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I try to be honest about my investments, if for no other reason than I need an honest accounting to myself of how well my strategies are working. (Hybrid option/dividend capture system for blue chip stocks, for instance.)
The folks who really screwed me this year was the precious minerals mutual fund that paid out a bunch of Ordinary Dividends (ordinary, mind you, not even qualified for the lower tax rate) at the end of the year and yet I am none the richer for it. And I had to pay over a thousand in taxes for the privilege of watching the value go down, all while gold and other precious resources touch all time highs, which kind of adds insult to injury. This was a classic dollar cost average play, where I was willing to wait through entire commodity cycles for gains, but it has just proved that investing in mutual funds is one of the stupidest ways to invest.
And if they are going to keep paying ordinary dividends, all the more reason to dump them, as even if I had booked my Cred bankruptcy loses already, I think those dividends would not count toward the carry loss forward that I will be carrying forward for years to come (or until XRP hits 12 bucks, baby!) Go.... XRP!
Not sure Flare people constitute a foreign entity, but all I know is friggin' Uphold put that stuff on a 1099-MISC in box 3. So I put it on Schedule 1, Part 1 (Additional Income), 8z for Other income. I did not specify it as a drop. I just put "From Uphold HQ, Inc 1099-MISC"
Thanks to my not taking the time to calculate my cost basis on losers, I did not do tax-loss harvesting last year like I should have, so these are the two biggest checks I have written in quite some time, maybe ever, for this occasion. Ugh!
So I gotta pay taxes for Songbird drop. This is from 1099-MISC. Not even sure where to put that on the forms. One thing is certain: the tax bill is more than the SGB is now worth. Isn't that cute?
This is almost as bad as the mutual fund that is going down in value, but for some reason is reporting a ton of ordinary dividends.
Only thing that tops that nonsense is that the Cred Chapter 11 is still not complete. Last year I was expecting to report a net loss for 2021 (with more to carry over), not a gain. Should have sold all my old losers last year when I had the chance, darn it.
No need to figure out any icing problem for me as I am out. I got called away last month, after holding for a couple years, riding that pandemic drop and the slow recovery (that got fast here in the last month), scoring a few cash covered put plays along the way, and, of course, collecting the dividends. Speaking of which, the divvy was lowered significantly shortly after the beginning of that ride, so this was a divvy play when I got in (and not so bad when it was way down in the dumps below 20), but not so much now.
Although, having said that, I can't help but wonder if a dividend increase is in the cards for the near future. But then I look at the negative EPS and I am not tempted. Similar thing with Ford, down with everything two years ago. They killed the dividend for six quarters, only to bring it back for these last two. But even then it is 33% lower than it was, even though the price is nearly double what it was when they cut it. Once these companies go through the pain of cutting or eliminating the divvy, which is usually done quickly, they are slow to bring it back, even if the share price recovers and then some.
Barclays suspended new share issuance, hence the 20%+ spike on a day when volatility itself is down. This has always been a short term play, usually with options, always keeping in mind the concept of contango.* Not sure how much this move from Barclays messes with that.
In the past, it has almost never been a bad idea to sell a covered call on big days like today. (Even though yesterday was also a big day.) As the price usually retreats quickly. That is what makes a spike so pointy. The other side of the spike. If you didn't have shares to cover a call, the next choice would be to buy puts. I probably wouldn't chase at this point, even if the world's problems aren't going to be solved by next week.
*I believe the same thing applies to that Bitcoin futures ETF they started last year.
You will probably get to 3 cents soon, L17. I sold a lot today and I usually sell these too soon. But I have been patiently waiting for this to get back over 2 cents, which is where I last sold--and then bought back in a month later for half price. As you can see by the 3-year chart, I need not have been in such a hurry to reload, but that's OK. A 100% gain is still a 100% gain. I wish everybody holding tight a ten-bagger from here.* Or maybe even a 50-bagger.
*That is a bit self-serving as I still hold free shares, too.
PS to G Street: I tried selling D*MR for a tax loss at the end of last year. No takers. You win some, you lose some.
Finally checked XUMM wallet today to see SOLO is there. Needless to say, it ain’t much for all the fuss. As for Uphold… you can guess. They have recently added Spell and Shibu Inu and MANA, but no hurry to complete the Sologenic drop.
Darn, I meant to grab Spell after its fuddy duddy crash. Has rebounded 30%. Got too cute with my pricing. Sometimes limit orders are a bug, not a feature.
So, what’s next? Coreum? And no specific date to keep us guessing when to pump and dump. Don’t think we need to set up another trust line, but not 100% sure.
That is just too cute, waiting two days before the SOLO drop to say they are participating. Oh, well, it only cost me a fraction of a fraction of an XRP to start a XUMM wallet and set up a trust line. (It only took three tries to successfully do that, and the fails did not cost anything.)
And since I only sent about half of my XRP to the wallet, I should be happy that the other half will also get in on the action.
On the other hand, I now have yet another passcode, another long string of mixed up letters and numbers, another secret set of keys, and another long (and strong) password. Just what I needed.
But getting my toes wet on the ledger and getting some of my crypto off an exchange (even XRP-friendly Uphold) is probably a good thing. Maybe it will motivate me to stake more assets, because they ain't earning anything where they are.
You said XUMM will cost me 12 XRP all the way through to setting up a trust line, if I read an earlier post correctly. Are there some fees with setting up Solo Wallet as well?
So, is XUMM the preferred way to go? As opposed to say… by SOLO Wallet/Dex?
Just to help you guys out, I am only looking to move half my XRP off an exchange. So I won’t dilute the airdrop quite so much.
: - )
If it will make you feel any better, I will note that we cannot touch the SGB in our Uphold accounts yet. While they now show the proper price, we can neither buy nor sell it until November 18 (their date for Phase 2, whatever that means). Not sure why the delay, maybe to get a nice connection to the Flare network set up to allow customers to easily wrap and stake. (I know, I am going out on a limb by speculating that the delay is meant for our benefit.). To quote one of their FAQ answers: If you plan to withdraw your SGB, please bear in mind you’ll be withdrawing to the songbird network.
So—ugh!—Uphold customers will miss out on three more weeks of rewards for the early bird (canary network bird, that is). Perhaps, I should just set up the necessary accounts/wallets and buy some. Is anyone selling?
Yep, finally have an SGB account at Uphold. Partial celebration only. Not quite completely there. Not priced properly and cannot trade. I was going to try to buy more, but no such luck. I figured hey, as long as you guys are pricing it at 0.0001, you can sell me another million, but they did not go for that deal.
: - )
Now I guess I need a Bifrost wallet or something. Time to learn if that is an app or I have to turn on the computer. Guess I will do that anyway to review Crypto Eri and Mickey B. Fresh Flare Network vids.
PS regarding Uphold. Might be about time to move to greener pastures. They put me through a KYC questionnaire. I feel a little dirty now. I was tempted to name my employer as Consolidated Nunyas, but I resisted the urge. Later in the interrogation, I did manage to get in one joke: when it came to asking how much I would deposit yearly, I put $599*.
: - )
*Which would be 599 more than I have given them this year. Ouch, Cred. Owwwwch!
You probably picked up those shares from me. Darn 60-day GTC went through in the first minute. Oh, well, that is what I get for having too many irons in the fire to keep track of them all. Have to settle for a meager 150% profit. Guess I should have been more greedy. There was another easy double from that point today.
May you all score at least 300% from here. (That is a self-serving wish, as I still have more shares. Playing with house money at this point.) I will have to read more to find out the cause of the pump. The cause of the dump is always self-evident. But let's hope Monday rewards everyone.
Uphold promised to sue Cred on our behalf back when the bankruptcy news first broke. I don't want to pile onto them right now as they are finally showing some support for Songbird. I think they are even hosting a conference call with the CEO of Flare; saw notice of that somewhere.
The ironic thing is that if all of Cred's assets were in crypto (not stablecoins and such) back in November, they should easily have enough to cover the dollar amount values of their creditors at the time the bad news came. Customers would still miss out on capital appreciation and interest, but would easily have their dollar values covered. I was hoping for 40 cents on the dollar, but once you add accountants and lawyers, I hate to think what scraps will be left. And it is taking a long time, too. I mean, the deadline for filing a claim was 9 months ago, as I recall. Some shenanigans must be going on. Otherwise it should be simple math to figure what percentage we suckers get back.
Uphold had time to add three more coins, but still no Songbird showing up. Ugh! I know they want to be patient, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder why. It can't be because it is a new network. That is the point. It is a canary network; it is there to be tested. We are supposed to risk our SGB to try it out, so that if and when we prove it works, then we can get our Spark tokens.
Meanwhile I got some Luna on its latest dip just to keep myself occupied with some crypto action, but I would much rather be wrapping/staking/whatevering some SGB. Maybe I should open a Bitrue account, but not sure how much in fees and other headaches I should expect.
Luna now trades on Uphold, good timing or...?
The cause of the latest 30% pop. Off a little from that, so DCA time ... maybe
Being added to exchanges is usually bullish... or at least some news you can sell if you already got in on the rumor.
Not sure why people have to wrap Songbird. Maybe that was only for the ones who got it early. As you can see in the example, some SGB was left unwrapped, presumably to pay for fees.
Unless folks are even more allergic to YouTube than I am, all XRP players/holders really need to watch Crypto Eri or search YouTube for Mickey B Fresh and Songbird to get the latest XRP news and instructions on what to do with your SGB if you are lucky enough to already have received yours. Gee, it would have been nice to be in that camp and be able to do something with these canaries while the market is down, but no, I am still waiting on Uphold just like MS is waiting on Nexo.
Also sucks that unless maybe you had your XRP on Bitrue last December, you could not take advantage of the Day 1 FOMO. Could have sold high and probably could buy back at half the price in a day or two.
A month later, and we are still lower; still down from that Monday morning gap. The one month chart suggests the peak over the last 31 days was on Friday September 3, and yes, it certainly was running well into that three-day weekend, but no, GBTC was highest on Monday August 23 early with that gap up at open. Since then... lower highs and lower lows. For everybody's sake, may the latest lower low be the lowest for a while.
So if we erase the entire 15% discount maybe we get back to where we were a month ago. GLTA GBTCers.
Ripple becoming untouchable... that is the dreamy part. I am happy to hope along with you about the future success of XRP, but...
Your constitutional rights; your right to make your own healthcare decisions, even dumb ones; your right to choose not to labor on someone else's behalf... how safe, how untouchable are those? The idea that we, let alone our investments, will ever be safe from people with too much power, that is a dream. I like it. I'd be willing to put in some effort to realize it. But it is definitely a dream.
What is the point of this lawsuit except to flex muscle, to establish turf by pissing on it.
Meanwhile, on the Uphold front, I "bought the dip" with some Serum as (I think) a play on Solana. (I already have Solana, but had no Serum.) When Uphold sent me an email about my trade, I used that opportunity to click on the Support link and let them know that they could count me among their many XRP holders who sure hope that they let us take part in SGB staking, wrapping, or whatever next week.
Was thinking of cause and spark as synonymous and so maybe that your use of "spark" had a double meaning.
No problem. Gave me a chance to remind folks why Songbird comes before Spark and name some YouTubers much more well-versed in it all than I am.
As for Evergrande, not sure if they are analogous to Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns. Maybe they are the canary in the coal mine.
Now as for MS imagining not a settlement in the SEC case, but an outright unqualified win for Ripple, I going to say that is more than a hope; that would be a dream.
Did spark cause what? All assets dropping? Surely you do not mean the Spark token.
Did something happen with the Spark token? We have nearly another week of observation mode before Songbird may appear for us XRP holders sometime after Monday. I am sure going to be disappointed if Uphold does not participate. That is Hope #1, that I get some SGB from the same people who agreed to participate in the drop of Spark (you know, eventually, whenever that happens). Hope #2 is that SGB does half as well as Kusama, although I may not care much if Hope #1 is a bust.
That's Songbird. Songbird first, then some time after we get done testing out Songbird comes Spark. Songbird is the canary in the coal mine. Don't want a Spark in the coal mine until we have tested it with Songbird. Everybody understands that, right? If not, maybe check out videos from Crypto Eri, Mickey B. Fresh (the DeFi Standard), and Flare Community -- if you haven't completely sworn off YouTube, that is; I cracked after about 3 weeks of almost* cold turkey.
*had to have my weekly dose of Crypto Casey.
The pop today makes my shares 4500% green. Problem is the volume would not even cover my position--and it is not a large position. Just a few share I picked up on a partial fill at below a tenth of a penny.
I have a crazy GTC order in that expires at the end of this month. I only need the price to do again what it did today for it to catch... and with a little more volume.
: - )
Otherwise, how is it going, Gare?
There is a 10x on the 1-year chart for XRP, to be fair. Of course you had to have huevos de acero to buy when there was blood in the street, but there it is all the same.
Problem for me was I felt I needed a 50x from XRP to make up for the Cred debacle. Still waiting for the next shoe to drop on that; thought it would be resolved this tax year, but maybe not.
Still, not selling on the news (Coinbase going public) was just dumb. How often do they ring a bell at the top? Too seldom for anyone to recognize when it does happen, I guess. Same for Doge with Elon and SNL. At least that time I had the good sense to take my 1000% profits. There has been plenty of time to reload since then, wash rule or no wash rule. Although, for some reason, I have not rebought any of the few cryptos where I am playing with house money. Something psychological about putting profits from your winners back on the table versus just buying other coins. Added new ones (often as Uphold has added them), DCAing throughout the downturn, buying whatever was down the most on red days, and still HODLing, which mostly has worked out since they pretty much move in concert, but… dang! Solana; kind of wish I had regrown that particular stack.
As for the Spark token waiting game, if I am not mistaken, Songbird comes first. Any word? I gave up YouTube 3 weeks ago, so I don’t know the latest news out of Tokyo (from CrptoEri, that is, one of the few good YouTubers for XRP).
But trading was halted on Uphold, darn it! So I could not buy this under a buck -- or Doge under 20 cents.
: - )
Just a reminder that sometimes HODL is not just a memified typo; sometimes it mean Hold On for Dear Life.
As for Solana, I may yet kick myself for not taking some profits at $125.
Aw, crud, I adjusted it too much
: - )
That means how much of a gap up? To start the day. Think I need to adjust an order.
: - )
Would have been willing to watch the sequel as I am a JC fan. Bad luck on the timing, though.
Meanwhile looks like we were both right. It came down hard and it is that time of the year again--after a nice run. Selling cash covered puts back then worked out as well. Will be looking for another such play in the next month or so.
If I understand correctly, Songbird will come first, before Spark, which makes sense if it is a canary (in the coal mine) coin for the Flare Network. That will be based on the same snapshot taken last December for the Spark token. Which is why I need Uphold to participate. They were onboard for Spark, so they need to be onboard for Songbird. Not sure I can do anything about it if they are not.
The two most recently announced airdrops have not had their snapshots yet. In those cases it would be good to know where to have your XRP. (I believe those are straight to XRP, not related to Flare, although there are going to be a couple _FLR events somewhere in the mix.)
PS to MS: I don't know if I mentioned it, but after months of no notifications, Uphold is back to daily notifications, so I get something popping up on my phone every time a coin's daily move is more than 5% in either direction (about two dozen in my case).
Careful, MS, some people do not understand sarcasm.
: - )
So, the price-gouging ne'er-do-wells in DC added potentially crippling compliance cr*p for crypto in their latest overspending package. Not sure that is why almost everything is down today. Probably not. If so, a delayed reaction, but it does provide a good excuse to take a breather.
I heard somewhere that the expected revenue from that provision will raise 28 billion over ten years. Really? Ten. Years. All that to balance out less than two weeks of deficit spending.
Meanwhile I notice Uphold has not added any more coins lately. They were really on a tear for a while, but they have been stuck on 46 for at least a month now. Maybe they are gearing up for the Spark token, and whatever next comes from our numerous airdrops. At least I would like to think that is the reason.
Well now I do not feel so bad about posting that link to an obvious scam.
: - )
Seriously, though, avoid scams on YouTube. For those who watch YouTube crypto channels, those "suggestions" on the right side of your screen will have some double-your-crypto scams. As ap17 said, that should be the one and only red flag you need to clue you into steering clear. The current scam videos I am spotting all have the same format: it will be an image of someone like Michael Saylor, Vitalik Buterin, or Brad Garlinghouse, and will say the video is LIVE NOW, but the video will be old material, an interview with the aforementioned well-known crypto personality; the picture will be slightly smaller with a solid color frame around it. In the frame is the scam promising free crypto. "So-and-so believes in crypto so much, they want to speed mass adoption; just send your crypto to this address and we will send double back to you." Something like that. Needless to say, the comment section will be disabled.
YouTubers who count on live streaming for their business model should be getting after YouTube to bump these frauds off their site.
I think these scams are trying to ride the coattails of Richard Heart's recent "fork" of Eth/ERC20. But in that sacrifice, all you were promised in return for your tokens is PulseChain, currently not worth anything.
Not to mention nothing posted from Brad Garlinghouse about it on Twitter. He does not post every day, but I would think such an act of Blockchain magnanimity would have been worth a mention. Anyone with a brain could have checked there first. Or if you dislike Twitter even more than I, you can always follow CryptoEri on YouTube. She will be current with any snapshots and airdrops.*
Yep, definitely a scam. According to the website's "Last chance to get your XRP" meter, they have already ripped off people to the tune of 15 million bucks of XRP. With another $60 million of scamming to go. Although, since it is a fraud, I image that--to quote Rita Moreno--"the sky is the limit."
Would have been nice to get back most of the XRP that I lost to Cred, but it ain't gonna be that easy.
*If you want info on real airdrops, they have this at the DeFi Standard:
https://www.thedefistandard.com/posts/xrp-airdrop-tree/
Is this 2x deal real or a scam?
You are my XRP guru, MS... have you seen this? Sure sounds like a scam very well disguised inside a LIVE YouTube video (as of the time of this post) from a channel called Ripple XRP. Anyone investigating this?
Did you ask the same question of Uphold? Or did you not have enough XRP still with them in December to care? I do. They were kind enough to say that we will get Spark (at 1.0073:1) for all that we had, even the XRP lost to Cred, so hoping they come through again. Getting this canary coin for the testnet would certainly help ease the pain of the last year. As Crypto Eri said, "Man, Uphold, I hope you don't let us down."
For those who use YouTube to keep themselves up-to-date on crypto, Crypto Eri is the go-to channel for XRP holders. Many of the others I watch are more entertaining and I look forward to them every day, but most of them never want to talk about XRP. Crypto Eri mostly talks about XRP, from her perspective in Japan, and has certainly had a lot to talk about lately, with SBI, Songbird, and perhaps even another XRP airdrop, something called EVERS or something like that.
Another 2 percent; how boring the steady climb. Tediously green nearly every day for the last seven weeks. Not many chances to buy on dips. No one has even bothered posting TA in almost three weeks. Nothing parabolic to be seen here, move along... move along.
Despite the lack of hype, no doubt we will eventually have a couple down days in a row. Will I have the patience to wait until the second day to sell some more cash covered puts?
Not trying to hex it or anything. It will move one way or the other without any influence from me.
Uphold force-traded me out of my remaining LBA this morning... as they warned they would do a few weeks ago. Of course, my larger position was already lost to Cred. The Chapter 11 process drags on. There was a letter to creditors from the liquidation trustees posted on the Donlin Recano website yesterday. Coincidence? I am beginning to doubt this will be resolved this year.
This will be my first ever realized loss on crypto.* Paid $128.19 a couple years ago. Got back $5.30. I hope that is not a harbinger of this bankruptcy's end result. Four cents back on the dollar will be soul-crushing.
*Not nearly as much fun as booking profits with ten-baggers and playing with house money, as I have done on a handful of alts.
Following my own strategy, sold some calls today. And those puts I have been selling the last two months are looking much better. Last month, the latest assigned puts increased my bag with an average cost between 3.50 and 4, and now we are at 5. Sweet. And with some options contracts expiring tomorrow, I will have more shares after the weekend. Not sure how many, or at what basis, but somewhere between 3.50 and 4.50. Friday will tell.
Does CAPR follow through with the momentum or do we get profit-taking? Had some already today and bouncing well off of that.
How it moves from here will determine whether my next sell is a call or a cash covered put. August options are now up. Nice. July, August, and September all there in a row to give you a range of time-frames. Can ladder them just like CDs.
Go... CAPR! Go, Science!
I would be upset I missed the high (so far) today, but the volume was not even enough for me.
Nice to see big green numbers, but need some momentum and more eyes (and larger blocks of shares traded) here.
Dips and rips; what more do you want?
And you can trade options on this one. Sell cash covered puts when it drops and sell covered calls when it pops*.
*That is, if you get assigned, as has happened to me during the last lull. Now it is running; lovely to see. If it keeps momentum, I can sell stop selling 5s and start selling 7.5s. Sweet. And I can ladder those contracts out, one option expiring this month, one expiring next month, one expiring three months from now. It is practically like holding a CD, only the interest is higher and the time frame shorter.
Caveat: I am not a financial advisor; choose to utilize this or similar option strategies at your own risk. (But we are near enough to that 5 dollar strike price to make CAPR one "in play.")
Thought schools were to be a revenue source. What would be a good rumor to start buying now? Maybe breaking into the California market in a couple months.
Does schools opening to in-person learning mean Hawk flies up?
Five figures. First buy-in was for six. (That was almost two years ago. My long-held core. Or what's left of it. Still up, I am happy to say, but that green percentage looks a lot more impressive whenever we touch copper.)
I see the lot sizes on the Bid and Ask are 258k and 400k respectively, so, yeah, 5 figures qualifies as small, downright modest. But it builds up. I now have more flipping shares in my IRA (where I avoid cap gain headaches) than I do in my (taxable) core. I just checked and they are nearly all short term holdings. Less than 5% of those have I held for more than a year. (Again, since they are in an IRA, short-term, long-term, whatever, no worries about wash sales or anything else.)
My apologies if that's TMI, but anyway... gooooooo, Hawk!