No longer writing for Sharpe Trade

As several of you have noticed, I am no longer writing for Sharpe Trade. After this weekend's Sharpe Report issue is released, I will be completely done writing for them.

What is next for me? First off I am taking a little break. I have been creating content in one form or another for several years now. I started this blog back in April 2011 and it's been quite the journey and learning experience. I took a try at Youtube, but found that I didn't care for video as much as I enjoy writing. You have to do what you enjoy or it will turn into work, and I am not spending my free time on financial independence to replace one day job with another. This break will be measured in weeks, not months.





Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

ARCP discussion in the Week in Review Podcast at Sharpe Trade

The first of many "Week in review" podcasts is now up on Sharpe Trade.

Some of you also follow Dan Shy from NoNonsenseTrading and might be familiar with his Week in Review podcast he puts out. That is something we wanted to continue on with Sharpe Trade and so far its been well received. I think we really did did a good job for our first podcast. But of course I am biased. What did you think of it?

I discussed quite a bit of my thoughts on ARCP but time restraints kept me from speaking everything I wanted to say. A lot of investors got into ARCP and are still in it. As I mentioned, I was it in it for awhile and sold on Oct 11. I didn't mention it at the time and don't want to be accused of making up history so here is the trade confirmation.

I see a lot of people discuss that out there that nobody could have seen the accounting scandal coming ahead of time and could have prevented avoiding the loss. I disagree strongly. While you could not know the accounting scandal specifically was going to happen, an investor could know that at some point something was going to happen due to management making poor decisions.

As I mention in the podcast, ARCP was a series of bad choices by management that were in their favor not shareholders. The board of directors is supposed to be looking out for us but they were along for the ride.

It isn't only retail that missed a lot of warning signs with ARCP. Goldman Sacs has a top 50 favorite stocks researched from 775 hedge funds and they looked at the top 10 holdings of these funds. ARCP is in the list as being a favorite.. of the professionals... who charge money for their picks and have teams of researches working for them. If you missed the warning signs then don't feel bad at all.

If you are a fellow blogger who is still in ARCP please note I am not "calling out" anyone or trying to point at others losing investments. Lord knows I have been in many myself and will once again in the future. I've been burned by this exact thing, poor management,.What happened to ARCP is a great learning experience if one can get past the denial game of "nobody could see it coming" and dig into the public data that was always available.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Introducing Sharpe Trade

You may have noticed I've been rather quiet recently. There is a good reason for that. I've been rather busy on a new project...

I'd like to introduce you to Sharpe Trade. What it is and how it came about.

When I first started out on Youtube and with this blog years ago, I had a mission. I wanted to help people learn about the capital markets and avoid all the dumb mistakes I had made for years and learned the hard way on my own. I vowed that when I got my act together I would try to help others avoid the mistakes that I made.

Then I ran into Dan Shy, aka Aileron of No Nonsense Trading. He had been blogging and had his own Youtube channel for a number of years before me. We and some others got to talking and got to know each other.

The biggest problem we all noticed is how newcomers to the markets were being tricked. Financial news media and institutional fund managers would push their own agendas while other newcomers to the markets would act like they knew what they were talking about. You had a case of blind leading the blind. What they did have though is emotion. Anger and frustration from what happened to them with the Financial Crisis of 2008. They caused more harm than good. Long time readers might recall my thoughts on the precious metal community.

But its not just a gold or silver thing and I now see the same thing happening with equities. People who started their financial education after 2009 have only known a bull market. Buy anything with a yield without regard to price and wait for decades to live off your income. There is so much more to investing than that. I fear that the first real correction we get will be a rude awakening to many. My primary goal is as it always has been... to have open dialogue with rational reasonable human beings to learn about the markets together.

On Sharpe Trade both Dan, myself, and others will be talking about the markets on podcasts, videos, and plenty of text entries. The level and depth we will offer is far more than what I have offered here. I'm really excited for where its going.

So what happens to this blog? It will remain. It is a progress portfolio blog and I've grown fond of the name Pully. But its also time I step forward and talk more openly and directly.

My name is Brad Bradford and I'm an investor who wants to cut through the B.S. and ignorance of these markets that is far too common.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.