IBM option hits entry point

[Yodean]

I see INTC that way but not IBM. I worry IBM's time has passed if they can't make Watson relevant. So far my Machine learning friends say Watson continues to fail to impress. although I did buy more at $119 based on recommendations here.

INTC and IBM represent two of my largest holdings at the current time. I have a few tech. and engineer friends, experts in their fields, who continue to try to advise me on which tech. companies to buy, based on all sorts of fundamental arguments, etc., blah, blah, blah.

They think their tech. and engineering backgrounds given them an "edge" in the markets.

I laugh my ass off and ask to see their investment returns. My only question is, did I 2x their returns in the last 5 - 10 years, or 5x to 10x? Usually it's the latter.

Generally, they have been pretty much completely wrong. I continue to mock them and consistently 2x - 5x or better their investment returns over a period of years.

And they continue to call me "lucky" or "crazy." Well, both may be somewhat true, but somehow, engineers seem to think they can "figure out" the markets with their "engineering" minds.

So, I'm glad when I hear your "Machine Learning friends" aren't too impressed with IBM. If it drops tomorrow, I will buy more. Same with INTC.

I love buying quiet, cheap Tech. Titans with significant strategic value to the U.S. DeepState, and who also happen to spin off juicy dividends.

To me, engineers and tech. types are among the best contrarian indicators, as a group. Good for a few laughs when discussing finances and investments.

[SOL]

To me, engineers and tech. types are among the best contrarian indicators, as a group. Good for a few laughs when discussing finances and investments.

These chaps are what lead us to create the Idiot's Index. Smart minds in their given fields, but outside those fields usually dumb as dodos.

[harryg]

How do I know if I am watching the idiot's index or if I am being used to create it?

Of INTC & IBM I tend to prefer IBM because of all their inventions - you have to think that one of them might work out.

I can't get a feel for Kyndryl yet. Normally the stupid name would put me off (it doesn't take much) but in the absence of reasons for a strong opinion I fall back on my default position - do nothing for now.

So if you know the answer to the first question you can now take the appropriate action.

[Triplethought]

To me, engineers and tech. types are among the best contrarian indicators, as a group. Good for a few laughs when discussing finances and investments.

These chaps are what lead us to create the Idiot's Index. Smart minds in their given fields, but outside those fields usually dumb as dodos.

Hey I resemble that remark. I have an electrical engineering degree.

[AstuteShift]

Don’t forget medical providers.

These guys are also brutally bad with investing, it’s comical

[Triplethought]

Don’t forget medical providers.

These guys are also brutally bad with investing, it’s comical

Yodean? Yodean? (said in tone of Bueller)

[Budge]

Don’t forget medical providers.

These guys are also brutally bad with investing, it’s comical

Yodean? Yodean? (said in tone of Bueller)

I would add the parents, suffering from mass psychosis, who send their offspring into the rapacious college system thinking it's a good investment of time, energy and money.

"American universities pride themselves on instilling communitarian values in students and enlightening them about social justice, diversity, and inclusion. It’s debatable whether their particular take on these important subjects has brought benefits or harm to society.

It’s not debatable, however, that they have practiced the opposite of what they teach. In a nation rife with hypocritical and morally bankrupt institutions and leaders, they and their faculty rank near the top in hypocrisy, greed, and political self-dealing."

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articl ... bt-racket/

All part and parcel of the raw data for Sol's MP and Idiots Index.

[SOL]

“The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.”

― H.L. Mencken

It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.

H. L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.

H. L. Mencken

“I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.”

― H.L. Mencken

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup.”

― H.L. Mencken

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...”

― H.L. Mencken

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”

― H.L. Mencken

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

― H.L. Mencken

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

― H.L. Mencken

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.”

[outof thebox]

@SOL

All the above sayings are so true. Mencken was way ahead of his time. There is absolutely nothing one can do to same the masses. They want all their information packaged nicely and sweetly. Brings to mind the saying you can't put lipstick on a pig

[Triplethought]

I would add the parents, suffering from mass psychosis, who send their offspring into the rapacious college system thinking it's a good investment of time, energy and money.

"American universities pride themselves on instilling communitarian values in students and enlightening them about social justice, diversity, and inclusion. It’s debatable whether their particular take on these important subjects has brought benefits or harm to society.

One thing the colleges may instill is a work ethic. The info is available in books. The professors aren't particularly helpful. But the deadlines force students to work hard, which is why corporations recruit from the universities. Because it's a pool of people shown to be willing to work late into the night to meet a goal.

[SOL]

A good pool of the indoctrinated (in general). In general Grade C students rule Grade A students. Grade C take the risk while Grade A are happy to be slaves to the grind

[Budge]

Let's add one more Mencken quote to Sol's excellent list:

"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest liars: the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."

[gnosis12]

Two additional great sayings by Mencken

If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

[George1010]

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H. L. Mencken

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. H. L. Mencken


Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another. H. L. Mencken

[MarkD]

OK, college educated here, in the 70s. Yes, I played the game. Yes, I have the (mental and physical) scars.

Interestingly enough, most of my close non-work affiliations were self-employed, many for lengthy periods.

Nothing else to add.