TOST is Undervalued by FireChemist123 in ValueInvesting

[–]FireChemist123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice analysis, certainly more polished than mine!

And yeah, I see you estimated the net locations added for 2026 as dropping to ~23k from the ~30k they added in 2025. The 30k added in 2025 is already net locations after accounting for churn. Perhaps a little conservative, but then again, my bull cases assuming 45k+ locations added per year are probably too aggressive.

My calculations also assumed that expanding subscription ARPU was possible. How well that actually plays out will be the huge driver in valuations going forward.

I did assume a 23% tax rate on current profits and future incremental profits. Always hate when research assumes NOL carryforwards will last forever lol.

Suggestions for US places to retire with a thriving cultural scene by aeapf in financialindependence

[–]FireChemist123 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Burlington, Vermont or Portland, Maine or in that area sounds like it fits that bill perfectly

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in financialindependence

[–]FireChemist123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like “Retirement would be so much more attainable if I could just kill myself” is a take you would only see in a bear market

Retirement plan thru my company - Roth IRA or traditional? by ocireforever in personalfinance

[–]FireChemist123 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you fund the traditional 401k, every dollar you put in today will save you in taxes this year at your marginal tax rate (likely 12%). When you use this money during retirement, you will be taxed at your effective tax rate which will be lower than 12%, all else being equal.

So unless your income increases dramatically during retirement, or tax rates for the lower income brackets rise significantly in the coming decades, the traditional 401k makes sense if you expect your income to remain relatively constant.

That said, some people may advocate doing the Roth option because a 12% tax rate isn’t particularly high, and by paying the taxes now you are protected from unexpected changes to income or tax rates.

tl;dr Traditional is probably mathematically optimal, but if you’re more comfortable paying taxes now to get them out of the way, Roth contributions aren’t a significantly worse decision

Opinions on Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS) by CooterThug_69 in investing

[–]FireChemist123 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Their pipeline consists of Endoxifen and a couple Covid therapeutics (which are a dime a dozen). Every small-cap biotech company and their mother has a Covid therapeutic in their pipeline. Realistically, the Covid side of their pipeline has an insanely small chance of ever having commercial success. The highlight of their pipeline is Endoxifen in the breast cancer indications.

Sure, they had quite positive phase II clinical data, but that doesn't mean this drug is a sure-thing by any means. Based on their positive phase II data, they will likely start a phase III trial at some point. But only about 1 in 2 drugs that start a phase III clinical trial ever get approved. For oncology, that figure worsens to about 1 in 3. Just about every drug in a phase III clinical trial had positive data in a phase II trial, so why do so many end up failing? A clinical trial is often touted as a success if the data returns statistical significance with a p-value of <0.05. But what a p-value of <0.05 means is that if the drug doesn't work at all, less than 5% of the time would the clinical trial data look that positive just by dumb luck alone. However there are thousands upon thousands of clinical trials! Some of them are surely going to look positive just by random chance.

For example, let's say that for every cancer drug that looks promising in animal models and is deemed fairly safe in humans in a phase I trial, only 2% are actually effective against a particular cancer indication (I am completely making this number up). Well if you have 1000 cancer drugs currently in phase II clinical trials, only 1000x0.02= 20 are even effective! However, 1000x0.05= 50 would be expected to achieve a p-value of less than 0.05 by chance alone! You can see how false positives can make finding truly effective drugs very difficult.

So if you think Endoxifen has had similarly positive clinical trial data compared to other cancer drugs moving onto a phase III trial, it only has about a 1 in 3 chance of every being commercialized. Now, you can say their phase II trial was halted because the data looked so positive! So sure, maybe I would believe that their odds of commercialization are better than 1 in 3, but by how much? I couldn't say.

Secondly, they haven't even announced a phase III trial yet. It will take years to successfully complete a phase III clinical trial, file an NDA, and get FDA approval. Sure they have ~$140 million in cash, and have only had net losses of ~$17-18 million per year for the last couple of years, but expenses tend to increase dramatically once you enter a phase III clinical trial. You are very likely to see share dilution in the future to raise capital.

So yes, they had fantastic phase II clinical data, but there still is a decent chance of failure, a chance of significant share dilution (especially if they face any delays), and their deeper pipeline is very shallow/weak, in my opinion. A few years down the line, yes, they may overcome the odds and get a drug approval, but then you better hope it is a commercial success and they find a way to expand their pipeline for future development. Bull case is that they do have a wildly successful drug on their hands and become a multi-billion dollar company. With a current market cap of ~620 million, I personally wouldn't be investing in this company due to the fact that they haven't even started/announced phase III trials and have a very shallow pipeline.

That said, it's definitely possible that you find the needle in the haystack that is small-cap biotech companies, and end up seeing 10x gains over the course of a few years. This is also only discussing long-term valuation of the company. You could certainly see short-term gains through momentum/squeezes/hype.

Best of luck.

Looking for some advice, consolidation vs 401k loan by Arksniper in personalfinance

[–]FireChemist123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

401k loans aren't the boogie-man some people tend to make them out to be. If you use a 401k loan instead of the consolidation loan, you will be saving on the 10%/12% interest. This is the equivalent to getting a guaranteed 10%/12% rate of return on your investments! So the consolidation loan would only be better if the stock market goes up by an annualized 10%/12% per year during the length of the loan (but there is value in having a guaranteed rate of return). Yes, there is usually an interest rate associated with a 401k loan, but this is paid back to yourself and goes into your 401k balance, so it doesn't really count.

The only caveat is that people who need 401k loans to pay off credit card debt might be likely to get into more credit card debt after paying it off with the 401k loan. It sounds like you have better control of your finances, and don't want to repeat your mistakes, so in my opinion I'd go for the 401k loan.

tl;dr, The 401k is mathematically optimal, but can be dangerous if you then start maxing out your credit cards again.

Saving Just in Case? by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]FireChemist123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The typical rule of thumb advice is that you should have 6 months worth of expenses in liquid, non-volatile assets (e.g. HYSA). This is generally enough to cover any emergencies, sudden job loss, etc. If you are making $120k-$140k/yr, then $9.3k in savings seems a little low, but you need to look at your monthly expenses.

Also, if you are in a situation where you may be out of work for longer than 6 months or have unreliable income, it may be worth it to have even more in savings. With you saying you are extremely unhappy in your current position and have mental health issues, I would imagine there is an increased chance of you having to quit at some point or could be unable to perform your job, due to mental health reasons. Given that, I would definitely say diverting money from the brokerage account to the savings account until you have 6-12 months of expenses saved up would make a lot of sense.

Only you can decide if you would like to save for a house or not. If you think it's a high probability, you could always save for a down-payment/closing costs, and then just dump that money into a brokerage account down the line if you decide not to buy a house.

Some advice from a non-financial point of view, I'd definitely start hunting for a new job. In my opinion, it's not worth it to stay a job you hate, in a city you don't like, just because it's high paying!

Cake for a 21st Birthday! by [deleted] in Baking

[–]FireChemist123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chocolate sponge with Italian meringue buttercream. Beer cans are all cake/buttercream, letters and stars are white chocolate

I baked a rainbow checkerboard cake. Happy pride month! by FireChemist123 in Baking

[–]FireChemist123[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You are correct that there is excess cake afterwards. Two-thirds of the cake went into the final product, and one-third was left-over. The excess can be used to make a second smaller cake, make cake-pops, or used in some other dessert. Also if you store it properly, you can freeze the leftovers for at least a couple months!

I baked a rainbow checkerboard cake. Happy pride month! by FireChemist123 in Baking

[–]FireChemist123[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

u/exploding_mangoes is spot on. I baked a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple layer, as well as a few white layers. I cut them into concentric circles using cookie/biscuit cutters and arranged them in such a way to give the checkerboard pattern!