Newbie

I'm new too, so i'm gonna offer up some thoughts, rather than advice

How comes you are living Stateside? How long do you see yourself there for? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Are you American? Interesting post, thanks for the thoughts btw "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I posted this the other day http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1814209;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread and apparently it had already been put up then aswell "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

What we have here is a failure to communicate. So your government artificially raises the price of petro (with taxes, etc) so you will drive the type of car they want you to drive. We in the US "typically" don't like the government telling us what to do .. drive, who to marry, what job we can have ... (okay, "many" of us don't) If you in the UK and other parts of the world like your government making laws that limit your freedom, so be it, but don't think you'll get many in the US to agree with you. Hi Steve, you are right, our govt puts on about 80% of the selling price of our petrol/gas in the form of taxes. We also pay about $100 less/year for Road Tax (out of about a $250/year charge) if the car we drive is smaller in engine size than about 1600cc. I don't see where though, they regulate what we drive, who we marry, what job we have etc. We have already discussed this in another thread, and actually, aside from the 2nd Amendment, it appears we are more "free" in the UK than you in the US...you might disagree, but there are some interesting points here... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1562323;search_string=%26quot%3Bmore%20free%26quot%3B;#1562323 While i hate what it does to my pocket when i fill up my car here, i do know that the reason we are taxed so highly is simple - our government is trying to stop people doing what they do there, namely driving everywhere, consuming huge amounts of oil and damaging the environment. I don't see that as a curb in my freedom - just this weekend, my friends and i drove on a 600 mile round roadtrip up north. It just means that we are forced to be responsible users of a damaging and limited resource. What's so wrong with that? Meddling government action is one thing - forcing people to be responsible for their actions? Well that's something i think all of us need. Just my humble opinion, of course. Edited to add - just saw this in an email... "Buy a bike without paying tax or NI. Bikes4Work is a government backed initiative which aims to increase the use of alternative and greener forms of transport. The scheme is a salary sacrifice agreement whereby staff can make huge savings on the cost of bikes and accessories because they do not have to pay the National Insurance (NI) and tax contributions on the amount they pay back monthly. To qualify for this scheme you must use your bike to commute either the whole or part of your journey to work." Isn't this an example of our government trying to offer us more freedom, by allowing us to purchase cheaper bicycles? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Wow interesting link, thanks. I wonder how that plane is working out. Couldn't find any reports on the test flights. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

When will we have planes that run on clean, sustainable energy and not Jet A, anyone know? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

no! but peanut butter and marshmellow tastes delish when toasted. LOL! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I think that's the point i was trying to make in my original post, but i didn't really make it very well "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Deal. My MINI gets about 30 mpg. Can I start sending you my receipts for gasoline, and getting reimbursed? Dude, if i had the financial backing of the US govt, i would certainly tell you to send 'em on over! Unfortunately as it stands i can barely afford to put gas into my own car right now. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Good explanation: http://www.fool.com/FoolFAQ/FoolFAQ0033.htm You just borrow somebody's shares and sell them (i.e. for $100 per share). The company bombs and the stock is only $50 now. You buy the shares back and give it back to the person you borrowed from. (It doesn't even have to be the exact same shares by serial number, just shares of the same ticker symbol). Because you sold at $100 and bought back at $50, you make a $50 profit per share. That's how short selling works, in layman's terms. All legal. It's actually all automated so all you have to do is sell before you buy. The stock exchange computer systems automatically does the borrowing and returning the shares. However, it can be somewhat dangerous, if you sell at $100 and the company skyrockets to $250, you can lose more money than the principal. Right, right, thanks. Can you please explain how someone goes about "borrowing" a share? I mean, who is going to just a)lend you their shares and then b)pay you full value for them after the share has gone down? What is the turnaround time frame from securing the share, to having to sell it? Surely this has to be a very quick turn around? I can't imagine someone can just "borrow" a share until they want to sell it can they, especially if it has already been sold on to a 3rd party? Why would someone "borrow" you their share? Surely if the market value of that share is falling they may want to pull the shares back and sell them? What happens then? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi, can you explain what a bailout means please? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

ahhh i see, good explanation, thanks. Am i right in thinking "going short" is holding onto a share just for a short amount of time? What would this equate to roughly speaking? 1-12months? Also, when you invest in a hedge fund, do you leave the decisions purely to your hedge fund manager? Is it down to the manager to decide which shares he will go short/long in? Will these long/short shares typically be across a diverse industry range? What happens if a securities shop initiates a short sellers squeeze, and the shares in the long stock fall? How is that hedging your bets? Or rather, is that the worst case scenario, and you then up and find another manager? I'm trying to get my head around how it's supposedly meant to make money, even if your short/long shares do not depreciate/appreciate in value accordingly? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for the explanation - can you explain how someone sells a stock before they even bought it? I don't quite follow. Also, if they then buy it when it's undervalued, how can they be sure it will rise in value, effectively making them a profit? Sorry if i appear dense, i'm not in the financial sector, so i'm coming from a purely laymans position here

Outside of jumping i mean... Clothes/beer/donuts/fast cars/fast women/fast men/pets/diamonds/travelling/drugs/leather shorts/gambling/ etc "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I'm curious to know how they work and how hedge fund managers seem to all end up making a shit load of money. Thanks in advance. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Okay thats it! I am grounding all of our planes. Whoa Nelly! Let's not go TOO far here... "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hmmm...intentionally inflammatory post...yet you have the nerve to arrogantly question whether anyone here actually read your post after receiving inflamed responses. Makes perfect nonsense. If you have a point to make, it is best to do so in a polite manner. If you would rather be offensive, don't pretend to take offense. Sit back, relax and suck it up. FallRate That;s funny, i could have sworn this was Speakers Corner. I thought inflammatory posts were almost de rigeur? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I'm guessing because you wished something bad to happen to them, so they wished something bad to happen to you. Eye for an eye sort of thing. Derek Wasnt tough to figure out was it? Does anyone bother to read what people write in this forum? I actually stated many times that although my post was intentionally inflammatory, that i would welcome a DECREASE in petrol prices in the US, as long as people drive cars that get at least 25 mpg or something else reasonable. If you want a big gas consuming monster, then yes, i think there is more resonsibility on your to pay more for your pleasure that costs us all. I don't wish anything bad on anyone - i just think some people need to understand the associated costs, financial or otherwise, of such carefree, widespread petrol consumption, in the US AND elsewhere, and yes that's the UK too. The difference is here, we pay the price for our consumption by paying 3-4 times what is paid for there. The associated costs of filling the tank force us to think about using less, or make us use less. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Really? I have an American wife who i love dearly, love my in laws, love visiting your country, love the way of life people can have there, love the openness and friendliness of the people, love the landscape, love the kindness i have seen in the many Americans i have met of all creeds and colours and love that most of you seem to be a proud nation of proud people. Just because i think some things are interesting talking points or i don't agree with certain things means i have it in for your country? I don't like a lot of things here - and i have posted about those in the past. Go re-read that whole US gas price post. Just because i don't agree with everything done in your country, makes me anti US/American? LOL that's hilarious to me "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

An investigation into horse racing fraud? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Talk about making a bad situation worse. This is just inexcusable if it's true (which i have to say, looks that way). http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart/ "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

The saying I heard was that the most dangerous jumpers where those between 200 and 800. But of course that was from an 800 jump wonder Yup, i'd say that about correlates with what i heard - basically once you are over 200, you are in a new danger zone of complacency and increased risk associated to the type of jumps you might be doing. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

If you look into the annual breakdown of fatalities, the majority actually involve experienced jumpers. I'm tending to worry more now about what's going on on a jump and what can go wrong then when i first started, when all i was doing then was burning a hole through the sky, largely by myself and pulling high. The propensity for things to go wrong, more wrong, or wrong more increases as you jump more, become complacent and fail to weigh up the risk as your confidence grows. This doesn't mean jumping is totally safe, obviously. As the saying goes, if you survive your first 100 jumps, you will probably be ok. I think the "probably" in the sentence is emphasised for good reason. Good luck on your decision

BTFU = Back The F*** Up? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts