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@ Back Office Report
2023-08-04 02:30:57The Bor Report... Day 0
If you've ever read The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker then it's possible the aperiodic letters in my Back Office Report will resonate with you.
I'm treating these letters as a sort of journaling/social experiment. My thoughts, on a page, in no particular order. All for an unspecified amount of time. Burn after reading if you so desire.
This platform along with the Daumus app is the perfect place to inscribe my thoughts. It's written in stone. If I say something inaccurate I sincerely hope my readers call me out. And dare I try and make a prediction, there will be proof and I won’t be able to back pedal like Jim Cramer does every day of his career..
Okay let's begin...
Let’s start with the boring… Dow Jones 35,215.89 | S&P500 4,501.89 | Nasdaq 13,959.72 | Russell 1,961.40 | VIX 15.92 | GBTC 19.30
Keep in mind I’m writing this well after the close of the market. My 2022 LEAPs have well expired worthless, and my sentiment WAS overall very bad. My outlook on the market was completely negative up until I became bullish about half way through 2023. A good friend of mine purchased around 30k in CDs. I’m happy for him, a sound investment. And much more size than I was use to. But to me it felt a lot like peak hysteria. The bond fad had already hit the news headline and was starting to fade. I remember thinking, “great.. now bonds are exciting.. that’s when you know it’s bad.” But it wasn’t until a few months after that when first hand I saw someone act on it. Sure the major hedge fund managers were buying bonds but who in my circle actually cared about safe money. Nobody had enough for it to matter in the first place.
I always thought things usually get worse before they get better. That seems universally true. But how long is worse. That’s what was/is tough to decide. The economy is in shambles in many ways, but healthy in others. Was a year of red ticks enough, two years? Who really knew. The more I heard people in my circle actually purchasing things like CDs and bonds the more I was intrigued… was this it? Are the tides changing, is peak hysteria in the rear view mirror? No idea..
I decided to stop by a coin store on the way home. Sometime I end up with way too much time on my hands.. It was after my shift at corpo and I was meeting up with family for dinner. It was too early to drive home, but too early to drive to the dinner spot. My work, as you can guess, right in the middle. There was a coin jeweler just down the road so I thought screw it why not. The local guy, great guy by the way, had no gold coins. None at all. Said someone just came in and bought the whole place out. Didn’t believe him at first but after looking around he really was out of gold. I had been in here a few years ago and although the price of gold was steady there certainly was supply. He said, “I’ve got silver bullion left”. I said I didn’t want any..
Called a few other local places. I wasn’t going to actually buy any gold coins, but I was curious. Just about everywhere I called was out of gold. The theme Peak Hysteria was really starting to set in.
Although the market was closed I yearned for exposure. An option contract on the S&P. Maybe a call on something in tech. Just some exposure to the market of some sort so I don’t miss the shifting of tides..
I’ve realized as I’m writing this I’m using a mixture of present thought, and thoughts/experiences from weeks/months before. Incredibly confusing for the reader, but I frankly don’t care. I’ve set my foot down on starting the Bor Report and I won’t go another day without publishing something. I don’t want to get hung up on every detail. I want to put stream of thought to paper. Maybe someone will appreciate it. Or maybe I’ll look back and be extremely embarrassed. I frankly do not.. care.
I’ll leave you with a quote, so that you can think about me until the next time I publish something. Because it’s not everyday that I want to debate engineering disasters, argue about municipal funding projects, or simply harp on bond purchasers. But those days do seem to make up a majority of my life. There’s something blissful to me about the very nature of a boring topic. Maybe in a way it resembles the liminal style of some of my favorite artwork. I would argue that some of the most complicated and interesting things of this modern world can seem boring at face value. Or maybe I’m just boring.
"Warning: Everything saved will be lost." - Wii notification
Taken from the what is the most unintentionally profound thing you've heard thread.
Till next time,
The Boring Report