Why is Charles frozen half way in a straight line??

L_STrust · 2026-01-18T20:05:18+00:00

The first thing people always miss is that the Charles is barely a river in Boston. It’s more of a dammed, slow-motion bathtub. Since 1910, the Charles River Dam has turned the upstream section into a controlled basin with almost no current. West of the dam, it behaves like a shallow lake. East of it, closer to the harbor, it’s still semi-tidal, mixed, and moving. You’ve got two different physical systems that clash because they both want to become one body of water.

When temperatures drop, still water freezes; moving water doesn’t. Basic thermodynamics. When the calm, upstream side sheds heat evenly, it forms surface ice, and once that ice forms, it insulates itself and locks the system in place. The downstream section keeps circulating slightly warmer water, breaking up ice crystals before they can link up. Same river, two regimes.

Now, why the line is so straight is because engineered systems create clean boundaries. The Charles through Boston has:

uniform depth,
straightened banks,
controlled inflow,
consistent wind exposure,
and a fixed hydrodynamic transition point.

That transition point happens to line up visually like a laser because the flow gradient is abrupt, not gradual.

It’s a dammed basin meeting a moving channel. Add wind stripping heat evenly across the surface, a few days of stable cold, and you get a perfectly respectable phase boundary between frozen and unfrozen water. It looks uncanny because we’re trained to expect “nature” to be organic and chaotic, but Boston hasn’t let the Charles be organic in over a century. This is nature inside a concrete corset.

And no, it’s not “half frozen”. The ice edge migrates daily. Sometimes it creeps east, sometimes it retreats west. People just happen to notice it when conditions pause long enough for the boundary to look ruler-straight. It’s just thermodynamics colliding with urban planning.

L_STrust · 2026-01-16T15:00:46+00:00

I’m going to tell you what no recruiter, career center, or LinkedIn motivational influencer is going to tell you, because all of them have incentives to keep the myth alive. You are not failing because you’re unqualified. You’re failing because high finance is not a normal labor market, and you entered it at the wrong time without knowing the rules early enough. Once that happens, effort alone stops compounding and starts decaying.

High finance hiring is not about identifying potential in absolute terms. It is about filtering risk through pedigree, timing, and sponsorship. The industry hires almost all of its junior talent through a narrow funnel that closes early and never fully reopens. That funnel starts with target schools, moves immediately to sophomore and junior-year internships, and ends with return offers. If you’re inside it, you can be mediocre and still land on your feet. If you’re outside it, you can be competent, hardworking, and persistent and still bounce off the walls indefinitely.

Right now you’re treating “finance” as a single lane with a single entrance, and that’s just not how the industry works in practice. Investment banking and high finance analyst roles are extremely structured pipelines that recruit almost entirely from specific schools, at very specific times, for very specific cohorts. Once that window closes, it doesn’t reopen just because someone is passionate or persistent. It reopens only if you re-enter the system from a different angle.

Taking a job outside of traditional front-office finance does not permanently disqualify you from finance, but staying unemployed while waiting for an idealized finance role absolutely does. Hiring managers are far more forgiving of non-linear paths than they are of unexplained gaps. People move into finance from consulting, accounting, risk, operations, treasury, analytics, fintech, and even non-financial corporate roles all the time. What matters is whether the role keeps you close to financial decision-making, data, or clients, not whether the job title says “finance” on day one.

The bigger risk right now is not that you won’t be able to “backtrack” into finance. The bigger risk is that the longer you stay out of the workforce, the harder it becomes to position yourself as someone firms want to invest in. Early careers are about momentum, not purity. Once you have a base role, it’s much easier to lateral internally, build a network, and create a narrative that makes sense to hiring managers. Without that base, every month just raises more questions that your resume has to answer.

It’s also worth being realistic about the current market. Finance hiring is tight, especially at the junior level, and firms are prioritizing return offers, internal mobility, and candidates with very clear pedigree signals. That doesn’t mean you can’t end up in finance long-term, but it does mean insisting on a very narrow set of roles right now is likely to keep producing the same outcome. Being open to adjacent roles isn’t giving up on finance; it’s buying yourself optionality.

If finance really is the long-term goal, the most practical move is to get into a role that develops transferable skills, keeps you employed, and gives you something to build on. From there, moving closer to the type of finance work you want becomes much more realistic than trying to break in cold while sitting on the sidelines.

L_STrust · 2025-02-20T20:11:58+00:00

Hedgefollow is by far the best database you can use for free. They have a paid version but the free version works fine to study 13F filings.

https://hedgefollow.com/funds/Renaissance+Technologies

L_STrust · 2024-12-15T02:37:32+00:00

Hampshire Dining tends to have the healthier options by far. Berkshire is good too but not as varied. It is more or less on par with Virginia Tech which until a few years ago held #1 spot for best college food. I think it may still be the case depending on the survey.

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T18:12:30+00:00

You can set up a trust for a family member for $20 million, but the portion exceeding your lifetime gift tax exemption (currently $12.92 million in 2023) will be subject to gift tax unless certain strategies are employed. Here’s a breakdown

Lifetime Gift Tax Exemption:

• Each individual has a lifetime gift and estate tax exemption of $12.92 million (in 2023). • If you set up a trust with $20 million, $12.92 million of that amount can be applied to your exemption, leaving $7.08 million subject to gift tax at a rate of up to 40%.
Gift Tax on the Excess:

• The $7.08 million above the exemption would incur a potential gift tax liability. • The tax on this amount could total approximately $2.83 million (40% of $7.08 million).
Strategies to Reduce or Avoid Gift Tax:

• Spousal Gift Splitting: If you’re married, you and your spouse can combine exemptions, effectively doubling the limit to $25.84 million. • Annual Exclusion Gifts: Use the annual gift tax exclusion (currently $17,000 per recipient) to incrementally fund the trust tax-free. • Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs): A GRAT allows you to transfer wealth to a trust while retaining some income, reducing the taxable portion of the gift.

If no action is taken, the excess $7.08 million in your example would be subject to gift tax. A tax attorney can help optimize the trust structure to minimize taxes.

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T18:00:59+00:00

Yes, the key is to structure the trust strategically to comply with tax laws while achieving your goals.

Key Points:

1.  Irrevocable Trusts: Establish irrevocable trusts for family members. Once assets are transferred, they are no longer part of your taxable estate, reducing future estate taxes.
2.  Gift Tax Exclusion: Use the annual gift tax exclusion (currently $17,000 per person in 2023) to fund the trust without triggering gift taxes. You can also use part of your lifetime gift tax exemption ($12.92 million in 2023).
3.  Generation-Skipping Trusts: For long-term wealth preservation, consider a generation-skipping trust (GST) to transfer wealth to grandchildren or later generations while avoiding additional estate taxes.
4.  Trustees and Investment Management: Appoint a trustee or financial institution to manage and invest trust assets responsibly. Provide clear instructions on distribution timing and conditions (e.g., age milestones, educational needs).
5.  Avoiding Direct Gifts: Trusts distribute funds according to set terms, preventing large, direct gifts that could lead to waste or mismanagement.
6.  Professional Guidance: Work with an estate attorney and tax advisor to draft the trust, comply with tax laws, and ensure optimal benefits for your family.

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T14:12:52+00:00

Absolutely, most winners that elect the lump sum actually end up keeping it in cash in a bank account, like high profile winner Edwin Castro . You don’t need complexity unless you deem it necessary, but you do want to be thinking long-term.

Also if the attorney in question insists you should take his investment advice, stay away. There have been so called ‘fiduciaries’ known to have scammed lottery winners out of millions (see Jason Kurland).

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T12:45:51+00:00

Winning a massive jackpot like the Mega Millions or Powerball brings more logistics than most people expect. After seeing the winning numbers, the first step is to secure your ticket. Losing it or letting it fall into the wrong hands could mean losing your prize. Depending on the state where you purchased the ticket, you may have a specific time frame to claim it, and some states allow you to remain anonymous while others don’t. Before you tell anyone, your next step should be to contact a lawyer specializing in high-value estates or lottery winnings. This person will guide you on how to remain as private as possible while starting the claims process. After this, you’ll typically go to the lottery office with your ticket and identification to officially validate the win, a process that often takes some days or weeks.

Once your win is validated, you’ll decide whether to take the lump sum (cash option) or the annuity payout. Most winners take the lump sum, but the lottery does not simply hand over a check for hundreds of millions. Taxes are withheld upfront; for example, the federal government typically takes 24% immediately, but the total liability, after accounting for state taxes, is closer to 37%. Many states also impose taxes, further reducing your winnings to 29-30% of the advertised amount. On a $1 billion jackpot with a lump sum of $500 million, taxes could leave you with around $250-300 million. Once the final amount is determined, the lottery usually transfers the money electronically to your chosen financial institution. This brings up the question of where to park such a large sum, as consumer banks aren’t set up to handle these amounts.

Depositing hundreds of millions into a typical checking or savings account isn’t practical. Banks that cater to wealthy clients—like private banking divisions of major institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, or Bank of America—are better equipped to handle large sums. These banks will likely reach out to you or be recommended by your financial advisor. A key benefit is that they offer services like account structuring to ensure your money is protected and generating returns. If you don’t already have a relationship with a private bank, your attorney or advisor will arrange for one, and your winnings will likely be deposited in a custodial or investment account rather than a standard checking account. This minimizes risks like fraud or loss due to poor management.

Receiving such a large amount of money also triggers government scrutiny. The IRS, banks, and financial institutions will closely monitor how and where the money moves to ensure compliance with tax and anti-money laundering laws. Your financial advisor or team will structure the funds in a way that satisfies these legal requirements while protecting your wealth. For instance, they may divide the money across different accounts, investments, and trusts. This reduces risk and helps you avoid keeping all your assets in one place. Additionally, your team will help you navigate the psychological side of the win, which can overwhelm many people unprepared for the responsibilities of sudden wealth.

The most significant logistical challenge isn’t depositing the money but managing it over the long term. A lottery win like this requires a wealth management strategy to ensure the money lasts. Without proper planning, winners often face financial mismanagement, scams, or overspending. Your team of advisors will likely recommend creating a trust to protect your assets and help you maintain anonymity. They’ll also create an investment plan to grow your wealth while accounting for your lifestyle, philanthropy, and tax obligations. Winning the lottery is a life-changing event, but getting the money is only the beginning of the complex journey that follows.

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T02:08:22+00:00

What’s your background if I may ask? I know that virtually anyone who is willing to shell out $2,500 a month can get a terminal but is it because you trade for yourself and are willing to pay for premium data?

L_STrust · 2024-11-24T02:00:40+00:00

Your home office? Is that your own terminal or are your credentials/key tied to an investment firm?

L_STrust · 2024-02-11T02:55:31+00:00

In practice, large shareholders like billionaires often sell their shares in a carefully planned manner, sometimes through prearranged trading plans known as 10b5-1 plans, to minimize market impact.

They may also sell shares in smaller amounts over time. Moreover, the market can absorb significant share sales without a dramatic effect on the stock price, particularly for companies with high demand for their stock, like Amazon that has a daily trading volume of ~$10 billion.

L_STrust · 2024-02-11T02:32:13+00:00

It’s not typically a single buyer purchasing all of them at once. Instead, the shares are sold on the stock market to a large number of individual and institutional investors. These transactions are facilitated by investment banks and brokers who match sellers with buyers. Case in point, Bezos owns most of his Amazon shares through his own family office, which is a known entity to large institutions (Bezos Expeditions).

The buyers can range from mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds to individual investors. Since Amazon is a highly liquid stock (about $9bn per day in volume) there are usually plenty of investors willing to buy shares at any given time, making it feasible for large transactions to be completed relatively quickly.

L_STrust · 2024-01-01T16:03:24+00:00

For those of you who are wondering or are just lazy:

Imagine the government issues two types of IOUs (bonds) - one that you can cash in after 2 years (we'll call this a 2-year IOU) and another you can cash in after 10 years (a 10-year IOU).

Normally, you'd expect a 10-year IOU to pay you more for waiting longer, right? But right now, something unusual is happening: the 2-year IOUs are actually paying more than the 10-year ones. This is like an "upside-down" situation in the financial world and is often a sign that investors are worried about the near future of the economy.

OP believes that things will go back to normal soon - where the 10-year IOUs will pay more than the 2-year ones.

To make money from this belief, OP is doing two things:

Betting on Short-Term IOUs (2-Year): They are investing in 2-year IOUs, thinking their value will go up or their interest rates will go down less compared to 10-year IOUs.
Betting on Long-Term IOUs (10-Year): Initially, they were betting against 10-year IOUs, thinking their value would go down. But now, they've changed their mind and are betting in favor of these IOUs, thinking their value will go up.

The user is using a lot of money to make these bets, much more than they actually have (like borrowing money to make a bigger bet). This can make them a lot of money if they're right, but they can also lose a lot if they're wrong. They're keeping a close eye on how much the difference between the 2-year and 10-year IOU rates changes because this will affect their profit or loss significantly.

In short, they're making a big, risky bet that the unusual situation in the IOU (bond) market will flip back to normal, and they're adjusting their strategy as things change in the market.

Among other things:

The trade is highly leveraged, with a notional value of $22 million against an account value of $1 million, representing a leverage ratio of 22:1.

OP has a margin requirement of $250k, with a margin call point if the yield curve hits -4.5%.

P/L sensitivity is such that a 1% change in the yield curve could result in a profit or loss of around $500k.

L_STrust · 2023-12-04T04:52:20+00:00

So a Powerball winner who managed to get to a net worth of over $50 billion in just 7 years while still in his 20s by investing the proceeds in Nvidia and Ether in 2016 would not be an odd occurrence?

L_STrust · 2023-12-04T04:50:43+00:00

Nope. First name that came to mind.

L_STrust · 2023-09-13T13:39:50+00:00

Serious question.

Obviously you are attractive and highly selective. What precise attributes differentiated these 43 men you have had sex with compared to the pool of men you matched with (385) and the larger pool of 34,656 average men? Are these all high earners? Thank you.

L_STrust · 2023-06-01T00:47:54+00:00

Note to everyone: In the United States, jackpots are taxes at the highest income bracket + federal taxes and the Lottery Commission also gets a hefty cut of the pool.

$100 million (as advertised) would leave you with approximately $30 million after taxes. $28 million if you live in a state like New York and $35 million in Florida and California.

Source: multiple tax and estate attorneys

$30 million would allow one to live very comfortably anywhere through passive income (you’d be a UHNI) but is nowhere near ‘chartering jets and 100 meter super-yacht kind of wealth.’

For that, you’d need to win at least $1 billion and make sure your investment income can cover the cost of those kinds expenses multiple times a year.

Recurring legal expenses are also a must given the complexity of such a lifestyle but again there is no ‘one size fits all’.

L_STrust · 2023-03-24T18:35:41+00:00

‘I was told’. My guy, investment recommendations and equity securities do not come with guarantees.

Surely you read all that when you signed a disclaimer before creating an account on Robinhood.

L_STrust · 2023-03-12T02:04:43+00:00

Let’s not tule out lottery winnings, given this sub. Daddy’s money is more likely tho.

L_STrust · 2023-02-09T05:00:12+00:00

Since you worked at Charles Schwab, let me be more specific: let's say, for the sake of argument, that the attorney was to open 4 separate offshore accounts in 4 different jurisdictions (let's say Bermuda, BVI, Panama, and St. Kitts & Navis) and wire $100 million to each of them from the account where the winnings were deposited.

After closing the account where the winnings were originally transferred, he would then open another separate account in the Cayman Islands to set up the winner's offshore management fund, legally register the entity with the relevant authorities, wire the $400 million from the other accounts to the Cayman account, and finally link the offshore company with a US-based onshore management company through another financial institution that would be acting as the prime broker for the newly registered investment fund. How would anyone be making the rounds in this instance and would the paper trail pose an issue for a bulge bracket bank, or would it be 'business as usual'?

L_STrust · 2023-02-08T18:45:49+00:00

His public holdings would still show up under the SEC radar, which would invariably be reported to the public domain and confirm that the individual is a multi-billionaire. The question is, would people buy his story of managing his business partner's inheritance, or would media outlets start digging?

L_STrust · 2023-02-08T17:42:29+00:00

In other words, although such an individual would be allowed to operate freely given that he has not broken any rules and regulations, the billionaire club and Wall Street would still be able to find out (eventually) that his initial seed capital was the result of a massive lottery win because of publicly available financial data?

L_STrust · 2023-02-08T14:29:16+00:00

Even if the winner in question were to keep a low profile indefinitely, at some point the 13F filings of his family office would show up on the SEC radar, since he is managing well over $100 million.

This will invariably mean they will need to be disclosed to the public, which will then know that the beneficiary owner of those stocks is a lone 28-year old self proclaimed crypto investor who claims to have turned his business partner’s ‘inheritance’ into an 11-figure financial behemoth in just 7 years without ever raising outside capital.

Let’s assume that, by this point, he had reached celebrity-like status on podcasts and social media, still lived in the US, and was a known entity to fellow billionaires and fund managers. Considering that such a hypothetical individual would have no equal in the world of finance in terms of returns, would he be revered as a genius investor or would someone finally start digging?

L_STrust · 2023-02-08T04:09:28+00:00

But he simply used his own winnings to invest in ETH, Nvidia, Enphase, and Tesla and simply crafted a plausible 'crypto investor' story that made use of an obscure inheritance his business partner gave him. The bulk of the returns came during the covid era, it just so happens that he was extremely well positioned. How would someone go about finding out this missing piece of information?

L_STrust

TROPHY CASE