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- Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion
- Path: sparky!uunet!darwin.sura.net!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!fusion
- From: ames!FNALD.FNAL.GOV!DROEGE
- Subject: Money
- Message-ID: <920721133945.202074c8@FNALD.FNAL.GOV>
- Sender: scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Scott Hazen Mueller)
- Reply-To: ames!FNALD.FNAL.GOV!DROEGE
- Organization: Sci.physics.fusion/Mail Gateway
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 19:56:29 GMT
- Lines: 45
-
- To all who have worried that I am getting ripped off by my commodities broker,
- I actually don't know what I paid in commission as I don't yet have the slip.
- It is a new broker for me as my regular stock broker does not handle
- commodities. I have learned not to worry about paying a little more if I can
- get the right person to guide my order. Note that I said "about $50". I did
- not assume that there would be so many commodities traders listening. Just
- trying to tell the "lambs" how the system works in general. By the way, if
- anyone out there decides to speculate in commodities, and finds a broker quick
- to take your business, grab your money and run. In each case when I have
- tried to get "qualified" to do futures, it has taken several weeks to do so.
- Good brokers will try to "cool you down" by being slow in taking your
- application. This even happened to me when I had done business with the firm
- ten years. They all (the good ones) tell you that no brokerage customer ever
- makes money in futures. They are right.
-
- To John Moore, there are 100 oz in a Palladium contract. Yes, there is the
- chance that I might take delivery, though I still have 6 one oz Pd "coin
- store" Engelhard 99.9% bars. Last 5 bought recently at $102. There is a big
- mark up on the little bars. They come numbered and sealed in a plastic
- wrapper. I took delivery on the last contract that I held for 1000 oz of
- silver. The bar at the moment is sitting in my band saw. Every so often I
- cut off a "slice". Gave the "heal" away to a friend who admired it so much
- that I had to present it to him. Silver has wonderful thermal properties,
- much better than copper for calorimetry. It was a grand adventure to drive
- into the Harris bank in Chicago and tell them I was there to "take delivery"
- of a silver bar. Never saw so much money in my life!
-
- Jim Yegerlehner asked for my net worth to determine whether he could believe
- that I was just having fun speculating in Palladium futures. Then he proposes
- mortgaging the ranch (hard to do - the government really does try to protect
- us lambs) to buy more. That would *** not *** be fun Jim.
-
- I started putting money into TIAA/CREF in 1961 and have been in it ever since.
- My physicist friends are quick to point out that I make more than they do, and
- so after all these years TIAA/CREF is up to the point that it would return
- more than I spend if I were to retire. This gives me a wonderful sense of
- freedom. Since the children have been out of college for some time, more
- money comes in than goes out. Since "college freedom" a little speculation in
- stocks like "Three Mile Island" (actually a Corp. called General Public
- Utilities) bought at 4 1/2 sold at 25 has built up some "net worth".
-
- I am really in this for "fun".
-
- Tom Droege
-
-