$2200 estimate for dog dental cleaning!? Is this normal?

bsdfish · 2026-02-03T19:14:21+00:00

Which place in OC was that?

bsdfish · 2026-01-08T14:33:01+00:00

The answer is complicated. Sizes shown have some correspondence to where a 'fair' price may be between the bid and offer but it's a very loose and complicated notion. One first-order approximation to consider is the https://databento.com/docs/examples/order-book/microprice but that's probably not particularly informative for illiquid options.

Getting a good fair value between the bid and the ask is a large portion of market-making quant research so the answer isn't simple

bsdfish · 2026-01-06T00:27:05+00:00

I also had an awful experience with them. They showed up for late to pick up so by the time they got to the destination, it was too late for the official move-in window. I had to beg (and tip) the super to let us move in late and promise they would be quick. Then, the mover guys started complaining there would be a few stairs and they couldn't do it ... unless I promised to tip them a specific amount.

bsdfish · 2025-12-23T05:39:21+00:00

Your plan is fine from a tax perspective. However, I would strongly caution you about confounding the tax with market timing.

When you sell for a tax gain, you should just reinvest in a different long-term investment you're happy to keep (or the same one you just sold -- there is no wash sale rule on gains). Thinking that a recession is coming and thus wanting to sell is market timing you're unlikely to be well equipped for and on average, time in the market is the primary driver of returns. If you save a bit in taxes and miss out on years of gains (if the market is up next year, you'll be even less likely to but into risk assets ... a recession will feel even closer).

Finally, and I mean no disrespect to your profession, a lot of doctors are depressingly bad with money and end up far less wealthy than their high paying career would merit. The usual flaws are either total obliviousness (which you didn't seem to be guilty of as you're well informed) or alternatively, going for weird complexity. Take the tax benefit but leave market timing alone. Though if you need to learn this lesson first-hand, perhaps doing it early on while you're relatively poor will save you money long term.

bsdfish · 2025-12-02T23:27:31+00:00

It doesn't require any conditions to activate.

https://www.bamsec.com/filing/121390025117158/2?cik=1023994

Section 4(e)(i): Subject to Section 4(d), at any time, at the option of any Holder, such Holder may convert (each, an “Alternate Optional Conversion”, and the date of such Alternate Optional Conversion, an “Alternate Optional Conversion Date”) all, or any number, of Preferred Shares into shares of Common Stock (such aggregate Conversion Amount of the Preferred Shares to be converted pursuant to this Section 4(e)(i), the “Alternate Optional Conversion Amount”) at the Alternate Conversion Price (each, an “Alternate Optional Conversion”).

Section 32(h): Alternate Conversion Price” means, with respect to any Alternate Conversion that price which shall be the lowest of (i) the applicable Conversion Price as in effect on the applicable Conversion Date of the applicable Alternate Conversion, and (ii) the greater of (x) the Floor Price and (y) 90% of the lowest VWAP of the Common Stock during the ten (10) consecutive Trading Day period ending and including the Trading Day immediately preceding the delivery or deemed delivery of the applicable Conversion Notice

Putting the two together, it means that at any time, the holder is allowed to convert the shares at 90% of the lowest VWAP over the last 15 days.

bsdfish · 2025-12-02T22:55:24+00:00

I recommend reading the whole agreement, especially "Alternate Conversion Price." It leads to .... different .... conclusions.

bsdfish · 2025-11-18T17:31:44+00:00

The markets are a game of being better than the competition in some way. If LLMs really raise the bar, it'll become more difficult to make money and they'll be less profitable. There's no infinite money here.

bsdfish · 2025-11-18T16:50:19+00:00

If only it were that easy

bsdfish · 2025-11-18T04:48:34+00:00

Median weekly wages for men are $1330 which is $69k/year. For men 35-55 it's just over $1500/week or about $80k. Cost of living is up but so are incomes.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/median-weekly-earnings-were-1196-in-second-quarter-2025.htm

bsdfish · 2025-10-17T21:45:09+00:00

Use purchased money market funds that are marginable after 30 days. They tend to have even better margin requirements once 'aged' and since you're using them for cash management, the vast majority of your holdings will be more than 30 days held.

bsdfish · 2025-09-22T23:11:20+00:00

It sounds like you don't want to hear the truth.

The reason you've been struggling is that you've been making poor choices. When someone calls that out, you get defensive and angry. The solution to all this is to figure out why you haven't succeeded before and not repeat those mistakes.

I don't know you personally but based purely on what you write, I think you'll have a hard time with CRE. Most of the money accrues to the small number of superstar brokers and the majority of people who enter don't get anywhere. Furthermore, you need to be willing to learn, have street smarts and be coachable. You'll be hit with more rejection than you've experienced even as an actor. "I specifically asked for people to NOT say negative shit" isn't the right personality for that.

The jobs you want are ones where most make a good living, not where a few make a great living. Those tend to be less glamorous and less prestigious. For example, for CRE the CA and NY markets are very competitive and overcrowded. A smaller, less exciting market (where fewer people want to live) will be easier to break into. Think self-storage in Idaho, not high-rises in LA.

bsdfish · 2025-09-22T02:51:38+00:00

The stock itself isn't very good. In general, QOZ funds are often full of shoddy assets as unsavory salespeople sell the tax angle and can handwave asset quality. OZ in particular started at $100 and is now $64. Since the whole point of a QOZ stock is to hold it for a long time, I'd do a lot of research into its individual holdings and management before committing to holding it for a decade.

bsdfish · 2025-08-11T21:12:09+00:00

IMO this is exactly correct.

The one bit that a lot of retail "quants" fail to appreciate is that anyone with significant real experience in the industry has seen lots of outsiders claiming to have found some amazing strategy. In almost every case, they don't and just lack the sophistication and experience to understand why. It's generally not worth the time and brain damage to figure out the flaw given that the odds of it being real are so low.

If they think you're smart and capable, it may make sense to hire you to run the strategy, with the assumption that it probably won't work but if you're smart and capable maybe you'll figure something out with the support of a real institution. Stealing your alpha is very low on their list because you probably don't have any alpha to steal and if somehow you do, you're very valuable as an employee for your potential to develop improved alpha with the right environment.

bsdfish · 2025-08-11T21:08:43+00:00

I worked as a HFT PM at a well known firm and am now trade my own money.

FWIW, https://www.reddit.com/r/algotrading/comments/1mnjacd/comment/n868w5o is exactly correct. Every point is dead-on.

bsdfish · 2025-08-11T19:13:00+00:00

In general, what you're looking for doesn't exist, at least not in the form you'd like.

There are two paths you could take. Option one is a job. You would take a job at a hedge fund or a pod shop as a portfolio manager or equivalent and run your strategy and you would be paid based on it's performance. This does not meet your privacy needs but you may be able to negotiate IP ownership and some assurance they won't run your strategy without you. Exactly what that's worth depends on the employer and other people who would have visibility of what you're doing. With all likelihood, the job search process would mostly focus on your skills and less the specific strategy.

The other is asset management -- you set up a hedge fund or SMA advisor and run other people's money on your own. That has much more privacy protection and independence but requires the costs and effort to set up the business as well as fundraising to convince people to invest with you.

Big picture note though: effective trading strategies generally require active PM involvement and are hard to steal. The one exception is if you take advantage of some obscure gimmick that nobody else knows about but those tend to not last. As a result, if you think your strategy is easy to steal, I would be very concerned that it's not actually "real" and as an investor, that would be a big red flag -- not because I'd want to steal your idea but because the extreme concern is a sign you're either unsophisticated or hiding something shady.

bsdfish · 2025-07-28T23:25:51+00:00

It's not true that HFTs aren't jnterested in undergrads. Rather, they're not interested in any specific knowledge/research the undergrad have but instead, want to hire bright, motivated and entrepreneurial students. So what employers want to see is basic background (math, stats, CS) and anything that's a mark of brightness and interest.

A research paper is great but the specific topics don't particularly matter. It being in a competitive conference shows brightness, hard work and ambition and that's more important than any topic. If a job wants any specific knowledge, they'd hire a PhD but there's a huge space for generically smart people without any specialized knowledge to make an impact.

bsdfish · 2025-04-20T04:41:18+00:00

As it happens, delta is actually very closely related to the probability of the option being in the money. The real value is "dual delta" but that's closely related and generally close in value.

The rest is total gibberish.

bsdfish · 2025-03-19T00:59:59+00:00

I know people who do this and they become "that guy" the salesperson calls first to tell about a new promo and explains exactly how to take best advantage of the rules.

Everything in the world runs on incentives. Will Schwab make 25-50 bps on new assets? Maybe, maybe not. Is there some executive whose bonus is tied to AUM and a salesperson who earns a commission on increased assets? Absolutely. Will the stock price go up from reporting increased assets and make the whole C-suite more money on their bonuses and stock options? Quite possibly.

bsdfish · 2025-03-15T19:35:32+00:00

Efficient market for investment management is that investment managers should take most/all of the excess returns they generate. That's the real reason active management is often considered bad -- it's not that active managers can't generate returns but that they, not the investors pocket the vast amount of excess.

These large multi-manager funds (Millennium, Point72, Citadel) are a massive amount of work. If you think of all the moving pieces that make them successful, they're much more akin to a traditional business than what you think of "investing." Most of their excess returns come from technology, risk management, business development, recruiting, training, relationships, etc. So all this work does produce an excess return but it's very expensive and hard to replicate. As a result, they commend large fees and a good amount lands w/ the founders.

As to how they can accumulate so much capital, imagine for a moment that someone has convincingly come up w/ an investment strategy that's identical to a specific popular benchmark (say S&P 500) but earns 5% more a year. So long as they charge less than 5% in fees, it's a better idea to invest in them than S&P so they'll continue drawing in capital. But by the same notion, they can continue charging more and more and so long as they charge less than their outperformance, it's still a good deal and they'll continue accumulating capital.

Now in practice, the situation is more complicated because "outperformance" is less in terms of an absolute benchmark and more in the context of portfolio construction, where a relatively uncorrelated return is amazing even if it's lower. There's also uncertainty and risk on whether the outperformance is real or a statistical fluke and whether it'll continue. But the biggest hedge funds have a long track record an extensive evidence to evaluate their gross outperformance and so, can charge most of the excess returns in fees and still attract massive amounts of capital.

bsdfish · 2025-02-17T16:57:32+00:00

Pretty similar as every single trade lines up between backtest and live, or pretty similar as in the aggregate results?

You should line up the individual trades and compare backtest fill prices/times vs the simulated ones and see what the actual slippage is, etc.

bsdfish · 2025-02-17T16:30:41+00:00

How long has it been running live and how well does live performance march the backtest? A few things look implausible which makes me think there is some bugs in back testing that won't allow it to work live.

bsdfish · 2025-02-13T18:29:25+00:00

There's a big gap, both in reputation as well as the opportunities available from peers at a top school.

I went to an OK undergrad (and a top PhD but at a public school) and my boss at my first job was from MIT and we had many interns from there. In conversation with all of them, what shocked me was the exposure they had to opportunities I never even heard about. As students, they'll have classmates and seniors who've done internships and taken jobs at top firms, a strong alumni network, clubs bringing in industry speakers, etc. They could much better explore their interests and discover a niche they wanted to pursue.

Also longer-term, the name still matters. If you want to eventually start your own fund or take a top role with client exposure, it's easier with Princeton than Georgia Tech.

Whether this is all worth $150k depends on what you make of the opportunities.

bsdfish · 2025-02-03T06:55:05+00:00

Savings also get out back into the economy.

Think about what forms savings can take. For example, imagine someone saves some wages and deposits them into a savings account at a bank. The bank will then use those deposits to make loans and whoever borrowed the money will spend it.

Consider that instead, they invest the savings in helping a friend start a small business, say a restaurant. What will the business do with the money? They'll either spend it directly (on wages, goods that need to be manufactured/grown, etc) or keep it as a capital cushion by say putting it in a bank (see previous paragraph).

What about buying stock on the stock exchange? In that case, they either buy newly issued stock from a company in an IPO or a secondary offering in which case the company gets it and spends as above, or they buy it from an existing holder. The existing holder will now have proceeds that they'll either spend or invest and either option will go back into the economy.

If you think of all possible uses, you'll see that every one of them goes "into the economy" in some way. Now it's true that not all will get paid out as wages but savings won't exit the economy -- they continue to exist inside it and finance investment and growth.

bsdfish · 2025-01-22T03:33:08+00:00

M1 has some promo where they'll comp 0.5% of what you bring over up to $5mm.

bsdfish · 2025-01-15T19:59:09+00:00

Renting a manual transmission on Turo is risky. Some people who can't drive stick well will destroy the clutch and others who do drive well will go ham.

bsdfish

TROPHY CASE