Archive for February 24th, 2022

Market report.

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Last year, Mike the Musicologist and I were talking about stuff. MtM suggested it might be interesting to take the money from our stimulus checks and invest it…in gun related stocks.

Thus was born what I refer to as “the gun hedge fund”, even though it technically isn’t a hedge fund. It is more just a collection of gun related stocks that I think have good growth potential. I have one (or in some cases, two) shares in each of the following companies:

I haven’t really been “trading”, per se. I’ve bought these stocks to hold, and any dividends I’ve reinvested in more stocks. This is just for fun, and experimental purposes. It’s also a way to use money that I’d otherwise probably have spent on whisky and women, or just wasted.

This has been going on for exactly a year today. What have the results been so far? Well, I funded the account with $408.10. As of the close of the markets today, my positions (and accumulated cash) are worth…

…$417.82. So I’ve made $9.72 on gun stocks over the past year, or roughly 2.3% on my initial investment. That includes the dividends I’ve received and reinvested over the past 12 months ($21.38), so, on the whole, I’ve probably lost money.

Better than what I would have made if I put the money in a savings account. I’m not too stressed, since I’m mostly doing this for fun.

Who did the best? As far as I can tell, Olin (bought at $32.78, closed today at $48.82) and Vista Outdoor (bought at $33.38, closed today at $34.39).

I can’t find a way in the Schwab app to graph the entire history of this account over the past 12 months, but looking at the history of all of my accounts, I was actually doing pretty well right up until February 21st. Then my accounts fell off a cliff. I blame the Ukraine and the vertical integration of the broiler industry for that.

Two side notes:

1) For all the complaints I have about work, this job has let me personally own stock for the first time in my life. I already had a Schwab account because I’ve been buying company stock on the employee purchase plan, so it was easy to open a second account for the gun hedge fund independent of that. The hardest part was moving the money from my bank to Schawb. (I think I also had to send them an ID.)

2) My employee stock purchase plan had $205 cash in it that I couldn’t do anything with: I couldn’t buy more company stock, and if there’s a way to reinvest dividends, I haven’t found it yet. So yesterday I opened a second personal account, because I wanted to keep the gun hedge fund as a thing by itself, and bought…one share of Apple.

Apple closed today at $162.74. I bought this morning at $152.42, so I’m already up $10.32 on that one share of AAPL, or more than the gun hedge fund made in the past 12 months.

Posted in Guns, Smith and Wesson | 1 Comment »

Red Boat, Red Boat, Red Boat…

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Yes, it is a tongue twister.

It is also the fish sauce I ordered and which arrived yesterday. (Previously.) Please note that this is not cheap. Please also note that I paid for this out of my own pocket: it was not a trade or barter deal for advertising.

My regular lunch during the work week is dried noodle soup, generally jacked up with some additional low-sodium chicken broth and another condiment. Sometimes I use one of the Tabasco flavors (either the regular or the scorpion pepper), but I’ve also used Angostura Bitters. Both of those work pretty well, but I thought I’d give the Red Boat a try.

When I opened the bottle, the smell was really strong. It didn’t bother me, but it might be borderline offensive for people who aren’t big fans of fishy things. I added about a half-teaspoon to my noodles before I cooked them.

After cooking, you could tell there was something there, but it was very slight. I suspect a lot of the fish sauce volatilized off during the cooking: something like this happens with Angostura as well, but the bitters leave enough behind to give it a much more pronounced flavor.

Next time, I may try adding the sauce after cooking, and, depending on those results, may go up to a full teaspoon. Also, since I have the fish sauce, I do want to try making Parthian Chicken now. (However, I need to get lovage and asafoetida. Both are readily available from Amazon, and might even be at my local Whole Paycheck or Central Markup.)

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 24, 2022.

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

Followup NYT obits for Bob Beckel, Gary Brooker, and The Amazing Johnathan.

William Kuenzel has passed away from cancer at the age of 60. I’m noting his obit because this is a bizarre and troubling case, that got Robert M. Morgenthau (NYC’s liberal DA) and Edwin C. Meese III on the same side.

Mr. Kuenzel was arrested in November of 1987 and charged with killing a convenience store clerk. His roommate, Harvey Venn, initially told police Mr. Kuenzel was probably asleep at home, but later changed his story and claimed Mr. Kuenzel pulled the trigger. Mr. Venn got a reduced sentence for testifying against Mr. Kuenzel. Mr. Kuenzel refused to plead out.

Despite apparently exculpatory evidence, including incriminating blood on Mr. Venn’s pants — which he said was from a squirrel but which the prosecutor admitted was the victim’s — Mr. Kuenzel was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to be electrocuted.

It gets worse.

Mr. Kuenzel met with more than 20 years of resistance to his hope for a new trial because of a late filing of an appeal in 1993 — a procedural issue that he could never overcome in state and federal courts even after Alabama’s state assistant attorney general in 2010 turned over evidence that had been withheld at the original trial. It included handwritten notes from Mr. Venn’s police interview in which he said that Mr. Kuenzel had been in bed at the time of the shooting.
The cache of new evidence also included a transcript of the grand jury testimony of a witness who had been equivocal about seeing Mr. Kuenzel and Mr. Venn in the store as she drove by in a car, but who testified with more certainty at the trial. Her testimony provided critical corroboration of Mr. Venn’s assertion that Mr. Kuenzel had been an accomplice.

The Supreme Court refused to review his case in 2013, and again in 2016.

Had he not died, he would have eventually been scheduled for execution.

Posted in Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Geopolitics.

Thursday, February 24th, 2022

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I am not an expert on geopolitics.

If you’re looking for Ukraine coverage, there are a lot of people covering it who are much smarter than I am.

Posted in Admin | Comments Closed