Name an arcane industry

[Boho]

I Googled for "is an arcane industry" to see if I can learn something about an industry that few others would pay attention to that would give me an advantage. From the search result page I'm seeing things like arms trade, insurance, real estate, and coal. Not what I had in mind. Could someone name an actual arcane industry?

I just tried "arcane discipline" and I'm getting stuff on magic.

And I tried "no scientific journal on" and found geocryology and graphene. I'm just fishing. Maybe something will sound like a good area to explore for investment opportunities.

 

[LOL!]

Selling expensive scientific or medical equipment such as a MRI machines, X-ray machines, or gas centrifuges, or ....

I will say that many of these things don't make any money for shareholders who are really just taken advantage of. I just read a bankruptcy report on a company that separated water from oil via microwave technology. It was a penny stock company, but the CEO and CFO paid themselves quite well from the venture capital that they got.

 

[GrayHare]

The need for energy storage inspires many arcane inventions. Perpetual motion is another.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

A nearby company makes the slide mechanisms that let you insert a center leaf or two in a dining or kitchen table. The company has been in business since 1889.

 

[ERD50]

Man, you are just bouncing off the walls with these investment ideas!

Throw enough stuff against the wall, and maybe something will stick? Sure, something must click, but by then you are watered down by all the other ones that didn't work.

That 'brilliant' hedge fund manager is losing his bet to Warren Buffet, who just stuck his money in the S&P 500. But you are going to do better with some arcane google searches? Wake up and smell the coffee.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

I think the time has passed for a ground floor investment in Pac-Man.

Oh, I thought you said 'arcade' industry.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

A guy I knew liked to put his money in penny stocks. His particular interest was in mom-and-pop gold miners, and it looked like there were a lot of them in Canada. Even if they found any gold, who would be there to see that they did not put it all in their pocket? I don't know how transparent these companies are in their book keeping, but that did not deter this guy. Well, he was still trying when I last saw him 5 years ago.

 

[COcheesehead]

Why don't you just use the stock screens that a brokerage like Fidelity provides? There is awesome data mining that you can do there.

 

[Boho]

That 'brilliant' hedge fund manager is losing his bet to Warren Buffet, who just stuck his money in the S&P 500.

I just bought more ONEQ (tracks NASDAQ) yesterday and I still haven't bought a single stock. I just rejected one today because a magazine somewhat related to the business dropped in circulation in the last reported cycle. I made this note of my research:

CTAS - more socially responsible than average - sells sports uniforms & does maintenance

http://sportseventsmagazine.com/assets/SEM_July_2016_BPA.pdf

AVERAGE ANNUAL AUDITED QUALIFIED CIRCULATION AND CURRENT UNAUDITED CIRCULATION STATEMENTS

July - December 2013: 16,615
January - June 2014: 16,641
July - December 2014: 16,640
January - June 2015: 16,648
July - December 2015: 16,639
January - June 2016: 16,443

I'm bouncing things off the walls in my research only and I invest very carefully.

 

[ERD50]

.... I just rejected one today because a magazine somewhat related to the business dropped in circulation in the last reported cycle. ...

And anyone else following the industry knows this too, and has already acted on it. It's not like everyone needs to know it, just enough traders buying/selling on that info to affect the price. For example, TSLA has bounced around a lot lately on all sorts of news/views. Now, If I owned the stock, but didn't read the news for the past month, and didn't buy/sell, the stock still jumps around. It's not enough to just be more informed than the average investor, you need to be more informed (and right) than the traders.

It's naive to think you can out think other traders, and predict the future (much of what they think won't actually happen).

In the mean time, SPY has more than doubled since my last purchase, and I haven't done bit of research on it.

-ERD50

 

[Nemo2]

A guy I knew liked to put his money in penny stocks. His particular interest was in mom-and-pop gold miners, and it looked like there were a lot of them in Canada.

Downtown: Defunct VSE had colourful history

By 1969, the VSE broke the $1 billion trading barrier. The RCMP estimated in 1973 that 20 to 30 per cent of stock, mostly mines and junior industrials, were manipulated. A Brown Farris and Jefferson report in 1978 found the odds of losing were five times out of six.

 

[NW-Bound]

This guy I described always dreamed that one of these days, his beloved gold miners would hit a motherlode. I asked him what would be the chance his miner skipped town with that gold, and he could not answer.

 

[calmloki]

Pssht. Who needs industry? Back in the latter part of 1999 we bought gold coins so we could pay off anyone that really needed bribing. Paid $425/oz. Gold dealer now pays $1257/oz. Think it got to about $1800/oz earlier, but $1257 now. That is what? About 11%/year?

 

[NW-Bound]

I've got a few gold coins as keepsake. I also paid a bit above $400, but it was in 1992 or 1993.

From $400 to $1257 over 24 years, that's a measly 4.9% per year. And inflation has not been accounted for.

PS. Cumulative inflation over the last 24 years is 75%, so that the $1257 is only $1257 / 1.75 = $718. The return is 2.5% / year. Hoorah!

 

[moneyviking]

Haberdashery

 

[REWahoo]

Check printing.

 

[braumeister]

Millinery

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Haberdashery

That's how Truman lost his shirt.

 

[GrayHare]

Speaking of arcades, the video game industry is arcane in that for every title hit there are dozens if not hundreds of misses. Pick the game company that will produce a few more hit titles than other companies, and you'll be raking in the bucks.

 

[NW-Bound]

Check kiting?

 

[Boho]

That 'brilliant' hedge fund manager is losing his bet to Warren Buffet, who just stuck his money in the S&P 500.

His bet is against a fund of hedge funds. That's how most of these studies were conducted - an index against the average whoever/whatever. The best few of the bunch will beat the index. In the case of funds, for example, about 8% beat the index. I'd like to see him challenge a single fund with a good track record.

 

[RetiredGypsy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/

Probably more your style.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Financial Advisory or maybe...... a Shoeshine stand Franchise

 

[pb4uski]

Buggy whips is the classic.

 

[ERD50]

His bet is against a fund of hedge funds. That's how most of these studies were conducted - an index against the average whoever/whatever. The best few of the bunch will beat the index. In the case of funds, for example, about 8% beat the index. I'd like to see him challenge a single fund with a good track record.

Over a 10 year period? Show me this list of funds that beat the market over a 10 year period, and the universe they are picked from, so we have a %.

And then why the heck did the hedge 'fund of funds' take the bet?

-ERD50