During my sabbatical I was reading about Putins use of mercenaries in Ukraine and it occurred to me that shorters and manipulators have a great deal in common with mercenaries, This thought progressed on and I have compiled the following which some might find of interest. Please note that the definitions are taken from various websites and articles after canvassing multiple definitions in each category to see if there was one which largely expressed what might be considered a commonly accepted definition.
- 1. What is a mercenary:
- A mercenary, sometimes known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, who takes part in military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military.[1][2] Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather than for political interests. Beginning in the 20th century, mercenaries have increasingly come to be seen as less entitled to protections by rules of war than non-mercenaries. The Geneva Conventions declare that mercenaries are not recognized as legitimate combatants and do not have to be granted the same legal protections as captured service personnel of the armed forces.[3] In practice, whether or not a person is a mercenary may be a matter of degree, as financial and political interests may overlap
- (My thoughts: When you think about the very early days of the stock market and the tulip bulb bubble being a shorter and manipulator just like being a mercenary was seen as a perfectly legitimate way to make money. There were no rules and no regulators. As time has progressed this has changed and while the regulators and rules are less than satisfactory like the rules that have grown up around mercenaries they have largely removed legal protections and outlawed the practice of market manipulation though it still like being a mercenary is unfortunately considered a legitimate way to make money.)
2. What Is a Trader?
“A trader is an individual who engages in the buying and selling of
financial assets in any
financial market, either for themself or on behalf of another person or institution. The main difference between a trader and an
investor is the duration for which the person holds the asset. Investors tend to have a longer-term
time horizon, while traders tend to hold assets for shorter periods of time to
capitalize on short-term trends.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Traders are individuals who engage in the short-term buying and selling of an equity for themselves or an institution.
- Among the drawbacks of trading are the capital gains taxes applicable to trades and the costs of paying multiple commission rates to brokers.
- Traders can be contrasted with investors, who seek long-term capital gains rather than short-term profits.
- Scalp traders, for example, hold positions for as little as a few seconds. Swing traders, on the other hand, seek positions that are held from several days to several weeks.”
(My thoughts: Traders are a legitimate part of the market and while they do not attempt to manipulate others to achieve their trading ambitions are to be encouraged as they will provide liquidity necessary for a market to function.)
3. What is a Profiteer
“The meaning of PROFITEER is
one who makes what is considered an unreasonable profit especially on the sale of essential goods during times of emergency.
Profiteers make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit, especially illegally or in a black market.”
(My thoughts: I am sure you would have heard the term as it very often associated with those who as the above states are profiting from times of emergency such as war. When people are panicked, and fearful profiteers buy up goods to create a scarcity then using this scarcity sell for inflated prices as they are never happy with a reasonable profit. The name profiteer well suits the trader manipulator in my opinion. Not happy to take the profit that the fundamental market conditions offer they conspire alone or with others to manipulate retail investors with fear and falsities sometimes engaging the assistance of corrupt elements of the financial press.)
4. What are speculators
Speculation sometimes gets confused with gambling. There is an important distinction, though. If a trader is using untested methods to trade, often based on hunches or feelings, it is highly likely they are gambling. If gambling, the trader is likely to lose over the long-run. Profitable speculation takes a lot of work, but with proper strategies, it is possible to gain a reliable edge in the marketplace.
Profitable speculators look for repeating
patterns in the marketplace. They look for commonalities between many rising and falling prices, in an attempt to use that information to profit from future ups and downs in price. It is detailed work, and because prices are always moving and there are nearly infinite variables to consider, each speculator often develops their own unique way of trading.
Speculators are sophisticated investors or traders who purchase assets for short periods of time and employ strategies in order to profit from changes in its price.
Speculators are important to markets because they bring liquidity and assume market risk. Conversely, they can also have a negative impact on markets, when their trading actions result in a speculative bubble that drives up an asset's price to unsustainable levels.
If a speculator believes that a particular asset is going to increase in value, they may choose to purchase as much of the asset as possible. This activity, based on the perceived increase in
demand, drives up the price of the particular asset. If this activity is seen across the market as a positive sign, it may cause other traders to purchase the asset as well, further elevating the price. This can result in a
speculative bubble, where the speculator activity has driven the price of an asset above its true value.
The same can be seen in reverse. If a speculator believes a downward
trend is on the horizon, or that an asset is currently overpriced, they sell as much of the asset as possible while prices are higher. This act begins to lower the price of the asset. If other traders act similarly, the price will continue to fall until the activity in the market stabilizes.
In this way, even many investors become speculators from time to time. They get caught up in the frenzy of the big ups and down. While they may have initiated their position with the intention of being long-term investors, if they start to buy and sell solely because they think other people are buying or selling, they have entered the realm speculation—possibly even gambling, if they are unsure of what they are doing—as opposed to investing.
(My thoughts: Those who practise the art of charting probably fit into this definition. I personally do not subscribe to charting as a science, but I do believe that discipline is necessary to being a successful investor of any description. I accept that charting provides for many a level of discipline by which they can frequently trade without emotion. The problem I have seen with charting is that for every genuine chartist there is a doppelganger manipulator seeking a following that they can use to manipulate the market to their advantage. The bigger the following the bigger the advantage. Having periodically read the charting thread here it does not appear to have that issue.)
5. What is an investor.
- An investor is a person that allocates capital with the expectation of a future financial return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest).[1][2] Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property.[3] Types of investments include equity, debt, securities, real estate, infrastructure, currency, commodity, token, derivatives such as put and call options, futures, forwards, etc. This definition makes no distinction between the investors in the primary and secondary markets. That is, someone who provides a business with capital and someone who buys a stock are both investors. An investor who owns a stock is a shareholder.
- (My thoughts: Many here will have already thought they fit into this category but no as you will see shortly. Those who have followed my rants over some years will know that I have a hobby horse and it is that retail investors are treated as a subspecies not worthy of standing in even the shadow of the institutional or so-called sophisticated investors of this world.
- I have not really taken great issue with any of the above definitions but in this case I found all the definitions of an investor lacking across the many articles and documents I have read.
- None included those who founded and built a business yet Warren Buffet the quintessential investor would be omitted without such being included in the definition. The family that founded Walmart would be excluded. Peter van der Made and Anil Mankar are the original investors in Brainchip. In fact Elon Musk is an investor in Tesla and Space X etc; An investor can provide capital both in the form of cash and in the form of human capital as a result of their investment of their skills, ideas, inventions and business acumen in my opinion.
- I have a theory that the institutional and sophisticated investors leave out this group as they do not want to diminish the value that they give to themselves as it would highlight to all the world that they are no different and add no more value than those they define as retail investors.
- Also those retail shareholders who take up shares in a capital raise and thereby provide capital to the business would clearly need to be recognised in the above definition as “an Investor” elevating them above the group they deride as only being retail investors. Those retail shareholders who buy and convert options are also providing capital to the business and would need to be included.)
6. What is a retail investor?
“Retail investors are non-professional investors, "your average mom-and-pop investor," says Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager and lead portfolio strategist at
Natixis Investment Managers Solution. They typically have a main source of income in addition to their investments.
Retail investors cover a wide range of knowledge and income levels, yet there are several key characteristics of a retail investor. Most importantly, retail investors are investing with their own personal finances and trade in amounts much smaller than professional investors. Any fluctuations in their portfolio affects their wealth directly, as opposed to a
broker or
hedge fund manager, who are making decisions on behalf of their clients.
Because fluctuations in the stock market are directly related to their net worth, retail investors are often subject to loss aversion, where the fear of losing something is greater than the desire to gain something. Tommy Mancuso, the founder and president of
The BAD Investment Company, says that as a result of loss aversion,
"when there are moments of volatility, you might see a little bit of irrational decision from a retail investor whereas an institution's going to have a little more thought-out process."
(My thoughts:
Well, here we are the Retail Investors.
What a useless lot we are if you read and accept the above definition which is typical across all the literature.
Those of you who took up the shares in the Brainchip capital raise to keep Brainchip afloat do not rate as a normal investor even though you provided capital to the business at a critical time in its development.
Those of you who joined Peter van der Made from the company in a reverse take over to create Brainchip do not rate even though you provided capital to kick off the company and have remained calm and rational across a whole range of market conditions over many years now approaching a decade.
Those of you who joined and bought into the company at its inception providing capital do not rate as an investor even though you have done the same.
Those of you who held all the way down to 3 cents and remained calm and rational do not rate as an investor.
We are all lumped together as mum and pop investors ruled by fear and ignorance who largely act irrationally.
I personally do not accept this definition and those with an ounce of common sense having been exposed to the WANCA class of so called sophisticated institutional expert investors most likely also reject this description.
I am a pop though I answer to the name grandpa and pa and could if I so wished join their made up club but being a normal person and not a WANCA I do not need to label myself to gain status amongst this group of spivs, chancers and manipulators to succeed in the markets.
All I need to do is my own research, check every opinion that attracts me to ensure it is supported, and stick to my plan based on my personal circumstances.
Retail investor or not, all that matters, is that my plan works for me and in my opinion that is all that should matter to you as well.
If you need constant reassurance and cannot sleep comfortably at night when global forces which are obvious for all to see take control of the markets then you need to sit down and seriously review your plan.
And now to my overall point.
We are all here to advance each other as shareholders of Brainchip and to the extent of our available time and ability to add to the collective knowledge and wisdom of the 1,000 Eyes.
We are not here to reinforce the so called sophisticated investor/WANCA view of us that "when there are moments of volatility, you might see a little bit of irrational decision from a retail investor whereas an institution's going to have a little more thought-out process."
The fact that this view of us exists encourages every one of the above categories to see us as their personal plaything to manipulate and profit from.
Mindless posts that fit the ‘are we there yet category’ or ‘I am scared will I lose all my money’ do nothing to dissuade the WANCA’s of this view of our group and the deterioration in the quality here has been a product of these WANCA's plying their trade by feeding off genuine posters expressing these types of thoughts.
I AM NOT about shutting down legitimate debate far from it.
I AM about having self respect and showing that retail investors are no less important a group in the market than any other and in fact retail investors are the only reason the share market survives.
We are gaining the respect of the company as a group and it was a hard won victory which was facilitated by @zeebot opening the TSEx forum.
Remember the stability in the Brainchip share register was recognised by the company in this half yearly report and recognised as reducing costs in this area. I credit this to the work of the 1,000 Eyes and how it has brought retail shareholders together and made manipulation very difficult. I personally believe this is not something to be thrown away lightly.)
My anonymous opinion only so DYOR
Fact Finder
AKIDA BALLISTA.
