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Suyash Basnet@0lazytrader0
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Beginner Investors · 1h

Big Loss
Had to sell $DEFT for a huge loss of $2700 as I no longer felt like holding and believing that it might make a crazy move anytime soon. However, bought more of $SKHY as earnings are being reported soon, and hopefully this time I might turn more profitable than what I had to lose.
I guess not every battle needs to be won, sometimes an arrow to your chest makes you a lot more stronger!!
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32 views
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Lisa
@retired
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Crypto · 🔥 Hot

Bitcoin is Moving ⬆️
Can someone explain what is causing bitcoin to move?

+2.34%

0.6% held

1,954 views
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LM @retiredyoung
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Personal Finance · ⭐ Featured

Preparing for the inevitable.
I am currently 47 years old. Unfortunately in that time frame I have lost a lot of family members. Some (most) were accidents, some to age, some to cancer, and one to suicide. That’s 11 deaths total. Only 1 person out of 11 had a will.
When you are grieving the last thing you want to do is close an estate up.
It’s even harder if nothing has been prepared in advance.
After the initial shock of the death settles (the phase where everyone is usually nice), greed comes through in a most alarming manner. I’ve watched people turn into monsters. Make sure you have a will!!!! or people will fight. 

I know most people hate thinking about their death or their spouses death but honestly it’s just a fact of life.

I’ve personally been the executor of 2 estates now.

This is my advice:

1. If your young get life insurance. If you’re retired it’s not worth it.
2. Make sure you have a will.
3. Make sure you have a personal directive.
4. Make sure you have a power of attorney set up.
5. If your married make your spouse the beneficiary of your TFSA and RRSP(has to be done through the account not the will), they will roll into the spouses account without taxation.
6. If you’re married, and you own a house, make sure both names are on the title, joint tenant, NOT tenant in common. This activates right of survivorship on property and doesn’t have to go through the estate.
7. If you’re married, both people should have their name on all the vehicles, joint, otherwise it’s a headache after death.
8. Buy a file folding system. I have a plastic one that has a clasp and handle.
9. Put EVERYTHING in this file folder that would be needed if you died tomorrow.
a) all land titles
B) information on house insurance so it can either be eventually canceled or name changed over.
C) your will (or the location of your will),  power of attorney, and personal directive
D) the information for your car, car insurance, and registration on vehicles.
E) information on life insurance.
F) all current year papers needed for filing your taxes. Because the survivor will have to do it and will need that information.
G) where your household bills are. ALL OF THEM, electricity, gas, Netflix, magazine, subscriptions everything you can think of that is in their name. Because you are going to have to cancel them.
H) their credit card information where to contact to cancel the cards
I) birth certificate, SIN numbers, marriage, license, etc.
J) information on all your investments accounts, bank accounts, etc.
K) anything else you can think of for your situation


If you’re married, I’d have one box per person.

When you die, the funeral home will issue many death certificates. And your lawyer will give you copies of the will.
These will be needed to change over any accounts. Everything else goes through the estate which is taxed and the lawyers take their fees so I’d avoid this as much as possible especially if you’re married. This is why having property in both people‘s names is so important because it doesn’t have to go through probate.

I am widowed now and I have my black file folder and my two remaining children know if something happens to me, all they have to do is grab the folder. Everything they need to take care of my estate will be located in this folder.

At the beginning of every year, I open this file up and go through everything to make sure it’s up-to-date.

If you are young and do not own much or can’t afford a will, you can draft one up but it must be handwritten to be classified as a legal document. You cannot type it out!! If you’re not worth much, everything will most likely be sold to pay your bills and cover your funeral expenses. But you can state who your executor will be in your handwritten will.

 Disclaimer I’m not a lawyer or an accountant and this is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer and talk to an accountant. Make sure everything is set up for you and your situation. These are situations that I personally ran into.

Good luck


Also I’ll add in. IF you have a lot of assets make an appointment with your accountant first. They will tell you how to properly set things up. Then take that information to your lawyer.
264K views
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Ritz @mommy2sweetpea
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Personal Finance · 4m

I find myself in a situation where i unexpectedly need to buy a wheelchair accessible vehicle, which even used is costly. I have a maxed out TFSA account, savings account and non registered account. Im needing about $50,000 for the purchase. Luckily i have some RBC GICs maturing next week in my TFSA account. Would you withdrawal all from TFSA. Im thinking of taking the money out of my TFSA then on 1 Jan replacing it by selling stocks from my non registered account in order to keep my TFSA account maxed out again. Is that the best option? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thxs
22 views
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The Market Matrix
@themarketmatrix
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Market News · 21h

Rocket Lab $RKLB was just awarded a $266 Million contract with the US Air Force!

12 suborbital launches with options for six more through 2028.

Space economy FTW!

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Conlan Loffmark
@conlan
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Personal Finance · 7m

The Daily Habits of Wealth Builders

Your financial future is shaped less by one big decision and more by the habits you practice every day. Wealth is rarely built overnight. It is usually the result of consistently making smart financial decisions over many years.

People who build wealth tend to share similar habits. They focus on growing their income, investing consistently, and making decisions that benefit their future rather than chasing short term gratification. On the other hand, people who struggle financially often develop habits that keep them trapped in a cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

The goal is not to become perfect. The goal is to recognize which habits move you closer to financial freedom and which ones hold you back.

People who build wealth often:

• Buy assets before upgrading their lifestyle.
• Focus on increasing their income before cutting every expense.
• Think in years and decades instead of weeks or months.
• Invest consistently, even during market downturns.
• Spend money when it saves valuable time or increases productivity.
• Take calculated risks after researching the potential rewards and downsides.
• Delay gratification in order to achieve larger financial goals later.

People who struggle financially often:

• Save money but never invest, allowing inflation to reduce purchasing power over time.
• Increase their spending every time they receive a raise.
• Judge purchases based on monthly payments instead of total cost.
• Spend more effort finding small discounts than developing higher paying skills or increasing their income.
• Buy liabilities that appear to be assets.
• Avoid all financial risk, even when the potential long term rewards outweigh the risks.
• Expect immediate results instead of understanding that wealth takes years to build.

Many people with average incomes become financially independent because they consistently practice good financial habits. At the same time, many high income earners remain broke because they never develop those same habits.

Your habits determine your direction. Small decisions repeated consistently over time often have a much greater impact than one big financial decision.
42 views
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Will W
@williamwang23
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Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

Conversation With A Coworker
Two months ago I had a conversation with a new recruit about investing. (The reason I even started investing was because my field coach at work taught me, so I try to pass it on now to more junior members)

He was young, had his whole career ahead of him, and I was explaining why your 20s are such a powerful time to start investing. Every dollar invested early has decades to compound.

His response was, "I need to make more money first."

Then about six weeks later, I found out he bought a brand-new $75,000 Toyota Tacoma on payments.

To be clear, this isn't a post about car payments. Buy what makes you happy if it fits your priorities.

It's about opportunity cost.

Most people think they need a higher income before they can invest. But somehow they're comfortable committing hundreds or even over a thousand dollars every month to a depreciating asset.

Imagine if even a portion of that payment was going into index funds instead.

The biggest advantage young people have isn't a high salary.

It's time.

The dollars you invest in your early 20s often become the most valuable dollars you'll ever invest because they have 30-40 years to compound.

You can always buy the nicer vehicle later.

You can never buy back the years of compounding you gave up.
3,858 views
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Moe
@moe_on_margin
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Beginner Investors · 4d

We Need More Empathy ❤️
What I always loved about this platform is the supportive spirit , willingness to help, selfless knowledge sharing and the constructive feedback loops.

This week I saw an ugly side I didn’t like and I’m going to speak out about it! It’s the lack of empathy and the dancing on the misery of others.

I can understand and appreciate when someone celebrates winning big, but what I can’t stomach is the glee, gloating and cheering when a name someone believed in gets cut in half.

Mocking a losing position isn’t educational, giving people constructive feedback on how to understand what went wrong is.

Every single one of us has been on the wrong side of a trade and the market humbles all of us eventually.

Please remember kindness is free, but is a real compounder.

Let’s all do better blossom, the market is the real enemy 😊
3,804 views
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Zki Fq@investedinivesting
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Beginner Investors · 14m

Marvell Buy!
Saw $MRV down the past few weeks, could go lower even more, and maybe I’ll add some but think this is a good entry point.

Already had some exposure through $EUV but kinda wanted a little more. And 5 CDR shares sure ain’t much but has me satisfied tbh

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Frank Menezes
@frankallan07
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Real Estate · 27m

Closing Curiosity Kicked In
I'm tracking $AAT to finish the day. These are the levels I noted for this and others.
148 views
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Jesse Franklin@pinnaclewealth
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Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

Many say don’t invest in stocks , you will “lose money “

My list of sleep well at night stocks
$KO
$DUK
$XOM
$AMZN
$WM
$WMT
$V
$MCD
$COF

What did I miss ?👇

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2,664 views
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Canadian Investor@canadianinvestor
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Beginner Investors · 1d

Do You Understand Margin Calls?
Using margin is not risk free, and it is not something every investor should use. It can accelerate wealth building, but it can also add unnecessary risk. Before deciding whether margin can help you achieve your goals, you first have to define what those goals are and then understand the tools available to help you reach them. I am not saying people should or should not use margin. I am saying fear mongering does not help anyone. It is better to fully understand the risk you are taking so you can make an informed decision instead of an emotional one.

A lot of people hear the words margin call and immediately imagine losing everything. They picture the market dropping, the brokerage liquidating all their investments and the account being completely wiped out. Even here, you read a lot of comments warning that if the market drops, you will get margin called, as if that automatically means you are going to lose everything. 

Yes, I suppose that can happen, especially when someone is highly leveraged and making a speculative bet on a short term price movement. That is what creates the fear the news headlines, but that is not how every investor uses a margin account, and a normal market downturn does not automatically create a margin call. Even when a margin call does happen, it does not automatically mean you are going to get wiped out.

Let’s say you deposit $500 into an account and borrow another $250 to buy the same fund or another fund with a 30% margin requirement.

This looks very aggressive and it appears you are using 50% margin because you borrowed $250 against your original $500. But after the purchase, you own $750 worth of securities and have a $250 loan. Your actual loan to value ratio is $250 divided by $750, which equals 33.33%.

That is still aggressive, but it is very different from saying that half of the portfolio is borrowed money. The same concept applies to a larger account.

Let’s say you have $100,000 and borrow another $20,000 to invest. You now own $120,000 worth of securities and have a $20,000 loan. Your loan to value ratio is $20,000 divided by $120,000, which equals 16.67%.

So let’s look at what happens when the market moves.

If your $120,000 portfolio increases by 10%, it becomes worth $132,000. You have not made any payments against the loan, so you still owe $20,000, but your loan to value ratio has dropped to 15.15%.

Now let’s go the other way.

Imagine the market falls by 30%. Your $120,000 portfolio is now worth $84,000, but the loan is still $20,000. Your loan to value ratio has increased to 23.81%. That is a significant market decline, but you are still not close to a margin call if the investments continue to have a 30% maintenance requirement.

With a $20,000 loan, the theoretical margin call point would be when the portfolio falls to approximately $28,571. At that point, the $20,000 loan would represent 70% of the account and your remaining equity would represent 30%.

For a portfolio that started at $120,000, that would require a decline of approximately 76%.
And what happens when you get a margin call? Does the brokerage immediately sell all your holdings and leave you with nothing?

Not necessarily. This is where you have to check with your specific broker because every brokerage has its own policies for handling margin calls. Some may give you time to deposit money, transfer in additional securities or sell enough investments to bring the account back above the required maintenance level. Others may begin liquidating positions immediately, especially during fast moving markets, and they are generally not required to wait for you to act.

But receiving a margin call does not automatically mean your entire account is gone.

Let’s say the market falls by 80%. Your original $120,000 portfolio would now be worth $24,000. The margin loan would still be $20,000, leaving you with $4,000 of equity. Your equity would represent only 16.67% of the account, which is below the required 30%.

To restore the account to the 30% maintenance requirement, you would not have to replace the entire market loss or pay off the full $20,000 loan. You would need to deposit approximately $3,200, to bring your equity level back to 30%.

This does not mean an 80% decline would be harmless. Your original $100,000 of personal capital would have fallen to only $4,000 before adding more money, which would be a devastating investment loss. The point is simply that a margin call does not necessarily mean the brokerage sells everything and you walk away with nothing.

The real danger is that the brokerage controls the process. It can raise margin requirements, reduce the lending value of a security or liquidate positions without waiting for your permission. This is why investors should never plan around the absolute margin call threshold and should always maintain a substantial buffer.

Understanding margin maintenance does not make margin risk free, but it does help people understand what the risk actually is instead of assuming that every market decline leads to liquidation and every margin call ends with the account being wiped out.



1,666 views
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patrick roger@capitalsticks
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ETFs · 31m

Top Holdings of $DISK Memory ETF Breakdown
Here are the largest holdings in the Tema Memory ETF ($DISK):

💾 SanDisk ($SNDK) – 16.65%

🇯🇵 Kioxia Holdings – 16.54%

🇰🇷 SK Hynix – 13.39%

💽 Seagate ($STX) – 5.52%

📱 Samsung Electronics – 5.27%

💿 Western Digital ($WDC) – 5.25%

🧠 Micron ($MU) – 5.18%

📊 SK Square – 5.09%

Nanya – 3.15%

Winbond – 1.88%

As demand for AI infrastructure grows, memory remains one of the most closely watched parts of the semiconductor industry. ETFs like $DISK offer diversified exposure rather than relying on a single company.

If you had to pick just one memory stock from this list, which would it be?

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Nik @srinik
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ETFs · ⭐ Featured

Here is the ultimate beginner portfolio
I see many beginners posting that they’re new to investing and don’t know where to start. 🤔 As someone who was in a similar situation just a few months ago and learned, here are the 4 ETF types (& ETFs) that are popular among long term investors 😃 :

1) S&P 500:
US: $VOO / $SPY / $SPLG
Canadian: $VFV / $ZSP / $TPU

2) GROWTH / TECH:
US: $QQQ / $VUG / $VGT / $SCHG
Canadian: $QQC / $HXQ / $TEC / $ZUQ

3) DIVIDENDS:
US: $SCHD / $VYM / $DGRO
Canadian: $VDY / $XEI

4) ALL IN ONE / BASKET / Global Exposure:
US: $VT / $AVGE
Canadian: $ZEQT / $XEQT / $TGRO / $VEQT / $ZGQ

I noticed many people following this type of a basic / uncomplicated portfolio and are doing really well for themselves 🔥

For % allocation, you can divide evenly among the ETF categories or allocate a higher % based on your preferences. Just DCA regularly and you should be good. 😎

Some people even just put it all into an all in one etf like $XEQT. This is also a good approach - it is much simpler and it works. Ultimately, it comes to whatever you prefer 🙂

Oh and yea, there are overlaps, but I don’t think there is anything wrong in that though - it would just count as doubling down on good things. 💯

I’m sharing with you all what helped me, but don’t forget to do your own research too! 🙏🏼

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Investing for beginners @markoptions
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Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

Market pullbacks create opportunities.
If you’re under 40, focus less on today’s fear and more on the next 10–20 years.

Watching closely:
• $ZETA – 19 straight beat-and-raise quarters.
• $NOK – AI growth accelerating.
• $SOFI – CEO keeps buying shares.
• $IREN – Massive AI infrastructure expansion.
• $NVDA – Still dominating AI.
• $AMZN – AWS + Ads + Prime.
• $OSS – Fast-growing defense AI.
• $ONDS – Strong defense demand.
• $UUUU – Uranium + rare earth tailwinds.
• $TE – Explosive revenue growth.

Wealth isn’t built by chasing hype at new highs. It’s built by accumulating quality businesses when everyone else is afraid.

Which stock on this list are you buying first?
2,390 views
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Andy Passive Income
@AndyPii
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Passive Income · 16h

NEOS Investments July distribution
$SPYI

🔒Ex-date : July 22th 💰Paydate July 24th

$SPYI - $0.5300⬇️
$QQQI - $0.6346⬇️
$IWMI - $0.6250⬇️
$NIHI - $0.4249⬆️
$BTCI - $0.6458⬇️
$NEHI - $0.7390⬆️
$IAUI - $0.4855⬇️
$IYRI - $0.4526⬆️
$MLPI - $0.6834⬆️

Last month :
$SPYI - $0.5310⬇️
$QQQI - $0.6572⬇️
$IWMI - $0.6277⬆️
$NIHI - $0.4131⬇️
$BTCI - $0.6525⬇️
$NEHI - $0.6887⬇️
$IAUI - $0.5129⬇️
$IYRI - $0.4489⬆️
$MLPI - $0.6576⬇️

2 months ago :
$SPYI - $0.5353⬆️
$QQQI - $0.6589⬆️
$IWMI - $0.6046⬇️
$NIHI - $0.4244⬇️
$BTCI - $0.7934⬇️
$NEHI - $0.8867⬇️
$IAUI - $0.5551⬇️
$IYRI - $0.4405⬇️
$MLPI - $0.7038⬆️

3 months ago :
$SPYI - $0.5247
$QQQI - $0.6297
$IWMI - $0.6120
$NIHI - $0.4280
$BTCI - $0.7982
$NEHI - $0.9790
$IAUI - $0.5861
$IYRI - $0.4509
$MLPI - $0.6667

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Ashton Invests
@ashton_1nvests
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Analysis · 52m

Uber Stock
$UBER is no longer just a ride-sharing company.

Quarterly revenue has grown from roughly $9 billion to over $13 billion, powered by two massive engines:

Mobility keeps scaling.

Delivery has become a major business of its own.

Freight adds another layer of optionality.

This is why my thesis goes far beyond rides.

Uber is becoming the platform people use to move themselves, food, and goods through the physical world.

-1.12%

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272 views
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Max Wealth
@mywealthquest
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Market News · 53m

SPCX (SpaceX)
$SPCX

-3.12%

0.0% held

676 views
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Moe
@moe_on_margin
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Beginner Investors · 1d

If You Hold It, Here's What Happened - $DRAM
You watched it double, then give all of it back in three weeks.
$52.82 on 22 May,
$80.72 on 22 June,
$52.72 on 17 July.

Not many explained why, This is my take.

Here's What happened to $DRAM

- DRAM is roughly 74% three stocks: Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix. About half the fund is South Korean. That means Korean margin calls are American portfolio events.

- Korea listed 16 single-stock leveraged ETFs on Samsung and SK Hynix in late May. 92% retail-held. Margin debt hit a record ₩38.63 Trillion. (~$26.6 billion)

- On 22 June, the day DRAM peaked, Korea's regulator said publicly he regretted approving these leveraged ETFs. The next day the KOSPI fell nearly 10%.

- Three more major sellers followed, triggering an avalanche:
1. The national pension fund resumed rebalancing on 1 July,
2. Foreign institutions sold ₩7.76tn on 29 June alone (Concentration limits, Memory became too big)
3. Brokers began closing retail accounts at ten times the January rate. (Margin calls)

- SK Hynix issued $28bn of new stock, the same week memory bottomed.

- Meanwhile Micron reported revenue up 346% and 85% gross margins on 24 June. SK Hynix, Samsung and TSMC all beat and guided higher.
——

Happened Today:

The group is bouncing. MU and SKHY both trending up and DRAM back above $54 after hours.

No new fundamental catalyst, this is a technical recovery after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index lost more than 9% last week.

The RSI crossed back above 40 on the daily timeframe. Forced selling appears to have exhausted itself for now.

Whether this becomes a recovery or a dead cat bounce gets answered by upcoming earnings starting with Western Digital on 29 July and hyperscaler capex commentary in the weeks ahead.

Happened Last Week:

The main piece of good news from last week is that the Korean margin debt has fallen from ₩38.63T ($26.6 billion) at peak to ₩27.40T as of July 13 a 29% decline in under three weeks.

Seoul Economic Daily also reported on July 16 that the supply-demand environment was improving with foreigners beginning to return.
——

What's next ?

If that trajectory continues through this week it would suggest the forced selling that drove the mechanical collapse is largely slowing down and maybe even fully behind us.

Next thing to watch are forward estimates. They've been rising the whole way down. If they turn this becomes an entirely different and much bigger problem.

Next Post On Thursday $SPCX stay tuned.

Educational content, not financial advice

Disclaimer: I own $DRAM at $39 avg.

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3,648 views
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Akif @iamakif
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Technology · 54m

MIDDAY: SMCI's $60B order shock 🚀
Super Micro says Q4 revenue lands near the low end of guidance, but gross margin is coming in at 15 to 17%, roughly double what it guided, with over $60 billion in new orders on the books.

Customers paying up like that is the loudest AI demand signal of the week.. DELL and HPE are riding it too.

SMCI up over 20% 😅

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Mr Financial
@mr.financial
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Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

Stop The Nonsense. It's Hurting You and Others ☹️
Are you getting sick of constant stock price updates on Blossom? My feed is filled with the same 20 tickers and a snap shot of it up or down and in a rare case, some supposed reason why.

Are you posting up days? Why?

Are you posting down days? Why?

The reality is, constant stock updates are the investing equivalent of weighing yourself every 5 minutes. Drink a glass of water. You weigh yourself. You poop, you weigh your self.

🚨🚨🚨🚨 $AMZN is down 1.0% today!!!
🚨🚨🚨 $VFV is up 1.2% today!
🚨🚨🚨🚨 $SPCX is up 5... now 6, now 4, now 3..

Okay... and so what?

Investors shouldn't be tracking price movements like I see on Blossom every day. Stop.

It's UNHEALTHY and leads to INVESTING DISORDERS.

Unless you're buying or selling today, that number is futile, vain and meaningless.

What does it do?

It likely grabs your attention and engagement on socials.

It's likely creating an emotional response in you. And in the worst case scenario, it encourages you to confuse market ACTIVITY with PROGRESS and SUCCESS.

The biggest danger is never that the market is moving... it moves every second the markets are open, year round, for all eternity.

The biggest danger is YOU moving.

There are countless studies on investor behavior and what makes the average retailer perform so badly.

The studies show that checking stock prices every day makes it EASIER to panic, chase performance, sell low, buy high, and convince yourself that random market noise, future expected returns, analyst predictions etc is somehow meaningful to your investing success and you need to act on it.

The market has rewarded PATIENCE for over a century now. Patience is a quality we all need and can improve upon.

Your algo REWARDS your market anxiety with MoRE market anxiety creating content...

So be careful what financial junk food you consume and what voices you surround yourself with .

Your health and wealth are not rewarded buy consuming such content regularly.

Stay safe out there investing friends 🙌👊

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The Market Matrix
@themarketmatrix
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Market News · 54m

Software back to its typical programming!

$PATH -13%
$PLTR -7%
$NOW -7%
$ZETA -6%

ServiceNow earnings after close today.. has to step up..

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Juan Vasquez@juanseve18
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ETFs · 21h

Individual Stock Recommendations?
My portfolio has just been VTI and VXUS so far.

I’m thinking about adding a few individual stocks and taking on a little more risk. Any recommendations or favorite long-term picks?
1,262 views
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Levi Ewald@smallbird.financial
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Personal Finance · 5h

Why I Don't Have Life Insurance Yet
Whole life insurance is one of the most oversold products in Canada, and most people who get pitched it don't actually need it. I don't even carry basic life insurance myself right now, and that's a deliberate choice.

Life insurance is there to protect the people who depend on your income, and right now nobody depends on mine. I have no kids, no mortgage, and my wife has a strong career she'd carry on with just fine if something happened to me. The day that changes, say a mortgage or a child comes along, I'll buy term insurance that week.

Term insurance is built for exactly that window. You choose a term, say 20 years, that covers the stretch when your family would struggle without your paycheque, and you pay a low premium for it. It stays cheap because most people outlive the term, and once your savings have grown and the mortgage is gone, you usually don't need it anymore. Insurance is there to protect the plan. Growing your money is a separate job.

Whole life insurance is permanent coverage that never expires as long as you keep paying, and it comes with a cash value that gets pitched hard as an investment. I was talking recently with someone who holds a large stock and bond portfolio in their non-registered accounts. When they pass away, those investments will trigger a big capital gains tax bill, and an advisor had recommended a whole life policy to cover it.

In their case, I don't think that makes much sense. Stocks and bonds are liquid, so when the tax bill comes due, the estate can just sell a portion of the portfolio to pay it. Set that against paying steep whole life premiums every year for decades. The vast majority of the time, selling a slice of a liquid portfolio at death leaves a bigger estate than all those premiums would have.

A business owner, or someone holding a cottage or a rental property, faces the same kind of tax bill at death but without an easy way to pay it. The family often doesn't want to sell the business or the cottage just to raise the cash. That's where whole life can genuinely earn its place, covering a bill on something you can't easily sell or don't want to.

Whole life is expensive, and for most Canadians it simply isn't the optimal choice, even though it gets sold that way constantly. Nobody should buy a whole life policy without an unbiased second opinion first, ideally from someone who earns no commission on the sale. The illustrations look great on paper, but a lot of the growth built into them isn't guaranteed.

If you already own a whole life policy, this isn't me telling you that you made a mistake. Plenty of people were sold these by someone they trusted, and in the right situation the policy really does fit. It's worth understanding what yours is actually doing and whether it still makes sense for you. Have you ever been pitched whole life, and did anyone ever walk you through what it really costs?
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Investing for beginners @markoptions
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Beginner Investors · 2d

Most beginner traders overcomplicate things.
Successful trading comes down to just 2 skills:

1. Selection 🎯
Find the right stocks before worrying about entries.

Build a watchlist.
Wait for your setup.
Be patient—don’t chase trades.

2. Execution ⚡
Once you’ve found the right stock:

Plan your entry.
Manage your risk.
Know exactly when you’ll exit.

A great entry on the wrong stock is still a bad trade.

Master selection first, then focus on execution.

That’s when consistency starts to follow.

Which do you think beginners struggle with more: selection or execution? 👇
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Zain @zains
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Beginner Investors · ⭐ Featured

Beginner’s Guide to Stock Market Terms
One of the best parts about the Blossom community is how open everyone is sharing knowledge and experiences.

To make things easier for anyone just starting their investing journey, here’s a simple glossary to help understand and simplify various terms.

Common Terms:

Dividend: A share of a company’s profits paid to shareholders, usually quarterly.

Ex-Dividend Date: The cutoff date by which you must own a stock to receive its next dividend.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A fund that holds multiple stocks or bonds, traded like a single stock.

Covered Call ETF: An ETF that owns stocks and sells call options to generate extra income (higher yield, limited / capped upside).

Earnings Report: A company’s quarterly financial performance summary.

EPS (Earnings Per Share): A company’s profit divided by its number of shares.

Market Cap: A company’s total value (share price × number of shares).

ACB: The total amount you’ve paid for an investment, including the purchase price plus any fees or commissions.

Book Value: The value of a company according to its financial statements (assets minus liabilities).

Yield: Annual dividend as a percentage of the stock/ETF price.

Liquidity: How easily an asset can be bought or sold without impacting its price.

Volatility: The degree of price fluctuations in a stock or market.

Index: A benchmark of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX).

Bull Market: A period of rising stock prices and optimism.

Bear Market: A period of declining stock prices and pessimism.

False Breakout: When a stock’s price moves above (or below) a key level, making it look like a new trend is starting, but then quickly reverses back.

P/E Ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio (stock price ÷ EPS), used to assess valuation.

Blue Chip: Well-established, financially strong companies with a track record of stability.

Diversification: Spreading investments across assets to reduce risk.

Broker: A platform or firm that facilitates buying and selling investments.

Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a specific price or better.

Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock immediately at the current market price.

Bid/Ask Spread: The difference between the highest price buyers offer and the lowest price sellers accept.

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Investing a fixed amount regularly to reduce the impact of market swings.

Capital Gain/Loss: Profit or loss from selling an investment for more/less than its purchase price.

IPO: When a company first sells shares to the public.

Index Fund: A fund designed to mirror the performance of a market index.

Short Selling: Selling borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back cheaper.

Margin: Borrowing money from a broker to buy investments, which amplifies gains and losses.

Margin Requirement: The minimum amount of your own money (equity) you must maintain in a margin account to open or keep a leveraged investment position.

Margin Call: A demand from your broker to deposit more funds or sell assets because your account equity has fallen below the required margin level.

Time Horizon: The length of time you plan to hold an investment before needing the money. Short horizons = more risk-sensitive, long horizons = more room to ride out volatility.

Stock Split / Reverse Split: A split increases the number of shares (e.g., 2-for-1) while lowering the price per share. A reverse split reduces the number of shares (e.g., 1-for-10) while raising the price per share. Your overall value doesn’t change just the math.

Long (Being Long): Buying a stock or asset because you expect the price to go up.

Short (Being Short): Selling a stock you don’t own because you expect the price to go down, so you can buy it back cheaper later.

TER: The total yearly cost of owning a fund, including the management fee plus other costs like administration, audits, and legal fees.

MER: The annual cost that a fund charges for management (includes any leverage costs if used).

Management Fee: A portion of the MER that goes directly to the fund managers for running the fund.

Withholding Tax: A tax deducted on dividends/distributions from foreign investments (e.g., U.S. dividends to Canadian investors face a 15% withholding in TFSA/Non-Registered accounts).

Total Returns: The full picture of an investment’s performance, including both price gains and dividends/distributions.

CAGR: The average yearly growth of an investment over time.

NAV: The price of one share of a fund (stock or etf)

NAV Depreciation: When the fund’s share price goes down over time.

Mutual Fund: A pool of money from many investors used to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets.

Bond: A loan you give to a company or government, and they pay you back with interest.

Asset: Anything valuable you own that can generate money.

Portfolio: Your collection of investments.

Option: A contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a set price.

Future: A contract to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date.

REIT: A company that owns real estate and pays investors income from rent.

Alpha: A measure of how much better (or worse) an investment did compared to the market.

Beta: A measure of how much an investment moves compared to the market.

Sharpe Ratio: A way to see if returns are worth the risk taken.

Hedging: Protecting your investments from risk.

Rebalancing: Adjusting your portfolio back to your target mix of assets.

FCF: Free Cash Flow

Understanding these terms makes investing far less intimidating.

If anyone feels other terms should be included, please share in the comments.

I’ll update this post so we can build a complete beginner-friendly resource together!


*Sorry tagged a few etfs for reach 🫣

7.0% held

8.0% held

0.0% held

7.9% held

5.6% held

0.0% held

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