Here in Seattle (and over on the Eastside, aka Redmond) we've got a fair number of these Slacker millionaires. Some live the high life, but most are the people who ride the bus and take their yacht out when the weather's nice.
Some glom on to fame, by buying their way in to parties with acquisitions of theaters and so on, but most seem to be pretty level headed people. Of course, they don't get as much press as the Nouveau Riche Slackers who flaunt their wealth all the time.
Speaking of secret handshakes, did anyone notice that when George W. Bush came to Seattle, his speech was at The Ruins, a secret club (literally, I parked outside of them and if I hadn't known who they were, I would have thought it was an abandoned industrial facility) for "right" thinking people?
You can bet he's backing UCITA. Although he probably thinks that's a United Nations program for reading development.
I agree with Rendent. If we complain too much, we might get what we want and that would be bad. After all, only rich people should be doing IPOs anyway, just like UCITA protects us from minimizing the wealth potential of Bill Gates.
Heck, I work at an HMO and just say I'm in databases and the web sites and make more per hour worked (only 40/week) than the doctors and lawyers do. Suddenly, the lights go on in their eyes.
Think about it: Good earning potential, can pick up kids after work, will help with housework.
(bare minimum) 1. Have at least $50K in liquid assets (cash, money market). 2. Have made at least 75 trades over the past year. 3. Be an Agressive Investor. 4. Hold for the long term. Which means not sell the day of the IPO.
or
1. Have at least $500K. 2. they don't care about the rest that much
Capiche?
You can retake the test, Mr. Honesty. Just do it again.
They are one of the lead underwriters. It's on EDGAR, on the SEC forms.
Which is why you (stange as this sounds) have a far better chance, even with all these silly rules they've imposed, have a far better chance of getting RHAT shares through E*TRADE than if you use one of the other brokerage firms.
I mean, I'll get some there, but not as many as I'd like. I'm willing to take my chances on E*TRADE for some more shares, and can always use the extra services to kind of balance out my portfolio. So if I just buy a few shares of a stock, I'll use E*TRADE, but when I make an order of more than $10K, I'll do it on the larger accounts with the larger brokers (I use Schwab and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter).
When your broker works for a firm that is a market maker, frequently the brokerage will fill your order at a price DIFFERENT than the current Bid/Ask. I sometimes get my limit buy orders filled in those cute little blips you see where the price "dips" down for a brief shining instant. Basically, since I'm a good customer, as is my family (helps if we're talking millions), they'd rather sell to me at 68 1/2 and keep my business then sell to someone else at 68 9/16 who isn't a normal customer. Since during that day they held millions of shares that they may have bought when it dipped down to 67, they still make a profit, both from their inventory (reported as corporate profit of the brokerage), and from their commission.
And yes, I've actually BEEN a market maker more than once, in a few lightly traded stocks and bonds. Kind of wierd seeing the blips and realizing that's you.
Yeah, I put my $50+K in too. The thing that gets me about this is, on my other (full service) account (at another broker), I've got them promising to get my shares when they're offered (up to $100K), but on E*TRADE, they won't even let me get put on the list. I'm willing to pay for a phone call to get the shares...
Will in Seattle at least I get interest on the money
Seeing as Adobe is now located in the center of the universe (TM), the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, you'd think they'd get with the locals and push Linux tools.
Steve Balmier Microserf P.S.: Please lowball our profit estimates so we can wow them again and drive the stock price up. I want to buy Micronesia and turn it into a theme park.
While I'm sure you have good intentions, it's attitudes like that which keep us from actually getting off this dirt ball before the big one hits and all life is expunged.
If it weren't for SETI and NASA using cheap collaborative methods, we would have no chance of any long-term survival.
Yes, the NSA is bad, but leave SETI out of it, ok?
Will in Seattle they don't call it the Space Needle for nothing and if my code there fails, oops...
Slashdot Mirror
Here in Seattle (and over on the Eastside, aka Redmond) we've got a fair number of these Slacker millionaires. Some live the high life, but most are the people who ride the bus and take their yacht out when the weather's nice.
Some glom on to fame, by buying their way in to parties with acquisitions of theaters and so on, but most seem to be pretty level headed people. Of course, they don't get as much press as the Nouveau Riche Slackers who flaunt their wealth all the time.
Kind of like those E*Trade commercials, really.
Oh, I thought Bill G bought it with his coffee money today.
;-)
Which is what Inprise did, when they finally went back to having Borland.
Sad, but true.
Sigh.
Reminds me of some of the South Sea Bubble companies. "Trust me, we'll make money from the riches of the Americas\\\\\\\\Internet."
If you play the slots at Reno, you might as well go for this, it's of the same quality of investment.
Hello! This is so yesterday.
Like, read the Seattle Times (www.seattletimes.com) or the Seattle P-I (www.seattlepi.com) and he's publicly saying this is not true.
Never trust a Brit Pub to get the facts straight.
His dad's just miffed because Bill's poll numbers have dropped, so he made it sound better than it was.
Besides, $10 million isn't much these days - I plan on leaving that much to my son.
Face it, it's not going to be better under George W. Bush either. He'll hand the keys to our individual rights faster than Clinton.
What we need is a dual citizen of both the US and Europe to sue the US govt and get us the same privacy rights as the Europeans have.
Anybody want to do that?
Speaking of secret handshakes, did anyone notice that when George W. Bush came to Seattle, his speech was at The Ruins, a secret club (literally, I parked outside of them and if I hadn't known who they were, I would have thought it was an abandoned industrial facility) for "right" thinking people?
You can bet he's backing UCITA. Although he probably thinks that's a United Nations program for reading development.
Yup, I can see it now. Sheesh.
Seriously, though, if you do buy RHAT, just buy and forget. Own the stock, vote the stock, but don't follow it every day in the market.
You'll be much happier.
In Seattle, you have to stick your servers in the attic, it's too damp in the basement and floods. I put them in my kitchen.
I agree with Rendent. If we complain too much, we might get what we want and that would be bad. After all, only rich people should be doing IPOs anyway, just like UCITA protects us from minimizing the wealth potential of Bill Gates.
NOT!
Heck, I work at an HMO and just say I'm in databases and the web sites and make more per hour worked (only 40/week) than the doctors and lawyers do. Suddenly, the lights go on in their eyes.
Think about it: Good earning potential, can pick up kids after work, will help with housework.
Which means: total babe magnet.
IPO of $28, high of first day about $105, down to $30s right now. I'm just waiting for $30 to buy it.
They want you to:
(bare minimum)
1. Have at least $50K in liquid assets (cash, money market).
2. Have made at least 75 trades over the past year.
3. Be an Agressive Investor.
4. Hold for the long term. Which means not sell the day of the IPO.
or
1. Have at least $500K.
2. they don't care about the rest that much
Capiche?
You can retake the test, Mr. Honesty. Just do it again.
Hey, guys, stop staring at the shining dollar.
Aren't we supposed to "make sure that Red Hat remains true to Open Source goals"?
Or did we all lose religion when the first chance of making a buck became obvious.
Sure, sell a little to cover the purchase cost, but keep the rest to make Red Hat honest.
OK?
Heck, we're not one of those old, tired "Machines". We're one of those new, cool "Bots".
Never mind that it's 20th Century, they think it's new, so revel in your "Bot" status.
Resistance is Futile.
I just phoned them and cleared it all up.
It's the 1-888 number in the letter.
They are one of the lead underwriters. It's on EDGAR, on the SEC forms.
Which is why you (stange as this sounds) have a far better chance, even with all these silly rules they've imposed, have a far better chance of getting RHAT shares through E*TRADE than if you use one of the other brokerage firms.
I mean, I'll get some there, but not as many as I'd like. I'm willing to take my chances on E*TRADE for some more shares, and can always use the extra services to kind of balance out my portfolio. So if I just buy a few shares of a stock, I'll use E*TRADE, but when I make an order of more than $10K, I'll do it on the larger accounts with the larger brokers (I use Schwab and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter).
When your broker works for a firm that is a market maker, frequently the brokerage will fill your order at a price DIFFERENT than the current Bid/Ask. I sometimes get my limit buy orders filled in those cute little blips you see where the price "dips" down for a brief shining instant. Basically, since I'm a good customer, as is my family (helps if we're talking millions), they'd rather sell to me at 68 1/2 and keep my business then sell to someone else at 68 9/16 who isn't a normal customer. Since during that day they held millions of shares that they may have bought when it dipped down to 67, they still make a profit, both from their inventory (reported as corporate profit of the brokerage), and from their commission.
And yes, I've actually BEEN a market maker more than once, in a few lightly traded stocks and bonds. Kind of wierd seeing the blips and realizing that's you.
Exactly. They sure treat you better when you've got more than half a million in an account, based on my experience.
Which is not fair - your money should be as good as my money.
Yeah, I put my $50+K in too. ...
The thing that gets me about this is, on my other (full service) account (at another broker), I've got them promising to get my shares when they're offered (up to $100K), but on E*TRADE, they won't even let me get put on the list. I'm willing to pay for a phone call to get the shares
Will in Seattle
at least I get interest on the money
Seeing as Adobe is now located in the center of the universe (TM), the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, you'd think they'd get with the locals and push Linux tools.
Will in Seattle
It has anything to do with my barcoding the purchase of a few Linux servers and a whole bunch of software, including Civ:CTP for Linux, recently.
...
Since I'm one of those Neilsen Home Shoppers
We are not amused.
Sincerely,
Steve Balmier
Microserf
P.S.: Please lowball our profit estimates so we can wow them again and drive the stock price up. I want to buy Micronesia and turn it into a theme park.
Try something easy like two dice superimposed on a dollar sign.
Will in Seattle
money, money, money
should be funny
in a rich man's world
While I'm sure you have good intentions, it's attitudes like that which keep us from actually getting off this dirt ball before the big one hits and all life is expunged.
...
If it weren't for SETI and NASA using cheap collaborative methods, we would have no chance of any long-term survival.
Yes, the NSA is bad, but leave SETI out of it, ok?
Will in Seattle
they don't call it the Space Needle for nothing
and if my code there fails, oops