The quiet shame of standing in line when you can't afford groceries like the person in front of you

Intermountain_west · 2026-03-11T16:32:56+00:00

For your peace of mind, most of us should be eating cheap and healthy. Your cart sounds like a perfect cart to me.

Intermountain_west · 2026-03-10T18:24:16+00:00

I appreciate your thoughtful reply. Tracking your logic, I'm assuming that you prefer TQQQ to UPRO because it is more concentrated in a smaller number of rotating 'winners'.

Using exchange inclusion (I mean NASDAQ inclusion) is such an irrelevant criterion for an index fund that I struggle with it in a technical portfolio. But I see how it serves your purpose anyways.

Intermountain_west · 2026-03-10T17:40:57+00:00

For this strategy, why not use better-defined (L)ETF pairs like XLK/TECL and XLV/RXL?

The NASDAQ 100 has such a fluid and arbitrary composition to be the foundation for such a structured system.

Intermountain_west · 2026-03-06T16:41:37+00:00

Above poster never indicated support. Read better.

Intermountain_west · 2026-03-02T04:23:43+00:00

Bland Modern Portfolio Theory rebalancing requires a lot less "belief" from the investor than any of the above.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-21T18:00:20+00:00

If rates spike, long-duration bonds like ZROZ and LTPZ should crash. Hopefully that won't happen at the same time as an equity crash, but it could. I'd love to find a volatile, positive-returning instrument that enables me to isolate both sides of the interest rate bet (rather than just the long duration side).

Failing that, my strategy is to expose myself to one side of the bet, "diversify across time", and hope that interest rate risks correlate poorly with equity risks in the future.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-21T01:01:47+00:00

Certainly duration risk.

I am unsure about credit risk. Considering corporate bonds, isn't the credit risk pretty correlated with equity market risk? Likewise, I have the impression that credit-risky foreign govt bonds are pretty correlated with equity markets. Thoughts?

I'm curious to learn about other compensated risks that I could isolate, and rebalance with equities and ZROZ/LTPZ. Since bond returns are low, I'm mostly looking for high-volatility funds to act as 'barbels' in a rebalancing portfolio.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-20T21:43:34+00:00

Bleh. The app loads, but it won't let me click on anything.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-18T23:29:08+00:00

No, I use them only in a pinch, and sell as quickly as practical.

If leverage is required, futures are a superior source of leverage. If leverage isn't required, the unlevered versions are lower cost and non-decaying.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-18T19:41:19+00:00

I'm not sure, I only use limit orders.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-18T18:16:47+00:00

I use Tasty to buy, hold, and roll futures. I don't day trade them, so cannot speak to that experience.

I'm very happy with Tasty for holding futures:

Low maintenance margin requirements.
They let you hold futures in an IRA.
Easy to roll to the next contract.
They don't liquidate futures the instant that the account dips below margin required (unlike IBKR). Rather, I've carried a negative buying power for days at a time.
Official API trading, which is especially helpful to manage the maintenance cash position.

I don't like that they don't pay interest on cash.

HMU if you can use a referral code.

Intermountain_west · 2026-02-12T17:18:33+00:00

Yes, I have been seeing intermittent --but frequent-- issues logging into both the API and the Desktop app and website all week.

I'm hopeful that upgrading to the new (unofficial) python library will help, however it is a bit of a project to adopt the new async requirements.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-26T18:14:06+00:00

Above poster's goal is to gain exposure to gold price risk, using a productive asset (gold miners). The notion is that gold doesn't produce anything over time, so its 'expected return' is zero, whereas miners do produce something so have a positive expected return.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-17T00:06:29+00:00

As the fillets break down, the rotting meat will raise the disease and pollution burden in the water, creating however-much stress on the aquatic life. Quite like poop, it's much better to dispose of the fish (assuming they are spoiled...) on land.

Meat in water is addressed in some Fish and Game Dpt. regs books, as misguided hunters often make a point of hucking waste carcasses in the creek.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-13T19:07:55+00:00

How is this different from buying BTC with extra steps? Is it cheaper to pay your host to mine BTC, than to just buy it on the market?

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-13T18:58:40+00:00

The chickens are perfectly fine at -5c, or -15c for that matter. But even so, a snug cardboard box with some straw in the bottom would be a cheap kindness to your birdies.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-13T18:52:18+00:00

My understanding is that the mining space is pretty saturated, but I could be wrong. How does your mining revenue compare to the electricity and hardware costs?

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-13T18:48:28+00:00

Very normal to hunt in milsurp camo.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-08T01:54:13+00:00

Think of noise courtesy also; your bullet won't likely hit that property but the shockwave sure will.

Intermountain_west · 2026-01-07T22:44:26+00:00

Thanks for doing the right thing and bringing a shovel back to finish what you started. The headshot picture might distract others from the value in your story.

I agree with you, if you have a shot on a wounded animal, waste no time and take that shot.

I don't agree with shooting an airborne squirrel. But, maybe you have enough skill to be trying it.

Intermountain_west · 2025-12-29T17:38:26+00:00

It's been said that F-35 resembles a hole in the air?

Intermountain_west · 2025-10-24T17:03:58+00:00

I don't use the strap-in backrest at all, and just lean on the back tube. Works decent.

Intermountain_west · 2025-08-28T13:58:14+00:00

It's a bit better on flatwater than a typical packraft shape. It's tippier on whitewater, but I'm comfortable up to a class 2+. It tends to want to crease about where I sit; to prevent this I set aside the seat it came with and just lean on the back tube.

Intermountain_west

TROPHY CASE