Agree on broker technology. I've been thru multiple broker mergers, and invariably the tech that I like the best and find the most useful get eliminated. Not trying to be overly negative, that's just been my experience.

Yeah, I sure hope the change in attitude continues. I used to tell friends/relatives that I viewed the govt as being very similar to a mafia protection racket: they force you to pay them money, and in exchange they promise to protect you and your store. But these days, people are starting to realize that the govt doesn't even deliver on their protection services anymore. They're literally letting people break into your store. And not providing border security either. What do they actually do, other than continually make a sales pitch to justify their own bloated existence?

Good to hear, otc. Hope all is well with your and yours also.

I'm kind of annoyed that I missed the most obvious of trades with libertarian Milei being elected in Argentina. Should have bought everything Argentina. Almost all those went up 50% in just a few days, before he's even taken office, solely on the hopes that things will improve. Should have seen that coming. I'm sure the reality will be messy as there's no guarantee that he can implement everything he wants, nor does everyone who's on the dole necessarily want to see changes.

Anyway, Glad you are well!

Toppy Markets? The markets have been so good lately that even the spammers have returned! I wonder if that's reason for concern.

OT: Argentina elected the libertarian guy so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

You doing okay, otc? Haven't seen any posts from you in quite a while.

AATC, thank you for the response, hweb. Do you have any idea how much business is still out there for them to acquire? Do you think they're at all close to reaching the saturation point, or is there still plenty of room for growth? Also, do you know how much of their business is new-build intersections vs retrofit (replacing in-ground traffic sensors). TIA

LMB now at $38 just to make us all even more sick to our stomachs on this one

PYYX I've had a few for a while and like the sound of things. Would like to think this has plenty of room to run if they keep executing.

Hweb, this is a sincere question, not snark. Re AATC, was there something you saw that made you think royalties were going to drop off? I'm a shareholder, but always like to hear the other side of the story.

SRTS - Yeah it will be interesting to see if they can post any kind of a comeback from the worthlessly-explained collapse in sales.

LMB - re "sold way too soon", yep, I think that's true of nearly all of us on this board. Biz model seems to be working as planned, after a few glitches right at the start. Been a machine since then.

Sskillz, seems like a smart move to me. You're making the best of a bad situation. I certainly don't get everything right in my trades/investments. When you can move on and harvest the tax losses, why not? Do what works for you.

re Gomes, everyone can obviously make their own decisions, but just in case anyone isn't aware of Gomes's past:

https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2017/33-10414.pdf

https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2017/33-10414-s.pdf

Edison Motors - the company is private currently, so this is more of just an FYI of the technology which makes a lot of sense to me. They are Canadian loggers. A truck built by truck drivers for truck drivers for real-world efficiency. If anybody has friends in the trucking industry, you might pass along to them and see what they think. Have no idea if the company will be successful or not, but it's an intriguing idea:

Are "Fully-EV" Semi-Trucks Realistic? Video below gives real world numbers from a guy with Edison Motors, who I'd never heard of, that makes a hybrid semi truck https://www.edisonmotors.ca/

This is the most coherent explanation on why going “fully EV” makes no sense (for now).

Get this man in charge of an energy committee. pic.twitter.com/DhtYoxdP52

— Brandon Beylo (@marketplunger1) October 30, 2023

AIRE - Seems totally sustainable and not shady at all. At $400 per share, looks like a valuation of around $16 Billion for a company with $68k in revenue last quarter (down from the prior year). It's a direct listing. Maybe the swindlers have figured out they can play the sheister games themselves, rather than hiring someone from Wall Street to do it for them, ha. My platform shows total volume of 14,577 shares.

How Does Yield Curve Un-Invert?

Inverted yield curve is when short-term interest rates are higher than long term rates. Most of the TV pundits have assumed that short-term rates will come down and that's how the yield curve will normalize. However, the other possibility is that long term rates will rise; that would get us back to a normal yield curve too. I don't claim to be Nostradamus, but not many of the pundits are even considering this as a possibility.

At the last Treasury auction, the 30-year T-bond went off at a yield of 4.837%

SSKILLZ1, best wishes on a speedy and full recovery.

I'd imagine the recent full changeover to Morgan Stanley probably hasn't helped with Etrade stuff. I'm still hoping MS doesn't ruin Etrade. Nearly every broker takeover I've ever been involved with ended up with the broker who was acquired being worse after the acquisition than it was as a stand-alone entity.

Form 4 transaction codes. For future reference, posting this because I wasn't aware of all the secret codes, and maybe other posters aren't aware either. Nor do I think one should have to know secret codes; a company should give full explanatory disclosure on the Form 4 imo so that you don't have to go searching to know the secrets.

Anyway, talked to a securities attorney friend of mine and his opinion was that BUKS Form 4 filings were technically legal, but he would certainly have footnoted the details. The section that makes it legal is in field "3. Transaction Code (Instr. 8)" it has an A. You can't click on the A, nor does the Form 4 explain the A:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/15847/000143774923027952/xslF345X05/rdgdoc.xml

But if you search the internet for Form 4 transaction codes, I guess these are the secret codes we're all supposed to know coming out of the womb:

https://www.sec.gov/files/forms-3-4-5.pdf

And at that link it says transaction code A means "Grant, award, or other acquisition of securities from the company (such as an option)"

However, that obviously still doesn't give you the details (was it stock, restricted stock, options or warrants at what strike price, when do they vest, etc.) I can't remember seeing a Form 4 that didn't footnote securities acquired from the company. I'm sure they probably exist, but this is new to me.

So anyway, final post on the Form 4 stuff in case anybody else was in the dark like me.

BUKS - Absolutely agree, especially when he got 400k shares as a grant just the year before for the same thing! And no footnote on that Form 4 either. What appears to be a director buying 700,000 shares with his own savings is really an overly generous amount of "compensation" from the company. That's a big difference in disclosure.

BUKS - Form 4 filings should be better, imo. I actually wrote to the Board of Directors to ask them to footnote Form 4's in the future, to clearly distinguish when something is a purchase vs a stock grant. I said I don't know the laws, but even if it's not legally required, for purposes of transparency and clarity, and out of fairness to us shareholders, it should be made clear if this is a grant from the Company vs a purchase by someone with their after-tax savings.

The 300k shares were indeed a straight share grant, as I was guessing in my last updated post. This is from the 8-K of 10/05/23:

BUKS - I suppose the other possibility is he bought directly from the Stewarts in some sort of off-market transaction. With CEO being a lawyer and John Edgar being a lawyer, seems kind of odd that this wasn't labeled as an option grant.

Update: My guess now is they just granted him shares (which still should be footnoted as a stock grant). Checked the proxy and when all the re-shuffling was going on, he was granted shares:

"On July 21, 2022, Mr. John M. Edgar, a director, was granted 400,000 shares of Butler National Stock as an other stock-based award pursuant to the Company 2016 Equity Incentive Plan. The award was for work related to Corporate financing and public relations. These shares were fully vested on the date of grant and were expensed in the July 31, 2022 financial statements".

If you click on his name on this latest Form 4, it will take you to the other Form 4's and looks like they did that 400k shares the same way (with no notation that this was a grant). I would certainly like to know that it was a grant rather than someone putting up their own after-tax dollars.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810126/000001584722000008/xslF345X03/primary_doc.xml

Ah yes, I think you're right. I'm coming back from vacation and have no idea what day it is, when I scrolled across my chart the days were bunched up and it looked like the 6th not the 10th. Hopefully a long term investor bought them

re BUKS, Director John Edgar (80 yr old lawyer) bought 300k shares at .74 on the big volume day, so that's encouraging. But agreed, hopefully it's the Stewarts and extended family and there's not another big wave of sellers:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/15847/000143774923027952/xslF345X05/rdgdoc.xml

BUKS (.70) For anyone who is interested and might not have noticed, there's been a big seller the last couple of days. No way to know for sure, but the selling could be from the old family that just got booted. Huge volume yesterday and it was absorbed pretty well. Down a little further today. If anyone is looking to build a position, there seem to be shares available, for whatever reason.

bbotcs: EV's largest charging station -- you'll love this article if you haven't already seen it:

https://climatechangedispatch.com/largest-ev-charging-station-in-world-powered-by-diesel-generators/

SIGA - Sold my final remaining shares today. So anyone still holding should be prepared for it to launch like a rocket ship :)

Indeed, refreshing to see some changes

That's great Ernie, thank you.

Etrade - Yeah, I sure hope Morgan Stanley doesn't change things, but if past experience is any guide, I have my doubts. Seems like every time I've had a broker get taken over, things usually head downhill after that. We'll see.

NVDA - The guy's part 3 of 3 on Coreweave and the Carbon Credits scam:

Housing - Two interesting posts:

Real Estate Industry in Panic Mode:

45% Drop in Home Purchases – Bigger Than '08! Home sales are now down 31% in 2023.

Without transactions, many jobs that are commission oriented are seeing huge declines in incomes. Real estate agents, mortgage brokers, title insurance, home… pic.twitter.com/PfIMwaQ7X2

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) September 4, 2023

The most incredible part about housing affordability?

How much worse it is outside of the US.

In New Zealand, it costs 250% more to buy than rent.

In Canada, it costs 230% more to buy than rent.

In Australia, it costs 150% more to buy than rent.

In the UK, it costs 100% more… pic.twitter.com/Tn4G3CHNVr

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) September 4, 2023

NVDA - So it turns out this CoreWeave was also the same guys involved with Sysorex (SYSX) and the pump and dump there (link below). Can't remember if I came across Sysorex on the Savvy board or another board on Ihub, but I definitely remember the name.

Ultimately, the big question in my mind is how much of this demand for NVDA chips is real, and how much is fabricated thru these potentially circular transactions. Seems like I recall Cisco Systems doing some of the same thing back in the Internet bubble. I think I recall John Chambers (the CEO then) was acquiring companies where he was also the seller, buying revenue from himself, etc. I don't follow NVDA closely, but the best wisecrack comment I saw someone make was, "don't ever trust a CEO who always wears his Fonzie leather jacket." Ha, I had to look up the pics, and he does! haha

Anyway, another guy chiming in on CoreWeave:

https://www.graphcall.com/execute?task=NavigationPage&g=966c3e03-ff06-451e-b081-ef9749281579

NVDA - There's a few people on Twitter exposing this story. Seems like a big deal. Good thread:

NVIDIA $NVDA filed its last quarter's Form 10-Q today. If you have been as surprised by the share price action and the (unaudited) published financials as I have been, this thread is for you.

Let's get into it🧵

— Kashyap Sriram (@kashyap286) August 28, 2023

NVDA - Sort of reminds me of some of the shenanigans of the internet bubble:

Who is Coreweave and where is their money coming from? Nobody is asking!🧐#Coreweave #Nvidia $NVDA #Magnetar pic.twitter.com/F1pcDNkv0G

— Nobody Special (@JG_Nuke) September 1, 2023

BUKS - Added some at .75 as there was a big seller there for a bit. Hope he doesn't know more than me :)

The "income" is from debt forgiveness, and the 500,000 convertible shares convert at 1,000 for 1, which means an additional 500,000,000 shares, or 530m fully diluted:

LMB ($35.00) It had to hit $35 just to make us all sick. If it got back down to the mid 20's I'd probably be a buyer again. Really do like the business model.

BDCO - CEO continuing to buy, and a meaningful amount, even at around $4. About 30,000 shares. Nothing's for sure, but sort of lends credence to the idea that he's playing the energy market a little. Problem is, HE knows when the good quarters and bad quarters are going to come, and we (the average shareholders) don't. Still, pretty impressive buying:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/793306/000165495423011062/xslF345X05/section16.xml