What happened to my investment thread I have been posting in since 3/18/2018?

[ynot2k]

I sure hope some mod's do something about this. Otherwise please explain exactly what was wrong with this thread that many of us followed! I sure hope it wasn't some AI machine seeing anti-woke words like buy, sell or trade and think it was racist.

LongDonSilver... we've been waiting for a reply from forum admin since this occurred. I have not received a reply to the private message I sent.

[motocat]

This has happened before. A large amount of my own posts, including that from years ago when I backed arming Ukraine (vs "Bulat"), and then also when I flipped and wrote against the war in Ukraine at the start, also mysteriously disappeared. Ynot may remember my asking about this. We never found out why.

[motocat]

From our PM discussion back in April 2022:ynot2k
Moderator

Join DateApr 2009Posts16,001

Re: Removal of posts on Russian war with Ukraine

Hi motocat,

I don't have anymore information regarding it. I wish I did. As said I remember a few of the more recent posts as well as I found Bulat's perspective to be interesting. I don't recall seeing anything at anytime that would raise alarm or concern.

I understand the frustration of having so much of your thoughtful work just disappear as well as others. I continue to be grateful for the many members here who put a lot of good info on various subjects, and to Kitco that so far has allowed - until this thread perhaps - much discussion to take place that apparently is discouraged or not allowed on many other venues.

There is always the possibility that it was accidentally removed and I don't rule this out since Kitco has not had an issue with many other discussions on Russia-Ukraine, or other topics.

Thanks for all your contributions.


Originally Posted by motocat
Regarding that Ukraine thread, I am quite surprised that a large number of posts over many years, perhaps an entire thread, was able to be deleted without your ability, as a moderator, to trace it. Due to the possible sensitive nature of what happened and why, I'm sending this privately. Do you have any guesses as to how this happened -- is it more likely an action taken by Kitco employees, some hackers, or perhaps government? I do not see how this could be an advantage to anyone, as we can still discuss the matter, and I can not see were someone may have violated kitco policy, or hurt their business, in that discussion. Interested as to what you may think was involved here, given your position. Thanks for the public responses on the forum, I just hope I can learn more.

[ynot2k]

This has happened before. A large amount of my own posts, including that from years ago when I backed arming Ukraine (vs "Bulat"), and then also when I flipped and wrote against the war in Ukraine at the start, also mysteriously disappeared. Ynot may remember my asking about this. We never found out why.

Definately remember... it came up last year when the current chapter of the Ukraine stuff began.

I never heard back from admin regarding this. I don't know anything about the Kitco IT department (size, budget, etc) but one could assume they apparently stay busy with the online store, news deptartment, and other parts of the online presence as not much attention seems to be given to the forum. I try to give them the benefit of doubt but sometimes one has to wonder.


I always found it odd that of the 10s (or hundreds) of thousands of views the Redrum thread got that 99.9% of them were bots (who has viewed a thread is viewable by mods and only a handful of real people viewed the thread.)

[DorothyValencia]

I understand your concerns regarding the forum.

[brutus2]

It does not appear my thread will be brought back so this is the final goodbye with the results since 3/18/2018 through today.

Our dividend income has grown from being 32.49% of our annual retirement income to being 57.25% of our retirement income.

Our account valuations have grown 68.35% while we have been taking 9% (2018) to 7.5% (current) of our yearly living income from the accounts.

Due to my belief a significant correction is coming - we now have 96.1% of our holding in US Treasuries; Specifically in TLT (45.7%) or Treasury Bills.

Obviously our "plan" has been working very well.

Sorry to hear this has happened to your thread Redrum.
Very strange.
In any case I hope you will post of any significant changes in your portfolio positioning and the rational, in the future.
Congratulations on your success.

[Redrum]

Okay - IF I restart the thread, how many of you would be reading and using the information I post.

ynot2K posted: "I always found it odd that of the 10s (or hundreds) of thousands of views the Redrum thread got that 99.9% of them were bots (who has viewed a thread is viewable by mods and only a handful of real people viewed the thread.)"

So unless a fair number of real people will read and use what I post I can just do what I do for myself in a "word document".

and - What the heck is a bot in the context of visiting my thread? Why would they be "reading" what I post??

[ynot2k]

Okay - IF I restart the thread, how many of you would be reading and using the information I post.

ynot2K posted: "I always found it odd that of the 10s (or hundreds) of thousands of views the Redrum thread got that 99.9% of them were bots (who has viewed a thread is viewable by mods and only a handful of real people viewed the thread.)"

So unless a fair number of real people will read and use what I post I can just do what I do for myself in a "word document".

and - What the heck is a bot in the context of visiting my thread? Why would they be "reading" what I post??

Hi Redrum, good to hear from you. Your post and commentary here were read by quite a few people. Some of your moves and the reason for them was referenced in other threads.

I hope you will return to post and I'm sure that there are quite a few others who do also.


Regards,
ynot2k



PS The bots are programmed to try and post spam messages. It surprises how they navigate creating an account and logging in.

[Redrum]

ynot2k - Since I posted last night at 7:21 PM, the view count shows 54 reads. How many of them are real?

In the bigger context the primary sentiment based probability is the S & P 500 is in a topping structure that will stay below the January 3, 2022 high, when the S&P 500 index closed at a record high of 4796.56.

There is a slightly lower probability of a new all time high after a pullback to the 4,400 region, with a bottoming of the wave expected to be in the 4,229 to 4,274 region (buy back point). This sentiment wave structure points to a potential new all time high in the S & P 500 going to the 5,000 to 5,500 region.

After either of these probabilities a DEEP and CRUSHING crash with a long term recession will become the highest probability.

My wife and I currently have 96.9% of our retirement investments in US bonds, specifically TLT and Treasury Bills with less than a 52 week maturity. Our average yield is at 4.29%. Here is the link to Treasury Direct to get the current CUSIP numbers for Treasury Bills available today and the rate(s) offered. https://treasurydirect.gov/auctions/upcoming/ . I would rather be a year early in going to a strict "cash" type position than a week late....

Now, it took me about 40 minutes to pull this together so resuming this type of sentiment analysis with our current investment deployment takes a substantial investment of my time. I personally do not need to write this down for my investing so it is done for other REAL people to use so I am not going to waste my time writing for "bots". 8 views have occurred in the 40 minutes I used as I wrote this, according to the view count.

[Redrum]

Today we had a $10,000. Treasury Bill mature.

We used these funds to buy:

10 (ten) 17 week Treasury bills at $982.58 each, paying a 5.24% yearly rate.

We used some of the the profit from this Bond to buy:

1 share of TLT at $101.67, paying about a 3% yield at this price.
5 share of T at $14.56, paying about a 7.62% yield at this price. T has a SSD score of 70, a "safe" rating by SSD (Simply Safe Dividends).