Daily "Check In" Thread For Us

[dualstow]

Javascript sucks

[Smith1776]

Javascript sucks

For me it's a question of how much time I feel like I'm spending fighting with the technology versus actually creating something.

With other languages such as Ruby or Python I can enter a state of flow. I feel like I can focus on what I'm trying to do creatively while the language just gets out of the way. With JavaScript? I'm almost never in a state of flow. The language and its idiosyncrasies just BEG for attention and handholding. That the whole world seems to run on this language is a joke IMHO lol.

[Smith1776]

Somewhat like 2016 when so many people when polled did not want to admit that they were going to vote for Trump which, of course, threw off all the pre-election polling. Now for some reason people do not want to admit that they like JavaScript?

I often ask myself who I would have voted for ex-ante if I had been an American citizen. Still don't know the answer to that question.

[Smith1776]

I got my web domain for the book project: www.allterraininvesting.com.

Will build out the site soon.

[yankees60]

I got my web domain for the book project: www.allterraininvesting.com.

Will build out the site soon.

Congratulations!

Is that what one should get when going to it?

Capture.JPG (26.29 KiB) Viewed 27928 times

[dualstow]

He hasn’t built the site yet, Vin.

[dualstow]

Javascript sucks

For me it's a question of how much time I feel like I'm spending fighting with the technology versus actually creating something.

With other languages such as Ruby or Python I can enter a state of flow. I feel like I can focus on what I'm trying to do creatively while the language just gets out of the way. With JavaScript? I'm almost never in a state of flow. The language and its idiosyncrasies just BEG for attention and handholding. That the whole world seems to run on this language is a joke IMHO lol.

I hear you. I read a whole book on flow once in college. The author had a crazy Hungarian name, like Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. That’s not quite right, but close. I believe the title was Flow.

[yankees60]

He hasn’t built the site yet, Vin.

Don't many times in that case you get a "this site is under construction"?

[Smith1776]

He hasn’t built the site yet, Vin.

Don't many times in that case you get a "this site is under construction"?

I haven't even connected it to hosting yet, so that's probably why there's literally no response.

After doing some searching I decided to use Google as the domain name registrar this time around. WAY better deal than GoDaddy and others. You get free WhoIs protection!

[dualstow]

After doing some searching I decided to use Google as the domain name registrar this time around. WAY better deal than GoDaddy and others. You get free WhoIs protection!

96 Mowat Ave, Toronto.
Charming parking lot.

[Smith1776]

After doing some searching I decided to use Google as the domain name registrar this time around. WAY better deal than GoDaddy and others. You get free WhoIs protection!

96 Mowat Ave, Toronto.
Charming parking lot.

That's my base of operations!

[yankees60]

He hasn’t built the site yet, Vin.

Don't many times in that case you get a "this site is under construction"?

I haven't even connected it to hosting yet, so that's probably why there's literally no response.

After doing some searching I decided to use Google as the domain name registrar this time around. WAY better deal than GoDaddy and others. You get free WhoIs protection!

What is that? I've had a web site since 2007. But all I'm using it for is to host my own email. Prior I'd also host eBay images for eBay ads but that is no longer necessary. I can put the images now directly into the ads.

[Smith1776]

He hasn’t built the site yet, Vin.

Don't many times in that case you get a "this site is under construction"?

I haven't even connected it to hosting yet, so that's probably why there's literally no response.

After doing some searching I decided to use Google as the domain name registrar this time around. WAY better deal than GoDaddy and others. You get free WhoIs protection!

What is that? I've had a web site since 2007. But all I'm using it for is to host my own email. Prior I'd also host eBay images for eBay ads but that is no longer necessary. I can put the images now directly into the ads.

It's a publicly available directory that shows you who owns a web domain. It's kinda scary when WhoIs protection isn't enabled!

[dualstow]

I’d ask you to google it, but we know how that goes.

[Smith1776]

I’d ask you to google it, but we know how that goes.

lol!

[D1984]

I welcome any other thoughts and constructive criticisms others may have on the book project.

One more quick question:

Is there a particular reason you chose global government bonds vs, say, a US intermediate-term bond ETF? I ask not out of US-centered parochialism but rather because a deep study of investment history shows that if you own bonds for "ballast" or "safety" (to paraphrase Bogle--of at least I think it was him but don't quote me on this--"Stocks are in the portfolio so we can eat well; bonds are in the portfolio so we can sleep well" ) you probably want to own bonds of either:

A. The global hegemon and issuer of the world's major trading currency/reserve currency (that would have been the British pound sterling from the late 1700s to the mid or late 1910s and the US Dollar ever since),

B. Maybe 50/50 split between the above and between three or four of the nations with the "hardest" currencies, history of central banks willing to fight inflation and defend the value of said currency, etc

Owning a bunch of bonds from any country other than the above types was somewhere between "kind of sucky" and "an outright disaster" during the years 1914 to approximately 1949 (WWI and its defaults and hyperinflations in the immediate aftermath, then the Great Depression where dozens of countries defaulted, then WWII where some countries either had their currencies plus their economies destroyed during the war and then afterwards those countries--and more than a few others--all but defaulted again through hyperinflation...and that's not even mentioning what happened if you owned the bonds of any country that fell under Communist rule during the 1914 to 1949 era).

I am admittedly no expert on this but I do know that one Dr. Ed McQuarrie over at Santa Clara University has included some explanation and justification of the above (he goes into a bit more detail than I did) in his recent paper on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=4001986 .

Other than the above, I would just add that owning any government bonds from another country is basically just a currency play which is--unless you are a rather skilled and/or very lucky forex trader--a zero sum game that (barring a hyperinflation in your own country's currency) in the long run shouldn't add or subtract anything from the portfolio vs simply holding all CAD or all USD bonds. I am not sure why the portfolio needs a currency play; if the CAD weakens then it has commodities and gold that should do well in CAD terms and bolster returns; besides that it also has international small value stocks which--given that they actually receive earnings and pay dividends in currencies other than the CAD--will (all other things being equal) rise too when the CAD falls.

Finally, have the CAD and the USD ever both seriously weakened together for years on end? From what I recall they seem to seesaw and take turns rising and falling; in my life the CAD has ranged from being $1 USD = $1.62 CAD to around 1 USD = 0.94 CAD and everywhere in between.

[dualstow]

That’s an excellent question. I was going to add that Smith is gearing this toward the Canadian investor, hence the global aspect. However, I see from the end of your post that you already know that.

In other news, I had ChatGPT write a poem for Vinny:

In a realm where searches abound, Vinny treads with care,
Google's realm he shuns, a path quite rare.
Bing's quiet whispers occasionally call,
A hesitant query, Vinny surrenders, small.
Yet the digital trails, Vinny weaves with grace,
A unique journey through cyberspace's embrace.

It’s quite elegant! Even the meter is pretty good.

[Smith1776]

That’s an excellent question. I was going to add that Smith is gearing this toward the Canadian investor, hence the global aspect. However, I see from the end of your post that you already know that.

In other news, I had ChatGPT write a poem for Vinny:

In a realm where searches abound, Vinny treads with care,
Google's realm he shuns, a path quite rare.
Bing's quiet whispers occasionally call,
A hesitant query, Vinny surrenders, small.
Yet the digital trails, Vinny weaves with grace,
A unique journey through cyberspace's embrace.

It’s quite elegant! Even the meter is pretty good.

Hahaha! Vinny is Internet famous.

[dualstow]

A few days ago I was at a soon to be 77 years old friend's house trying to review an investment product someone had put him into.

He has a brand new Apple laptop or portable (or whatever they are called).
…
I wanted to review the investment document page-by-page. I look down on this keyboard {hoping to} see the ever helpful "Page Up", "Page Down". No such keys on an Apple keyboard?

I (re)discovered something that your friend may find helpful.
The spacebar is good for scrolling down. Perhaps not a full page for each press, but way more than the down arrow.
Playing around, I discovered that SHIFT + Spacebar will page up.

[Smith1776]

A few days ago I was at a soon to be 77 years old friend's house trying to review an investment product someone had put him into.

He has a brand new Apple laptop or portable (or whatever they are called).
…
I wanted to review the investment document page-by-page. I look down on this keyboard and see the ever helpful "Page Up", "Page Down". No such keys on an Apple keyboard?

I (re)discovered something that your friend may find helpful.
The spacebar is good for scrolling down. Perhaps not a full page for each press, but way more than the down arrow.
Playing around, I discovered that SHIFT + Spacebar will page up.

Command + Up and Command + down are also great as Page Up and Page Down replacements respectively!

It took a while for me to discover that Command + L selects the address bar in the browser.

[Smith1776]

I welcome any other thoughts and constructive criticisms others may have on the book project.

One more quick question:

Is there a particular reason you chose global government bonds vs, say, a US intermediate-term bond ETF? I ask not out of US-centered parochialism but rather because a deep study of investment history shows that if you own bonds for "ballast" or "safety" (to paraphrase Bogle--of at least I think it was him but don't quote me on this--"Stocks are in the portfolio so we can eat well; bonds are in the portfolio so we can sleep well" ) you probably want to own bonds of either:

A. The global hegemon and issuer of the world's major trading currency/reserve currency (that would have been the British pound sterling from the late 1700s to the mid or late 1910s and the US Dollar ever since),

B. Maybe 50/50 split between the above and between three or four of the nations with the "hardest" currencies, history of central banks willing to fight inflation and defend the value of said currency, etc

Owning a bunch of bonds from any country other than the above types was somewhere between "kind of sucky" and "an outright disaster" during the years 1914 to approximately 1949 (WWI and its defaults and hyperinflations in the immediate aftermath, then the Great Depression where dozens of countries defaulted, then WWII where some countries either had their currencies plus their economies destroyed during the war and then afterwards those countries--and more than a few others--all but defaulted again through hyperinflation...and that's not even mentioning what happened if you owned the bonds of any country that fell under Communist rule during the 1914 to 1949 era).

I am admittedly no expert on this but I do know that one Dr. Ed McQuarrie over at Santa Clara University has included some explanation and justification of the above (he goes into a bit more detail than I did) in his recent paper on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=4001986 .

Other than the above, I would just add that owning any government bonds from another country is basically just a currency play which is--unless you are a rather skilled and/or very lucky forex trader--a zero sum game that (barring a hyperinflation in your own country's currency) in the long run shouldn't add or subtract anything from the portfolio vs simply holding all CAD or all USD bonds. I am not sure why the portfolio needs a currency play; if the CAD weakens then it has commodities and gold that should do well in CAD terms and bolster returns; besides that it also has international small value stocks which--given that they actually receive earnings and pay dividends in currencies other than the CAD--will (all other things being equal) rise too when the CAD falls.

Finally, have the CAD and the USD ever both seriously weakened together for years on end? From what I recall they seem to seesaw and take turns rising and falling; in my life the CAD has ranged from being $1 USD = $1.62 CAD to around 1 USD = 0.94 CAD and everywhere in between.

Wow, D1984. I really appreciate the time, thoughtful response, and constructive criticisms. I'll do my best to elucidate what I was thinking during the "construction" phase of the ATP.

So I actually agree with you. Here's a more detailed breakdown of what's contained in the bond portion of the ATP.

25% bonds for deflation:

- 12.5% Long-term Government of Canada bonds. No credit risk, and as dualstow mentioned, this portfolio is geared towards Canadians.
- 12.5% Global government bond ladder. These bonds are currency hedged and are geographically weighted similarly to the global market for stocks. Effective duration is just over 7 years. Here's a further breakdown from Blackrock for the geography. Note that US concentration is 42%. In the aggregate, the geographic bond exposure of the ATP has about three-quarters allocated to North America (Canada + US). This seems reasonable to me with respect to the international geopolitical risks you rightly pointed out with foreign bonds.

bonds.png (87.59 KiB) Viewed 27756 times

So instead of pure domestic long-term government bonds, I decided to add this fund for two primary reasons:

1) Having some intermediate-term bonds to complement the long-term bonds seems to give the portfolio a better risk-return profile relative to the pure long approach of the PP, especially when rates are low.

2) Exposure to global government bonds means I'm still eschewing the corporate credit risk, but getting exposure to multiple yield curves around the world. It appears that this can offer the investor a diversification benefit. This Rational Reminder episode with Dave Plecha significantly influenced my thinking on the yield curve diversification aspect: https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/163

Totally agreed about the currency issue you pointed out, so I insisted on the bonds being hedged.

[Smith1776]

I bought and tried CLR for the first time to clean my shower. I remember seeing ads for the stuff since my childhood in the 90s. I figured it was just really boastful advertising, but holy crap that stuff WORKS.

[dualstow]

I bought and tried CLR for the first time to clean my shower. I remember seeing ads for the stuff since my childhood in the 90s. I figured it was just really boastful advertising, but holy crap that stuff WORKS.

Indeed. My wife uses it for the shower and I use it for the clotheswasher’s Tub Clean cycle.

[dualstow]

This Skynet-y thread is cracking me up
https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1 ... 67747?s=20

[Xan]

This Skynet-y thread is cracking me up
https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1 ... 67747?s=20

Well it's not QUITE as intimidating as the T-800, although it does resemble it a fair bit.