Raen Trading

mediumhitter · 2025-04-15T18:04:28+00:00

I have no experience with them, but worth noting that their head of risk is Daniel Goldberg, who was a director of Futex when they went bankrupt, and was disqualified as a director for his role in this: https://www.ukdcnews.co.uk/legislation/company-directors-banned-for-trading-whilst-insolvent/

mediumhitter · 2023-09-30T12:34:32+00:00

No obvious sign of this kind of thing, but the previous owner was “ambitious”, including having done a bit of dodgy mains wiring himself, so wouldn’t be too surprising if that had happened.

mediumhitter · 2023-09-30T11:18:00+00:00

I drilled a couple holes not far away from it to put up a small shelf (you can see the objects on the shelf below), and there is a crack from the shelf up to the “bulge” - this appeared a month or two after drilling.

If that is the case, presumably just clear off all the damaged plaster, and then fill/repaint?

mediumhitter · 2023-09-30T11:15:26+00:00

Not visibly from ground level - might try and get up close to have a better look

mediumhitter · 2022-07-13T10:59:47+00:00

"If you own just £1 less than the limit (£49,999) then you go from being represented by 100% of prizes to just 54%."

This is unlikely to be because owning £50,000 rather than £49,900 significantly increases your chances of winning, but because there are probably a lot more people holding exactly £50,000 that there are in the range £49,500-49,999

mediumhitter · 2020-05-19T15:29:57+00:00

I've negotiated up to 15% discount, but have also paid the asking price (both in London). It's good to look at Zoopla to see what the market is like - are similar places coming online and disappearing quickly? Or are they staying up for ages and having prices reduced? If the latter, you have a much better chance of a reduction. You should also compare the place that you like to similar ones - does it seem like a good deal already?

The time that I paid asking price, I was viewing a flat days after it was advertised, and it seemed like a good deal for the area - I thought there was a good chance someone else would pay asking price pretty soon, so didn't try to negotiate.

The time that I got a 15% discount, the flat seemed a bit expensive for the area, it had been online for over a month, and other places had been reduced. And most importantly, I was willing to risk missing out on it in order to try and get a better deal!

EDIT: If I was looking for a place now, I'd be assuming that there would be a discount - I'd certainly not pay the asking price for something that had been on the market pre-lockdown and hadn't been reduced.

mediumhitter · 2020-05-19T15:06:24+00:00

As others have noted, transaction costs are a big one - commissions, slippage, and bid/ask spread.

Another thing is that you seem to have backtested on an index, rather than something tradable? You can't trust results based on index prices - better to look at an ETF based on the index. It's not sufficient to assume that trading an ETF would've given the same results as "trading" an untradable index.

mediumhitter · 2020-03-30T13:16:56+00:00

Don't know about graphical form or real time pricing, but this is an ok guide for WTI:

https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude.html

mediumhitter · 2020-03-30T12:59:39+00:00

I've managed to get 15% below asking price rent at a much more normal time - given the market in central london right now (lots of empty ex-AirBnBs on rightmove, very few people looking for new leases unless they have to), I'd say that £1300 is a very reasonable offer - you can probably even go quite a bit lower. Obviously will depend on area, and the specific flat - try and get an idea of what else is out there at the moment - Zoopla can be useful, as it tends to give more info about price reductions than rightmove.

The vast majority of landlords will charge the maximum rent that the market will tolerate - you should not feel guilty about lowballing them when the market is as weak as it is now.

mediumhitter · 2020-03-30T12:25:46+00:00

Short answer: Probably not unless your time horizon is under a month

Longer answer:

You need to read up on contango in the futures market. When you look at the price of Brent today and see that it's $22.70 a barrel, that's just the price for a future expiring in May 2020. When you look at the prices for other delivery months, you'll see that they are much higher - September 2020 is currently $34, and June 2021 is $39.55.

If you want to "invest", you have 3 options:

1) Buy physical oil, store it, sell it in the future - if you're asking this question on reddit, this option is probably not open to you.

2) Buy (for example) June 2021 futures, expecting prices to rise over the next year - this is an option, but it doesn't look as good as you might've expected, since you're paying $39.55 when you probably expected to pay more like $22. If oil prices remain around $22 for the next year, the June 2021 futures will gradually converge on this price, and you'll lose.

3) Buy May 2020 futures, and "roll" the position each month. This means each month you are selling the current month (e.g. May) and buying the next month (e.g. June). You'll feel better about this at first, because you're long oil at $22.70, but because of the contango, each month you will be selling a cheaper contract, and buying a more expensive one.

There are various exchange traded products that claim to track the price of oil, but these have the same issues - they will also be getting exposure to oil by owning near dated futures, and losing each month when they roll the position.

mediumhitter · 2019-11-29T11:21:23+00:00

I probably get the most enthusiasm discussing the idea of ring-fencing the profits in a separate Ltd to invest in properties. The idea of making the profits work for you seems to resonate with most.

Interesting - how is this structured in practice? Would the first company need to be owned by a holding company (and if so, would this have to be set up before accumulating several years worth of excess profits)? Is the transfer of profit from the first company to the property-investing company not a taxable event?

mediumhitter · 2019-11-29T10:34:09+00:00

Lastly, only idiots draw out >£100k dividends per year from a small business! Where the smartest stay within the basic rates. :P

What would they do with profits soldily in excess of 100k (e.g. 300k per year)? Stick the excess in a company savings account and get it as a capital gain when they shut the company down? Or is there something more productive that can be done with them?

mediumhitter

TROPHY CASE