Investments Thread, Part 2

blakeyrat

CONFESSIONS:

I bought some Petrobras
It's down 8.75% fucking percent
So to answer the implied question in that thread: no. No it has not gotten even remotely close to rock bottom yet.

Oh well, I'm going to hold onto it and see what happens. I didn't spend more than I could afford to lose, fortunately. And it's not like the rest of my portfolio is doing so great recently anyway. (Average down 3%.)

Still looking for non-tech investment ideas, if anybody has some to offer.

xaade

@blakeyrat said:

if anybody has some to offer.

oil.

Like... buy a warehouse.

Because if oil doesn't come back up within your lifetime, the world is doomed anyway.

PJH

@blakeyrat said:

No it has not gotten even remotely close to rock bottom yet.

Buy more (possibly on a regular basis) while it's going down to take advantage of cost-averaging? This does, of course, presume you believe it will (within appropriate-to-you timescales) rise back up again.

blakeyrat

I've already risked more than I should on it.

skotl

I've worked on and off in Brazil for the last two years and there's no way I would ever invest in any Brazilian business.

(to be clear, I love the people, the weather, the caipirinha, the beer and the food - just not the unpredictability of trying to do business there)

Lorne Kates

@xaade said:

@blakeyrat said:
if anybody has some to offer.

oil.

Like... buy a warehouse.

Because if oil doesn't come back up within your lifetime, the world is doomed anyway.

How does one buy oil anyways. Like, stocks of it rather than an actually barrel of oil?

Because you're right. It's bullshit low now, and if it doesn't go back up to $80 a barrel then-- well, the only way that's happening is if we suddenly have perfected fusion power. So that's ok.

xaade

@Lorne_Kates said:

Like, stocks of it rather than an actually barrel of oil?

You buy futures. Similar to how one can buy gold.

Lorne Kates

@xaade said:

@Lorne_Kates said:
Like, stocks of it rather than an actually barrel of oil?

You buy futures. Similar to how one can buy gold.

So let's say I have $1000. Do I go to the bank and say "here's $1000, put it on oil and let it ride"?

RaceProUK

You go to a stock exchange or an investment broker, but pretty much, yeah.

Edit: Thinking about it, some banks may also be investment brokers; after all, their business is money.

blakeyrat

@Lorne_Kates said:

How does one buy oil anyways.

If you're daring, you can do commodities or futures trading-- but if you let the ball drop, you'll end up with a tanker truck outside your office looking for a tank to pump it into. (I read a funny story about that awhile back.)

I'd invest in it via proxies. BP, Shell, etc.

EDIT: I wonder if there's an oil company that specializes in aircraft fueling, because that has the potential to go crazy. More flights every year, and barring UFO space technology there's no way to reduce fuel usage on planes more than maybe 10% over current consumption.

FrostCat

@blakeyrat said:

If you're daring, you can do commodities or futures trading-- but if you let the ball drop, you'll end up with a tanker truck outside your office looking for a tank to pump it into. (I read a funny story about that awhile back.)

It turns out that actually buying actual oil, as in getting a 55-gallon drum of the stuff shipped to you--is difficult--there was a story about it a while back as well. Don't know if that's the same one you're thinking of.

blakeyrat

@FrostCat said:

It turns out that actually buying actual oil, as in getting a 55-gallon drum of the stuff shipped to you--

Buying oil's easy. Buying crude is difficult. Unless you're a refinery. But then again, there's pretty much nobody who wants crude except refineries and maybe scientists experimenting.

I wager it's also pretty difficult to obtain it in a quantity smaller than, say, a railroad tanker car.

FrostCat

@blakeyrat said:

Buying oil's easy. Buying crude is difficult.

That's what he was trying to do:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-03/that-time-i-tried-to-buy-some-crude-oil

TL,DR: over 4 months he will earn a profit of 7 cents, assuming he values the time spent trying to set this silly thing up at $0.

Maciejasjmj

@Lorne_Kates said:

How does one buy oil anyways.

Straight to your home.

Alex Papadimoulis / Dec 1, 2009

Special Delivery

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