Fellow retards,
I noticed that this sub is going to hit 2 million people soon, and I have decided to put aside my project assignments to write this DD (albeit more towards psychologically) on why luck is extremely important in the stock market, and what you can do to potentially get in favor of luck. Before I start, I want to congratulate you on being here. You have came a long way in life, and there’s more to come. Be happy.
TLDR at the last paragraph.
I want to talk mainly 3 things; luck, the psychology behind investing and what you should do to maximize profits.
Luck
In the book 'The Drunkard's Walk', under chapter of 'Illusions of Patterns and Patterns of Illusion', and I quote: "In 1978, Koppett revealed a system that he claimed could determine, by the end of January every year, whether the stock market would go up or down in that calendar year. His system had correctly predicted the market, he said, for the past eleven years. Of course, stock-picking systems are easy to identify in hindsight; the true test is whether they will work in the future. Koppett's system passed that test too: judging the market by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it worked for eleven straight years, from 1979 through 1989, got it wrong in 1990, and was correct again every year until 1998. But although Koppett's predictions were correct for a streak of eighteen out of nineteen years, I feel confident in asserting that his streak involved no skill whatsoever. Why? Because Leonard Koppett was a columnist for Sporting News, and his system was based on the results of the Super Bowl, the championship game of professional football. Whenever the team from the (original) National Football league won, the stock market, he predicted, would rise."
In the book 'Fooled by Randomness', the Prologue mentioned "...luck disguised and perceived as nonluck (that is, skills) and, more generally, randomness disguised and perceived as non-randomness (that is, determinism). "
In the book ‘The Black Swan’ by Taleb Nassim Nicholas, Page 119 mentioned " A successful person will try to convince you that his achievements could not possibly be accidental, just as a gambler who wins at roulette seven times in a row will explain to you that the odds against such a streak are one in several million, so you either have to believe some transcendental intervention is in play or accept his skills and insight in picking the winning numbers." More often than not, luck is rarely on your side. I can provide many other articles, but I believe you get the point. To emphasize it, "the habit of mistaking luck for skill is most prevalent - and most conspicuous - and that is the world of markets."
So why am I saying all these? What I am trying to imply is, do appreciate your GME gains, or whatever astronomical gains that you have. These gains, more often than not, are results of extremely lucky happenstances, where most people are incapable of harnessing them. Yes, there are tons of good DDs. But you yourselves are incredibly lucky to be part of WSB, and personally reading the DDs yourselves, and lucky enough to decide that you would be retarded enough to take the risk. You should be happy and grateful about it, because like I said, this is hugely, and heavily dependent on luck. Humans are flawed, because we have the tendency to look for specific causes that lead to effects. We often find it hard to accept that an event can be the result of total randomness, but sometimes it is. In financial forecasting, several times random volatility is mistaken for accurate prediction. In a group of many analysts, it is normal to expect that someone's predictions will turn out to be true (u/DeepFuckingValue). So, in case you get way too ahead of yourselves thinking you are absolutely a genius for having triple percentage gains in your portfolio, remember you're most likely just lucky. And since you're lucky, be appreciative and do not be complacent.
Psychology behind Investing
Several studies have fooled people into believing they are in control of something they actually have no control over. In fact, human decision-making shows systematic simplifications and deviations from the tenets of rationality (‘heuristics’) that may lead to suboptimal decisional outcomes (‘cognitive biases’). There are currently three prevailing theoretical perspectives on the origin of heuristics and cognitive biases: a cognitive-psychological, an ecological and an evolutionary perspective. To simplify that, it basically means that cognitive biases arise from intrinsic brain mechanisms that are fundamental for the working of our neural networks. Your mind is always on the cautious side of things, because it is trying to protect you.
Remember a time when you were very near the edge of a building/cliff, and all of a sudden you feel hypersensitive to the surrounding around you? You are aware of every rocks and stones that might sabotage you. Another example can be that you shiver when peeing, because your body is exaggerating the signal that you are rapidly losing body heat, and is trying to shiver up the muscle fiber to keep you warm, etc. You get the idea.
This unfortunately, applies in investing as well. Your mind will inevitably forces you to be on the safer side. A dip? Oh no... you panic. But relax, that is normal. In my last point, I will explain what you can do to overcome it.
What you can do to stay calm?
So now you know that it is in human nature to be a paper handed bitch. The first step is realizing that your own neural networks are playing a huge part in giving you a paper hand. When you realized that it is your own mind that is keeping you on the safer side, perhaps you can be more self-aware. Being impatient in the market is the worst mistake that you would commit while investing in the stocks. You have to know that if you do not have good patience in the market then you would find difficulty in getting the right stocks for your investment. You have to finally take your own decisions when you wish to select the stocks. Remember however, you do have to be lucky to hit the jackpot on certain investments as per my first point.
Confirmation bias is also a bitch. As philosopher Francis Bacon put it in 1620, "the human understanding, once it has adopted an opinion, collects any instances that confirm it, and though the contrary instances may be more numerous and more weighty, it either does not notice them or else rejects them, in order that this opinion will remain unshaken." This happens very often in WSB, and I want you to be cautious as well. To show you how easy confirmation bias is, imagine I have 5 numbers here. After presenting you these numbers, I want you to guess what is the rule of the game. Here are the 5 numbers: 4 6 8 10 12. What will your next 3 numbers be? What is the rule of the game? The rule is: Increasing Numbers, the next 3 numbers can be 13 14 15 Most of you might have guessed "increasing even numbers and provided with 14 16 18, when in fact it is not.
Luck does not solely come from deciding whether to listen to another retard's DD on a thread, and YOLO-ing your life savings onto some stocks. It also comes in the form of your birth status, etc. Having a $100,000 head start in the stock market, is almost always better than someone having $1000 as a starting capital (or worse still, negative capital simply because your parents are poor, that's unlucky).
That being said, I believe all of us here are in some way privileged to be gathered here and discussing individually. The poor kids in some countries have to fight for clean water and food. So the next time you realized that you are earning money in the stock market, remember, it is incredibly hard to do it, and you should be proud of yourselves. And in the scenario where you lose your money, well, you shouldn't be surprised either way. You are bound to be losing.
Here are some books you can refer to if you're interested: The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow (How Randomness Rules Our Lives), Fooled by Randomness by Taleb N, The Black Swan by Taleb N, Who’s in Charge? by Michael S. Gazzaniga (on Free will and the science of the brain), Success and Luck by Robert H. Frank, The Most Good You Can Do (How effective altruism is changing ideas about living ethically) by Peter Singer.
Clarification: Some people mentioned if this post was directed to "diminish the contributions of skill and the hard effort of anyone". Absolutely not. ~~This post is assuming that in the top few % (if you're reading this, yourself included), everyone is just as talented.~~ But to be part of that 1% in that 1%, to be the richest among the richest, you have to be incredibly lucky.
TLDR: If you make huge gains, go and give some of it to other people that may not have been so lucky. Go and give it to the homeless people at the unemployment line, who ain't so lucky as you. Maybe buy him food. Get him clothes. Donate to your local charities. Most importantly, give it back to your parents, because your parents are the one who, most likely, set you up in this direction, and you are lucky enough to be here today. If you did not make any gains, remember, it is perfectly okay.
Shorter TLDR: Be happy, be grateful.
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

I wrote a long reply on why gambling, and loot boxes in particular, are bad...

So, inside some other post, I was asked why gambling is bad... My reply ended up being really detailed, so I'll promote it to a post of its own (just copy-pasting it here; no new words)... [Note: list of 3 points about loot boxes at the end...]
(I work at a company that sells gambling services... I see how the sausage is made...)
By the way, I love PoE and GGG. Still, loot boxes are bad.
I personally get to see the statistics side of oddsmaking. It's always about suckering you out of your money, because by definition all you are doing is paying more money as the price of getting less money (on average), but you also need to feel like you have a chance at getting the upper hand, even though in the long run you don't.
For example, sometimes, if you're really "good" at betting, you just end up working for the oddsmaker on a bad deal. It's really hard for them sometimes to get the odds perfectly right (although the profit margin still takes care of 99.9% of punters). So, if you're a professional gambler making a regular profit, what's basically happening is that you are investing an enormous amount of time and expertise to try and make tiny profits at the margins, and the bookmaker monitors your activity and learns about the market from you, at what ends up being a lower cost than if they hired experts to give them the same info on a salary. Plus you constantly run high risks! Which is why my company is full of ex-gamblers who were able to make a profit for a while, and intelligent enough to realise that they were still getting a bad deal, and come to the company and offer their services directly. (For another way gambling companies guarantee their own profits by passing on the risk to gamblers, research "balancing the books": yes, a professional gambler could make some profits this way, but if you're possibly making profits by taking on a risk that a large gambling corporation wants to get rid of, do you really think you're getting a good deal, especially considering how much time and expertise you sink into the activity? EDIT: more info)
The only way I know of to make a consistent and considerable profit off gambling is when a pro gambler is allowed to make a profit off other gamblers, in a move that a company makes to increase total amounts played. So, for one person to profit, many others are being seriously scammed, and the company is safely skimming its percentages off the top.
There are many different ways a gambling company presents bad deals to you, hoping that your intuition misfires about one of them and you decide to throw away your money. Examples... There are single bets, of course. But then there are also combinations, and these screw with your intuition--you can convince yourself based on a narrative (e.g. team 1 wins first half, team 2 comes back in second half), where in fact the actual hard cold odds are against you. There is "cash out" where you take a fraction of a likely-seeming win early (but at a loss), which of course simply taxes you for your risk aversion. There are "systems", creating more and more complex bets, until you convince yourself you've set up the perfect deal, and yet the company's profit margin keeps growing the more complex you make it.
Anyway, those are the parts I work on as a software guy. (By the way, this isn't the worst thing in the world, it's not as bad, as, say, the military industry or the military itself, or say religions or banks, because at some level gambling is voluntary. And making gambling illegal is a terrible idea-we should fight it through education, not prohibition. Still, I only work there because I'm currently a completely non-creative software grunt (and currently satisfied with that). If I get to the point of pursuing higher-level jobs, I'll look elsewhere.)
But the most nefarious part of all is the psychological work they pull on you. That's not my area of expertise, so if you want it explained you need to look elsewhere (recommended book: Thinking Fast and Slow--it's not about gambling, it's about psychology). They are constantly doing things to 1) give you false hope and 2) artificially trigger some pleasure response in you.
E.g. most people are naturally risk averse and loss averse, e.g. losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure. In reality, a gamble is about paying, say, $10 to win an average of, say, $9, so that's a terrible and painful deal. In addition to all the advertising and bright colours and encouraging sounds and making you read success stories and all the other psychological manipulations, they can also straight up befuddle you with numbers. So, losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure, but what if you pay $10 but you're not really at a risk of losing that much, because on average you win $9 back, so you're only really risking a single $, and yet if you get lucky you won't win a mere $10 but millions? Suddenly that sounds good, right? Risk $1 to win $10000000? Of course not: you're still risking $10 and taking $1 losses on average each time you play, and the high rewards are vanishingly rare and built into that average.
That's it about gambling for money. On loot boxes I'm no expert, but, beyond the basic problems (encouraging addiction, exploiting minors who beg money from parents and don't understand how they're throwing it away, generating gambling "pleasure" while giving you "bits" instead of any real value, etc), I can point out a couple of extra scummy aspects:

They can say "the box costs 30 points but all the possible rewards are worth at least 50, the average reward is worth 70 and the best is worth 400"... really??? Those prices are completely arbitrary... Who says the footprints are "worth" 50 or some random hideout decoration is "worth" 200? Talking about average microtransaction point values in a loot box is completely misleading.
Either you (a) lose on the statistics of getting complete sets or you lose on (b) being psychologically manipulated into buying extra stuff you didn't actually want so much (or (c) you just lose by getting useless stuff). Let's say you decide to pick up a couple of boxes and see what you get before buying more stuff. You might just get useless stuff, of course (case c). But what if you get the body armour or wings? Now you might say "I'll get more boxes to complete the set". But the chances of getting any one part of a set are not anywhere near as bad as your chances of completing a set (like map lab trials, but much worse because loot boxes contain many more items), so you are getting totally fleeced (case a). Alternatively you could go "oh look, I got x in the box, I'll buy matching items y and z from the shop later" so you think you got x cheap and y and z at normal prices. But you are being manipulated into buying y and z. Would you really have bought x and y and z from the shop if there had been no loot box? Only rarely. The rest of the time you are overspending (case b).
Loot box gifts are another scummy behaviour, considering people don't have good intuitions about statistics. Most of us get bad results from the gifted boxes, but some will get lucky. Those of us who are already gambling on loot boxes won't be affected by the outcome of a few extra boxes. Those who wouldn't ever buy them normally, and get bad results, who cares. But those who wouldn't normally buy them but get lucky a few times in a row might decide it's a good deal after all. So, it's manipulating us psychologically in a way that is statistically designed to fail at no cost most times and succeed sometimes, which makes money. (While also giving everybody holiday presents or race prizes, making the company appear generous.)

Sports Betting Tax Advice from my CPA

78.46% - What it tells us about GME

The January 15th official short interest report stated 61,780,000 shares had been sold short. On the 15th, the share price was about $35. This is a crucial piece of information to consider. Short Interest is reported twice monthly, so the last report before January 15th was from December 31st, and the next was issued today February 9th, revealing a (still) staggering 78.46% short interest. Keep in mind, this report only shows short interest up to January 29th.
Lets go back to the January 15th report which told us that 61.78 million shares had been shorted at prices less than $35. In other words, every single short of those 61.78 million was betting the price would be less than $35, and it's more likely that most were shorted around the $15 - $20 mark. We do not know the exact numbers. But what we do know is some of these shorts closed out of their positions before, that is evident by the SI report we received today. We can also draw another inference from this data: MOST short positions from the January 15th report have NOT covered yet. Today's report confirmed this speculation.
The hedge funds and other players were able to drive the price down from $483 to $65 in less than a week. Regardless of the illegal actions they took to make this happen. They knew they would be able to do this. It didn't even take that long. So why in the world would they have covered even a single share above $100?? It is my belief that only the shorts who lacked liquidity and spare capital to pay interest were margin called, or chose to bow out early. Today's report all but confirms this theory. If you need more evidence, look at the overall market bleed that took place on the days right before the cut-off date for this report.
What does that mean for the big players? The ones who actually have capital to sustain high interest rates and play the long game to mitigate losses? They are waiting to bring the price down to an acceptable level, buying far OTM calls, and letting the hype die down a bit before they even begin to cover.
The current drop in price has been working in the favor of hedges in three different ways. First, calls far OTM are very cheap, and hedge funds are able to scoop up millions of dollars worth of options that they will later be able to sell or execute for profit. During the first peak, the furthest OTM call available were too expensive and to NTM for hedges to offset their losses. If my theory is correct, hedges stand to gain substantially on their far OTM calls expiring Feb. 19th. Second, the extreme price drop means there are tons of shares available for hedges to short now. During the last rise, there were nowhere near enough shares for hedges to short as the price dipped. Finally, it is obvious that shorts are better off covering at $50 rather than $480. They have effectively weeded out a large number of paper hands and profiteers. But that is neither here nor there, as we still control a substantial portion of the float, keeping sustained pressure on the shorts.
Furthering my hypothesis, I do not believe Citadel gave 2.75b to Melvin to flush down the toilet. They are expecting Melvin to mitigate as much of their losses as possible. How might they do this?
First, check the amount of money placed on 800c for 2/19. Obviously a portion of this money can be accounted for by retail traders caught up in the media bubble two weeks ago hoping to cash-in on the squeeze. Alternatively, I believe a large magnitude of the calls may have been strategically planted by hedges who had very low short positions, i.e. ~$35, and did not plan on covering during the first massive peak.
Why not? Because now they have the opportunity, (FLUSH with 2.75B in cash for Melvin), to do some serious damage control. Would a professional gambler pay off his debt with a loan, or would he use it to cut his losses before repaying his loan?
Now we know atleast 78% of the shorts ~$35 DID NOT account for the massive price increase. If give/take 40% of the shorts who did actually exit their positions before 1/29 attributed to the $483 price spike, IMAGINE what 78% can obtain. ALSO, while it is certainly possible that a decent chunk of this 78% have slowly been exiting their positions since 1/29, we also know that a large number of greedy bastards have been taking their place at higher price points >100, > 200, >300. While these positions are extremely profitable at this time (i.e. some hedges mitigating losses, while some reap ginormous gains after watching on the sidelines until the 29th), the low entry ~$35 shorts will eventually have to cover their losses. This will trigger a domino effect by inevitably applying upwards pressure on the new, high entry shorts, who will see the tidal wave coming and immediately take their profits (or maximum mitigated losses) and get the fuck out of dodge while they still can.
TLDR: The most logical way to cut losses (while simultaneously accruing massive interest on current positions) would be by attempting to short the stock the whole way down from the top of the media bubble then finally closing out the terrible ~$35 short positions after driving the price down as far as possible, knowing that the price will skyrocket back up after they cover now they can cash in another fat chunk of change on the 800c 2/19 then short the whole thing back down again. At the end of the day, I have no clue how much they would net in losses, because that is contingent on the accrual of interest and which is directly associated with the price price point they actually have shorts located at (only they know this). In any case, this chain of events is the most logical way for a billion dollar entity to mitigate losses on a failed bet. Again, I want to reiterate, WHY would a hedgefund loan $2.75B to another hedgefund if they had not run countless simulations in order to determine the best possible outcomes?
Disclaimer: This is my personal hypothesis based on the facts provided to us. This should not be construed as financial advice. I'm just a law student who likes money, video games, and stonks.

Top 5 Tips Every Noobie Trader MUST Know.

Been awhile since I made a post educating you retards, throwing pearls before swine. I've been disheartened by some of the comments I've read recently and just wanted to provide some tips for the genuine noobies/retards among us. If you already know this shit, congrats, move along sir.
Take a look at my previous, more advanced guide to some theta gang theory for those looking for something a bit more in depth: https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/iz68r4/how_to_consistently_outperform_the_sp500_using/
Without further ado... TOP 5 TIPS Every Noobie Trader MUST Know.

1) You MUST understand Implied Volatility.

I made this the first point because it is the gigantic mistake I see noobies here making again and again. I'm talking to you, people who bought calls on PLTR at $30. If you learn anything from this post, you MUST learn this.
You see a stock make a massive move either up or down. Your immediate response is "this is a great opportunity to buy calls/puts on a volatile stock!" Right? WRONG!
In fact, when a stock has just made a massive move in either direction, that is perhaps the WORST time to purchase options in EITHER direction. Options are not stupid. Options are designed to price in the fact that a stock is moving wildly. This is called "implied volatility." They become more expensive as a stock makes more dramatic moves, to price in the volatility you and everyone else is expecting.
It's quite possible and even likely that you buy an option on a high IV stock, and the stock moves in your direction, and yet you LOSE money, because it didn't move as dramatically as was expected by the implied volatility. This is called "IV crush." It only takes one or two experiences with IV crush for most traders to learn this lesson for life. If you understand this concept before you lose a ton of money, all the better.
So, what should you do if a stock is highly volatile and options are expensive due to IV?
There are two choices: Trade actual shares, or SELL the options rather than buy them.
If you are bullish on a high IV stock, you can take a bullish position by SELLING a cash-secured put rather than buying the call. If you are bearish on a high IV stock, you can take a bearish position by SELLING a call rather than buying a put (although this entails greater risk and will typically require higher options trading level by your broker).

2) You MUST have patience.

It's a tale as old as time. A noobie investor does some research, reads some DD, and is convinced a stock is going to rise over the next couple years. So he buys in. A bad day or two hits and the stock tanks. He panics, and sells. The next couple days the stock rises and appears to stabilize. So he buys back in again, because he still believes in his thesis. The stock drops again, and he panic sells again.
In reality the stock is just trading sideways, but this idiot keeps buying on green days and selling on red days. This is perhaps the most idiotic, suicidal strategy anyone could ever employ. Buying on green and selling on red is a surefire strategy to lose money consistently over time.
This is why you MUST remove your emotions from your trades, because your emotions will usually tell you to buy on green and sell on red, literally buy high and sell low. As the boomer Warren Buffett once stated: "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
Here is a better approach. Set up your entire trade BEFORE you make the trade. Have a set price you will sell at if things go south. Have a target price you will sell at if things go well. Once the dust settles you can learn from any mistakes. Were you too aggressive, or too conservative in your targets? What emotions directed you to make those mistakes? Too much greed, too much risk aversion, too LITTLE risk aversion? Make every trade a learning opportunity.

3) You MUST understand "Reversion to the Mean."

In general, stocks will tend to revert to their trendlines.
This thesis is fairly simple. If a stock moons 10% in a day, the most likely event is a drop the next day. If a stock tanks 10% in a day, the most likely event is a rise the next day. This is because humans are emotional creatures. First, they overreact to big news. Next, one of two things happen: When the stock is way up, people see it as a profit taking opportunity, so they sell. When the stock is way down, people see it as a buying opportunity, so they buy.
I don't have any hard data to back up this thesis, but I'm sure there's a bunch of nerds out there with hard data that proves exactly this, as well as trading algorithms specifically designed for a "reversion to the mean" strategy that are consistently profitable.
Obviously there will be exceptions, as well as times when a big move signals a shift in the trendline. All I am saying is in the MAJORITY of cases, reversion to the mean will occur. Don't go chasing stocks that have made massive short-term swings in a single direction unless you have strong reasons (not just hopes) to believe the trend has changed.

4) You MUST not YOLO your account more than once (or twice).

This is going to be controversial for some of you. But it's just straight math. If you keep betting your entire account, or close to it, on single trades, it's only a matter of time before you go broke. That is a mathematical guarantee.
Let's say you are one of the most skilled, intelligent, informed investors on the planet (doubtful). So skilled your plays are 90% correct. If you bet your entire portfolio on each trade, you are still expected to go completely broke after around 10 trades.
Let's say you aren't a brilliant stonk gambler. Let's say you are just average and your trades are a coin flip (which is generous for a lot of you retards). If you bet your entire bankroll on each bet, on average you will go completely broke in just 2 trades.
Again, there is a lot of complicated math we can go through to predict account explosion times and optimal bet sizing and so on, but that isn't necessary here. Professional gamblers such as poker players have refined bankroll management theory, which usually means at the least they aren't putting more than 10% of their cash on the table in one sitting, usually closer to 5%. (Take a look at the "Kelley criterion" for an interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion)
I know a lot of you are broke with no life prospects and hoping to get rich quick. I don't fault you for that, I get it. The problem arises when you see the people who got insanely lucky with guessing 10 coin flips in a row who turned $1000 into $1,000,000, and hope to do the same... but for every one retard with a record like that you've got hundreds more who lose it all and have nothing to show for it.
I won't fault anyone for making a gigantic, life-changing bet a single time. That is your choice to make, and it just might pay off. But if you think you are going to do that again and again and survive, you are delusional.

5) You MUST be Skeptical... of EVERYTHING.

Fools and their money are soon parted. Don't be a fool.
Your first instincts when hearing ANYTHING should be skepticism. Your friend has a hot stock tip? Start with skepticism. Some online DD on a meme or penny stock online sounds convincing? Start with skepticism. A highly respected financial or government agency gives future guidance on whatever... again, start with skepticism.
There are a million people out there trying to take advantage of you, to pump and dump you, to scam you, to trick you into spending more money on whatever.
There are times when being a conformist pays off, like when markets rally for months straight. There are times when being a contrarian pays off, like when markets tank and sectors collapse. Don't be a consistent conformist nor a consistent contrarian. Be skeptical of every thesis and every hypothesis you hear, or even the ones you invent yourself.
When you take this approach honestly and still become convinced of a thesis, you have a higher probability than most of being correct.
Seek out opinions that contradict your biases, not opinions that confirm your biases. This is incredibly difficult and goes against human nature, but if you can achieve this ideal, you will out-trade 90% of the public.
Edit: Holy fuck this thing has 255 awards... I don't even know what to do with this gay reddit coin shit but I have 2.9k now so thanks?

Feb/4/2021: (1) Armenia will grow weed (2) Colonel charged w/bribery & tampering w/draft during war (3) Education reform: grading, curriculum, preschool (4) Bill: treason, disability ranking, media (5) Diplomacy (6) Rumors & rebuttals (7) Cancer stats & free treatment (8) $750M bond (9) in-out stats

Your 14-minute Thursday report in 3497 words. Part 1.

anti-corruption: Defense Ministry official busted with bribery & tampering with draft during war

NSS report says: a Colonel, who had oversight over subdivisions, received a ֏975K bribe from a conscript to transfer him to another location on Sep-13-2020. Part of the bribe was transferred to his online gambling account.
When the war began, a draft was declared and recruits began training at a location in Armenia. The Colonel took a ֏1.2M bribe from a soldier in exchange for not sending him to the front lines.
During the winter draft, the Colonel took a ֏5.2M bribe from another conscript and used his connections to send him to the desired service location. A similar ֏1M bribe was requested on January 6th from another recruit.
The Colonel took another ֏1.4M bribe to help promote a conscript and allow him to work at a hospital instead of regular service.
On October 22nd, during the war, the Colonel decided to help a friend move from bordering Khndzoresk (Syunik) hospital back to Yerevan. As a result, the clinic became understaffed and couldn't fulfill its duties. Moreover, the Colonel then helped the same friend not to be deployed on Syunik borders as a soldier and instead to handle tasks in the rear, on October 26th, in exchange for a ֏300K bribe.
On October 13th, during the war, the Colonel and his accomplices wanted to help a soldier to leave Artsakh. When they learned that the latter was already on the "deserted" list, they took steps to remove him from the list.
Then, he learned that his friends' sons received a draft notice, and use his connections to remove them from the draft list.
After the war, on Dec-13, a friend asked the Colonel to make sure that his son, who was serving in Lusakert, wasn't sent to the front lines. The Colonel contacted the Lusakert facility but learned that the soldier was not among those who were supposed to be sent to the front lines. Nonetheless, the Colonel decided to defraud his friend by claiming that "he took care of it", and received a ֏200K bribe.
The colonel and over a dozen others were arrested. Illegal weapons were found under their possession. The investigation continues to expose other possible suspects.
https://youtu.be/ifo13WJLpsU
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042334.html

bill: harsher punishment for treason, spying, espionage

BHK MPs drafted a bill to increase punishment for traitors, spies, passing of state secrets. They want to raise the maximum punishment from 15 years to 20-life. The authors explained the move by citing many media reports about alleged "treason" incidents.
The bill was discussed at a relevant Parliamentary committee. The chairman QP MP Vladimir said he supports life imprisonment as the minimum punishment. However, during the discussion, they agreed to settle on 15-20 years plus property confiscation, or a life sentence.
The committee found the espionage punishment too harsh and asked the bill author to reduce it from 15 to 12 years. The BHK author agreed.
The bill was approved unanimously and will be debated/voted on the Parliament floor later.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042354.html

Jalal is back with another position

The wounded ex-Artsakh army commander Jalal Harutyunyan will serve as the Republic of Armenia's Defense Ministry's Head of the Military Control Service. He will replace General Movses Mosi Hakobyan who quit on November 18th.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042353.html

Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring group begins operations

Russian troops are using ORLAN-10 and FORPOST drones to monitor Am-AZ troop locations and movements.
https://youtu.be/ToSLqUDj6OE
https://factor.am/335089.html

ECHR received Armenia's complaint against Azerbaijan regarding 228 POWs / Azeris counter-claim for 13 POWs

Armenian families submitted a petition to ECHR to require Azerbaijan to provide information regarding 228 individuals. Azeris want to know data about 13 people.
(From the language it is unclear to me whether the petition is for confirmed POWs, or it also includes families of missing soldiers who want to know whether their relatives are POWs. Likely the former.)
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042406.html

Red Cross visited 4 Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

They were able to establish contact with families.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042428.html

Russia expects UNESCO to soon visit Armenian monuments that went under Azeri control

https://factor.am/335437.html

Russia removed tomato import ban on 13 Armenian firms

Russian regulator will allow 13 Armenian sellers to export tomato and pepper to Russia again after earlier finding a food virus in them. A similar ban was implemented against Azeri tomatoes.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042433.html

US Congressman demands an explanation from the US ambassador to Azerbaijan over "congratulatory" statement

Rep. Bred Sherman wants to know why the US ambassador to Azerbaijan Lee Litzenberger congratulated Azerbaijan's Economy Minister with "de-occupying territories and US's willingness to aid Azerbaijan with rebuilding those territories". He reminded the US officials that the US is a member of the Minsk Group and should take steps to ensure Artsakh's safety and prevention of a new war.
Bred Sherman praised Biden's appointee Anthony Blinken for stating that the US will review its military assistance to Azerbaijan after the latest war in Artsakh.
Artsakh MFA yesterday released a statement urging countries, officials, and organizations to refrain from such "congratulatory" statements.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042370.html

de-occupy Hadrut NGO

... aims to help 13,500 Hadrut residents who lost their homes during the war. It was founded during the war by activists who held protests in front of various embassies. In the early days, they received aid from President Sarkissian's office. The latter gave shelter to 25 families.
Today the NGO aims to help refugees with employment, while simultaneously lobbying for Minsk Group to de-occupy Hadrut so residents can return. "I hope that one day our NGO will shut down because Hadrut is no longer occupied," said co-founder Meri Davtyan.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042286.html

govt session: financial aid for Syunik border villagers

The government approved a new aid package for residents of Syunik's Shurnukh and Vorotan villagers. Those who lost their homes will qualify for the same aid package as Artsakh refugees: one-time ֏300K payment plus monthly ֏65K payments for 6 months. There is another pending aid package to build new houses for them.
Context: Two dozen houses in Vorotan and Shurnukh went under Azeri control because they were built on the Azeri side of the internationally-recognized borders.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042362.html

bill: disability ranking to be replaced with degrees of functionality impairment

The government approved a bill, yet to be approved by Parliament, to reform the disability system. The disability assessment process will analyze the person's level of functional impairment while taking into account surrounding conditions.
"Today, the system is run under a 1993 law that does not do a comprehensive assessment of the surrounding environment, person's ability to function in public life," says the govt.
The draft bill will repeal the 1-3 Categories and Disabled Child category. A person's functionality impairment degrees will be light, medium, heavy, or deep. Disability will no longer be considered a permanent health problem. The assessment will be based not only on the factor of health problems but also on the environmental factors of the person's activity and participation in public life.
Healthcare and Social Ministries, NGOs, the UN, and the EU worked together to create and test an assessment methodology.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042365.html
Tags: #DisabilityLaw #disabled

bill: require unknown Telegram/Facebook media channel owners identified before "linking" by mass media

QP MPs want to require social media channel operators identified before a "mainstream media" can link to them. It doesn't restrict citing "anonymous sources", however. It also requires outlets to disclose sources of revenues for transparency. Read yesterday's news for context and arguments in favor or against it.. The debate continued today.
QP MP Arthur: For example, a legitimate news organization with an editorial staff of 30 people generates information, holds interviews, etc., while a Telegram channel that we do not know where it is managed from and by whom, begins to disseminate sensationalized information and over time becomes more "legitimate" than real media outlets because media outlets "advertised" them.
This is also a national security risk because it is very possible that such sources are being operated by an adversary country to spread instability and an atmosphere of fear in the country. //
The co-author criticized the critics who "claimed that the bill intends to ban anonymous sources. That's not true. This also won't affect the protection of journalists' source secrecy."
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042357.html
If you're interested in more debates:
https://youtu.be/MTHwRa4YjgY , https://youtu.be/ThDNVwZYEp8 , https://youtu.be/S6C_NocS9N0 , https://youtu.be/3_-i2Z23ubI , https://youtu.be/wiPnmfeLNJ8
Tags: #MediaLaw #TelegramLaw #FreeSpeech

rumors and rebuttals: Artsakh army isn't being dissolved

Serj's won-in-law Mishik earlier circulated rumors that were denied by state officials. Today, Kocharyan-ally Vitali Balasanyan, who serves as Artsakh's Security Council chief, confirmed that the army isn't "disintegrating." After the restructuring process, there will be subdivisions with professional contractors, he said.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042344.html

rumors and rebuttals: Azeri flag won't fly over Artsakh govt buildings

Vitalik Balasanyan also denied rumors about Azeri flags being installed on Artsakh govt buildings in Stepanakert.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042344.html

rumors and rebuttals: Azeri families won't resettle in Stenapakert / none are shopping in market

Vitalik Balasanyan said there are false rumors about two districts in Stepanakert being populated by Azeris, and Azeris allegedly freely shopping in Stepanakert market.
"Dear citizens of Artsakh, on behalf of the authorities of the Artsakh Republic, I assure you that despite the irreparable losses inflicted on us as a result of the war, the state is always committed to fulfilling its responsibilities to ensure the security and normal life of the population. Accordingly, I urge you not to pay attention to the false news. Everything is being done to create and expand the necessary conditions for a dignified life of the people of Artsakh."
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042344.html

rumors and rebuttals: Artsakh envoy won't stop operating in Russia

The Permanent Representation of the Artsakh Republic in Russia will not be terminated, said the Artsakh govt in response to rumors.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042367.html

rumors and rebuttals: no single currency in EAEU trade bloc

EAEU would like to inform you that you've been misled about alleged plans to establish a single currency among member-states.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042427.html

location "Hollywood, Yerevan, Armenia"

There is a district called Hollywood in Yerevan, Armenia. Gamblers were caught running an underground casino in there. This is the second such bust in the past few months. The police say ֏5.5B in damages was done to the state.
https://youtu.be/sp0Sb--e_ms?t=60
https://factor.am/335320.html

anti-corruption: prosecutors charge education officials with ֏1.2B auction shenanigans

Prosecutors said: State Oversight Committee (SOC) audited the "National Center for Educational Technology" government-affiliated agency's finances between 2013-2020. Every year, the agency submitted a report on the work done by them towards servicing the education system. The bill was ֏700M annually.
It was revealed that between 2012-2015, they granted an auction-based contract to the same company. It received a combined ֏2.8B in funding. The law requires the auction-holding officials to examine the market and take other steps before the auction. They failed to do so.
Later, during 2017-2019, the same company was selected to do the job, but this time it was only paid ֏300-400M annually, far lower than during the previous years.
֏1.2B in damages was done to the state. A felony case is launched.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042389.html

re: Armenia's $750M eurobond sale / lowest % in history / $3B demand by investors / economy news

Read yesterday's news for context.
Pashinyan: The issuance of $750M eurobonds is a strong positive signal for the start of the economic year. The issuance was done under the most favorable conditions in the history of our republic, with the lowest 3.8% percentage rate. Our previous record was in 2019 at 4.2%. The demand was for $3B but we decided to issue only $0.750B.
First, it provides a guarantee of macroeconomic stability. Second, this is the first serious signal of overcoming the post-war economic shock, which shows that international investors have confidence in the economic future of Armenia and the policy pursued by the government. //
Economy Minister Janjughazyan: this was part of our long-term plan and we had planned to do it while drafting the 2021 budget. We planned to issue fewer bonds but decided to add $250M because of favorable terms. We plan to use that extra cash towards the stabilization deposit, as a safety pad, to be used throughout the year if necessary.
As long as our budget has a deficit we will have to borrow. But this is only part of the story; the country's overall debt burden is calculated based on various indicators. So far Armenia has been rated as a country with a lower debt burden.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042351.html, https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042352.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042363.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042393.html

how many people did leave and arrive after reopening air traffic with Russia?

The governments of Armenia and Russian worked on an "app" to allow mutual travel after taking a test. By February 15th, there will be 4-route flights in 2 directions. There were several flights in the past few days.
3900 left and 3400 arrived. 1423 Armenian citizens left and 1263 Armenian citizens arrived. "More people were willing to leave in December than today," noted Diaspora Committee chief Sinanyan.
"Some people flew to Russia but had to return due to a problem. This wasn't due to the COVID app implemented by us. Preliminary data shows that they went to Russia with a paper QP code which raised the suspicion of Russian authorities. We will work with them to resolve this," said Deputy PM Mher. (say what??)
"We need to better inform the public about the existence of this app. Restoring routine flights will help the tourism industry," said PM Pashinyan.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042358.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042383.html

Pashinyan about the suspended Amulsar gold mining project

He repeated his earlier position that "Decisions must be made that take into account Armenia's best interests."
"The mining industry plays a very important role in the development of Armenia's economy, including in the security context."
"We must make decisions to make investment programs acceptable for the Armenian public while taking into account interests of Republic of Armenia."
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042368.html

COVID stats

1829 tested. 147 infected. 352 healed. 11 deaths. 4637 active.
"We're negotiating for vaccines via COVAX global initiative. Separately, we're negotiating with Russia for Sputnik-V. Vaccines should be available in March. It will be targeted at specific groups. It won't be mandatory," said Healthcare Minister Avanesyan.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042341.html , https://youtu.be/vXz3pHx1BlM?t=92

the consumer market price increase in the past 12 months

Armenia's consumer market inflation was +4.5% from January to January. Food +6.4%. Alcohol & tobacco +10.8%. Clothing +2.6%. Utilities +0.6%. Appliances +5.8%. Healthcare +5.6%. Transport +5.7%. Telecom +0.5%. Leisure & culture -0.8%. Education +2%. Dining +1.6%. Misc +3.5%.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042323.html

Parliament MP stops a citizen's suicide attempt

Someone tried to jump from Kievyan bridge. QP MP Gor Gevorgyan was nearby and stopped the attempt. The police took the distressed person to a station.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042329.html

psychological support will be provided to war participants and the public

Emergency Ministry says 15-30% of people have PTSD after the war. Today the government approved a plan to provide psychological aid to war participants and others. The target group includes families of missing people, POWs and their families, those who received disabilities, families of those who died, those who fought in the war, IDPs, civilians who were affected in any way. The program will work in Armenia and Artsakh.
The government will purchase services from experienced mental health service agencies.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042403.html

Armenia will grow industrial marijuana on mass industrial scale / incentive to boost land utilization

Hemp is a type of weed that contains less of the substance that makes you feel high. The government wants to grow industrial hemp on a mass scale to boost ~~mood~~ land utilization and revenues.
Pashinyan: this is going to open room for many speculations. It's important to present the project in detail so the public will have a full understanding of what is being done. Unfortunately, "hemp" is interpreted as something else, while in reality, it is a very important industrial raw material. The growing process has risks but there are oversight mechanisms that have been tested in many countries.
Deputy PM Avinyan: the US, Russia, and China have a great experience with industrial hemp production. The practice was examined by the Economy Ministry. We're talking about industrial production only. It will significantly activate agricultural land utilization. Today, 40% of lands are gone unused. This is part of our plan to boost the production of high-value agricultural products.
https://youtu.be/ssZgr2DR3DM?t=7
https://www.healthline.com/health/hemp-vs-marijuana#marijuana
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042372.html

Education Minister says the "controversial" parts of Church/History merger were "resolved"

Education Ministry wants to merge the school subjects "Armenian Church History" and "Armenian History". Critics said it will shrink the church-related materials too much, others called it treason, while others supported the decision, stating that it's all part of our history and having a separate class is inefficient.
Education Minister Dumanyan says he met colleagues at the National Academy of Sciences and they resolved the conflicts "that caused a noise earlier." He will reveal details soon.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042379.html , https://youtu.be/V0sC3dx-gzU

Major education reforms: "education alone will not solve all problems, but there is no problem that can be solved without an education"

... said PM Pashinyan during a govt session while discussing education reforms. Kids in 1-5 grades will no longer receive grades; tt will be pass or no pass (still needs Parliamentary approval). "There will be a criticism. How can you not grade? But this is a comprehensive program that emphasizes the student's needs and preferences," said Pashinyan.
"We need to pay attention to how the time is spent in schools and what skills are being taught in school hours. It will reflect in our society 15-20 years later. It will define whether we have a technological product or not.
What we were doing in 12 years (school length) can be done within 9 years, but a 9-year school isn't the solution. Instead of shortening the school, we're trying to fill the gap in a way to have a 50% higher efficiency by the end of the 12th year.
In developed countries, education starts not from school but from preschool. The lower the education entry age the more developed the countries are," said Pashinyan. (the govt has a plan to make sure 70% of kids attend preschools by 2023)
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042394.html

cancer stats in Armenia / annual rate / drops among children / fewer abandon treatment

world
9.6 million people die from cancer annually. 1/3rd is possible to prevent. Another part can be cured with the help of early detection.
Armenia
Cancer was the 2nd leading cause of death in 2020. It has increased in the past 10 years but at a small rate. Lung cancer is more common among men, and breast cancer among women.
First time diagnosis by year: 2018 - 8762, 2019 - 7908, 2020 - 7050.
Deaths by year: 2018 - 5199, 2019 - 5434. 2020 - unavailable. (55% men, 45% women)
The cancer rate went up by 1.5x compared to 1990. However, it declined by 2x among children under 14yo.
Fewer people abandon treatment. 3 years ago 53% of lung patients did so, today it's 40%. Breast cancer treatment abandonment went from 47% to 22%. (I translated the word բարձիթողության as "abandonment". Correct me if it refers to something else.)
Artsakh
The number of cancer cases has decreased in Artsakh: from 345 to 260 YoY.
prevention
Oncologist Safaryan says the early detection helps to avoid complications and save lives, even if it's the type of cancer that is known to reappear. There are many patients who defeat cancer. "Smokers should get a lung x-ray twice a year. Those working in chemical plants should get a frequent screening. Do not ignore symptoms and չգցել ականջի հետև. You can defeat it more easily when it's at 1-2 stages. It's a lot harder when it advances to 4."
Preventing cancer isn't easy. The causes of this disease are many. Genetics, bad habits, obesity, surrounding environment. A genetic test can reveal the likelihood of suffering from illness. Some women choose to undergo a mastectomy to prevent possible breast cancer in the future.
"I decided that if 1-in-100 is destined to be cured, I will be that one," said Ashkhen, a woman who recently defeated cancer.
More: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042291.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042364.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042405.html

cancer diagnosis, surgery, and radiotherapy are free

The treatment was made free recently. The Oncology Center urges the public to get screened as part of an early-detection initiative. The pilot program began in Vanadzor; 307 women were screened.
Cancer diagnosis, surgery, and radiotherapy are free, while the medication has a co-payment.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042423.html

today in history

2004: Mike Zuckerberg founded Facebook to steal your SSN
1949: Sri Lanka declares indpendence
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042309.html

president meets donor

Artsakh president Arayik met donor Alec Baghdasaryan and thanked him. "Only with the joint efforts of the Armenian people is it possible to quickly overcome the difficulties and to plan development programs." Alec plans more charity programs relating to education.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1042326.html

donations to Artsakh & recovering soldiers

www.1000plus.am (recovering soldiers & their families)
www.HimnaDram.org (for Artsakh & Armenia)
www.ArmeniaFund.org (U.S. tax-deductible)

archive of older news

http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Daily_Anti-Corruption_Reports

disclaimer

All the accused are considered innocent unless proven guilty in the court of law, even if they "sound" or "appear" guilty.

$700,000 Bet on Fintech - BFT

Short Fund Bronte Capital Still Doesn’t get it

Using Options Strategically: Flattening the Curve on PLTR.

Review of Martin Scorsese’s 1995 Casino [A mob movie that has many actors that will go on to be in the Sopranos].

mods please lmk if this violates the rules. i’m posting here because I write about the mob/casino and many relevant themes that are important elements of the Sopranos, in my opinion. I think they’re of the same medium and genre so wanted to post here. Hope that’s alright. Cheers! (11 min read) ————————————————————————
EDIT 2: TL;DR -
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
———————-
Every good filmmaker makes the same movie over and over again—Martin Scorsese is no different
Scorsese's Casino is a phenomenal story of the condoned chaos and "legalized robbery" that happens on a daily basis to gamblers who bett away thousands of dollars and return each day for more “FinDom,” but without any of the sexual sadism. The whole scam only persists because the house always wins: the odds are stacked 3 million to one on the slot machines, but the same shmucks return wide-eyed each day hoping for a different outcome, devoid of any rational re-evaluation required to maintain their grasp on reality, and the liquidity of their bank accounts.
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
Robert De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, recruited by his childhood friend Nick "Nicky" Santorno to help run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by an investment made with the Teamsters’ pension fund. Ace’s job is to keep the bottom line flowing so that the Mafia's skimming operation can continue seamlessly. De Niro's character felt like half-way between Travis from Taxi Driver (of course, nowhere as mentally disturbed) and half of the addictive excess, greed, and eccentric business-mind of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Ace’s attention to detail gives him a rain-man-esque sensibility; his ability to see every scam, trick, hand signal, and maneuver happening on the casino floor make him the perfect manager of the casino, and take his managerial style to authoritarian heights in his pursuit of order and control over what is an inherently unstable and dynamic scheme; betting, hedging outcomes, and walking the line to keep the money flowing and the gamblers coming back. I’m not claiming Ace is autistic, I'm no clinician, but his managerial sensibilities over the daily operations of the casino, from the dealers to the pit bosses, to the shift managers, are to the point of disturbing precision, he has eyes everywhere, and knows how to remove belligerent customers with class and professionalism, but ultimately is short sighted in “reading” the human beings he is in relationship with. Ace is frustratingly naive and gullible in his partnership with Nicky and the threat he poses to him, and in his marriage with Ginger.
Ace has no personal aspirations to extract millions of dollars for himself out of the casino corruption venture. Ace simply wants the casino to operate as efficiently as possible, and he has no qualms about being a pawn of the bosses. While Sam, “the Golden Jew”—as he is called—is the real CEO of the whole enterprise, directing things at Tangiers for the benefit of the bosses “back home.” Ace’s compliance is juxtaposed with Nicky’s outrage upon feeling used: he gripes about how he is in “the trenches” while the bosses sit back and do nothing. Note that none of the activity Nicky engages in outside of the casino—doing the work of “taking Las Vegas over”—is authorized by the bosses. Ultimately Nicky’s inability to exert control over his crew and the street lead to his demise.
In the end, capitalism, and all that happens in the confines of the casino, is nothing but “organized violence.” Sound familiar? The mob has a capitalist structure in its organization and hierarchy: muscle men collect and send money back to the bosses who do not labor tirelessly “in the trenches.” The labor of the collectors is exploited to create the profits of their bosses. The entire business-model of the Mafia is predicated on usury and debtors defaulting on loans for which the repayment is only guaranteed by the threat of violence. But this dynamic is not without its internal contradictions and tensions, as seen in Casino.
In a comedic turn, the skimmers get skimmed! The bosses begin to notice the thinning of the envelopes and lighter and lighter suitcases being brought from the casino to Kansas City, “back home”. The situation continues to spin out of control, but a mid-tier mafioso articulates the careful balance required for the skimming operation to carry on: to keep the skimming operation functioning, the skimmers need to be kept loyal and happy. It’s a price the bosses have to pay to maintain the operation, “leakage” in their terms. Ace’s efficient management and precision in maintaining order within Tangiers is crucial for the money to keep flowing. But Ace’s control over the casino slips more and more as the movie progresses. We see this as the direct result of Nicky’s ascendance as mob kingpin in Vegas, the chaos he creates cannot be contained and disrupts the profits and delicate dynamics that keep the scam running.
Of course I can’t help myself here! We should view Scorsese’s discography, and the many portrayals of capitalist excess not as celebratory fetishization, but a critique of the greed and violence he so masterfully captures on film. See the Wolf of Wall Street for its tale of money as the most dangerous drug of them all, and the alienation—social and political—showcased in Taxi Driver. Scorsese uses the mob as a foil to the casino to attack the supposed monopoly the casino holds on legitimate, legal economic activity that rests on institutionalized theft. When juxtaposed with the logic of organized crime, we begin to see that the two—Ace and Nick—are not so different after all.
The only dividing line between the casino and organized crime is the law. Vegas is a lawless town yes, “the Wild West” as Nicky puts it, but there are laws in Vegas. The corruption of the political establishment and ruling elites is demonstrated when they pressure Ace to re-hire an incompetent employee who he fired for his complicity in a cheating scam or his stupidity in letting the slot machines get rigged; nepotism breeds mediocrity. In the end, Ace’s fall is the result of the rent-seeking behavior that the Vegas ruling class wields to influence the gaming board to not even permit Ace a fair hearing for his gaming license, which would’ve given him the lawful authority to officially run Tangiers. The elites use the political apparatus of the State to resist the new gang in town, the warring faction of mob-affiliated casino capitalists. While the mob’s only weapon to employ is that of violence. The mafia is still subservient to the powers that be within the political and economic establishment of Vegas, and they’re told “this is not your town.”
I’d like to make the most salient claim of this entire review now. Casino is a western film. The frontier of the Wild West is Vegas in this case, where the disorder of the mob wreaks havoc on, an until then, an “untapped market.” The investment scheme that the Teamsters pension fund is exploited for as seed capital, is an attempt to remain in the confines of the law while extracting as much value as possible through illegal and corrupt means for the capitalist class of the mob (and the ultimately dispensable union president). Tangiers exists in the liminal space of condoned economic activity as a legal and otherwise standard casino. While the violence required to maintain the operation, corrupts the legal legitimacy it never fully enjoyed from the beginning. This mirrors the bounty economy of the West and the out-sourcing of the law and the execution of the law, to bounty hunters. There is no real authority out in the frontier, the killer outlaw on the run is not so different from the bounty hunter who enjoys his livelihood by hunting down the killers. Yet, he himself is not the State. The wide-lens frame of Ace and Nicky meeting in the desert felt like a direct homage to the iconic image of the Western standoff. The conflict between Ace and Nick, the enforcer and the mastermind, is an approximation of the conflicts we might see in John Wayne’s films. The casino venture itself could be seen as an analogy of the frontier-venturism of railroad pioneers going to lay track to develop the West into a more industrial region.
I would have believed that this was a documentary about how the mob took over control of the Vegas casinos in the 1970-80s … if it were not for the viewer being expected to believe that Robert De Niro could play a Jew; it's hard to believe a man with that accent and the roles he’s played his entire career could be a “CRAZY JEW FUCK!!” I kid! But alas, De Niro is a class act and the last of the many greats of a bygone era. At times, it felt like Joe Pesci lacked talent as an actor, but his portrayal of the scummy, backstabbing bastard in Nicky was genuinely remarkable, but I might consider his performance the weak point of the movie. It’s weird to see a man that short, be that much of physical menace. There are a number of Sopranos actors in Casino. I’m sure Vincent Chase watched the movie and said to himself, “bet, i’ll cast half of these guys.”The set design and costumes were gorgeous. The styles and fashion of the time were spectacular. Scorsese’s signature gratuitous violence featured prominently, but tastefully. The camera work, tracking shots through the casino and spatial movement was incredible and I thought the cinematography was outstanding, the Western-esque wide lens in the desert was worthy of being a framed still.
The Nicky//Ace dynamic is excellent and the two play off of each other well. The conflict between the two of them escalates gradually, and then Nicky’s betrayal of Ace by cheating with Ginger marks the final break between the two of them. Nicky’s mob faculties represent a brutal, violent theft that is illegal and requires the enforcement of violence by organized crime. Despite the illegal embezzlement and corruption at play with the “skimming” operation at work at the casino, the general business model of the casino stands in contrast to the obscene violence of the loan sharks. Ace operates an intelligent operation of theft through the casino, and his hands-on management approach is instrumental to the success of the casino. Nicky’s chaos pervades the casino, and the life and activities of “the street” begin to bleed into Ace’s ability to maintain order in the casino. “Connected” types begin frequenting the casino, and Ace unknowingly forces one particularly rude gambler to leave the casino, who happens to have mob ties with Nicky. The “organized violence” of the casino cannot stay intact perfectly, because the very thing holding it together is the presence of the mob. Nicky is in Vegas as the enforcer and tasked with protecting Ace but his independent, entrepreneurial (shall we call them?) aspirations lead him to attempt to overtake what he realizes is a frontier for organized crime to brutalize and exploit the characters of “the street” (pimps, players, addicts, dealers, and prostitutes) and the owners of small private businesses.
Nicky is reckless, “when i plant my flag out here you won’t need your [casino/gaming] license” Nicky thinks he, and Ace, can bypass the regulations and bureaucratic legal measures by sheer force of violence alone. But ultimately Nicky is shortsighted and doesn’t have a real attachment to the success of the casino. After all, he isn’t getting profits from it (or much anyway) and isn’t permitted to play a real, active role in its daily functions because of his belligerent, untamed personality. Nicky has no buy-in that would motivate him to follow the rules or to work within the legal parts of the economy, it’s not the game he knows how to play, and win. All that he is loyal to, or deferent too, is the bosses back home; for whom he maintains absolute, uncompromising loyalty to, but still holds intense spite for.
And now to the more compelling element of the narrative. Sam “Ace” Rothstein is positioned as remarkably intelligent, he makes informed decisions that aid in his skill as a gambler, he can read people to determine whether he’s being conned, he has an attention to detail—aided by the casino’s surveillance apparatus which monitors cheating—that is almost unbelievable. Ace knows when he’s being cheated, he knows how to rig the game so that the house always wins, enacting psychological warfare to break down the confidence of would be proficient gamblers, who could threaten Tangiers’ bottom line. But in the end, the greatest gamble Ace makes is his marriage to Ginger. Ginger is the seductive, charismatic, and flirtatious madame who makes her money with tricks and her sexual power. Ginger works as a prostitute, seducing men, and extracting everything she can, almost as a sort of sexual-financial vampirism.
Ginger is the bad bet Ace can’t stop making even when she destroys his life, her own, and puts their daughter Amy in harm’s way. Ginger is the gamble Ace made wrong, but he keeps going back to her every time, trying to rationalize how she might change and be different the next time. Ace is not a victim to Ginger’s antics. Ginger makes it clear who she is: an addict, alcoholic, manic shopaholic who will use all of her powers to extract everything she can from everyone around her. She uses everyone to her advantage and manipulates men with her sexual power in exchange for their money and protection. Ginger had a price for her hand in marriage: $1 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewelry that are left to her and her alone as a sort of emergency fund.
Ace’s numerous attempts to buy Ginger’s love—and the clear fact that no matter how expensive the fur coat and how grand the mansion, none of it would ever be enough to satisfy her—mirrored Jordan Belfort’s relationship with Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street. Both relationships carried the same manic volatility and conflict over child custody was found in both films, with the roles reversed in the respective films. Ginger may be irredeemable and a pathological liar, but Ace can’t claim that she wasn’t clear with him; when he asked her to marry him, Ginger said she didn’t love Ace. Ace replied that love could be “developed” but required a foundation of trust to develop. That trust was never there to begin with. The love was doomed from the start to destroy the two of them; two addicts, two gamblers, lying on a daily basis to one another and themselves about reality to justify their respective existences, the marriage, and Ace’s livelihood. And as Ginger pointed out, “I should have never married him. He’s a gemini, a triple gemini … a snake” Maybe astrology has some truth to it after all.
Now I’m not licensed (but hey neither was Ace, and he ran a casino empire!), but Ginger has the inklings of a borderline personality: her manic depression, narcissism, drug and alcohol abuse, and constant begging for forgiveness all seem indications of a larger psychological disorder at play. In the end, Ginger runs away with all the money Ace left her and finds her people in Los Angeles, the pimps, whores, and addicts she fits in with, in turn exploit and kill her for 3 grand in mint coins by giving her a ‘hot’ dose.
Overall, Casino is an incredible cinematic experience. I highly recommend watching this and seeing it as part of Scorsese's anthology of commentary on our economic system and its human victims. I’d argue that Casino, Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman all fit together nicely into a trilogy of the Scorsesean history of finance and corruption from the 70s to the 90s.
————-
EDIT 2: TL;DR —
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.

Jorah Mormont: Worse than you Think

So someone asked me why I hate Jorah so much and I wrote up a 1000 word diatribe against Jormont because I have no impulse control and my life is a ruin and now I'm going to force you all to read it.
Basically, despite the fact that nobody really likes Jorah from what I can tell, most people don't really hate him either. Even when people acknowledge that he's a bad advisor to Dany and a creepy pedo, they don't seem to realize how AWFUL he truly is and take a lot of his statements at face value.
Let's start with the most commonly accepted thing:
Lynesse was a sluttly, treacherous spendthrift.
There's no indication that this is actually the case. Not even Jorah says that she spent his money. Jorah says that he spent his own money "trying to bring back her smile." But all his attempts failed, presumably because her issue wasn't a lack of creature comforts. (her smile didn't even come back when they visited with her family in Oldtown, further evidence that her unhappiness ran deeper than a lack of money) Indeed, it seems that the primary cause of Jorah's desitution was himself. He went massively into debt, and by his own admission spent this money on entering tournaments, something equivalent to taking out a loan to try and become a professional high-stakes gambler because you got lucky one time. When you lose a tourney you have to give up your horse and armor (or something of equivalent value) to whoever it is that beat you. If you can win at least one tilt, you break even, but Jorah is a sort of mediocre jouster and spiraled ever deeper into debt replacing his arms and armor over and over again. This sort of thing would have been ruinously expensive, far worse than the harpist and fancy cook he bought for Lynesse's entertainment.
But I know what you're going to say, "He also toured the free cities with her, to try and entertain her! He built her a pleasure barge! That's gotta be really expensive!"
This is where Jorah's story becomes suspect. Consider the timeline of events

he marries Lynesse (likely getting a huge windfall of cash via dowry)
she becomes unhappy
he goes on a tour of the free cities, gets horribly into debt, and gambles heavily
He immediately goes on a second tour of the free cities (or perhaps never actually came back from the first one)
he is outed as a slaver and never returns to Westeros.

It's often questioned how a man on Bear Island gets into the slave trade. They're pretty much as distant as its possible to be from any slave trading port and the profits from any slave trade would be minimal at best. I am very confident I have solved this riddle:
The 'pleasure barge' he built for Lynesse was actually the means by which he transported and sold his own people (and perhaps some wildlings) into slavery. His 'tour of the free cities' was in part a pretext to visit various slave markets and sell off his stock.
Now imagine you're Lynesse. You married a man twice your age when you were barely 15 and you thought him a romantic hero out of legend. You then find that he's decidedly not a hero out of legend and that he's actually just old, ugly, and poor. It's pretty obvious that you were stupid when you married this man, but then you were 15 and making stupid decisions is normal at that age. Your hubby claims to love you and you want to love him in return, but he spends huge amounts of time embarrassing himself at tournament after tournament. He claims to be doing it all for you, but do you really want to watch him lose at tournament after tournament?
Then he announces this plan to tour the free cities, and you're excited... only to find out that the hold of the ship is full of northern men and women who are wallowing in their shit as Jorah intends to sell them into slavery. Far from being a romantic getaway, this voyage is instead something straight out of a horror movie. You can probably hear the prisoners groaning when you go to sleep at night. When you get to Lys, you find that you and your husband have been exiled, and he puts you up in a house while he leaves for years at a time to become a sellsword. You're like 18 at this point, and you've spent the last three years in abject misery. Debtors are calling daily at your house and you don't have any way of answering them.
Can you honestly call her leaving him at that point "betrayal?" Sure, cozying up to a magister might be a morally dubious option, but hey, Jorah was a slaver too. Can you blame her for trying to aggressively improve her own position and standing? And as of ADWD we learn that she's actually someone of consequence in Lys these days, to the point that her family is asking her for help in raising fleets against the ironborn menace.
So what's my overall opinion on Lynesse?
You go girl.
As for Jorah, he fled his debtors, took work as a full time slave trader for Illyrio, took cash to 'betray' Illyrio's secrets to Varys, then started grooming Dany as his new 15yo waifu. He consistently works to isolate her from having any other advisors, pushes her to become a slaver herself, and strongly encourages her to abandon/murder her followers in Essos. Then when she expels him for his very real treason against her, he wallows in despair and alcoholism and prostitutes, kidnaps Tyrion and then gets sold into slavery himself. He's such a pathetic sad sack that Tyrion identifies with him and honestly that's the only thing keeping him alive at this point.
He's just such an abjectly shit human being. He doesn't even have the excuse that he grew up in a toxic culture since he breaks pretty much every moral rule that the Westerosi adhere to, despite having (unlike Cersei or Jaime) good moral instruction. Like, House Mormont came into being for the express purpose of defending Bear Island against slavers and yet this guy calls out Khal Drogo for not being callous enough about his slaving. I literally cannot think of a character in any form of media that pisses me off as much as this pathetic slaving pedophilic manchild.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

78.45% - WHAT IT MEANS

The January 15th official short interest report stated 61,780,000 shares had been sold short. On the 15th, the share price was about $35. This is a crucial piece of information to consider. Short Interest is reported twice monthly, so the last report before January 15th was from December 31st, and the next was issued today February 9th, revealing a (still) staggering 78.46% short interest. Keep in mind, this report only shows short interest up to January 29th.
Lets go back to the January 15th report which told us that 61.78 million shares had been shorted at prices less than $35. In other words, every single short of those 61.78 million was betting the price would be less than $35, and it's more likely that most were shorted around the $15 - $20 mark. We do not know the exact numbers. But what we do know is some of these shorts closed out of their positions before, that is evident by the SI report we received today. We can also draw another inference from this data: MOST short positions from the January 15th report have NOT covered yet. Today's report confirmed this speculation.
The hedge funds and other players were able to drive the price down from $483 to $65 in less than a week. Regardless of the illegal actions they took to make this happen. They knew they would be able to do this. It didn't even take that long. So why in the world would they have covered even a single share above $100?? It is my belief that only the shorts who lacked liquidity and spare capital to pay interest were margin called, or chose to bow out early. Today's report all but confirms this theory. If you need more evidence, look at the overall market bleed that took place on the days right before the cut-off date for this report.
What does that mean for the big players? The ones who actually have capital to sustain high interest rates and play the long game to mitigate losses? They are waiting to bring the price down to an acceptable level, buying far OTM calls, and letting the hype die down a bit before they even begin to cover.
The current drop in price has been working in the favor of hedges in three different ways. First, calls far OTM are very cheap, and hedge funds are able to scoop up millions of dollars worth of options that they will later be able to sell or execute for profit. During the first peak, the furthest OTM call available were too expensive and to NTM for hedges to offset their losses. If my theory is correct, hedges stand to gain substantially on their far OTM calls expiring Feb. 19th. Second, the extreme price drop means there are tons of shares available for hedges to short now. During the last rise, there were nowhere near enough shares for hedges to short as the price dipped. Finally, it is obvious that shorts are better off covering at $50 rather than $480. They have effectively weeded out a large number of paper hands and profiteers. But that is neither here nor there, as we still control a substantial portion of the float, keeping sustained pressure on the shorts.
Furthering my hypothesis, I do not believe Citadel gave 2.75b to Melvin to flush down the toilet. They are expecting Melvin to mitigate as much of their losses as possible. How might they do this?
First, check the amount of money placed on 800c for 2/19. Obviously a portion of this money can be accounted for by retail traders caught up in the media bubble two weeks ago hoping to cash-in on the squeeze. Alternatively, I believe a large magnitude of the calls may have been strategically planted by hedges who had very low short positions, i.e. ~$35, and did not plan on covering during the first massive peak.
Why not? Because now they have the opportunity, (FLUSH with 2.75B in cash for Melvin), to do some serious damage control. Would a professional gambler pay off his debt with a loan, or would he use it to cut his losses before repaying his loan?
Now we know atleast 78% of the shorts ~$35 DID NOT account for the massive price increase. If give/take 40% of the shorts who did actually exit their positions before 1/29 attributed to the $483 price spike, IMAGINE what 78% can obtain. ALSO, while it is certainly possible that a decent chunk of this 78% have slowly been exiting their positions since 1/29, we also know that a large number of greedy bastards have been taking their place at higher price points >100, > 200, >300. While these positions are extremely profitable at this time (i.e. some hedges mitigating losses, while some reap ginormous gains after watching on the sidelines until the 29th), the low entry ~$35 shorts will eventually have to cover their losses. This will trigger a domino effect by inevitably applying upwards pressure on the new, high entry shorts, who will see the tidal wave coming and immediately take their profits (or maximum mitigated losses) and get the fuck out of dodge while they still can.

TLDR: The most logical way to cut losses (while simultaneously accruing massive interest on current positions) would be by attempting to short the stock the whole way down from the top of the media bubble then finally closing out the terrible ~$35 short positions after driving the price down as far as possible, knowing that the price will skyrocket back up after they cover now they can cash in another fat chunk of change on the 800c 2/19 then short the whole thing back down again. At the end of the day, I have no clue how much they would net in losses, because that is contingent on the accrual of interest and which is directly associated with the price price point they actually have shorts located at (only they know this). In any case, this chain of events is the most logical way for a billion dollar entity to mitigate losses on a failed bet. Again, I want to reiterate, WHY would a hedgefund loan $2.75B to another hedgefund if they had not run countless simulations in order to determine the best possible outcomes?
Disclaimer: This is my personal hypothesis based on the facts provided to us. This should not be construed as financial advice. I'm just a law student who likes money, video games, and stonks.

The 3 types AMC holders (IMHO- long read to kill time)

TL:DR - Ignore hype, choose YOUR strategy, and stick to it. All money matters are a gamble.
New to the market, but paying attention to WS and learning for a couple years before finally jumping in. After now being a every-minute watcher on the market, the Reddit “movement”impact, and MSM reactions for a month, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 3 types of AMC holders:

The Get Rich Quick holder- this is the smoothest of smooth brains that have wandered in and have unrealistic expectations of AMC’s potential. They heard from MSM and “a buddy who knows” that something BIG(!) was happening with GME, and guys sitting in their mom’s basement were making life changing money on this “sure thing”. The GRQ checked WSB and was encouraged by DFV screens daily, laughed at all the big swinging dick fratboy talk and memes. “Wow! This looks like fun!” Says GRQ, but GME is already too cost prohibitive for them, so they YOLO into AMC. “$20 is amazing! This thing is gonna explode with the squeeze and be worth $1000 a share, and imma be rich by Friday!” GRQ hasn’t done ANY DD, because emoji posting, Jordan Belfort, and LOTR memes are all the GRQ needs to hold until the inevitable squeeze on AMC happens. The GRQ thinks XXX% increases are easy to capture, the HF’s are on their heels, and everything is being manipulated- otherwise they’d already be rich. Short interest metrics give the GRQ a chubby.

Why GRQ is GOOD: Fresh money and exposure in market trading, lots of entertainment. Some GRQ’s will educate themselves into better investors long term.
Why GRQ is BAD: Increased volatility, misinformation spreading, paper hands. These folks will lose interest quickly, and may incur life crippling debt by trading with money they can’t afford to lose.

The Safe Gambler Noob - (full disclaimer: this is currently me). The SGN is more diligent, more careful, but not necessarily smart. They also likely wandered into AMC based on the WSB hype. They know some about WS and “the way things work”, but just enough to be careful. The SGN is reading EVERY bit of information about AMC, taking on a 60/40 split of bullshit to actual DD. They likely only bought in with a small amount around 14-16. Their rationale is “hey, look at what happened with GME- I guess it’s possible that AMC can get $100 or more, and at the very least, it’ll go up after the pandemic, so there’s really no risk”. The SGN is rife with FOMO, but balanced enough not to YOLO. They understand that HF’s have the power to do whatever they want, but also think “maybe what Redditors are doing is changing the game” (spoiler alert, probably not). Any positive mention of their positions or a “green day” gives the SGN a chubby.

Why the SGN is GOOD: like the GRQ, it’s bringing more folks into the market who might still be on the sidelines. If the SGN doesn’t at least get their initial investment back, they’ll bag hold to the grave. Some will educate and make smarter plays moving forward, having dipped their toe in the ocean and liking the temperature.
Why the SGN is BAD: They’ve already lost half their money, and may be hesitant to get deeper in or take any other positions. Lots of SGN’s will sell at the break even point (however long that may take) and never trade again, having taken the only beating they need to be scared away. Some reckless SGN’s falsely believe they have found a secret method or opportunity to “beat the system” because they got the first brain wrinkle.

The Long Term Pro: Raisin Brains. These are the DFV’s of the world. As soon as the price of AMC tanked due to the pandemic, they had the foresight to get in at the low (if they believed AMC would survive) or buy the shorts (if they believed AMC would bankrupt). The LTP blocks out the “noise” of the Reddit hype, because they trust their own analysis more than anything they hear or read. There is very little risk for them with their AMC position, because they have a well diversified portfolio spread between stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other safe savings plans. They likely only check the tickers when they want to “check in”, but aren’t swayed by any fluctuations. They likely have someone else professionally managing their portfolio. Even a market crash can’t phase the LTP, because they can afford to hold and ride it out until it comes back. They get chubbies whenever they want, because they’ve earned that right.

Why the LTP’s are GOOD: This is arguably the type of investor we all should try to be. Some LTP’s enjoy offering DD and education to the SGN’s, passing on and elevating overall market knowledge. Lots of them are still entrenched in their AMC positions, and will be for 4-5 years.
Why LTP’s are BAD: They completely ignore the GRQ’s as foolish, and stay away from ANY volatility. Most LTP’s that didn’t sell their AMC shares during the first Reddit hype peak, certainly did when the new offering dilution was announced. EVERY HF insider is an LTP, and knows how to make money in any market condition. These guys are very definition of “Bulls make money, Bears make money, Pigs get slaughtered”.
My only point in this post (other than a “gut check” for myself and maybe others), is that ALL matters concerning money is a risk/reward scenario. Even if you are putting money under your mattress, that money is constantly gaining or losing value. Anyone trading or investing should appreciate this, decide what your own strategy should be, and see it through.
Me personally, I’m striving for the DD of the LTP, the excitement of the SGN, and the stones of a GRQ.
On yeah, and Hold AMC. 😁

78% GME SI - What we know

are there professional gamblers video

Professional gamblers are the rarest form of gambler and depend on games of skills rather than luck to make money. They have full control over the time, money and energy they spend on gambling. Social gamblers consider gambling to be a valid form of recreational activity and maintain full control over the time, money and energy they expend on “Do professional gamblers actually exist?” Yes. There are very many versions of what exactly it means to be a “professional gambler”, but ultimately it comes down to a few points: - “professional” SHOULD mean that the person’s livelihood is dependent upon net revenue from the activity in question (in this case, gambling). If you can survive without your net winnings, you’re not really a professional. If their odds are drastically different to what the bookmakers come up with, they will bet the difference. The value bettor is probably the purest type of professional gambler. They are not using loopholes or bonuses, instead they make money gambling by beating the bookies at their own game. Experts say that there are six main types of gamblers. These are the professional gambler, the antisocial or personality gambler, the casual social gambler, the serious social gambler, the relief and escape gambler and the compulsive gambler. Unlike the others, however, professional gamblers take their hobby very seriously and like to think of it as a profession. Since a federal court ruling two years ago, there are tax deductions for professional gamblers similar to those for self employed contractors and small businesses. Expenses like travel, meals, and lodging can be cut from their total income. Professional bettors view themselves as traders of sports commodities and frequently liken their industry to Wall Street. Similar to the types of shops on Wall Street, there are betting firms of Throughout time there have been many gamblers who have become famous. For one reason or another, they have captured the attention of the masses and written their places in history. Some have been big winners, while some have been big losers. Some have gained fame through their cheating exploits, while others are known hustlers. Professional gamblers’ reading list. The top 12 books recommended by winning bettors. Blog Gambling Professional gamblers’ reading list. Blog. September 11, 2018 - Updated October 6, 2020. We have set up alerts when there are opportuntites to gamble crypto with the odds in your favor. We guarantee 100% privacy, your information will not Professional gamblers come from varied backgrounds - including horse trainers. Considering this line of work, it would seem to be a very good way to make money. However, let's get back to the start of the story. Jack Ramsden was a stockbroker until 1980, then decided to turn his hand to being a professional gambler. What makes professional gamblers win is knowing a few sacred principles of gambling and actually following them. So, if you are wondering what winners know that the losing players don’t, this

Become A Professional Gambler: The 7 Ways To Make Money

are there professional gamblers

are there professional gamblers - win

BlitzPredict

Are there professionals who manage money for recovering gambler?

[Serious] Gamblers of Reddit, what are you doing now that casinos are closed and there are no professional sports to bet on?

Are there any videos or articles out there of professional gamblers playing in the casino?

Are there any videos or articles out there of professional gamblers playing in the casino?

How can there be professional poker players and gamblers when those games or gambles they partake in are meant to be pure luck almost?

Are there more professional gamblers out there in the world or professional gamers?

Gaming The System --- Investment professional tells tales of gambling, trading and investing. And, it won't surprise you to hear, there's some overlap. He also offers three reasons why successful investors, forecasters and gamblers are so rare

Using Options Strategically: Flattening the Curve on PLTR.

How luck plays an important role in the stock market (GME and others)

I wrote a long reply on why gambling, and loot boxes in particular, are bad...

Sports Betting Tax Advice from my CPA

78.46% - What it tells us about GME

Top 5 Tips Every Noobie Trader MUST Know.

1) You MUST understand Implied Volatility.

2) You MUST have patience.

3) You MUST understand "Reversion to the Mean."

4) You MUST not YOLO your account more than once (or twice).

5) You MUST be Skeptical... of EVERYTHING.

anti-corruption: Defense Ministry official busted with bribery & tampering with draft during war

bill: harsher punishment for treason, spying, espionage

Jalal is back with another position

Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring group begins operations

ECHR received Armenia's complaint against Azerbaijan regarding 228 POWs / Azeris counter-claim for 13 POWs

Red Cross visited 4 Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Russia expects UNESCO to soon visit Armenian monuments that went under Azeri control

Russia removed tomato import ban on 13 Armenian firms

US Congressman demands an explanation from the US ambassador to Azerbaijan over "congratulatory" statement

de-occupy Hadrut NGO

govt session: financial aid for Syunik border villagers

bill: disability ranking to be replaced with degrees of functionality impairment

bill: require unknown Telegram/Facebook media channel owners identified before "linking" by mass media

rumors and rebuttals: Artsakh army isn't being dissolved

rumors and rebuttals: Azeri flag won't fly over Artsakh govt buildings

rumors and rebuttals: Azeri families won't resettle in Stenapakert / none are shopping in market

rumors and rebuttals: Artsakh envoy won't stop operating in Russia

rumors and rebuttals: no single currency in EAEU trade bloc

location "Hollywood, Yerevan, Armenia"

anti-corruption: prosecutors charge education officials with ֏1.2B auction shenanigans

re: Armenia's $750M eurobond sale / lowest % in history / $3B demand by investors / economy news

how many people did leave and arrive after reopening air traffic with Russia?

Pashinyan about the suspended Amulsar gold mining project

COVID stats

the consumer market price increase in the past 12 months

Parliament MP stops a citizen's suicide attempt

psychological support will be provided to war participants and the public

Armenia will grow industrial marijuana on mass industrial scale / incentive to boost land utilization

Education Minister says the "controversial" parts of Church/History merger were "resolved"

Major education reforms: "education alone will not solve all problems, but there is no problem that can be solved without an education"

cancer stats in Armenia / annual rate / drops among children / fewer abandon treatment

cancer diagnosis, surgery, and radiotherapy are free

today in history

president meets donor

donations to Artsakh & recovering soldiers

archive of older news

disclaimer

$700,000 Bet on Fintech - BFT

MY POSITIONS - Mostly PRPL, PSTH and BFT/BFT.W

The Customers and MOAT

The Comparable VALUATIONS

Management and Growth

Short Fund Bronte Capital Still Doesn’t get it

Using Options Strategically: Flattening the Curve on PLTR.

Review of Martin Scorsese’s 1995 Casino [A mob movie that has many actors that will go on to be in the Sopranos].

Jorah Mormont: Worse than you Think

78.45% - WHAT IT MEANS

The 3 types AMC holders (IMHO- long read to kill time)

78% GME SI - What we know

are there professional gamblers video

are there professional gamblers top