Top 5 Gaming ETFs - ETF Database

Alright kids, fellow retards, and wall street shills. I'm going agaisnt the grain here, but I'm a fellow looser dropping tens of keys for years with you guys, so just inverse me, I'm a good counter indictor.
What's going on?
We won... kinda. The short squeeze and gamma squeeze both happened. Yesterday market broke. Unfortunately the real winners are big players like BlackRock, Vanguard.
To avoid it all going in flames Market Makers and then Clearing Houses (new things to learn for you I know) the real players just decided to excercise their contracts and require full deposits from their clients (the small fries like WebBull and Robinhood).
Have they not do that GME would be already orbiting Mars, not Moon. Fucking Mars. Wait no, fuck Mars, it'd be orbiting Pluto.
The problem is with the infinite squeeze is ... nothing is fucking infinite. Sure you can say that the potential for losses for shorts is infinite, except when you are over 100% of losses and you are a corporation, the worst that happens is you close the door, and put up a sign saying "fuck you. sue me". You must understand that. We've liquidated few funds, we'll liquidate few more, but in the end there's simply not enough shares to go around.
Ok. So what's going to happen?
Next week price will go up. Definitely 🚀🚀🚀 to the stratosphere(1000+), maybe 🚀🚀🚀 to the Moon(5000+), unlikely 🚀🚀🚀 to Mars (10k-20k).
Then the real players: Vanguards, BlackRock will start dumping mass amount of shares.
Now listen to this. Did you ever wonder how 130% short interest was created?
Alice has 1 share of GME. Bob comes and borrows a share, and then immidietly sells it to the Celine. Celine then lends it to Daniel, who then goes areound and immidietly sells it again to Edgar. Voila: 200% short interest out of 1 share with no naked short selling.
BUT it works the other way too. Short seller Bob, buys a share because he has to, swallows a loss, but you know what? now he has a share, a share that's going up, so he waits one day and sells it for a profit ... to short seller Daniel, who turns around and does the same thing. Unwinding two shorts. Those two shorts still need to be returned .. eventually, but they can play the momentum as well as you do. So even getting their opsions excercised is not the end for them,
It takes days to unwind those kind of trades, that's why this squeeze will take days if not weeks.
So should you 💎🙌 to win? You'd think that Red is You look numbers even match up! The problem is that GME is not going back to 200 or 300 at which you bought in. It's going back to 20-40 in few months (yea, yea, shitron, they are right the timing is just off, which is the same as being wrong).
Now the hedge funds will get liquidated, sooner or later, if not on GME then on the next meme stock. But they do not only short. They als ohave long positions, those positions will get liquidated - that's why APPL is selling off among other things. What does that mean?
Wide market selloff. Markets will go down, and those people that invest in APPL do have stop losses. The stop losses will trigger, market will go down more.
Ok retard so what should I do?
You're playing casino with disposable money? 💎🙌 till Mars
You're here to support Vanguard (because their ETFs are RAD) and want to fuck the system? 💎🙌 till Mars
You are just here for the ride and memes? 💎🙌 till Mars
You are here because your Aunt gave you some pocket money? 💎🙌
You are here because you got stimulus check and you're up more then 200%? Sell enough to take out your initial investment then 💎🙌 till Moon
You are here because you're bored? Are you using big boy exchange and can actually buy? Sell GME 400$ - Buy 2 * GME 200$. Rinse. Repeat. Trade a fucking volatility because it's stupid and it's jsut going up, so buy every dip, then sell ... to buy more dips.
Bread Line/Wendys:
Is it your "fuck you money?" 💎🙌
Is it your financial independence money? Sell half of it for 400-500$ rest of it is now your fuck you money so 💎🙌
Don't get caught bag holding for Vanguard and Black Rock. Short the wide markets.
Positions:
Short S&P, Short Nasdaq, Short DOW, Long Gold & Silver. Long the meme: GME, BBBY, AMC, BB, Nok, etc.
PS. Remember WS is not your friend, but people who trade millions of options and can consistently post loss porn for millions of dollars are not your friends either. Don't let them indoctrinate you into holding the bag for likes of Vanguard or BlackRock.
PPS. Obviously I fucking like the stock, and don't like broad market, not a financial advise, I don't know what's going to happen, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment in response to a question about ETFs. This question comes up very often; usually two or three times a week. Maybe more than that. Several people suggested that it be "pinned." I obviously cannot do that, however if a mod wants to pin this, feel free to do so. I did make a few modifications and additions to that comment and for those who haven't gone back to see the changes, I thought I'd post it again here. Hopefully, this helps people who are interested in an investing approach that is either made up of ETFs or that includes ETFs as a part of their portfolio.
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QQQ - This one uses the NASDAQ 100 as its benchmark. Obviously it's an Indexed, non-managed ETF. XTF used to rate this one as a perfect 10.0 out of 10 rating, but recently dropped it to 9.9 out of 10. It has one of the highest rates of return over the past 10 years of any ETF. It does tend to be tech-heavy, especially with the FAANG +M stocks. (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Microsoft). Other top holdings include TSLA, NVDA and ADBE. (The rating dropped recently when the portfolio of the NASDAQ 100 was re-balanced).
VOO/SPY - VOO and SPY are non-managed funds indexed to the S&P 500 Index. These funds are very popular on this subreddit, for good reason. They are well diversified, broad market funds investing in mostly US stocks. XTF rates these funds at 9.6 out of 10 because their return on investment over the long term is somewhat tempered by some of the blue chip stocks in the funds. But those stocks also help reduce volatility relative to some other ETFs. These are solid investments, but keep in mind that in the top 10 holdings there will be a lot of crossover between these funds and other broad market funds that hold US stocks like QQQ, VTI, VGT, VOOG and SPYG. There are differences, of course, as well, but you always want to know where those duplications exist.
IWF - This is a Russell 1000 Growth fund. It is one of my favorites that doesn't get talked about much. It does have a lot of crossover with the other funds mentioned above, but the mix is slightly different. Other funds that use the Russell 1000 Growth Index include RWGV and VONG. I would describe this fund as more aggressive than VOO/SPY, less volatile than QQQ. VONE and IWB use the Russell 1000 Index as their benchmark. SPYG and VOOG use the S&P 500 Growth Index for their benchmark and would be similar (but not identical) to IWF, VONG and RWGV.
IWM - for someone looking to diversify a little bit, this is a great fund to look into. This fund is a non-managed, indexed fund that uses the Russell 2000 index as its benchmark. The big difference between the Russell 2000 index and many of the the other indexes is that the Russell 2000 index looks at small and mid-cap companies, rather than large-cap companies. Thus, there is zero crossover between this one and the funds mentioned above. While this fund will move up and down with the market, it is often less volatile than the market overall. If you look at the charts, this fund has under-performed some of the other funds over the past few months while the market has been very volatile in an upward direction, but in a crash, this fund would probably outperform the rest of the market. It has a 9.0/10 XTF rating.
VXUS - Vanguard Total International Index Fund ETF - top holdings include BABA, Tencent, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductors, Novartis, Toyota. This is a broad market fund investing only in companies overseas. I'm not generally bullish on foreign markets, but this one is a very solid ETF with some companies that are likely to do extremely well for the foreseeable future. XTF rates this one a perfect 10.0 out of 10.
EEM - iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF - This one is going to have a lot of crossover with VXUS. It is an Emerging Markets ETF with a lot of focus on China. It includes Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, along with companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductors. This one should be a solid performer as long as our trade relations with China remain normal.
EFA - This is another international ETF, but here the focus is mainly on more established companies in Europe and Japan. This is a Large Cap ETF that includes companies like Nestle SA, Roche, Toyota, Novartis and AstraZeneca.
Sector fund ETFs:
ICLN/TAN/FAN - These funds are clean/renewable energy ETFs. ICLN is more broad while TAN focuses more specifically on solar energy and FAN specifically on wind generated energy. I think renewable energy companies are the future. There is no crossover in the top holdings of this fund with the top holdings of QQQ and most of the other broad market funds. Also, these are global, not just US based companies. QCLN and PBW are also renewable energy funds, but they also contain a lot of TSLA, NIO and W.K. H.S. in their top holdings making them "electric vehicle" funds, as well. No problem if you want to add that, but you'll find a lot of Tesla in some of the funds mentioned above.
ARK group of funds: ARKG, ARKF, ARKK ARKW, ARKQ, PRNT and IZRL. These are managed funds investing in companies that invest in disruptive companies in their respective industries. Most posters on this subreddit are bullish on these funds. They are aggressive growth ETFs, but should be considered somewhat risky and volatile.

• ARKG - Genomic Revolution
• ARKF - Fintech
• ARKK - Disruptive Companies (broader market)
• ARKW - Internet/computetechnology (Telsa is a top holding)
• ARKQ - Robotics and artificial intelligence
• PRNT - 3D printing technology
• IZRL - disruptive companies based in Israel

XL series of funds. Similar to the ARK series, these tend to be more aggressive growth funds, however these are passively managed indexed funds with various benchmarks that usually are overloaded in the better companies within a sector:

• XLV - Health Care
• XLK - Technology
• XLY - Consumer Discretionary
• XLF - Financial
• XLU - Utilities
• XLE - Energy
• XLB - Materials
• XLC - Communications
• XLG - S&P Top 50
• XLI - Industrial
• XLP - Consumer Staples
• XLRE - Real Estate

CLOUD COMPUTING: WCLD, SKYY, CLOU, BUG and XIKT. Of these WCLD has the best 52 week performance. Top holdings in WCLD include ZM, PLAN, CRM, CRWD, ZEN, WDAY, TENB, PCTY, DDOG, BL. Many of these are likely to also appear in QQQ, however, they would be in very small percentages as the Cap on these companies is much smaller.
Aerospace and Defense: XAR, ITA, PPA
Real Estate: VNQ, FREL, SCHH, IYR, PSR, BBRE
Transportation: FTXR, XTN, IYT, RGI, JETS
Oil/Energy: IYE, FENY, VDE
Consumer Staples: FSTA, VDC, IECS
Media/Entertainment: IEME, PBS, PEJ, IYC
Robotics, AI, Innovative Technologies: THNQ, ROBO, XITK, SKYY, GDAT
Semiconductors: SOXX, QTEC, QTUM, SMH, FTXL
IT: FTEC, VGT, IWY, IGM, FDN
Cyber Security: HACK, CIBR, IHAK, BUG, FITE
Consumer Discretionary: FDIS, VCR, IEDI, JHMC, IYC
5G, Connectivity: FIVG, NXTG, WUGI
Self Driving EV: IDRV, DRIV, MOTO
Gaming/Esports: NERD, HERO, ESPO, GAMR, SOCL
Casinos/Gambling: BETZ, BJK
Online Retail: IBUY, EBIZ, ONLN, CLIX, GBUY, BUYZ
Utilities: IDU, VPU, FUTY, RYU
Health Care: FHLC, VHT, IYH
Medical Devices and Equipment: IHI, IEHS, XHE
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Other Unique ETFs, non-sector based:
CHGX: US Large Cap Fossil Fuel Free ETF
VIRS: Biothreat Strategy ETF
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A nice portfolio might look something like this:
20% - Broad market US fund such as QQQ, VOO or IWF
20% - VXUS - International
20% - IWM - Small/Mid-cap broad market fund
10% each in four sector funds of your choice
I'm not a financial expert or advisor and this is not financial advice, just an opinion from a random internet person. I do own shares in several, but not all of the funds listed above, including QQQ, IWF, some ARK funds, ICLN, VXUS, etc.
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Edit: In one of my previous edits, I accidentally erased a bunch of the sector funds. Please feel free to comment with your favorite sector funds and let me know if I forgot to add back some that I had before.

This is a long review about Option Alpha. I tried to post this on Investimonials but that website was glitching so here it is on Reddit. I'm not riffing here on Option Alpha but trying to provide an unbiased review to the community. Hopefully this helps someone make a better decision before they part with their hard earned money.
A lot of people are getting into options, whether its theta gang or long directional option trading. My warning to everyone is that don't necessarily fall for option trading services/rooms specially when they don't list an accurate trade log and PnL account performance.
This review below here is more applicable to the Theta gang option traders/option sellers so if you are a option buyedirectional optional trader than this review won't apply to you.
Here is the TLDR - At the very best if you want very low single digit annual returns while taking huge risks and want to take the headache of making 100s of option trades, spend tons on trading commissions and subscription fees ($100 to $300 per month), waste time making option adjustments and then create a tax headache paying short term capital gains tax rates (your highest income tax bracket) on profits and filling out IRS forms at the end of the year then this is the service for you. Also the return on your time spent understanding option alpha and then implementing its strategies is negative.
Normally I would not write reviews unless I thought that subs were getting ripped off. Let me start of by saying that I don't think Kirk (the founder of Option Alpha) is running a scam per se, but he is basically bilking gullible subscribers who are very new to options trading and have been sold the dream about option selling as the ONLY proper way to make money in options.
This service is a total waste of time for the individual investor. The last few years the returns have been flat after all these trades (basically up a few % or down a few %). This is before accounting for option commissions, and taxes (selling options ie. premiums are always taxed as short term capital gains at your highest income tax rate so you get no benefit vs holding stocks or buying options over 1 year) and subscription fees. Accounting for all this basically makes this a negative return. In fact I think it is better to buy a balanced Vanguard index fund or VTI etf and just Dollar cost Average into that every month vs using this system. Atleast with VTI you can expect to make 6% over the long term. The simplest strategy which is to buy VTI etf will beat Option Alpha over the long term with fewer headaches and invested time and energy.
Let start of with the good stuff first. The option education videos are free, extremely well made so that even total beginners can understand option selling. Kirk is a gifted teacher and explains everything in simple language. If you are a complete beginner than these videos will help. Things I learnt that are useful - adjusting losing positions and how to beta hedge. However they don't get deep into the intricacies of options that professionals worry about.
The education is totally biased towards option selling strategies. They try to sell the Option Alpha system (where you are a net seller of options) to the subscriber as basically running a an insurance business or creating your personal casino where you make 100s of trades ever year to eke out a small premium for taking on the risk. They then go on to basically sells you the system as being better than buying and holding ETFs or stocks over the long run and - how option buying doesn't work 80% of the time and how buying and holding stocks is riskier than selling option premiums. This is all good in theory. But in practice it reminds me of this quote - "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.". In reality, what they don't talk about is the fact that the success of option selling relies on harvesting variance premium in the option markets (historically around 3% or so). Unfortunately in recent years the variance premium has at times declined to negative levels. The sign for VRP can flip positive to negative for different underlyings and is not always positive every single month of the year. So making money with this system is basically entirely dependent on luck. Atleast the stock market tends to grow over the long term with earnings growth and GDP growth, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case with variance premiums which could be permanently arbitraged away by option sellers and brain dead option selling strategies such as Option Alpha. Option selling has to be done smartly or not at all.
The basic system is this:
Naively diversify by selling wide Iron butterflys/condors (this is the bread and butter trade about 80 to 90% of all trades) or credit spreads (about 10% to 20%) on these sector ETFs - SPY, TLT, XOP, XRT, EEM, OIH, FXI, XLP, XBI, GLD etc. Sell options about 30 to 45 days to expiration. I say naively because whenever markets crash everything goes down together so infact naive diversification is really di-worsification. Never have more than 5% of risk in any one ETF. They like to start out trades with a 1% to 2% risk per position and then scale in as adjustments are and will be needed. Good luck following this strategy if you have a small account as you will be taking greater risk. Then do this every single month or so without regard to broader macro conditions or IV levels or trend. Doesn't matter what EEM is doing or FXI is doing. Does Option Alpha look at price action, fundamental analysis, news flow, macroeconomics etc or anything else at the individual ETF level? No it doesn't appear they do. If and when positions move against you (which they regularly do) then waste time adjusting your positions and tracking credits to prove to yourself that you did make a tiny profit. They try to center the strikes as the underlying moves with adjustments and additional scaling in positions but honestly it doesn't work over the long term.
At the end of the year after 100s of trades (6 to 10 etfs x 4 (assume butterfly or condor) x 2 (opening and closing) x 10 (every 35 to 45 days) = assume 600 trades per year not including the adjustments and additional scale ins that will be needed), subscription fees (between $100 to $300 per month), broker commissions, pay short term capital gains and then waste additional time filling out dozens of pages of IRS forms with the 100s of option trades all to make a small single digit low annual return if lucky. The thing to understand is this, with option selling you generally risk $3 to $4 for every $1 of gains. So you can have 3 winning trades and then the 4th one will blow up profits. To counter this, they will show you how to make adjusting trades (only one side of the butterfly is underwater, so the whole position can be adjusted) or scale in so that strikes are centered around current underlying price. Even after adjusting which is not a guarantee of profits, the overall the results are just extremely lame. If you refuse to adjust positions it will be impossible to make any profit with this system. This is not to say other option selling strategies don't work (there are some that can work but they require a true edge) but its just that Option Alpha doesn't work. The free Theta gang on reddit or discord probably does a better job than OA.
As such there is nothing even remotely proprietary about Option Alpha. There is no edge. Because there is always a risk that all positions can simultaneously lose money in a crash as all assets trade downward, so Option Alpha advises that only use 40-50% of the account value for option selling and keep the rest as cash as a hedge against blowing the account up. Recently they advised having a 1% long VXX calls positions to hedge black swans/market crashes which I think is an improvement over the system of past few years.
I personally think that selling this system to gullible retail subscribers is extremely irresponsible. You can argue that option selling has a place within pension funds or other entities that have a lot of money who need yield income tax free and who have a proprietary system with an edge that can makes better risk adjusted profits but Option Alpha is basically gambling and praying for profits. If selling options is so good, how come I have not heard of a single Hedge fund that only does this with 100% of their capital? There were some crooks in Florida who blew up one fund that was selling energy options (you can look up Optionseller.com on google - website is defunct now). I'm not saying Option Alpha is pursuing similarly risky strategy since these are all defined risk trades and they do ask to hold 50% in cash. But it is conceivable that you can lose 100% of the amount you have put into selling options - that is the other 50% of the portfolio under a true black swan scenario. Maybe making adjustments etc will save the portfolio but its not really a guarantee. Btw the stock market can never goto zero. We can get another market crash and yes it could take a long time to recover but it can never goto zero (the businesses underlying these stocks have real value unlike options/derivatives). With stocks you have time to sell even with a 10% gap down overnight. Options will get blown up much faster.
This strategy is not at all the best way for the individual investor to invest. The only market where this system works is even Implied volatility is high ( so that you get extra compensation for selling time decay) and the market moves sideways. However in practice the market is either steadily marching higher and IV is low, or IV is so high (that you get a decent premium) but the market is rapidly moving in either direction so you will endlessly keep adjusting positions or keep taking losses. Options are complicated instruments and if you don't understand vol skew, statistics and probability, option greeks properly and can't backtest with good data than it is literally gambling and praying for profits. There is a real risk that naive option selling can blow up accounts. Option selling only makes sense in certain market regimes and only when done smartly. To tell retail traders that they should trade this way all the time for the rest of their life is extremely irresponsible.
Here is the thing. What I'm mad about is that Option Alpha has spent all this time very aggressively marketing this system and spent the last few years trying to develop an autotrading platform. It has been recently launched in Beta mode if you upgrade to lifetime membership for $2000-$2500. My hope is that the autotrading system will work and not blowup accounts due to software glitches like the Knight Capital software glitch fiasco in 2010.
I think they know these strategies don't work. The website claims that there have been 200k people who have signed up. I think at any given time they have 1000s of subscribers who come and go. If we assume 4000 subscribers per month at avg of $100 per month is $400k per month or $4.8 million per year. This is better than a lot of smaller hedgefund managers. For Kirk's own account, it appears that he trades a $300k portfolio, but his main source of income is selling Option Alpha subscriptions and doing real estate investing. How come his account is not millions of dollars now after almost a decade? But still around 300k? The simple reason is this doesn't work and instead he invests his income from Option Alpha subscriptions into other things/real estate investing etc.
The founder of OA has institutional experience trading and as such I would have expected him to focus on improving trading performance, creating new strategies, backtesting etc, interacting with members, rather than selling snake oil promises.
There isn't enough skin in the game. Option Alpha has forums where members can talk to each other and there are probably some legitimate strategies there (none are based on the Option Alpha) developed by members. But the OA founder has been completely AWOL last few years. Zero participation. Zero time trying to refine or improve his strategies on Option Alpha. They could have hired professional optional traders or even subscribed to institutional level stuff to help them out but no they have been focused entirely on making money. There are other free blogs and similar option newsletter services which also trade condors and butterflys which have shown much much superior results, however OA refuses to adapt their strategies or spend any time engaging with members. The focus has been on scaling the business and selling promises about the new autotrading system.
I think the founder has realized that this Option alpha is going nowhere and so has decided to pivot into autotrading. Gullible retail investors have been financing the build out of this service it seems.
Want another proof of what I'm saying? You can sign up for free membership and see the performance section. First the performance section does not tell you the performance from one year to the next. The only thing you can see is the meaningless numbers such as avg profit and loss on different option selling spreads and win rate. It is impossible to reconstruct PnL performance from these metrics. I think this is very misleading. Even Motley Fool shows their performance for their $100 per year newsletter. Almost any good newsletter and or trading/membership service shares performance/trade log for the past few years. If this is just about education then charge only for educational videos and don't have trade alerts and monthly membership/weekly elite calls etc.
Another note on some of the enhancements they up-sell on the website. The tools are almost totally useless. The backtester sucks. The scanner sucks. The forum is basically impossible to use properly.
The research reports (each priced at $400) are not worth the money.
Let me summarize the technical indicator report - use commonly used oscillators that everyone knows already at a medium term time-frame and buy at oversold condition and sell at overbought condition. I mean C'mon everyone already knows this. Does Option Alpha appear to use this research - nope!
The profit matrix report will tell you that there is no limited-loss option selling strategy that produces a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) above a low single digit return. Not a single one. This is not surprising since the variance premium per academic research is around 3 to 4%. Shouldn't this be disclosed to regular subscribers instead of asking them to pay another $400 bucks?
Covered calls research report - sell short dated deep OTM calls. Viola! There is no actionable information in these reports. These reports are a few years old and the information is not updated. The reasonable price for such reports should have been $20-$30 not $400.
You can even find REITs or dividend paying stocks that have a higher yield than than option alpha strategies.
In fact I'm not even confident if Option Alpha has used proper back testing methodology and not made mistakes. You will learn more spending this money on a proper backtesting website that professionals use. Even Seeking Alpha and Reddit have better options strategies articles for free. A lot of academic research is available for free. Tasty Trade has similar trade ideas for free. The bottom-line is that Kirk is not a skilled trader. And has made no effort to improve or adapt to the market environment the last few years. All effort has gone into growing the business and up-selling membership with very aggressive sales tactics. He is a master salesman so be careful. Its really the case of the blind leading the blind.
Just blindly sell options every month without any edge and charge big money for it without any real view about the direction of the underlying or IV.
Just to be clear I do not have unrealistic expectations from a newsletter service/system. If I'm subscribing to an expensive service than I expect that I should have a reasonable chance to make greater than 10% on my account annually. I'm not expecting 100% nor even 20% - just a reasonable 10% to 20%.
The best thing about OA is the free educational videos and the podcast. Use that and skip the paid services. Time will tell if the new autotrading pivot will work well and I would suggest waiting until it is proven to work.

Hey guys - my friend who's pretty savvy in the stock market finally got me to start investing today using Robinhood. He gave me a few options, told me to diversify, and gave me some good starting points. He also told me that the last few days and the next week or so will probably be pretty bad for the market, so now is a good time to buy stocks. Here's what I bought today and my reasoning behind these. Let me know if I'm off to a good start. I only spent about $1200, I have more in savings that I'm willing to spend but I'm being a little conservative as I'm just starting. My goals are more long term (5-20 years) as I don't have the time or energy to trade daily.
-Nikola (NKLA): Just opened, competitor to Tesla, electric truck manufacturer. One of the hotter new stocks at the moment. I think there's room for other electric vehicle stocks alongside Tesla. I plan on buying Tesla stock once I can transfer more money to my account.
-Xpress Spa (XSPA): Fresh off a 1/3 split, my friend told me it's a good time to invest since they're doing COVID-19 testing. Don't know too much about these guys, but stock was cheap.
-Ideanomics (IDEX): Friend recommended this to me since it was cheap. Also did some research and saw they're planning on facilitating purchases of commercial electric vehicles. They've already made deals for commercial buses in China. Was only $1.01 a share today.
-Draft Kings (DKNG): Not only a casual user of the app, but sports gambling is going to explode in the next 1-5 years.
-Eldorado Resorts (ERI): Purchased Caesar's Palace and will be the first casino partner of the NFL. That alone is a good sign of future success, along with the fact that there are more and more pro sports teams moving to Vegas.
-Penn National Gaming (PENN): Owns 36% of Barstool Sports which has become one of the leaders in the sports blogging industry. Also owns 40+ gambling/gaming locations throughout the country.
-GAN Ltd (GAN): Online Casino Gaming
-Heico (HEI): Specializes in aerospace avionics, components and spare parts. Also makes medical equipment like ventilators, X-Ray systems, sterilization, and personal protective equipment. This was me trying to diversify and I did some research and it seemed like a solid buy.
-II-VI (IIVI): Friend told me to look in to some optics companies as they will be strong in the future of manufacturing. I did some research and found II-VI, which makes opto-electronic components for a wide range of manufacturers.
-Viavi (VIAV): Network test, assurance, and measurement company that tests equipment for networks. Don't know TOO much about this, but have seen it on multiple articles as a solid stock with the upcoming 5G revolution and ever expanding network across the world.
So this next section is what's on my watchlist. Since I was being so conservative, I did multiple transactions and used all of my deposits....so I put these on my watchlist because I'm probably going to buy these next:
-Tesla, for obvious reasons
-Qualcomm (QCOM): Finally made peace with Apple and will be supplying chips for the iPhone for next 6 years. With 5G inevitably booming in the next few years, I saw this as a must buy.
-Ericsson (ERIC): As a communications-equipment company who will be rolling out 5G technology worldwide, I saw this as a great buy. They also sell software and radio hardware and has a deal with Oppo, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Expects 2.6 billion 5G subscriptions by 2025 and is only selling at $8.76/share.
-Verizon (VZ): Just another attempt to get in on the 5G revolution.
-PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD): Watched some YouTube videos and I really liked what YouTuber Andre Jikh had to say about a few ETFs and Dividends. I like the sound of ETFs as they take a lot of work out of investing, provide consistent dividents, and aren't volatile.
-Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI): Want for the same reasons as SPHD, but after some research see that it's a bit more growth oriented (albeit volatile?) than SPHD. Thought it be good to grab this along with SPHD as it also gives dividends.
So...like I said I am a complete beginner in investing in stocks and really did all of this just by googling stuff and doing some research, watching youtube videos, etc. Please tell me if I'm an idiot about ANY OF THESE stocks and why I'm wrong, because that's why I'm posting this.
Also - what are some great FREE resources to use to get more stock education, advice, and trends on the market?

Hey guys - my friend who's pretty savvy in the stock market finally got me to start investing today. He gave me a few options, told me to diversify, and gave me some good starting points. He also told me that the last few days and the next week or so will probably be pretty bad for the market, so now is a good time to buy stocks. Here's what I bought today and my reasoning behind these. Let me know if I'm off to a good start. I only spent about $1200, I have more in savings that I'm willing to spend but I'm being a little conservative as I'm just starting. My goals are more long term (5-20 years) as I don't have the time or energy to trade daily.
-Nikola ($NKLA): Just opened, competitor to Tesla, electric truck manufacturer. One of the hotter new stocks at the moment. I think there's room for other electric vehicle stocks alongside Tesla. I plan on buying Tesla stock once I can transfer more money to my account.
-Xpress Spa: Fresh off a 1/3 split, my friend told me it's a good time to invest since they're doing COVID-19 testing. Don't know too much about these guys, but stock was cheap.
-Ideanomics ($IDEX): Friend recommended this to me since it was cheap. Also did some research and saw they're planning on facilitating purchases of commercial electric vehicles. They've already made deals for commercial buses in China. Was only $1.01 a share today.
-Draft Kings ($DKNG): Not only a casual user of the app, but sports gambling is going to explode in the next 1-5 years.
-Eldorado Resorts ($ERI): Purchased Caesar's Palace and will be the first casino partner of the NFL. That alone is a good sign of future success, along with the fact that there are more and more pro sports teams moving to Vegas.
-Penn National Gaming ($PENN): Owns 36% of Barstool Sports which has become one of the leaders in the sports blogging industry. Also owns 40+ gambling/gaming locations throughout the country.
-GAN Ltd ($GAN): Online Casino Gaming
-Heico ($HEI): Specializes in aerospace avionics, components and spare parts. Also makes medical equipment like ventilators, X-Ray systems, sterilization, and personal protective equipment. This was me trying to diversify and I did some research and it seemed like a solid buy.
-II-VI ($IIVI): Friend told me to look in to some optics companies as they will be strong in the future of manufacturing. I did some research and found II-VI, which makes opto-electronic components for a wide range of manufacturers.
-Viavi ($VIAV): Network test, assurance, and measurement company that tests equipment for networks. Don't know TOO much about this, but have seen it on multiple articles as a solid stock with the upcoming 5G revolution and ever expanding network across the world.
-Tesla, for obvious reasons
-Qualcomm ($QCOM): Finally made peace with Apple and will be supplying chips for the iPhone for next 6 years. With 5G inevitably booming in the next few years, I saw this as a must buy.
-Ericsson ($ERIC): As a communications-equipment company who will be rolling out 5G technology worldwide, I saw this as a great buy. They also sell software and radio hardware and has a deal with Oppo, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Expects 2.6 billion 5G subscriptions by 2025 and is only selling at $8.76/share.
-Verizon ($VZ): Just another attempt to get in on the 5G revolution.
-PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF ($SPHD): Watched some YouTube videos and I really liked what YouTuber Andre Jikh had to say about a few ETFs and Dividends. I like the sound of ETFs as they take a lot of work out of investing, provide consistent dividents, and aren't volatile.
-Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF ($VTI): Want for the same reasons as SPHD, but after some research see that it's a bit more growth oriented (albeit volatile?) than SPHD. Thought it be good to grab this along with SPHD as it also gives dividends.
So...like I said I am a complete beginner in investing in stocks and really did all of this just by googling stuff and doing some research, watching youtube videos, etc. Please tell me if I'm an idiot about ANY OF THESE stocks and why I'm wrong, because that's why I'm posting this.
Also - what are some great FREE resources to use to get more stock education, advice, and trends on the market?

Hello all,
I have a short-term investment plan (1-2 year) that I'd like to go over with you guys. Just a few things to mention before we delve in... I have separate retirement, children's college, and emergency fund accounts that have their own age-based investment portfolios (save the emergency fund, which is cash). I have spent the last few years dabbling in occasional stock purchase/sales on the side that have netted a few thousand dollars, so I believe I have a handle on the basics of the market. I have also discovered that emotional trading is worse for your wallet than just going to the casino, so that lesson is behind me. :(
Now for the nitty gritty. I have a brokerage account with ~$20k in it. I'd like to pull the money out to use it in approximately 1-2 years. I will be contributing $400-$500 a month into this account to take advantage of dollar cost averaging. I am not risk averse, but I don't want to be stupid with it. I plan on using commission-free ETFs for the majority of the investment, unless you guys convince me otherwise.
The plan:
35% BND (Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF)
30% VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF)
15% VEU (Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF)
5% VNQ (Vanguard REIT ETF)
15% stock of my choice
Questions/Comments:

• How should I react to an interest rate hike by the feds?
  
• I considered VIG instead of VTI. What do you suggest?
  
• The stock purchase at the bottom of the plan will most likely be INTC.
  
• Should I invest the entire principal up front, or gradually move it in?
  
• Shout out to this TheSystem_IsDown post for the Vanguard ETF ideas.
  

Thanks in advance!
Edit: Added ticker info

Why save & invest?
Saving and investing are important. I have said this before, and I will say it again. There are two classes in society, labour and capital. Unless you are a creditor or owner of a company, you are in the labour class. Means your wealth depends solely on the result of your time invested at work.
Saving and investing in bonds (creditor) and equity (shareholder), puts you in the capital class. This transition between labour class to capital class is probably more important to us, now than ever, since the gap between both classes are widening at a quick pace, (read: Thomas Piketty) and its expected to worsen. ** Basics of Buying ETFs**
Its painfully simple. Exchange traded funds should be in your saving portfolio, because it’s easy to manage, provides instant diversification, and is difficult to screw up.
What are ETFs?
ETF is a big shopping bag of financial stuffs. The stuff in question can be stocks/bonds/derivatives/other ETFs. Anything with a cash flow and is actively traded in the financial markets can be put in this shopping bag. ETFs usually follow some pre-defined rules in terms of what to put in that bag. It could be stocks only from Russia (RSX), or only gold mining firms (GDX), or only bonds (MINT) etc. The funky letters in the parenthesis tells you the identifying ticker name for these ETFs, in case you are interested in doing some homework before investing. Google the tickers + etf. ETFdb is an ok website to use.
Investment motive
The first thing I would do is to examine my motives for investing. Are you investing because you want to finance a home in 10 years, or build a retirement nest egg? Maybe even just to try it out and find out why everyone is talking about it. Or perhaps you want to have the thrill of making money speculatively, in pyjamas on a Wednesday afternoon, scratching your balls in your chair? Whatever your motive could be, I shall show you in this article how ETFs can help you achieve your goals and not burn half your money, unlike your divorce.
Financing big purchases
First, I would set a target date, for when the expected withdrawal needs to happen. Then I would go make myself a cup of tea, because we are in this for the long game. Might as well take a chill pill. Usually, depending on the target date in mind, its good to start off aggressive and slowly tone it down as we get closer to the target date.
Retirement income
Well, you need a target date again, which will be your target retirement date. As you draw closer to the target date, keep to less volatile holdings and go into capital preservation mode. Its OK to lose half your money when you are 27, not so cool to lose half your money when you’re 72.
You know that jumpy financial advisor in that ugly glazed double-breasted gray suit, calling you every other week to recommend you some top-of-the-line investment product when you are in your golden years. Ignore him. He does not have your well-being at heart, he only cares about the commission he will earn from you. Don’t make any exotic, opaque, risky investments in your silver and golden years. If necessary, take the money out from a trading account, and in to a savings or fixed deposit account.
Trying it out
ETFs are the best for beginners. It’s really hard to lose all your money with ETFs. If you follow the rules below, you’d be fine.
Speculation
ETFs are not for you. Stop reading and go to the casino.
Risk appetite
Asking for your risk appetite is a polite way for those pesky financial advisors to ask you, “how much money can you lose before you shit your pants?”. The problem is, those guys asking you the questions don’t manage your money, and those guys managing your money have no clue who you are. The slimy guys at your banks probably direct your money to one of the low cost ETFs, and pocket the difference in commission anyway. Some banks charge a lot for fees, to do something so simple! Investing through your bank increases the risks too, since usually there are two counterparties instead of one. Investing is not rocket science, you can do it yourself. If you want to pay someone to do it, get an actively managed ETF then.
If you hate taking risks, that’s fine. Me too. Nothing wrong. All the better. Start constructing a portfolio with a conservative philosophy. If you are a risk taker, that’s fine too. It’s entirely up to you if you choose not to rubber up, when things get hot and heavy with the person you just met at the swingers’ club. Same for how you build a portfolio. At the end of the day, build a portfolio that doesn’t keep you up at night. Remember, we are in for the long game, ain’t nobody gonna be checking the portfolio every 5 minutes. The whole point of investing is to put the money to work, while you work too. Its counter-productive if you have to manage your portfolio and a job. That’s why we define a time-frame, philosophy, strategy and stick to it.
Rules
There are some rules that are good to follow, since we’re talking about your hard-earned money.
Expense ratios and sales charges
Keep these as low as you can. Expense ratio is the cost to YOU for owning the ETF. There is strong correlation between low gross expense charges and good long term performance. Most big ETFs from Vanguard & Blackrock have an expense ratio below 0.3%. That means you get charged $30 for every $10,000 invested. Pretty reasonable. Anything more than 0.99% is too much, in my opinion.
Some good looking sales bro will call you ever so often and tout that his firm has unlocked the secret to long lasting excess alpha returns, through smart beta, and adhering to some modified, multifactorial index, yada yada yada. The first question you have to ask him is how did he get your phone number. The second is can you take me off your phone list. And lastly, what’s the expense ratio? These are 3 questions which he will try his best to avoid answering.
Volume
Buy ETFs that are traded. Volume should be 6 digits. Anything less, you’re asking for liquidity troubles. Imagine when the shit hits the fan and you can’t sell your stuff or when you are making sick bucks and you can’t sell your stuff. A good indicator is to glance at the trading volume column. Be sure to check it during trading hours. Another less reliable method is to check the assets under management (AUM). Anything with more than $1 billion is usually traded frequently.
Diversify, diversify, diversify
This is so important, it has to be said thrice. Your risk appetite will define the way you diversify. You ought to diversify over the following: asset type, geography, size, equity type.
Asset type
There are ETF for bonds, equities, commodities, derivatives, other ETFs. If you are conservative, put 60–70% of your money in bond ETFs, and the rest in anything that catches your eye; as long as you follow the rules. If you are aggressive, put 60–70% of your money in equities ETFs, and the rest preferably in some bonds ETF; rules apply too. Any allocation in between conservative and aggressive are acceptable too. If you’re interested, go google Asset Allocation
Bonds
Buying bonds makes you a lender. The borrower is up to you to choose from, it could be a government, a municipality or corporates. Its healthy to have a good mix between the different entities you lend to. You can only lose what you put in.
Bonds are safer than equities simply because there is less uncertainty in cash flows. The bonds dictate how much has to be paid out, and the borrowers usually repay it.
Especially for governments, since governments usually prefer to print money to repay the bonds than to default and be blocked off the capital markets (Argentine-style!). Do take note that interest rates and exchange rates will affect the valuation of your bonds and cash flow. However, if you cast your net wide enough, and have a long enough investment horizon, there is nothing much to worry about.
I recommend governmental bonds and corporate grade bonds. Municipal bonds are tricky. Town councils like to default. Municipal governments can’t print money too. I avoid them.
There are different classes of government bonds. Usually they are split between developed economies (AGG, BND) and developing economies (EMB). BND for example, holds 17,301 different bonds in 1 basket. That is more than enough diversification. EMB top 10 holdings includes lending money to Russia, Argentina, Hungary, Poland, Peru, Uruguay. Since holding emerging economies bonds are more dicey than developed markets, they pay more to you for interest. Another cool thing about owning bonds is that you can go to their citizens and say, your country owes me money. Absolutely true!
Bonds Duration
Bonds are separated through the duration. As usual, when in doubt, diversify through the distinctions. Google “Bond duration” if interested.
Equities
Means you are a part owner of the company. You can earn money in 2 ways, the value of your stock goes up, or they send money to you in the mail (dividends). Again, you can only lose what you put in. Taxes apply.
Geography
You want to spread out your purchases across continents and nations. This insulates you from country-specific events. A good rule of thumb is not to have more than 40% of your portfolio based in one continent. North America is an exception.
Remember to diversify based on your needs. For example, if your primary residence is in the US, your job pays in USD, and your job is based in USA, then you have more than enough exposure to the United States of America. It would be very pointless in the view of diversification, to invest your savings in Singapore. I act on this. My portfolio has no positions in my employing company, nor in the country where my livelihood is based on. If you are aggressive, go for emerging markets (VWO, EEM, IEMG) and frontier markets (FRN) ETF. These usually experience more volatility. Meaning that the value of your portfolio jumps around a lot, and there is a stronger chance for higher returns. If conservative, go for the developed markets like North America (VTI, SCHB) and Developed Europe (VGK).
The mentioned VTI and SCHB have 3723 and 2054 holdings respectively. Meaning to say that by buying VTI, you are purchasing 3723 companies in 1 go. This is recommended because you have instant diversification. Assuming equal weights, if 30 companies go bankrupt, you would have lost less than 1% of your money invested in VTI. Its much better than buying individual stocks. Take note that VTI and SCHB both have very low expense ratios too. You pay $3 for every $10,000 invested, and you gain from such diversification.
Size
Equities come in more or less three sizes. Large cap, mid cap, small cap. Cap is capitalization, not the thing that cool kids buy to hide their freckled, stunted foreheads. Conservative investors should stick to large cap. Large companies usually have everything in order, have strong market share, good cash flow, and make money in general. There are less surprises with these boys. The more aggressive you are, the more you should include mid and small cap in your portfolio. Note that in a recession, smaller cap companies suffer a lot. Smaller cap companies also experience great jumps and drops in prices.
Equity type
Other than by size, equities are also split by type: Value, Core, Growth. It’s good to diversify across the 3 types as well, and I feel it’s OK to have a preference if one wishes.
Value are stocks that are comparably cheap, considering their earnings. This can be due to their industry, which has little growth prospects, or perhaps the company is domiciled in a country with short-term turmoil, hence a lower price due to the uncertainty.
Core stocks are the backbones of the economy, whose stocks are a best representation of the domestic economy. These are usually well known companies and have a strong brand value. IVV which represents the core of the US economy, includes Apple, Microsoft, Exxon, J&J, GE, Berkshire Hathaway, Facebook, Amazon etc. It’s usually good to have some global core in your portfolio.
Growth are stocks that are usually comparatively expensive, considering their earnings. This is due to their growth prospect, and the promise of better returns in the future. Typical industries that have growth classification is Tech and Healthcare. In my opinion, the most bubbly valuations can be found here, as it’s hard to quantify future earnings accurately. Personally, I don’t hold too many growth ETFs if I can help it.
I understand that managing by geography, size and type can be too troublesome for the retail investors. There are tools like Morningstar X-ray out there, where you can key in your holdings and this pops out.
http://imgur.com/4bS59l6 My ETF holdings some time ago (Produced with Morningstar)
As you can see, my holdings are mostly in large caps, because I am pretty conservative when it comes to investing. I try to stay away from small cap because those guys are too volatile for me. I have strong preference for value stocks too, which I will explain later why. For now just try to keep the stock style matrix well spread out or top heavy and you will be OK.
Sectors Different sectors behave differently, and you will have to diversify likewise accordingly. http://imgur.com/SoJlbLa My ETF holdings some time ago, split by sector (Produced by Morningstar)
If you are more conservative, go for utilities, telcos, consumer staples and consumer discretionary. Materials and Industrials somewhat applies too. If you are more aggressive, then hold healthcare, energy and IT stocks. Try not to have more than 20% of your portfolio in one sector, as sector valuations commonly move together.
Fund houses
Vanguard, Blackrock, Guggenheim, Credit Suisse etc. These are fund houses. You should try to diversify your holdings across fund houses because funds from the same house can have a selection bias. The selection bias may lead to a concentration in your holdings. We want diversification, not concentration.
Leveraged ETFs
Avoid them. The roll costs are usually too painful. Owning leveraged ETFs is like owning a pet crocodile. It’s all fun and dandy at the start, but if you keep them for too long, it will return to bite you in the ass. Time horizon for keeping leveraged ETFs should be max. a few months.
Inverse ETFs
Avoid them. Roll costs again. Betting against the market long term, correlates with negative returns.
Investment Strategies
Here, we shall discuss some of the investment strategies prevalent in today’s markets. Buy and hold
Personally, I like to buy and hold. Less transaction charges, which correlates strongly with better long term performance. Set aside some money from your income every month, and put them in pre-defined ETFs. Then just hold them all the way till you need the money or you are convinced your holdings are too overvalued. (For valuation, google either: PE, Shiller PE/CAPE, PB)
I believe the market is cyclical. Like the oft quoted phrase, the stock markets short term is a voting machine, and long term a weighing machine. What I do is when I am drinking coffee in the morning and reading the news, I keep an eye out for turmoil. Usually everyone is selling & dumping when turmoil hits, so you just wait and watch the discount grow while the fear mounts. After some time, I invest in that country or sector. Then I forget about it. Since my investment horizon is a few decades, I have time to spare till that sector or country picks up again.
Case: At time of writing,

1. Russia is placed under sanctions and experiencing weak oil prices.
   
2. Brazil has political turmoil through a corruption scandal of Rousseff
   
3. Malaysia political class is facing corruption allegations, suffering oil prices
   
4. Energy sector getting destroyed through low oil prices
   
5. Financial sector battered through low interest rates
   

These are stuff you see on the news all the time. For point 1,2 & 3, you can purchase Russian (RSX), Brazilian (EWZ) or Malaysian (EWM) stocks or their bonds (ELD, EMSH), or both. Usually they are at a discount when crisis hits.
For point 3 & 4, you can purchase sector specific ETFs. Energy (VDE, XLE) and financial (VFH, FNCL, XLF)sectors are relatively cheap compared to before.
You can make proxy bets too. Ask yourself. If oil is cheap, which countries or sectors would benefit the most? Countries like India (INDA, EPI) and Philippines (EPHE) import a lot of oil as a percentage of GDP. Airlines (JETS, ITA) and transportation (IYT) companies spend the majority of costs on fuel. Cheap oil bodes well for all of them, so you can expect their business outlooks to improve and that they will provide good returns.
My strategy is basically bargain hunting. I wait outside the supermarket till something goes on discount, then I saunter in and pick it up. Buy low, sell high, remember? Unfortunately, this strategy is not for everyone. You need to have patience to ride out the market turmoil and cycles. You also have to keep your hands away from the trading platform, which is harder than expected. No matter what, remember to keep your investments diversified.
I shall include the other strategies here for discussion sake. I do not necessarily think these are good ideas.
Smart Beta
Smart beta is the new game in town. Personally I think it’s stupid. Even sad to a point. The idea is so dumb, they put the word Smart in front of it. Its like naming your son Smart, hoping that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Smart beta is the desperate way asset managers try to remain relevant today. The sorry sad fact is, most asset managers suck sweaty balls. When they outperform, they can’t repeat the fluke. You are better off just indexing. Asset managers realized that, and try to reduce a winning strategy to beat the index, by making an index with simple rules, then following it blindly.
The rules are anomalies identified from academic literature. They back-test (also known as lying to themselves) it, then fiddle around to find a formula to deliver the best result they were looking at. The problem is, once an anomaly is discovered in the market, it cannot continue. People will arbitrage the profits away. Well, at least most of these funds are kind of diversified.
Momentum These ETFs seek out stocks or sectors that are gaining momentum. They are usually an ETF of ETFs, which results in higher expense ratios. Momentum ETF usually have different geographical focuses. Expect the global ones to incur more expense charges. The high fees are why I avoid them.
The most held momentum ETF is First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF (FV), which as of the time of writing includes:
First Trust Utilities (FXU)
First Trust Consumer discretion (FXD)
First Trust Internet (FDN)
First Trust Consumer Staples (FXG)
First Trust Energy (FXN)
This ETF holds 5 different ETFs of the 5 sectors that have the most momentum in trading. Sly mofos double-charging their expense ratios too. One thing to take note is that because the ETF changes its holdings drastically, it could create unexpected concentration risk in your holdings.
Long Short
Long short can have long and short positions in different assets. Long means you own the stock. Short means you sell a stock you do not currently own, in the hopes that the price drops and so you can conduct the cancelling trade and profit. There may be an underlying objective, where the ETF claims it will be 130/30 for example. This means its 130% long and 30% short. I avoid long shorts because their expense ratio is high, averaging near 1%.
Volatility Hedged
These ETFs invest in equities and volatilities derivatives. In English, it means that they buy insurance against wild swings in prices. The good thing is the downside is supposedly hedged. The bad thing is that you have to pay for this protection, meaning that the hedge hinders performance. I have not tried their services, and hence can’t recommend them.
Merger arbitrage This one is cool. I am not sure though if this strategy provides long term returns. When a company buys another company, the buyer usually has to pay more for the target. Merger arbitrage funds (MNA) will check out the M&A scene and hold positions in the target companies, to earn this premium. Problem is, an ETF like this typically holds only a few stock. Since mergers and acquisitions typically happen in only a few industries where scale pays off, your holdings in a fund like this would be concentrated too. Thirdly, you are not protected against a market sell-off. Worse still, in the event that there is a sell off, the merger would probably not take place and you would not have earned the premium.
Momentum, Long-short, Volatility Hedged, Merger arbitrage ETFs are usually actively managed. Means more fees to pay.
Conclusion ETFs are really simple to get started, and to put your investments in your hands. Through ETFs, its easy to gain diversification. Decide if you are a risk-taker or risk-averse, define an investment philosophy and hone a strategy, then cast a wide net across geographical, asset types, asset sizes, sectors and fund houses, forget about your investments, until the day you need money to cure the cancer you got from midnight binge on dank memes. Good luck.
All views expressed are personal opinions and not of that of the employer. Nothing written here should be construed as advice. Information presented is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but I do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change.