Gyroscopic Investing

Got an email about this today.  It's operated by the company that runs BullionVault.

https://www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/

I'm not about to pour any money into this, but it is interesting.  They claim investors could have made a 7% annual real return over the last decade.

Any thoughts?

Kind of like an orgy-

I think it looks really neat, but I would never be a participant.

Interesting, but the holding period seems too long and the returns are too low.

What if the brand owner doesn't decide to buy the whiskey you funded?  What's your exit strategy then?

There's no ACH; its bank wire only.  Too much hassle.  In and out fees: 3.5% total commission, $50 total bank wire, 4% total forex conversion.  The $3 a month storage fee makes small investments cost prohibitive also.  It all adds up against those meager annual returns.  Go big, or go home.

They do give you a free litre of pure alcohol and some cash for shits 'n giggles for signing up.

I had to "give back" my free litre of whiskey since I never invested. Still waiting on them to implement ACH but it looks like its not going to happen. I just don't feel like dealing with the hassles of currency conversion and wire transfer ballyhoo becuase they're a bunch of lazy bums.

The good news is there's a disruptive company making sending funds overseas and back cheap and easy without screwing you over on the forex spreads or fees. Better yet, you can fund via ACH/eBillPay so there's no hassles with long wire transfer forms at your bank and/or dealing with currency conversion companies to get a better rate than your bank. I still got excess cash stuck at OANDA from about a decade ago because their fee to withdraw it back is simply outrageous (and they had a real shitty forex rate but it was my first time).

https://transferwise.com/

Once I figure out my investment strategy, it's off to the "front of the queue".

Since this is a real asset priced in a foreign currency, it's a little hard to grok how it works conceptually compared to gold. I assume if the GBP goes down the real value still goes up even if its not reflected in USD terms? And yet if the USD goes up vs the GBP, you're buying it at a discount?

Full stop!!!

Whiskey 2.0 / Disruptive Technology

Traditional whiskey can take 6 to 12 years to passively age in a barrel yet emerging markets are creating shortages that established distilleries simply can’t manage. With disruptive technology, our process uses pressure variations and oxygenation that reduces maturation time to less than 24 hours. We’re also developing new and different flavor profiles with transformative woods like black cherry, apple and hickory that are winning Gold Medals around the world. The industry isn't happy.

https://wefunder.com/clevelandwhiskey

MachineGhost wrote:Since this is a real asset priced in a foreign currency, it's a little hard to grok how it works conceptually compared to gold. I assume if the GBP goes down the real value still goes up even if its not reflected in USD terms? And yet if the USD goes up vs the GBP, you're buying it at a discount?

I figured how that would work. You would have to take physical delivery from Scotland to be able to sell locally in USD to be able to reap the gain. That seems challenging.