
  • Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  • Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  • Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  • Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  • Communal religious worship
  • Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)
Support
FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:
Update:
Digital Art
These are Free
  • Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  • Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  • Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.
  • LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  • Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here
submitted by MrSoapbox to unitedkingdom [link] [comments]

To the newcomer

Just a reminder, especially if you're new here, you're not in competition with anyone else on your market account, your financial net worth, or your life.
It's easy to look at the million dollar yolo paydays on here and get jealous, bitter, or simply disheartened at it. Perhaps even just look at it as if it was an easy day. But remember most didn't start with a trust fund, they started with a small amount and rolled it into a bigger amount over time.
It's easy to watch someone play a musical instrument and think it looks easy until you try. Trading is the same way. It looks easy but it takes time and practice to figure out a system that works for you.
And many here have blown their accounts up, losing everything, on bad bets and have had to start over. I've even seen people get genuinely suicidal over losing it all after risking way more than they should have and ending up on the wrong side of a bet. The stock market is an unforgiving environment, and if money or money making becomes your life you can easily lose it trying to grasp more and more. There's way more to life than money, but if you're going to play here you need to know what you're doing and the risks involved.
Anyways, right now we're coming off a year of record gains in certain companies and sectors and it's been easy mode. With the GME and AMC run ups of recent, it's been easy mode (thus far) even more so. Don't think this is the norm, because it is very much NOT.
After these plays are over (and one day they will be), there will be others. You'll have to do your own homework (like DFV did for years before anyone knew who he was) on potential stock picks and plays. Please be cautious of anyone who gives you stock picks and I'd actually research them. I got into GME last year, but I did my own DD before throwing money at it. It was a decent value play with a very high upside. But even I didn't think we'd go this far up.
The recent run up feels a lot like the dotcom run up to me. Different setup and scenario but similar overwhelming positive euphoria and a big draw of people who seemingly have never traded before. This ended in some serious tears for a lot of people and years of debt or bankruptcy for some. Getting caught up in a buying euphoria can be dangerous. Don't let the yolo paydays here fool you, there's been yolo losses too.
WSB isn't your normal trading sub. This is a place for high stakes bets. All the memes and humor aside of instant paydays, Rome wasn't built in a day, and your market account probably won't be either. If you're looking to build wealth and understand the market, this probably isn't the place. finance investing and/or stocks might be better options if you're new. Most of the major brokerages have education series on their websites and/or through their apps as well as other online sites that teach basics for free (investopedia is a fine one imo). You have a lot of knowledge at your fingertips if you care to learn and make use of it. Don't be stupid.
🤔📖💡🚀
submitted by Im_A_MechanicalMan to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]

I bought the ATH in 2011: A decade of HODLing

There have been a few other long-term HODLers sharing their stories recently and I've greatly enjoyed reading them and reminiscing about Bitcoin's past. Here's my story - I hope it's as entertaining as the others.
---
Every number between 0 cents and the current ATH has been, by definition, the all-time-high at one point. Don't let that prevent you from taking a risk in something you believe in. Extend your time horizon to a decade and lock your coins away.
---
I've been a libertarian since I was a teenager. The expanding role of the State is something that I've been worrying about for most of my life. While learning about the immorality of the existence of the State, at some point I learned about monetary policy and how inflation is robbing everyone on an unprecedented scale. I tucked this knowledge away and was determined to figure out a way around it when I started making my own money. (This paragraph is the only one involving political philosophy, go ahead and continue reading)
I first heard of Bitcoin in 2010 on one of the many forums I frequented in my libertarian internet circle. It was an interesting concept to me, but I didn't pursue it at all. Again I tucked this knowledge away for future use.
I heard of it again several months later (2010). This time I decided to try it out. I remember downloading and syncing the reference wallet and using a BTC faucet to send coins to my wallet. I forget exactly how many it was... 5, maybe? That's as far as I went with it though. At some point I deleted the wallet and the downloaded blockchain - probably to make room for a Steam game or something. Those coins are gone.
That's right - Steam. I have been a gamer for most of my life as well. I owned a powerful graphics card at the time: The Radeon 5970.
The third time I heard about Bitcoin was in May 2011. I had heard that the price was lifting off and people were making a lot of money from it. This time I decided to dive in and see what I could figure out.
This was where I fell into the deep rabbit hole of Bitcoin. I remember getting so absorbed in it that I didn't sleep some nights. I was working my day job, going home and learning all that I could about Bitcoin. Learning about how addresses were generated, how wallets worked, how mining worked, how the difficulty adjustment worked, everything that I possibly could.
After a week or two of obsessing and reading about Bitcoin, I decided that this was the most important invention since the internet - the most perfect form of money ever created. One of the most ingenious systems ever designed by man - and NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT YET.
I can't recall if any other coins existed at the time, but between 2011-2012 I remember other coins like Namecoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, and some others. I don't hear about any of those other coins these days... besides LTC and XRP, of course.
I decided that I wanted in. I needed to get some Bitcoin. I needed it NOW!! This would be like buying stock in the Internet itself but better - no counterparty risk, and I could be my own bank!
I wasn't making a lot of money at the time, so putting money towards anything discretionary wasn't going to be friendly to my budget. Yes, I owned a badass gaming rig, but that was my only luxury in life. I knew I was going to buy for the long term, so I decided to put aside $500 and go for it. I was going to buy Bitcoin.
At the time, Mt Gox was the only game in town that I can remember. I don't think BTC-e existed yet, or maybe I just hadn't heard of it.
I signed up for a Gox account and figured out how to fund it. There were a few ways to do this, one of which was another app called Dwolla. So I signed up for Dwolla and got verified. I then deposited my $500 and initiated the ACH transfer to Gox. BTC price at the time: $3.
I had initiated the transfer on a Tuesday evening after work. I was informed that the transfer would arrive at Gox on Friday.
I watched agonizingly as the price climbed hour after hour, day after day. $3.50. $4. $5. $6. I was missing the boat!!! By Thursday evening the price had doubled.
At work on Friday, I checked my email on my phone practically every five minutes. The transfer didn't go through the entire work day. I had plans with friends that evening - damn it, I was going to have to try and do this on my phone while hanging with my friends?!
I ended up making my first BTC purchase while sitting in a movie theater. I bought 50 Bitcoin for $10 each - during an all-time-high.
I still hodl every one of these coins today.
(The movie, for the curious: X-Men: First Class)
I couldn't stop there, though. The more I learned, the more I had to know. The more I had to DO. That's when I got into GPU mining.
This was a time before ASICs. I believe GPU mining was relatively new -- before this, miners were only using CPUs (which were in 2011 -- like GPUs in 2020 -- obsolete for SHA256 mining).
The next day I dove headfirst into Bitcoin mining. I downloaded the software and set up an account on Slush Pool. I ran my 5970 on full blast for a while and went out with some friends. When I got back, my bedroom was noticeably hotter than it was when I left. So that's what I was going to be dealing with? Ok, fine.
I also couldn't play any demanding video games while the miner was running. I'd have to dial the hashrate down, or disable it completely. Ok, I guess I can manage that.
After a few days of dealing with that, I decided to buy another 5970. If I got bored of Bitcoin, it would still make The Witcher 2 run better!
All told, between mining with Slush Pool and BTCGuild for a month, I managed to mine an additional 50BTC that month.
I still hodl every one of these coins today.
One day, my electric bill came. $350. For my 1BR apartment? That can't be right...
I called up the electric company and told them they double-billed me.
"Nope, that amount is accurate. That's what you owe for this month. Have a nice day!"
And that was the day I stopped Bitcoin mining.
I had been telling all my friends and gamer friends about Bitcoin the entire time. They laughed at me. I told them they wouldn't be laughing when I was a millionaire.
Soon after, Bitcoin crashed -- HARD. Dropping from $32 at its peak to $2 over the next few months -- one of the largest price drops in its history.
I was dejected. I stopped talking about it with my friends. The gamer communities I was a member of made fun of me relentlessly, trashing Bitcoin every day. News articles celebrating Bitcoin's death popped up everywhere. It was the first major public crash, and I felt all alone.
I uninstalled the Bitcoin price widget from my phone. I moved on with my life and tried to forget about Bitcoin. I left the wallet on my PC, but deleted my copy of the blockchain.
I barely thought about Bitcoin for the next two years. Any time someone brought it up at work or in my friend group, I changed the subject. I was completely demoralized and thought I had fallen for the biggest scam of all time.
After this unbearable TWO YEAR period... Bitcoin came back.
One day I opened Bitcoin and saw utter elation all over the front page. What the hell was going on?
Bitcoin had surpassed the last all-time-high and was climbing still. $50... $100. And it was still going!!!
I snapped out of my multi-year funk right then and there. Somehow my paper financial loss had clouded my judgment and made me forget about the fundamentals that made me interested in Bitcoin in the first place.
"Bitcoin was back?" It had never left. It was still the same decentralized, unforgeable, instantly transferrable miracle asset that I had fallen in love with.
I got back into mining again, but I didn't leave my GPUs running 24/7 like I had before. Eventually, ASICs started coming out and obsoleted GPU miners, so I had to start mining LTC instead and selling them for BTC. I mined on a site called give-me-ltc and did my trades on BTC-e.
Eventually I got tired of managing my miners, paying extra for electricity, and dealing with switching stuff around for gaming. I stopped mining again and moved on to other things.
I exited this phase with an additional 30BTC and over 400LTC. I still hodl every one of these coins today.
Eventually, BTC hit $1000. I watched this live on bitcoinity.org. I remember this day vividly.
The graphic shown on bitcoinity for every price point was usually some sort of funny gif - someone dancing, someone acting crazy, someone making a funny face, Mr. Bean watching signposts fly past his car. This time, the gif was different - it was serious.
It was an astronaut on the moon. A flag was planted behind him bearing the Bitcoin logo.
Tears welled up in my eyes. This was significant. Bitcoin was being recognized for what it was - the most perfect form of money ever created.
My stack was now worth enough to pay off all of my six-figure student loan debt. I had thought that I would be paying this debt off for the rest of my life. Bitcoin meant potential financial freedom to me.
I didn't sell a single satoshi.
Of course, $1000 didn't last, and paying off all my loans with my stack was no longer a possibility. The price did not recover for almost FOUR years -- even longer than the previous crypto winter. During this time I bought a few more coins through Coinbase.
The 2017 run-up was a blur -- except for one day...
The day I became a crypto millionaire.
My family didn't grow up with a ton of money. I never had the latest clothes, toys -- well, anything. We weren't poor, but we scraped by. I didn't have a great education in personal finance.
Being a crypto millionaire went straight to my head.
Driving to work on that day, I remember thinking I was the most badass person on Earth. Somehow I had managed to manipulate some computer numbers around that were now worth over a million dollars!!
I couldn't help it - I told everyone at work. I was a crypto millionaire. I couldn't shut up about it. I told my family. I told my friends. I told everyone.
I went to the store to grab a few things. Walking the aisles, I couldn't stop thinking about it. "These people have no idea they're standing next to a MILLIONAIRE."
Of course, my crypto millionaire status didn't last long.
This time, though, I SODL a few coins at the peak. I bought a house and a car.
A month or two later, I was no longer a crypto millionaire.
Seeing the altcoin season was kind of crazy to me. For a few months, you literally could not pick a losing coin. Everyone was a winner. It was sheer insanity. I picked up a few ETH to get some exposure, even though I didn't (and still don't) believe in it long term.
I'm doing pretty well these days. I am numb to any price activity at this point. The last time I bought was the dip down to $4000 in March. I don't know how anyone could have resisted that one.
Other than what I SODL in 2017, I still hodl all of my coins.
You may be able to see a pattern here. There's always going to be another all-time-high. There's always going to be a crash or a correction. You're probably going to feel stupid more than a handful of times being a HODLer. But eventually these feelings go away.
I have a few more anecdotes and random thoughts to share, so I'll make them bullet points below:
​
- I held on to my BCH for a while. I will admit that I was TERRIFIED during the flippening. 6-12 months later, I sold them all for BTC.
- I immediately sold all my BSV for LTC.
- I hold BTC, LTC, and ETH. That's it.
- I don't believe in any of these centralized or "new and improved" shitcoins. I'm a BTC maximalist through-and-through. The only other coin I'd consider at this point would be Monero. I know almost nothing about it and I haven't done any research on it, so I don't hold any.
​
FUNNY
- I gave $5 of BTC to a friend in 2013. They forgot about it. I reminded them about it this year. They sold it for $175.
- I gave $30 of BTC to a friend in 2013. They sold it in 2017 for $750.
- I solo mined IxCoin (literal who?) for a few days because I wanted to feel what it was like to solo mine a block. I did not solo mine a block.
- My favorite Bitcoin meme is "This is gentlemen." Why don't people say that anymore?
​
REMINISCING
- Wallets I used: Bitcoin core -> Armory Offline (airgapped with TAILS) -> Electrum Offline (airgapped with TAILS) -> trezor
- Armory was flaky as fuck. I moved on to Electrum after the 20th time Armory failed to sync the blockchain. I remember having to manually export the private keys using some Python script because I couldn't get the wallet synced.
- Reddit is too slow for BTC sometimes, so I would go to the BTC-e trollbox to get some realtime action. Now that BTC-e is gone, I typically hang out in /biz/ when Reddit is boring.
​
REGRETS
- Not buying more. Not mining more.
- Not selling BCH for BTC immediately. That one still stings.
- Focusing a little too much on paying down debt vs buying more BTC.
- Buying precious metals in 2013. What a waste.
- Selling in 2017. But, I wanted a house and a car. Regretting taking profit is stupid, but I can't help it.
​
THOUGHTS
- I never once tried to convince anyone to buy Bitcoin, despite how much I talked about it. I tried to convince people of the potential and that the Fed was evil, but I never once said, "You should buy Bitcoin" to anyone.
- I see another 10x for BTC. Just buy BTC. Don't buy anything else. Just buy BTC and fucking HODL.
- HODL through these crashes. They make you stronger. After a few of them, nothing will faze you. Be a fucking man and HODL on to your coins!!!!!
- People just don't understand the network effect of the BTC protocol. No one cares that another coin has better features. No one cares that there are better internet protocols. They use what has the most infrastructure and support. Don't fall for these shitcoins.
- People don't understand the layering concept. Increasing blocksize simply isn't the solution to scaling Bitcoin - second layer and beyond is the solution.
- Taxation is theft.
​
Hopefully this was at least mildly entertaining.
Happy New Year!!!!!
​
Edit 1: Lots of comments about "taxation is theft" - some genuine, some not. If you're open minded and want to learn more, check out these short videos: https://blog.georgeoughttohelp.com/george-ought-to-help/
Edit 2: My thoughts on Ethereum: https://www.reddit.com/Bitcoin/comments/ko1wk3/i_bought_the_ath_in_2011_a_decade_of_hodling/ghopkjj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
submitted by Graphene_Hands to Bitcoin [link] [comments]

Rocket Companies (RKT) DD - An Undervalued Gem

Disclaimer: I am long RKT. This is not financial advice, and I am not receiving any compensation whatsoever from anyone for this post. I’m not a professional, I’m not even an amateur, this is a Wendy’s.
Sources used: RKT investor relations website and company website, RKT earnings transcripts, SEC fillings, the SEC EDGAR database, sea king al pha, whalewisdom, finbox, yahoo finance, stockcharts, openinsider, Zacks, google sheets.
Summary
Rocket Companies (RKT) is a fintech company that operates several brands including the flagship Rocket Mortgage. I think RKT presents an opportunity to buy serious value at a cheap price, because the market has not priced in the underlying fact that RKT is a tech company akin to Square, Paypal, etc.
Key Point - RKT is Priced Like a Legacy Mortgage Company
The average estimate for 2020 year end revenue is $15 billion, and the yearly earnings estimate average is $3.85 per share.
This estimate gives a forward-looking P/E ratio of just over 5.5. The sector median is something like 8-12, which makes RKT cheaply valued relative to the earnings it produces, even compared to the financial/mortgage sector. What’s key here is, I don’t think that’s really an appropriate comparison. I would place them more in line with companies like Square (ttm P/E ratio of 325x lol), PayPal (ttm P/E ratio of 69x, nice), or Fiserv (ttm P/E ratio of 24x). I used Zacks for all of these P/E ratio lookups.
Let’s assume RKT is conservatively worth 15x earnings, and that it hits the estimate of $3.85 eps. That would put its fair value right now at $57.75 per share. I think it’s worth more than that but, we all should do well to remember that it’s really only worth whatever the market will pay for it.
Key Point - Catalysts
This thing needs a catalyst. Right now I am loading up. I’m buying shares, I’m selling SHORT TERM covered calls to reduce basis on those shares, but I will be stopping the sale of those covered calls within a couple weeks most likely. The Q4 earnings announcement will be on 2/25. I am not sure that the actual earnings numbers will be enough to wake this thing up, although I expect them to be good. But if that announcement comes with discussion of their focus for 2021 and beyond, and gets the market thinking about them as a tech company first and mortgage lending company second, things will start to heat up. I don’t know when the real catalyst will hit that triggers the run-up, but I think it could start with the Q4 earnings call. I am looking at $21 as the floor for this stock, and I expect the price to double within a year. I will be acquiring OTM LEAPs, expiring next spring.
Supporting information and background follows.
The Business
RKT is in the business of providing solutions to financial transactions, including mortgage origination and refinancing, auto lending, and more. Specific subsidiaries and my simplistic view of how they interact:
Home Financing
Home Sale and Search
Auto & Personal Financing
Media
Services & Technology Development
Recent Acquisitions
RKT, through Lendesk, acquired Finmo back in October of 2020 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rocket-companies-subsidiary-acquires-fast-182042594.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALnvnNBoglSnmMP0O61AqgXBJokNS53LjJYuG3NvYKhayp4I6ZH2RpfmFUbSsCAU4xmnBNGMTwiEG-Ly29EabVy1-OjPIGfkYoQ3389gn3Edebs9sIwWOy1tPzqjRwOwwGA_PWg0cNzEFCe7HBTilMwADUT_y0QxWw8vizWecGcv) Finmo is a rapidly growing Canadian digital mortgage platform and this acquisition I think was perfect - it shows RKTs dedication to embracing a fully digital experience, and making sure they’re the ones leading that charge.
Management
I do not have much to say here, aside from this. The RKT team is not the new kids on the block, they have decades of industry experience. Also, I value leaders that make people feel valued. And on that note, under CEO Jay Farner Quicken Loans has been in the top 30 of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for 17 consecutive years.
Financials and Growth
When it comes to the numbers, RKT is killing it. I don’t want to just spout a bunch of numbers that anyone can easily go look up so here’s a couple that stood out to me from the Q3 earnings announcement and related data:
$4.63 billion in revenue, which is 163% YoY growth.
From that revenue, they beat EPS estimates with $1.21 for the quarter vs $1.09 expected.
Net income was $2.4 billion which represents a YoY growth of 365%.
Closed loan volume YoY growth was 122% to $89B.
Net rate lock volume was $94.7 Billion (101% growth).
RKT has brought in $13.1 billion in revenue in the first 3 quarters and seems to be on track to close out Q4 with yearly revs above $15 billion.
That’s awesome but what I really like is that they pair this amazing growth with $3.5B cash on hand. That’s great because I want them to be able to scale as they grow, and make acquisitions as needed (see Finmo) to ensure they can keep that growth going without getting overextended and failing to capitalize.
RKTs ability to recapture clients is one of the keys to their future success in my uneducated opinion. Their recapture rate is 4.6x the industry average. The Q3 earnings transcript includes a statement by the CEO on how when interest rates fall, retention rate falls, refinance activity is larger. The high recapture rate RKT has serves as a natural hedge to their retention of existing clients because their recapture is so much higher than average in the industry.
Quick aside - RKT announced a $1 billion share buyback program. They’ll be able to repurchase shares from time to time starting Nov10 2020, ending in two years. I don’t love the idea of share buybacks because I think this can be detrimental to actual business growth for the sake of shareholder value. However, with the large cash position RKT has (and it doubled from December 2019 to September 2020) I think this is a reasonable way to deploy some of that cash for now.
Ok so what about valuation using DCF, free cash flow analysis, something like that? Honestly I’m not convinced this is as useful as some people make it out to be. It’s nice to know what the numbers indicate, but I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about an exact price target based on anything like this. That said, you can crunch the numbers yourself or check out something like the Finbox resources:
https://finbox.com/NYSE:RKT/models/dcf-growth-exit-5yr
I don’t believe that fair value estimate for an instant, but it's a part of the puzzle to consider. Finbox has various models you can check out, but it’s also just a nice place to view aggregate data other than directly from the SEC filings.
Product Channels
RKTs direct-to-consumer channel is their main source of revenue right now, but I think they will be successful in their efforts to grow their partner channels as well. Why do I say that? Numbers don’t lie:
The partner network volume is a little over half of the direct-to-consumer volume but the growth rate is just so damn juicy. That revenue growth is hellathicc.
Current Market and outlook
Right now, rates are low. The average 30-yr mortgage fixed rate is 2.92% (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/03/mortgage-refinancing-surges-but-high-home-prices-stop-buyers.html)
I cannot say how long interest rates will remain low but I believe RKT is positioned to continue to grow regardless of what rates do moving forward. They just cover so much of the space, and they do it with a focus on applied technology.
Here’s some blatant speculation. I think as we move into 2021 and the vaccine becomes more prevalent, millennials will buy, sell, and borrow against real estate with renewed intensity. I think RKT is uniquely positioned to capture that market.
Positions: RKT shares. Cost basis of $21.14.
submitted by petriefly42 to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]

How to spot a $5M/year scam on the AppStore, in 5 minutes flat

Up to now, I've been in the "Apple wants to do the right thing" camp. But my viewpoint is starting to change.
Here's how I spotted a $5M/year scam on the App Store, in 5 minutes flat:
First, the ratings of this app: 4.6 stars, with over 83,146 ratings, and a glowing 5-star "featured" review:
★★★★★
Astronomy fun
I’ve been using the app for a few months now and decided to add some things to the review. First of all it definitely lives up to my expectations even this far down the line! The daily updates astronomy news is what makes me come back for more and in my opinion what makes this app stand out from the rest of the stargazing apps out there. That doesn’t mean the stargazing functions are not great, because they are, it just means that it news section is my favorite part. Ok the rest of the text is from my original review. Lovely app that really does what it advertises. If you are looking for something to keep you busy and at they same time learn from, this app is perfect! I have absolutely no idea how they do it, but just point your phone up the sky and move it around to identify Stars, planets, satellites constellations and other awesome things. While previously, you could only analyze constellations with charts, maps, telescopes or pay a visit to the nearest planetarium today you can use this mobile app to uncover a vast amount of information about what’s happening overhead at any given time! Simply amazing how far along the technology has come. Not only can you do that with this app, but you also get daily updated astronomy news to keep you updated what’s going on in our wonderful universe. Definitely a must have.
Now let's slide over to the next review in the carousel:
★★☆☆☆
Not what it advertises
Have to hit continue three times upon opening app. The third screen is Reg update screen with a small option to “restore” at the bottom of the screen. I accidentally hit continue the upteenth time I opened the app and instantly received email stating it was going to charge me $9.99 a week. No thanks.Point screen at one part of th sky infront of my house says one thing then point it to the back of the house and ironically it says the same. Somehow the sun is up in the dead of night and should be shinning at me through the pitch black sky. I’d post photos if this review had an option or I could send to admin IF I had the option but can’t find support anywhere.
Hmm... maybe that was an outlier. Let's check the next one:
★☆☆☆☆
Have to resubscribe every time you use it
Very disappointed. I signed up to use it and it was a decent tool the first time I used it, but when I went to use it a second time (on the same iPhone 11 I bought it and used it on the first time, it made me sign up again as if I had no subscription. It worked fine the second time, but still I had to take the time to resubcribe. Then, the third time I went to use it it did the same thing and I didn’t want to take the time to sign up again, plus I wanted to check my iTunes account to make sure I wasn’t paying multiple subscription fees for the same app, so I didn’t use it that night. The fourth and fifth time, the same thing. Very poorly designed in that way. I should be able to sign up for the recurring subscription, as it states it is, and every time I open the app on my phone it should recognize me as a paid subscriber and let me use the app. What a pain in the ____!!
Ok, this definitely warrants to keep scrolling:
★☆☆☆☆
Seems like a monetary vampire app that’s more advertisement than actual app
I installed this to track stars not for the app to immediately try to sell me on a better version of the app, AND a premium service with reoccurring billing immediately after opening. I naturally wasn’t impressed or lured in, but the real problem was the ad in the app wouldn’t let me actually use it until I tapped a tiny bit of text at the bottom. Please, stop doing this with free apps. Now I DEFINITELY don’t want anything to do with the paid app or the recurring service. It’s probably further riddled with micro-transactions, which is a problem I see more and more lately. Since the app asked me to rate it twice in the first ten minutes of use, here you go. Also the compass is bad and inaccurate. Looks like your advertisement didn’t work....
Now I'm starting to see a pattern here:
★☆☆☆☆
I’d give zero starts if could!
First of all took forever to even get to use the app because of all the garbage up selling. Then had to sing up for a trial to even use it since they demand $9.99 month before even using to see if it’s worth it. It’s not and within 5 mins I closed out and cancelled trial. It’s literally the only trial I’ve closed out that fast.I point to the sky and it shows the moon and some other stars that I absolutely wasn’t even pointing the phone at. Not even close to it. Then I go to a different location and screen doesn’t change at all. You have to manually move the screen and then you have no idea what location those images are actually at since screen doesn’t lock onto what it’s actually looking at.I can use a star map in a book and get better help than this garbage app. Don’t waste your time or money on this at all.
Last one:
★☆☆☆☆
Useless even if you pay
I thought this would’ve been a great app. Unfortunately, even after paying it’s pretty outrageous cost, it still could not identify a constellation. In fact, it left it up to me to identify ANYTHING. The App was perfectly happy when I tagged Jupiter as the North Star (I am in Southern California). Other ‘free’ apps work significantly better. Don’t spend your monthly “subscription” (what is a subscription here? Does our astronomical view change that much each month!? For a monthly fee why can I not get an approximate daily view of where the ISS is? Or the new NeoWISE comet? Or show me a constellation, or a planet? ) This app did absolutely ZERO of any of these things. I got a better view when I pointed my App and Camera at my lawn ..😢
Let's dig in with AppFigures and look at the star breakdown of just the reviews - there's only 835 of them (!):
★★★★★ 109
★★★★☆ 6
★★★☆☆ 9
★★☆☆☆ 31
★☆☆☆☆ 680
Their average stars?
1.6 stars
ONE. POINT. SIX.
In these reviews, people are desperately trying to warn others not to make the same mistake they did:
​
★☆☆☆☆
DO NOT PURCHASE
This app charges a ridiculous amount of money to use it ten dollars a week ****** Definitely not worth that much money it really should be illegal!!!!!!!!!!!!!************
​
★☆☆☆☆
PREDATORY COMPANY
PREDATORY COMPANY - DO NOT DOWNLOAD - THEY WILL ROB YOU
​
★☆☆☆☆ Thieves Stay Away
I downloaded this app and canceled my subscription within 5 minutes and guess what they charged me 9.99 Surprised Apple is providing platform to this thieves.
​
★☆☆☆☆
Hard to believe these reviews are genuine
I don’t write reviews, but this one warrant one. This one has all the signs of a scam. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I am. [...] Apple should be worried since this app has over 70k of 5 star
​
★☆☆☆☆
BAIT AND SWITCH
This app requires a subscription to use at all. There’s no trial/test/preview, just enter your credit card details. Just charge for the app, not this bait and switch. Is apple reading this!? Terrible experience. Ffs
Let's look at their ratings over time. Blue line is new positive ratings per day. This is a completely unnatural pattern here, when overlaid with their download numbers.
The featured 5-star review is there because the scammers made sure to also long press on it and mark it as "Helpful", alongside submitting all their fake, bought ratings.
This scam has been operating from Indonesia for years, although "operating" is giving it too much credit. The app was last updated in 2019, so they are literally sitting and collecting the stolen money.
When you download and open the app, you HAVE to start a $10/week subscription to proceed. UNREAL.
Apple is doing nothing. In fact, they're even sending the scammers a cool $400k per month.
The scam: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/star-gazeid1474038335
Their "website": http://textystories.com
Another image from their support website reads: "Life is wonderful, let our games be part of it!"
This is some utter BS. Honest developers are getting fooled by all sides. I am furious.
submitted by egocentric-video to apple [link] [comments]

what apps give you money instantly video

There are great alternatives to payday loans if you need cash quickly. We found 13 apps that will loan you money now and they're only a few clicks away. You can also do product reviews, be a secret shopper, or test ads. You’ll get money, which you can reward at iPoll’s online store. 15. Sweatcoin. This app basically turns your step counter ... There are many apps that lend you money. Most of them are with 0 interest. The catch is that you have to pay a monthly membership fee that typically varies between $1 to $5. Cash apps approve people very easily and fast. Most of them don’t even check your credit score. However, they would be … Continue reading "Best Apps That Loan You Money Instantly in 2021" 12. Survey Voices — Platforms: desktop and mobile web Price: free. As kind of an aggregator for online surveys and market researchers, Survey Voices will offer you a variety of polls and questionnaires to complete for money. This is another app that pays you through PayPal. MyPoints. MyPoints is one of the best small task sites on the internet. You can easily earn money by playing games, shopping online, watching videos, and completing surveys. Every task earns you points, and you can choose from your favorite gift cards or transfer your payout to your PayPal account. Swagbucks – $10 Bonus. One of the best money-making apps out there, Swagbucks offers a $10 bonus for new users. Swagbucks allows users to earn money by searching the web, watching videos, taking paid surveys, playing games, or shopping online. Get money from MooCash when you complete tasks, like watching videos, playing games, trying new apps and taking surveys. Aside from PayPal payments, you can also get your cash on gift cards for retailers like Whole Foods, Netflix, and Starbucks. Install the app. Download MooCash for Android devices here.

what apps give you money instantly top

[index] [2624] [81] [3284] [3531] [3997] [9423] [2145] [5223] [6130] [6431]

what apps give you money instantly

Copyright © 2024 top100.playrealmoneybestgames.xyz