My Take On Short Selling

Short selling has been in the news quite a bit recently as a result of this whole “meme stock” debacle. With the army of Reddit traders creating short squeezes in GameStop, AMC Theaters, and a few other companies the practice of short selling in general is being questioned.

This is partly because the media is framing this as a David vs. Goliath story. A group of underground Reddit traders bully the big bad hedge funds of the world by creating a short squeeze that sends share prices soaring.

Hooray for the little guy!

This storyline isn’t entirely accurate though. Melvin Capital made a lot of news for being short, but many other professionals and hedge funds made a lot of money benefiting from the short squeeze by being long. There’s a report that Blackrock pulled in $2.4 billion on the trade.

Nevertheless, David vs. Goliath is an easy story for people to get behind. And since it’s easy to root against a villain, short selling is coming under fire because that’s the side Goliath was on.

Short selling as a practice captures the financial spotlight every few years – usually during times of market turbulence. It’s often used as a scapegoat for corrections, which nearly always leads to calls for some type of short selling ban or suspension. That argument doesn’t have much merit, but the discussion attracts strong opinions anyway. Elon Musk, for example, is notoriously in favor of outlawing short selling.

I’ll explain my take on short selling in this post.

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Episode #62: GameStop, Gamma Vortex, and Confirmation Bias

In the past couple of weeks, an exciting and dramatic chain of events has been going on around GameStop Corp., where their stock price skyrocketed in a very short time. GameStop is a video game and gaming merchandise retailer. While they have been performing adequately, GameStop hasn’t come up with fascinating and innovative things in the past couple of years as other growth companies do. For that reason, this stock price surge triggered numerous headlines in the news and rumors and stories in the financial community. In today’s episode, Grant dives into what caused this situation, how things escalated, and whether there’s anything illegal going on. Stay tuned until the end of the episode, where Grant talks about what you should do if you’ve made a bunch of money in GameStop shares or options.Continue reading→

Episode #61: Tax Gain Harvesting: What, Why, and How

Tax gain harvesting is a strategy of selling investment assets at a gain and paying tax at that point as opposed to waiting and paying the tax later. Depending on your income and how your income may fluctuate in the future, there might be situations where it makes sense to take advantage of tax gain harvesting. Throughout today’s episode, Grant reviews how tax gain harvesting works, when it may be and may not be a good idea, and what you should consider before deciding whether tax gain harvesting might be beneficial in your specific scenario.Continue reading→

Market Update: Q1 2021

We’re now nearly a full month into 2021, and stocks, bonds, and virtually all other asset classes continue to post excellent returns. The question is…..why? We’re at a point where the market seems to be impervious to bad news. Meanwhile bitcoin and cryptocurrencies continue to post new highs, and college students are even becoming famous for posting their trading strategies on social media. As easy money central bank policies abound across the globe there is a lot of market froth out there. We’re starting to see all the classic signs of a bubble.

Interestingly, equities in small cap and value shares led the pack in the fourth quarter of 2020. This is the first quarter that’s happened for quite a while, but both areas have a lot more ground to cover if they’re to make up for the last decade.

Here’s this quarter’s market update.

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Episode #60: This Is Why I’m Concerned About Our Rising National Debt

The national debt level in the United States is an important topic that usually gets quite a bit of attention in the financial and economic news. However, with everything else that’s going on in the world, it seems the conversation about the debt level has been getting less attention than it deserves. We dedicated today’s episode to talking about the national debt level. Throughout the episode, Grant dives into where we are in the national debt cycle, how much debt we have, at what rate our national debt is growing, and long term economic consequences that might occur as a result of the growing national debt.

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Episode #59: Everything You Need to Know About Buying & Selling Small Businesses With Greg K Williams

In today’s episode, we have another distinguished guest: Greg K Williams. Greg is a certified mergers & acquisitions professional who has years of experience helping business owners and buyers through the process of selling or buying a business. Throughout the episode, Greg shares his wisdom on the process of selling a business from both a seller’s and a buyer’s perspective, common ways you can boost what you get from a business, and several other things you should know if you’re interested in buying or selling a business.Continue reading→

New Stimulus Checks & PPP 2.0! Everything You Need to Know About the New Stimulus Bill

It’s easy to forget, with everything happening in Washington D.C. in the last week, that we have a new stimulus package. After sitting on the bill for about a week, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act into law in the late hours of December 27th.

It was a massive bill, with many sections other coronavirus related stimulus. I haven’t read the entire Act, and hope that I never do. I have read the sections related to stimulus checks, the paycheck protection program and a few others though, as they relate directly to many of our clients.

This post will cover what you need to know about those sections: whether you’re entitled to a stimulus check and/or PPP loan, when you might receive one, and other relevant details.

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Episode #58: Top Strategies for Tax-Efficient Charitable Giving

The year 2020 has been an extremely challenging year for lots of people, businesses, and organizations. Therefore, this is also a time when charitable organizations may need help from donors more than ever. We dedicated today’s episode to exploring some of the tax-efficient strategies you can use to give to charity in a way that minimizes your tax impact. Stay tuned until the end of the episode, where Grant shares his favorite methods of charitable giving and some tips to optimize your tax benefits related to charitable donations.Continue reading→

Episode #57: A Breakdown of the New Stimulus Bill, Including PPP 2.0!

A couple of days ago, President Trump signed into law a second stimulus package for COVID relief. This legislation includes $600 stimulus checks, more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, along with some updates to the rules, changes to the regulations related to loan forgiveness, tax deferrals, healthcare, and more. Throughout the episode, Grant dives into what these new updates are, how they relate to individuals, business owners, employees, and how you can take advantage of the provisions in the new stimulus package.Continue reading→

Episode #56: Last Minute Retirement Plan: Tips & Tricks for 2020 Procrastinators

At the end of every year, some business owners face situations where they need to set up retirement plans at the last minute due to numerous reasons. We dedicated this episode to reviewing how business owners may overcome this challenge. Over the years, Grant has come up with some strategies and maneuvers that may help you set up retirement plans and make deductible contributions late in the year. Throughout the episode, Grant shares how to implement these strategies in your business.
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